Lin Zhe rubbed his eyes hard.
The line of text was still there in front of him.
But when he tried touching it, his hand passed straight through without feeling a thing.
The dazzling letters rippled like water, broke apart, then slowly re-formed.
"An illusion? That can't be right! It looks so real, so detailed."
"It can't be an illusion. I'm not Li Huowang, unable to tell fantasy from reality..."
"Could this be one of those check-in panels from webnovels, where you get rewards just by checking in at designated locations?"
The possibility instantly stirred Lin Zhe's excitement.
As a longtime bookworm on Qidian Chinese Network, he was naturally familiar with systems and panels.
There were all kinds: billionaire systems, systems that rewarded having more children, systems that dropped rewards just for banging your own wife or someone else's, and so on.
Could his luck have turned around like a novel protagonist's, letting him stumble across a check-in panel first thing in the morning?
This had to be good karma earned from all the votes, positive reviews, and tips he had given authors while reading!
Suddenly, Lin Zhe felt as though something had squeezed his head. It felt soft and oddly springy.
Then, with a boom, a massive torrent of information appeared in his mind.
Lin Zhe sat frozen on the bench, as though Bai Zhantang had struck him with the Sunflower Acupoint-Tapping Hand.
Only after quite a while did he finish absorbing the torrent of information.
Now Lin Zhe knew more about the dazzling golden letters that had abruptly appeared before him.
It was just as he had suspected. He really had hit the jackpot and picked up a check-in panel that someone had discarded.
This check-in panel allowed him to check in once a week.
As long as he checked in at the location displayed on the panel, he could receive a random reward.
Lin Zhe silently recited, Close the check-in panel. The brilliant motes forming the words instantly dispersed into the air, vanishing without a trace.
When he silently recited, Open the check-in panel, the vanished text appeared again:
[This week's check-in location: Three Pure Ones Palace!]
Once his excitement subsided, Lin Zhe noticed a searing pain in his right palm, as though something had burned it.
He raised his hand and saw that a dazzling golden character, "sign," had appeared on his palm, its strokes bold and powerful.
"This week's check-in location is Three Pure Ones Palace. It's not too far from the inn. Going over to try will only cost me a little energy at most."
"If I really get a reward, maybe I'll be able to make it big like those novel protagonists!"
At that thought, Lin Zhe could no longer sit still. He sprang off the bench and hurried toward the inn's front entrance.
He decided to give himself a chance, and the check-in panel one too.
Whether it was a gift from heaven or a joke heaven was playing on him, he would find out by going there.
This week's check-in location, Three Pure Ones Palace, was in Sanqing Blessed Land. It was a Taoist temple with more than 1,600 years of history.
Lin Zhe's best friend, Dan Teng, who was close enough to him to introduce his own mother as a potential match, was a Taoist priest at Three Pure Ones Palace.
Three Pure Ones Palace was only about forty or fifty minutes away from the Fortunate Inn on foot.
Ever since his parents had started running an inn on Mount Sanqing, Lin Zhe had often visited the scenic area.
He was already very familiar with the place and knew the locations of all its attractions by heart.
Compared with the tour guides leading groups around Mount Sanqing, all he lacked was a guide's license.
It was only a little after nine in the morning, still quite early, but plenty of independent visitors and tour groups were already climbing the winding mountain paths.
Along the way, he also passed several porters carrying goods on shoulder poles, chatting and laughing as they swayed their way up the mountain.
Forty-six minutes later, a panting Lin Zhe reached the outer entrance of Sanqing Blessed Land, where he would check in today.
It was cloudy, and the sun had yet to emerge. Even though noon was approaching, wisps of mist still lingered on the mountain.
Shrouded in thin mist, this sacred Taoist site with more than 1,600 years of history looked even more mysterious.
When Lin Zhe reached the entrance, he happened to encounter a guide leading a tour group of several dozen people into Sanqing Blessed Land.
"Through the boundless Three Heavens, the essence of the Dao abides in Jade Purity, Supreme Purity, and Grand Purity; beneath the unified Great Ming, may the imperial reign endure for a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand generations."
"This couplet is said to have been composed and written by the Jianwen Emperor of the Ming while he lived in hiding on Mount Sanqing and served as the abbot of Three Pure Ones Palace..."
"The craftsman who carved this couplet was also the finest engraver in the area..."
"Sanqing Blessed Land brings together the finest cultural sights on Mount Sanqing and serves as an open-air museum of ancient Taoist architecture."
"The buildings here are all historical and cultural heritage sites dating back more than 1,600 years."
"The site contains over 230 ancient structures and relics, including temples, halls, residences, gateways, terraces, tombs, bridges, pools, and springs."
"These structures and relics were all carefully arranged according to the trigram positions of the primordial bagua diagram..."
The guide first pointed to the couplet on the entrance pillars and explained its origins, then gave a general introduction to the layout of Sanqing Blessed Land.
Clearly, this guide had done plenty of homework and was excellent at the job.
As they listened to the explanations, the tourists gained a deeper understanding of Sanqing Blessed Land.
Lin Zhe did not tag along with the group, nor did he seek out Dan Teng, who had become a Taoist priest at Three Pure Ones Palace, for a chat.
He strolled leisurely through Sanqing Blessed Land alone, letting his gaze wander here and there.
Every brick, tile, blade of grass, and tree was of an ordinary material or variety.
Yet on closer inspection, they differed subtly from the bricks, tiles, and trees outside.
Every brick, tile, blade of grass, and tree seemed infused with the spiritual energy of Sanqing Blessed Land, giving everything a refreshing quality.
It felt like watching one of those movies adults enjoyed and having the picture suddenly jump from standard definition to Blu-ray, every tiny detail crystal clear.
After about half an hour, Lin Zhe had explored almost all of Sanqing Blessed Land and began wondering why the check-in still had not succeeded.
Just then, the check-in interface automatically popped up, and another line of dazzling golden text appeared in the air about half a meter before his eyes.
[Successfully checked in at Three Pure Ones Palace. Received Cleansing Talisman ×30!]
"Thirty Cleansing Talismans?"
Seeing the reward from his successful check-in instantly piqued Lin Zhe's curiosity.
The moment he became curious, a certain region of his mind flickered several times, and all sorts of information about the Cleansing Talismans instantly appeared in his head.
As the name suggested, these Cleansing Talismans could clean clothing, buildings, and the like.
They worked even better than Tide did in the TV commercials.
No matter how filthy the sheets, bedding, or rooms were, they could handle it with ease.
Even those rooms that made the news every few days, where a landlord opened the door after a tenant moved out and nearly broke down at the sight of what amounted to a garbage dump.
A single Cleansing Talisman was enough to take care of it, instantly leaving everything as clean as new.
The only drawback was that these Cleansing Talismans worked only within the Mount Sanqing scenic area.
But that hardly affected Lin Zhe, since the Fortunate Inn was within that area.
"These Cleansing Talismans couldn't have come at a better time. With these, won't the inn's biggest laundry and housekeeping problems be solved just like that?"
After understanding what the Cleansing Talismans did, Lin Zhe was overjoyed.
The Fortunate Inn received the most negative reviews for its awful conditions: the rooms were too damp, and the bedding and bed boards smelled so moldy that even perfume could not cover it up.
If the Cleansing Talismans really worked as described, they could genuinely solve the inn's biggest current problem!
"Let's see what these Cleansing Talismans look like!"
Lin Zhe found a deserted spot, and with a thought, a yellow paper talisman covered in mysterious symbols and intricate markings appeared in his hand.
Although he could not understand what was drawn on it, it looked impressive all the same.
"Let's head back to the inn and see how well it works!"
At that thought, Lin Zhe eagerly headed down the mountain.
Before you continue