Zhang Yuanqing returned to the main hall, bathed in candlelight as he waited for the throbbing pain of his old ailment to subside. While he was at it, he purified himself.
Based on his calculations, the vengeful spirit would catch up with him in a minute or two. This definitely wasn't the time to enter the East Courtyard and face the zombie.
After resting for four or five minutes, his condition only worsened. A slight dizziness accompanied his headache. He knew the corpse poison was gradually eating away at his body, and the first symptoms were beginning to show.
The candlelight in the main hall didn't seem capable of purifying the poison in his body.
"I can't put this off any longer."
He had to make the most of the Red Dancing Shoes' thirty-minute time limit, act quickly, and clear the instance in one go.
Zhang Yuanqing left the main hall and followed the cobblestone path through the weeds until he reached the Siheyuan.
Standing amid the weeds swaying in the courtyard, he opened his Inventory and summoned the Red Dancing Shoes.
Two streaks of dark red light danced through the night before taking the shape of a brand-new pair of dance shoes.
"Choose the second form!"
Zhang Yuanqing thought silently.
The Red Dancing Shoes dissolved into dark red light once more, arcing around to wrap his feet.
In an instant, the sneakers on his feet turned into a pair of oversized red dance shoes.
W-wasn't this basically cross-dressing? At least they were red dance shoes, not high heels. Zhang Yuanqing glanced at his feet, feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
He forced himself to ignore that detail, took out the Zombie Suppressing Talisman, and gripped it in his hand. Amid the Banyan Tree's soft rustling, he passed through the arched doorway and returned to the East Courtyard.
Weeds swayed across the East Courtyard. The bright moonlight spilled down, and the two large buildings stood quietly. Everything was so peaceful.
He cautiously looked around but saw no sign of the zombie. Then he carefully crossed the courtyard and approached the large building, which was divided into four rooms.
The wooden door of the room where the coffins were kept had already been knocked off its hinges. He didn't need to go inside; he peered into the room from beyond the threshold.
Moonlight shone through a gap in the roof tiles. The corpse, the coffin, its dislodged lid, and the Brass Pestle all remained where they had been, not moved an inch.
There was no sign of the zombie in the room.
"Could it have climbed back into the coffin?"
From where he stood, he couldn't see inside it.
As he hesitated, he suddenly noticed the moonlight dimming. A shadow fell from above and engulfed him.
Then the night wind carried the stench of a corpse, along with a low, "Hrrgh."
I-it was hiding in the tree? Zhang Yuanqing was horrified. His heart clenched, and he instinctively tried to dodge.
The next moment, the Red Dancing Shoes lit up with a dark red glow. Zhang Yuanqing's feet suddenly slipped, and before he could react, he shot forward in a slide, plowing a track through the weeds.
Thud!
The zombie, wrapped in tattered clothes, missed its pounce.
I-I dodged it. Zhang Yuanqing scrambled to his feet, overjoyed, his heart finally settling.
The Red Dancing Shoes really were incredible. Their evasive ability was even better than he'd expected. With his own reaction speed, he couldn't possibly have dodged the zombie's attack just then.
Zhang Yuanqing's confidence soared.
"Hrrgh."
The zombie, its hair like dried grass, let out a roar that shook his eardrums. Its bulging eyes brimmed with even greater savagery as it bent its knees and pounced at its prey again.
It moved as fast as a car speeding down the road.
With the stench of the wind in his nostrils, the terrifying creature was already right before him. Zhang Yuanqing's feet twisted beyond his control. Like a ballet dancer, he spun smoothly in a semicircle, dodging the sharp claws and slipping behind the zombie.
Then he "naturally" dropped into a split, his body collapsing to the ground. Wind howled above his head as the zombie's arms swept past.
I-I pulled something! Zhang Yuanqing's face twisted. He wanted to clutch his crotch and scream, but the Red Dancing Shoes had already bounced his legs, sending him springing into the air.
He leaped high and kicked the zombie hard in the chest.
Thud!
A fine dust rose from the zombie's ragged, tattered clothes.
It roared in fury and frustration, then toppled onto its back under the force of the blow.
Now! Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing ignored the tearing pain in his groin and rushed forward, slamming the Zombie Suppressing Talisman in his hand against the zombie's horribly rotted, foul-smelling face.
He slapped it onto the zombie's forehead.
Smack!
The frenzied, bloodthirsty zombie froze as if struck by a binding spell.
Every sound stopped. Silence fell.
The zombie lay stiffly amid the weeds, the crimson in its fierce eyes slowly fading.
It had lost its "life force."
Watching the zombie, now as powerless as a clay figurine, Zhang Yuanqing gasped for breath. Exhaustion and elation flooded him at once.
He was alive!
"Without the Red Dancing Shoes, it'd be hard to deal with the zombie alone. And the zombie is only one of the supernatural threats. No wonder this is an S-rank Spirit Realm. It's so difficult.
"But the construction crew had plenty of people. They should've been able to deal with the zombie. How could a bunch of grown men have been so useless...?"
Zhang Yuanqing suddenly sighed. He knew why.
He had found the Zombie Suppressing Talisman in the pocket of the corpse beneath the window. That senior had obtained the item, but hadn't told his companions. He'd kept it for himself.
People's hearts were more complicated than ghosts and monsters—and more frightening, too.
With the zombie dealt with, he could go find that shameless female ghost in the well.
But before that, there was something else he was extremely curious about.
Leaving the zombie behind, he walked to the room where the coffins were kept. He steadied himself against the doorframe as he stepped over the threshold. Moonlight fell in a shaft through the dark room.
He stopped in front of the dried corpse and bent to pick up the copper awl.
Though it was made of copper, it didn't feel cold in his hand. Instead, it was warm and smooth as jade.
Then a line of information appeared in his vision.
[Name: Demon Subduing Pestle]
[Type: Weapon]
[Function: Purification, spirit suppression, demon-breaking]
[Description: A weapon imbued with Solar Power, the bane of all yin entities. Offer your essence blood to this pestle, and you will obtain the power of the Sun God.]
[Note: Powerful? You paid for it with your life.]
It really was an item. Judging from its functions, it seemed even stronger than the candle in the main hall. The construction crew's senior must have wanted to use it to kill the zombie, but failed. Sigh, they'd already lost too many people before they even confronted the zombie. Zhang Yuanqing was glad he'd made the right call.
He'd cleverly used the Red Dancing Shoes to overcome the challenge.
Of course, the construction crew's seniors hadn't had a choice. They couldn't subdue an item governed by rules, and most of them had died beneath the Red Dancing Shoes.
"Now that I have an item that's specially effective against yin entities, and the Red Dancing Shoes to go with it, my odds of completing the trial mission have improved considerably."
Holding the Demon Subduing Pestle, Zhang Yuanqing felt a surge of confidence. Before five minutes had passed, he left the room and returned to the courtyard.
This time, he headed straight for the ancient well to investigate it one last time.
The well was deep and dark. The damp smell of rotting plants billowed up from within.
Let's take a look below. Zhang Yuanqing gripped the Demon Subduing Pestle and took a defensive stance. He raised one foot and set it on the rim of the well. Then he simply walked down, as though the well's walls were flat ground.
Before, he definitely wouldn't have dared to explore the well. Forget whether there was danger at the bottom—without a rope or anyone to help him, jumping down would have meant certain death.
Soon, he reached the bottom of the shallow well. The moonlight here was already very faint.
The water had long since dried up. Black mud had settled at the bottom, clumps of weeds grew along the edges, and dark green moss covered the well walls.
"There's no ghost in the well."
Zhang Yuanqing frowned. That didn't make sense. He'd clearly seen a faceless female ghost reach out of the well.
He searched the bottom of the well again and again, but with the Red Dancing Shoes' wear time limited, he had no choice but to climb back up the steep wall and hurry to the eaves of the main hall.
Only then did he feel safe enough to take off the Red Dancing Shoes.
In the main hall, bathed in the dim yellow candlelight, Zhang Yuanqing leaned listlessly against the offering table. The corpse poison had further ravaged his body. After the dizziness came difficulty breathing and pain in his heart and lungs.
He didn't have much time left.
"I've explored both back courtyards and successfully subdued the zombie, but the mission isn't over. That means there's somewhere else I haven't explored..."
He'd searched every room in the back courtyards and even climbed down into the well. There couldn't have been anything he'd missed.
Then where was it?
When you eliminated every possibility, the truth that remained had to be true, no matter how incredible it seemed. He muttered to himself and slowly pushed himself upright.
The place he hadn't "explored" was right here: the main hall before him.
Zhang Yuanqing slowly swept his gaze across the main hall, then let it rest on the clay statue of the Lady of Three Paths Mountain. One detail about the statue had caught his attention the first time he entered the hall.
Its right hand was empty, yet posed as if gripping something. That meant it had once been holding an object.
Before, he hadn't known what it had been holding. Now he did.
The Demon Subduing Pestle.
Thinking there was no harm in trying, Zhang Yuanqing stepped forward and inserted the golden pestle into the statue's palm. Then he hopped down from the pedestal and backed away a few steps.
Almost as soon as he stepped back, the surface of the pedestal cracked with a sharp snap. A dense cloud of dust burst from the fissures, and then the entire pedestal collapsed, revealing a pitch-black underground chamber.
Before you continue