spirit walker

Chapter 5 The Ancient Temple
an abandoned tunnel
Zhang Yuanqing looked around in a panic, and was suddenly brought into an unfamiliar environment, anyone would panic and be at a loss.

"Tunnel? Is this the She Ling tunnel in the ghost story?"

As a native of Songhai City, he certainly knows about the She Ling Tunnel among the top ten strange stories. When he was a child and stayed naughty at night, his grandmother would scare him with strange stories.

However, let’s not say that the ghost stories are just illusory stories. Let’s take the Sheling Tunnel as an example. Zhang Yuanqing passed by the Sheling Tunnel when he returned to his hometown to worship his father a few days ago.

Where is the real She Ling Tunnel like this, so old?

"By the way, this is the spiritual realm, not the real Sheling Tunnel."

The cramped environment made people uneasy, Zhang Yuanqing walked forward cautiously, only the sound of his own lonely footsteps could be heard.

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

Undoubtedly, he encountered supernatural phenomena and was brought into the ghost story to complete the task issued by the mysterious power.

"The voice gave me two tasks, namely to survive for three hours; to explore the spirit world. The difficulty level is S, and the single death type makes me panic."

Surviving for three hours means that there will be great danger.

Exploring the spirit world should be exploring this tunnel, that is to say, the tunnel is dangerous?
He quietly tightened his nerves, and at the same time, a question flashed through his mind: What rewards will there be for completing the task?
Since it is a task, there must be rewards.

"Well, according to the attribute panel just now, my occupation is Night God, but level 0 is not 1. Being Night God should be one of the rewards, right? What is Night God?"

"Bingge is right. This black card will indeed change your life, but I ignored the second half of his words. This thing is difficult to control. Do you mean the degree of danger?"

Zhang Yuanqing combined the known information and silently analyzed it.

At this moment, the old-fashioned xenon lamp beside him seemed to have an unstable circuit, and flickered a few times. In the intertwined light and darkness, Zhang Yuanqing vaguely saw a figure wearing a miner's hat standing under the lamp.

Fuck. He jumped up in fright, the thoughts in his mind were interrupted instantly, and he ran forward a certain distance like a frightened deer.

Looking back, the xenon lamp continued to be on and did not flicker anymore.

The black figure wearing the miner's hat just now seemed to be his illusion.

With this fright, Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to stay in this ghost place, and quickly walked towards the tunnel.

Da da da. The sound of footsteps echoed in the quiet tunnel. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to stop. He walked like this for five or six minutes. The old-fashioned xenon lamps on the arc dome flickered again, but this time, no figure wearing a miner's hat appeared.

"Didn't follow?"

He felt a little relaxed, not daring to stay, and walked quickly with his head down. Suddenly, he stared at the ground, and caught a detail that made his heart stop.

The orange xenon lamp dragged his shadow very long, and beside his shadow, there were more than a dozen shadows following him.

They have been following me? !

The coolness ran from his feet to his head, causing goosebumps all over his body, Zhang Yuanqing's face turned pale with fright, and he started to run wildly.

Finally, the entrance of the tunnel appeared ahead, and outside the tunnel was the cold and frosty moonlight.

Zhang Yuanqing rushed out of the tunnel in one breath, leaning on his knees, bending over to breathe.

After recovering his breath, he looked around the surrounding environment, the full moon was like a disk, hanging lonely in the night sky, under its brilliance, the stars were eclipsed.

The lush forests are bathed in moonlight, casting large swathes of thick shadows.

He was in a wilderness.

The xenon lamps in the tunnel flickered a few times and then went out.Nuoda's tunnel entrance is dark and quiet, like a beast's mouth that chooses to eat someone.

"Get out of here"

Zhang Yuanqing's scalp went numb, and he climbed the mountain along the rugged mountain road.

After walking a dozen steps, he turned his head again and saw a row of people wearing miner hats and shabby clothes standing at the entrance of the tunnel with their heads bowed.

They stood in the shadow of the moonlight, without saying a word, as if they were seeing 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 road are lush, and the moonlight is sprinkled with fragments, which is enough for Zhang Yuanqing to see the road clearly.

It's just that the silence in the mountains was terrifying, and there were no insects or birds singing in the woods, which made Zhang Yuanqing's footsteps seem extraordinarily loud.

"It's too quiet. It's impossible that there are no insects in the mountains this season."

He looked around, the full moon was like a disk, and the shade of the trees was whirling. He always felt that there was something watching him in the dark.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Zhang Yuanqing finally walked out of the dense forest with a thin layer of sweat breaking out from his body, and his vision suddenly widened.

The moonlight is like water, and the surroundings are dead silent. At the end of the rugged mountain road, there is a deserted ancient temple.

Standing quietly in the dark.

This ancient temple has been abandoned for many years. The paint on the gate in front of the temple is mottled and blackened, and it is full of erosion holes. The lanterns at the corners of the eaves have fallen to the ground, leaving only the skeleton of bamboo strips.

The plaque is still there, full of cobwebs, hanging obliquely under the eaves, but the light is too dim to see what is written on the plaque.

The steps in front of the temple gate are cracked, and weeds are overgrown in the cracks.

There are barren mountains and wild ridges here, and there is no village or shop behind, how can there be a temple.

Wait for the temple? !

Zhang Yuanqing reacted violently, as if the voice in the information introduction of the spiritual realm sounded in his ears:

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

"According to the prompt of that strange voice, I should not be able to enter the temple, no, I have already come out of the tunnel, which means that what I really want to explore is this dilapidated ancient temple."

After hesitating for a long time at the gate of the temple, Zhang Yuanqing walked cautiously 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 growing in the yard, and a decayed half-person high incense burner was dumped in the grass, and it had been blown by wind and rain for many years.

Under the feet is a road paved with bluestone slabs, and clumps of weeds also grow in the gaps between the stone slabs.

Following the undulating decayed grass, he looked towards the end of the bluestone road, where there was a dilapidated main hall with a very high foundation and six steps.There is a dim light shining through the latticed door of the main hall.

"Is there a light?"

The surroundings were silent, desolate and dilapidated, and the bright moonlight shone down. In such an environment, the halo did not bring Zhang Yuanqing a trace of warmth.

Even more terrifying.

rustle
Stepping on clumps of withered and yellow weeds, he kept his vigilance and walked towards the main hall. In the empty environment, the sound of his footsteps was very clear.

Rustle, rustle. Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing's ears moved slightly, and he heard footsteps behind him, and something was following him.

Huo Ran turned his head.

The night is like water, the weeds are lush, and there is nothing behind.

"Have you hallucinated?"

Zhang Yuanqing stopped for a moment in fear, then moved his legs forward again.

"Swish"

The footsteps came again, this time he could hear clearly, there was really something following behind him.

Wouldn't it be so evil, would you encounter dirty things when you first entered the temple?He didn't dare to look back and quickened his pace.

The footsteps behind him also accelerated.

Zhang Yuanqing couldn't collapse anymore, and at the same time with goosebumps raised, he ran wildly and rushed to the main hall.

The footsteps behind him followed him like a shadow.

While chasing, Zhang Yuanqing quickly rushed out of the wild grass, approached the main hall, jumped up the six steps in two steps, and finally broke through the two lattice doors of the main hall with a loud bang.

The sound of footsteps behind him suddenly disappeared.

"Whoa, whoa"

He panted heavily, and finally dared to look back, the moonlight sprinkled on the courtyard like water, the wild grass, the stone road, the silence was scary, but there was nothing.

"Fortunately, I didn't catch up."

After Zhang Yuanqing took a breath, he gently closed the door of the main hall, as if blocking fear from the outside.

Then, he glanced at the scene in the main hall. On the high stone base, there was a lady wearing a fur cloak and gorgeous costumes. She had a round face, slender eyebrows, and a kindness.

This empress is holding the fly whisk in one hand, and the other hand is grasping. She seems to be holding something, but at the moment it is empty.

On the left and right sides are boys holding swords and maids holding books.

In front of the pedestal is a dusty tribute table. On the table is a candlestick, a candle twenty centimeters long and as thick as a baby's forearm, burning quietly.

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

On the left wall, there are two faded and cracked wooden boards, which are full of italic characters.

Zhang Yuanqing strolled to the wall and gazed at it by the candlelight at dusk. The style of these scripts is classical Chinese.

His Chinese proficiency is not bad, and through half-guessing and half-reading, he has a clear understanding of the environment he is in.

This mountain is called Sandao Mountain, and the mountain god enshrined in the temple is called Sandao Mountain Empress.

This mountain goddess is a person from Songfu in the early Ming Dynasty. She practiced in Sandao Mountain in Songfu. She is proficient in the method of talisman and alchemy.

After she became a fairy, the local government built this temple in Sandao Mountain, named "Sandao Mountain Niangniang Temple", and the successors of the empress managed the incense and acted as temple blessings.

"The temple in the early Ming Dynasty must have been five or six hundred years old." Zhang Yuanqing muttered.

At this time, he couldn't help but glanced at the bottom of the tribute table, and his heart suddenly trembled.

A dark figure lay in the shadows under the table.

The state of mind was too panic just now, and the candlelight was dim, so I didn't notice it at the first time.

Zhang Yuanqing approached it bravely, and when he took a closer look, it turned out to be a corpse with only a skeleton left.

Zhang Yuanqing breathed a sigh of relief amidst the horror. Compared with this weird mountain temple, the corpse is not so scary.

Taking a few steps closer, by the faint candlelight, he could clearly see the clothes on the skeleton, a dusty labor protection suit.

Worker?

"Is this the construction team from back then? So I did enter the world of ghost stories."

As soon as Zhang Yuanqing made a guess, he thought of a more sensational possibility. Perhaps, the construction team back then, like me, strayed into this place by mistake.

Hence the urban legend.

If it's the former, this so-called spiritual realm is based on ghost stories.

And if it is the latter, it means that the ancient temple has always existed, and the construction team, like him at this moment, is a victim.

According to the historical background of the mountain temple, Zhang Yuanqing prefers the latter.

"The entire construction team died in the temple, and only one person survived. People will die here. Now that I have entered this temple, I will face unknown dangers at any time."

Hiss~ He gasped, his emotions tensed up again, and he subconsciously looked around.

Then, he suddenly realized a detail that was terribly thoughtful.

This ancient temple is from the Ming Dynasty and has a long history. How could the candles still be burning?Who is changing the candles in the main hall?

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he felt, and even the sculpture with a benign eyebrow seemed to reveal a strange and eerie feeling in the candlelight.

Although the three clay sculptures are full of dust, they are lifelike, and every detail is vividly carved, especially the eyes.

They stood on the pedestal, staring down at Zhang Yuanqing under the candlelight at dusk.

(End of this chapter)