Exploring the East Courtyard

A candle, a statue, withered bones, and antique lattice doors. Beyond the doors lay a courtyard of swaying wild weeds, a toppled bronze censer, bluestone pavement, and bright moonlight. A desolate, eerie silence weighed over the dead stillness. "It seems like it's forever night here." Zhang Yuanqing raised a hand to his lips and spat out the little blue pills he had been holding in his mouth. *The trick worked. I'm so damn smart.* Delighted, he slipped the pills into his pocket, feeling a glimmer of confidence about his "future." With these, he would have a shot at surviving when facing the red dancing shoes. He then walked straight up to the offering altar. After pondering for a moment, he reached out and took hold of the candlestick. A string of text suddenly surfaced before his eyes: [Name: Ever-Burning Candle] [Type: Fuel] [Function: Evil-warding, Purification] [Description: An item left behind by Lady Sandao. Reportedly refined from the tallow of a changming beast, it possesses evil-warding and purifying properties.] [Remarks: Sometimes, purifying fear is not necessarily a good thing. Additionally, it cannot be moved.] *As expected, an item only yields information when touched directly. Before this, I didn't dare touch the candle, so I never knew it was an item until I read the dossier...* "Purifying fear isn't necessarily good. According to Guan Ya's classification, the candle belongs to the cost category; the price of using it is losing your fear. But I'm terrified right now and have zero intention of doing something reckless. Better lay low in the main hall for now." He sat cross-legged before the offering altar, planning his next move. "The next objective is exploring the eastern courtyard, figuring out its hidden dangers and patterns, and finding a way to counter or overcome them. The excursion can't exceed fifteen minutes, or the wraith will latch onto my shoulders, which means certain death. "The blue pills are my trump card against the red dancing shoes, but there's no guarantee they'll work. And once I confront the red dancing shoes, it's life or death... Let's explore the East Courtyard first. Get a preliminary read on the environment there, then figure out a plan." Now that the moment had arrived, fear and hesitation still lingered in his chest; he didn't want to go out. Surviving last time had been sheer luck; whether he could live through this was an open question. Conditions in the East Courtyard were completely unknown, leaving him no way to gauge the danger. It would be all too easy to go from giving it a try to giving up the ghost. Yet the world never spared you just because you were unwilling. Although exploring the ancient temple had no time limit, and theoretically he could camp out in the main hall indefinitely, having no deadline also meant he would likely never escape without completing the mission. If he stalled too long, hunger, fatigue, and thirst would wear down his physical condition. Venturing out to explore then would be suicide. "You get the knife whether you stick your neck out or pull it in. Time to go all out!" Zhang Yuanqing gritted his teeth and strode toward the doors. *Wait, maybe I should think this over again. It's dangerous out there...* With one foot already past the threshold, he suddenly got cold feet. He couldn't resist glancing back into the hall, reluctant to leave its safe glow. The candlelight was warm, dispersing gloom, purging defilement, and instilling incomparable courage and confidence in the heart. *No big deal.* Recharged with confidence, Zhang Yuanqing stepped outside. Moonlight frosted the ground. Following the left side of the main hall, Zhang Yuanqing trod along the pebble path and returned to the desolate, ruined courtyard compound. Without the chirping of insects or the calls of birds, the dead-silent night felt unnerving. Yet the silence also brought peace of mind; what he dreaded most was hearing the *tap-tap* of footsteps as soon as he stepped out. "Fifteen minutes. I only have fifteen minutes to finish exploring the East Courtyard before the wraith clings to me..." He entered the easternmost room of the compound, retrieved the bronze mirror from the corpse slumped under the window, and tucked it into his pocket. Moving with utmost caution, he slipped through the arched doorway into the East Courtyard. The East Courtyard was far larger than the central compound. What greeted his eyes was a ruined garden featuring artificial rockeries, a pavilion, a small pond, and a massive banyan tree with a thick trunk, gnarled boughs, and fresh green leaves reflecting the crisp moonlight. Beneath the banyan tree sat an ancient well. Looking past the rockeries and pavilion, he could see the straight ridgepole of a building deep in the garden. Instead of making a beeline for the structure, Zhang Yuanqing cautiously circled the massive banyan tree. The dossier noted that the tree was perilous, but nothing untoward happened after a full circuit. *Examining the banyan tree ought to advance the exploration progress as well, right...?* With that thought, Zhang Yuanqing cast a sidelong glance at the pitch-black old well. After several moments of hesitation, he still lacked the courage to step up and look inside. He had a profound psychological aversion to old wells in horror stories. Zhang Yuanqing bypassed the well, rustling through the weeds as he headed toward the building at the back of the garden. *Snap!* A crisp sound cracked beneath his boot, startling him so badly that he sprang straight into the air. Looking closely, he saw a corpse buried in the weeds, clad in an oxidized pair of work clothes. Zhang Yuanqing bent down to inspect it; the skeleton remained well preserved. The body lay facedown, yet the skull was twisted toward its back. Something had wrenched its head a full hundred and eighty degrees before it died. *What could have done this?* Zhang Yuanqing grew quietly vigilant. He stood up and was about to continue his search. Right then, a gust of wind swept past. The wild grass in the garden swayed and rustled, and the massive banyan tree behind him seemed to come alive, its branches and leaves writhing in a twisted shudder. "Zhang Yuanqing... Zhang Yuanqing..." A shrill voice called out from behind him. Carried on the breeze, the sound felt as though someone were whispering right against his ear, sending waves of skin-crawling chills through him. Instinct pushed Zhang Yuanqing to spin around on guard, but a detail from the dossier flashed across his mind: *Do not look back!* "Zhang Yuanqing... Zhang Yuanqing..." Seeing that he didn't react, the voice turned slightly urgent, desperate to make him turn his head. Naturally, Zhang Yuanqing would not turn around. Standing frozen in place, he quietly unzipped the pocket of his windbreaker, fished out the bronze mirror, and slowly lifted it above his shoulder. The bronze mirror cast a hazy reflection of what lay behind him. A woman in white with disheveled hair was crawling out of the ancient well. Her face lacked any features whatsoever—nothing but a ghastly white expanse of flesh gazing straight at Zhang Yuanqing. *Fuck your mother!* Zhang Yuanqing's face went pale. He put his head down and bolted forward. "Zhang Yuanqing... Zhang Yuanqing..." The voice called out again and again in frantic urgency, but could only helplessly watch as he fled farther and farther away. Soon, Zhang Yuanqing darted past the rockeries and reached the depths of the garden. A large building stood here, featuring a straight ridgepole, a stone foundation, and yellow-earth walls. The structures here were even more dilapidated than the central compound. The roof tiles were sparse and ragged, riddled with gaping holes. *The Night Wanderer in the dossier came here too. He only said not to look back, never that you can't walk back. The female ghost's call from the well probably only targets people who turn their heads. If that's true, I shouldn't be in danger when I head back later...* He drew several deep breaths on the spot to quell the surging terror and shock, refocusing his attention on the task at hand. "Let's search this building first." The large building had three doors in total, representing three rooms. He cautiously approached the leftmost door, planted his hands, and pushed hard on the rotted wooden leaf. *Creeeak—* As the wooden door groaned open, Zhang Yuanqing quickly leaped back, dropping into a defensive stance. After a long while, nothing happened. Steeling his nerve, he stepped inside. Moonlight streamed through the broken roof. He widened his eyes as much as possible to take in every bit of light. This was a kitchen and dining hall combined. There were two earthen stoves built of green brick, alongside pots, bowls, ladles, basins, water vats, and cupboards, all long rotted and caked in dust. *No danger. And I finally found a container!* Zhang Yuanqing grabbed a dusty gourd ladle, his thoughts drifting involuntarily. "I've heard a boy's virgin urine can dispel evil." He pondered whether to fill a ladle with virgin urine, but after careful thought, he reluctantly dropped the idea. Though he had never dated a girl, Zhang Yuanqing felt he probably didn't qualify as a virgin anymore. "I've spoiled the two of you way too much, giving you chance after chance to play the part." He stared down at his hands, feeling deeply remorseful. After a thorough search confirmed that this hall was simply a communal kitchen and mess hall—holding nothing special or dangerous—Zhang Yuanqing grabbed a rusty kitchen knife and a wooden stick, stepped outside, and cast his gaze toward the final rectangular structure. Unlike the combined kitchen and dining hall, this building had four doors, dividing it into four separate rooms. Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help gripping the wooden stick and kitchen knife a little tighter. They might not be useful, but they offered psychological comfort. He cautiously inspected the first and second rooms. They were storage rooms, cluttered with antiquated farming tools, furniture, donation boxes, and the like. *Nothing of value...* Zhang Yuanqing moved on to the third room. This was an armory. The walls were hung with weapons like swords, sabers, bows, daggers, and short blades, many of which had already fallen to the floor because their hanging cords had rotted away. Beside the window stood two rows of weapon racks. One had toppled over, scattering staves and spears across the floor. Beside the overturned rack lay two bodies. Seeing these weapons didn't surprise Zhang Yuanqing. The temple disciples were disciples of Lady Sandao and could craft Corpse-Suppressing Talismans, so they clearly possessed genuine martial skills. It was hardly unusual for them to practice martial arts with staves and spears. Following his usual routine, he stepped up to examine the bodies, searching for clues left behind by his predecessors. As soon as he drew close, an exclamation slipped out. The two bodies sprawled on the ground were not skeletons, but two mummies. Their skin was dark gray, shriveled, and clinging tight against bone, their abdomens sunken deep. "Why would there be mummies?" Zhang Yuanqing frowned. As a student at Songhai University, he possessed an ample reservoir of knowledge. Mummification occurred under two conditions: artificial preservation, or natural formation. The first could be ruled out immediately, while the second usually took place in deserts or other extremely arid regions. The environment in this temple clearly didn't fit the bill. He inspected the two dried corpses closely. There were no fatal wounds on their bodies, nor had their bones been crushed by the red dancing shoes. Yet on the flesh of their necks, two distinct punctures were visible. They looked like they had been bitten by the sharp fangs of a beast. "What sucked them dry into mummies? *Hiss...*" Zhang Yuanqing drew a sharp breath, every muscle in his body pulling taut. Right then, a dull *thud* drifted from the adjacent room, like someone rapping on a wooden door. His scalp went numb in an instant. Like a wary deer, Zhang Yuanqing craned his neck, straining his ears to listen.