Crap... Zhang Yuanqing suddenly didn't want to stay in the main hall any longer.
He had a kind of desperate feeling, a feeling of being utterly helpless.
This place was extremely dangerous, but he couldn't seek help from the outside world. He could only rely on himself.
After hesitating again and again, he gritted his teeth and bent down to pull out the skeleton wrapped in work clothes.
Riiip~
During the pulling, the labor protection clothing was easily torn. After so many years, the clothes had long since rotted.
Dragging the corpse into the candlelight, he endured his discomfort and began to examine it.
Although the person was dead, the body would speak. Figuring out the cause of death could help him avoid many dangers.
"Several ribs and sternum are broken, and there are fine cracks in the right shoulder, but it's not serious..."
The deceased suffered severe trauma before his death, but the specific cause of death could not be seen due to the long period of time.
Next, Zhang Yuanqing found a few yellowed and brittle pieces of paper from the worker's predecessor's pocket, which were quite old.
Tiny characters were written on the paper in regular script.
Zhang Yuanqing was overjoyed. The paper was obviously found by the worker's predecessor in the temple, which would help him understand the situation of this ancient temple.
With the help of the candlelight, he concentrated on reading the contents of the paper.
"Another Junior Brother disappeared last night. This is the third fellow disciple to disappear inexplicably in the temple. The brothers say that Three Paths Mountain is haunted, or that a Taoist with profound magic power has come, and they come to the temple every night to catch people and eat them, but the many disciples in the temple possess cultivation, and the Master is a well-known Real Man within a hundred miles. Which ignorant monster dares to come here to forage?
"As for ghosts and monsters, my Corpse Suppression Talisman and Soul Summoning Talisman are enough to solve them, without bothering Master. I have a bad feeling in my heart, and I have to go and discuss it with the Eldest Brother..."
"Another person disappeared today, this is the fifth person. Master told us to hide it from the pilgrims, otherwise it would affect the temple's incense. He must know something. The Eldest Brother and I plan to patrol at night..."
"Three days have passed, and three more people have disappeared during this time, but the Eldest Brother and I have not found any clues. The night is calm and tranquil. The ominous premonition in my heart is even deeper..."
"The Eldest Brother is very strange today. He seems to have discovered something and seems very angry. I asked him, but he didn't tell me. He's not in a good mood, I'll ask him again tomorrow."
"The person who disappeared today is... Eldest Brother. I searched the entire Three Paths Mountain and couldn't find him. I, I can't take it anymore, I'm going to ask Master to find out. The brothers in the temple also support me, because they are also very scared..."
The handwriting in this passage was a little scribbled, indicating that the writer was in a state of mental breakdown.
Zhang Yuanqing continued to read:
"After my questioning, Master finally agreed to tell me the truth. My premonition was right, he really knew the reason for the mysterious disappearance of the Junior Brothers. But Master said that there are too many people talking during the day, and he would come to my room after sunset to tell me a huge secret. This secret is related to the rise and fall of thousands of years."
"After finishing the evening meal, I waited in my room, waiting for the sunset. Since people started disappearing at night, I have never looked forward to the dark so much..."
The contents of the paper ended here.
It's gone? This cliffhanger is a bit uncomfortable... Zhang Yuanqing grimaced.
He sorted out the information in the paper. In a certain year, the disciples of this Mountain God Temple mysteriously disappeared one after another.
The disciples were at a loss and the mood of panic was spreading. And the Abbot of the temple, that is, their Master, seemed to know the reason.
This reason was related to a great secret that involved thousands of years of rise and fall.
"The reason for the decline of the Mountain God Temple is unknown. Exploring the source, can I complete the second main quest?" Zhang Yuanqing speculated.
He put the brittle paper back into the labor protection clothing of the corpse and pushed it back under the table to get it out of sight. Then, he began to think about what he should do next.
"There is so much information in the main hall. Since I want to explore the ancient temple, I definitely have to go out. In that case, I must face the dangers in the temple..."
"In the urban legend of the Sheling Tunnel, a worker successfully survived. Following his trajectory, maybe I can find a way to survive."
After careful consideration, Zhang Yuanqing walked to the door of the main hall and opened the two well-preserved lattice doors.
"Squeak~"
The wooden door shaft made a sour sound.
Supporting the door frame, he poked his head out and looked around. It was silent outside. Apart from being desolate and gloomy, he didn't see any danger.
After observing for a while, he stepped out of the threshold and walked along the cobblestone path on the left side of the main hall, towards the backyard of the Mountain God Temple.
The moonlight was like water, and the weeds undulated. Zhang Yuanqing walked for a minute or two, and a group of buildings appeared in front of him.
There were several connected bungalows, forming a quadrangle with a large area. Black tiles and white walls, a linear roof ridge, and lattice windows and lattice doors under the eaves.
The lattice doors were gray, some open, some collapsed, and some tightly closed. The paper used to paste the windows was tattered under the erosion of time.
The moonlight was bright, like frost on the ground. He scanned the layout of the backyard of the Mountain God Temple with the help of the moonlight.
In addition to the quadrangle in front of him, there was also an arched door on the east side, a bit like the back house of a wealthy family in film and television dramas, with such an arched door to connect different courtyards.
A towering tree was planted in the adjacent yard, with lush branches and gnarled branches.
"Eh..."
In the yard with undulating weeds, he found several skeletons wrapped in labor protection clothing.
He carefully approached and carefully checked. Each skeleton was severely damaged. Under the labor protection clothing were sections of broken bones, but except for the one in the main hall, the shoulder bones of the skeletons here were well preserved, without cracks.
"These people suffered terrible trauma before they died and died miserably..."
A gust of wind blew, and the branches rustled. Zhang Yuanqing faintly heard the "rustling" sound carried by the wind, mixed with weeping whispers:
"Help, help..."
In this desolate and dead night, Zhang Yuanqing's back was covered in cold sweat.
He stood stiffly in place. After a while, the wind stopped, and the wailing whispers stopped with the wind.
The yard next door seems a bit dangerous, but the things inside didn't come over... He silently exhaled and stepped into the courtyard, walking into the eaves, planning to explore this quadrangle.
This seemed to be the place where the disciples of the temple lived, piled with old, dusty furniture, and the air was filled with a faint, decaying smell.
Zhang Yuanqing explored the rooms one by one, and found nothing special until he pushed open the lattice door on the far east side.
"Creak~"
The door that had been sealed for who knows how many years was pushed open again, and dust rustled down. Zhang Yuanqing patted the dust on his shoulders and scanned every corner of the room with caution.
In this abandoned room, by the window, a corpse leaned against the wall, lying there askew.
From the clothing and the rolling miner's hat, it could be inferred that it was another predecessor.
Stepping over the threshold and entering the room, Zhang Yuanqing shivered, inexplicably feeling that the surrounding temperature seemed to drop a lot.
"It's a bit cold..."
He cautiously approached the corpse, unbuttoned the tattered clothes, and observed the condition of the corpse's bones as usual. This time, he did not see any broken bones. The skeleton was well preserved.
But when he turned his attention to the shoulder bones of the corpse, his pupils shrank. There were exaggerated cracks in the shoulder bones of this corpse.
This was the same as the cracks in the shoulder of the corpse in the main hall, the difference being that the corpse in front of him had suffered more serious injuries.
"Only the corpse in this room and the one in the main hall have broken shoulder bones. Is it a coincidence?" He muttered to himself uneasily.
Next, Zhang Yuanqing noticed that the corpse's trouser pocket was bulging, as if it contained something.
Reaching out and groping, he took out a yellowed ancient book, a dusty bronze mirror, and a yellow paper talisman from the dead man's trouser pocket.
The yellow paper talisman was painted with twisted lines in cinnabar, a bit like runes. These lines converged into a character that looked like the traditional Chinese character for "corpse."
As he was examining the yellow paper talisman, a fluorescent blue message appeared in front of Zhang Yuanqing's eyes:
[Name: Corpse Suppression Talisman]
[Type: Consumable]
[Function: Suppress Corpse]
[Introduction: A talisman created by a powerful Night Wanderer, it is the nemesis of all corpse-like creatures. Sticking it on the forehead of the yin creature will complete the seal.]
[Note: It can only be used once.]
The fluorescent blue information was a bit like his attribute panel. Obviously, this was a prompt given by "The Way of the Extraordinary".
Since Zhang Yuanqing entered the strange ancient temple, this was the first time he had seen such a prompt.
"It should be an important item." Zhang Yuanqing folded it and put it in the pocket of his windbreaker, zipping it up.
After thinking about it, he opened the zipper again.
Because he remembered a plot in a martial arts novel, a swordsman with superb swordsmanship liked to wrap his sword in cloth and carry it on his back.
One day, a challenger challenged the swordsman while he was eating.
Then the swordsman was gone.
The cause of death was the inconvenience of untying the cloth...
Zhang Yuanqing then picked up the ancient book and the bronze mirror, but no relevant information appeared.
He first put the bronze mirror aside and carefully opened the brittle, yellowed book.
It said:
"It has been two and a half years since I joined the Niangniang Temple on Three Paths Mountain. I have learned to read and write. Eldest Brother said that when Master transcends the souls of the dead and returns to the mountain, he can formally introduce me to the path of cultivating the Moon Swallowing Soul Nourishment Technique. This is the entry method to become a Night Wanderer."
"The Prince of Yan rebelled, and beacon fires were everywhere. Master, as the strongest person of the Songfu Night Wanderer lineage, had to go down the mountain to transcend the dead, otherwise if the war is not settled and yin disasters rise again, the people will be even more uneasy..."
Zhang Yuanqing felt some soreness in his shoulders. After rubbing them, he made a preliminary judgment that this was a notebook, that is, a diary.
The contents of the diary were all about the experiences of the 'author' in the temple, cultivating and living. According to the handwriting, this diary and the paper on the corpse in the main hall came from the same source.
Through words such as "Prince of Yan's rebellion", the timeline was during the Jingnan Campaign in history.
But he was not sure whether this temple really existed in history, because the contents in the notebook were written with incomprehensible words such as "cultivation," "Night Wanderer," "breathing exercises," and "talismans."
Zhang Yuanqing moved his sore shoulders, glanced warily at the room, listened to the movement outside, and after confirming that there was nothing abnormal, continued to read the notebook.
Soon, he turned to the continuation of the content in the main hall. The first few pages were torn off. The subsequent content said:
"Sunset, it finally got dark. I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door happily. Standing outside the door was not Master, but the Eldest Brother who had disappeared last night."
"The Eldest Brother who disappeared for a day and a night has returned, but I have no joy, because... he is already dead, and what has returned is a corpse. His chest is covered in blood, and his heart has been dug out by someone."
"The Eldest Brother stared straight at me. He said: Don't trust Master..."
These paragraphs were written crookedly, and one could imagine that the writer's state of mind was shattered when writing this content.
When Zhang Yuanqing turned to the next page, he found that the notebook had no follow-up, and the diary writer never wrote in the diary again.
"Hiss... What does it mean, 'Don't trust Master'?"
Zhang Yuanqing's heart turned cold from this reversal.
Did the Abbot kill the Eldest Brother? Was he also the culprit for the disciples disappearing one after another? Zhang Yuanqing rubbed his shoulders, put the book back in the corpse's pocket, then picked up the bronze mirror and was about to leave.
But when the corner of his eye inadvertently glanced at the bronze mirror, his body suddenly stiffened.
The moonlight was like water, projected on the mirror surface. The bronze mirror reflected his appearance, and on his back, someone was lying.
That person's face was pale, his lips were dark purple, and he had a pair of white pupils. His head was resting on Zhang Yuanqing's shoulder, and those white pupils were staring at him with dead silence.
........
ps: This book has supernatural elements, but it is not mainly about supernatural things. Readers who don't like supernatural things can rest assured.