A deserted tunnel........

Zhang Yuanqing looked around in some panic. Being suddenly transported to an unfamiliar environment would make anyone feel flustered and helpless.

"A tunnel? Is this the Sheling Tunnel from the ghost stories?"

As a native of Songhai City, he certainly knew about the Sheling Tunnel in the Ten Great Ghost Stories. When he was a mischievous child who wouldn't sleep at night, his grandmother would scare him with ghost stories.

However, aside from the fact that ghost stories were just ethereal tales, Zhang Yuanqing had passed by the Sheling Tunnel a few days ago when he returned to his hometown to pay respects to his father.

The real Sheling Tunnel wasn't like this at all, so old and dilapidated.

"That's right, this is The Way of the Extraordinary, not the real Sheling Tunnel."

The cramped environment made him uneasy. Zhang Yuanqing walked forward cautiously, with only the sound of his lonely footsteps in his ears.

As he walked, he pondered his situation and the information given to him by the voice in his head.

Without a doubt, he had encountered a supernatural phenomenon, been brought into a ghost story, and was about to complete a task issued by a mysterious force.

"That voice gave me two tasks: survive for three hours; explore The Way of the Extraordinary. Difficulty level S, single-player death type... this 'death type' makes me very nervous."

Surviving for three hours meant there would be great danger.

Exploring The Way of the Extraordinary... should mean exploring this tunnel. In other words, the tunnel is dangerous?

He quietly tensed his nerves. At the same time, a question flashed through his mind: what would be the reward for completing the task?

Since it was a task, there must be a reward.

"Hmm, according to the attribute panel just now, my profession is Night Wanderer, but level 0 instead of 1. Becoming a Night Wanderer should be one of the rewards, right? What is a Night Wanderer?"

"Brother Bing was right, this black card will indeed change your life, but I ignored the second half of his sentence: this thing is difficult to control, referring to the level of danger?"

Zhang Yuanqing combined the known information and analyzed it silently.

Just then, the old-fashioned xenon lamp beside him seemed to have unstable circuitry, flickering a few times. In the interplay of light and darkness, Zhang Yuanqing vaguely saw a figure wearing a miner's hat standing under the lamp.

Damn it... He jumped up in fright, his train of thought instantly interrupted, and ran forward a distance like a startled deer.

Looking back, the xenon lamp continued to shine brightly, no longer flickering.

The dark figure wearing the miner's hat seemed to be his imagination.

After this scare, Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare stay in this ghostly place any longer and quickly headed towards the exit of the tunnel.

Da da da... The sound of footsteps echoed in the quiet tunnel. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to stop for even a moment, and walked quickly like this for five or six minutes. The old-fashioned xenon lamps on the arched ceiling flickered again, but this time, no figure wearing a miner's hat appeared.

"Not following me?"

He felt a slight relief in his heart, but didn't dare to stop. He lowered his head and walked quickly. Suddenly, his eyes fixed on the ground, and he caught a detail that made his heart stop.

The orange xenon lamp cast his shadow very long. Beside his shadow, there were more than a dozen shadows following.

They've been following me all along?!

A chill ran from his feet to his head, raising goosebumps all over his body. Zhang Yuanqing's face turned pale with fright, and he started running wildly.

Finally, the tunnel entrance appeared ahead, and outside the tunnel was the frosty moonlight.

Zhang Yuanqing rushed out of the tunnel in one breath, supporting his knees, and bending over to pant.

After catching his breath, he looked around. The round moon was like a plate, hanging lonely in the night sky. Under its light, the stars paled in comparison.

The lush forest bathed in the moonlight, casting large patches of thick shadows.

He was in a remote mountain wilderness.

The xenon lamps in the tunnel flickered a few times and went out completely. The huge tunnel entrance was dark and quiet, like a beast's mouth waiting to devour people.

"Leave quickly..."

Zhang Yuanqing's scalp tingled, and he climbed up the rugged mountain path.

After walking a dozen steps, he looked back again and saw a row of figures wearing miner's hats, in tattered clothes, and with their heads hanging down, standing at the tunnel entrance.

They stood in the shadows where the moonlight couldn't reach, without saying a word, as if they were seeing him off.

Zhang Yuanqing was so startled that he took a few steps back, turned around, and ran up the mountain.

The branches and leaves on both sides of the mountain path were lush, casting fine and fragmented moonlight, enough for Zhang Yuanqing to see the road clearly.

It was just that the silence in the mountains was terrifying. There were no insects chirping or birds singing in the forest, which made Zhang Yuanqing's footsteps seem particularly loud.

"It's too quiet, there can't be no insect chirping in the mountains this season."

He looked around. The round moon was like a plate, the shadows of the trees swayed, and he always felt like something was watching him in the dark.

He didn't know how long he walked until a thin layer of sweat oozed from his body. Zhang Yuanqing finally walked out of the dense forest, and his vision suddenly widened.

The moonlight was like water, the surroundings were deathly silent, and at the end of the rugged mountain road was a deserted ancient temple.

It stood quietly in the darkness.

This ancient temple had been deserted for who knows how many years. The paint on the front door was mottled and black, covered with蚀蚀holes, and the lanterns on the eaves had fallen to the ground, leaving only bamboo skeletons.

The plaque was still there, covered with cobwebs, hanging crookedly under the eaves, but the light was too dark to see what was written on the plaque.

The steps in front of the temple gate were cracked, and weeds grew in the cracks.

This was a remote mountain wilderness, with no village in front and no shop in the back. How could there be a temple?

Wait... a temple?!

Zhang Yuanqing reacted suddenly, and the voice from The Way of the Extraordinary information introduction seemed to echo in his ears:

"Don't enter the temple, don't enter the temple..."

"According to the tips from that strange voice, I shouldn't enter the temple. No, I've already come out of the tunnel, which means that what I really need to explore is this dilapidated ancient temple."

After hesitating for a long time at the temple gate, Zhang Yuanqing cautiously moved his steps and walked towards the ancient temple standing in the darkness, stepping over the broken threshold.

What came into view was a vast front yard, with waist-high weeds growing inside. A rotten, half-man-tall incense burner was overturned in the grass, having been exposed to wind and rain for who knows how many years.

Underneath his feet was a road paved with bluestone slabs. Tufts of weeds also grew in the gaps between the stone slabs.

His gaze followed the undulating, withered grass and looked towards the end of the bluestone road. There stood a dilapidated main hall with a very high foundation, with as many as six steps. Faint yellow light shone from the latticed doors of the main hall.

"There's light?"

The surroundings were silent, desolate, and dilapidated. The bright moonlight shone down. In this environment, that little halo of light didn't bring a trace of warmth to Zhang Yuanqing.

He even felt more terrified.

Swish, swish...

Stepping on clumps of withered yellow grass, he walked towards the main hall vigilantly. In the empty environment, the sound of his footsteps was particularly clear.

Swish, swish... Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing's ear moved slightly, and he heard another footstep behind him. Something was following him.

He suddenly turned his head.

The night was like water, the weeds were lush, and there was nothing behind him.

"Hallucination?"

Zhang Yuanqing stopped in his tracks, feeling frightened and trembling. He hesitated for a moment before starting to move his legs forward again.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

The sound of footsteps came again. This time he heard it very clearly. There really was something following behind him.

......It can't be this evil, right? Did I encounter something dirty as soon as I entered the temple? He didn't dare to turn his head to look, and quickened his pace.

The footsteps behind him also quickened.

Zhang Yuanqing couldn't hold on any longer. At the same time that goosebumps popped up, he ran wildly towards the main hall.

The footsteps behind him followed him like a shadow, chasing closely behind him.

During the chase, Zhang Yuanqing quickly rushed out of the weeds and approached the main hall. He jumped up the six steps in two strides. Finally, with a loud "bang," he broke open the two latticed doors of the main hall.

The footsteps behind him suddenly disappeared.

"Huff, huff..."

He panted heavily and finally dared to look back. The moonlight was like water, shining on the courtyard. The weeds, the stone slab road, were terrifyingly quiet, but there was nothing there.

"Fortunately, it didn't follow me."

After Zhang Yuanqing caught his breath, he gently closed the door of the main hall, as if he had blocked the fear outside.

Then, he scanned the scene inside the main hall. On a high stone base, there was a statue of a lady dressed in a fur cloak and beautiful clothes. Her face was round, her eyebrows were slender, and she exuded an air of charity.

This lady was holding a duster in one hand and making a grasping gesture with the other hand. It seemed that she was originally holding something, but it was empty at the moment.

On the left and right sides were a sword-holding page and a book-holding maid.

In front of the base was a tribute table covered with dust. On the table were candlesticks and a candle that was twenty centimeters long and as thick as a baby's forearm, burning quietly.

The candlelight dispelled the darkness and seemed to dispel the fear in Zhang Yuanqing's heart. He felt that his emotions had stabilized a lot.

On the left wall hung two faded and cracked wooden boards, covered with regular script characters.

Zhang Yuanqing strolled to the wall and stared at it by the light of the candle. The literary style of these regular script characters was classical Chinese.

His Chinese was not bad. Through guessing and reading, he gained a clear understanding of his surroundings.

This mountain was called Three Paths Mountain, and the mountain god enshrined in the temple was called the Three Paths Mountain Lady.

This mountain god lady was a native of Song Mansion in the early Ming Dynasty. She practiced in Three Paths Mountain in Song Mansion, was proficient in talismans, understood the art of alchemy, could pray for rain and exorcise ghosts, and protected the peace of the region, so she was revered by the people as a deity.

After she ascended to immortality, the local government built this temple on Three Paths Mountain, named it "Three Paths Mountain Lady Temple," and managed the incense with the lady's mantle inheritor, who acted as the temple host.

"A temple from the early Ming Dynasty, that's five or six hundred years ago." Zhang Yuanqing muttered.

At this time, he couldn't help but glance at the bottom of the tribute table, and his heart suddenly trembled.

A dark figure lay in the shadows under the table.

Just now, his mentality was too panicked, and the candlelight was dim, so he didn't notice it at first.

Zhang Yuanqing hardened his heart and approached. After taking a closer look, he realized that it was a corpse with only a skeleton left.

Zhang Yuanqing was frightened but also relieved. Compared to this strange mountain god temple, the corpse was not so terrifying.

Taking a few steps closer, by the faint candlelight, he saw the clothes on the skeleton, a piece of work clothes covered with dust.

A worker?

"Is this the construction team from back then? So I really entered the world of ghost stories."

As soon as Zhang Yuanqing made a guess, he thought of an even more alarming possibility. Maybe the construction team from back then, like me, strayed into this place.

That's why urban legends were left behind.

If it was the former, then this so-called The Way of the Extraordinary generated scenes based on ghost stories.

But if it was the latter, it meant that the ancient temple had always existed, and the construction team, like him at this moment, was a victim.

According to the historical background introduction of the Mountain God Temple, Zhang Yuanqing was more inclined to the latter.

"An entire construction team died in the temple, with only one survivor. People really die here... Now I've also entered this temple and will face unknown dangers at any time..."

Hiss~ He gasped in a cold breath, his emotions tensed again, and he subconsciously looked around.

Then, he suddenly realized a terrifying detail.

This ancient temple was from the Ming Dynasty, with a long history. How could the candle still be burning? Who was replacing the candles in the main hall?

The more he thought about it, the more terrified he felt. Even the kind-faced statue seemed to exude a strange and sinister aura in the candlelight.

Although the three clay sculptures were covered with dust, they were lifelike, and every detail was carved vividly and realistically, especially the eyes.

They stood on the base, staring down at Zhang Yuanqing in the twilight candlelight.