Chapter 1 Zhang Yuanqing Realizes His Mistake

Zhang Yuanqing realized he had focused on the wrong thing.

Based on his experience at the Mountain God Temple and the knowledge he had accumulated from reading numerous guides, he subconsciously believed that these survival instances required Lingjing Xingzhe to discover clues themselves, find ways to deal with the crises, and then solve the crises one by one.

Just like what he did in the Mountain God Temple.

Therefore, after successfully overcoming the crisis of the ghost doll with the help of information, he actively searched for the rouge box, believing that there must be a way to solve the crisis of the paper figures in the rouge box.

In fact, that was indeed the case. From this, he comprehended the law that the paper figures would kill one person a night, or stop killing after satisfying their need for essence and blood, thus surviving.

But this was unreasonable. Not every Night Watcher had the resources he did.

It could be said that with the difficulty of the first two levels, 99.9% of the Night Watchers would not be able to pass and would undoubtedly die, and this was not even the biggest crisis in the instance.

He had focused on the wrong thing. The Mute Village was a survival instance, not a combat instance (although combat was also for survival). Survival was the main quest, and he shouldn't have fought at the beginning.

But in the village, he couldn't survive without fighting. The elusive ghost dolls and the instantly moving paper figures would inevitably be encountered as soon as the time came, and he couldn't survive without fighting. Therefore, the correct way to play was to leave the village and go to the ancient tomb.

Yes, the ancient tomb and the village together were the complete map of the Mute Village.

From the introduction of the Lingjing Xingzhe, to Wang Xiaoer's narration, to the old man's description, and then to the location of the ancient tomb given by Mr. Xu, these clues were all telling the Lingjing Xingzhe that there was another map in the instance.

The ancient tomb was safe, at least at night it was safe. Because the Lingjing Xingzhe's introduction clearly stated: That night, she followed out.

The county princess and the supernatural item had already left the ancient tomb. Now the most dangerous place was the village, and the ancient tomb was safe instead. Therefore, the "run away" prompt given by the Cat King speaker was not a way to deal with the paper figures, but a way to clear this instance.

After figuring it out, Zhang Yuanqing didn't set off immediately. He continued to sit on the edge of the bed, stroking the cold metal shell of the Cat King speaker, and whispered to himself:

"There is still a doubt, a question.

"The doubt is that there is no crisis at the third watch, and all the villagers died at the fourth watch. According to the existing law, the mirror should be encountered at the third watch, and the county princess at the fourth watch. The county princess is the most ferocious, so the whole village died.

"But there is no crisis at the third watch. Is the crisis at the fourth watch the mirror or the county princess? If it is the mirror, then what about the county princess? Is she just a background?

"The question is, the ancient tomb is safe at night, so 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 when it dawns. I entered the instance at about ten o'clock this morning."

Because of the lack of prior information, it was difficult for him to deduce the answer, so he could only put this matter aside for now, and leave Mr. Xu's courtyard with Undead No. 1 to go to the ancient tomb.

"Squeak~"

Undead No. 1 politely closed the courtyard door.

Zhang Yuanqing stood by the small river, looking around cautiously. In the village, rammed earth houses and stone houses were arranged in disorder, and the field of vision was not wide, but there was no strong yin energy gathering in his perception.

The paper figures were not nearby.

He had to leave quickly... He led the yin corpse a few steps, and suddenly stopped, stunned. Zhang Yuanqing encountered a very fatal problem—he couldn't tell the directions.

The methods commonly used to distinguish directions at night were "observing the moon" and "observing constellations", but the night sky in the instance was as dark as ink, with no stars or moon.

There was a lack of landmarks.

In addition, there were no fresh plants in the village, so he couldn't infer the direction based on the growth of branches and leaves. "The passage of time in the instance is the same as the outside world. It's summer now, and I remember that the southeast wind blows in summer."

*The Almighty Soldier King of the Female CEO*

However, the village was shrouded in yin energy, like an invisible gauze, disrupting the natural wind.

Zhang Yuanqing racked his brains, but couldn't think of a good way. He felt sorry for himself, thinking that he, a top student of Songhai University, a top university in the country, was actually defeated by such a small detail?

Suddenly, he caught sight of the happily flowing river and thought of an alternative method.

The river water flowed from high to low, and the terrain was higher where there were mountains, so the direction of the stream could be ruled out. The back mountain was not in that direction.

Although the river water didn't necessarily flow out of the mountains, as long as he went against the current, he wouldn't go in the opposite direction.

"One *li* is 500 meters, and 23 *li* is about 11 kilometers. Mountain roads are more difficult to walk than flat ground, plus the time to find the ancient tomb..."

It was very close to the third watch. Zhang Yuanqing calculated silently that it would be difficult to find the ancient tomb before the third watch, but there would be plenty of time to reach the destination before the fourth watch.

A person and a corpse walked in the silent mountain village. Their footsteps and the happy sound of water merged into a lonely and monotonous movement, echoing in the silent night. In this atmosphere, if an ordinary person with an unyielding mind, even without any danger, would suffer a mental breakdown.

It had to be said that the Night Watcher's exclusive Lingjing Xingzhe was indeed a bit underworldly.

Zhang Yuanqing counted while walking. After about fifteen minutes, he finally walked out of the village. A solid dirt road led to the fields outside the village. At the end of the fields was a continuous mountain range.

It was majestic and tall, lurking quietly in the darkness.

"Good luck, the river flows out of the mountains." Zhang Yuanqing breathed out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, just as he was about to completely leave the village and head towards the fields, his spine turned cold, as if someone was peeking behind him.

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly turned around. Behind him was the desolate and dilapidated mountain village, shrouded in a gloomy darkness. The path was quiet and led to the depths of the village.

"Weird." Zhang Yuanqing frowned secretly, no longer staying, and ran quickly with the yin corpse, running farther and farther, disappearing into the fields.

Rushing across muddy ridges, they soon reached the foot of the mountain.

After entering the mountain, there were more ways to identify the direction. The sunny side of a single tree was extremely south, and the shady side was north.

In the dense forest, the drier side of the rock was south, and the wetter side with moss was north, even the ant nests (cave entrances) faced south.

After finding the southwest direction, Zhang Yuanqing led the yin corpse deep into the dense forest, passing through the forest and quickly moving forward.

Every few minutes, he would stop, re-identify the directions, and adjust the direction to avoid getting lost in the lush mountains.

As for the distance of 23 *li*, there was no better way, he could only rely on his own estimation.

After running for about a dozen *li*, Zhang Yuanqing stopped next to a pine tree and spat out a mouthful of yin energy. The yin energy landed like birds and condensed into a round, lovely little baby with sparse lanugo.

"Aba aba..."

The silly baby opened his big, dark eyes, looked around, and then climbed to his master's feet in fear, hugging his calf.

Speaking of which, the silly baby had grown so big, oh, not so big, anyway, since his birth, he had never seen a deep mountain forest, and had an instinctive fear of unfamiliar environments.

"Go find the treasure!"

Zhang Yuanqing comforted the silly baby while giving orders.

It was not difficult to find the ancient tomb, just use the silly baby's treasure hunting function reasonably to locate the tomb in the deep mountains. Of course, the premise was that it couldn't be too far away.

If he released the silly baby in the village, it would most likely go to find the rouge box.

The silly baby received the master's order and "aba"ed a few times, quickly crawling towards Zhang Yuanqing's back.

"I asked you to find the ancient tomb, not to go back to the village to find the rouge box." Zhang Yuanqing grabbed his little chubby legs, lifted him into the air, and threw him forward: "Reversed, go find it there!"

The silly baby showed a dazed look, seemingly not understanding why the master's order was contradictory, but he still followed the master's instructions and suppressed his instincts, crawling towards the specified direction.

The little infant spirit quickly moved his limbs, like an agile little spider.

Zhang Yuanqing followed behind the infant spirit unhurriedly.

While crawling, the silly baby suddenly turned direction and returned the same way. "Reversed!"

Zhang Yuanqing quickly stopped him and re-adjusted his direction.

The silly baby immediately detached from the treasure hunting state, glanced at the master in confusion, and followed his orders, crawling towards the southwest.

Zhang Yuanqing followed behind with the yin corpse. After about a few minutes, the silly baby turned again and returned the same way.

"Alas, you silly child, reversed again." Zhang Yuanqing bent down and picked up the silly baby, no longer letting him lead the way, and frowned deeply.

He carefully analyzed it and concluded that there was probably no treasure in the ancient tomb, or the remaining things were not of great value, so the silly baby repeatedly crawled back to the village.

Because there was a rouge box, a ghost doll, and a mirror there, although they were all ferocious supernatural beings, they were also excellent props.

They attracted the silly baby.

"In that case, I can only rely on myself..."

Zhang Yuanqing swallowed the little infant spirit in one gulp and continued to move forward with the yin corpse.

The night was dark and the time passed quietly. After about forty minutes, Zhang Yuanqing finally found the tomb robber's hole.

It was a ravine overgrown with weeds. There were no rocks around. A circular hole was exposed among the green weeds. A thick yin energy gushed out from the dark and deep cave.

"Found it!" Zhang Yuanqing was overjoyed.

Although there was no timer, he had estimated the time. It was very close to the fourth watch.

As a precaution, Zhang Yuanqing's spirit body split into two and entered the yin corpse. He jumped into the tomb robber's hole. The hole was not deep, about two meters. After landing, Undead No. 1 advanced in the dark along the narrow tomb robber's hole that could only accommodate one person. After more than ten meters, he came to the end of the tomb robber's hole. The circle of the cave was not made of soil, but thick blue bricks.

This tomb robber's hole was dug from the top of the tomb. The tomb chamber was below. "Zhang Yuanqing" picked up a piece of gravel and threw it into the darkness below. Soon he heard a slight landing sound.

"About four meters high..." He jumped into the tomb chamber.

The Zhang Yuanqing outside waited for a few seconds, confirmed that there was no abnormality in the tomb, and then jumped down the tomb robber's hole, advanced along the tunnel with his waist bent, and jumped into the tomb.

With his night vision ability, he took in everything in the tomb.

The tomb covered an area of about forty square meters. The walls were made of blue bricks. At the four corners of the tomb were two clay sculptures of maids and guards. Over the long years, the clay sculptures had long been cracked and broken.

Outside the tomb was a stepped tomb passage leading upwards, paved with pebbles.

Behind the tomb was another passage door leading to the depths.

"This should be the front chamber..." Zhang Yuanqing analyzed based on the clay sculptures at the four corners.

Probably because the tomb robber's hole was connected to the outside world, the air in the tomb was not stuffy and the oxygen was sufficient.

He manipulated the yin corpse to explore the road ahead, followed behind himself, and looked at the surrounding brick walls. The brick walls were built with blue bricks staggered and joined together with white ash. The walls of the passage door used three layers of vertical bricks and three layers of horizontal bricks.

In archeological professional terms, this was called three arches and three flats.

Only very high-level tombs could use this kind of masonry. Well, these were learned by Zhang Yuanqing from tomb raiding novels, and the school didn't teach them.

Passing through the passage door, which was about six meters long, one person and one corpse came to the main tomb chamber.

The main tomb chamber was vast, as large as the lobby of a five-star hotel. A Sumeru pedestal stone coffin bed was placed in the center, and a white jade coffin was placed on the bed.

The east, west, and south walls of the main tomb chamber were each built with niches.

Some of these niches were filled with porcelain, some were filled with rusty bronze, and some were filled with half-person-high black wooden boxes.

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And at the four corners of the main tomb, there were some bronze ceremonial instruments.

Zhang Yuanqing withdrew his gaze, silently exited the main tomb chamber, stood by the passage door, and then manipulated Undead No. 1 to push the coffin.

Next, he wanted to verify a guess. If the county princess's body was lying in the coffin, then the crisis at the fourth watch would come from the bronze mirror.

Otherwise, the biggest boss in the instance was the county princess.

To everyone's surprise, Undead No. 1 was unable to push open the coffin with his strength.

Zhang Yuanqing, at the passage door, returned to the main tomb in surprise and pushed the coffin together with the yin corpse. With the combined strength of the two, they still couldn't push it open.

"What's the situation? Is the Lingjing Xingzhe restricting me, or is the coffin sealed with secret techniques that outsiders cannot open?" Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a few seconds, gave up the idea of opening the coffin, and felt relieved in his heart.

Since the Old Banger incident, he had a considerable psychological shadow over opening coffins. Zhang Yuanqing turned to manipulating the yin corpse to move the wooden boxes in the niches, but found that they couldn't be opened either.

"Okay, it seems like it's just a shelter."

Zhang Yuanqing sat on a wooden box, no longer tossing, and waited quietly for dawn.

The ancient tomb was dark and silent. Zhang Yuanqing sat for a few minutes and felt a little bored. Undead No. 1 couldn't chat either. He thought about "one doubt and one question" again. Although he had come to the ancient tomb, he still hadn't found the answer to these two points.

This made Zhang Yuanqing feel uneasy.

"Let's get through the night first. After dawn, the village should be safe, the villagers will return to normal, and I'll go back and find an old man to inquire. If the mirror has been sold, then the strange things at the third watch will be explained. The danger at the fourth watch is the county princess."

"But why can't the coffin be opened..."

"That's right, the wandering Taoist."

According to Wang Xiaoer's description, the wandering Taoist also entered the ancient tomb...

Considering the fact that the coffin could not be opened, Zhang Yuanqing already had a guess in his mind. The person lying in the coffin was the wandering Taoist, and he did not belong to the plot line of this instance, so the Lingjing Xingzhe could not open it.

"It would have been nice if the Old Banger's stone coffin had been so sensible..." Zhang Yuanqing thought, his eyes swept across the tomb, and he always felt that something was wrong.

He pondered for a few seconds and grabbed the Seer Glasses.

After putting on the glasses, he re-scanned the room, and his pupils suddenly shrank. Through the glasses, he saw the details in the main tomb and understood what was wrong.

The burial objects were placed too neatly.

It shouldn't be like this. Wang Xiaoer had been here. How could a thief not rummage through boxes and cabinets?

But from the porcelain to the pottery, to the boxes and ceremonial instruments, everything was so neat. At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing's body seemed to be struck by lightning, bringing a trembling sense of horror. "Whew~"

He quickly spat out the silly baby, stared at the round, lovely baby, and sternly ordered:

"Find the treasure!"

The silly baby received the master's order, nimbly moved his limbs, and crawled out of the main tomb chamber.

The infant spirit ignored the coffin, ignored the valuable burial objects, and crawled away...

Zhang Yuanqing's face instantly became extremely ugly.

He suddenly understood why the silly baby had been returning the same way before, and also understood why the coffin and the boxes could not be opened. All of this was fake.

This was not an ancient tomb at all. He had not even approached the ancient tomb at the time. He... was under a bewitching spell!

When did he fall under the bewitching spell? Who cast the bewitching spell on him?

Zhang Yuanqing thought of the gloomy gaze when he left the village. From beginning to end, only at that time did he feel the abnormality. As for who cast the bewitching spell, the answer was obvious - the bronze mirror! Calculating the time, it was almost the third watch when he left the village.

"I understand why there were no strange things at the third watch, because the bewitching spell of the bronze mirror is imperceptible to ordinary people and will not bring substantial harm. It's not that nothing strange happened at the third watch, but that no one knew."

"If that's the case, I haven't left the village at all..."

"Haven't left the village..."

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes gradually became horrified, his face gradually turned pale, until it lost all color. "What time is it now?!"

Zhang Yuanqing shouted sharply, although no one would answer him.

As soon as he finished speaking, a bone-chilling yin wind blew in the sealed tomb, a sky-covering yin wind.

"Whining..."

Zhang Yuanqing heard the howling of the yin wind, and saw the brick walls, the coffin, the burial objects - everything in front of him was torn apart by the yin wind.

No matter how strong the bewitching spell was, it would immediately shatter once disturbed by the outside world.

The county princess was coming!