Great Terror

Zhang Yuanqing realized he had missed the main point. Drawing on his experience from the Mountain God Temple and the insights gained from reading countless guides, he had subconsciously assumed that in this kind of survival dungeon, a Spirit Realm walker had to uncover clues themselves, devise solutions to each crisis, and dismantle them one by one. Just like he had done back in the Mountain God Temple. Therefore, after relying on intelligence to successfully overcome the crisis of the ghost doll, he had actively searched for the rouge box, believing it would definitely contain the way to resolve the paper figurine crisis. And in fact, that was true. From it, he had deduced the rule that the paper figurine only killed one person per night, or stopped killing once its craving for essence blood was satisfied, which allowed him to survive. But this was unreasonable. Not every Night Wanderer had the assets he possessed. One could say that with the difficulty of just the first two hurdles, 99.9% of Night Wanderers wouldn't make it through; they would certainly die. And this wasn't even the dungeon's greatest peril. He had missed the point. Mute Village was a survival dungeon, not a combat dungeon (even if fighting was also for survival). Survival was the main quest; he shouldn't have been fighting from the start. Yet in the village, one couldn't live without fighting. The elusive ghost doll, the teleporting paper figurine—once the time came, an encounter was inevitable, and one couldn't survive without fighting. Therefore, the correct way to play was to leave the village and head for the ancient tomb. Yes. The ancient tomb and the village together made up the complete map of Mute Village. From the initial Spirit Realm introduction, to Wang Xiao'er's recount, to the old man's description, and then to the ancient tomb's location given by Teacher Xu—all these clues had been telling the Spirit Realm walker that there was another map in this dungeon. The ancient tomb was safe. At least at night, it was safe. Because the Spirit Realm's introduction made it abundantly clear: *That night, she followed him out...* The Commandery Princess and the supernatural items had all left the ancient tomb. Right now, the most dangerous place was the village, making the ancient tomb safe instead. Hence, the warning to "run" given by the Cat King Speaker was not advice for dealing with the paper figurine, but the method to clear the dungeon! Having figured this out, Zhang Yuanqing did not set out immediately. He remained seated on the edge of the bed, caressing the cold metal casing of the Cat King Speaker, and muttered to himself in a low voice: "There's still one doubt and one question. "The doubt is: why was there no crisis at the third watch, but at the fourth watch, all the villagers died? Extrapolating from the existing patterns, what should have been encountered at the third watch was the mirror, and at the fourth watch was the Commandery Princess. The princess was the most ferocious, which is why the whole village was wiped out. "Yet if there was no crisis at the third watch, is the crisis at the fourth watch the mirror or the princess? If it's the mirror, what about the princess? Is she just a background figure? "And the question is: the ancient tomb is safe at night, but what about during the day? Is it safe during the day? The main quest is to survive for 24 hours, not to return to reality at dawn. I entered the dungeon around ten o'clock this morning." Lacking prerequisite information, it was hard to deduce the answers. He could only put these questions aside for now and lead Corpse No. 1 out of Teacher Xu's courtyard toward the ancient tomb. *Creak.* Corpse No. 1 politely closed the courtyard gate. Standing beside the brook, Zhang Yuanqing looked around warily. Deep in the village, rammed-earth shacks and stone cottages were haphazardly arranged, obstructing his line of sight, but his senses detected no dense concentrations of yin energy. The paper figurine was not nearby. *I need to get out of here quickly.* He ran forward a few steps with the yin corpse, only to abruptly freeze, standing dumbfounded on the spot. Zhang Yuanqing had run into a fatal problem—he couldn't tell north, south, east, and west apart. The standard methods for navigating at night were observing the moon and looking at constellations, but the night sky in this dungeon was dark as ink, devoid of both stars and moon. There was no frame of reference. Moreover, there was no living vegetation in the village, so he couldn't deduce the sun's direction based on plant growth. *Time passes in the dungeon just like in the outside world. It's summer right now, and I remember southeast winds prevail in summer...* Yet yin energy shrouded the village like an invisible veil of mist, completely disrupting any natural wind. Zhang Yuanqing wracked his brain, but couldn't come up with a workable idea. Flabbergasted, he thought to himself, *I'm an honor student of Songhai University, a top-tier national institution! Am I really going to be defeated by a minor detail like this?* Suddenly, he caught sight of the lively flowing brook and thought of an alternative approach. Water flowed from high ground to low ground, and where there were mountains, the terrain was elevated. That meant the direction the brook flowed toward could be ruled out—the back mountain was definitely not that way. Even if the brook didn't necessarily originate in the mountains, as long as he walked against the current, he wouldn't end up going completely the wrong way. "One li is five hundred meters, so twenty-three li is about eleven kilometers. Mountain paths are harder to navigate than flat ground, and then there's the time needed to search for the tomb..." It was already very close to the third watch. Zhang Yuanqing calculated silently: finding the ancient tomb before the third watch was very unlikely, but arriving at the destination before the fourth watch left plenty of time. One man and one corpse walked through the dead-silent mountain village. Their footsteps and the cheerful gurgle of the water wove into a solitary, monotonous melody echoing in the quiet night. In an atmosphere like this, an ordinary person with a weak will would likely suffer a mental breakdown even without any real danger. He had to admit, the Night Wanderers' exclusive Spirit Realms were truly too eerie and morbid for words. Zhang Yuanqing counted his strides as he advanced. After about fifteen minutes, he finally emerged from the village. A packed-dirt path led toward the fields outside, at the edge of which loomed a continuous mountain range. Towering and immense, it lay dormant in the dark. *My luck isn't bad; the brook really does flow down from the mountains...* Zhang Yuanqing exhaled. Suddenly, just as he was about to leave the village completely behind and step into the fields, a chill ran down his spine. It felt as though someone was peering at him from behind. Zhang Yuanqing whipped his head around. Behind him lay the bleak, decrepit village, shrouded in sinister darkness, its quiet lane vanishing into the depths of the settlement. *Creepy...* Zhang Yuanqing frowned inwardly and lingered no longer. Urging the yin corpse into a sprint, he ran farther and farther away until they vanished into the fields. Speeding across muddy ridges between the fields, they soon arrived at the foot of the mountain. Once in the mountain, there were far more ways to tell directions. The sun-facing side of a standalone tree was south, and the shaded side was north. In a dense forest, the drier side of a rock pointed south, while the damper, mossy side pointed north... Even anthill entrances faced south. Having determined the southwest direction, Zhang Yuanqing led the yin corpse deep into the dense woods, cutting through the forest and crossing ravines at high speed. Every few minutes, he paused to recalibrate his bearings and adjust course to avoid getting lost in the lush mountain wilderness. As for the distance of twenty-three li, there was no better way than estimating it himself. After running for over a dozen li, Zhang Yuanqing stopped next to a pine tree, opened his mouth, and exhaled a puff of yin energy. The yin energy drifted gracefully to the ground, condensing into a chubby, adorable infant with sparse lanugo hair. "Ah-ba, ah-ba..." Little Doubi opened his big, dark eyes, looked all around, and then fearfully crawled over to his master's feet, hugging his calf. To be fair, in all the time Little Doubi had been growing—well, he hadn't grown that much, but ever since his creation—he had never seen a deep, dense forest, and had an instinctive fear of unfamiliar environments. "Go find treasure!" Zhang Yuanqing soothed Little Doubi while giving the order. Finding the ancient tomb wasn't hard. By making proper use of Little Doubi's Treasure Seeking ability, he could pinpoint the tomb's location in the deep mountain, provided they weren't too far away. Had he released Little Doubi in the village, the spirit would most likely have headed straight for the rouge box. Receiving his master's order, Little Doubi uttered a few "ah-bas" and quickly crawled behind Zhang Yuanqing. *I told you to find the ancient tomb, not go back to the village for the rouge box!* Zhang Yuanqing grabbed the infant by his chubby little leg, lifted him into the air, and tossed him forward. "Wrong way! Go look over there!" A bewildered look crossed Little Doubi's face, seemingly puzzled by why his master's commands were contradictory, but he still obeyed, suppressing his instinct and crawling in the designated direction. The infant spirit rapidly paddled his four limbs like a nimble little spider. Zhang Yuanqing unhurriedly followed behind the infant spirit. As he crawled along, Little Doubi suddenly pivoted and started heading back the way they came. "Wrong way!" Zhang Yuanqing hastily intercepted him and realigned his direction. Snapped out of his Treasure Seeking state, Little Doubi gave his master a blank look, then obeyed the command and crawled toward the southwest. With the yin corpse by his side, Zhang Yuanqing followed. A few minutes later, Little Doubi made another turn and scurried back. *Sigh, you silly little brat, backwards again...* Zhang Yuanqing bent down, scooped up Little Doubi, and stopped having him lead the way, his brow deeply furrowed. After careful analysis, he concluded that there were likely no treasures left in the tomb, or whatever remained held little value. That was why Little Doubi repeatedly crawled back toward the village. For back there lay the rouge box, the ghost doll, and the mirror. Though vicious supernatural entities, they were also top-grade items. They drew Little Doubi to them. "In that case, I still have to rely on myself..." Zhang Yuanqing swallowed the infant spirit back in one gulp and pushed forward with the yin corpse. The night was thick and heavy, and time slipped quietly by. About forty minutes later, Zhang Yuanqing finally found the robber's tunnel. It was located in an overgrown hollow in the mountain, free of surrounding boulders. Amidst lush green weeds lay an exposed, circular opening, from which waves of thick yin energy poured out of the dark, cavernous hole. *Found it.* Zhang Yuanqing was overjoyed. Although he had no timer, he had been keeping track of time; it was already very close to the fourth watch. To be safe, Zhang Yuanqing split his spirit body in two, possessing the yin corpse, and leapt into the robber's tunnel. The entrance wasn't deep—about two meters down. Once on the ground, Corpse No. 1 crept forward in the dark along the narrow shaft, which was barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through. After a dozen-odd meters, he reached the end of the tunnel. The opening was encircled not by soil, but by thick grey bricks. The tunnel had been dug straight through the top of the tomb, with the burial chamber lying below. "Zhang Yuanqing" picked up a pebble and tossed it into the darkness below, soon hearing a faint landing thud. *About four meters high.* He leaped down into the chamber. Outside, Zhang Yuanqing waited a few seconds to ensure there were no irregularities in the tomb before dropping into the tunnel, crouching through the passage, and jumping down into the burial chamber. With his night vision, everything in the burial chamber was laid bare before his eyes. The chamber spanned around forty square meters, with walls constructed of grey bricks. In each of the four corners stood two clay figurines of handmaidens and guards, which had long since cracked and lost limbs over the passage of countless years. Connected to the front of the chamber was a cobblestone-paved passageway with ascending steps. Behind the chamber was another arched portal leading deeper inside. "This should be the antechamber," Zhang Yuanqing deduced from the clay figurines in the corners. Perhaps because the robber's tunnel linked it to the outside world, the air inside was not stuffy, with ample oxygen. Directing the yin corpse to scout ahead, he followed behind, examining the surrounding brick walls. The walls were constructed of grey bricks laid with staggered running bonds joined by lime mortar, while the walls flanking the portal utilized a construction technique of three tiers of vertical bricks and three tiers of horizontal bricks. In archaeological terminology, this was known as "three arches and three covers." Only very high-ranking tombs could employ such masonry... Well, Zhang Yuanqing had learned this from tomb-raiding novels; school certainly didn't teach it. Passing through the six-meter-long corridor portal, man and corpse arrived at the main burial chamber. The main chamber was vast, the size of a five-star hotel lobby. In the center sat a stone coffin bed shaped like a Sumeru throne, atop which rested a white jade outer coffin. Niches were built into the eastern, western, and southern walls of the chamber. Within these niches sat porcelain and earthenware jars, rust-speckled bronze vessels, and half-human-height black wooden chests. In the four corners of the main chamber stood sets of bronze ceremonial regalia. Zhang Yuanqing retracted his gaze and quietly stepped out of the main chamber, stationing himself by the corridor doorway before directing Corpse No. 1 to push open the coffin. Next, he needed to verify a hypothesis: if the physical body of the Commandery Princess lay within the coffin, then the danger of the fourth watch stemmed from the bronze mirror. Otherwise, the dungeon's final boss was the princess. To his surprise, even with Corpse No. 1's brute arm strength, it couldn't budge the coffin. Surprised, Zhang Yuanqing returned to the main chamber to push the coffin alongside the yin corpse. Even with their combined strength, it still wouldn't budge. *What's going on? Is the Spirit Realm restricting me, or is the coffin sealed with secret arts that outsiders can't breach?* Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a few seconds before abandoning the idea of opening it, secretly letting out a sigh of relief. Ever since the incident with the Old Hag, opening coffins had left him with no small psychological trauma. Zhang Yuanqing then directed the yin corpse to fetch the wooden chest from one of the niches, only to find that it couldn't be opened either. "Fine, looks like this really is just a shelter..." Sitting atop one of the wooden chests, Zhang Yuanqing stopped exerting himself and waited quietly for dawn. The ancient tomb was pitch-black and silent. After sitting for a few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing felt a little bored. Corpse No. 1 was incapable of chatting, so his mind drifted back to "one doubt and one question." Even though he had reached the tomb, these two points remained unresolved. This left him feeling uneasy. *I'll just endure until dawn first. Come morning, the village should be safe, and the villagers will return to normal. I can go back and question an old man then. If the mirror was sold off, that would explain why nothing strange happened at the third watch. And the danger of the fourth watch would be the Commandery Princess.* *But why can't the coffin be opened?...* *Right, the itinerant Taoist.* According to Wang Xiao'er's account, an itinerant Taoist had entered the ancient tomb as well... Connecting that to the fact that the coffin couldn't be opened, Zhang Yuanqing formed a hypothesis: the one lying in the coffin was the itinerant Taoist, and since he wasn't part of this dungeon's storyline, a Spirit Realm walker couldn't open it. *If only the Old Hag's stone coffin had been this well-behaved back then...* As Zhang Yuanqing mused, his gaze swept across the chamber, and a nagging sensation told him something was off. He pondered for a moment, then took out the Spectacles of Insight. Slipping on the spectacles, he surveyed the room once more, and his pupils suddenly contracted. Through the spectacles, he perceived the details of the main chamber and realized what was wrong. The burial items were arranged far too neatly. That shouldn't be. Wang Xiao'er had raided this place. When thieves broke in, how could they not turn everything upside down? Yet from the porcelain to the earthenware jars, chests, and ceremonial regalia, everything was immaculate. At that moment, an electric current seemed to shoot through Zhang Yuanqing's body, sending a shuddering wave of horror through him. *Whew.* He swiftly exhaled Little Doubi, stared at the chubby, adorable infant, and commanded in a deep voice: "Seek treasure!" Upon receiving his master's order, Little Doubi nimbly paddled his four limbs and crawled straight toward the exit of the main chamber. The infant spirit completely ignored the coffin, ignored the priceless burial goods, and crawled away... Zhang Yuanqing's face instantly turned ashen. He suddenly understood why Little Doubi had kept turning back earlier, and why the coffin and chests couldn't be opened—all of this was an illusion! This was not an ancient tomb at all. He had never even come close to the tomb. He... had fallen under Charm Art! *When did I fall under it?* *Who cast Charm Art on me?* Zhang Yuanqing remembered the sinister, watching gaze when he had left the village. From start to finish, that was the only moment he had sensed something unusual. As for who had cast the Charm Art, the answer was obvious—the bronze mirror! Calculating the time, it had been right around the third watch when he left the village. "I get it now... The reason nothing strange seemed to happen during the third watch was that the bronze mirror's Charm Art goes unnoticed by ordinary people and inflicts no physical harm. It wasn't that nothing strange happened during the third watch—nobody knew!" *If that's the case, I never left the village at all...* *I'm still in the village...* Panic crept into Zhang Yuanqing's eyes, and the color drained from his face until it was completely bloodless. "What time is it now?!" Zhang Yuanqing shouted in a shrill voice, though no one would answer him. As his words fell, a bone-chilling yin wind sprang up inside the sealed chamber, an overwhelming, all-encompassing yin wind. *Whoosh—wuuuu...* Zhang Yuanqing heard the howling shriek of the yin wind and saw the brick walls, the coffin, the burial goods—everything before his eyes—torn to shreds by the wind. No matter how powerful a Charm Art was, once disturbed by an outside force, it would instantly shatter. The Commandery Princess had arrived!