Chapter Twenty-Two The Temple
The darkness in the restricted area was not unfamiliar to Xu Qing.
Whether it is the ruins of the city or this jungle.
He lived in the former for more than ten days and also experienced several nights in the latter.
At this moment, he was hiding in a crack of a huge tree, half-closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep, silently inhaling the rich and heterogeneous spiritual energy mixed in the restricted area.
After entering the body, these spiritual energies were separated by the Haishan Art. The pure parts nourished the entire body, while the heterogeneous parts merged into the shadow.
Xu Qing has become accustomed to this kind of change.
Even vaguely, he had a feeling that practicing in this restricted area might be due to the shadow, or perhaps it was because the place was dangerous and he was always on high alert at all times.
With a high degree of mental concentration, the speed of cultivation also increases significantly.
Now, the fourth floor of the "Hai Shan Jue" is not far away.
"Like sharpening a knife..." Xu Qing murmured to himself.
He didn't understand any profound principles, but he remembered that the blacksmith in the slum had once told someone that a fine knife needs a better grinding stone to fully reveal its sharpness.
At this moment, the dangerous restricted area seemed to have become Xu Qing's whetstone.
After a long and arduous period of cultivation, Xu Qing, who had just completed a week, silently opened his eyes.
He raised his head and gazed through the crevices of the trees at the darkness of the night outside. In the forbidden zone, the roars of strange beasts rose and fell from afar, reverberating through the jungle like the murmurs of gods and demons.
The coldness was even more pervasive. All the creatures that invaded here also seeped into the tree crevices where Xu Qing was hiding and permeated his body.
It's very cold.
This scene gave him a feeling of being back in a ruined city, and gradually a wisp of loneliness spread throughout him.
But Xu Qing was already very familiar with loneliness. After a while, he closed his eyes again and continued his practice.
Just like this, time passed.
As he found the right place to rest, that night was relatively safe. However, in the middle of the night, Xu Qing, who was practicing, heard footsteps from outside.
It's very messy, as if many people are moving forward in a line.
Xu Qing's expression froze slightly. His eyes narrowed as he looked outside, but outside the tree crevice, it was pitch black and there was nothing.
But Xu Qing's heart sank suddenly. Because at the moment the footsteps came, the roars of the strange beasts in the nearby jungle vanished in an instant, which made Xu Qing's vigilance rise sharply.
He recalled the last time he encountered the singing footsteps, but the feeling it gave him at this moment was somewhat different.
It doesn't seem like the footsteps of the singing day, and there's no singing either.
Xu Qing analyzed the situation rapidly and did not act rashly. Instead, he forced himself to calm down, held his breath and gazed at the darkness outside.
Gradually, the footsteps became clearer and clearer, as if a group of people were approaching in a queue.
At the same time, waves of coldness beyond the realm of gloom, as if it could freeze the body, also came fiercely at this moment.
This kind of cold was no stranger to Xu Qing. Whether it was the songs of that day or the strange creatures that appeared at night in the ruins of the city, they all exuded this warmth.
But the degree was different. The singing that day could freeze his soul, but the cold now only made him physically uncomfortable, not to the extent that he could lose his ability to move.
"It's the kind of existence that's as strange as ruins!" " After making a judgment, Xu Qing held onto the iron sign tightly, took a deep breath, restrained the fluctuations in his heart, and forcibly closed his eyes, not opening them.
Do not look, do not touch, do not encounter.
After Xu Qing closed his eyes, the footsteps suddenly became rapid and grew closer and closer, as if countless people were circling around the big tree where he was.
Xu Qing's heart was shaken. He tried hard to resist the urge to open his eyes and see what the other person was really like.
Until a long time... At the moment when the first sun rose in the vast sky, the chaotic footsteps finally stopped lingering and gradually faded away.
It's dawn.
Xu Qing didn't open his eyes at the first moment. He waited for a while longer before slowly opening and closing his eyes. He saw the crack of the tree where he was, where there was a thick layer of ice, and his entire being was sealed inside.
Through the ice layer, sunlight fell upon Xu Qing. He exhaled, placed his left hand on the ice surface, and gave a sudden push. With a click, the ice layer shattered and fell all over the ground.
Xu Qing slowly emerged. First, he observed the surroundings and saw that in the jungle, all the Wolf corpses that were still there yesterday had now vanished. And on the ground... There are a large number of footprints.
It's human footprints.
It was so dense that it seemed as if hundreds of people were passing by.
Xu Qing had never heard of such a large number of people entering the restricted area at the same time.
Especially... These footprints are really footprints, not shoe prints.
Xu Qing remained silent for a long time, then withdrew his gaze. He felt the strangeness of the restricted area even more deeply. At this moment, taking advantage of the dawn when the danger in the restricted area was less than at night, Xu Qing did not give up exploring and left in a flash.
Several hours later, Xu Qing finally reached the farthest point they had been to last time, that small canyon where the Thunder Team had picked clover.
Inside the canyon, just as they had left, sunlight streamed down the ground through the canopies of the vines above, and the fragrance of flowers filled the air, blocking out the dangers outside, as if it were a paradise beyond the mundane world.
When Xu Qing arrived here, he heaved a slight sigh of relief and looked up at the other end of the canyon, where there was a group of temples further away.
After gazing for a moment, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze, took a brief rest, and then galloped towards the temple complex.
The jungle outside the canyon is more lush, and there is less and less sunlight here.
Perhaps it is because this ancient temple complex still exudes the splendor and dominance of its era that there are few dangers when approaching out of the canyon.
The lush jungle seems to have become much milder in terms of atmosphere.
Even in the jungle closest to the temple complex, it was not much different from the trees Xu Qing had seen from the outside. They were no longer hideous or pitch-black.
And there are also some seven-leaf clovers here, which were picked by Xu Qing.
Everything here surprised Xu Qing a little, but his vigilance did not diminish. He approached carefully.
It was not until another hour had passed that, as dusk was approaching, he emerged from the jungle and came to the front of this group of temples.
There were few trees here, and the sunlight was shining over a wide area, making Xu Qing's eyes somewhat dazed.
What caught his eye were huge domed buildings, each dozens of feet high.
Even if it collapsed, even if it was in tatters, even if it was covered with moss, the temple piled up with neatly arranged stones much larger than his body was filled with a sense of vastness.
Walking inside and stepping on the cracked huge bricks on the ground, it felt as if Xu Qing had arrived in a realm of giants.
The ruins everywhere, each one exuding the charm of ancient times, seem to be telling Xu Qing about their experiences.
Further ahead, there is also a collapsed statue.
The lower body of this statue has vanished, turning into countless pieces that are hard to piece together. The head is still intact, but its appearance has become blurred.
Nevertheless, it was over thirty zhang in height. One can imagine that before it collapsed, it was at least two hundred zhang or more.
Standing in front of it, Xu Qing's presence was rather insignificant.
At this moment, a breeze blows, like the sound of a Qiang flute, a desolate whirl, or as if it has cut off time and space, leaving the once glorious past with only the gaze of later generations.
Xu Qing gazed quietly at the statue, remaining silent for a long time.
He thought of the ruins of the city outside the slum, wondering if people of that era would, in a few years' time, enter the forbidden zone as carefully as he does now, and visit that city as if it were history.
After a while, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and searched the temple complex for a while, but failed to find the special stone that Captain Lei had mentioned.
When he came from his residence, he had already inquired that this special stone would emit a seven-colored glow.
It seems to grow naturally, and the time of its appearance is irregular.
After failing to find him, Xu Qing felt somewhat regretful. His body leaped nimbly and he rose and fell several times to the top of a temple. Standing there, he gazed in all directions.
Behind me is the outer area of the restricted jungle. Although there is no end in view, a part of it can still be seen. And counting the time, today is the fourth day that the bone knife who bought insurance here mentioned.
Yesterday, Xu Qing was in the jungle and didn't see any fog. Today, he still hasn't, so he doesn't need to go and rescue him.
So I turned my head to look at another direction of the temple complex, where... It's deep in the restricted jungle.
After a moment's thought, Xu Qing looked up and noticed that it was getting late. He was going to explore a small area deeper and return before dark. He would rest here tonight and head back early tomorrow morning.
After making up his mind, Xu Qing immediately moved his body and jumped off the temple, moving deeper into it.
The moment his nerves stepped deep into the jungle, they tensed up intensely, and his vigilance and caution grew even greater.
Because he knew that the level of danger here was much greater than that outside.
In fact, it was indeed the case. Just half an hour later, Xu Qing's figure reappeared within the temple area.
His face was gloomy and there was a lingering fear in his eyes.
But the leather bag swelled up as if it had been filled to the brim.
He had only walked less than a mile before seeing quite a few aged horse chestnut plants, which seemed not to have been picked for a long time. This made Xu Qing very surprised because these aged horse chestnut plants were very valuable.
But when he was picking, he clearly felt that the intensity of the heterogeneity had multiplied. If it weren't for his shadow being able to absorb it, anyone else would surely have found it extremely difficult to move forward.
And he also saw from afar the strange jellyfish he had seen in the forbidden area last time...
And there were more than ten such jellyfish here, but they were much smaller. However, the cold and gloomy aura on them was still very obvious.
Fortunately, most of these jellyfish were sleeping on the trees. When Xu Qing saw them, he carefully avoided them.
But as he moved forward, he had a very strong feeling, as if in the depths of this jungle, there were countless gazes, just like the real thing, filled with greed, falling upon him from an unknown direction one after another.
All of this left Xu Qing in a difficult position.
And here, it's just the edge deep within this restricted area. The area inside is much larger, and it's hard to imagine how much terror exists.
Xu Qing didn't dare to move forward and withdrew safely.
It was not until I retreated to the temple area that the feeling of the sharp edges on my back dissipated.
It seems as if this temple were a boundary, blocking the malice from the depths of the forbidden zone.
Xu Qing took a deep breath. Taking advantage of the setting sun, he found a barely intact temple in the last rays of the sun and stepped in.
I found a crack in the stone and slipped in, preparing to spend the night.
Captain Lei said that one could briefly avoid danger here.
He had also inspected the temple. It was very spacious and exuded a strong sense of the passage of time. Whether it was the stone statue with a knife enshrined in the main seat or the numerous human figures carved on the surrounding walls, they had all become blurred in the sand of time.
At the same time, there were not many strange beast droppings or traces inside the temple.
If there were none of them or a lot of them, Xu Qing wouldn't choose either.
Because this is not normal, only when there are traces but not many of them is it relatively safe.
After all, although the temple is located in the jungle, there are very few trees here. So it is reasonable that the strange beasts accustomed to jungle life do not come often.
Soon night came.
As the roars from the outside world emerged, Xu Qing silently inhaled.
As time passed, in line with his judgment, in the temple complex at night, there were few strange beasts. Although their roars were still there, most of them came from afar.
But just like yesterday, when Xu Qing was breathing until midnight, strange and chaotic footsteps reappeared!
This time, the location where it appeared was outside the temple.
"Here again?"
Xu Qing frowned. He didn't know why the footsteps had occurred twice where he was, and he felt a bit uneasy. After some thought, he didn't open his eyes as he did yesterday.
This time, however, the footsteps did not fade away as they did yesterday; instead, they became more and more frequent.
As they kept gathering, a cold and gloomy atmosphere spread, as if countless strange creatures had gathered outside the temple at this moment, about to invade it.
Xu Qing's heart sank. He tightly grasped his iron stick, rapidly constructing the environment of this temple and the countermeasures in case of danger in his mind.
Just then, the footsteps outside converged and suddenly vanished, becoming incredibly silent.
This silence not only failed to bring Xu Qing a sigh of relief, but instead gave him a feeling as if a storm was approaching. His hair was about to burst. He faintly sensed the strangeness gathering outside the temple, and at this moment, he seemed to be hesitating whether to enter.
In the next moment, in this silence, the strange outside finally chose to step into the temple. Xu Qing heard the footsteps of people entering the temple and stepping on the stone bricks.
Pop.
This sound was like a huge rock, falling into Xu Qing's mind and causing his heart to sink. But at that very moment, a series of murmuring sounds suddenly reverberated in the temple, carrying an indescribable sacredness.
Suddenly, golden rays of light spread out from the temple walls, illuminating the entire temple and also enveloping Xu Qing. The world under his eyes, which had been in darkness, instantly shone with light.
Under this golden light, Xu Qing's eyes pricked sharply. For the first time, when encountering such a strange phenomenon, he opened his eyes.
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The new book has been released for a week, with nearly 90,000 words updated. This amount is not easy for a novice... Would everyone like to give some encouragement