Chapter 1 The Nameless Mountain

West of Heyue Town stood a small mountain. It wasn't very large, nor particularly high. It wasn't quite a mountain, yet not exactly a hill. Since ancient times, it had been a nameless place.

However, the temple situated on that mountain did have a name: Liuhe Temple.

The exact year of the temple's construction was lost to time, but calling it a "thousand-year-old" temple would likely be accurate. External records and the temple's own ancient scriptures corroborated its long history.

As a building that had existed and been in use for over a thousand years, Liuhe Temple had undergone numerous renovations. Countless minor repairs were carried out by the monks themselves, and there had been nineteen major overhauls recorded. The most recent one took place forty years ago.

At that time, Heyue Town was enjoying its most stable and prosperous period. After decades of development and accumulation, the third generation descendants of the original refugees were enjoying a golden age. It couldn't be said that there wasn't a single poor person in the town, but people sleeping on the streets or starving... those were nowhere to be found.

As the saying goes… when the granary is full, people know etiquette; when clothing and food are sufficient, people know honor and shame. Since the residents of Heyue Town were doing well materially, they naturally had the leisure to engage in some spiritual development.

The common people of that era (the setting of this script is roughly equivalent to ancient feudal China) couldn't come up with some Eight Honors and Eight Shames concept; apart from traditional morality, they also talked about religious superstition.

Considering the Liuhe Temple monks had been kind to the townspeople's ancestors, and the town had generally enjoyed good weather over the years, the townspeople decided to do something for the temple, both to repay the monks' kindness and to thank the gods for their years of protection.

Thus, forty years ago, with the agreement of the then-mayor of Heyue Town and the abbot of Liuhe Temple, the townspeople raised a sum of charitable donations to completely renovate the temple and regild the many Buddha statues within.

This was supposed to be a good thing, but the ending was a surprise to everyone…

…………

Renovating a large temple like Liuhe Temple was a lengthy and substantial project, requiring many artisans and laborers. The manpower of Heyue Town alone was clearly insufficient. Fortunately, the funds were relatively abundant, so the foreman in charge of the project recruited many people from the surrounding towns.

That year, among the workers who came to repair the temple, was a middle-aged stonemason from another village. His surname was Zhang, and his given name was Ke. Although his parents had given him a rather steady name, Zhang Ke's personality seemed to be the opposite. He was not cautious at all, but rather impetuous and frivolous, meddling in everything.

One night forty years ago, Zhang Ke drank a few too many cups at the town's tavern. Fueled by the alcohol, he suddenly had the whim to explore the "Stone Courtyard Pagoda" in Liuhe Temple…

Speaking of the Stone Courtyard Pagoda, it was indeed a rather mysterious place. Liuhe Temple had always had an iron rule: except for the abbot himself, no one was allowed to enter the temple's Stone Courtyard, let alone step into the pagoda within.

Before the temple renovation, the abbot had repeatedly instructed the mayor not to let anyone approach the Stone Courtyard. And the mayor… had faithfully conveyed the abbot's words to all the workers involved in the renovation.

To be honest… this was not a big deal to the workers. If it were a nunnery… if you said there was a forbidden area, people might have a little interest in peeking; but the forbidden area in this monk temple… if you can't enter, then you can't, right? You don't expect to find cultivation artifacts or peerless secret manuals, do you?

But there just happened to be someone with particularly strong curiosity… and that was Zhang Ke.

This guy was a typical case of incurable chuunibyou turned terminal illness, and his personality was the type that, after a couple of bowls of rice wine, his IQ would drop offline and his courage would become immense. The more you forbade him from going to a place, the more he wanted to go… and after he went, he would brag about it to his colleagues to play the hero.

But we all know that true heroes… have some extraordinary abilities, they have "strength."

Some people can still walk mountain roads in the dark after drinking a few pounds of old wine, and single-handedly kill a ferocious national一级 protected animal; while others can also walk mountain roads in the dark after drinking a few pounds of old wine, but in the end, they slip and fall to their deaths in a ravine.

Based on Zhang Ke's performance in the past few decades of his life… he definitely belonged to the latter.

So, this time he went… and was never seen again, dead or alive.

…………

What exactly happened that night was only known to a very few people; outsiders only knew that… after that night, no one ever saw Zhang Ke again.

Several days later, the mayor gave a statement… Zhang Ke, after getting drunk, mistakenly entered the mountains and forests, was eaten by wild animals, and his bones were gone.

And this statement… naturally did not satisfy Zhang Ke's family members, who quickly went to the government to complain.

The first official administrative official of Heyue Town was appointed by an envoy sent by the imperial court in the fifteenth year after the town was built; and the person appointed was the mayor in office at the time. Clearly, the imperial court did not pay much attention to the management of such a remote town, and it was just a formality. The main purpose was to formally incorporate the town into the national system, to facilitate taxation.

Later on, the town had a more formal yamen (government office), and the laws were replaced by the imperial code, replacing the original customary "village law". However, in general, the town was still in a state of "autonomy," and the vast majority of officials were locals.

After the Zhang Ke case occurred, his family would certainly not be foolish enough to file a complaint locally in Heyue Town… therefore, they went directly to the higher-level yamen.

And the government… did send people to investigate.

The process of investigating this case was like being in a fog for outsiders. Although many rumors circulated in the streets, the content was varied and the truth was difficult to distinguish.

The only thing that could be determined was that the attitude of the official handling the case changed several times—from an initial posture of "swearing to uphold justice and not tolerating any sand in his eyes," to "cooling down, full of doubts," and then to the later stage… he was already in a state of "equivocating and saying little" when discussing the case.

At the same time, the constables handling the case also inadvertently revealed some bizarre and creepy remarks to the outside world… roughly saying, "In that Stone Courtyard Pagoda, there are some 'unclean things' being suppressed. Zhang Ke was seeking his own death, and his soul has probably been scattered."

In short, after a month, the case was finally closed. And the final result was… the authorities intervened to mediate, and the temple gave Zhang Ke's family a sum of money, whether it was compensation or hush money… anyway, the matter ended there. Zhang Ke's family could either choose to take the money and accept the "eaten by wild animals, no bones left" explanation, or… get neither the money nor the explanation.

In this way, the family members could only choose to settle the matter, and the matter came to an end.

However… the people at the time certainly did not expect… that this case had planted the seed for a catastrophe forty years later.

…………

"Hmm… it really is gloomy…" Standing in front of the Liuhe Temple gate, Wang Tanzhi looked up at the tall copper doors and muttered softly.

He spoke very softly, not because he was worried about being discovered by someone in the distance, but because he felt uneasy, so he instinctively lowered his voice.

"I thought the stench of blood in the town was already enough, but compared to here… it's simply a drop in the bucket," Xiao Ling, standing next to Xiao Tan, muttered while covering her nose.

At this time, about half an hour had passed since the start of the script. Xiao Tan and Xiao Ling had met on the way to Liuhe Temple, and until they arrived here, they had not found any signs of other players active around them.

Given their reconnaissance specialties, the possibility of being secretly followed was extremely low; and if someone had arrived here before them, they would probably have been spotted. Therefore… it could basically be determined that they were the two players who arrived at Liuhe Temple the fastest.

Of course… it could not be ruled out that someone was placed inside the temple as soon as the script started…

"How do we… get in?" Xiao Tan thought for a few seconds in front of the gate, then turned to ask, "Should we try knocking, or just break in? Or… climb over the wall directly?"

Xiao Ling heard this, thought for a few seconds, then silently took two steps forward and grabbed the copper handle on the gate.

Creak—

With a little effort, the huge doors were pushed open.

"Eh?" Xiao Tan was stunned for a moment and asked, "How did you know you could push it open?"

"I didn't know," Xiao Ling shrugged and said, "I was just trying…"

She didn't finish the sentence, because before the last word "it" could be uttered, a cloud of blood suddenly swept out from the door, quickly engulfing Xiao Ling and dragging her inside…

A second later, Xiao Tan instinctively rushed forward, wanting to grab Xiao Ling's hand, but at this moment… the cloud of blood had completely pulled the latter into the door.

Bang—

As an expression of astonishment appeared on Xiao Tan's face, the gate in front of him… slammed shut… again.