Chapter 22: The Temple

Xu Qing was no stranger to the dark nights of the Forbidden Zone.

Whether it was the ruins of the city or this stretch of jungle.

He had lived in the former for over ten days, and he had also experienced several nights in the latter.

At this moment, hiding in a crevice of a giant tree, he narrowed his eyes, silently breathing in the spiritual energy mixed with dense anomalous substances within the Forbidden Zone while feigning sleep.

After this spiritual energy entered his body, it was separated by the Sea-Mountain Art; the pure portion nourished his entire body, while the anomalous portion merged into his shadow.

Xu Qing had already grown accustomed to this change.

He even had a faint feeling that cultivating within this Forbidden Zone—perhaps because of the shadow, or perhaps because of the danger here—caused him to be intensely vigilant at all times.

With his spirit highly concentrated, his cultivation speed had also increased significantly.

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

"It's like sharpening a blade..." Xu Qing whispered to himself.

He did not understand any grand principles, but he remembered the blacksmith in the slums once telling people that a good blade required a better whetstone to fully reveal its edge.

At this moment, the dangerous Forbidden Zone seemed to have become Xu Qing's whetstone.

Amidst this sharpening cultivation, after a long while, Xu Qing finished his cycle and silently opened his eyes.

He raised his head, gazing through the tree crevice at the blackness of the night outside; in the Forbidden Zone's night, the roars of anomalous beasts rose and fell from afar, echoing through the jungle like the low moans of gods and demons.

A cold, chilling intent was everywhere, invading all living things here and also drilling into the tree crevice where Xu Qing was hiding, permeating his body.

It was very cold.

This scene gave him the feeling of having returned to the ruined city, and a thread of loneliness slowly began to permeate him.

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

Just like that, time passed.

Because the resting place he found was quite suitable, this night was relatively safe; only when it reached midnight did Xu Qing, in the midst of cultivation, hear footsteps from outside.

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

Xu Qing’s expression tightened slightly, and he narrowed his eyes to look outside, but it was pitch black beyond the tree crevice, and there was nothing there.

Yet, Xu Qing’s heart sank abruptly, because the moment these footsteps arrived, the roars of the anomalous beasts in the nearby jungle vanished instantly, which caused Xu Qing’s vigilance to rise sharply.

He remembered the singing footsteps he had encountered last time, but the feeling they gave him now was somewhat different.

"It doesn't sound like the footsteps from the day of the singing, and there is no singing."

Xu Qing analyzed rapidly, not acting rashly, but forcing himself to calm down, holding his breath, and staring into the black night outside.

Gradually, the footsteps became clearer, as if a group of people in a line were slowly approaching.

At the same time, bursts of cold that exceeded the category of chill, as if it could freeze the body, also violently invaded at this instant.

Xu Qing was no stranger to this kind of cold; whether it was the singing that day or the strange existences that haunted the city ruins at night, they all emitted this kind of temperature.

But the degree was different; the singing that day could have frozen his soul, but the current cold only made his body uncomfortable, not reaching the point of losing the ability to move.

"It is the same type of existence as the anomalies in the ruins!" After making this judgment, Xu Qing gripped his iron skewer tightly, took a deep breath, suppressed the fluctuations in his heart, and forced himself to keep his eyes closed, refusing to open them.

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

After Xu Qing closed his eyes, the footsteps suddenly became hurried and drew closer, as if countless people were circling the giant tree where he was located.

Xu Qing’s mind shook, and he struggled to suppress the impulse to open his eyes and see what the other party looked like.

Until a long time later... when the first sun of the sky rose, the chaotic footsteps finally stopped lingering and slowly moved away.

The day had brightened.

Xu Qing did not open his eyes immediately; he waited for a moment longer before slowly opening them, only to see that there was a thick layer of ice at the opening of the tree crevice where he was, and he himself had been frozen inside.

Through the ice layer, sunlight spilled onto Xu Qing; he exhaled, pressed his left hand against the ice surface, and pushed hard; with a cracking sound, the ice layer shattered and fell to the ground.

Xu Qing crawled out slowly, first observing his surroundings, and saw that the wolf corpses that had been in the jungle yesterday were now all gone, and on the ground... there were a large number of footprints.

They were human footprints.

Dense and numerous, as if hundreds of people had walked by.

And the matter of hundreds of people entering the Forbidden Zone on such a scale was something Xu Qing had never heard of.

Especially... these footprints were truly footprints, not shoe prints.

Xu Qing was silent, withdrawing his gaze after a long time; he felt more deeply about the strangeness of the Forbidden Zone. Now, taking advantage of the daylight when the dangers of the Forbidden Zone were reduced compared to the night, Xu Qing did not give up on exploring and left in a flash.

A few hours later, Xu Qing finally reached the furthest point their group had gone to last time, the small valley where the Thunder Squad had picked Seven-Leaf Grass.

The valley was the same as when they had left; sunlight spilled onto the ground through the canopy formed by vines and trees above, and bursts of floral fragrance permeated the air, isolating the dangers of the outside world, like a paradise.

Arriving here, Xu Qing breathed a slight sigh of relief and looked up toward the other end of the valley, at the cluster of temples that existed further away.

Gazing for a moment, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze, rested briefly, then sped off, heading straight for the temple cluster.

The jungle outside the valley was even more lush, and the sunlight here was increasingly scarce.

Perhaps it was because this ancient temple cluster still radiated the glory and pressure from its own era, so when he left the valley and approached, the danger was minimal.

The lush jungle seemed to have become much milder in its aura as well.

Even in the jungle closest to the temple cluster, the trees were not much different from what Xu Qing had seen outside; they were no longer ferocious, no longer pitch black.

And there were some Seven-Leaf Grass here, which were picked by Xu Qing.

Everything here made Xu Qing somewhat surprised, but his vigilance did not decrease, and he approached cautiously.

Until another hour passed, as dusk was about to arrive, he walked out of the jungle and came to the front of this temple cluster.

There were few trees here, and sunlight spilled over a large area, making Xu Qing feel a bit dazed.

What entered his eyes were huge domed buildings, each dozens of feet high.

Even if they had collapsed, even if they were dilapidated, even if they were covered in moss, the temples, piled up with neat stone blocks each much larger than his own body, were filled with a sense of vastness.

Walking within them, stepping on the shattered giant bricks on the ground, it was as if Xu Qing had come to a kingdom of giants.

The ruins visible everywhere each radiated an ancient sense of time, as if telling Xu Qing about their experiences.

Further ahead, there was also a collapsed statue.

The lower half of this statue was gone, turned into countless fragments that were difficult to piece together; the head was still relatively intact, but its appearance had already become blurred.

Despite this, it was still over thirty feet high; one could imagine that before it collapsed, it must have been at least two hundred feet tall.

Standing in front of it, Xu Qing’s existence was very inconspicuous.

At this moment, a wind blew, like the sound of a reed flute, echoing desolately, as if it had isolated time and space, leaving only the gaze of later generations upon the former glory.

Xu Qing looked at the statue quietly and was silent for a long time.

He thought of the city ruins outside the slums, wondering if, many years later, the people of that era would be like him now, cautiously entering the Forbidden Zone to look at that city as if looking at history.

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

When he was at his residence, he had already inquired; this special stone would emit a seven-colored light.

It seemed to grow naturally, and the time of its appearance had no pattern.

After failing to find it, Xu Qing felt some regret; his body leaped nimbly, and with a few bounds, he reached the top of a temple, standing there to gaze into the distance.

Behind him was the outer area of the Forbidden Zone jungle; although he could not see the end, he could see a portion of it, and calculating the time, today was the fourth day mentioned by the Bone Blade who had bought insurance from him.

Yesterday, Xu Qing had not seen any fog in the jungle, and today there was still none, so he did not need to save anyone.

So he turned his head to look at another direction of the temple cluster; that was... the depths of the Forbidden Zone jungle.

After pondering for a short while, Xu Qing noticed that it was getting late; he prepared to explore the depths on a small scale, return before dark, rest here tonight, and head back early tomorrow morning.

Having made his plan, Xu Qing’s body moved immediately, jumping off the temple and heading toward the depths.

The moment he stepped into the depths of the jungle, his nerves tightened intensely, and his vigilance and caution became even heavier.

Because he knew that the level of danger here was far greater than in the outer areas.

In fact, it was indeed so; only half an hour later, Xu Qing’s figure reappeared within the temple area.

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

But his leather bag was bulging, as if it had been filled.

He had only walked less than a mile before, yet he had seen quite a few aged Seven-Leaf Grass that seemed not to have been picked for a long time, which surprised Xu Qing, because such aged Seven-Leaf Grass was very valuable.

But while picking them, he clearly felt the density of anomalous substances double; if it weren't for his shadow being able to absorb them, anyone else would have been unable to take a single step.

And he had also seen from afar the strange jellyfish he had encountered in the Forbidden Zone last time...

And there were more than ten such jellyfish here, although they were much smaller, the cold aura on their bodies was still very obvious.

Fortunately, most of these jellyfish were hanging on the trees, sleeping, and Xu Qing carefully avoided them after seeing them.

But as he moved forward, he had a very strong feeling that in the depths of this jungle, there were countless gazes, as if substantial, carrying greed from unknown directions, falling upon him one after another.

All of this made Xu Qing feel like he was being pricked by needles on his back.

And this was only the edge of the depths of this Forbidden Zone; the area within was even larger, and it was impossible to imagine how many horrors existed there.

Xu Qing did not dare to continue forward and retreated safely.

It was not until he retreated to the temple area that the feeling of needles on his back dissipated.

It was as if this temple was a boundary, blocking the malice from the depths of the Forbidden Zone.

Xu Qing took a deep breath, and as the sunset was about to fall, in this final afterglow, he found a barely intact temple and stepped inside.

He found a stone crevice to crawl into, preparing to spend the night.

The Thunder Squad had said that this place could briefly avoid danger.

He had also checked the inside of the temple; it was very empty, permeated with a thick sense of the passage of time; whether it was the stone statue holding a blade enshrined in the main seat or the many human figures carved on the surrounding walls, they were all becoming blurred in the shifting sands of time.

At the same time, there was not much excrement or traces of anomalous beasts inside the temple.

If there were none at all, or if there were many, Xu Qing would not have chosen it.

Because that would not be normal; only where there were traces but not in large quantities was it relatively safe.

After all, although the temple was in the jungle, there were very few trees here, so it was reasonable that anomalous beasts accustomed to jungle life did not come often.

Night arrived quickly.

As the roars from the outside world emerged, Xu Qing silently practiced his breathing exercises.

Time passed, and as he had judged, there were very few strange beasts in the temple complex at night; although there were roars, most came from far away.

But just like yesterday, when Xu Qing had been practicing his breathing until midnight, the strange and chaotic sound of footsteps appeared once again!

The location where they appeared this time was outside the temple.

"Again?"

Xu Qing frowned; he did not know why these footsteps had appeared at his location both times, and he felt a faint sense of unease. After thinking it over, he followed his actions from yesterday and did not open his eyes.

Only this time, the sound of footsteps did not gradually fade away as it had yesterday, but instead grew more numerous.

As they continuously gathered, a wave of chilling intent permeated the air, as if countless strange entities had gathered outside the temple at this moment, intending to invade it.

Xu Qing’s heart sank; he gripped his iron skewer tightly, his mind rapidly constructing the layout of the temple and formulating a plan for how to respond should he encounter danger.

And just at this moment, the sound of footsteps gathering outside suddenly vanished, becoming incomparably silent.

This silence did not make Xu Qing breathe a sigh of relief; instead, it gave him the feeling of the calm before a storm, making the hair on his body stand on end. He faintly sensed that the strange entities gathered outside the temple were currently hesitating over whether to enter.

The next instant, amidst this silence, the strange entities outside finally chose to step into the temple, and Xu Qing heard the sound of footsteps entering the temple and treading upon the stone tiles.

Plop.

This sound felt like a giant boulder falling into Xu Qing’s mind, causing his heart to sink, but at this very moment, waves of murmuring sounds suddenly echoed within the temple, carrying an incomparable sense of holiness.

Furthermore, wisps of golden light suddenly radiated from the temple walls, illuminating the entire temple and also permeating the space around Xu Qing, causing the world behind his closed eyelids to instantly flash with brilliance from its original darkness.

Under this golden light, Xu Qing’s eyes stung, and for the first time since encountering such strange entities, he opened his eyes.

The new book has been released for a week, with nearly ninety thousand words updated; for a little newbie like me, this amount is not easy... would everyone like to offer some encouragement?