It was already four o'clock in the afternoon. The winter sky was no longer so bright, but not quite approaching dusk. The radiant light sprinkled on the ground, and the lake breeze gently blew, giving people the feeling of returning to the early morning.

The road on the island was indeed as the Fishmen captives had said, not too severely damaged. Only some places had cracked due to sun and rain, and there was a lot of dirt and dust on some sections.

For Jiang Bai Mian riding a bicycle, what blew towards her face was a slightly cold wind that cleared her mind. On the left was a large amount of farmland that stretched all the way to the foot of the mountain, and on the right, through two rows of trees with withered branches and leaves, she could see the vast and misty lake surface.

Such scenery and such feelings broadened her mind and refreshed her spirit.

If she wasn't carrying a grenade launcher and an assault rifle, she would have almost forgotten the purpose of this trip.

"It's a pity it's winter now, there's not much green in the farmland and woods, otherwise it would definitely feel better," Jiang Bai Mian said with a sigh as she pedaled.

Shang Jian Yao tried hard to keep his bicycle from rushing out too far, thought for a moment, and said:

"Autumn might be more beautiful."

"Why?" Jiang Bai Mian didn't expect Shang Jian Yao to actually choose a season.

Shang Jian Yao answered frankly:

"There must be a lot of fruits on the trees."

"..." Jiang Bai Mian decided not to continue this topic and instead said, "It seems that the Fishmen have all evacuated from this island. I wonder if it was the order of that Envoy, or because it exceeded three days, something terrible happened..."

This was one of the precautions given by Pangu Biology:

Do not stay on the island for more than three days.

Shang Jian Yao, wearing a monkey mask, thought for a moment and said:

"We didn't ask the captives about this at the time."

"We didn't know at the time," Jiang Bai Mian subconsciously comforted.

When Shang Jian Yao and Long Yue Hong went to question the Fishmen captives, she was still sick, hadn't reported the matter to the company, and hadn't received the precautions for exploring the forbidden temple.

And on the morning of the second day after Pangu Biology replied, Redstone Town exchanged captives with the Fishmen and Hill Giants.

Trying hard to control himself and not let the bicycle speed become too fast, Shang Jian Yao glanced at Jiang Bai Mian:

"I think it should be the Envoy's order."

"Oh?" Although Jiang Bai Mian also judged this way, she was still quite interested in Shang Jian Yao's reasoning process.

She felt it was necessary to learn alternative ways of thinking and not be complacent.

After all, many Awakened have certain mental problems, and it is difficult to speculate on the patterns of their behavior using normal logic.

Shang Jian Yao said truthfully:

"He's already become friends with Song the Watcher. When he mentioned Lake Heart Island and the forbidden temple, he wouldn't fail to mention that staying on the island for too long would cause terrible things to happen, unless he didn't know the specific situation."

"Right." Jiang Bai Mian was a little disappointed, because this was normal reasoning.

Ding-a-ling!

At this moment, Shang Jian Yao moved the bell on the front of the bicycle with great interest, as if he wanted to use it to play a piece of music.

Unfortunately, the bell couldn't do such a thing.

"..." Jiang Bai Mian retracted her earlier disappointment.

The two rode past a row of abandoned houses by the lake and finally saw a market town in just over ten minutes.

Its style was very similar to Weed City, with white walls and black tiles, flying eaves and brackets, full of the charm of the old era of the Old World.

Of course, there were also differences between this place and Weed City:

One was that there were no city walls; the second was that the houses were generally not high, mainly two or three stories.

Inside the market town, it was paved with bluestone slabs, and withered yellow weeds were occasionally pulled up by the cold wind and blown into the sky.

For some reason, as soon as she entered this market town, Jiang Bai Mian had the feeling that the light had dimmed a bit.

This made the scenery she saw both ancient and quiet, and a bit gloomy.

Without a doubt, there was no sign of human activity throughout the market town. If it weren't for the fact that it was currently winter, this place would probably become a paradise for green plants and wild animals.

Even now, Jiang Bai Mian could see dried animal feces in the corners of the walls and in the ditches.

"No smell." Shang Jian Yao sniffed his nose and made a judgment.

Jiang Bai Mian was too lazy to pay attention to him and looked at her watch:

"It's 4:16 now, we must leave this town before 4:42, whether we find anything of value or not."

"You miscalculated," Shang Jian Yao pointed out.

This was less than half an hour.

While identifying the road according to the Fishmen captives' confession and looking for the temple, Jiang Bai Mian scoffed:

"This is called leaving a margin.

"Who knows if there's any difference between this place and the ones the company discovered before. We can't completely follow the precautions given by the company. We have to raise the standard."

"You're very suitable to join the Vigilance Sect," Shang Jian Yao praised.

Jiang Bai Mian glanced sideways and muttered:

"I think you're scolding me.

"Is the vigilance of the Vigilance Sect the same as the vigilance of normal people?"

After confirming the general direction, she rode her bicycle along the ditch next to the road towards the center of the market town.

According to the Fishmen captives' description, the temple was located in the alley east of the market town square.

The inside of the market town was the same as the outside. Apart from the whistling wind and the sound of bicycles, it was completely silent, so silent that it made one's scalp tingle.

"I didn't feel it when I was in the wild, but now that I'm here, the lack of sound really feels strange." Jiang Bai Mian looked around and attributed part of the reason to the narrow roads, the cramped environment, and the oppressive atmosphere.

Shang Jian Yao immediately sighed:

"It's a pity Long Yue Hong didn't come."

"What would happen if he came?" Jiang Bai Mian casually asked.

Shang Jian Yao sighed:

"Then I could tell him ghost stories."

"You're really his good friend," Jiang Bai Mian said sincerely.

As they spoke, the view in front of them opened up, revealing a small square.

On the east side of the square, there was a half-meter-high platform with nothing on it.

Beyond this concrete platform, a narrow alley could be seen. A stale smell floated from the entrance of the alley, as if no wind had blown in for a long time.

Jiang Bai Mian quickly got off her bicycle and leaned it against the side.

Their destination had arrived.

While getting off the bicycle, Shang Jian Yao said about his worries:

"Should we lock it? It wouldn't be good if we came out and found the bike was gone."

"If your bike is gone, I'll carry you!" Jiang Bai Mian didn't say that there was no one stealing bicycles in this kind of ghost place. She directly followed Shang Jian Yao's thinking and responded.

A dozen seconds later, the two put down their bicycles, picked up their assault rifles, and stepped into the alley in front of them.

The further they went, the more stale the air became, with a feeling of almost solidifying, but this did not affect Shang Jian Yao and Jiang Bai Mian's breathing.

In this alley, all the doors and windows of the houses were tightly closed, unlike other areas of the town, where many doors were open, as if they had been searched.

Moreover, the doors here were uniformly painted black.

As they walked, Jiang Bai Mian heard the sound of her and Shang Jian Yao's footsteps.

They echoed constantly in the alley, overlapping each other.

"This place is indeed quite unique." In the midst of Jiang Bai Mian's sigh, the temple had already appeared in front of them.

The temple was located at the end of the alley, in a higher position, and there was no essential difference in architectural style from the surrounding buildings.

Its black gate was tightly closed, connected to black tiles above, and a white paper lantern hung on each side.

Perhaps because there was an eave blocking it, the lanterns had not been affected by rain and looked as if they had just been hung up last night.

The temple door was higher than the other buildings, and there was a plaque under the eaves, black with white characters.

Jiang Bai Mian just glanced at it casually and clearly saw the contents of the plaque:

"Hall of Yama"

"It's quite like the real thing," she commented fairly.

This did not affect her progress. Soon, she and Shang Jian Yao arrived at the temple gate.

When she got closer, she had a strange feeling, a fear that went straight to the bottom of her heart.

Jiang Bai Mian did not hesitate. She stretched out her left hand, pressed it against the door, and exerted a little force.

Before riding their bicycles, she and Shang Jian Yao had already put on latex gloves.

And at this time, she was cautious and even used her left hand.

In the creaking sound, the black gate of the temple slowly opened backward, revealing the scene inside.

What first came into Jiang Bai Mian and Shang Jian Yao's eyes was a patio with a water tank in each corner.

At the end of the patio was a hall, with a white curtain hanging at the entrance.

After crossing the threshold and entering the temple, the fear that Jiang Bai Mian had felt instantly dissipated, but her heart seemed to be piled with several heavy stones, feeling extremely depressed.

Even the sound of the wind seemed to have disappeared here, so quiet that it didn't seem like it was in the real world.

Suddenly, Shang Jian Yao asked:

"Can I get the speaker?"

"Huh?" Jiang Bai Mian, who was fully focused, didn't react for a moment.

"Play music." Shang Jian Yao quickly explained.

Playing music with a speaker in this gloomy, mysterious, quiet, oppressive, and strange temple? Playing those weird songs? Although Jiang Bai Mian thought that this could effectively break the current atmosphere, she always felt it was too strange.

It was simply crazy to have "You Are My Little Apple" echoing in a place that could "have ghosts" at any time.

She considered it and said:

"Not yet, but you can prepare."

"Okay." Shang Jian Yao became excited.

The two, holding assault rifles, then entered the main hall entrance, forming a mutual support position.

After lifting the white curtain and tying it up, they saw an offering table, an incense burner, ashes, a futon, and white candles.

However, there was no statue on the offering table, and the actual situation behind it, which was blocked by the offering table, could not be seen at a glance.

At this time, Shang Jian Yao suddenly said:

"There is human consciousness, no more than ten meters."

He used a relatively vague description, as if he was not yet sure of the specific range.

"You only sensed it after coming in?" Jiang Bai Mian asked in surprise.

She remembered that Shang Jian Yao's ability had a maximum range of twenty meters.

Shang Jian Yao nodded heavily.

Jiang Bai Mian then concentrated her mind and hesitated for a while before saying:

"Indeed, there is an electrical signal, very weak... extremely low biological activity?"

As she spoke, she held her gun and, together with Shang Jian Yao, went around behind the offering table.

Then, they saw a coffin, a black coffin.

The coffin was open, and a person was lying inside.