After taking the step, Jiang Baimian realized that the gray-robed monk was leading them to the seventh floor of the Sika Luo Temple.
This was where the "Buddha's Incarnation" of the "Crystal Consciousness Sect" slept, and rash entry would lead to a bizarre death!
Jiang Baimian's abdominal muscles tensed up, forcibly pulling her outstretched right foot back.
At the same time, she shouted in a deep voice:
"Stop!"
Shang Jianyao reacted almost simultaneously with her, his back slightly arched, his eyes looking at the gray-robed monk becoming dark and deep.
"Hypocrite!"
He used "Hypocrite" immediately.
Long Yuehong and Bai Chen, alerted by Jiang Baimian, subconsciously wanted to stop, but couldn't overcome the inertia and staggered slightly.
At this moment, Jiang Baimian, who had forcefully regained her balance while standing on one foot, extended her left palm.
A ball of silver-white electric light rapidly expanded, piercing the air and landing with a "啪" sound on the torso of the gray-robed monk.
But the gray-robed monk's expression remained wooden, without the slightest change, his eyes even more devoid of any waves, as if it was not his body that was being electrocuted.
Similarly, Shang Jianyao's "Hypocrite" failed to leave any trace on him. He maintained a silent, rigid attitude, half-turning his body, standing there, without doing anything irrational.
In an instant, a strange light lit up within the green eyes of the gray-robed monk, like two Bodhi seeds solidified with "Clairvoyance" embedded in his face.
In a daze, Long Yuehong returned to the company and, based on the assigned result, married a woman.
Afterward, he transferred to an internal position, working diligently and raising one son and two daughters.
As he grew older, his body gradually deteriorated, but the effects of genetic modification prevented him from having to go to the hospital frequently. After he turned seventy, he truly experienced aging and the fear and helplessness of death approaching step by step.
What made him even sadder was that his wife and eldest daughter successively suffered from "Heartless Disease," but he could only watch, powerless.
Various kinds of suffering left marks on him, making him unable to help but think: as a human being, is this life always accompanied by suffering, unable to be relieved?
On his deathbed, he saw a world shrouded in lapis lazuli light, where Bodhi trees were densely packed, pagodas stood tall, and gold, silver, crystal, amber, etc., were everywhere, decorating numerous houses.
It was peaceful, harmonious, without hunger and pain. Long Yuehong felt that this was everything he had been looking forward to, so he stepped into that world.
Shang Jianyao transformed into a beast, sometimes howling "嗷呜," sometimes biting other animals, spending a short life in a daze.
In his old age, he was finally hunted by another beast and became its food.
In the pain of being torn apart, it seemed like a voice in his mind said:
"Is this the state you want?"
In a daze, Shang Jianyao saw a classroom, saw children, and heard lectures and recitations.
He couldn't help but sing:
"Bai Suzhen under Qingcheng Mountain, cultivated this body for a thousand years in the cave, ah, ah, diligently cultivated to attain enlightenment, transformed from the mortal into a human..." (Note 1)
At this moment, the teacher and children who were in class seemed to be stunned.
Then, Shang Jianyao walked in.
Bai Chen stood in the wilderness, holding "Ice Moss" and "United 202" in her hands respectively.
She kept running and shooting, knocking down one wilderness bandit, vagrant, and subhuman after another who tried to attack her.
Blood flowed out as a result, staining the earth red, and the strong stench entered Bai Chen's nose.
This kind of life seemed eternally unchanging, day after day, year after year, Bai Chen was always in battle and killing.
This made her full of anger and physically and mentally exhausted, until she was accidentally shot.
Bang!
Bai Chen felt the severe pain in her body, and also the joy of finally being freed.
But vaguely, she realized that she would come back to life and continue this escape and kill.
No... At this time, she saw a city, not big but peaceful.
There was enough order here, and people no longer frantically killed each other.
Bai Chen pursed her lips and couldn't wait to run in.
Jiang Baimian returned to the laboratory.
She was busy with experiments every day, delighted with the conclusions she reached.
Her life had no hunger, no heat or cold, no fatigue, only focus and transcendence.
But suddenly, she began to age, her body became unclean, and she became irritable.
This state was inescapable, until she was on the verge of death, about to fall asleep in the eternal darkness without sensation.
She struggled hard, not wanting to fall into a coma like this, without any sensation of the world.
Finally, her outstretched hand touched a door.
Behind this pair of dark black doors, the land was fertile, the sun was shining, there was no famine, no monsters, no infections, and no pain and aging.
Jiang Baimian alternated her hands, trying her best to crawl into the door.
"Six Paths of Reincarnation!"
The simultaneously descending "Six Paths of Reincarnation!"
Human suffering, animal ignorance, Asura killing, Deva decay.
The "Old Task Force" members thus took steps in different postures, ascending the stairs leading to the seventh floor.
They stepped upward, soon stepping onto the quiet and empty seventh-floor corridor.
At this moment, Shang Jianyao's mind twitched, his thoughts jumped, and he switched personalities.
He seemed to be a little awake, subconsciously turning his head and looking towards the stairwell.
The gray-robed monk stood there, his face a purplish-blue, his tongue sticking out.
He had suffocated to death at some point.
Thump!
The gray-robed monk fell heavily on the stairs, rolling down two or three steps.
With his death, the effect of "Six Paths of Reincarnation" disappeared. Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen stopped in a daze, turning their gazes to the place where the sound came from.
Then, they saw the corpse.
They saw that the gray-robed monk who had ignored the effects of "Hypocrite" and high-voltage electric shock had turned into a corpse.
On the surface of the corpse, besides the multiple charred marks brought about by the electric current, only the various signs of suffocation remained.
At this moment, the first thought that flashed through Long Yuehong's mind was:
Damn, he's trying to frame us with suicide...
As for why it was suicide, it was because there was no one else around.
At the same time as Jiang Baimian was shocked, she looked around and blurted out:
"This is the seventh floor?"
"Theoretically, unless we went up an extra floor and reached the eighth floor," Shang Jianyao answered.
But the Sika Luo Temple didn't have an eighth floor.
We reached the seventh floor? We unknowingly reached the seventh floor? Long Yuehong's body suddenly tensed up.
The seventh floor of the Sika Luo Temple was not a good place. Except for a very few people, everyone who entered would die silently and strangely!
The gray-robed monk who led them to the seventh floor had already suffocated to death in the well-ventilated stairwell!
Bai Chen also tensed up and said directly:
"Leave quickly!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a gust of wind swept through the corridor.
In the echoing "呜" sound, a room very close to the "Old Task Force" made a creaking noise.
Clang!
The corresponding door swung open backward, hitting the wall.
Under the dim light at both ends of the corridor, the area without streetlights was shadowy.
Jiang Baimian saw that at the doorway of the already opened room, it was deep and dark, as if it could devour all light.
"Counting from the left, this should be the third room," Shang Jianyao stated his observations.
Sika Luo Temple, seventh floor, third room... Isn't this the place hinted at by the Knocker? Long Yuehong almost gasped.
He didn't know if it was too late to escape at this time, but he felt that this was the only choice.
Bai Chen felt the same way, thinking that this place was not suitable for a long stay.
In an instant, they seemed to feel some kind of summons.
It seemed that there was something in that room summoning them.
This made their will to escape waver significantly, and they didn't rush towards the stairwell immediately, but stayed where they were.
"Come over..."
"Come over..."
"Come over..."
Vaguely, it seemed like a long voice rang in the hearts of the four members of the "Old Task Force."
"No!" Shang Jianyao used "Hypocrite" on himself.
He also didn't forget to add this effect to Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen, so that they could resist the summons.
"I'll just stay here, I'm not going anywhere!" Long Yuehong shouted out.
Under the "Hypocrite" state, he was unwilling to respond to the summons, nor did he want to escape.
Jiang Baimian's reaction was similar to Shang Jianyao's. She calmed herself down and gave the order in a deep voice:
"Retreat to the stairwell."
Before she finished speaking, the open door seemed to be pushed by an invisible force, trying to close.
The sound of the wind became faster, and the speed of the door closing slowed down a lot.
Just as this deep red wooden door was about to close completely, a hoarse voice that seemed to have not spoken for many years was transmitted with difficulty:
"Holm... Holm..."
Bang!
The door closed completely, blocking all movement.
Note 1: Quoted from "Bai Suzhen under Qingcheng Mountain," originally sung by Zhuang Huiru.