Chapter 17: The Source of the Anomaly
His guess was correct. Zhang Yuanqing felt slightly relieved.
In fact, after exploring the Mountain God Temple and dealing with the zombies, the entrance to the cave would open. However, the senior members of the construction team had taken away the Demon-Subduing Pestle before this.
If he couldn't see through this detail and return the Demon-Subduing Pestle, he might be stuck at this step forever.
Zhang Yuanqing waited patiently, quietly tensing his nerves and gathering his energy, not daring to be the slightest bit careless, because at the bottom of the cave, there might be the source that caused the decline of the Mountain God Temple.
After a while, seeing no abnormalities appear at the collapsed entrance, he summoned the Red Dancing Shoes again, activating their second form to replace his running shoes and wrap around his feet.
Then he walked to the dark and deep cave entrance and leaped lightly.
His feet quickly touched the ground with a tap, the Red Dancing Shoes eliminating the force of his descent for him.
Zhang Yuanqing found the Demon-Subduing Pestle among the rubble, bent down to pick it up, and regained control of this powerful prop.
With the Red Dancing Shoes and the Demon-Subduing Pestle, he was confident he could face the dangers in the cave.
Candlelight seeped down from above, illuminating only a limited area. Ahead was a dark and silent passage, filled with unknown fears.
In such an environment, proceeding in the dark was extremely unwise.
Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and turned his gaze to the prop in his hand.
The item description said that it was a prop containing the power of the Sun God. By offering blood as a sacrifice, one could obtain divine power.
The proper power of the Sun God should be able to dispel darkness and bring light, right?
It was worth a try, but the "note" in the attribute description was a bit unnerving. Zhang Yuanqing silently exhaled and stabbed the sharp trident into his thigh.
A sharp pain came, and blood gushed out, not flowing down his pant leg but turning into strands of blood that poured into this brass prop.
Zhang Yuanqing only felt a warm power surging out from the Demon-Subduing Pestle, rushing into his body along his arm. His pupils lit up with a faint golden glow, turning into bright golden eyes.
The Demon-Subduing Pestle did not dispel the darkness but granted him the ability to see through it.
At the same time, the negative states of dizziness, difficulty breathing, heart and lung pain all disappeared, leaving only the feeling of weakness from excessive blood loss.
The corpse poison in his body had been cleared.
It was indeed using his life in exchange for power, but it was still acceptable. He activated his vision and looked ahead. Before him was a spacious passage extending into the dark depths.
There were traces of artificial excavation on both walls of the passage, not naturally formed.
Zhang Yuanqing walked down the passage at a moderate pace, his footsteps echoing in the silent space.
After walking for more than ten seconds, plant roots appeared on both walls of the passage, densely covering the walls.
"Help, help!"
Suddenly, from the darkness ahead, a creepy cry for help came, as if sobbing.
Following the sound for a while, it suddenly opened up ahead, and a huge stone cave came into view. In the center of the stone cave was a thick tree trunk, piercing through the top of the cave and growing to the outside.
At the base of this thick tree trunk, the roots were intertwined and entangled, wrapping around a stone coffin.
The most terrifying thing was that from the thick tree trunk, pale arms reached out and pale human faces appeared, subconsciously calling out "help".
The densely packed arms groped wildly as if searching for a lifeline.
My claustrophobia is acting up. The candlelight and the Demon-Subduing Pestle gave Zhang Yuanqing courage. He only felt a slight tingling scalp and was not too terrified.
At this time, a hoarse and weathered voice rang out:
"So many years, this is the first time a living being has come here."
With these words, the cries for help stopped, and the arms swaying like seaweed retracted into the tree trunk, those faces hiding back into the tree in fear.
"Who?"
Zhang Yuanqing was startled and looked around vigilantly.
"Me? I'm just a tree."
An ugly human face emerged from the tree trunk, different from the faces of those resentful souls. Its face was like tree bark, as if symbolizing the tree itself.
Was it the old banyan tree in the courtyard that had gained spiritual awareness? Zhang Yuanqing didn't expect to encounter an existence that could communicate in such a ghostly place, even though the other party was a tree.
He didn't dare approach and tentatively asked, "Were you the one who killed the disciples in the temple?"
"It wasn't me, it was her."
The tree spirit's gaze fell downward as if staring at the stone coffin below, though it couldn't see.
"Who is she?"
"She is the Goddess of Sandao Mountain."
Zhang Yuanqing felt like he had been hit on the head with a stick, his mind dazed.
The Goddess of Sandao Mountain, who was supposed to have ascended in the early Ming Dynasty, was lying in the stone coffin?
The source of the anomaly was the Goddess of Sandao Mountain. Was it her who killed the disciples in the temple?
Zhang Yuanqing blurted out, "Why did she do that?"
"Because the Era of Dharma Decline has arrived, and it has become difficult for cultivators to break through bottlenecks. In order to achieve longevity, the Goddess of Sandao Mountain fell into the demonic path. She sealed herself in a stone coffin, using the banyan tree to confine yin souls, nourishing yin with yin, to keep her own body and primordial spirit from perishing. She is a powerful wandering deity, and wandering deities are inherently capable of devouring souls to strengthen themselves."
The face on the tree trunk sighed, "The banyan tree accommodated too many souls, receiving their will, and slowly gave birth to spiritual intelligence, which is me. Over the years, people have accidentally entered this place and died here one after another, eventually becoming her nourishment. I bear the hatred and unwillingness of the resentful souls, always waiting for someone to come here and end her on my behalf."
So that's how it is. Does this count as triggering an NPC's quest? Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flashed, "What should I do?"
"Open the stone coffin and pierce her heart with the weapon in your hand. That will end everything. Heh, the Demon-Subduing Pestle seals half of her yang soul. Stabbing it into her heart will seal the remaining yang soul in her body into the artifact. Without the yang soul protecting her body, she will die immediately." The banyan spirit finished speaking and slowly said, "Then you will be able to leave this place."
Zhang Yuanqing didn't move, remaining silent.
The banyan spirit slowly said, "Young man, what are you still hesitating about?"
Zhang Yuanqing suddenly said, "I'm thinking about a question."
The banyan spirit responded gently, "What question?"
Zhang Yuanqing stood in the distance, staring at the face on the tree trunk, and said word by word, "You wouldn't happen to be the temple priest, would you?"
The cave suddenly fell silent. A few seconds later, the banyan spirit said in a low voice, "The temple priest was the first person to be bewitched by the Goddess of Sandao Mountain, becoming her puppet. Later, he also became nourishment for that woman. If you don't believe me, come and open the stone coffin, and you'll know I'm not lying to you."
"Then you open it for me."
"I can't open it. I'm just a tree."
"Is it that you can't open it, or you don't dare to open it?" Zhang Yuanqing seemed to have gotten the answer he wanted and curled his lips, "The one lying in the coffin is the temple priest, right? And you, you're his guardian, or perhaps his soul?"
Having said these probing words, he entered a state of vigilance, waiting for the tree spirit's reaction.
As a tech geek who was good at playing games, if he still couldn't see through the secrets of the Mountain God Temple after experiencing so many crises, that would be too poor.
First of all, the Goddess of Sandao Mountain ascended in the early Ming Dynasty. It was only after her death that the local government built this temple for her.
The disciples in the temple disappeared without reason during the Yongle era, with at least a fifty to sixty year gap in between, which was one or two generations.
Secondly, the information in the main hall indicated that the Goddess of Sandao Mountain was a righteous figure, while the so-called falling into the demonic path mentioned by the banyan spirit was its one-sided statement. Zhang Yuanqing was more willing to believe the former.
Finally, and most crucially, the content written in the essay was: Don't trust the master!
In fact, the Spiritual Realm had already given hints in these details about who the real enemy was.
It's just that Zhang Yuanqing couldn't figure out why the temple priest would kill his own disciples.
Now he knew.
If the person wanting longevity and falling into the demonic path was changed to the temple priest, all the doubts would be easily resolved.
The cave fell into silence. The banyan spirit sighed, "Your vigilance is too strong. From beginning to end, I have never had any ill intentions towards you, let alone harm you."
"Is it that you won't harm me, or that you can't harm me?" Zhang Yuanqing slowly retreated a few steps and said, "Hmm, let me guess. Your method of killing is by twisting necks, but the technique should be related to illusions and the mind, right? Not long ago, you wanted to kill me, but unfortunately, I didn't look back."
This time, the face of the banyan spirit suddenly changed.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing knew that his deductions were completely correct.
In the information about that wandering deity from the Taiyi Sect, two things were clearly pointed out: first, the banyan tree was very dangerous; second, don't look back.
That's why he found nothing when exploring the ancient well because there was no problem with the well at all. The problem was with the tree.
In addition, he could accurately determine that it was an "illusion" because the name the female ghost called out was Zhang Yuanqing, not Yuanshi Tianzun.
Finally, when Zhang Yuanqing discovered the ancient well, what came to his mind was a famous horror movie from a certain island country, causing psychological shadows and not daring to peek into the bottom of the well.
Subsequently, the female ghost that crawled out of the well, wearing white clothes, with disheveled hair and no facial features, matched the vague fear in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.
"You put on an act and spoke nicely to me because the illusion can no longer deceive me, right? After all, I have the Goddess's Demon-Subduing Pestle, which makes me immune to illusions." Zhang Yuanqing looked calm and analyzed the truth, "Tricking me to go over there was to kill me by other means. If the illusion doesn't work on me, then it's physical attacks, right?"
He glanced at the tree roots covering the tunnel walls and suddenly stabbed the pestle down.
PS: Two chapters will be updated together today. There will be another chapter in about an hour.
(End of chapter)
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