Chapter 22 The Temple

The night of the forbidden zone was not unfamiliar to Xu Qing. Whether it was the ruins of the city or this jungle. He lived in the former for more than ten days, and he had also experienced several nights in the latter. At this moment, hidden in the crevice of a giant tree, he half-closed his eyes, silently absorbing the mixed and rich spiritual energy within the forbidden zone. After entering his body, this spiritual energy was separated by the Haishan Technique, with the pure part nourishing his entire body and the heterogeneous part merging into his shadow. Xu Qing had already grown accustomed to this change. He even faintly felt that practicing in this forbidden zone, perhaps due to the shadow or the danger of this place, made him vigilant at all times. With his mind highly concentrated, his cultivation speed had greatly increased. Now, he was not far from the fourth layer of the Haishan Technique. "It feels like sharpening a knife..." Xu Qing murmured. He did not understand much of the profound principles, but he remembered the blacksmith in the slums saying that a good knife needs a better whetstone to fully reveal its sharpness. At this moment, the dangerous forbidden zone seemed to have become Xu Qing's whetstone. After a long period of honing in this training, Xu Qing, who had finished a week's worth of practice, quietly opened his eyes. He raised his head and gazed at the blackness of the night outside through the tree crevice, while the sounds of roars from the exotic beasts in the forbidden zone echoed through the jungle like the low chants of gods and demons. The chill was everywhere, invading all living beings here, seeping into the crevice where Xu Qing was hiding and spreading over his body. It was very cold. This scene made him feel as if he had returned to the ruined city, slowly enveloped by a sense of loneliness. But Xu Qing was already very familiar with loneliness. After a while, he closed his eyes again and continued to cultivate. Thus, time passed. Because the resting place he found was quite appropriate, that night was relatively safe. It was only in the middle of the night that Xu Qing, who was in the midst of his cultivation, heard footsteps from the outside world. They were chaotic, as if many people were walking together. Xu Qing's expression tightened, his eyes narrowed as he looked outside, but it was pitch black outside the tree crevice, and he could see nothing. However, a sudden heaviness gripped Xu Qing's heart, because at the moment the footsteps sounded, the roars of the exotic beasts in the nearby jungle suddenly vanished, causing his alertness to surge. He remembered the singing footsteps he encountered last time, but this time it felt somewhat different. "It doesn't sound like the footsteps from the day of the singing, and there is no singing this time." Xu Qing quickly analyzed, refraining from acting rashly. Instead, he forced himself to calm down, held his breath, and stared into the darkness outside. Gradually, the footsteps became clearer, as if a group of people was gradually approaching in a line. At the same time, a chill beyond the ordinary, as if it could freeze his body, suddenly surged in. This chill was not unfamiliar to Xu Qing; whether it was the singing from that day or the strange presence lurking in the ruins at night, they all emitted this kind of temperature. But the intensity was different; the singing from that day could freeze his soul, while the current cold only made his body uncomfortable, without reaching the point of immobility. "It's a kind of existence similar to the strange beings in the ruins!" After Xu Qing made this judgment, he tightly gripped the iron rod, took a deep breath, suppressed the fluctuations in his heart, and forced his eyes shut, refusing to open them. No looking, no touching, no encountering. After Xu Qing closed his eyes, the footsteps suddenly became urgent, getting closer, as if countless people were circling around the giant tree he was hiding in. Xu Qing's heart trembled as 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 light of dawn broke, the chaotic footsteps finally ceased to linger and slowly faded away. The sky had brightened. Xu Qing did not open his eyes immediately; he waited a moment before slowly opening and closing his eyes again, only to see the crevice of the tree he was in, where a thick layer of ice had formed, and he had been sealed within. Through the ice, sunlight spilled onto Xu Qing, and he exhaled a breath, pressing his left hand against the ice surface, suddenly pushing. With a cracking sound, the ice shattered and fell to the ground. Xu Qing slowly crawled out, first observing his surroundings. He saw that the wolf corpses that had been there yesterday had all disappeared, and on the ground... there were numerous footprints. They were human footprints. Dense and numerous, as if hundreds of people had walked through. Xu Qing had never heard of such a scale of hundreds of people entering the forbidden zone together. Especially... these footprints were indeed footprints, not shoe prints. Xu Qing fell silent, withdrawing his gaze after a long time. He felt an even deeper sense of strangeness regarding the forbidden zone. Taking advantage of the daylight when the danger was less than at night, Xu Qing did not give up exploring and quickly departed. A few hours later, Xu Qing finally reached the farthest point where his group had gone before, the small canyon where the Thunder Team had picked the Seven-Leaf Grass. The canyon was just as it had been when they left, with sunlight cascading down through the overhead vines and tree crowns, filling the air with fragrance, isolating the dangers of the outside world, like a paradise. Upon arriving here, Xu Qing breathed a slight sigh of relief, raising his head to look at the other end of the canyon, where a group of temples existed in the distance. After gazing for a moment, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and, after a brief rest, his body surged forward directly toward the temple group. The jungle outside the canyon was even denser, and sunlight here was even scarcer. It was unclear whether it was the ancient temple group that still exuded the glory and pressure from its era, so that when approaching it from the canyon, the danger was minimal. The lush jungle seemed to have become much gentler in aura. Even in the closest jungle to the temple group, the trees were not much different from those Xu Qing had seen outside; they were no longer ferocious or pitch black. The Seven-Leaf Grass was also present, and Xu Qing picked some. Everything here surprised Xu Qing, but his vigilance did not decrease as he cautiously approached. Until another hour passed, as dusk was approaching, he walked out of the jungle and came to the front of the temple group. There were few trees here, and sunlight poured down in a wide range, causing Xu Qing's eyes to blur slightly. What met his gaze were huge dome-shaped buildings towering several tens of feet high. Even if they had collapsed, even if they were dilapidated, and even if they were covered in moss, these temples, built from large stones much bigger than his body, still radiated a sense of grandeur. Walking inside and stepping on the shattered bricks, it felt as if Xu Qing had entered the realm of giants. The ruins visible everywhere exuded an ancient aura, as if telling Xu Qing their history. Further ahead, there stood a collapsed statue. The lower half of this statue was already gone, reduced to countless unrecognizable fragments, while the head remained relatively intact, but its appearance was already blurred. Even so, it was still over thirty feet tall, and one could imagine that before its collapse, it was at least over two hundred feet tall. Standing in front of it, Xu Qing felt insignificant. At this moment, a breeze blew, carrying the sound of a Qiang flute, a desolate echo, as if separating time and space, leaving only the gazes of future generations on the once-glorious past. Xu Qing quietly gazed at the statue, remaining silent for a long time. He thought of the ruins of the city outside the slums, wondering if in several years, people of that era would enter the forbidden zone as cautiously as he did now, looking at that city as if viewing history. After a while, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and searched within this temple group, but he did not find the special stones that Lei Team had mentioned. When he had come here, he had already inquired that these special stones would emit colorful light. They seemed to grow naturally, appearing without a regular pattern. After failing to find them, Xu Qing felt a bit regretful. He nimbly leaped onto the top of a temple and stood there, gazing in all directions. Behind him was the outer area of the forbidden zone jungle. Although he could not see the end, he could see part of it. Calculating the time, today was the fourth day that the bone knife had mentioned when he 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 rescue anyone. He turned to look in another direction of the temple group, where... lay the depths of the forbidden zone jungle. After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing raised his head and noticed that it was getting late. He prepared to explore the small area of the depths before night fell, intending to return here to rest for the night and set off early the next day. With a plan in mind, Xu Qing immediately moved his body, jumping down from the temple and heading deeper. The moment he stepped into the depths of the jungle, his nerves tightened intensely, and his vigilance and caution intensified. Because he knew that the danger here was much greater than the periphery. In fact, this was indeed the case. After just half an hour, Xu Qing's figure reappeared within the temple range. His expression was dark, and remnants of fear lingered in his eyes. But the bag at his side had swollen, as if it was filled with something. He had walked less than a mile and had already seen quite a few matured Seven-Leaf Grasses, as if they had not been picked for a long time, which delighted Xu Qing, because this aged Seven-Leaf Grass was very valuable. However, while he was picking, he clearly felt the intensity of the heterogeneous energy multiplying. If it weren't for his shadow's ability to absorb it, anyone else would have found it impossible to move an inch. Moreover, he had even seen the bizarre jellyfish he had encountered in the forbidden zone last time from a distance... There were actually more than ten of these jellyfish here, but they were much smaller, although the chilling aura they emitted was still very prominent. Fortunately, most of these jellyfish were hanging from trees, sleeping. Upon seeing this, Xu Qing carefully avoided them. Yet as he advanced, he had a strong feeling that in the depths of this jungle, countless gazes, as tangible as substance, filled with greed, were falling upon him from unknown directions. All of this made Xu Qing feel a prickling sensation on his back. And this was just the edge of the depths of the forbidden zone; the internal area was even larger, and it was unimaginable how much horror existed within. Xu Qing did not dare to go further and retreated safely. Only when he returned to the temple area did that prickling sensation on his back dissipate. It was as if this temple was a boundary that prevented the malice from the depths of the forbidden zone from encroaching. Xu Qing took a deep breath, seizing the moment before the sun set, and in the last rays of twilight, he found a relatively intact temple and stepped inside. He searched for a stone crevice to squeeze into, preparing to spend the night. Lei Team had said that this place could provide temporary shelter from danger. He also checked inside the temple; it was very spacious and exuded a strong sense of the passage of time. Whether it was the stone statue of a knife-wielding figure enshrined in the main position or the numerous figures carved into the surrounding walls, they had all become blurred in the sands of time. At the same time, there were not many traces or droppings of exotic beasts in the temple. If there had been none or if there had been many, Xu Qing would not have chosen to stay. Because that would be abnormal, only a few traces existing, but not in large numbers, was relatively safe. After all, although the temple was in the jungle, there were very few trees here, so it was reasonable that exotic beasts accustomed to jungle life did not come here often. Soon, the night arrived. As the roars from the outside world emerged, Xu Qing silently cultivated. Time passed, and as he had judged, at night, there were very few exotic beasts in the temple group. Although the roars continued, they mostly came from a distance. But just like yesterday, when Xu Qing was cultivating until midnight, the bizarre and chaotic footsteps suddenly reappeared! This time, the location was outside the temple. "Here they come again?" Xu Qing frowned. He did not understand why these footsteps had appeared in the same place twice, feeling vaguely uneasy. After contemplating, he chose not to open his eyes, just as he had done yesterday. However, this time, the footsteps did not gradually fade away as they had the previous day; instead, they grew more numerous. As the numbers gathered, a chilling aura spread, as if countless bizarre beings were gathering outside the temple, ready to invade it. Xu Qing's heart sank as he tightened his grip on the iron rod, rapidly constructing a mental image of the temple's environment and the methods he would use to respond in case of danger. Just then, the gathering footsteps outside suddenly vanished, plunging into an eerie silence. This silence did not ease Xu Qing's mind; instead, it made him feel as if a storm was about to arrive, causing all the hairs on his body to stand on end. He vaguely sensed that the bizarre beings gathering outside the temple were hesitating whether to enter. In the next moment, amidst the silence, the bizarre presence outside finally chose to step into the temple, and Xu Qing heard the sound of footsteps on the stone bricks inside. Plop. This sound was like a huge stone falling into Xu Qing's heart, making it sink. But just at that moment, a series of murmuring voices suddenly echoed within the temple, imbued with an incomparably sacred quality. Golden light suddenly burst forth from the temple walls, illuminating the entire temple and spreading to where Xu Qing was, causing the world he had perceived with closed eyes to be flooded with dazzling brightness. Under this golden light, Xu Qing's eyes stung, and for the first time, when faced with such a bizarre presence, he opened his eyes.