Chapter 18: Temple

Xu Qing was no stranger to the nights in the forbidden zone. He had spent over ten days in the city ruins and experienced several nights in this jungle.

Hidden within a crevice of a giant tree, he half-closed his eyes, pretending to sleep, while silently absorbing the spiritual energy from the forbidden zone, which was mixed with dense anomalous matter.

Once this spiritual energy entered his body, the Sea Mountain Art separated it; the pure essence nourished his entire being, while the anomalous matter merged into his shadow.

Xu Qing had already adapted to this change. He even vaguely felt that cultivating in this forbidden zone, whether due to his shadow or the constant high alert prompted by the inherent dangers of the place, significantly accelerated his cultivation speed.

Now, he was not far from reaching the fourth level of the Sea Mountain Art.

“Like sharpening a knife…” Xu Qing murmured. He didn't grasp grand principles, but he recalled the blacksmith in the slums once saying that a good blade required a superior whetstone to truly reveal its edge.

At this moment, the dangerous forbidden zone seemed to have become Xu Qing's whetstone. After a long time of this refining cultivation, Xu Qing, having completed a cycle, silently opened his eyes.

He raised his head and gazed out through the tree crevice into the dark night. In the forbidden zone's night, the roars of strange beasts undulated from afar, echoing through the jungle like the whispers of gods and demons.

A chilling coldness was pervasive, invading everything alive here, and it also penetrated into the tree crevice where Xu Qing was hiding, permeating his body.

It was very cold.

This scene made him feel as if he had returned to the ruined city, and slowly, a sense of loneliness enveloped him.

However, Xu Qing was already very familiar with loneliness. After a moment, he closed his eyes again and continued his cultivation.

Time passed in this manner.

Since the resting place he found was suitable, the night was relatively safe. However, in the middle of the night, while cultivating, Xu Qing heard footsteps from outside.

They were chaotic, as if many people were walking in a disordered line.

Xu Qing's expression subtly tightened, and he squinted his eyes to look outside, but it was pitch black beyond the tree crevice, with nothing visible.

However, Xu Qing's heart suddenly sank, because the moment these footsteps sounded, the roars of the strange beasts in the nearby jungle instantly ceased, which abruptly heightened Xu Qing's vigilance.

He recalled the singing footsteps he had encountered before, but this time, the feeling was somewhat different.

“These don’t sound like the footsteps from that day with the singing, and there’s no singing now,” he thought.

Xu Qing quickly analyzed the situation. He did not act rashly, but instead forced himself to calm down, held his breath, and peered into the darkness outside.

Gradually, the footsteps grew clearer, sounding as if a group of people were approaching in formation.

Concurrently, waves of coldness, beyond mere chill, as if capable of freezing the body, violently assailed him at that very instant.

Xu Qing was familiar with this type of cold; it was the same temperature emanated by the singing he encountered that day and by the eerie beings that haunted the ruined city at night.

However, the intensity was different. That day, the singing could freeze his very soul, but this current cold only caused him discomfort, without reaching the point of incapacitating him.

“These are similar to the eerie entities from the ruins!” Xu Qing determined. He gripped his iron skewer tightly, took a deep breath, suppressed his inner turmoil, and forced his eyes shut, refusing to open them.

Do not look, do not touch, do not encounter.

After Xu Qing closed his eyes, the footsteps suddenly quickened and grew closer, as if countless individuals were circling the giant tree where he was hidden.

Xu Qing's heart pounded, and he struggled to suppress the urge to open his eyes and see what they looked like.

Until after a long while… just as the first rays of dawn appeared in the sky, the chaotic footsteps finally ceased their circling and slowly faded into the distance.

Day had broken.

Xu Qing did not open his eyes immediately. He waited a moment longer before slowly opening them, revealing the opening of his tree crevice, which was covered in a thick layer of ice. He himself was entirely encased within it.

Through the ice, sunlight fell upon Xu Qing. He exhaled, pressed his left hand against the frozen surface, and pushed hard. With a cracking sound, the ice shattered and fell to the ground.

Xu Qing slowly emerged, first observing his surroundings. He noticed that the wolf carcasses that had been there yesterday were now all gone. And on the ground… there were numerous footprints.

They were human footprints.

Dense and numerous, it looked as if hundreds of people had passed by.

Xu Qing had never heard of hundreds of people entering the forbidden zone together on such a scale.

Especially… these footprints were genuinely bare footprints, not shoe prints.

Xu Qing fell silent. After a long pause, he withdrew his gaze. He felt a deeper sense of the forbidden zone’s eeriness. Taking advantage of the daylight, when the dangers of the forbidden zone were less than at night, Xu Qing did not give up on exploring and swiftly departed.

Several hours later, Xu Qing finally reached the farthest point his group had ventured on their previous trip: the small canyon where the Thunder Squad had gathered seven-leaf grass.

The canyon was just as they had left it: sunlight filtered down through the canopy of vines and tree crowns above, scattering across the ground. Waves of floral fragrance filled the air, isolating it from the outside dangers, like a secluded paradise.

Upon reaching this spot, Xu Qing slightly relaxed. He looked up toward the other end of the canyon, to the cluster of temples further beyond.

After gazing for a moment, Xu Qing withdrew his eyes, took a brief rest, and then sped off directly towards the temple cluster.

The jungle outside the canyon was even denser, and sunlight became scarcer here.

Perhaps it was because this ancient cluster of temples still exuded the glory and majesty of their era, but as he exited the canyon and approached, the dangers were surprisingly minimal.

The dense jungle also seemed much milder in its aura.

Even the part of the jungle closest to the temples was surprisingly similar to the trees Xu Qing had seen outside the forbidden zone—no longer grotesque or pitch black.

There were also some seven-leaf grasses here, which Xu Qing collected.

Everything about this place surprised Xu Qing, but his vigilance did not wane as he cautiously approached.

Another hour passed, and as dusk approached, he emerged from the jungle and arrived in front of the temple cluster.

There were few trees here, allowing sunlight to spread widely, causing Xu Qing's eyes to feel somewhat dazed.

What met his eyes were massive, domed structures, each several tens of feet high.

Even though they were collapsed, dilapidated, and overgrown with moss, the temples, constructed from neat stone blocks much larger than his own body, exuded a sense of immense grandeur.

Walking among them, treading on the shattered giant bricks on the ground, Xu Qing felt as if he had entered a kingdom of giants.

The ubiquitous ruins, each stone emitting an ancient aura of time, seemed to recount their experiences to Xu Qing.

Further ahead, there was a collapsed statue.

The lower half of the statue was gone, reduced to countless fragmented pieces that were impossible to reassemble. Its head was relatively intact, but its features were blurred.

Even so, it still stood over thirty feet tall, making it imaginable that before its collapse, it must have been at least two hundred feet high.

Standing before it, Xu Qing’s presence was insignificant.

A wind blew then, like the melancholic sound of a Qiang flute, circling desolately, as if it had cut through time and space, leaving only the gaze of future generations to behold a past glory.

Xu Qing silently gazed at the statue for a long time.

He thought of the ruined city outside the slums, wondering if, many years from now, people of that era would cautiously enter the forbidden zone, just as he was doing, to view that city as a piece of history.

After a while, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and searched the temple cluster, but he did not find the special stones that the Thunder Squad had mentioned.

Before coming, he had inquired at his residence and learned that these special stones would emit a multicolored light.

They seemed to grow naturally, appearing at irregular intervals.

After his search proved fruitless, Xu Qing felt a tinge of regret. With agile leaps, he ascended to the top of one of the temples and stood there, gazing in all directions.

Behind him lay the outer region of the forbidden zone's jungle. Though he couldn't see its end, he could discern a part of it. Calculating the time, today marked the fourth day that Bone Blade, who had bought insurance from him, had mentioned.

Yesterday, Xu Qing hadn't seen any fog in the jungle, nor did he today, so he didn't need to go for a rescue.

He then turned his head to look in another direction from the temple cluster—that was the deeper part of the forbidden zone's jungle.

After a brief contemplation, Xu Qing looked up and noticed that it was getting late. He decided to explore the deeper parts briefly, return before dark, rest here for the night, and begin his journey back early tomorrow morning.

With his plan set, Xu Qing immediately moved, jumping down from the temple and heading deeper.

The moment he stepped into the deeper jungle, his nerves intensely tightened, and his vigilance and caution became even more pronounced.

He knew that the danger level here was far greater than in the outer regions.

Indeed, this proved true. After only half an hour, Xu Qing's figure reappeared within the temple grounds.

His face was grim, and lingering fear remained in his eyes.

However, his leather pouch was bulging, as if already full.

He had only walked less than a mile before spotting many aged seven-leaf grasses, seemingly unpicked for a long time. This greatly pleased Xu Qing, as such aged seven-leaf grasses were very valuable.

However, as he picked them, he clearly felt the concentration of anomalous matter intensify twofold. Had it not been for his shadow's ability to absorb it, anyone else would surely have found it impossible to proceed.

Moreover, he had also spotted, from a distance, the eerie jellyfish he had seen in the forbidden zone on his previous visit…

Here, there were over ten such jellyfish, though much smaller, but their chilling aura was still very noticeable.

Fortunately, most of these jellyfish were hanging from trees, dormant. Xu Qing, upon seeing them, carefully avoided them.

Yet, as he proceeded, he felt a very strong sensation: it seemed that in the depths of this jungle, countless gazes, palpable as solid objects, were falling upon him from unknown directions, imbued with greed.

All of this sent shivers down Xu Qing’s spine.

And this was merely the edge of the forbidden zone's deeper regions; the area within was vast, making it impossible to imagine the sheer number of horrors that lurked there.

Xu Qing dared not proceed further and retreated, shaken but unharmed.

It wasn't until he retreated to the temple grounds that the feeling of dread dissipated.

It was as if the temples formed a boundary, blocking the malevolence from the forbidden zone's depths.

Xu Qing took a deep breath. Seizing the moment as the sun was about to set, and amidst the last rays of twilight, he found a relatively intact temple and entered it.

He found a crevice in the stone and squeezed into it, preparing to spend the night.

The Thunder Squad had said that this place could provide temporary refuge from danger.

He had also inspected the inside of the temple. It was very spacious, permeated with a strong sense of passing ages. Both the stone statue holding a knife, enshrined in the main position, and the numerous human figures carved into the surrounding walls had become blurred by the sands of time.

At the same time, there weren't many strange beast droppings or traces inside the temple.

Had there been none at all, or too many, Xu Qing would not have chosen it.

Because either extreme would be abnormal; only a moderate presence of traces indicated relative safety.

After all, although the temples were within the jungle, there were very few trees here, so it was reasonable that strange beasts accustomed to jungle life didn't frequent the area.

Soon, night arrived.

As the roars from outside emerged, Xu Qing silently continued his absorption.

Time passed, consistent with his judgment. At night, strange beasts were scarce around the temples; though roars could be heard, they mostly came from afar.

However, just like the previous night, when Xu Qing continued his absorption until midnight, the eerie and chaotic footsteps reappeared!

This time, they appeared outside the temple.

“Again?”

Xu Qing's brows furrowed. He didn't know why these footsteps had appeared twice in the exact place he was, feeling vaguely uneasy. After thinking, he kept his eyes closed, just as he had yesterday.

However, this time, the footsteps did not gradually fade away as they had yesterday; instead, they grew more numerous.

As they continually converged, waves of chilling coldness spread, as if countless eerie entities had gathered outside the temple, intending to invade it.

Xu Qing's heart sank. He gripped his iron skewer tightly, his mind rapidly constructing the temple's layout and possible countermeasures in case of danger.

Just then, the converging footsteps outside suddenly ceased, giving way to an absolute silence.

This silence, far from allowing Xu Qing to relax, gave him the sensation of an impending storm. His hairs stood on end as he vaguely perceived that the eerie entities gathered outside the temple seemed to be hesitating whether to enter.

The next instant, amidst the silence, the entities outside finally chose to step into the temple. Xu Qing heard the sound of footsteps treading on the stone bricks inside the temple.

Clack.

This sound felt like a giant stone falling into Xu Qing's mind, causing his heart to sink. Yet, at that very moment, a series of murmurs suddenly echoed within the temple, imbued with an incomparable sanctity.

Furthermore, streaks of golden light suddenly emanated from the temple walls, illuminating the entire structure and spreading to Xu Qing's location, instantly transforming the world beneath his closed eyelids from pitch black to blinding brilliance.

Under this golden light, Xu Qing's eyes stung. For the first time, facing such an eerie presence, he opened his eyes.