Returning to the Mountain God Temple

"What a terrifying temple." Zhang Yuanqing leaned back, resting his full weight against the chair. Closing his eyes, he pieced together the information from the dossier, his own experience, and the inspiration he had gained from playing games, analyzing the Mountain God Temple in search of a pattern. *The shoulder-clinging wraith can be driven off by candlelight. Each banishment buys fifteen minutes of safety, and its perch doesn't inflict immediate harm.* *In the eastern courtyard, watch out for the banyan tree. Don't look back. Why can't you look back? Under what circumstances can't you look back? What happens if you do? Why didn't the dossier make that clear?* *It's still uncertain whether the roar has anything to do with the banyan tree. If it doesn't, that means an extra danger. And the true nature of those red dancing shoes is an item? A rule-based item—sounds pretty high-tier.* Looking back now, the members of the construction team had most likely been stomped to death by the red dancing shoes, their bones crushed to powder. *Though my uncle taught me a bit of dancing, if even a level-one Night Wanderer couldn't handle it, there's no way a kid like me can. Now, if Uncle ran into those red dancing shoes, he could probably dance with them until the end of time...* Something like this really should have been left to his unreliable uncle. After all, the man never did any real work, living only to sing, dance, and rap. Wait! Zhang Yuanqing's eyes snapped open. According to the dossier, the fundamental reason that Night Wanderer had failed—aside from having zero dance experience—was an inability to memorize the sprawling, chaotic dance steps. That was almost certainly beyond the limits of normal human rapid memorization. Yet he didn't have that problem. As long as he pushed himself hard enough to trigger a relapse of his old condition and put his brain into an overloaded state, everything he saw and heard would replay in his mind. What was more, in that overloaded state, his brain's control over his body far surpassed that of an ordinary person. Pulling off difficult movements would be no trouble at all. *The problem is, non-Spirit Realm items can't be brought in. I might not be able to take my medicine inside. If my condition flares up and I have no pills to suppress it, I have no idea what will happen to me.* There was no point in racking his brain alone over this. He could simply ask. Otherwise, what was the point of joining the official organization? Zhang Yuanqing grabbed his phone, opened his call log, and dialed Guan Ya's number. After several rings, the call connected. "Finished reading the file?" Guan Ya had been getting ready to turn in. She was a woman who took skin care seriously; staying up late was her greatest taboo, and she detested being disturbed during her sleep. Even so, her tolerance for Zhang Yuanqing was remarkably high. Who had the heart to snap at a boy with so little time left to live? Besides, he was handsome and pleasant to talk to. "I finished. There are a few things I don't quite understand," Zhang Yuanqing said. "What is a rule-based item?" Guan Ya explained, "There's a wide variety of items in the Spirit Realm, and their functions differ wildly. Based on their properties, our official organization categorizes them into three broad types: cost-based, rule-based, and one more that isn't clear to me. My rank isn't high enough to access that information." At this point, she added with a smile, "Rule-based and cost-based items aren't usually ranked against each other. Since their functions vary so much, you can't measure them by a single standard. But one thing is universally acknowledged: rule-based items are far more troublesome to deal with, and far rarer. Every single one is priceless." She paused briefly before continuing: "How to deal with rule-based items isn't a secret within the organization: you find their pattern and decipher their rules. The red dancing shoes' invitation to dance mentioned in the dossier almost certainly ties into its rules. "If someone manages to fulfill its invitation, there's a certain probability of subduing that rule-based item. Of course, it's only a probability. That depends on many factors, like whether it's willing, whether it's unowned, and so on." *Though as for subduing a rule-based item, it's nice to daydream, but don't take it seriously,* she added silently. Zhang Yuanqing listened patiently, then asked, "One more thing. Can medicine be brought into the Spirit Realm?" "Aside from normal clothing, the vast majority of real-world items cannot be taken into the Spirit Realm. Medicine can, but it has to have already been ingested." "What if I hold it in my mouth?" "That..." Guan Ya had no answer for that. *Looks like I'll have to test it myself.* Zhang Yuanqing said, "I don't have any more questions. Thank you." "Mm," Guan Ya acknowledged, chuckling. "Take care, little boy. Oh, by the way, today is Scorpio's lucky day." "Huh?" Before Zhang Yuanqing could process what she meant, the line went dead. He set down his phone and checked the time. It was already past midnight. Tomorrow morning, he would enter the Spirit Realm once again. *** The next day. Leaning on his cane and stepping forward in polished leather shoes, Li Dongze entered the glass building behind the police station. As a superior who didn't need to punch the clock, he made a habit of showing up an hour late—or sometimes skipping work entirely to loaf on the public dime, living as freely and casually as he pleased. He was just as hands-off with the Spirit Realm walkers under his command, letting them run wild. For one thing, aside from Guan Ya, none of them belonged to the White Tiger Battalion; they answered to operational calls, but not routine discipline. For another, the mortality rate of Spirit Realm instances was terrifyingly high. There was no telling if someone entering a realm might never come back out. Life was short; one had to enjoy it while it lasted. Li Dongze reached the second floor and routinely scanned the office area. At the empty desks, only Guan Ya sat working diligently, alongside Wang Tai, who was looking up materials and writing a paper. "Guan Ya, did you give him the dossier?" "I did." Li Dongze gave a slight nod, said nothing more, and turned into his luxurious private office. Guan Ya didn't pursue the topic either, lowering her head to continue her work. Inside his office, Li Dongze walked over to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a glass of vodka, squeezed in some lime juice, and took a deep swig. Just then, his phone chimed. Setting down his glass, he sank into a plush armchair and unlocked the screen. Someone had mentioned him in a chat group named "Kangyang District Spirit Realm Walker Management Group." As a tier-one metropolis, Songhai City was divided into sixteen major districts, and each district had ten squads of Spirit Realm walkers, commanded by squad-leader-tier figures. Li Dongze was the captain of the Second Squad—or, in the terminology of the White Tiger Battalion, a Decurion. The squad leaders answered directly to Deacons, of whom there were three in Kangyang District. Above the Deacons were the Elders. Elders generally didn't meddle in daily affairs; Spirit Realm walkers of that caliber were enigmatic figures whose movements were impossible to trace. And above the Council of Elders stood the supreme leadership of the Five Elements Alliance—the five Alliance Leaders. Those five were legendary figures whom Li Dongze had never laid eyes on. He only knew that the Marshal of his own White Tiger Battalion and the Palace Master of the Water God Palace were both women. In private, members of the Five Elements Alliance referred to these two leaders as the Peerless Twin Beauties. The "Kangyang District Spirit Realm Walker Management Group" had a total of fourteen members: ten squad leaders, three Deacons, and one Night Wanderer captain from the Taiyi Sect. Big Buff Guy: "@Li Dongze, heard you recruited a Night Wanderer?" *How did he find out?* Li Dongze frowned and typed a reply: "None of your damn business!" In the five elements, Fire conquered Metal. The Scouts of the White Tiger Battalion universally despised the Fire Masters of the Scarlet Fire Gang, finding them crude, hot-tempered, and completely thoughtless with their words. *What? Li Dongze managed to recruit a Night Wanderer?!* The squad leaders in the group perked up like sharks catching the scent of blood. Green Vine: "A Night Wanderer? Decurion Li, which temple did you go burn incense at lately to actually recruit a Night Wanderer? Color me envious." White Dragon: "In all of Songhai City, setting aside unaffiliated rogues, there can't be more than ten official Night Wanderers, right? And every single one belongs to the Taiyi Sect." Water Strider: "Li Dongze, what kind of dog crap did you step on to get that lucky? I'm sour as hell." Three squad-leader-level figures chimed in all at once. [Tang Guoqiang sent a red packet] The red packet was cleaned out in an instant. Li Dongze instinctively snatched it, only to find that everyone else had received over a hundred yuan, while he had gotten just over one. Tang Guoqiang: "Decurion Li has quite the luck." Beneath that, a cascade of "Thank you, Boss!" memes flooded the screen. Tang Guoqiang was also a squad leader, but he was simultaneously the boss of a construction enterprise—loaded and generous. He rarely spoke, choosing instead to drop red packets whenever the mood struck. Even this big boss had surfaced because of the Night Wanderer topic. Boxing King: "What kind of memory do you guys have? Did you forget the agreement between the Five Elements Alliance and the Taiyi Sect? Any recruited Night Wanderer must be offered to the Taiyi Sect first." White Dragon: "Brother Fist, you're the one with bad memory. Did you forget our Centurion Fu? With his ties to the Taiyi Sect, keeping a single Night Wanderer won't be an issue." Boxing King went silent. The squad leaders who had chimed in burned with envy. Whether in terms of rarity or class potential, a Night Wanderer far outstripped the other classes. If nurtured well, one would become a formidable powerhouse in the future. Green Vine: "Speaking of which, our Kangyang District Spirit Realm squads haven't had a team outing in a long time. Why don't we pick a date and get together?" White Dragon: "Yo, yo, the little vixen from Baihui is looking to seduce people again? Well, I have no objections." Water Strider: "I don't have any boat runs recently anyway, so a gathering works for me. Decurion Li, I've been wanting to grab a drink with you for a while now. Bring that Night Wanderer along too." Tang Guoqiang: "A team outing is a good idea. Let's all meet up. Li Dongze took my red packet, so consider it agreed." The corner of Li Dongze's mouth twitched. Already in a foul mood, he angrily fired off a reply: "Between every single line of your messages, I see shamelessness, I see greed, and I see the sinister urge to poach my subordinate. I must have been cursed by the Spirit Society lately to be dogged by such bad luck." Big Buff Guy: "Humblebragging?" Water Strider: "I'd take that bad luck any day." Right then, that Night Wanderer from the Taiyi Sect chimed in. Yuan Ting: "That Night Wanderer? Our Taiyi Sect doesn't want him. Did you all forget? The Qingming Festival just passed." Green Vine: "What do you mean?" Yuan Ting: "The trial instance for the Night Wanderer Li Dongze recruited is Sheling Tunnel." The group went dead silent. Though they weren't Night Wanderers, as local official Spirit Realm walkers of Songhai City, they were more than familiar with the notorious reputation of Sheling Tunnel. White Dragon: "No way he's that unlucky." Yuan Ting: "To save that poor bastard, Centurion Fu specifically went to our Elder Sun yesterday to ask for a detailed dossier on Sheling Tunnel." Big Buff Guy: "Uh... is there even any point in trying to save him? Since the last century, not a single rookie has ever cleared Sheling Tunnel. You poor guy, Li Dongze. I can totally picture your face when you first found out his trial instance was Sheling Tunnel." Fire Masters never minced words. *You looking for a fight?!* Sitting at his desk, Li Dongze nearly grabbed his cane to storm out and challenge the man to a duel. He took a hasty deep breath, chanting silently over and over: *Elegance, stay elegant...* Water Strider: "Just got an order; gotta run the boats this month. Let's scrap the team outing." Tang Guoqiang: "What a pity." Green Vine: "Understood. Poor rookie." The "unfiltered" Fire Master Big Buff Guy tagged Li Dongze again: "You made Centurion Fu burn a favor for nothing. Did you get chewed out?" Li Dongze: "Shut your mouth. Say one more word, and I'll head down to the gym right now and bash your skull in." He just had to bring up the sorest spot. The Taiyi Sect and the Five Elements Alliance were distinct organizations after all; their intelligence was not shared freely. For Centurion Fu—a Deacon—to obtain information from the Taiyi Sect, a favor had to be spent. Big Buff Guy: "Not like you can beat me anyway." The other squad leaders didn't respond, clearly losing interest in the matter. Just then, Fu Qingyang, one of the three Deacons, posted a message: "Are you all that idle? Do I need to throw you back into the training camp for a refresher?" Li Dongze and Big Buff Guy fell silent immediately. A few seconds later, Fu Qingyang sent another message: "Since he has joined, he is a soldier under my command. The White Tiger Battalion does not abandon any comrade. That is our conviction, regardless of value." Li Dongze sighed. He had indeed bungled this matter. Even if Centurion Fu wouldn't say so aloud, who knew whether he had docked points against him in his mind? *** At 10:30 in the morning, Zhang Yuanqing locked his bedroom door, laced his shoes tight, and drank two large glasses of water. Then, twisting open the medicine bottle, he popped five small blue pills into his mouth, holding them beneath his tongue. Next, he lay down on his bed, quietly waiting for the Spirit Realm to open. Minute by minute, time slipped away. Roughly ten minutes later, a cold voice resonated inside his mind: [Spirit Realm opening...] [Ding. Spirit Realm map successfully initialized. Welcome to 'Night Wanderer—Sheling Tunnel,' designated No. 0079.] [Difficulty: S] [Type: Solo (Lethal)] [Main Quest 1: Survive for three hours (Completed).] [Main Quest 2: Explore Spirit Realm No. 0079. Current Exploration: 20%] [Note: Non-Spirit Realm items cannot be brought inside.] [Good luck, Yuanshi Tianzun!] The ceiling warped like the surface of water stirred by wind. When the vision settled, Zhang Yuanqing found himself standing in the dim yellow candlelight of the main hall.