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His sanity hit zero on the spot.

A chill rose from his tailbone, shooting straight to his crown. Zhang Yuanqing jumped high into the air like a startled cat, a string of profanities erupting from his mouth:

"Motherfucker!"

It was an instinctive reaction to intense stimulation or terror.

He finally understood why his shoulders had been so sore, and why the corpse by the window carried a bronze mirror.

It was to check if a vengeful spirit was clinging to his shoulder.

When did it climb onto me? Was it when I walked into the courtyard, or when I entered this room?

Who gave me the courage to go out and explore? Liang Jingru?!

His mind felt like a pot boiling over; a chaotic surge of thoughts erupted in an instant, and terror washed over him like a tidal wave.

Although he knew this Mountain God Temple harbored something eerie and terrifying and had mentally prepared himself, facing a ghost head-on still filled him with unspeakable panic.

Right, I have a talisman. Zhang Yuanqing's hands trembled as he pulled the Yellow Paper Talisman from the left pocket of his windbreaker, sticking it onto his shoulder as a last-ditch effort.

Slap!

The Zombie Suppressing Talisman landed on his shoulder. He raised the brass mirror, peering into it cautiously. The man with the deathly pale face, black lips, and dead, white pupils was still clinging to his shoulder.

It's useless. This thing doesn't count as a corpse-type yin entity. The last shred of hope vanished. Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder growing increasingly sore and painful, his hands and feet turning cold.

These weren't illusions; it was the tangible loss of his yang energy.

In this moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the skeleton under the main hall table and the predecessor who had died miserably beneath the window. He would likely end up just like them, dying in this very place.

A bone-chilling cold surged through his heart.

"Tap, tap!"

Suddenly, at this critical moment, a light sound of footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.

The footsteps were light, yet incredibly distinct in the silent dead of night.

Zhang Yuanqing's heart tightened. He quickly crouched down, hiding beside the corpse under the window.

The footsteps were somewhat familiar, very similar to the sound he had heard when he first entered the temple.

"Tap, tap, tap."

The footsteps drew closer, heading in his direction. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to breathe, his entire body tensed, and he could faintly hear his own frantic heartbeat.

As the footsteps passed outside the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but glance at the floor of the room. Moonlight shone in, casting the shadow of the lattice window onto the ground.

The window wasn't high, reaching only to his waist. If a person of normal height walked past, they would certainly cast a shadow on the ground in the moonlight, but he saw nothing.

This meant that whatever was walking outside had no body.

Fortunately, the footsteps passed the window without stopping or entering the room, gradually fading into the distance.

Phew. Zhang Yuanqing silently let out a breath, focusing his senses to track the receding footsteps. He heard them cross into the courtyard, the "rustling" sound of grass being trampled.

Then, they stopped. A few seconds later, the footsteps resumed.

This time, the sound wasn't just walking; it was a rhythmic, patterned cadence.

What is it doing in the courtyard?

Zhang Yuanqing braced his cold, stiff body and stood up with some difficulty. Through the tattered window paper, he fixed his gaze outside.

Under the moonlight, amidst the overgrown grass, a pair of brand-new, Western-style Red Dancing Shoes were tap-dancing in the night.

Moonlight, a desolate temple, Red Dancing Shoes, a solo dance.

The scene looked absurd and eerie, yet carried an indescribable sense of... loneliness?

How could there be a pair of Western-style dancing shoes in a Ming Dynasty Mountain God Temple?

This dilapidated temple was becoming increasingly bizarre. He quietly crouched back down, waiting patiently.

Time ticked by second by second. The vengeful spirit on his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy; his body felt heavier and stiffer, and the soreness in his shoulder turned into sharp, stabbing pain.

He felt that if this continued, he would either die from the depletion of his yang energy or die from his shoulder bone shattering under the strain.

In the midst of this agonizing torture, the dancing in the courtyard ceased.

Zhang Yuanqing still didn't dare to peek. He waited a while longer before cautiously stretching his head to look through the window into the courtyard.

The courtyard was filled with moonlight, the wild grass standing still. The pair of eerie dancing shoes were gone.

"Haa..."

He exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling a sense of relief. Just as he tried to stand, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor.

With his nerves relaxing, the adrenaline faded, and he realized his condition was worse than he had imagined.

His shoulder throbbed with a burning, stabbing pain, as if the bone were about to crack. His knee joints were stiff, and his blood felt as though it had congealed.

Tremblingly, he grabbed the bronze mirror. In the dusty reflection, Zhang Yuanqing saw his own face—pale, spiritless, and his pupils dim. He looked nothing like a normal person; he was a dying invalid at the end of his rope.

On his shoulder, the vengeful spirit with the black lips stared at him with an eerie, silent gaze.

If this continues, I'm dead for sure. But what can I do? I can't touch the vengeful spirit on my shoulder at all.

The intense pain in his shoulder forced him to lean against the wall to support his body.

He tilted his head to look at the remains of the worker, the posture of the man and the corpse identical.

So that's how it is, Zhang Yuanqing smiled bitterly.

He felt as if he had seen his own end, heard the sigh of the Grim Reaper.

But Zhang Yuanqing did not abandon his will to survive; his brain remained active, like an overloaded CPU, searching for a glimmer of hope in the desperate situation.

In a flash of inspiration, the corpse under the table in the main hall flickered through his chaotic stream of thoughts.

The shoulder fractures on the two corpses are different. The shoulder injury on the remains in the main hall wasn't fatal. Did the Shoulder-Perching Wraith let him go? No, a wraith wouldn't show mercy.

Why did he hide under the table?

The Red Dancing Shoes were secretly following me when I entered the temple, but as soon as I stepped into the main hall, they left.

Thinking of this, a hopeful light ignited in Zhang Yuanqing's dim, clouded pupils.

Return to the main hall, return to the main hall immediately!

He stood up at once, stumbling out of the room. Every step was arduous, as if he were carrying a mountain on his back.

"Thump!"

He fell in the courtyard, collapsing into the wild grass, unable to stand again.

Zhang Yuanqing's teeth chattered, making a "clack-clack" sound as he felt himself plunged into the biting cold of winter.

The "bitter cold" stole his heat and eroded his will.

Zhang Yuanqing crawled toward the main hall inch by inch, exerting every ounce of his strength. He held his head high, keeping the silhouette of the building ahead reflected in his eyes.

Only then would the hope in his eyes not be extinguished.

The walk from the main hall had only taken a minute, yet now it felt as distant as the ends of the earth.

Finally, the moment he crawled under the eaves of the main hall, a phantom scream rang in his ears. His shoulder lightened, and the negative effects of cold, dizziness, and stiffness vanished instantly.

Zhang Yuanqing scrambled onto the pedestal, stumbled to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and threw himself over the threshold.

The candlelight, small as a bean, dispelled the gloom and brought a warmth that felt like a spring breeze.

He lay on the floor in a sprawl, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. It took two or three minutes of lying there before he felt he had finally come back to life.

Too terrifying, simply too terrifying. My deduction was correct; the main hall is a safe sanctuary.

Based on the difference in shoulder injuries between the two skeletons, he judged that something must have stopped the wraith from pursuing the person inside the hall.

And the worker dying curled up under the table fit the hiding psychology of someone in extreme fear.

In the mind of this predecessor, the main hall was safe.

The fact that the Red Dancing Shoes gave up their pursuit of him indirectly verified this guess.

For the time being, Zhang Yuanqing remained in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature returned to normal.

Sure enough, he did not encounter any more danger.

If the main hall is a safe house, then my hope of survival has undoubtedly increased significantly. Even if the Shoulder-Perching Wraith drains my essence again, I can flee back to the main hall. But if I were to encounter both the wraith and the Red Dancing Shoes at the same time, I doubt I could make it back.

Moreover, the most bizarre and terrifying source of this temple is certainly not just the wraith.

He did not grow arrogant from resolving one life-or-death crisis; this ancient temple was not that simple.

One had to remember that before him, an entire construction crew had died here.

After resting for a long time, he gradually let go of his fear, hesitating over whether to continue exploring outside.

The voice in his mind rang out once more:

[Main Quest I: Survive for three hours (Completed)]

[Main Quest II: Explore 0079 Spirit Realm, Progress: 20%]

[Yuanshi Tianzun, congratulations on completing a main quest. Calculating rewards for you.]

[Obtained Item/Prop: Zombie Suppressing Talisman (Can be viewed in the Inventory).]

[Obtained EXP: 15%]

[Inventory has been unlocked.]

[You will receive 36 hours of rest. Next opening of 0079 Spirit Realm: 35:59:40.]

The scenery inside the main hall began to distort, like the surface of water rippled by the wind.

When the image cleared again, Zhang Yuanqing saw the bright energy-saving lamp, the spacious bed, the desk, the PS5 console, and the open window where the wind blew in, causing the curtains to sway slightly.

He had returned to the human world.

"Back?"

He looked around in a daze, confirming he had truly returned to his room, before his knees gave way and he collapsed onto the soft bed.

He took a deep breath, finding even the air to be sweet.

It's good to be alive; the human world is wonderful.

After catching his breath for a few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing sat up and unzipped his windbreaker, discovering that the Zombie Suppressing Talisman was indeed gone.

A thought to "retrieve item" surfaced naturally in Zhang Yuanqing's mind, and the next moment, a fluorescent blue grid appeared before his eyes.

There were five slots in total, and resting in the first one was the yellow paper talisman.

It was a marvelous experience; once the Inventory was unlocked, the function felt like an instinct. He didn't need to learn it; he simply knew how to open the Inventory naturally.

"Aside from the Zombie Suppressing Talisman, I also gained 15% experience, but my level is still zero. This means I haven't become a Night Wanderer yet and am still an ordinary person."

"Surviving for three hours already nearly killed me; how am I supposed to complete the second task? Is this what S-rank difficulty is?"

The more Zhang Yuanqing thought about it, the more desperate he felt, sensing that he had been set up by Brother Bing.

This lousy card could indeed change one's life, but it was certainly difficult to master.

He had a clear sense of self-awareness; he was just a college student who had never even killed a chicken. It would be difficult to survive the subsequent second task on his own.

As a red-blooded, upstanding youth of socialism, he naturally had to rely on the state and the government at a time like this.

He picked up his phone, intending to dial his Cousin's number, but his finger paused the moment it touched the screen.

Because Zhang Yuanqing realized he might have a better option.

He immediately rolled out of bed and found the business card left behind by the man with the slicked-back hair in his desk drawer.

The business card displayed a name and contact information.

Tonight's encounter reminded him of Brother Bing's bizarre disappearance. If he hadn't made it out alive, he would have ended up as a bizarre disappearance himself.

It was certain that Brother Bing had long since come into contact with the so-called Spirit Realm, so perhaps his disappearance was due to entering some Spirit Realm?

Following this line of reasoning, the investigators from the Public Security Bureau were trustworthy.

He chose to contact the man with the slicked-back hair for another reason: the man had said he might also go missing, which was clearly a hint that he would enter the Spirit Realm.

Combined with the fact that his Cousin was unaware of these matters, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to deduce that those three were special personnel specifically tasked with handling such incidents.

Having thought it through, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the number on the business card.

The ringing tone lasted for a few seconds before the other end picked up, and a mature, deep male voice asked:

"Who is this?"