Fuck...Zhang Yuanqing suddenly didn’t want to stay in the main hall anymore.

He felt as if he was in a desperate situation, with no one to help him, no matter how hard he tried.

It is extremely dangerous here, but he cannot ask for help from the outside world and can only rely on himself.

After hesitating for a long time, he gritted his teeth, made up his mind, leaned over and pulled out the skeleton wrapped in work clothes.

Chila~

During the pulling process, the work clothes were easily torn, and after so many years, the clothes had long since rotted away.

Dragging the body under the candlelight, he endured the discomfort and began to examine it.

Although a person is dead, his body can speak. Finding out the cause of death can help you avoid many dangers.

"My sternum and ribs are broken, and there are fine cracks on my right shoulder, but it's not serious..."

The deceased had suffered severe injuries during his lifetime, but the specific cause of death cannot be determined because it was too long ago.

Then, Zhang Yuanqing found some yellowed and brittle papers in the pocket of a senior worker. They were very old.

There were tiny handwriting in regular script on the paper.

Zhang Yuanqing was delighted, as the paper was obviously found by a senior worker in the temple, which would help him understand the situation of this ancient temple.

With the help of candlelight, he concentrated on reading the contents on the paper.

"Another fellow disciple disappeared last night. This is the third fellow disciple in the temple who has mysteriously disappeared. The fellow disciples said that there was a ghost in Sandao Mountain, or that there was a powerful demon who came to the temple every night to catch people to eat. However, many disciples in the temple have cultivated themselves, and the master is a famous immortal within a hundred miles. Which demon is so blind as to dare to come here to look for food?

"As for ghosts, my corpse-suppressing talismans and spirit-summoning talismans are enough to deal with them. There's no need to bother Master. I have a bad feeling in my heart, so I have to go find my senior brother to discuss it........."

"Another person is missing today. This is the fifth person. Master asked us to keep it a secret from the pilgrims, otherwise it will affect the incense in the temple. He must know something. My senior brother and I plan to patrol at night..."

"Three days have passed, and three more people have gone missing, but my senior brother and I didn't find any clues, and the night was calm. I had a bad feeling in my heart..."

"Big Brother was acting strange today. He seemed to have discovered something and was very angry. I asked him about it, but he didn't tell me. He's not in a good mood. I'll ask him again tomorrow."

"The person who disappeared today is... my eldest brother. I searched all over the Sandao Mountain but couldn't find him. I can't stand it anymore. I want to go find Master and ask for clarification. My fellow disciples in the temple also support me because they are also scared..."

The handwriting of this passage is a bit sloppy, which shows that the owner of the note is somewhat mentally broken.

Zhang Yuanqing continued to read on:

"After my repeated questioning, the master finally agreed to tell me the truth. My hunch was right. He really knew the reason why my fellow apprentices disappeared. But the master said that people are always gossiping during the day. After the sun goes down, he will come to my room and tell me a huge secret. This secret is related to the rise and fall of thousands of years."

"After dinner, I waited in the room, waiting for the sunset. Since someone disappeared at night, I have never been so eager for the night to come..."

That’s all for the paper record.

That’s it? This fragment makes me feel a little uncomfortable… Zhang Yuanqing grimaced.

He sorted out the information on the paper and found that in a certain year, the disciples of this mountain temple disappeared mysteriously one after another.

The disciples were at a loss as panic spread. However, the temple keeper, their master, seemed to know the reason.

This reason is related to a great secret of rise and fall that has lasted for thousands of years.

"The reason for the decline of the mountain temple is unknown. If we explore the source, can we complete the second main task?" Zhang Yuanqing guessed.

He put the brittle paper back into the corpse's work clothes, pushed the other person back under the table, pretending not to see it, and then thought about what he should do next.

"That's all the information we have about the main hall. If we want to explore the ancient temple, we must go out. In this case, we must face the dangers in the temple..."

"In the strange story of Sheling Tunnel, there was a worker who managed to survive. By following his path, we may be able to find a way to survive."

After careful consideration, Zhang Yuanqing walked to the door of the main hall and opened two lattice doors that were still well preserved.

"squeak"

The wooden door hinges made a teeth-grinding sound.

He leaned against the door frame and stuck his head out to look around. It was quiet outside, and apart from being a bit desolate and eerie, he didn't see any danger.

After observing for a while, he stepped out of the threshold and walked along the cobblestone path on the left side of the main hall towards the backyard of the mountain temple.

The moonlight was like water, and the wild grass was undulating. After Zhang Yuanqing walked for a minute or two, a building appeared in front of him.

There were several connected bungalows forming a very large courtyard with black tiles, white walls, a straight roof, and lattice windows and doors under the eaves.

The lattice doors are gray, some open, some tilted, and some tightly closed, and the paper used to paste the windows has become tattered due to the erosion of time.

The moonlight was bright, like frost on the ground. He used the moonlight to glance at the layout of the backyard of the mountain temple.

In addition to the courtyard in front of you, there is also an arched door on the east side, which is a bit like the backyard of a wealthy family in film and television dramas. There will be such an arched door to connect different courtyards.

There is a towering tree in the yard next door, with lush branches and gnarled twigs.

“Eh…”

He found several skeletons wrapped in work clothes in a yard covered with weeds.

Carefully approaching and carefully examining them, I found that each skeleton was severely damaged, with broken bones under the protection suits. But except for the one in the main hall, the shoulder bones of the skeletons here were well preserved without any cracks.

"These people all suffered terrible injuries before they died. They died miserably..."

A gust of wind blew, and the branches and leaves rustled. Zhang Yuanqing vaguely heard the rustling sound mixed with a sobbing whisper:

“Help, help…”

In this desolate and silent night, cold sweat broke out on Zhang Yuanqing's back.

He stood there stiffly for a long time. The wind stopped and the mournful whispers also stopped with the wind.

The yard next door seems a little dangerous, but the things inside didn't come over... He exhaled silently, stepped on the weeds in the yard, walked into the eaves, and planned to explore this courtyard.

This seemed to be where the disciples of the temple lived. There were piles of shabby, dusty furniture, and the air was filled with a faint, decayed smell.

Zhang Yuanqing explored the rooms one by one, but found nothing special until he pushed open the lattice door on the east side.

"Crack"

The door that had been sealed for who knows how many years was pushed open again, and dust fell. Zhang Yuanqing patted the dust on his shoulders and glanced at every corner of the room warily.

In this room that had been abandoned for many years, near the window, there was a corpse lying crookedly against the wall.

Judging from his clothing and the rolled-down miner's hat, he is another senior.

After crossing the threshold and entering the room, Zhang Yuanqing shivered and inexplicably felt that the temperature around him seemed to have dropped a lot.

“It’s a bit cold…”

He approached the corpse cautiously, undid his tattered clothes, and observed the skeleton as usual. This time, he did not see any broken bones. The skeleton was well preserved.

But when he cast his eyes on the shoulder bone of the corpse, his pupils froze. There was an exaggerated crack on the shoulder bone of the corpse.

This was the same crack on the shoulder of the corpse in the main hall, the difference was that the injury on this corpse was more serious.

"Only the one in the room and the one in the main hall have broken shoulder bones. Is it a coincidence?" he muttered to himself uneasily.

Then, Zhang Yuanqing discovered that the corpse’s trouser pocket was bulging, as if something was hidden.

He reached into the dead man's trouser pocket and pulled out a yellowed ancient book, a gray bronze mirror, and a yellow paper talisman.

There were twisted lines painted on the yellow paper talisman with cinnabar, somewhat similar to runes. These lines converged into a shape that looked like the traditional Chinese character for "corpse".

As he was examining the yellow paper talisman, a fluorescent blue message appeared before Zhang Yuanqing's eyes:

Name: Corpse Suppression Talisman

Type: Consumable

Function: To suppress corpses

Introduction: This talisman made by the powerful Night Wanderer is the nemesis of all corpse-like evil spirits. Sticking it on the forehead of an evil spirit will seal it.

Note: It can only be used once.

The fluorescent blue information was a bit like his attribute panel. Obviously, this was a hint from the "Spiritual Realm".

This was the first time Zhang Yuanqing had seen this kind of prompt since he entered the mysterious ancient temple.

"It should be an important item." Zhang Yuanqing folded it, put it into the pocket of his jacket and zipped it up.

After thinking about it, he opened the zipper again.

Because he remembered a plot in a martial arts novel, in which a swordsman with superb swordsmanship liked to wrap his sword with a cloth and carry it on his back.

One day, a challenger challenged the swordsman while he was having a meal.

Then the swordsman disappeared.

The cause of death was the inconvenience of removing the cloth strips...

Zhang Yuanqing then picked up the ancient book and bronze mirror, but no relevant information appeared.

He first put the bronze mirror aside and carefully turned over the yellowed and brittle booklet with the pages rolled up.

It reads:

"I have been worshipping in the Sandaoshan Goddess Temple for two and a half years. I have learned to read and write. The eldest brother said that after the master has saved the souls of the dead and brought them back to the mountain, he will formally guide me to practice the art of swallowing the moon to nourish the soul. This is the entry method to become a night wandering god."

"Prince Yan is in rebellion, smoke of war is everywhere. Master, as the strongest person in the Songfu Night Wandering God lineage, has to go down the mountain to pray for the dead. Otherwise, the war is not over, and disasters will arise again, and the people will have no peace..."

Zhang Yuanqing felt a little sore in his shoulder, so he rubbed it and preliminarily determined that it was an essay, or a diary.

The contents of the diary are all about the 'author's' experiences of practicing and living in the temple. Judging from the handwriting, this diary and the paper found on the corpse in the main hall are from the same source.

Through words like "Prince Yan's Rebellion", the timeline is the history of the Jingnan Campaign.

But he was not sure whether this temple really existed in history, because the essay contained vague words such as "cultivation", "night-wandering gods", "breathing techniques", and "talismans".

Zhang Yuanqing stretched his sore shoulders, glanced around the room vigilantly, listened to the noise outside, and after making sure there was nothing unusual, he continued reading his essay.

Soon, he turned to the follow-up content of the main hall. The first few pages were torn off, and the follow-up content read:

"The sun was setting and it was finally dark. I heard a knock on the door and hurriedly opened it. The person standing outside was not my master, but my senior brother who disappeared last night."

"The eldest brother who had been missing for a day and a night has returned, but I don't feel any joy because... he is already dead. What has returned is a corpse. His chest is covered in blood, and I don't know who dug out his heart."

"The senior brother stared at me and said: Don't trust the master..."

These paragraphs are written crookedly. One can imagine that the author of the essay was in a state of panic when he wrote them.

When Zhang Yuanqing turned to the next page, he found that there was no follow-up to the notes and the owner of the diary had never written another diary.

"Hiss.....what do you mean by don't believe the master?"

Zhang Yuanqing was so shocked by this reversal that he felt a chill in his heart.

Was it the temple keeper who killed the senior brother? Was he also the culprit for the disciples' disappearances? Zhang Yuanqing rubbed his shoulders, put the book back into the pocket of the corpse, then picked up the bronze mirror and was about to leave.

But when he accidentally glanced at the bronze mirror out of the corner of his eye, his body suddenly stiffened.

The moonlight was like water, projected on the mirror surface. His appearance was reflected in the bronze mirror, and on his back, a person was lying.

The man had a pale face, dark purple lips, and a pair of white pupils. His head was resting on Zhang Yuanqing's shoulder, and his white pupils were staring at him deadly.

........

ps: This book has supernatural elements, but it is not the main focus, so readers who don’t like the supernatural can rest assured.