Chapter 7: Return

Chapter 7 Return

Sanity instantly hit zero.

A chill shot up from his tailbone to the crown of his head. Zhang Yuanqing, like a startled cat, leaped high into the air and blurted out a curse:

“Fuck your mother!”

This was the instinctive vocal reaction when a person is strongly stimulated or frightened.

He finally understood why his shoulders were so sore, and why the corpse by the window had carried a bronze mirror.

It was to check if a vengeful spirit was clinging to his shoulders.

When had it climbed onto his shoulder? When he entered the courtyard, or when he came into this room?

Who gave me the courage to go exploring? Fish Leong?!

His mind was a boiling cauldron, all sorts of thoughts erupting in an instant, fear crashing over him like a tidal wave.

Although he knew this temple held eerie and terrifying things and had prepared himself mentally, facing the ghost directly still unleashed an indescribable panic.

Right, I have talismans... Zhang Yuanqing, with trembling hands, pulled a yellow paper talisman from the left pocket of his jacket and, as a last resort, slapped it onto his shoulder.

Slap!

The corpse-suppressing talisman stuck to his shoulder. He raised the bronze mirror and cautiously looked into it. The man with a deathly pale face, black lips, and lifeless white eyes still clung to his shoulder.

No use. This thing wasn't a corpse-type yin entity... His last shred of hope was gone. Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder grow more painful, his hands and feet turning cold.

This wasn't an illusion; it was a real drain of his yang energy.

At that moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the skeleton under the main hall's table and the predecessor who died miserably by the window. He would likely die here like those two.

A bone-chilling cold surged through his heart.

“Tap tap!”

Suddenly, at this critical moment, light footsteps came from the corridor outside.

The footsteps were very light, but in the dead silence of the night, they were extremely clear.

...Zhang Yuanqing's heart tightened. He quickly crouched down beside the corpse under the window.

These footsteps seemed familiar, very similar to the sound he'd heard when entering the temple.

“Tap tap tap...”

The footsteps drew nearer, approaching him. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare breathe, his body tense, vaguely hearing his own frantic heartbeat.

When the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but glance at the floor. Moonlight streamed in, casting a lattice shadow on the ground.

The window was low, only waist-high. A person of normal height passing by would surely cast a shadow on the floor in the moonlight, but he saw nothing.

This meant that whatever passed by the window had no body.

Fortunately, the footsteps passed by the window without stopping or entering, gradually fading away.

Whew... Zhang Yuanqing silently breathed a sigh of relief. He focused on the retreating footsteps, hearing them step into the courtyard, making a rustling sound as they trod on the weeds.

Then they stopped. A few seconds later, the footsteps sounded again.

This time, the footsteps were not simple walking, but a rhythmic, patterned step.

What was it doing in the courtyard?

Zhang Yuanqing, supporting his cold body, stood up with some difficulty. He peered through the tattered window paper, focusing his gaze outside.

In the moonlight, among the weeds, a pair of brand-new, Western-style red dancing shoes were tap-dancing in the night.

Moonlit night, deserted temple, red dancing shoes, a solo dance.

This scene seemed both absurd and eerie, yet carried an indescribable... loneliness?

How could a Ming Dynasty mountain temple have a pair of Western-style dancing shoes?

This damn temple was getting weirder and weirder... He quietly crouched back down and waited patiently.

Time ticked by. The vengeful spirit on his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy. The stiffness in his body grew, and the ache in his shoulder turned into a stabbing pain.

He felt that if this continued, he would either die from depletion of yang energy or from his shoulder bones shattering.

In the midst of this painful torment, the dance in the courtyard ceased.

Zhang Yuanqing still didn't dare to show himself. He waited a bit longer, then cautiously poked his head out and looked through the window into the courtyard.

The courtyard was filled with moonlight, the weeds standing still. The eerie dancing shoes had left.

“Whew...”

He let out a relieved breath. Just as he was about to stand, his knees gave way and he collapsed to the ground.

With his tense nerves relaxed and adrenaline fading, he finally realized his condition was worse than he had imagined.

His shoulder burned with a sharp pain, his bones felt like they were cracking, his knee joints were stiff, and his blood seemed to have congealed.

He tremblingly grabbed the bronze mirror. In the dusty mirror, Zhang Yuanqing saw his own face: ghastly pale, listless expression, dull pupils. This was not a normal person; it was clearly a sickly man at death's door.

On his shoulder, the vengeful spirit with black lips stared at him eerily in silence.

If this continued, he would surely die. But what could he do? He couldn't touch the spirit on his shoulder at all.

The intense pain in his shoulder bone forced him to lean against the wall for support.

He turned his head to look at the remains of the worker predecessor. The living man and the dead body were in exactly the same posture.

“So that's how it is...” Zhang Yuanqing gave a bitter smile.

He seemed to see his own end, to hear Death's sigh.

But Zhang Yuanqing did not give up his will to live. His mind remained active, like an overloaded CPU, searching for hope of survival in the desperate situation.

In a flash, the corpse under the main hall's table flickered through the chaotic torrent of information in his mind.

“The degree of bone fracture on the shoulders of the two corpses is different. The shoulder injury on the skeleton in the main hall was not fatal. Did the shoulder-clinging spirit spare him? No, spirits don'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 went into the main hall, they left...”

Thinking of this, Zhang Yuanqing's dim, murky pupils lit up with a glimmer of hope.

Back to the main hall, right now!

He immediately stood up and staggered out of the room, each step extremely difficult, as if carrying a mountain.

“Thud!”

He fell in the courtyard, tumbling into the weeds, unable to get up.

Zhang Yuanqing's teeth chattered, producing a clicking sound, as if he were in the midst of a bitter winter.

“The bitter cold” stole his warmth and eroded his will.

Zhang Yuanqing crawled bit by bit toward the main hall, using all his strength. He kept his head up, ensuring the outline of that building always remained in his sight.

Only then would the hope in his eyes not be extinguished.

It had only taken about a minute to walk from the main hall, but now it felt as distant as the ends of the earth.

Finally, at the moment he crawled into the eaves of the main hall, an illusory scream rang in his ears, his shoulders lightened, and the negative effects of cold, dizziness, and stiffness vanished instantly.

Zhang Yuanqing scrambled onto the base, stumbled around to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and threw himself over the threshold.

The candlelight was as dim as a bean, dispelling the gloom and bringing a warmth as pleasant as a spring breeze.

He lay on the ground in a spread-eagle position, his chest heaving, panting heavily. He lay there for two or three minutes before he felt he had finally come back to life.

"So terrifying, so terrifying... My guess was right; the main hall is a safe sanctuary."

Based on the different shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he judged that something must have prevented the vengeful spirit from chasing the person inside the hall.

The worker curled up dead under the table fit the psychology of someone hiding in extreme fear.

In this worker senior's mind, the main hall was safe.

And the red dancing shoes giving up chasing him indirectly confirmed this speculation.

In the following time, Zhang Yuanqing stayed in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature returned to normal.

Indeed, he encountered no more danger.

"If the main hall is a safe house, then my chances of survival are undoubtedly much greater. Even if the shoulder-crawling spirit tries to drain my essence again, I can escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the vengeful spirit and the red dancing shoes at the same time, I doubt I'll make it back."

"Moreover, the eeriest and most terrifying source in this temple is certainly not just the vengeful spirit..."

He did not get complacent from overcoming one life-or-death crisis; this ancient temple was not that simple.

After all, before him, an entire construction team had died here.

After resting for a long time, he gradually set aside his fear and was hesitating whether to continue exploring outside.

The voice in his mind sounded again:

[Main Quest 1: Survive for Three Hours (Completed)]

[Main Quest 2: Explore No. 0079 Spirit Realm, Progress: 20%]

[Primordial Beginning, congratulations on completing one main quest. Rewards are being settled...]

[Obtained item/prop: Corpse-Suppressing Talisman (viewable in inventory).]

[Obtained experience: 15%]

[Inventory unlocked.]

[You will have 36 hours of rest time. Next opening of No. 0079 Spirit Realm: 35:59:40.]

The scenery in the main hall twisted, like the surface of water ruffled by wind.

When the image cleared again, Zhang Yuanqing saw the bright energy-saving lamp, saw the spacious big bed, saw the desk, saw the PS5 game console, saw the open window, the wind blowing in, the curtains swaying slightly.

He was back in the human world.

"I'm back?"

He looked around in astonishment, confirming that he was indeed back in his room, then his knees went weak and he threw himself onto the soft bed.

Taking a deep breath, he even felt the air was sweet.

How wonderful to be alive, how wonderful the world is.

After a few minutes of recovery, Zhang Yuanqing sat up, pulled down his windbreaker zipper, and found that the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman was indeed gone.

Naturally, Zhang Yuanqing had the thought "take item", and next, a fluorescent blue grid appeared before his eyes.

There were five slots in total, and in the first slot lay the yellow paper talisman.

It was a very 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.

"Aside from the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman, I also got 15% experience, but my level is still zero, which means I haven't become a Night Wanderer yet, I'm still an ordinary person."

"Surviving three hours almost got me killed in there. How am I supposed to do the second quest? Is this what S-class difficulty means..."

Zhang Yuanqing grew more and more desperate, feeling that Brother Bing had tricked him.

This lousy card could indeed change his life, but it was also too hard to handle.

He was self-aware; he was just a college student who had never even killed a chicken. In the subsequent second quest, it would be hard for him to survive on his own.

As a socialist good youth of impeccable background, at a time like this he should certainly rely on the state, rely on the government.

So he picked up his phone, intending to call his cousin's number, but when his finger touched the phone screen, he suddenly paused.

Because Zhang Yuanqing thought that he might have a better option.

He immediately got out of bed and found the business card left by the pompadour man in the desk drawer.

The card had a name and contact information.

Tonight's encounter made him think of Brother Bing's mysterious disappearance. If he hadn't made it out alive, he too would have disappeared mysteriously.

It was certain that Brother Bing had already come into contact with the so-called spirit realm, so perhaps his disappearance was due to entering some spirit realm?

Following this line of reasoning, the investigators from the public security bureau were trustworthy.

There was another reason he chose to contact the pompadour man: the man had said that he might also disappear, which fucking implied that he would enter the spirit realm.

Combined with the fact that his cousin didn't know anything about it, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to infer that those three people were special personnel handling similar incidents.

After figuring this out, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the man's number on the business card.

The dial tone rang for a few seconds before the call was answered. A mature male voice asked in a low tone:

"Who is this?"