An abandoned tunnel...

Zhang Yuanqing looked around in panic. Being suddenly brought to an unfamiliar environment would make anyone panic.

"Tunnel? Is this the Sheling Tunnel from the ghost story?"

As a native of Songhai City, he certainly knew about the Sheling Tunnel, one of the top ten ghost stories. When he was a child, he was naughty and didn't sleep at night, so his grandmother would scare him with ghost stories.

However, putting aside the fact that ghost stories are just imaginary stories, let’s take the Sheling Tunnel as an example. Zhang Yuanqing returned to his hometown to worship his father a few days ago and passed by the Sheling Tunnel.

How could the real Sheling Tunnel look like this and be so old?

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

The cramped environment made people feel uneasy. Zhang Yuanqing walked forward cautiously, with only the sound of his own lonely footsteps in his ears.

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

There is no doubt that he encountered supernatural phenomena, was brought into the ghost story, and will complete the mission issued by the mysterious force.

"That voice gave me two tasks, surviving for three hours and exploring the spirit realm. Difficulty level S, single-player death type... This death type makes me panic."

Surviving for three hours means being in great danger.

Exploring the spiritual realm... should be exploring this tunnel, which means that the tunnel is very dangerous?

He quietly tensed up his nerves, and at the same time, a question flashed through his mind: What is the reward for completing the task?

Since it's a mission, there must be a reward.

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

"Brother Bing is right. This black card will indeed change your life, but I overlooked the second half of his words. This thing is difficult to control. Are you referring to how dangerous it is?"

Zhang Yuanqing combined the known information and analyzed it silently.

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

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

Looking back, the xenon lamp continued to shine and stopped flickering.

The dark shadow wearing a miner's hat just now seemed to be his illusion.

After this scare, Zhang Yuanqing didn’t dare to stay in this haunted place and quickly walked out of the tunnel.

Tap, tap... The footsteps echoed in the quiet tunnel. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to stop for a moment. He walked quickly for five or six minutes. The old xenon lamp on the curved dome flashed again, but this time, there was no figure wearing a miner's hat.

"Didn't catch up?"

He felt a little relieved, but didn't dare to stop. He walked quickly with his head down. Suddenly, while staring at the ground, he caught a detail that made his heart stop.

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

They're following me?!

The chill spread from his feet to his head, giving him goose bumps all over his body. Zhang Yuanqing's face turned pale with fright, and he started running wildly.

Finally, the entrance to a tunnel appeared ahead, and outside the tunnel was the moonlight as cold as frost.

Zhang Yuanqing rushed out of the tunnel in one breath, holding his knees, bending over and gasping for breath.

After catching his breath, he looked around. The full moon was like a disk, hanging lonely in the night sky. Under its brilliance, the stars were dimmed.

The lush forest was bathed in moonlight, casting large patches of deep shadows.

He was in a desolate mountain area.

The xenon lights in the tunnel flickered a few times and then went out. The huge tunnel entrance was dark and quiet, like the mouth of a beast ready to devour someone.

"Leave now..."

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

After walking a dozen steps, he looked back again and saw a row of people wearing miners' hats, wearing tattered clothes and with their heads lowered standing at the entrance of the tunnel.

They stood in the shadows where the moonlight could not reach, without saying a word, as if they were seeing him off.

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

The mountain road was lined with lush branches and leaves, casting fine and fragmented moonlight, which was enough for Zhang Yuanqing to see the road clearly.

It was just that the silence in the mountains was eerily quiet, and there were no insects or birds chirping in the woods, which made Zhang Yuanqing's footsteps seem particularly loud.

"It's too quiet. It's impossible that there aren't even insects chirping in the mountains at this time of year."

He looked around. The full moon was like a disk and the shadows of the trees were swaying. He always felt that something in the darkness was watching him.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, until a thin layer of sweat broke out on his body, Zhang Yuanqing finally walked out of the dense forest, and his vision suddenly became wider.

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

Standing quietly in the darkness.

It is unknown how many years this ancient temple has been abandoned. The paint on the gate in front of the temple is mottled and black, and is covered with corrosion holes. The lanterns on the eaves have fallen to the ground, leaving only the bamboo frame.

The plaque was still there, covered with cobwebs, hanging diagonally under the eaves, but the light was too dim to see clearly what was written on the plaque.

The steps in front of the temple are cracked and weeds are growing in the cracks.

There are so many desolate mountains and wilderness here, with no village in front and no shop behind. How could there be a temple here?

Wait....Temple?!

Zhang Yuanqing reacted suddenly, and the voice from the spiritual realm information introduction seemed to ring in his ears:

"Don't go into the temple, don't go into the temple..."

"According to the instructions of that strange voice, I shouldn't be able to enter the temple. No, I've already come out of the tunnel. That means what I really want to explore is this dilapidated ancient temple."

After hesitating for a long time at the temple gate, Zhang Yuanqing took cautious steps towards the ancient temple standing in the darkness and stepped over the dilapidated threshold.

What came into view was a spacious front yard with waist-high weeds. A rotten, half-person-high incense burner lay in the grass, having been exposed to wind and rain for who knows how many years.

Under my feet is a road paved with bluestone slabs, and clumps of wild grass are also growing between the cracks of the slabs.

Following the undulating withered grass, I looked towards the end of the bluestone road, where there was a dilapidated main hall with a high foundation and six steps. A dim light shone through the lattice door of the main hall.

"Is there a light?"

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

It even feels more terrifying.

rustle.......

Stepping on clumps of yellow weeds, he walked towards the main hall vigilantly. In the empty environment, the sound of his footsteps was particularly clear.

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

He turned his head suddenly.

The night is as dark as water, the weeds are lush, and there is nothing behind us.

"Hallucinations?"

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

“Rustle, rustle…”

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

.......It can't be so weird, right after entering the temple, I encountered something dirty? He didn't dare to look back, and quickened his pace.

The footsteps behind him also quickened.

Zhang Yuanqing could no longer hold back. With goose bumps all over his body, he ran as fast as he could towards the main hall.

The footsteps behind him were like a shadow, chasing him closely.

During the chase, Zhang Yuanqing quickly rushed out of the weeds, approached the main hall, jumped up the six steps in two steps, and finally, with a loud "clang", he broke open the two lattice doors of the main hall.

The footsteps behind me suddenly disappeared.

“Huff, huff….”

He gasped for breath and finally dared to look back. The moonlight was like water pouring down on the courtyard, the weeds, the stone roads. It was so quiet that it was frightening, but there was nothing there.

"Fortunately, no one came after me."

After Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath, he gently closed the door of the main hall, as if to keep the fear out.

Then he glanced at the scene inside the main hall. On a high stone pedestal, there was a goddess wearing a fur cloak and gorgeous clothes. She had a round face, slender eyebrows and eyes, and she looked kind.

The lady held a whisk in one hand and made a grasping gesture with the other hand. It seemed that she was holding something, but now it was empty.

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

In front of the pedestal was a dusty offering table with a candlestick on it. A 20-centimeter-long candle, as thick as a baby's arm, was burning quietly.

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

On the left wall, there are two faded and cracked wooden boards, covered with regular script.

Zhang Yuanqing walked to the wall and gazed at it in the evening candlelight. The style of these regular scripts was classical Chinese.

His Chinese language proficiency was not bad, and through half guessing and half observing, he had a clear understanding of the environment he was in.

This mountain is called Sandaoshan, and the mountain god worshipped in the temple is called Sandaoshan Niangniang.

This mountain goddess was from Songfu in the early Ming Dynasty. She practiced in Sandao Mountain in Songfu. She was proficient in the art of talismans and alchemy. She could pray for rain and drive away ghosts, and bless the area with good weather. Therefore, she was worshipped as a god by the people.

After her death, the local government built this temple on Sandao Mountain and named it "Sandao Mountain Niangniang Temple". The descendants of the Niangniang were responsible for managing the incense and serving as the temple priests.

"This temple is from the early Ming Dynasty. It must be five or six hundred years old." Zhang Yuanqing muttered.

At this moment, he couldn't help but glance under the tribute table, and his heart suddenly shuddered.

A dark figure lay in the shadows under the table.

I was too panicked just now and the candlelight was dim, so I didn't notice it at first.

Zhang Yuanqing gritted his teeth and approached, and when he took a closer look, he found that it was a corpse with only a skeleton left.

Zhang Yuanqing was frightened but then heaved a sigh of relief. Compared to this strange mountain temple, the corpses were not that scary.

He took a few steps closer, and with the dim candlelight, he could see the clothes on the skeleton: a dusty work suit.

Worker?

“Is this the construction team from that year? So I have indeed entered the world of ghost stories.”

As soon as Zhang Yuanqing made his guess, he thought of a more shocking possibility. Perhaps, the construction team at that time, like me, had mistakenly entered this place.

Hence the urban legend.

If it is the former, this so-called spiritual realm is a scene generated based on ghost stories.

If it is the latter, it means that the ancient temple has always existed, and the construction team, like him at this moment, are victims.

Based on the historical background of the mountain temple, Zhang Yuanqing is more inclined to the latter.

"An entire construction team died in the temple, with only one person surviving. People really get killed here... Now that I have entered this temple, I will face unknown dangers at any time..."

Hiss~ He took a breath, his emotions tensed again, and he looked around subconsciously.

Then, he suddenly realized a detail that was extremely terrifying upon closer inspection.

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

The more he thought about it, the more horrified he felt. Even the kind-looking sculpture seemed to exude an eerie and spooky aura in the candlelight.

Although the three clay sculptures are covered in dust, they are lifelike and every detail is carved vividly and realistically, especially the eyes.

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