Chapter 31 A sudden light rain
Hearing Lin Qiushi's words, Ruan Nanzhu paused slightly, but his next move was to stop Lin Qiushi's attempt to continue observing. He whispered, "Forget about this. Find Cheng Qianli first."
Lin Qiushi then remembered that they had a companion. He hadn't seen Cheng Qianli since arriving at the temple, and he had no idea where he had gone.
Xu Jin, who was following behind, saw them walking towards the temple and asked tremblingly, "Where are you going? Are you still going in? I think this place is so scary."
"Well, let's go in and take a look." Lin Qiushi responded to Xu Jin and continued walking into the temple while observing his surroundings.
The temple was quite large, with a large, empty hall at the outermost edge. In front of the hall stood a Buddha statue and some burning incense, suggesting that people were offering sacrifices there on weekdays.
Walking inside, there were many small rooms separated by a wall. Most of these rooms were locked. Lin Qiushi saw through the window that there was something similar to a statue inside, but the statue was covered with a red curtain.
"I really want to go in and take a look." Ruan Nanzhu muttered inaudibly.
"What's in here?" Xu Jin touched the goose bumps on his arm. "So scary..."
When Ruan Nanzhu heard this, he turned around and leaned on Lin Qiushi, saying weakly, "Brother Lin, I'm scared too."
Lin Qiushi knew he was acting again, and with a somewhat awkward smile, he held his hand and said, "Don't worry, I'm here."
Xu Jin was so angry when he saw this that he probably cursed them a thousand times in his heart.
The few of them continued forward, and after passing through an aisle, they finally saw Cheng Qianli's figure.
Cheng Qianli was standing in a corner of a side hall, facing the wall, not knowing what he was looking at.
He heard footsteps, turned around and saw Lin Qiushi and the others, and said, "Come and take a look. There are murals here."
Lin Qiushi walked over and asked, "What mural? Little brother, my name is Yu Linlin. What's your name?"
Cheng Qianli said, "Just call me Mu Yu. Where are these two beautiful girls?"
Xu Jin and Ruan Nanzhu introduced themselves.
"Alas, you have such bad luck." Cheng Qianli said, "Such a beautiful girl has to enter such a terrifying world."
Xu Jin said, "Yes, I'm so scared." She finally had an outlet for her grievances, and she choked up and said, "Everything here is so weird, and I still don't understand what's going on." She wiped the corners of her wet eyes with her hands, and she looked extremely pitiful.
"This mural depicts local customs, right?" Ruan Nanzhu's voice grabbed Cheng Qianli's attention. He reached out and touched the wall. "This mural is either newly painted or someone maintains it regularly. The colors are very fresh."
"Well, what is the painting? I don't quite understand it." Cheng Qianli completely ignored Xu Jin next to him.
"They're celebrating a newborn baby," Ruan Nanzhu said. "There are two newborn babies, one representing the moon and one representing the sun..." He briefly described the pattern on the mural. "The newborn baby representing the moon likes to beat drums, and the newborn baby representing the sun is hidden." A hint of confusion appeared on his face, and he repeated, "Hidden?"
"What do you mean?" Lin Qiushi didn't understand the meaning of this.
"I don't know." Ruan Nanzhu said, "That's what the mural says. I don't know what it means to hide it."
Xu Jin, whose attention was once again taken away, said sourly, "Miss, you know a lot."
Ruan Nanzhu smiled slightly: "You haven't even asked me my age yet, why are you calling me little sister? I'm twenty years old, how about you?"
Xu Jin: "Twenty-three..."
Ruan Nanzhu: "Oh, you are the young lady."
Xu Jin was so angry at Ruan Nanzhu that she pouted.
Lin Qiushi was watching from the side and thought it was really funny. Ruan Nanzhu seemed to be addicted to teasing little girls.
"Have you found the stairs to the second floor?" Cheng Qianli said, "I keep hearing music coming from the rooftop. It must be the monks in this temple, right?"
Speaking of music, Lin Qiushi recalled the sound he had heard in the hall. His hearing was now extremely sharp, and he could easily discern the source of the sound. Because of this, he was absolutely certain that the sound was indeed coming from the hall's ceiling, and that the farther away, the weaker the sound.
"We didn't find it." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Let's look for it again."
The sixteen people who had been bustling about had completely dispersed in this vast and empty temple. They continued along the corridor, only encountering three or four people along the way, and no one knew where the rest had gone.
However, at this time, Lin Qiushi had no energy to care about others. He was more concerned about where to find more clues about the key in the temple.
The four of them kept moving forward and finally reached the end.
At the end of the temple was an open wilderness with many rocks and a wooden platform. The platform seemed to have some special purpose, as it was built very high. Standing below, they couldn't see clearly what was on top of it.
"Do you want to go up and take a look?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"We can go and take a look." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Together."
"Don't go." Lin Qiushi was worried about Ruan Nanzhu going, so he said, "I can do it alone."
Cheng Qianli said: "Let's go together. You two are downstairs. If anything happens, remind us."
"Okay, you two go up and take a look," Ruan Nanzhu said. "If anything's wrong, come down immediately."
There was a wooden ladder leading up to the platform, but it was very narrow and high, making the climb extremely slow. Lin Qiushi's main reason for climbing the ladder was to see what was on the platform. Secondly, the platform was so high that he could almost see the entire surrounding scenery. Once he got up, he should be able to get a general idea of the surroundings.
Cheng Qianli walked behind Lin Qiushi and whispered to him, "Brother Ruan, what's going on? Why do you look so grim?"
"He's not feeling well," Lin Qiushi explained. "It's probably because his mind hasn't fully recovered yet."
Cheng Qianli: "What about Xu Jin?"
Lin Qiushi: "She's a newcomer. I brought her along to avoid arousing suspicion."
As the two spoke, they were almost reaching the high wooden platform. Lin Qiushi walked in front, taking the last step and finally stepping onto the high platform. He immediately regretted his decision. The platform was covered in shredded meat and bones, along with some black hair. The shredded meat and bones were still fresh, showing no signs of decay. It looked as if they had just been placed there.
"Don't come up here," Lin Qiushi said. "There are only dead bodies up there."
Cheng Qianli paused and cursed.
Although Lin Qiushi wanted to deceive himself that these pieces of meat and bones belonged to other creatures, he could clearly see several human skulls among these things. The dark eyes of these skulls faced Lin Qiushi, giving him a terrifying illusion that he was being stared at.
"Go down." Lin Qiushi felt something was wrong and turned around immediately.
Cheng Qianli reacted quickly. He hummed and began to retreat. Just as Lin Qiushi was about to turn around and head down, he heard Ruan Nanzhu, who was standing below, yell, "Don't turn around—"
However, his reminder was too late. The moment Lin Qiushi turned his back to the platform, he felt a pair of hands pressing on his back, followed by a strong force, and his whole body was pushed violently.
This platform is about four meters high, and there are rugged rocks underneath. If you really fall down, you will definitely be dead or injured.
Fortunately, Cheng Qianli was quick-witted and grabbed Lin Qiushi, who was tilting in the center. Both of them rolled down a few steps of the high wooden steps in a mess, but fortunately nothing serious happened.
Lin Qiushi got up in a panic, not daring to stay on the stairs any longer, and ran down with Cheng Qianli.
"Fuck, fuck, I'm so scared!" Cheng Qianli was also frightened and broke out in a cold sweat, "Yu Linlin, what's wrong with you? You slipped? "
"No," Lin Qiushi said, "I was just pushed."
"Is there really no one there? When you came down from there, a pair of hands reached out from the platform." Xu Jin's eyes were filled with horror. "And then they pushed Yu Linlin."
"Linlin," Ruan Nanzhu suddenly said, "There are two handprints on your back."
Lin Qiushi was startled, then turned around and tugged at his T-shirt. Sure enough, he saw two bloody handprints on his back. The handprints weren't large, somewhere between a child's and an adult's, but they were strikingly visible on his back.
"Could this platform be a sky burial platform?" After seeing the bones and flesh on it, it was hard for Lin Qiushi not to have such an association.
"But there aren't usually large birds of prey that eat carrion in this dense jungle," Cheng Qianli said. "Then what ate their bodies?"
Lin Qiushi: “…”
"What else could it be? It must be the thing that pushed Yu Linlin down." Ruan Nanzhu closed his eyes. "I was careless. I shouldn't have let you go up and see." There was a hint of fatigue in his expression. He looked drowsy and seemed to be in a very bad mental state.
"Are you feeling unwell?" Lin Qiushi asked hurriedly, "Let's go back and rest first."
Ruan Nanzhu nodded.
So everyone started walking back.
Xu Jin also witnessed what Ruan Nanzhu had seen, and her description was similar. They both said that when Lin Qiushi turned around, a pair of bloody, child-like hands reached out from the platform. They were just flesh and bone, with no skin, and exposed muscle wrapped around fragile bones. Then, they pressed against Lin Qiushi's back. This was the first time she had witnessed such a supernatural event, and she was a bit shocked.
But Lin Qiushi didn't have the energy to care for her, as he noticed Ruan Nanzhu was in very poor condition. Seeing Ruan Nanzhu's grim expression, he offered to carry him on his back. Ruan Nanzhu didn't refuse, and simply lay quietly on Lin Qiushi's back.
As a result, Ruan Nanzhu seemed to have fallen asleep before returning to the main hall.
"How did you fall asleep?" Xu Jin obviously couldn't understand why Ruan Nanzhu could actually sleep. She was so scared that she was like a frightened chicken, her whole body trembling non-stop. She definitely couldn't fall asleep even lying in bed. Looking at the person next to her, she actually fell asleep with her eyes closed while lying on his back. She must be faking it!
Cheng Qianli said: "Maybe this girl is not in good health."
Before they reached the hall, they heard noisy voices, as if something had happened in the hall.
"He disappeared in the main hall!" a woman cried. "I just went to look at the Buddha statue, and when I turned around, he was gone."
"But we've been nearby and haven't seen anyone come out of the main entrance," another person said. "Did he go into the corridor?"
The woman said, "Impossible! How could he be so fast? He definitely couldn't have run into the corridor..."
Lin Qiushi walked behind with Ruan Nanzhu on his back, while Cheng Qianli quickly stepped forward and asked what had happened.
It turned out that when two people were waiting here for people to gather, one of them suddenly disappeared in the hall. When he disappeared, the remaining person stayed in the hall and did not notice anything unusual from beginning to end.
In this world, disappearance is almost equivalent to death. It is just unknown what they did to trigger the conditions for death.
"What were you talking about while you were waiting in the hall?" Meng Yu asked. "Did you say where you were going?"
The only remaining woman looked confused. After thinking for a moment, she seemed to remember something and her body froze in place.
"What's wrong?" Meng Yu noticed something was wrong with the woman.
The woman slowly raised her head and looked at the dark roof. She said, "Before he disappeared, he kept discussing with me what was on the ceiling..."
Everyone fell silent after hearing this.
The music hadn't stopped since they entered the temple. Initially, they thought it was coming from the second floor, but upon closer inspection, they realized there was no second floor at all. Darkness obscured everyone's vision, preventing them from clearly seeing the objects on the ceiling. Some might have seen this as an obstacle, but they never considered it a form of protection.
The things on the ceiling will kill you if you see them.
After hearing what the woman said, most people lowered their heads.
Meng Yu, however, didn't seem afraid at all. He raised his head and observed the sky above him: "This building is at least six meters high. Without light, it's impossible to see what's up there clearly. So where does their light come from?"
"Cell phone?" Lin Qiushi blurted out.
Meng Yu turned to look at Lin Qiushi and said, "That's right."
In fact, most people here don't bring their phones. Lin Qiushi once asked Ruan Nanzhu about this, and Ruan Nanzhu replied that while it can be dangerous to bring a phone, it's fine to just leave it behind after entering. Thus, Lin Qiushi developed this habit, and even played games on his phone in the evenings when he had nothing else to do.
"Let's get out first." Someone couldn't stand the atmosphere anymore and whispered, "It looks like there are no more clues to be found."
Meng Yu looked at the time and said, "If you want to go out, go out. There is still more than an hour until the time agreed by the tour guide and us."
"But it's raining outside." Xu Jin was so scared that she wanted to stand in the most crowded place and curl herself up into a ball.
"It's raining?" Lin Qiushi was stunned. "When did it start?"
Xu Jin said: "Just now, when you were talking."
Normally, rain would make a rustling sound when it hits the ground, but this downpour was completely silent, like a pantomime. Even Lin Qiushi, with his keen hearing, didn't hear a single sound.
The rain was falling so strangely that those who had wanted to go out were afraid to move.
Just as everyone was watching the silent heavy rain outside, the music that had been playing incessantly suddenly stopped, and the entire temple fell into an awful silence.
"No sound." Xu Jin said, "How scary..."
Lin Qiushi frowned: "Didn't you hear it?"
Xu Jin was confused: "What did you hear?"
Lin Qiushi: "Drumbeats...someone is beating the drums."
When everyone heard this, they all looked confused at first, but soon, the sound of the drums became louder and louder. When everyone heard the drums, other sounds appeared along with the drums.
It was the creaking sound of a wooden door opening. Lin Qiushi immediately sensed something was amiss and woke Ruan Nanzhu up. "Zhu Meng, you can't sleep any more. Something's happened."
Ruan Nanzhu opened his eyes: "I fell asleep?"
"Hmm," Lin Qiushi said, "something's not right."
Ruan Nanzhu said, "What's wrong?"
Lin Qiushi: "There are drumbeats—" If it were just drumbeats, it would be fine. He clearly heard something coming towards them in the corridor they had just come from.
Ruan Nanzhu was quiet for a while, as if trying to wake himself from his hazy sleep. He said, "Don't be afraid. We are all here. We won't be wiped out."
Soon, the others also heard the sound coming from the corridor. The sound was getting closer and closer. Although the lights in the temple were extremely dim, everyone could still see clearly what appeared in the corridor.
They were people whose skins had been peeled off. They were half-crouching on the ground, dragging sharp long knives in their hands, and running towards the hall.
Seeing this scene, everyone in the hall showed expressions of extreme horror. Some of those who could not bear it began to scream.
"Everyone calm down!" Meng Yu said, "They may not kill us!"
"You're fucking bullshit! How can this thing not kill people?" The newbie with blond hair seemed to have a mental breakdown. He rushed out the door while cursing, "You guys just wait to die in there!! I'm leaving first!"
Meng Yu's expression instantly turned cold, and his usual gentle smile seemed to be an illusion. But the change was only a moment, and soon he returned to his gentle appearance. "Don't worry, everyone, the sect won't set up a dead end. It's impossible for so many people to trigger the death condition at the same time. Don't rush out!"
As if to confirm his words, the blond young man who had just rushed out of the door let out a shrill howl, and red blood flowers burst out of his body.
Ruan Nanzhu, who was lying on Lin Qiushi's back, suddenly spoke up. "That's not rain."
"Huh?" Lin Qiushi was stunned.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "That's a knife."
Lin Qiushi: "..." He seemed to understand what was going on.
The young man who had fled the temple in panic paid a heavy price. In an instant, his skin was slashed to pieces by the sharp blades, like a slow slicing of flesh. Everyone could clearly see his entire body turned into a bloody mess, and his miserable cries were heard everywhere.
The young man tried to run back, but stumbled and fell to the ground. However, even when his bones were exposed, his screams did not stop, as if the sharp blade had avoided the fatal spot.
This is almost skinning alive.
Xu Jin's scalp tingled and he couldn't help but dry heave.
The bloody monsters that had just rushed into the temple from the corridor let out excited shouts.
Finally, the young man's screams stopped and he fell straight to the ground, with only a skeleton with little flesh left.
The monsters rushed to his side and began to chew and swallow loudly. Soon they had eaten all the flesh that had been peeled off from the young man, and not even a trace of blood could be seen.
After eating, the monsters seemed not to see the living people in the temple and dispersed again.
The atmosphere in the temple was eerily quiet. No one spoke or moved.
"How could this happen?" Someone finally said in a daze, "What on earth are those things..."
Meng Yu said: "Who knows?"
"Can we still get out?" Xu Jin trembled, her voice trembling, "Will we die outside?"
"Probably not," Lin Qiushi whispered. "The place our tour guide agreed to meet us at is outside, and the time is almost up."
"Are we going out? What if it rains knives again?" Xu Jin was still in shock. The bloody corpse was placed at the door, attracting everyone's attention.
"I told you, no one in this sect would set up a death trap." Meng Yu accepted it all calmly. "If everyone does the same thing, nothing will go wrong."
Ruan Nanzhu chuckled upon hearing this. Lin Qiushi asked him what he was laughing at, and Ruan Nanzhu said, "This Meng Yu is quite interesting."
Lin Qiushi didn't understand why Ruan Nanzhu said that.
"What do you think would happen if everyone made the same mistake?" Ruan Nanzhu asked in a very low voice.
"Death?" Lin Qiushi said, "But doesn't that mean not everyone will die?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Yes, it's true that not all of them will die, but the monster can choose whoever it wants to kill. As long as there is one left at the end, that's all that's left."
Lin Qiushi: “…”
Ruan Nanzhu: "So that's why Meng Yu deliberately misled everyone."
Lin Qiushi fell into silence.
Just as the two were talking, the tour guide's voice came from outside. She said, "Gather, gather, come out quickly, I'll only wait for you for five minutes."
Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that everything should be fine outside, so they slowly walked out of the temple.
The author has something to say: I chose the love-hate relationship randomly, so don’t take it to heart (Author Cangsang lights a cigarette
As an aside, let me explain the door settings in detail.
The gates were like exams, divided into levels one to twelve. Ruan Nanzhu had passed the tenth level, so when he came back to take the fifth level exam, it didn't count. Gates could be skipped, and if certain conditions were met, several gates could be crossed. For example, Lin Qiushi used Cheng Qianli's gate and jumped two levels directly from the second level to the fifth level.
However, the first door for newcomers is special, which is equivalent to a qualification test. The closer to death, the more difficult the test. For example, if someone is about to die in the next minute, then the first door he enters may be someone else's fifth door. After he survives, the test will be recalculated. So the most accurate statement is that the second door is actually the easiest, and it will become more and more difficult afterwards.
Apart from the newcomers, the number of times other people in the door pass through is relatively close, not too different, except for those who pass through for free.
Whether there will be other people coming in with other clues is a foreshadowing, and you will find out if you continue watching.
In the end, Lin Qiushi's cancer was actually in the late stage, and it became early stage after passing through the first door.
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