Spiritual Walker

Guessed right... Zhang Yuanqing felt a little relieved.

In fact, after exploring the mountain temple and getting rid of the zombies, the entrance to the cave will open, but the senior of the construction team took away the Demon-Subduing Pestle before that.

If he can't see through this detail and return the Demon-Subduing Pestle, he may be stuck at this step forever.

Zhang Yuanqing waited patiently, quietly tightening his nerves and concentrating his energy, not daring to be careless, because under the cave, there may be the source of the decline of the mountain temple.

After a while, seeing that there was no abnormality in the collapsed cave entrance, he summoned the red dancing shoes again, turned on the second form, let it replace the running shoes, and wrap his feet.

Then he walked to the dark and deep cave and jumped lightly.

Click... His soles quickly touched the ground, and the red dancing shoes eliminated the force of his fall for him.

Zhang Yuanqing found the Demon-Subduing Pestle among the rubble, bent down to pick it up, and regained control of this powerful prop.

With the red dancing shoes and the demon-suppressing pestle, he was confident that he could face the danger in the cave.

The candlelight penetrated from the top of his head, and the place it could illuminate was limited. In front of him was a dark and silent corridor, full of unknown fear.

In such an environment, it was extremely unwise to move forward in the dark.

Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and cast his eyes on the prop in his hand.

The item introduction said that this was a prop containing the power of the sun. By sacrificing blood, you can gain the power.

The real power of the sun should be able to dispel darkness and bring light, right?

It's worth a try, but the "notes" in the attribute introduction are a bit panicking... Zhang Yuanqing exhaled silently and nailed the sharp three-edged spike to his thigh.

A sharp pain came, and blood gushed out. It didn't flow along the trouser legs, but turned into blood lines and poured into this brass prop.

Zhang Yuanqing only felt a warm force gushing out from the Demon-Subduing Pestle, rushing into his body along his arm, and his pupils lit up with a pale golden glow, turning into brilliant golden pupils.

The Demon-Subduing Pestle did not dispel the darkness, but gave him the ability to see through the darkness.

At the same time, negative states such as dizziness, difficulty breathing, heart and lung pain all disappeared, leaving only a weak feeling from excessive blood loss.

The corpse poison in the body was cleared.

It was indeed exchanging life for power, but it was still acceptable... He used his eyesight and looked forward. In front of him was a spacious corridor extending into the depths of darkness.

There were traces of artificial excavation on both walls of the corridor, not naturally formed.

Zhang Yuanqing walked in the corridor at a moderate pace, and his footsteps echoed in the silent space.

After walking for more than ten seconds, plant roots appeared on both walls of the corridor, and they were densely covered with walls.

"Help, help..."

Suddenly, from the darkness ahead, a terrifying cry for help came, as if weeping and complaining.

After walking for a while following the sound, the front suddenly opened up, and a huge cave came into view. In the center of the cave was a thick tree trunk, which broke through the top of the cave and grew to the outside world.

At the bottom of this thick tree trunk, the roots and stems were intertwined and entangled, wrapping around a stone coffin.

The most terrifying thing was that pale arms stretched out from the thick tree trunk, and pale human faces emerged, and they unconsciously shouted "Help".

The dense arms grabbed randomly, as if looking for a life-saving straw.

My intensive phobia was acting up... The candlelight and the demon-suppressing pestle gave Zhang Yuanqing courage. He only felt a slight tingling of his scalp, and was not too scared.

At this time, a hoarse and vicissitudes voice sounded:

"It's the first time a living creature has come here in so many years."

Along with these words, the cries for help stopped, the arms swinging like seaweed retracted into the tree trunks, and the faces of people hid in the trees in fear.

"Who?"

Zhang Yuanqing was startled and looked around vigilantly.

"Me? I'm just a tree..."

An ugly human face emerged from the tree trunk. Unlike the faces of those resentful spirits, its face was the bark of the tree, as if symbolizing the tree itself.

It was the old locust tree in the yard. Has it become a spirit? Zhang Yuanqing didn't expect that in such a ghost place, he could still meet a being that could communicate, even though the other party was a tree.

He didn't dare to get close, and tried:

"Did you kill the disciples in the temple?"

"It wasn't me, it was her."

The tree spirit's eyes fell down, as if staring at the sarcophagus below, although it couldn't see it.

"Who is she?"

"She is the Goddess of Sandaoshan."

Zhang Yuanqing felt as if he had been hit on the head with a stick, and his mind was confused.

In the stone coffin lay the Goddess of Sandaoshan, the powerful night wandering god who should have passed away in the early Ming Dynasty?

The source of the weirdness was the Goddess of Sandaoshan. Did she kill the disciples in the temple?

Zhang Yuanqing blurted out: "Why did she do this?"

"Because the Dharma Ending Age has arrived, it is difficult for practitioners to break through the bottleneck. In order to achieve immortality, the Sanda Mountain Goddess fell into the devil's way. She sealed herself in a stone coffin, imprisoned the ghosts with a locust tree, and nourished the yin with yin to protect her body and soul. She is a powerful night wandering god, and the night wandering god is born to devour souls and strengthen itself."

The face on the tree trunk sighed: "The locust tree accommodates too many souls, receives their will, and slowly gives birth to spiritual wisdom, which is me. Over the years, people have mistakenly entered this place and died here, and finally became her nutrients. I carry the hatred and unwillingness of the resentful spirits, and have been waiting for someone to come here and end her for me."

So that's it, does this count as triggering the NPC's task? Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flickered, "I should do this."

"Open the sarcophagus and pierce her heart with the weapon in your hand, and you can end it all. Haha, half of her Yang soul is sealed in the Demon Subduing Pestle. Piercing her heart can seal the remaining Yang soul in her body into the weapon. Without the Yang soul to protect her body, her body will die immediately." After the locust tree spirit finished speaking, he slowly said:

"You can leave here too."

Zhang Yuanqing did not move and remained silent.

The locust tree spirit said slowly: "Young man, what are you still hesitating about?"

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly said:

"I'm thinking about a question..."

The locust tree spirit responded gently: "What question?"

Zhang Yuanqing stood in the distance, staring at the face on the tree trunk, and said word by word:

"You are not the temple keeper."

The cave suddenly became quiet. After a few seconds, the locust tree spirit said in a low voice:

"The temple keeper was the first person bewitched by the Sanda Mountain Goddess. He became her puppet and later became the nourishment of that woman. If you don't believe it, come and open the sarcophagus, and you will know that I am not lying to you."

"Then help me open it."

"I can't open it, I'm just a tree."

"Is it that you can't open it, or you dare not open it?" Zhang Yuanqing seemed to have got the answer he wanted, and raised the corner of his mouth:

"The temple keeper is lying in the coffin, and you are his guardian, or his soul?"

After saying these tentative words, he entered a state of alert, waiting for the tree spirit's reaction.

As a technical geek who is good at game strategy, it would be a shame if I still can't figure out the secrets of the mountain temple after experiencing so many crises.

First of all, Shan Dao Shan Niang Niang passed away in the early Ming Dynasty. After her death, the local government built this temple for her.

The disciples in the temple disappeared for no reason during the Yongle period, which is at least 50 to 60 years, or one or two generations.

Secondly, the information in the main hall suggests that Shan Dao Shan Niang Niang is a decent person, and the so-called fall into the devil's way of the locust tree spirit is its one-sided statement. Zhang Yuanqing is more willing to believe the former.

Finally, and most importantly, the content written in the essay is: Don't believe the master!

In fact, the real enemy was already hinted in these details.

It was just that Zhang Yuanqing didn't understand why the temple keeper wanted to kill his own disciple.

Now he knows.

If the person who wanted to live forever and fell into the devil's way was replaced by the temple keeper, all doubts would be solved.

The cave fell into silence, and the locust tree spirit sighed: "You are too cautious. From the beginning to the end, I have no ill will towards you, let alone hurt you."

"Will not hurt, or can't hurt?" Zhang Yuanqing slowly stepped back a few steps and said:

"Well, let me guess, your way of killing is to twist the neck, but the method should be related to illusion and mind. You wanted to kill me not long ago, but unfortunately I didn't look back."

This time, the face of the locust tree spirit suddenly changed.

Zhang Yuanqing saw this and knew that his reasoning was completely correct.

The night wandering god in the Taiyi Sect's information clearly pointed out two things: one, the locust tree is very dangerous; two, don't look back.

That's why he found nothing when he explored the ancient well, because there was nothing wrong with the well, but the tree.

In addition, he could accurately identify the "illusion" because the name the female ghost called was Zhang Yuanqing, not Yuanshi Tianzun.

Lastly, when Zhang Yuanqing found the ancient well, he thought of a famous horror movie from an island country, which caused him to have a psychological shadow and he didn't dare to look into the bottom of the well.

Then, the female ghost who came out of the well was dressed in white, with disheveled hair and no facial features, which matched the vague fear in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.

"You pretended to talk to me in a nice way because the illusion can no longer confuse me. After all, I have the demon-suppressing pestle of the empress, which is immune to illusion." Zhang Yuanqing looked calm and analyzed the truth:

"You tricked me to go there to kill me by other means. If the illusion is ineffective against me, then it must be a physical attack?"

He glanced at the tree roots crawling on the wall of the tunnel, and suddenly stabbed it with a pestle.