You guessed it... Zhang Yuanqing felt a slight relief in his heart.
Actually, after exploring the Mountain God Temple and eliminating the zombies, the cave entrance would open by itself. But before that, the construction team senior had already taken the Demon-Subduing Pestle.
If one couldn't see through this detail and return the pestle, they'd be stuck at this step forever.
Zhang Yuanqing waited patiently, quietly tightening his nerves and focusing all his energy, not daring to slack off even for a moment, because deep down in the cave might lie the very source of the Mountain God Temple's decay.
After a long while, seeing no abnormality at the collapsed cave entrance, he summoned the Red Dancing Shoes again, activating their second form. They replaced his running shoes and wrapped tightly around his feet.
Then he approached the pitch-black, deep cave entrance and lightly leapt.
Plop. His feet soon touched the ground, and the Red Dancing Shoes absorbed the impact of the fall.
Between scattered rubble, Zhang Yuanqing found the Demon-Subduing Pestle, bent down, and picked it up, reclaiming control over this powerful tool.
With the Red Dancing Shoes and the pestle in hand, he felt confident to face whatever dangers awaited inside.
Faint candlelight filtered down from above, illuminating only a small area; ahead lay a dark, silent corridor filled with unknown terrors.
In such an environment, moving forward blindly would be extremely unwise.
Zhang Yuanqing pondered briefly and cast his gaze upon the item in his hand.
The description said it was a tool infused with the power of the Sun God, capable of granting divine power through blood sacrifice.
True Sun God power should be able to dispel darkness and bring light, right?
It was worth trying—though the "Remarks" section in the attributes made him uneasy... Zhang Yuanqing silently exhaled and pressed the sharp triangular tip against his thigh.
A sharp pain surged, blood gushing out—not dripping down his pants, but transforming into flowing veins of blood that infused into the brass tool.
Zhang Yuanqing felt a warm power flooding out from the pestle, running up his arm and into his body. His pupils shone with a faint golden light, transforming into dazzling golden eyes.
The Demon-Subduing Pestle didn't dispel the darkness but granted him the ability to see through it.
At the same time, dizziness, difficulty breathing, chest pain, and other negative symptoms vanished, leaving only the weakness from blood loss.
The internal corpse toxin was cleansed.
It was indeed trading life for power, but still acceptable...
He summoned his eyesight and looked ahead: a wide corridor stretched into the dark depths.
The walls on either side showed marks of man-made excavation, not naturally formed.
Zhang Yuanqing walked steadily through the corridor, his footsteps echoing in the silent space.
After about ten seconds, plant roots began creeping along the walls, thick and dense.
"Help me, help me..." Suddenly, a chilling plea echoed from the darkness ahead, trembling and sorrowful.
Following the sound for a while, the space suddenly opened up to reveal a massive stone cavern. In its center stood a thick tree trunk, piercing through the cavern ceiling and growing outside.
At the base of the trunk, intertwined roots wrapped around a stone coffin.
The most terrifying part: pale arms emerged from the thick trunk, revealing countless pale faces, all unconsciously crying out, "Help me."
The dense arms clawed wildly as if grasping for a lifeline.
My trypophobia's acting up... But with the courage lent by the candlelight and the Demon-Subduing Pestle, Zhang Yuanqing felt only slight scalp tingling, not overwhelming fear.
Then a hoarse, aged voice sounded:
"After all these years, this is the first time a living soul has come here."
With that, the cries stopped, and the seaweed-like arms retracted into the trunk. The terrified faces faded into the tree.
"Who?" Zhang Yuanqing startled and looked around cautiously.
"Me? I'm just a tree..." The trunk revealed a grotesque human face, different from the vengeful spirits' faces. Its skin was bark—symbolizing the tree itself.
The old locust tree from the courtyard had become sentient? Zhang Yuanqing never expected to find a communicative being here, even if it was just a tree.
He didn't dare approach and cautiously asked:
"Did you kill the temple disciples?"
"Not me. It was her."
The tree spirit's gaze dropped downward, as if staring at the stone coffin, though it couldn't see it.
"Who is she?"
"She is the Lady of Sandao Mountain."
Zhang Yuanqing felt like he'd been struck in the head—his mind went blank.
The stone coffin contained the Lady of Sandao Mountain, the powerful night-walking deity who should have ascended in the early Ming dynasty?
The source of the weirdness was the Lady of Sandao Mountain. She had killed the temple disciples?
"Why would she do that?" Zhang Yuanqing blurted.
"Because the Age of Decline has come. Cultivators can no longer break through bottlenecks. To achieve immortality, the Lady of Sandao Mountain fell into demonic ways. She sealed herself inside the coffin, using the locust tree to imprison the souls, nurturing darkness with darkness to preserve her physical body and soul from extinction. As a powerful night-walking deity, she can naturally devour souls to strengthen herself."
The tree spirit sighed: "The locust tree has absorbed too many souls and their wills, gradually developing consciousness—that's me. Over the years, one after another, people who stray here die and become her nourishment. I carry the hatred and grievances of these souls, waiting for someone to come and end her."
So this could be considered triggering an NPC quest? Zhang Yuanqing's eyes gleamed. "What should I do?"
"Open the coffin and stab her heart with your weapon. That will end it all. The Demon-Subduing Pestle contains half of her yang soul. Piercing her heart will trap the remaining yang soul inside the pestle. Without yang protection, her physical body will die instantly." The tree spirit finished slowly:
"Then you can leave here."
Zhang Yuanqing didn't move, silent.
The tree spirit said gently: "Young man, what are you hesitating for?"
Zhang Yuanqing suddenly said:
"I'm thinking about something..."
The tree spirit responded warmly: "What is it?"
Zhang Yuanqing stood at a distance, staring at the face on the trunk, and said slowly, word by word:
"You wouldn't happen to be the temple caretaker, would you?"
The cave fell silent. After a few seconds, the tree spirit's voice darkened:
"The caretaker was the first to be bewitched by the Lady of Sandao Mountain, becoming her puppet, and later her nourishment. If you don't believe me, open the coffin and you'll know I'm not lying."
"Then open it for me."
"I can't open it. I'm just a tree."
"Can't, or won't?" Zhang Yuanqing seemed to get the answer he wanted, smirking:
"The one in the coffin is the caretaker, and you're his guardian—or maybe his soul?"
Having said that, he entered alert mode, waiting for the tree spirit's reaction.
As a tech geek skilled in game strategies, after going through so many crises, if he couldn't crack the Mountain God Temple's secret, that would be too embarrassing.
First, the Lady of Sandao Mountain ascended in the early Ming. The local government built the temple after her death.
Second, the disciples disappeared mysteriously during the Yongle era, at least fifty or sixty years later—one or two generations.
Third, the temple's main hall described the Lady of Sandao Mountain as a righteous figure, while the tree spirit's claim that she fell into demonic ways was one-sided. Zhang Yuanqing preferred to believe the former.
Finally, and most crucially, the note in the journal said: Don't trust the master!
Actually, the real enemy had been hinted at in these details long ago.
He just hadn't realized why the caretaker would kill his disciples.
Now he did.
If you replace the "one who fell into demonic ways seeking immortality" with "the caretaker," all the doubts clear up.
The cave fell silent again. The tree spirit sighed:
"You're too wary. I have never harmed you or meant to."
"Can't harm, or won't?" Zhang Yuanqing stepped back a few paces and said:
"Let me guess, your method is neck-twisting, but it must involve illusions and mind control. You tried to kill me recently, but I didn't look back in time."
This time, the tree spirit's face abruptly changed.
Zhang Yuanqing knew his deduction was entirely correct.
The Taiyi Sect's data on that night-walking deity clearly pointed out two things: one, the locust tree is dangerous; two, don't look back.
That's why his deep dive into the old well yielded nothing—the well was fine. The problem was the tree.
Besides, he could accurately identify the "illusion" because the ghost called him Zhang Yuanqing, not Yuan Shi Tian Zun.
Finally, when he discovered the well, his mind flashed with images from a certain famous horror movie from an island nation, giving him a psychological shadow, so he dared not peek into the well's depths.
Then the female ghost that emerged from the well—white clothes, disheveled hair, no facial features—matched the vague fear in his mind.
"You're putting on an act, speaking politely because your illusions can no longer confuse me. After all, I have the Lady's Demon-Subduing Pestle, immune to illusions." Zhang Yuanqing said calmly, exposing the truth:
"You wanted to lure me over to kill me by other means. If illusions don't work, then it's physical attacks, right?"
He glanced at the tree roots crawling on the corridor walls and suddenly jabbed the pestle into them.