The Story of the Mountain Temple

F*ck… Zhang Yuanqing suddenly did not want to stay in the main hall anymore.

He had the fear of being in a desperate situation where no one could help him.

This place was extremely dangerous, but he could not ask for help from the outside world. He could only rely on himself.

After much hesitation, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind. He leaned over and pulled the skeleton out.

Sizzle~

During the tugging process, the work jacket was easily torn. After so many years, the clothes had long decomposed.

Dragging the body into the candlelight, he swallowed his discomfort and began to examine it.

Although the person was dead, the body could talk. Figuring out the cause of death could help him avoid many dangers.

"A few broken ribs and ribs. There are fine cracks on his right shoulder, but it's not serious…"

The deceased had been severely injured when he was alive, but the exact cause of death could not be seen because it was too old.

Then, from the senior worker's pocket, Zhang Yuanqing found a few yellowed and brittle papers. They were very old.

Written in block letters were tiny words.

Zhang Yuanqing was delighted. The senior worker had obviously found the paper in the temple. It would help him understand the situation of the ancient temple.

Using the candlelight, he concentrated on reading the paper.

"Last night, another junior brother went missing. This is already the third fellow disciple in the temple who mysteriously disappeared. The fellow disciples said that there was a ghost on Mount Sandao, or it was a demon with a high cultivation level that came to the temple every night to catch people to eat. However, many disciples in the temple have cultivation. Master is even a famous Perfected Person within a hundred miles. Which demon dares to come here to hunt for food?"

"As for ghosts and monsters, my Corpse Suppression Talisman and Spirit Summoning Talisman are enough to deal with them. There's no need to trouble Master. I have a bad feeling in my heart. I have to look for Eldest Senior Brother to discuss…"

"Another person went missing today. This is the fifth person. Master asked us to hide it from the visitors. Otherwise, it will affect the incense offerings in the temple. He must know something. Eldest Senior Brother and I plan to patrol at night…"

"Three days have passed. Three more people have gone missing during this period, but Eldest Senior Brother and I didn't find any clues. The night is calm. The ominous feeling in my heart deepened…"

"Eldest Senior Brother is very strange today. He seemed to have discovered something and is very angry. I questioned him, but he didn't tell me. He's not in a good mood. I'd better ask tomorrow."

"The person who went missing today is… Eldest Senior Brother, I searched the entire Mount Sandao but didn't find him. I… I can't take it anymore. I'm going to ask Master. The fellow disciples in the temple also support me because they're also very afraid…"

The handwriting of this paragraph was a little illegible, showing that the owner of the notebook had a mental breakdown.

Zhang Yuanqing read on:

"After some questioning, Master finally agreed to tell me the truth. My hunch was right. He did know the reason for his junior brothers' strange disappearance. But Master said that there were too many people around during the day. After sunset, he would come to my room and tell me a huge secret that concerned the rise and fall of thousands of years."

"After dinner, I waited in my room for sunset. Ever since someone disappeared in the night, I've never looked forward to it getting dark so much…"

So much for what the paper recorded.

That's it? The cliffhanger is a little uncomfortable… Zhang Yuanqing gritted his teeth.

He sorted through the information in the paper. In a certain year, the disciples of this Mountain Temple had mysteriously disappeared one after another.

The disciples were helpless as panic spread. The temple attendant, their master, seemed to know the reason.

This reason concerned a great secret regarding the rise and decline of thousands of years.

"The reason for the Mountain Temple's decline is unknown. If I explore this source, will I be able to complete the second main mission?" Zhang Yuanqing guessed.

He put the brittle paper back in the corpse's work jacket and pushed it back under the table. Out of sight, out of mind. Then he thought about what he was going to do next.

"There's only so much information in the main hall. Since I want to explore the ancient temple, I definitely have to go out. In that case, we have to face the danger in the temple…"

"In the weird story about the She Ling Tunnel, one of the workers managed to survive. Follow his path and you might find a way to survive."

After much deliberation, Zhang Yuanqing went to the main door and opened the two well-kept lattice doors.

Squeak~

The wooden door hinges made a grinding noise.

He braced himself against the door frame and poked his head out to look left and right. It was silent outside, and other than being a little bleak and eerie, he saw no danger.

After observing for a while, he stepped out of the threshold and walked along the cobblestone path to the left of the main hall, toward the backyard of the Mountain Temple.

The moonlight was like water, and the grass rose and fell. Zhang Yuanqing had been walking for a minute or two when a cluster of buildings appeared ahead.

They were connected bungalows forming a sprawling quadrangle with black-tiled white walls, a one-sided roof ridge, and lattice windows and lattice doors under the eaves.

The latticed doors were dusty, either opened, upside down, or closed. The paper used to paste the windows was tattered with age.

The moonlight was bright, like frost on the ground. He used it to scan the layout of the Mountain Temple's backyard.

In addition to the courtyard house in front of him, there was an arched door on the east side. It was a little like the back residences of rich families in movies and television dramas. They would all have such an arched door to connect different courtyards.

A towering tree had been planted in the courtyard next door. It had lush leaves and branches.

"Eh…"

He found a few skeletons wrapped in work jackets in the overgrown yard.

Carefully, he moved closer and examined each skeleton. The damage was severe. Under the coat was a section of a broken bone, but except for the one in the main hall, the skeleton shoulder bones here were well preserved and not cracked.

"These people suffered terrible injuries before they died. They died miserably…"

There was a gust of wind, and the leaves rustled. Faintly, Zhang Yuanqing heard a whisper, like a sob, in the rustle brought by the wind: "Help, help…"

On this desolate and silent night, Zhang Yuanqing broke out in cold sweat.

He stood frozen to the spot for a long moment. Then the wind stopped and the whispers of weeping died with it.

The courtyard next door seemed a little dangerous, but the things inside didn't come over… He exhaled silently and walked into the eaves of the courtyard, intending to explore this courtyard house.

This seemed to be where the disciples of the temple lived. There were piles of old, dusty furniture, and the air was faint and rotten.

Zhang Yuanqing explored the room one by one and found nothing special until he pushed open the lattice door at the far east.

Creak!

The dusty door was pushed open again, and dust fell. Zhang Yuanqing patted the dust off his shoulders and scanned every corner of the room warily.

In the long-abandoned room, by the window, a body leaned against the wall, lying askew.

From the clothing and the tumbled miner's hat, he could deduce that it was another senior.

As he crossed the threshold and entered the room, Zhang Yuanqing shivered. For some reason, he felt as if the temperature around him had dropped significantly.

"It's a little cold…"

Cautiously, he leaned toward the body and unbuttoned his tattered clothes. As usual, he observed the skeleton. This time, he saw no shattered bones. This skeleton was perfectly preserved.

However, when he looked at the shoulder bones of the corpse, his pupils constricted as he saw exaggerated cracks.

This was the same kind of crack on the shoulder as the corpse in the main hall. The difference was that the corpse in front of him had suffered more serious injuries.

"Is it just a coincidence that the one in the house and the one in the main hall have a shattered shoulder bone?" he said to himself uneasily.

Then Zhang Yuanqing realized that the trouser pockets of the corpse were bulging as if they were hiding something.

He reached into the dead man's pants pocket and pulled out a yellowed ancient book, a dusty bronze mirror, and a yellow paper talisman.

Twisted lines were drawn on the yellow paper talisman with cinnabar, a little like runes. These lines gathered together to form a word, "Corpse."

As he examined the yellow paper talisman, a fluorescent blue message appeared in front of Zhang Yuanqing:

[Name: Corpse Suppression Talisman]

[Type: Consumable]

[Function: Corpse Suppression]

[Introduction: A talisman created by the powerful Night Wanderer. It is the nemesis of all corpse-type Yin creatures. Sticking it on the forehead of the Yin creature can complete the seal.]

[Remarks: It can only be used once.]

The fluorescent blue information was a little like his attribute panel. It was obvious that this was a hint given by the Spirit Realm.

This was the first time Zhang Yuanqing had seen such a hint since entering the strange ancient temple.

"It should be an important item." Zhang Yuanqing folded it, put it in the pocket of his jacket, and zipped it up.

After a moment's thought, he opened the zipper again.

This was because he remembered a joke in a martial arts novel. A certain swordsman with superb swordsmanship liked to wrap a cloth around his sword and carry it on his back.

One day, while the swordsman was eating, someone challenged him.

Then the swordsman died.

The cause of death was that he couldn't remove the cloth…

Zhang Yuanqing picked up the ancient book and the bronze mirror. No relevant information appeared.

He put the bronze mirror aside first and carefully opened the pages and rolled them up, turning them yellow and brittle.

It read:

"It's been two and a half years since I joined the Goddess Sandao Temple. I've already learned how to read and write. Eldest Senior Brother said that when Master expels the dead and returns to the mountain, he can officially guide me to cultivate the Moon Swallowing Soul Nurturing Technique. This is the way to become a Night Wanderer."

"The King of Yan's rebellion caused chaos to rise everywhere. As the strongest person in the Song Manor's Night Wanderer lineage, Master had no choice but to descend the mountain to ferry the dead. Otherwise, before the war is settled, the calamity will rise again, and the people will be even more uneasy…"

Zhang Yuanqing felt a soreness in his shoulder and rubbed it. His initial assessment was that it was a random diary.

The contents of the diary were all about the experiences of the 'author' who cultivated and lived in the temple. According to the handwriting, this diary and the paper on the main palace corpse came from the same source.

Through words like "the rebellion of the King of Yan", the timeline was the history of the Battle of Jingnan.

However, he wasn't sure if this temple really existed in history, because the contents of the note read "Cultivation," "Night Wanderer," "Breathing Technique," and "Talisman."

Zhang Yuanqing moved his sore shoulders and glanced warily around the room. He listened for any movement outside the house. After confirming that there was nothing unusual, he continued to read his essay.

Quickly, he turned to the follow-up to the contents of the main hall. The first few pages had been torn out. The follow-up read:

"By sunset, it finally got dark. I heard a knock on the door and opened it in a hurry. It wasn't Master standing outside, but the Eldest Senior Brother who disappeared last night."

"Eldest Senior Brother, who had been missing for a day and a night, returned, but I had no joy because… he was already dead. What returned was a corpse. His chest was dripping with blood, and his heart had been dug out by someone."

"Eldest Senior Brother stared straight at me. He said, 'Don't believe what Master says…'"

The words were written crookedly. It was conceivable that the owner of the essay had been in an overwhelmed state of mind when he wrote them.

When Zhang Yuanqing turned the next page, he found no follow-up notes. The owner of the diary stopped writing from here on.

"Gasp… Don't believe Master?"

Zhang Yuanqing was shocked by this turn of events.

Had the temple attendant killed that Eldest Senior Brother? Was he also the culprit behind the disciples' repeated disappearances? Zhang Yuanqing rubbed his shoulders and put the booklet back into the corpse's pocket. Then, he picked up the bronze mirror and was about to leave.

However, when he inadvertently glanced at the bronze mirror from the corner of his eye, his body suddenly stiffened.

The moonlight was like water reflected in the mirror. The bronze mirror showed his reflection and on his back was a man.

The man's face was deathly pale. His lips were dark purple, and he had white eyes. His head was turned sideways, resting on Zhang Yuanqing's shoulder. Those white eyes stared at him in dead silence.

.....