The SAN value dropped to zero on the spot.

A chill rose from the tailbone and shot straight to the top of Zhang Yuanqing's head. He jumped up and down like a cat with its hair standing on end, cursing in anger:

"F*ck!"

This was an instinctive reaction when a person was strongly stimulated or frightened.

He finally understood why his shoulders were so sore and why the body by the window had to carry a copper mirror with it.

It was to observe whether he had been possessed by a vengeful spirit.

When did it latch onto my shoulder? Was it when I entered the courtyard or when I entered this room?

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

His mind exploded with various thoughts, and fear rushed over him like a tidal wave.

Although he knew that there were eerie and terrifying things in this temple and was mentally prepared, he still felt an indescribable panic when facing ghosts and monsters.

Right, I have a talisman... Zhang Yuanqing trembled as he took out the yellow paper talisman from the left pocket of his combat uniform and stuck it to his shoulder, hoping for a miracle...

Snap!

The corpse-restraining talisman slapped onto his shoulder. He raised the brass mirror and cautiously looked at it. The man with pale skin, black lips, and dead white pupils, who was still latched onto his shoulder, was still there.

It was no use. This thing didn't count as a corpse or a Yin creature... With the last bit of hope gone, Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder becoming more and more sore, and his hands and feet getting colder.

These were not illusions but real loss of Yang energy.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the corpse under the main hall table and the predecessor who died tragically under the window. He might die here like the two of them.

A bone-chilling feeling surged in his heart.

"Dada!"

Suddenly, at this critical moment, there were faint footsteps coming from the corridor outside.

The footsteps were light, but very clear in the quiet night.

... Zhang Yuanqing's heart skipped a beat and quickly crouched down beside the body under the window.

The footsteps sounded somewhat familiar, like the sound he heard when he entered the temple.

"Dadada..."

The footsteps grew closer and closer, coming towards this direction. Zhang Yuanqing dared not breathe, his whole body tense, and he could vaguely hear his own frantic heartbeat.

When the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but take a look at the ground in the room. The moonlight shone through the window, forming a grid-shaped window shadow on the ground.

The window was not high, only up to the waist. With a normal person's height, passing by the window would definitely cast a moonlight shadow on the ground, but he didn't see anything.

This meant that whatever passed by outside the window had no body.

Fortunately, the footsteps passed by the window without stopping or entering the room and gradually faded away.

Phew... Zhang Yuanqing silently breathed a sigh of relief, focusing on the fading footsteps, and heard them stepping into the courtyard, making a rustling sound as they trampled on the weeds.

Then they stopped, and a few seconds later, the footsteps sounded again.

This time, the footsteps were not simply walking but had a certain rhythm and pattern.

What was it doing in the courtyard?

Zhang Yuanqing, with his cold body, struggled to stand up and looked out through the tattered window paper. Under the moonlight, in the weeds, a pair of brand new, Western-style red dancing shoes were dancing a tap dance in the night.

Moonlit night, abandoned temple, red dancing shoes, solo dance.This scene seemed both absurd and strangely...lonely?

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

This dilapidated temple was becoming more and more eerie...he quietly crouched down and waited patiently.

As time passed by second by second, the vengeful spirit on his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy, and the stiffness in his body became heavier and heavier, and the soreness in his shoulder turned into a stabbing pain.

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

In the midst of the painful torment, the dancing in the courtyard disappeared.

Zhang Yuanqing still did not dare to raise his head. He waited for a while before cautiously poking his head out and peering into the courtyard through the window.

The courtyard was filled with moonlight, and the weeds stood silently. The eerie dance shoes were gone.

"Phew..."

He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to stand up when his knees gave way, and he fell to the ground.

After the tense nerves relaxed and the adrenaline subsided, he realized that his condition was worse than he had imagined.

His shoulders were burning with pain, his bones felt like they were about to crack, his knee joints were stiff, and his blood felt like it was coagulating.

Trembling, he picked up the bronze mirror. In the dusty mirror, Zhang Yuanqing saw that his face was pale, his expression was listless, and his pupils were dull. He was not a normal person, but a sickly person on the verge of death.

On his shoulder, the vengeful spirit with black lips stared at him silently.

He was undoubtedly going to die if this continued, but what could he do? He couldn't touch the vengeful spirit on his shoulder.

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

He looked at the worker's corpse, which was in the same posture as him.

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

He seemed to see his own ending and hear the sigh of the god of death.

But Zhang Yuanqing did not give up his desire to survive. His brain was still active, like a CPU running on overload, searching for hope to survive in desperation.

In a flash of inspiration, the body under the main hall table flashed through the chaotic information flow.

"The degree of shoulder bone fracture in the two corpses is different. The shoulder injury of the corpse in the main hall is not fatal. Did the vengeful spirit spare him? No, the vengeful spirit couldn't possibly show mercy..."

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

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

Thinking of this, Zhang Yuanqing's dim and murky pupils lit up with hope.

Go back to the main hall, go back to the main hall immediately!

He immediately stood up, his footsteps staggering as he left the room. Every step was difficult, like carrying a mountain.

"Thump!"

He fell in the courtyard, falling into the weeds, unable to stand up again.

Zhang Yuanqing's teeth trembled and collided, making a "clicking" sound. He felt like he was in the midst of a freezing winter.

"The cold" took away his heat and eroded his will.

Zhang Yuanqing crawled towards the main hall little by little, using all his strength. He raised his head and kept the silhouette of the building in front of his eyes.

This way, the hope in his eyes would not be extinguished.

It only took about a minute to walk from the main hall, but at this moment, it felt as distant as the ends of the earth.Finally, as he crawled onto the main hall eaves, a virtual scream sounded in his ears, and the negative effects such as cold, dizziness, and stiffness disappeared instantly when his shoulder felt light.

Zhang Yuanqing rolled and crawled to the pedestal, staggered to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and threw himself into the threshold.

The candlelight was like beans, dispelling the haze and bringing warmth like a spring breeze.

He lay on the ground in a big font, his chest undulating, panting heavily, and lay like this for two or three minutes before feeling that he had finally come back to life.

"It's too scary, too scary... my speculation was correct. The main hall is a safe haven."

Based on the different shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he judged that something had stopped the ghost from chasing the person in the hall.

And the worker curled up and died under the table, which conforms to the hiding psychology of a person in extreme fear.

In the mind of this senior worker, the main hall is safe.

And the Red Dancing Shoes gave up chasing him, which indirectly verified this conjecture.

Zhang Yuanqing stayed in the main hall all the time until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature recovered.

Sure enough, he didn't encounter any danger again.

"If the main hall is a safe house, then my hope of survival undoubtedly greatly increases. Even if I am sucked by the ghost again, I can escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the ghost and the Red Dancing Shoes, I estimate that I cannot escape back to the main hall.

"Moreover, the most eerie and terrifying source of this temple must be more than just ghosts..."

He didn't feel proud because he had resolved a life-threatening crisis. This ancient temple is not that simple.

It should be noted that before him, an entire construction team died here.

After resting for a while, he gradually put down his fear and was hesitating whether to continue to explore outside.

The voice in his mind sounded again:

[Main mission one: survive for three hours (completed)]

[Main mission two: explore Lingjing 0079, progress: 20%]

[Yuanshi Tianzun, congratulations on completing a main mission. We are settling rewards for you...]

[Obtained item/prop: corpse-stopping talisman (can be viewed in the item column).]

[Obtained experience points: 15%]

[Item column has been unlocked.]

[You will get 36 hours of rest time. The next opening of Lingjing 0079 will be 35:59:40.]

The scenery in the main hall twisted, like the rippling water surface blown by the wind.

When the picture became clear again, Zhang Yuanqing saw the bright energy-saving lamp, the spacious bed, the desk, the PS5 game console, the open window, and the wind blowing in, making the curtains sway slightly.

He was back in the human world.

"Back?"

He looked around in astonishment, confirming that he was really back in the room before collapsing onto the soft bed.

Taking a deep breath, he felt that the air was sweet.

It's so good to be alive, so good to be in the human world.

After a few minutes of relaxation, Zhang Yuanqing sat up, pulled down the zipper of his combat uniform, and found that the corpse-stopping talisman was indeed gone.

The idea of "taking items" naturally emerged in Zhang Yuanqing's mind, and the next moment, a blue grid appeared in front of his eyes.

There were a total of five grids, and the first one contained the yellow paper talisman.It was a wonderful experience. After unlocking the inventory, it became his instinct, and he knew how to open the inventory without learning it.

"Besides the corpse-sealing talisman, I also gained 15% experience, but my level is still zero. This means I haven't become a night wandering god yet and am still an ordinary person."

"I almost died after surviving for three hours. How am I supposed to complete the second mission? Is this S-level difficulty?"

Zhang Yuanqing felt more and more desperate, feeling like he was tricked by Brother Bing.

This broken card could indeed change his life, but it was difficult to control.

He knew himself well. He was just a college student who had never killed a chicken. It was difficult for him to survive the second mission alone.

As a young socialist with a good background, he had to rely on the country and the government at this time.

So he took out his phone, intending to call his cousin's number, but his finger suddenly stopped when it touched the screen.

Because Zhang Yuanqing thought he might have a better choice.

He immediately got out of bed and found the business card left by the big-headed man in the desk drawer.

The card had a name and contact information.

Tonight's experience reminded him of Brother Bing's mysterious disappearance. If he didn't come out alive, he would have disappeared mysteriously too.

It was certain that Brother Bing had already encountered the so-called Lingjing. His disappearance might be related to entering a certain Lingjing.

Explore the extended edition on pawread.com.

According to this idea, the investigators from the Public Security Bureau were trustworthy.

He chose to contact the big-headed man for another reason. The other party said he might also disappear, which was implying that he would enter Lingjing.

Combined with the fact that his cousin was unaware, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to believe that the three of them were special personnel who dealt with similar events.

After thinking it through, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the number on the card and the phone was answered after a few beeps. A mature, low-pitched male voice asked, "Who is this?"