The small temple that had abruptly appeared in the mountains bore three large characters on its plaque: "Mountain God Temple."
It was tiny in scale, with a single door and no windows. Its entire body was pitch-black, as though lacquered with ink.
The temple was backlit, and its interior was equally dark and impossible to make out.
A White Fox that normally revered and worshipped gods had brazenly urinated inside. It seemed that whatever deity was enshrined there could not have been much of a god.
Just as Li Chu was wondering at the White Fox's actions, a woman's delicate cry suddenly came from within the temple.
"Husband!"
Chen Zi'an's face changed dramatically, and he lost his composure at once. "Wife!"
He immediately tried to charge into the temple, while the White Fox continued baring its teeth at him from the entrance.
Li Chu had already stepped inside ahead of him.
Seeing that it could not stop Li Chu, the White Fox looked around, suddenly turned into a streak of white, and fled in a puff of smoke.
Covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, Li Chu endured the reek of fox urine and entered the Mountain God Temple. There, he found that although the temple was small, it had everything one could expect.
The moment he entered, the light and sounds outside seemed to be cut off. A faint Ethereal Light glowed within, enough to illuminate the place.
Enshrined on the altar was a Suspended-Eye Fierce Tiger, black-lacquered and gilded, posed as if descending a mountain. Its Killing Qi was savage beyond compare.
Especially its upturned tiger eyes, which faced the temple entrance directly—they were no different from those of a starving tiger staring at its prey.
The interior of the temple was exceedingly cramped, and one could see its end at a glance. There was no woman inside at all, yet no one knew who had uttered that delicate cry just now.
Li Chu swiftly scanned the surroundings, his gaze settling behind the statue.
If anything could be hidden in this temple, it could only be there, in the place blocked by the altar.
He strode forward and saw that beneath the black tiger was indeed a deep, shadowy cave, glowing with dark red light and looking deeply strange.
Li Chu did not dare step directly inside. Instead, he leaned in from the left and took a glance.
At that glance, his pupils suddenly contracted!
He saw two rows of bloody corpses suspended within the cave, all fresh Human Corpses that had neither decayed nor rotted!
If they had merely been corpses, they would not have moved him so deeply.
But in the first row on the left, closest to him, hung a lean scholar dressed in plain cloth.
It was clearly Chen Zi'an!
Boom—
Before he could turn around and take another look at the "Chen Zi'an" outside the temple, the gates of the Mountain God Temple came crashing down.
That's right—the temple's gate was actually like a Sluice Gate, dropping heavily from above.
In an instant, all light vanished, and the world turned pitch-black.
Then the ground beneath Li Chu's feet began to tremble, and the entire temple shook violently!
This tiny Square of Land began to reveal its true form...
Outside the temple, Wang Longqi had also heard that delicate cry. Seeing Chen Zi'an's expression change dramatically and Li Chu charge into the Small Temple first, he too put on an anxious expression.
But he thought to himself, That fox urine stench is already so choking from far away. If I go in now, this young master might faint on the spot.
Better put on a show and shout a couple of times. Once they're both inside, I can just keep watch outside.
So he put on a pretense and shouted twice, "They're inside! Hurry and save them!"
Beside him, Chen Zi'an continued shouting, "Wife! Wait for me! Don't be afraid!"
The two of them yelled together for quite a while.
Then... both of them noticed that something was slightly off.
They exchanged a glance and discovered that neither had taken even half a step forward.
The same thought drifted through both their minds: Could this bastard be acting too?
Wang Longqi was thinking, The one inside is your wife, not mine. I don't want to endure that stench and go in—don't tell me you can't either?
Chen Zi'an, however, was thinking, Could he have found out?
At that moment, he pointed behind Wang Longqi and said, "Seventh Young Master, look behind you!"
"Hm?"
Wang Longqi turned around and saw a stunning woman in a flowing red dress approaching with graceful steps. At a fleeting glance, she was beautiful enough to eclipse the heavens.
He was instantly bewitched and was about to move closer, but after looking a few more times, he realized something was wrong.
The woman's brows, eyes, and features were all exquisite—perfect willow-leaf brows, almond eyes, a pert nose, red lips...
But when combined, they gave off an indescribable sense of discord.
It was as if... they should not have grown on the same face.
Wang Longqi's reason swiftly returned.
In this wilderness, such a bewitching and strange woman had suddenly appeared. And from the looks of it, Chen Zi'an seemed to know her?
Why?
He looked at Chen Zi'an and saw that Chen Zi'an seemed extremely respectful toward the woman.
This made Wang Longqi even more suspicious.
"Hehe, this skin is actually quite good too." The Red Clothed Woman suddenly laughed, her voice like silver bell. "It's just that after seeing that Little Daoist Priest's skin, all other men have become somewhat uninteresting."
Hearing her words, even Wang Longqi was not stupid enough to miss that something was wrong with her.
He gave a cautious smile. "Miss, you have quite a sense of humor."
The Red Clothed Woman abruptly changed her tone, and her gaze turned sharp. "Humor? I'm going to skin you alive!"
Boom!
The instant she finished speaking, the black Sluice Gate of the Small Temple crashed down. The heavy impact made Wang Longqi's legs go weak.
"Don't scare me! I'm not afraid of you!" Wang Longqi said as he retreated more than ten steps in a row.
This situation seemed rather wrong.
The Red Clothed Woman seemed intent on teasing him. She slowly advanced and said, "I'm a ghost, you know. Aren't you afraid?"
Wang Longqi glanced at the tightly shut temple gate, swallowed, and forcibly puffed out his chest. "Afraid? Afraid my ass! This young master is known as the Undead Knight. Would I be afraid of a female ghost?"
"You're very impressive." The Red Clothed Woman smiled lightly, seeming about to make a move.
Wang Longqi hurriedly shouted, "Don't act rashly! Let me tell you, that Little Daoist Priest who went in just now is Yuhang Town's Evil Spirit Buster. He and I are the closest of friends, brothers who have faced death together! You dare provoke me? I'll have him split you in two with one sword!"
"Is that so?"
Before her words had faded, the black Small Temple suddenly underwent a stormy transformation, emitting a rumbling roar from top to bottom!
The entire temple seemed to have been uprooted and lifted into the air all at once.
The next second, light flashed, and the whole temple transformed intact into an enormous black tiger head!
The tiger head seemed black-lacquered and gilded, with faint radiance glimmering across it. Its tiger eyes were imposing and filled with Killing Qi, their divine light soul-shaking. Its pair of pure-black fangs were as cold and menacing as swords and halberds!
Then its entire body burst from the earth, and it roared toward the sky!
Roar—
In an instant, Yin Fiend Qi spread across heaven and earth, transforming into a howling gale! The wind was filled with nauseating, bone-chilling cold.
Wind followed the tiger.
Yin Wind followed the Ghost Tiger.
Wang Longqi was so frightened that he collapsed onto the ground.
This was actually a colossal black tiger nearly ten zhang long! It had burrowed its body underground, leaving only its tiger head above the surface, where it had transformed into this temple.
And Li Chu had walked straight into the tiger's jaws!
He had been swallowed alive by the black tiger!
Wang Longqi silently cried out three times in his heart.
Bad! Bad! Bad!
He looked at Chen Zi'an. The man who had led him and Li Chu here all along was now gazing up reverently at the black tiger's appearance, clearly having known this would happen.
Only then did Wang Longqi realize that he had fallen for this bastard's enormous trap!
Another rush of wind came from behind him. He turned to look and saw a tall man clad in heavy armor land on the ground.
Its entire body was iron-blue, clearly not that of a living person, and every movement it made was exceptionally stiff. Its right hand, with its sharp nails, was holding a barely breathing White Fox.
Although it was Wang Longqi's first time seeing such a thing, a single word immediately surfaced in his mind.
Zombie.
"This fox nearly ruined our grand plans. Who knows what connection it has with that Little Daoist Priest? Let it die alongside him!"
The Armored Zombie's voice was exceptionally grating, like metal scraping together, making Wang Longqi shudder.
Just as Wang Longqi looked over, it happened to look at him as well and asked coldly, "Did you just say that you and the Little Daoist Priest are the closest of friends? That you share a life-and-death bond?"
Its tone was grim and chilling.
Wang Longqi's entire body stiffened.
He hesitated for a moment, forcing out a smile uglier than crying. "Actually, we're just ordinary friends..."
After a pause.
He added, "We're not very familiar."
Thanks to "Unlucky Star of Calamity" for the two-thousand recommendation ticket red packet.
Thanks to "labview000" for the hundred reward.
Thanks to "Dream" for the 588 reward.
Before you continue