Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Temple

When it came to the dark night of a forbidden area, Xu Qing was quite experienced.

He had lived for a while in the ruins of the city, and he had also survived several nights in this jungle.

Right now, he was hiding in a crevice in a giant tree. His eyes were half-closed, and he silently inhaled and exhaled the forbidden area’s heterogeneity-rich spiritual energy while partially dozing off.

After the spiritual energy entered his body, it would be separated into pure spiritual energy and heterogeneity by the Sea and Mountain Art. The pure spiritual energy nourished his whole body, and the heterogeneity merged into his shadow.

Xu Qing was used to this.

He felt that the reason he was even cultivating in the forbidden area was because of the shadow, or maybe it was just his natural vigilance that made him want to seize every moment to strengthen himself so he could better survive the forbidden area’s perils.

Nevertheless, he had constantly focused on cultivation, and his improvement was quite fast.

By now, he was already almost at the fourth level of the Sea and Mountain Art.

"It's like sharpening a knife..." Xu Qing murmured.

He didn’t know anything about the principles of the Grand Dao, but he remembered that the blacksmith in the slums had once said that a good knife needs a better whetstone to fully reveal its sharpness.

Right now, this dangerous forbidden area seemed to become Xu Qing’s whetstone.

Just like that, Xu Qing continued to cultivate. After a long time, he silently opened his eyes.

He raised his head and stared at the darkness outside the tree’s crevice. The roars of mutated beasts rose and fell from far away, echoing through the forbidden area night like demonic whispers.

At night, the eerie chill grew even colder and invaded all living beings. It snaked through the crevice in the tree where Xu Qing was hiding, drilling into and permeating his body.

It was so cold…

This made him feel as if he had returned to the ruins of the city. Gradually, he was suffused with a hint of loneliness.

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

Time passed.

Since he had found a good spot to rest, the night passed without any danger. However, in the middle of the night, Xu Qing woke up from his cultivation to the sound of footsteps from outside.

The steps were chaotic, as if a large group of people was passing by in single file.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and looked outside into the darkness. There was nothing there.

However, Xu Qing’s heart sank. The moment he heard the footsteps, the roars of the mutated beasts nearby suddenly disappeared, making Xu Qing extremely vigilant.

He remembered that the singing voice from last time also came with footsteps. However, this time it felt a little different.

“It’s not like the footsteps from that day, and there isn’t any singing.”

Xu Qing didn’t act rashly, forcing himself to calm down as he analyzed. He held his breath and stared at the dark night outside.

Gradually, the sound of footsteps grew clearer, as if that group of people walking in line was getting closer.

At the same time, Xu Qing felt waves of cold that far surpassed the normal level of the forbidden area’s night invading him, as if trying to freeze his body inside out.

Xu Qing was no stranger to the kind of chill. Whether it was the singing voice from that day or the eerie existences that sometimes appeared at night in the city ruins, they all exuded this cold.

It was just that the degree was different. The singing voice from that day could even freeze his soul, but the coldness right now only made him feel uncomfortable, not even to the point of losing the ability to move.

“It’s an eerie existence similar to those in the city ruins!” After Xu Qing came to this conclusion, he firmly grasped the iron skewer. Taking a deep breath and calming the beating of his heart, he forcibly closed his eyes, refusing to open them.

Do not look, do not touch, do not meet.

After Xu Qing closed his eyes, the footsteps seemed to grow hurried, getting closer and closer. It was as if countless people were circling around the big tree he was hiding in.

Xu Qing’s heart shook, and he tried his best to restrain his urge to open his eyes and look at the other party.

After a long time… When the sun rose in the sky, the chaotic footsteps finally stopped wandering around him and slowly went away.

It was finally daybreak.

Xu Qing didn’t open his eyes right away. He waited for a while before slowly blinking, then finally opened his eyes fully. That was when he saw that the crevice in the tree that he was hiding in was sealed off by a thick layer of ice, trapping his whole body inside.

The sunlight fell on Xu Qing’s body through the thick ice. He exhaled, pressing his left hand on the ice layer and pushing hard. With a cracking sound, the ice layer shattered and fell to the ground.

Xu Qing slowly crawled out of the tree. When he looked around, he saw that the wolf corpses that were still piled high just yesterday had all disappeared, and on the ground… there were a lot of footprints.

They were human footprints, and they were densely packed as if hundreds of people had walked by.

Xu Qing had never heard of hundreds of people entering the forbidden area together.

And… these footprints were really footprints, not shoeprints.

Xu Qing was silent for a long time before looking away. He felt the strangeness of the forbidden area even more deeply now, but he didn’t give up his expedition, leaving in a flash. He needed to take advantage of all the daylight he had since the forbidden area was most dangerous at night.

Several hours later, Xu Qing finally reached the deepest point they had gone last time, the small valley where the Thunder Team harvested seven-leaf grass.

This valley was still the same as when he left. The sun scattered through the vine canopy to shine on the ground, and the fragrance of flowers filled the whole area. It was like a paradise isolated from the dangers of the outside world.

Upon his arrival, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up past the other side of the valley, at the temple complex that existed farther away.

After staring for a moment, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and sat down for a brief rest. Once he had recovered his energy, he ran straight to the temple complex.

Outside the valley, the jungle became denser, and even less sunlight could filter down through the gaps in the leaves.

Maybe it was because the ancient temple complex still exuded the glory and presence of its bygone era, but Xu Qing didn’t encounter any danger the whole way over from the valley.

The lush jungle seemed to emit a much gentler aura.

And the trees in the jungle closest to the temple complex were almost no different from the trees in the world outside the forbidden area, no longer pitch-black or fiercely gnarled.

There was even some seven-leaf grass here that Xu Qing picked up.

All of this made Xu Qing a little surprised, but he didn’t relax his vigilance as he approached cautiously.

Several hours passed. Dusk was already about to arrive by the time Xu Qing finally walked out of the jungle and stood in front of the temple complex.

There were few trees here, and sunlight shone brightly on a wide area. Xu Qing fell into a daze as his eyes readjusted.

What fell into his vision was an enormous domed building hundreds of meters high.

Despite having collapsed, despite being broken, despite being covered with moss, this temple that was constructed from bricks much larger than Xu Qing’s body exuded a sense of majesty.

Walking inside and stepping over the huge broken bricks on the ground, Xu Qing felt like he had come to a kingdom of giants.

Pieces of broken walls could be seen everywhere, and they all exuded a feeling of ancientness, as if telling Xu Qing about everything they had experienced.

Further ahead, there was a collapsed statue.

The statue’s lower body had disappeared, shattered into countless fragments that were impossible to fit back together. The head was still complete, but its face was already blurred.

Even so, the statue was more than a hundred meters tall, and it could easily have been more than 700 meters tall before it collapsed.

Standing in front of it, Xu Qing’s entire existence seemed insignificant.

Just then, a gust of wind blew over. It was like the sound of a desolate flute echoing from bygone days, seeming to isolate time and space so that the glory of the past became nothing more than something for future generations to look upon.

Xu Qing gazed at the statue quietly and remained silent for a long time.

He thought of the ruins of the city, wondering whether people in the future would carefully enter the forbidden area like he was right now, and stare at the city ruins as if they were looking at history.

After a while, Xu Qing turned his gaze away and searched the whole temple complex. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find that special stone that Captain Thunder had mentioned.

By the time Captain Thunder changed their residence, Xu Qing had already asked around and learned that this special stone would emit a rainbow light.

Apparently, it only formed naturally, and the timing of its appearance was irregular.

Xu Qing felt some regret after failing to find anything. He jumped up to the top of the temple in a few breaths and stood there, looking around in all directions.

Behind him was the outer area of the jungle forbidden area. Although he couldn’t see its end, he could still see part of it. Counting the time, this was the fourth day since Bone Blade had bought insurance from him.

Xu Qing had been in the jungle yesterday and didn’t encounter the bewilderment fog. There was still no bewilderment fog today, so he didn’t have to go and rescue Bone Blade.

Thus, he turned his head and looked in another direction. Past the temple complex was… the depths of the jungle forbidden area.

After pondering for a while, Xu Qing raised his head and saw that it was getting late. He decided that he would explore a bit into the depths, then rush back before dark. He would spend the night in the temple complex and go back to camp early in the morning.

After making a plan, Xu Qing moved decisively, jumping off the temple roof and moving towards the depths of the forbidden area.

The moment he stepped into the depths of the jungle, his vigilance and caution grew as his nerves tensed up.

He knew that the degree of danger here was much greater than that of the outer area.

Indeed, after only an hour, Xu Qing reappeared in the temple complex.

His expression was dark, and his eyes held traces of lingering fear.

But his leather bag was full to bulging.

When he ventured into the depths, he had only walked less than half a kilometer before he saw heaps of aged seven-leaf grass that seemingly hadn’t been harvested for a long time. This surprised Xu Qing since seven-leaf grass aged to such a degree was extremely valuable.

But when he was harvesting them, he clearly felt that the heterogeneity in the air had more than doubled. He had the shadow that could absorb heterogeneity, but others probably could barely step inside, never mind harvest seven-leaf grass.

And he also saw from a distance that strange jellyfish he had seen last time...

There were also more than ten similar jellyfish here, but they were much smaller. Still, the cold aura emanating from their bodies was obvious.

Fortunately, most of these jellyfish were sleeping in the trees. As long as he was careful, Xu Qing could avoid them.

But as he moved forward, he suddenly got a strong feeling of foreboding, as though countless gazes were falling on him from the depths of the jungle. These gazes were so strong that they felt almost corporeal, and they were filled with greed as they looked at Xu Qing.

All of this made Xu Qing feel like sinister needles were pointing at his back.

And this was just the edge of the forbidden area depths. The region inside was even greater, and it was impossible to imagine just how many terrifying things there would be in there.

Xu Qing didn’t dare to explore any further, opting to retreat safely.

It wasn’t until he had returned to the temple complex that the feeling of needles pointing at his back went away.

Apparently, this temple complex was some sort of boundary that blocked off the malicious beings in the depths of the forbidden area.

Xu Qing took a deep breath. Taking advantage of the setting sun, he found a temple that was relatively intact and stepped into it as the last rays of sunlight fell.

Then he crawled into a crevice in the rocks and prepared to spend the night there. Captain Thunder had once said that he could temporarily avoid danger by coming here.

He had also checked the inside of the temple. It was very empty and exuded a strong sense of age. Whether it was the blade-wielding stone statue enshrined on the altar or the many human sculptures carved into the surrounding walls, they had all become blurry with the passage of time.

At the same time, the temple didn’t have too many traces of mutated beasts.

If there were no traces, or if there were many traces, then Xu Qing wouldn’t have chosen this temple.

This was because either would be a sign of abnormality. Only if there were a few traces but not many could he conclude that it was relatively safe.

After all, although the temple complex was technically located inside the jungle, there weren’t many trees here. It was reasonable that the mutated beasts who were used to life in the thick jungle didn’t want to come here often.

Soon, night arrived.

As the mutated beasts outside started roaring again, Xu Qing cultivated silently.

Time passed, and the situation was consistent with his judgment. Very few mutated beasts came to the temple complex at night. Although he could hear their roars, most of those roars were just echoing from afar.

But just like yesterday, when Xu Qing was in the middle of his cultivation, the strange chaotic footsteps reappeared!

This time, they appeared outside the temple.

"Again?"

Xu Qing frowned. He didn’t know why the footsteps had appeared near him twice, but it made him very uneasy. But after thinking about it, he repeated his actions from yesterday and shut his eyes tightly.

However, this time, the footsteps didn’t gradually fade away. More and more footsteps seemed to join in.

As they gathered, waves of cold filled the air. It was as if countless eerie existences had gathered outside the temple and were about to invade it.

Xu Qing’s heart sank. He gripped his iron skewer tightly and quickly called up his mental map of the temple, trying to think of a way to deal with any dangers.

But at that moment, the chaotic footsteps outside suddenly disappeared, giving way to absolute silence.

This kind of silence didn’t relieve Xu Qing at all. On the contrary, it gave him the feeling of the quiet before the storm, and all the hairs on his body stood on end. He faintly felt that the eerie existences gathered outside the temple seemed to be hesitating on whether or not to enter.

In the end, the eerie existences outside chose to step into the temple. Xu Qing heard the sound of footsteps tapping on stone bricks as they entered.

Pah.

This sound fell into Xu Qing’s mind like a huge boulder, and his heart sank. But just at that moment, waves of murmurs suddenly echoed in the temple, containing an incomparable sacred aura.

Wisps of golden light suddenly appeared from the temple walls, illuminating the entire temple. Even with his eyes closed tightly, Xu Qing’s vision instantly lit up.

With the appearance of this golden light, Xu Qing felt both his eyes sting fiercely. For the first time, Xu Qing didn’t follow the rules of “do not look, do not touch, do not meet”. He… opened his eyes.

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