His sanity dropped to zero on the spot.
A chill ran up his spine and shot straight to the top of his head. Zhang Yuanqing jumped high like a cat whose fur had stood on end, and a curse escaped his lips:
"Fuck you!"
This was the instinctive outburst of a person who had received a strong stimulus or fright.
He finally knew why his shoulders were so sore, and he understood why the corpse by the window carried a bronze mirror.
It was to observe whether a vengeful spirit was riding on their shoulders.
When did it climb onto my shoulder? When I walked into the courtyard, or when I entered this room?
Who gave me the courage to explore? Was it Fish Leong?!
His mind exploded. All sorts of thoughts popped up in an instant, and terror washed over him like a tidal wave.
Although he knew there were strange and terrifying things in this temple, and he had been prepared for it, he still felt an unspeakable panic when he faced ghosts and monsters.
Right, I have a talisman... Zhang Yuanqing's hand trembled as he pulled out the yellow paper talisman from the left pocket of his windbreaker, hoping it might work.
*Slap!*
He slapped the corpse-repelling talisman on his shoulder and carefully looked into the bronze mirror. The man with the deathly pale face, black lips, and lifeless white eyes was still on his shoulder.
It didn't work. This thing isn't a corpse or an evil object... With the last glimmer of hope gone, Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder getting more and more sore, and his hands and feet growing cold.
These weren't illusions; it was a real loss of yang energy.
At that moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the corpse under the table in the main hall, and the predecessor who died tragically by the window. He would likely die in this place like them.
A chilling feeling rose in his heart.
"Tap, tap!"
Suddenly, at this critical moment, faint footsteps came from the corridor outside.
The footsteps were light, but very clear in the silent night.
... Zhang Yuanqing's heart tightened. He quickly squatted down next to the corpse under the window.
The footsteps sounded familiar, like the sound he heard when he entered the temple.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
The footsteps grew closer, heading this way. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare breathe loudly, his body tensed, and he could vaguely hear his own frantic heartbeat.
When the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but glance at the ground in the room. Moonlight shone in, forming a grid of window shadows on the floor.
The window wasn't high, only reaching his waist. A person of normal height would cast a shadow on the ground when passing by the window, but he saw nothing.
This meant that whatever was passing by the window had no body.
Fortunately, the footsteps passed by the window without stopping or entering the room, and gradually faded away.
Whew... Zhang Yuanqing silently breathed a sigh of relief, concentrating on the receding footsteps, hearing them enter the courtyard and make a "rustling" sound as they stepped on the weeds.
Then they stopped. After a few seconds, the footsteps sounded again.
This time, the footsteps weren't simple walking, but a rhythmic tapping.
What was it doing in the courtyard?
Zhang Yuanqing propped himself up with his cold body and stood up with some effort, peering out through the tattered window paper.
Under the moonlight, in the weeds, a pair of brand new, Western-style red dancing shoes were tap-dancing in the night.
Moonlit night, desolate temple, red dancing shoes, solo dance.
This scene looked absurd and eerie, yet it also had an unspeakable... loneliness?
How could there be a pair of Western-style dancing shoes in a Ming Dynasty mountain god temple?
This broken temple is getting more and more bizarre... He quietly squatted back down, waiting patiently.
Time passed by, and the vengeful spirit on his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy. The stiffness in his body grew heavier, and the soreness in his shoulder turned into a stabbing pain.
He felt that if this continued, he would either die from exhaustion of yang energy, or die from a broken shoulder.
In the midst of his painful torment, the dance in the courtyard disappeared.
Zhang Yuanqing still didn't dare to stick his head out. He waited for a while before cautiously peeking out through the window, looking into the courtyard.
The courtyard was filled with moonlight, the weeds stood silently, and the strange dancing shoes were gone.
"Whew..."
He breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to stand up, his knees buckled and he fell to the ground.
After his tense nerves relaxed and the adrenaline wore off, he realized his condition was worse than he had imagined.
His shoulder was burning with pain, his bones felt like they were about to break, his knee joints were stiff, and his blood seemed to have congealed.
Trembling, he picked up the bronze mirror. In the dusty surface, Zhang Yuanqing saw his own pale face, listless expression, and dim pupils. This wasn't a normal person; it was clearly a sickly person on the verge of death.
On his shoulder, the vengeful spirit with black lips stared at him silently and eerily.
He would definitely die if this continued, but what could he do? He couldn't touch the vengeful spirit on his shoulder.
The intense pain in his shoulder forced him to lean against the wall for support.
He turned his head to look at the corpse of the construction worker. The posture of the two, one person and one corpse, was exactly the same.
"So that's how it is..." Zhang Yuanqing smiled bitterly.
He seemed to see his own ending and hear the sigh of the Grim Reaper.
But Zhang Yuanqing didn't give up his desire to survive. His brain was still active, like an overloaded CPU, searching for a way to live in this desperate situation.
In a flash of inspiration, the corpse under the table in the main hall flashed through the chaotic stream of information.
"The extent of the shoulder fractures on the two corpses is different. The shoulder injury on the corpse in the main hall wasn't fatal. The shoulder-riding vengeful spirit let him go? No, the vengeful spirit wouldn't show mercy..."
"Why did he hide under the table..."
"The red dancing shoes were secretly following me when I entered the temple, but when I entered the main hall, they left..."
Thinking of this, Zhang Yuanqing's dim and turbid pupils lit up with a glimmer of hope.
Return to the main hall, return to the main hall immediately!
He immediately got up and staggered out of the room, each step difficult as if he were carrying a mountain on his back.
"Plop!"
He fell in the courtyard, falling into the weeds, unable to stand up again.
Zhang Yuanqing's teeth chattered as he trembled, feeling like he was in the middle of a bitterly cold winter.
"The cold" stole his heat and eroded his will.
Zhang Yuanqing crawled towards the main hall, using all his strength. He held his head up, keeping the outline of the building in his sight.
This way, the hope in his eyes wouldn't be extinguished.
It only took about a minute to walk from the main hall, but now it felt as far away as the ends of the earth.
Finally, at the moment he crawled under the eaves of the main hall, he heard a illusory scream in his ears, his shoulder lightened, and the negative effects of cold, dizziness, and stiffness instantly disappeared.
Zhang Yuanqing rolled and crawled onto the base, staggering to the front of the main hall, pushing open the lattice door and throwing himself over the threshold.
The candlelight, like a bean, dispelled the gloom and brought a spring-like warmth.
He lay on the ground in a star shape, his chest rising and falling as he gasped for breath. He lay there for two or three minutes before finally feeling like he had come back to life.
"That was terrifying, so terrifying... My guess was right, the main hall is a safe haven."
Based on the different shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he judged that something must have prevented the vengeful spirit from pursuing the person inside the hall.
And the worker under the table died curled up, which fit the hiding psychology of a person in extreme fear.
In the mind of this worker predecessor, the main hall was safe.
And the red dancing shoes giving up their pursuit of him confirmed this guess.
For the rest of the time, Zhang Yuanqing stayed in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder lessened and his body temperature returned.
Sure enough, he didn't encounter any danger again.
"If the main hall is a safe room, then my chances of survival are greatly increased. Even if the shoulder-riding vengeful spirit sucks my essence again, I can escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the vengeful spirit and the red dancing shoes chasing me, I probably won't be able to escape back to the main hall."
"And the most bizarre and terrifying source of this temple is definitely not just the vengeful spirit..."
He wasn't proud of resolving a life-or-death crisis. This ancient temple wasn't that simple.
He knew that before him, an entire construction team had died here.
After resting for a long time, he gradually let go of his fear and was hesitating whether to continue exploring.
The voice in his head rang again:
【Main Quest 1: Survive for three hours (Completed)】
【Main Quest 2: Explore The Way of the Extraordinary No. 0079, Progress: 20%】
【Yuanshi Tianzun, congratulations on completing a main quest. Calculating your reward...】
【Acquired Item/Prop: Corpse-Repelling Talisman (Can be viewed in the inventory).】
【Gained Experience Points: 15%】
【Inventory Unlocked.】
【You will receive 36 hours of rest. The Way of the Extraordinary No. 0079 will open again in: 35:59:40.】
The scenery in the main hall twisted like the surface of water rippled by the wind.
When the picture became clear again, Zhang Yuanqing saw bright energy-saving lamps, a spacious bed, a desk, a PS5 game console, and an open window with curtains swaying slightly in the wind.
He was back in the human world.
"I'm back?"
He looked around in astonishment, confirming that he was really back in his room, then his knees buckled and he fell onto the soft bed.
He took a deep breath and found even the air sweet.
It was good to be alive, it was good to be in the human world.
After resting for a few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing sat up and pulled down the zipper of his windbreaker, finding that the corpse-repelling talisman was indeed gone.
Zhang Yuanqing naturally had the thought of "retrieving items." The next moment, a fluorescent blue grid appeared before his eyes.
There were five slots in total, and in the first slot was the yellow paper talisman.
It was a wonderful experience. Once the inventory was unlocked, this function seemed to become his instinct. He didn't need to learn it; he naturally knew how to open the inventory.
"In addition to the corpse-repelling talisman, I also gained 15% experience points, but my level is still zero, which means I haven't become a Night Watcher yet and am still an ordinary person."
"Surviving for three hours almost got me killed inside. How am I supposed to do the second task? Is this S-level difficulty..."
The more Zhang Yuanqing thought about it, the more desperate he became, feeling like he had been scammed by the soldier.
This broken card could indeed change his life, but it was indeed difficult to control.
He was very self-aware. He was just a college student who had never even killed a chicken, and it would be difficult to survive the second task on his own.
As a good, socialist youth, he should definitely rely on the country and the government at this time.
So he reached for his phone, intending to dial his cousin's number, but his finger paused when he touched the phone screen.
Because Zhang Yuanqing realized he might have a better option.
He immediately turned over and got out of bed, finding the business card the slicked-back hair man had left in the desk drawer.
The business card had his name and contact information on it.
Tonight's experience made him think of the soldier's mysterious disappearance. If he hadn't made it out alive, then he would have mysteriously disappeared too.
It was certain that the soldier had already come into contact with the so-called The Way of the Extraordinary, so perhaps his disappearance was because he had entered a certain The Way of the Extraordinary?
According to this idea, the investigators from the Public Security Bureau were trustworthy.
Zhang Yuanqing had another reason for contacting the slicked-back hair man: he had said that he might also disappear, which was hinting that he might enter The Way of the Extraordinary.
Combining this with the fact that his cousin didn't know anything, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to believe that the three of them were special personnel who specifically handled such events.
After thinking it through, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the other party's phone number according to the number on the business card.
After a few seconds of ringing, the call was answered, and a deep voice of a mature man asked:
"Who is this?"