What the hell?
I hadn't even looked at the mission yet!
And I was already dead?
I stared at the two options before me: [Start Over] and [Exit Secret History].
Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth.
"Again!"
The world sank into darkness once more.
But this time, there was no cutscene.
As he waited for the game to load, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help wondering what had gone wrong.
Why had Yang Lianzhen suddenly tried to kill him?
He hadn't done anything yet.
No! That wasn't it!
Staring into the darkness before him, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly understood.
"It was the cutscene!"
The cutscene had revealed Yang Lianzhen's identity to him ahead of time—the man who had stolen Emperor Lizong of Song's skull!
That was why Yang Lianzhen had killed him without hesitation.
His reaction had been nothing like that of someone meeting him for the first time.
"Damn it... What kind of world is this?"
"Can you just kill someone whenever you get suspicious?"
"In this world, the lives of common folk... are worth less than a pig or a dog!"
Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes again. This time, he was once more on the familiar mountain path.
But unlike the rows of willows lining the mountain road in his memory, the trees on either side were ghost locusts, said to summon spirits and ghosts.
The place felt oppressive and sinister.
"This humble monk, Yang Lian, comes at the behest of Great Master Guangfa of Wuxiang Zunneng Temple to pay his respects."
The Western Regions monk before him still wore the same false, oily smile.
This time, Zhu Yuanzhang kept his face tense.
Without replying, he nodded to Yang Lian, turned, and led him through the mountain gate toward the Mahavira Hall, following the memory of his previous life.
"Success."
Feeling the monk's sticky, almost tangible gaze fixed on his back, Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself.
"I survived!"
"No... This is only the beginning."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the black system prompt that had appeared before him.
[Secret History: Yinglong Temple (Imperial Awakening Temple)]
[Prophecy: A horse tramples the northern gate; a dog howls in the west. When the numbers eight and nine are spent, sun and moon lose their light.]
[Act One: Remains of the Song Emperor]
[Mission Objective: Survive the night]
[Reward: Permanently fix one skill]
"Hm?"
Zhu Yuanzhang stopped.
Behind him, Yang Lianzhenjia stopped at the same time.
Zhu Yuanzhang could feel the other man's scrutinizing gaze.
But now that he knew he could start over, he didn't feel much fear of death.
A skill? Does that mean I have a character sheet, too?
Zhu Yuanzhang focused his thoughts.
[Name: Zhu Yuanzhang (Monk Minghe)]
[Class: Investigator, Imperial Awakening Temple monk (disguised)]
[Status: Down on his luck, a dead man walking]
[Skill: Great Wisdom Zen Technique (fake)]
[Equipment: None]
[Note: Today's calamity! No escape!]
"Six."
Looking at the system, which might as well have told him, You're fucking dead today, Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth twitched.
"Why aren't you going inside, little monk?"
Yang Lianzhenjia's voice came from behind him again.
He was suspicious.
Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes and pressed his palms together, standing before the Mahavira Hall as though he hadn't heard a thing.
He felt the eyes watching him from behind shift from confusion to impatience.
But compared with the last time, Yang Lianzhenjia was clearly taking longer to consider whether to kill him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zhu Yuanzhang saw countless blood-red worms crawling past his feet.
Behind him came the rustling sound of things tumbling down in clusters.
It was as if the worms were falling from Yang Lianzhenjia's body.
But they swarmed around Zhu Yuanzhang, crawling onto his trousers and sliding over his skin.
Their cold, slick touch nearly made him vomit.
"Minghe, why haven't you invited Great Master Yang Lianzhenjia inside?"
Just as the worms were about to bite through Zhu Yuanzhang's skin and burrow into his flesh to feast,
a voice rang out from the dark Mahavira Hall before him, lit only by dim candlelight.
"This disciple obeys."
Zhu Yuanzhang pressed his palms together and replied calmly.
The blood-red worms slid off him like a receding tide and returned to the Western Regions monk, Yang Lianzhenjia.
Zhu Yuanzhang could see bloody streaks wherever the red worms had crawled over his legs.
As he stepped aside to clear the way,
the Tibetan monk known as Yang Lianzhenjia narrowed his eyes slightly, spun the chicken-red prayer beads in his hand, and called loudly into the dim Mahavira Hall.
"By order of Imperial Preceptor Phagpa, I have come to ask the monks of Yinglong Temple to read the fate of the Great Yuan imperial heirs."
Silence.
Cold sweat beaded on Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead.
He saw the objective on his status panel: survive the night.
Damn it, were they about to fight?
He still didn't even know how to play this game.
But Yang Lianzhenjia looked so composed that it didn't seem likely.
If Imperial Awakening Temple really meant to fight him, then given the Western Regions monk's evident wariness and ruthlessness, he wouldn't be showing no reaction at all.
A full minute passed.
Only then did a reply come from the Mahavira Hall.
"Our humble temple has been awaiting the envoy's arrival for some time."
The voice was deep and resonant, like a boundless black sea.
For a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to see towering waves crashing against the rocks.
No! It wasn't his imagination!
He could feel the briny, acrid spray of seawater against his face.
Zhu Yuanzhang's expression changed.
"What kind of place is this?"
A candle lantern emerged from the depths of the Mahavira Hall, drawing closer.
"This is true fire."
Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly understood.
Dim lights hung all over the temple, yet none could illuminate the face of the Buddha statue.
Only this candlelight could pierce the "false light" and bathe the Three Jewels in its radiance... Wait, where was the person carrying the lantern?
The lantern's light was so dazzling that it obscured the mortal flesh beneath it.
"Envoy, please come inside and speak by the sacred lamp."
Only when the monk had come within three paces did Zhu Yuanzhang see the old monk's face illuminated beneath the candlelight.
He wore a patchwork robe sewn from scraps of cloth, and his beard was pure white.
Yet his skin was smooth and delicate, like a baby's.
His eyes, however, were deep, as though they could see through every affair in the world.
He was now calmly looking Zhu Yuanzhang up and down.
As Zhu Yuanzhang turned his gaze toward the monk, the words [Yinglong Temple (Imperial Awakening Temple) Master Mingguang] appeared above his head.
Hm?
The system could do that, too?
He had died too quickly the first time he met Yang Lianzhenjia, restarting before the name tag had even appeared.
And now that he thought about it, back then, the only way he could have survived was by not saying a word.
Yang Lianzhenjia wasn't a Han Chinese name. He was the Tibetan monk Yang Lianzhenjia.
Even that so-called Great Master Guangfa was probably fake!
Damn it! These Tibetan monks!
Not a single honest word from them!
"I came by order of Imperial Preceptor Phagpa."
For some reason, the moment Yang Lianzhenjia saw the monk, his right arm drooped unnaturally, shaking off countless blood-red worms. He seemed faintly wary.
"It's only a matter of reading fate..."
Master Mingguang spoke slowly, his gaze shifting from Yang Lianzhenjia to Zhu Yuanzhang.
In Mingguang's pupils, Zhu Yuanzhang saw himself,
surrounded by boundless sacred light.
In an instant, he felt like some kind of beast had set its eyes on him.
The hairs on Zhu Yuanzhang's body stood on end.
But before he could lower his head and look away from the lantern in Mingguang's hand,
blood-red words appeared before him again.
[You died]
"Fuck! What a piece-of-junk simulator!"
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