Chapter 7: Regression

 The "san" value instantly returned to zero.

A chill rose from the tailbone, shooting straight to the top of Zhang Yuanqing's head. He jumped up and down in place like an agitated cat, involuntarily cursing: "What the f*ck!"

He couldn't help it, it was a natural instinct when one experienced a strong shock or fright. He finally understood why his shoulders were so sore and why the corpse by the window carried a copper mirror with him. It was to check whether any resentful spirits were clinging to him.

When did it cling to my shoulder? Was it when I entered the courtyard or when I came into this room? Who gave me the courage to go out exploring, Liang Jingru?!

Thoughts raced through his mind like a pot boiling over, and terror engulfed him like a tidal wave. Although he was mentally prepared for the eerie and terrifying things in this temple, facing the ghostly apparition still filled him with indescribable panic.

"Right, I have a talisman..." Zhang Yuanqing tremblingly took out a yellow paper talisman from the left pocket of his combat uniform and hurriedly stuck it onto his shoulder, desperately hoping it would work.

Slap! The exorcism talisman landed on his shoulder, and he lifted the brass mirror cautiously, shining it onto the figure on his shoulder. It was still there, a man with a pale face, black lips, and lifeless white eyes, still crouching on his shoulder.

No use, this thing didn't count as a corpse or an evil spirit... Any last vestiges of hope vanished, and Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder becoming increasingly sore and his limbs getting cold. It wasn't an illusion; his vital yang energy was indeed draining away.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the corpse under the main hall's table and the senior who died tragically under the window. He might end up meeting the same fate as those two.

A bone-chilling coldness surged through his heart.

"Clatter! Clatter!"

Suddenly, at this critical moment, faint footsteps came from the corridor outside.

The footsteps were light but crystal clear in the silent night.

Zhang Yuanqing's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly crouched down beside the corpse under the window. The footsteps sounded somewhat familiar, like the ones he heard when he entered the temple.

"Clatter, clatter..."

The footsteps approached, walking in his direction. Zhang Yuanqing dared not breathe, his whole body tense, and he could faintly hear his own frantic heartbeat.

As the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't resist glancing at the floor of the room. Moonlight streamed in, creating a grid-like pattern on the floor. If someone of average height passed by the window, their shadow should have been cast on the floor, but he saw nothing.

This indicated that whatever passed by the window had no physical body.

Fortunately, the footsteps moved on without stopping or entering the room, gradually fading away.

Phew... Zhang Yuanqing silently breathed a sigh of relief, waiting patiently while still keeping an ear out for the fading footsteps. He heard them step into the courtyard, producing a "rustling" sound from trampling on the overgrown grass.

Then they stopped for a moment and resumed walking after a few seconds, but this time the footsteps had a certain rhythm and pace.

What was it doing in the courtyard?

Zhang Yuanqing braced himself against the icy body and stood up with some difficulty. He peered outside through the tattered window paper, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening.

In the moonlight, amid the overgrown grass, a pair of brand new Western-style red dance shoes danced a tap dance in the darkness.

Here they come, here they come!

Under the moonlit night, in this deserted temple, a solo dance with red shoes, it seemed both absurdly bizarre and inexplicably... lonely?

How could there be a pair of Western-style dance shoes in a temple from the Ming Dynasty?

This desolate temple was becoming increasingly eerie... Zhang Yuanqing crouched back down, patiently waiting.

Time passed, and with each passing moment, the resentful spirit on his shoulder continued to drain his vital yang energy. His body felt increasingly stiff, and the pain in his shoulder intensified from a dull ache to a piercing pain. It felt like his shoulder bone was about to shatter, and his joints became stiff, and his blood seemed to solidify.

He felt that if this continued, he would either die when his vital energy was depleted or die from the injuries caused by his shattered shoulder bones.

Amid the excruciating agony, the image of the corpse under the main hall's table flashed through his mind amidst the chaotic thoughts.

"So, that's how it is..." Zhang Yuanqing forced a bitter smile.

He seemed to see his own fate and hear the sigh of the Grim Reaper.

However, Zhang Yuanqing didn't give up his desire to survive. His brain was still working at full capacity, like an overloaded CPU searching for a glimmer of hope in this desperate situation.

In the blink of an eye, the image of the corpse under the main hall's table came to mind again.

 "Both bodies have different degrees of shoulder fractures. The worker's shoulder injury under the main hall's table wasn't fatal, so did the resentful spirit spare him? No, the resentful spirit wouldn't show mercy..."

"Why did he hide under the table..."

"The red dance shoes followed me secretly when I entered the temple, but they left when I entered the main hall..."

Thinking of this, a glimmer of hope lit up in Zhang Yuanqing's dim and muddy pupils. "Go back to the main hall, go back to the main hall!" he decided.

He immediately got up, but his steps were unsteady, as if carrying a mountain on his back. "Thud!" He fell in the courtyard, landing amidst the overgrown grass, unable to stand up again. Zhang Yuanqing's teeth chattered, and he felt like he was in a freezing winter.

The cold stole his warmth and eroded his will. Slowly, he crawled towards the main hall, mustering all his strength. He kept his head raised, always keeping the outline of the building in front of him in his eyes, so that hope wouldn't extinguish.

Passing from the main hall to the courtyard normally took only about a minute, but now it seemed as far as the ends of the earth and the corners of the sea.

Finally, as he reached the corner of the main hall, a phantom wail echoed in his ears, and the resentful spirit on his shoulder suddenly disappeared, taking away the cold, dizziness, stiffness, and other negative effects.

Zhang Yuanqing rolled and crawled up the pedestal, staggered to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and stumbled inside. The dim candlelight dispersed the gloom and brought a comforting warmth.

He lay on the ground in a spread-eagle position, chest heaving, gasping heavily. After lying there for two to three minutes, he finally felt alive again.

"So terrifying, so terrifying... My speculation was right. The main hall is a safe haven."

Based on the different shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he deduced that something had prevented the resentful spirit from pursuing the person inside the hall.

The worker's position, curled up and dead under the table, matched a hiding mentality when experiencing extreme fear. In the mind of that worker, the main hall was safe.

Moreover, the fact that the red dance shoes gave up chasing him indirectly confirmed this speculation.

During the following time, Zhang Yuanqing stayed inside the main hall until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature returned to normal. As expected, he didn't encounter any more danger.

"If the main hall is a safe haven, my chances of survival will undoubtedly increase. Even if the resentful spirit drains my essence again, I can escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the resentful spirit and the red dance shoes, I doubt I'll be able to get back in time to the main hall..."

"And the true source of the temple's eeriness and horror must be more than just the resentful spirit..."

He didn't feel complacent because he had survived this ordeal; this ancient temple was not that simple. Before him, an entire construction team had died here.

After resting for a while, he gradually put aside his fear and hesitated whether to continue exploring outside.

Once again, the voice in his mind sounded:

【Main Task One: Survive for three hours (Completed)】

【Main Task Two: Explore the 0079 Spirit Realm, Progress: 20%】

【Primordial Celestial Venerable, congratulations on completing a main task. Rewards are being calculated for you...】

【Obtained Item/Prop: Exorcism Talisman (Can be viewed in the inventory).】

【Obtained Experience: 15%】

【Inventory Unlocked】

【You will have 36 hours of rest time. The next opening of the 0079 Spirit Realm: 35:59:40.】

The scene inside the main hall distorted, like the ripples on the surface of water blown by the wind. When the image became clear again, Zhang Yuanqing saw the bright LED lights, a spacious bed, a desk, a PS5 game console, an open window with the curtains swaying slightly in the wind.

He had returned to the human world.

"Back?" he muttered in disbelief, looking around to confirm that he was indeed back in his room. Then he collapsed onto the soft bed.

Taking a deep breath, he felt even the air was sweet. "Being alive is great, the human world is great."

After a few minutes of rest, Zhang Yuanqing sat up and unzipped his combat uniform, only to find that the exorcism talisman was indeed gone.

Naturally, the thought of "Retrieve Items" came to mind, and the next moment, a blue grid appeared before his eyes. There were a total of five grids, and the first one contained the yellow paper talisman.

It was a strange experience. After the inventory was unlocked, this function seemed like second nature to him, requiring no learning, and he knew instinctively how to open the inventory.

"Besides the exorcism talisman, I also obtained 15% of experience, but my level is still zero. This means I haven't become a Night Traveling God yet and am still an ordinary person."

"Surviving three hours almost got me killed. Is the second task an S-level difficulty?..."

The more Zhang Yuanqing thought, the more hopeless he felt, thinking that he had been tricked by Big Brother Soldier. This card could indeed change one's life, but it was also incredibly difficult to control.

He had a realistic understanding of his abilities; he was just a college student who had never even killed a chicken. It would be challenging for him to survive in the second task alone.

As a true-blooded socialist young man, he knew that now was the time to rely on the country and the government. He picked up his phone, intending to call his cousin, but his finger suddenly stopped.

Because Zhang Yuanqing thought of a better option. He immediately got out of bed, opened the drawer of the desk, and found the business card left by the big-headed man.

The card showed a name and contact information. Tonight's experience made him think of Big Brother Soldier's mysterious disappearance. If he couldn't make it out alive, he would disappear mysteriously too.

It was certain that Big Brother Soldier had encountered the so-called Spirit Realm; otherwise, how could he have disappeared so inexplicably? The investigator from the Public Security Bureau should be trustworthy.

Another reason for contacting the big-headed man was because he mentioned that he might also disappear. This hinted that he might enter a Spirit Realm as well.

Combined with his cousin's ignorance of the situation, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to infer that the three of them were special personnel specifically dealing with these kinds of events.

After figuring this out, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the number on the business card and a mature male voice answered, "Who is this?"