spirit walker

Chapter 17 The Origin of Weirdness
You guessed right. Zhang Yuanqing felt a little relieved.

In fact, after exploring the mountain temple and killing the zombies, the entrance to the cave will open, but the senior construction team took away the crouching pestle before that.

If he couldn't see through this detail and return the crouching pestle, he might be stuck at this step forever.

Zhang Yuanqing waited patiently, quietly tightened his nerves, concentrated his energy, and did not dare to be careless, because under the cave, there may be the source of the decline of the mountain temple.

After a while, seeing that there was no abnormality in the collapsed hole, he summoned the red dancing shoes again, opened the second form, and let it replace the running shoes to wrap his feet.

Then he walked to the dark and deep cave and jumped lightly.

Patta, the soles of his feet quickly touched the ground, and the red dancing shoes relieved him of the force of his fall.

Zhang Yuanqing found the crouching pestle among the broken stones, bent down to pick it up, and regained control of this powerful tool.

With the red dancing shoes and the magic pestle, he is confident that he can face the danger in the cave.

Candlelight seeps down from the top of the head, and the place that can be illuminated is limited. Ahead is a dark and silent corridor, full of unknown fears.

In such an environment, it is extremely unwise to discredit Qianqian.

Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, then turned his gaze to the props in his hand.

The item introduction said that this is an item that contains the divine power of the sun, and the divine power can be obtained by offering blood as a sacrifice.

The serious power of the sun should be able to dispel darkness and bring light, right?
It's worth a try, but the "remarks" in the attribute introduction are a bit confusing. Zhang Yuanqing breathed out silently, and nailed the sharp triangular thorns to his thigh.

A sharp pain hit, and blood gushed out, instead of flowing along the trousers, it turned into blood lines and poured into the brass tool.

Zhang Yuanqing only felt a warm force gushing out from the crouching pestle, rushing into his body along his arms, his pupils lit up with pale golden light and turned into brilliant golden pupils.

The crouching rod didn't dispel the darkness, but it gave him the ability to see through the darkness.

At the same time, all the negative states such as dizziness, dyspnea, and heart and lung pain disappeared, leaving only the weakness of excessive blood loss.

The corpse poison in the body has been removed.

He was indeed exchanging his life for strength, but he could still accept that he raised his eyesight and looked forward. In front of him was a spacious corridor extending into the depths of darkness.

There are traces of man-made excavations on the two walls of the corridor, which are not naturally formed.

Zhang Yuanqing walked in the corridor at a moderate pace, and the sound of his footsteps echoed in the silent space.

After walking for more than ten seconds, plant roots appeared on the two walls of the corridor, and they densely covered the walls.

"Help, help."

Suddenly, in the darkness ahead, there was a horrific cry for help, like weeping.

After following the sound for a while, the front suddenly opened up, and a huge grotto came into view. In the center of the grotto was a thick tree trunk, which pierced through the top of the grotto and grew to the outside world.

At the base of this thick trunk, intertwined rhizomes wrapped around a sarcophagus.

The most frightening thing was that pale arms protruded from the thick tree trunks, and pale human faces emerged, and they unconsciously uttered "help" cries.

The densely packed arms grabbed at random, as if looking for a life-saving straw.

My mass phobia was committed. The candlelight and crouching pestle gave Zhang Yuanqing courage, he only felt a slight scalp numbness, not too much fear.

At this time, a hoarse and vicissitudes of life sounded:

"After so many years, this is the first time a living creature has come here."

With these words, the cries for help stopped, the arms that swung like seaweed retracted one after another, and the faces of people hid in the tree in horror.

"Who?"

Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback, looking around vigilantly.

"Me? I'm just a tree"

An ugly human face emerged from the tree trunk. Unlike the faces of those wraiths, its skin was bark, as if it symbolized the tree itself.

It's the old banyan tree in the yard, has it become a spirit?Zhang Yuanqing didn't expect to meet a communicable being in this ghostly place, even though the other party was a tree.

He didn't dare to approach, and tentatively said:
"You killed the disciples in the temple?"

"It's not me, it's her."

The dryad's eyes fell, as if gazing at the sarcophagus below, although it couldn't see it.

"who is she?"

"She is Empress Sandaoshan."

Zhang Yuanqing felt as if he had been slapped on the head, and his mind was in a daze.

Inside the sarcophagus lies Empress Sandaoshan, the mighty Night God who was supposed to become immortal in the early Ming Dynasty?

The source of the weirdness is the Empress Sandaoshan, who killed the disciples in the temple?

Zhang Yuanqing blurted out: "Why did she do this?"

"Because of the coming of the end of the Dharma era, it is difficult for practitioners to break through the bottleneck. In order to live forever, the Empress of Sandao Mountain fell into the devil's way. She sealed herself in a sarcophagus, imprisoned ghosts with banyan trees, and nourished yin with yin to protect her body and soul. She is a powerful Night God, and Night God is born to devour souls and strengthen herself."

The human face on the tree trunk sighed: "The banyan tree accommodates too many souls, absorb their will, and slowly give birth to wisdom, which is me. Over the years, people have strayed into this place one after another, died here, and finally became Her nourishment. I bear the hatred and unwillingness of the Wraith, and I have been waiting for someone to come here and end her for me."

So, does this count as triggering the NPC's mission?Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flickered slightly, "What should I do."

"Open the sarcophagus and use the weapon in your hand to pierce her heart, and it will end all of this. Heh, half of her soul is sealed in the crouching pestle. Piercing into the heart can seal the remaining soul in her body. In the device, without the body protection of the Yang soul, her body will die immediately." After the banyan tree spirit finished speaking, she said slowly:

"You can get out of here too."

Zhang Yuanqing did not move and remained silent.

The banyan tree spirit said slowly: "Young man, why are you still hesitating?"

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly said:

"I'm thinking about a question."

Banyan tree essence responded gently: "What's the problem."

Zhang Yuanqing stood in the distance, staring at the face on the tree trunk, and said word by word:

"You can't be Miao Zhu."

The cave was suddenly quiet, and a few seconds later, the banyan tree spirit said in a low tone:

"Miao Zhu was the first person to be bewitched by the Empress of Sandao Mountain, and became her puppet, and later became the nutrient of that woman. If you don't believe me, come and open the sarcophagus, and you will know that I am not lying to you."

"Then help me open it."

"I can't open it, I'm just a tree."

"Can't open it, or dare not open it?" Zhang Yuanqing seemed to get the answer he wanted, and raised the corner of his mouth:
"The one lying in the coffin is Miao Zhu, and you, are he his guardian, or his soul?"

After saying these probing words, he entered a state of alert, waiting for the response of the dryad.

As a technical nerd who is good at strategy games, after going through so many crises, if he can't find out the secrets of the mountain temple, it would be too bad.

First of all, the Empress of Sandao Mountain was immortalized in the early Ming Dynasty. After her death, the local government built this temple for her.

The disciples in the temple disappeared for no reason during the Yongle period, and there was a gap of at least five or sixty years, that is, one or two generations.

Secondly, the information from the main hall suggested that the empress of Sandaoshan was a decent person, and the banyan tree spirit's so-called falling into the devil's way was its one-sided statement, and Zhang Yuanqing was more willing to believe the former.

Finally, and most importantly, the contents of the essay are: Don't trust Master!
In fact, who is the real enemy, Lingjing has already given hints in these details.

It's just that Zhang Yuanqing didn't want to understand why Miao Zhu killed his disciple.

Know it now.

If you replace the person who wants to live forever and fell into the devil with a temple wish, all doubts will be solved.

There was silence in the cave, and the banyan tree spirit sighed: "You are too vigilant. From the beginning to the end, I have no malice towards you, let alone hurt you."

"Won't hurt, or can't hurt?" Zhang Yuanqing stepped back slowly and said:

"Well, let me guess, the way you kill people is to twist the neck, but the technique should be related to illusion and mind. You wanted to kill me not long ago, but unfortunately I didn't look back."

This time, the face of the banyan tree spirit changed suddenly.

Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing knew that his reasoning was completely correct.

The night wandering god in the Taiyimen materials clearly pointed out two things: first, the banyan tree is dangerous; second, don't look back.

That's why he went deep into the ancient well and found nothing, because the well was not a problem at all, and the problem was the tree.

In addition, he was able to accurately judge the "illusion" because the name called by the female ghost was Zhang Yuanqing, not Yuanshi Tianzun.

Finally, when Zhang Yuanqing discovered the ancient well, he thought of a famous horror movie from a certain island country, so he had a psychological shadow and dared not peek into the bottom of the well.

Afterwards, the female ghost came out of the well, dressed in white, with disheveled hair, and no facial features, which fit the vague fear in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.

"You pretended to talk nicely to me, because the illusion can no longer confuse me. After all, I have my mother's crouching pestle, which is immune to illusion." Zhang Yuanqing looked calm and analyzed the truth:

"You lied to me because you wanted to kill me in other ways. If the illusion doesn't work for me, then it's a physical attack?"

He glanced at the tree roots that were all over the wall, and suddenly stabbed down with a pestle.

ps: Two chapters will be updated together today, and there will be another chapter later, um, within an hour.

(End of this chapter)