Ancient Temple

An abandoned tunnel…

Zhang Yuanqing looked around in panic. Anyone would be flustered if they were suddenly brought into an unfamiliar environment.

"Tunnel? Is this the She Ling Tunnel from the ghost stories?"

As a native of Songhai City, he naturally knew about the She Ling Tunnel. When he was young and was naughty and didn't sleep at night, his grandmother would scare him with strange stories.

However, forget about the ghost stories. Take the She Ling Tunnel for example. A few days ago, Zhang Yuanqing returned to his hometown to pay respects to his father and even passed by the She Ling Tunnel.

How could the real She Ling Tunnel be so old?

"Oh right, this is the Spirit Realm, not the real She Ling Tunnel."

The cramped environment was unnerving. Zhang Yuanqing walked forward cautiously, hearing only his own lonely footsteps.

As he walked, he considered his situation and the information given by the voice in his head.

There was no doubt that he had encountered the supernatural and had been brought into the ghost story to complete the mission issued by the mysterious power.

"That voice gave me two missions. One is to survive for three hours; the other is to explore the Spirit Realm. The difficulty level is S, and the type of individual death… This death type makes me panic."

Surviving three hours meant great danger.

Exploring the Spirit Realm… should mean exploring this tunnel. In other words, the tunnel was very dangerous?

He quietly tensed up. At the same time, a question flashed through his mind: What would be the reward for completing the mission?

Since it was a mission, there would definitely be a reward.

"Well, according to the attribute panel just now, my class is the Night Wanderer, but my level is 0 instead of 1. Becoming the Night Wanderer should be one of the rewards, right? What is the Night Wanderer?"

"Brother Bing is right. This black card will change one's life. But I ignored the second half of his statement. This thing is difficult to handle. Does it refer to the degree of danger?"

Zhang Yuanqing combined the known information and analyzed it silently.

At that moment, the old-fashioned tungsten lamp at his side seemed to have an unsteady circuit. It flickered a few times, and as light and darkness intertwined, Zhang Yuanqing could vaguely see a figure in a miner's hat standing under the lamp.

F*ck… He jumped up in shock, and his train of thought was instantly interrupted. He ran forward like a frightened deer.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the floodlights continued to glow. They no longer flickered.

The dark figure in the miner's hat seemed to be his imagination.

With this scare, Zhang Yuanqing did not dare to stay in this damn place any longer and quickly headed out of the tunnel.

Tap, tap, tap… The sound of footsteps echoed in the quiet tunnel. Zhang Yuanqing did not dare to stop for a single step. He sprinted for five or six minutes. The old-fashioned tungsten lamps in the curved dome flickered again, but this time, no figure in a miner's hat appeared.

"It didn't follow me?"

Relieved and afraid to stay, he walked quickly with his head down. Suddenly, staring at the ground, he caught a detail that made his heart stop.

The orange tungsten lights lengthened his shadow. A dozen shadows followed him.

They've been following me?!

A chill ran from his feet to his head, and goosebumps rose all over his body. Zhang Yuanqing's face turned pale with fear, and he started running wildly.

Finally, the mouth of the tunnel appeared ahead. Beyond the tunnel was the cold, frosty moonlight.

Zhang Yuanqing burst out of the tunnel, clutching his knees and bending over to catch his breath.

After catching his breath, he looked around at his surroundings. The full moon was like a disc, hanging lonely in the night sky. Under its brilliance, the stars paled in comparison.

The lush forest was bathed in moonlight, casting large, dense shadows.

He was in the middle of nowhere.

The tungsten lights in the tunnel flickered a few times and went out. The huge tunnel was dark and quiet, like the maw of a hungry beast.

"I need to hurry up and leave…"

Zhang Yuanqing felt his scalp tingle as he climbed the rugged mountain path.

After a dozen steps, he looked back again and saw a line of figures standing at the mouth of the tunnel, wearing miner's hats and shabby clothing, their heads bowed.

They stood in the shadows, beyond the reach of the moonlight, silent as if they were sending him off.

Zhang Yuanqing took a few steps back in shock, turned around, and ran up the mountain.

The branches and leaves on both sides of the mountain path were lush, scattering fine moonlight, enough for Zhang Yuanqing to see the road clearly.

However, the silence in the mountains was terrifying. There were no insects or birds in the forest, which made Zhang Yuanqing's footsteps especially loud.

"It's too quiet. There can't be no insects in the mountains at this time of the year."

He looked around and saw that the moon was full and the trees swayed. He had the feeling that something was watching him from the darkness.

After walking for an unknown period of time, until his body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, Zhang Yuanqing finally walked out of the dense forest. His vision suddenly widened.

The moonlight was like water and the surroundings were dead silent. At the end of the rugged mountain path was an abandoned ancient temple.

It stood quietly in the darkness.

The old temple had been abandoned for who knew how many years. The front door was mottled and blackened with holes. The lantern at the corner of the eaves had fallen to the ground, leaving only the skeleton of a bamboo pole.

The plaque was still there, though. It was covered in cobwebs and hung at an angle under the eaves, but it was too dark to read what was written on it.

The steps in front of the temple were cracked and overgrown with weeds.

This place was in the middle of nowhere. Why was there a temple here?

Wait… a temple?!

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly reacted. The voice in the Spirit Realm information introduction seemed to ring in his ears.

"Don't enter the temple, don't enter the temple…"

"According to the hint from the strange voice, I shouldn't enter the temple. No, I'm already out of the tunnel. That means what I'm really supposed to explore is this dilapidated old temple."

After hesitating for a long time at the entrance of the temple, Zhang Yuanqing carefully walked towards the ancient temple standing in the darkness, and stepped over the dilapidated threshold.

What came into view was a vast front yard with waist-high weeds. A rotting incense burner half the height of a man lay overturned in the grass, exposed to years of wind and rain.

Below him was a path paved with limestone slabs. Between the cracks in the slabs, the same clumps of wild grass grew.

His gaze followed the undulating weeds to the end of the limestone path. There was a dilapidated main hall with a high foundation and six steps. A dim yellow light shone through the lattice doors of the main hall.

"There's light?"

The surroundings were silent and desolate. The bright moonlight shone down. In such an environment, that little halo did not bring any warmth to Zhang Yuanqing.

He even found it even more terrifying.

Rustle…

Stepping through the clumps of withered weeds, he kept his guard up as he walked towards the main hall. In the empty environment, the sound of footsteps was exceptionally clear.

Rustle, rustle…

Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing heard footsteps behind him. Something was following him.

He jerked his head.

The night was watery and wild, but there was nothing behind him.

"Did I imagine it?"

Zhang Yuanqing stopped for a moment in fear before moving forward again.

Rustle rustle…

The footsteps came again, and this time he heard them clearly. There really was something following them.

…It couldn't be that strange, right? He had just entered the temple and he encountered something spooky? He didn't dare to look back and quickened his pace.

The footsteps behind him quickened.

Zhang Yuanqing could no longer hold it in. As goosebumps rose on his skin, he sprinted towards the main hall.

Footsteps followed him, close on his heels.

During the chase, Zhang Yuanqing quickly rushed out of the weeds and approached the main hall. He took six steps and jumped up. Finally, with a loud clang, he broke through the two lattice doors of the main hall.

The footsteps behind him suddenly disappeared.

"Huff, huff…"

Breathing hard, he finally dared to look over his shoulder. The moonlight fell like water across the courtyard, the grass grew wildly and the stone path was eerily quiet. However, there was nothing.

"Fortunately, it didn't chase me."

After Zhang Yuanqing caught his breath, he gently closed the door to the main hall, as if blocking out his fear.

Then, he scanned the scene in the main hall. On a tall stone pedestal, there was a goddess in a fur cloak and gorgeous clothes. Her face was round and her eyebrows were slender, looking very benevolent.

The goddess was holding a horsetail whisk in one hand and making a grasping motion with the other. She seemed to be holding something, but it was empty now.

On the left and right were boys holding swords and girls holding books.

In front of the pedestal was a dusty tribute table with candlesticks. A twenty-centimeter-long candle as thick as a baby's forearm burned quietly.

The candlelight dispelled the darkness and seemed to dispel the fear in Zhang Yuanqing's heart. He felt much more stable.

On the wall to the left hung two faded and cracked boards, etched with scriptures.

Zhang Yuanqing strolled to the wall and gazed at them in the evening candlelight. The stylized text of these scriptures was written in classical Chinese.

His language skills were not bad. Through half-guessing, he had a clear understanding of his environment.

This mountain was called Mount Sandao. The Mountain Goddess worshiped in the temple was called Goddess Sandao.

This Mountain Goddess was from the Song Manor at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. She cultivated in the Song Manor's Mount Sandao and was proficient in talisman techniques and alchemy. She could pray for rain to exorcise ghosts and protect the weather. Therefore, she was respected by the people as a goddess.

After she ascended, the local authorities built this temple on Mount Sandao and named it the "Goddess Sandao Temple". Her successor would manage the incense offerings and serve as a temple attendant.

"As a temple built then, it's been five or six hundred years since," Zhang Yuanqing muttered.

At this moment, he could not help but glance at the bottom of the tribute table and his heart skipped a beat.

A dark figure lay in the shadows at the bottom of the table.

He was too terrified just now and the candlelight was dim, so he did not notice it immediately.

Zhang Yuanqing braced himself and approached. When he took a closer look, he realized that it was a skeleton.

He heaved a sigh of relief amidst his fear. Compared to this strange Mountain Temple, the corpses were not so terrifying.

He took a few steps closer. In the dim candlelight, he could make out the skeleton's clothes. A dust-covered work jacket.

"Workers?"

"This was the construction crew back then? So I did get into the world of the ghost story."

As soon as Zhang Yuanqing made a guess, he thought of an even more daunting possibility. Perhaps, like him, the construction team back then had entered this place by mistake.

Hence the urban legend appeared.

If it was the former, this so-called Spirit Realm was based on ghost stories.

If it was the latter, it meant that the ancient temple had always existed. The construction team was as much a victim as he was at this moment.

According to the history of the Mountain Temple, Zhang Yuanqing was more inclined to the latter.

"An entire construction team died in the temple, and only one person survived. People will really die here… Now that I've entered this temple, I'll face unknown danger at any time…"

He gasped and tensed up again. He subconsciously looked around.

Immediately, he was suddenly aware of a detail that was terrifying to contemplate.

This ancient temple was from the Ming dynasty and had a long history. How could the candles still be burning? Who was replacing the candles in the main hall?

The more he thought about it, the more horrified he became. Even the kind-looking statue seemed to exude a strange and sinister aura in the candlelight.

Although the three clay figurines were covered in dust, they were lifelike. Every detail was carved vividly, especially the eyes.

They stood on the pedestal, staring down at Zhang Yuanqing in the evening candlelight.