Chapter 158 Correct Guess

He guessed right… Zhang Yuanqing felt a slight relief.

In reality, once the Mountain God Temple was explored, the zombie was dealt with, the entrance to the cave would open. However, the construction team’s predecessors had taken the Demon Subduing Pestle before that.

If he couldn't see through this detail and return the Demon Subduing Pestle, he would probably be stuck at this step forever.

Zhang Yuanqing waited patiently, subtly tensing his nerves, concentrating his energy, not daring to be careless in the slightest, because beneath the cave, there was likely the source of the Mountain God Temple's decline.

After a while, seeing that the collapsed cave entrance showed no abnormalities, he re-summoned the Red Dancing Shoes, activating their second form, letting them replace the running shoes and wrap around his feet.

Then, he walked to the dark, deep cave and leaped lightly.

*Pa-da*… His feet quickly touched the ground, the Red Dancing Shoes eliminating the force of the 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 tool.

With the Red Dancing Shoes and the Demon Subduing Pestle, he was confident he could face the dangers in the cave.

Candlelight filtered down from above, illuminating only a limited area. Ahead was a dark, silent tunnel, filled with unknown terrors.

In such an environment, groping forward was extremely unwise.

Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, then turned his gaze to the tool in his hand.

The item description said that this was a tool containing the divine power of the sun. By offering a blood sacrifice, one could obtain divine power.

Proper sun divine power should be able to dispel darkness and bring light, right?

It was worth a try, but the "note" in the attribute description was a bit unsettling… Zhang Yuanqing exhaled silently, and stabbed the sharp triangular spike into his thigh.

A sharp pain assaulted him, and blood gurgled out, not flowing down his trouser leg, but turning into streaks of blood that poured into the bronze tool.

Zhang Yuanqing only felt a warm power surge from the Demon Subduing Pestle, rush along his arm into his body. His pupils lit up with a pale golden light, transforming into brilliant golden eyes.

The Demon Subduing Pestle didn't dispel the darkness, but it gave him the ability to see through it.

At the same time, dizziness, difficulty breathing, chest pain, and other negative states all disappeared, leaving only the weakness of blood loss.

The corpse poison in his body was cleared.

It really was exchanging life for power, but it was still acceptable… He used his enhanced vision to look ahead. Before him was a wide tunnel, stretching into the depths of darkness.

The walls of the tunnel showed signs of artificial excavation, not naturally formed.

Zhang Yuanqing walked through the tunnel at a measured pace, the silence echoing with his footsteps.

After walking for a dozen seconds, the walls of the tunnel were covered with plant roots, densely packed and crawling all over.

"Help, help me…"

Suddenly, from the darkness ahead, a chilling cry for help sounded, like weeping and pleading.

Following the sound for a while, the path ahead opened up, and a huge stone cave came into view. At the very center of the cave was a thick tree trunk, piercing through the top of the cave and growing out into the world.

At the base of this thick tree trunk, roots intertwined and tangled, wrapped around a stone coffin.

Most terrifying of all, from within the thick tree trunk, pale arms reached out, and pale faces emerged, unconsciously uttering cries for "help."

Densely packed arms flailed wildly, as if searching for a lifeline.

My trypophobia is acting up… The candlelight and the Demon Subduing Pestle gave Zhang Yuanqing courage. He only felt a slight tingling on his scalp, not too frightened.

At this moment, a hoarse, ancient voice rang out:

"After so many years, this is the first time a living being has come here."

With this sentence, the cries for help stopped, and the seaweed-like waving arms all retracted into the tree trunk. Those faces disappeared into the tree in terror.

"Who's there?"

Zhang Yuanqing was startled, looking around warily.

"Me? I'm just a tree…"

A hideous face emerged from the tree trunk. Unlike the faces of those vengeful spirits, its skin was bark, as if symbolizing the tree itself.

It was that old banyan tree in the courtyard that had become a spirit? Zhang Yuanqing didn't expect to encounter a being he could communicate with in this ghostly place, even if it was a tree.

He didn't dare approach, and asked tentatively:

"Did you kill the disciples in the temple?"

"Not me, it was her."

The tree spirit's gaze dropped, as if staring at the stone coffin below, even though it couldn't see it.

"Who is she?"

"She is the Sandaoshan Niangniang."

Zhang Yuanqing felt like he'd been struck on the head, his mind reeling.

The Sandaoshan Niangniang was lying in the stone coffin, the powerful Night Wanderer who was supposed to have ascended to immortality in the early Ming Dynasty?

The source of the strangeness was the Sandaoshan Niangniang; she was the one who killed the disciples in the temple?

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

"Because the End of Dharma era has arrived, and it's become increasingly difficult for cultivators to break through bottlenecks. To achieve immortality, the Sandaoshan Niangniang fell into demonic ways. She sealed herself in the stone coffin, using the banyan tree to imprison Yin souls, using Yin to nourish Yin, to preserve her physical body and primordial spirit. She is a powerful Night Wanderer, and Night Wanderers are born to devour souls and strengthen themselves."

The face on the tree trunk sighed, "The banyan tree has accommodated too many souls, receiving their wills, and slowly giving birth to intelligence, which is me. Over the years, people have accidentally wandered into this place, died here, and ultimately become her nourishment. I carry the resentment and unwillingness of the vengeful spirits, and have been waiting for someone to come here and end her for me."

So that's how it is. Does this count as triggering an NPC's quest? Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flickered slightly. "What should I do?"

"Open the stone coffin, and use the weapon in your hand to pierce her heart, that will end everything. Heh, the Demon Subduing Pestle seals half of her Yang soul. Piercing her heart will seal the remaining Yang soul in her body into the weapon. Without the protection of the Yang soul, her physical body will die immediately," the banyan tree spirit said, then slowly added:

"And you will be able to leave this place."

Zhang Yuanqing didn't move, remaining silent.

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

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly said:

"I'm thinking about a question…"

The banyan tree spirit responded gently, "What question?"

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

"You wouldn't happen to be the temple guardian, would you?"

The cave suddenly fell silent. After a few seconds, the banyan tree spirit said in a low voice:

"The temple guardian was the first person to be bewitched by the Sandaoshan Niangniang, becoming her puppet, and later becoming that woman's nourishment. If you don't believe me, come over and open the stone coffin, and you'll know I'm not lying to you."

"Then help me open it."

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

"Can't open it, or dare not open it?" Zhang Yuanqing seemed to have gotten the answer he wanted, and curled up the corners of his mouth:

"The one lying in the coffin is the temple guardian, right? And you are his guardian, or his soul?"

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

As a tech-savvy person skilled at攻略游戏 (gōnglüè yóuxì - game walkthroughs), after experiencing so many crises, if he still couldn't figure out the secrets of the Mountain God Temple, he would be too incompetent.

First of all, the Sandaoshan Niangniang ascended to immortality in the early Ming Dynasty. After her death, the local government built the temple for her.

The unexplained disappearance of the temple's disciples occurred during the Yongle period, at least fifty or sixty years later, which is one or two generations.

Secondly, the information prompt in the main hall stated that the Sandaoshan Niangniang was a righteous figure, while the banyan tree spirit's so-called fall into demonic ways was only its one-sided statement. Zhang Yuanqing was more willing to believe the former.

Finally, and most importantly, the contents of the notes were: Don't trust the master!

In fact, the spirit realm had already hinted at who the real enemy was in these details.

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

Now he knew.

If he replaced the person who wanted to achieve immortality and fell into demonic ways with the temple guardian, all the doubts would be resolved.

The cave fell into silence. The banyan tree spirit sighed, "You're too wary. From beginning to end, I haven't had any malice towards you, let alone harm you."

"Is it won't harm, or can't harm?" Zhang Yuanqing slowly retreated a few steps, and said:

"Um, let me guess, your method of killing people is twisting necks, but the technique should be related to illusion or mind control, right? You wanted to kill me not long ago, but unfortunately, I didn't turn around."

This time, the banyan tree spirit's face suddenly changed.

Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing knew that his reasoning was completely correct.

The information about that Night Wanderer in the Taiyi sect's records clearly stated two things: first, the banyan tree is dangerous; second, don't turn around.

That's why he didn't find anything when he explored the ancient well, because there was no problem with the well at all. The problem was with the tree.

In addition, he was able to accurately determine "illusion" because the female ghost called out the name Zhang Yuanqing, not Yuanshi Tianzun.

Finally, when Zhang Yuanqing discovered the ancient well, he thought of a famous horror movie from a certain island nation, thus creating a psychological shadow and not daring to peer into the bottom of the well.

Subsequently, the female ghost that crawled out of the well, dressed in white, with disheveled hair, and without facial features, matched the vague fear in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.

"You're pretending, talking to me nicely, because your illusion can no longer deceive me, right? After all, I have Niangniang's Demon Subduing Pestle, and I'm immune to illusions." Zhang Yuanqing looked calm, analyzing the truth:

"You're trying to deceive me into going over so you can kill me by other means. If illusions are ineffective against me, then it's physical attacks, right?"

He glanced at the tree roots crawling all over the tunnel wall, and suddenly thrust the pestle down.

.......

ps: Two chapters will be updated together today. There will be another chapter later, um, within an hour.