Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 32: Terrifying Whispers
Time in the Inner World is chaotic, completely out of sync with the real world.
They had left the Living Persons Apartment at 9:15. Now, across the desolate, uninhabited landscape of the Inner World, the yellow sky was tinged with a faint red glow, suggesting it was around dusk.
The living Xu Yuan had said that stars that shouldn’t be there had appeared in the sky.
Yu Sheng had said not to look up at the stars, for their numbers were dwindling.
Gao Tian looked up at the sky of the Inner World.
’What on earth did those two see up there?’
The sky was still too bright to see the night stars. However, Gao Tian saw that the sun, hanging high above, emitted a sickly, fractured, spectral green light.
The color was incredibly bleak. Compounding this, the halo and sunlight radiating from the Inner World’s sun were still golden-yellow, just like in the normal world. Because of this, newcomers to the Inner World, in their state of extreme tension, rarely noticed that this world’s sun was different from reality—like something from the underworld.
Xia Ta, or someone, had once said that the green sun, just like a normal one, could trigger certain Supernatural Artifacts that required sunlight. Therefore, it didn’t have much of an impact on travelers in the Inner World; they could just treat it as a normal day.
There had also been Ghost Hunters who tried to figure out why the sun here was green and what caused it.
Most investigations ended without any results. After all, just surviving after entering the Inner World was an achievement in itself. It’s not like they could build a launch station here and fire a rocket at the sun.
Gao Tian had wondered why no one brought a small telescope into the Inner World. It might allow for observation of the green sun and some of the secrets of this starry sky.
But if he could think of it, other Ghost Hunters surely had as well. Someone had probably already tried it.
He shook his head, driving the distracting thoughts from his mind. ’The most important thing right now is Longshu Temple. If we can’t get past this, there’s no point in thinking about the future.’
After parting ways with the mysterious old man—suspected to be Old Sun—at that bizarre, abruptly appearing McDonald’s, the four of them followed his directions and soon drew closer to an abandoned Buddhist temple on the horizon.
Overall, the exterior of Longshu Temple matched the descriptions in their files. The walls were mottled and dilapidated, and though the main gate was covered in rust, it still stood stubbornly and silently. It was surrounded by large trees with blood-red leaves, and weeds grew wild, exuding an out-of-place vitality.
BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ BUZZ.
The closer they got, the more they realized something was wrong.
At first, Gao Tian thought it was the buzzing of flies circling his ears. Then, he realized he had oversimplified it. Mixed in with the strange, incessant low whispers were some slurred, extremely rapid phrases and passages, like "śūnyatā," "namo," "vandana," "immeasurability," "inexpressible..."
It took a moment for Gao Tian to realize that these murmurs were the sounds of countless monks chanting sutras inside the temple!
Jiang Yang immediately drew his dual pistols, carefully aiming them at the dilapidated temple ahead.
"Are there a lot of people in the temple?"
He caught his slip of the tongue and quickly corrected himself.
"Are there a lot of ghosts?"
Judging by the rusted, peeling gate and the overgrown weeds, it didn’t look like anyone was living and practicing cultivation here.
If they pushed open the gate and saw the temple filled with "monks" chanting—their voices already merging into a fly-like buzzing murmur—the four-person team would surely face a vicious battle the moment they stepped inside.
"Hold on, let me prepare."
Without hesitation, Gao Tian opened the Luck Jar and released the ghost luck within it to its maximum potential.
When dealing with the Rainy Woman or riding the bus, he had been as frugal as possible, trying not to use too much.
But now they were at Longshu Temple. Being stingy now would just be foolish.
In the Future Altar, countless prophecies had revealed all sorts of different ways Gao Tian could die. To put it bluntly, from the first time he was infected by the Shattered-Face Ghost until now, all the supernatural incidents combined couldn’t account for so many possible deaths.
’This place is seriously haunted.’
A vast sea of black clouds gathered above Gao Tian’s head.
The sheer amount of ghost luck he released at once had already reached the same power level as the battles at Jin Hai Mansion and the Ghost Cave.
The murmuring from within the temple didn’t fade. Instead, it grew stronger, like countless flies about to take flight.
Jiang Yang, pistols raised, offered,
"You all wait here. I’ll go scout out the temple first."
Gao Tian quickly stopped him.
"It’s too dangerous here. You shouldn’t go in.
"Let my Wind Attendant Buddha investigate the situation inside Longshu Temple first."
With a thought, a puppet made of air currents, looking exactly like Gao Tian, appeared in response.
The Wind Attendant Buddha received its command and strode directly toward Longshu Temple, less than a hundred meters away around a corner. Lan Chu, Wang Wenbo, and the other living members stayed behind at a safe distance, on standby.
Just as the Wind Attendant Buddha was about to reach the entrance of Longshu Temple and push open the gate, Gao Tian, who was standing still, had his expression suddenly change. His pupils constricted, his face turning uglier than if he had seen a real ghost.
It wasn’t because something had happened at the temple gate.
It was because he saw the ghost luck gathered above his head being consumed at a rate dozens of times faster than normal. The black cloud, which should have lasted for tens of hours, had already lost a quarter of its mass while he was just standing there, hardly moving.
It reminded him of his old phone that he’d used for seven years back in school. The battery, at one hundred percent, would mysteriously drop into the red after just watching a few videos.
’This isn’t right. There’s no way ghost luck can be consumed this fast.’
’What’s going on?’
At the same time, the rapid, slurred chanting from the temple grew even faster, the voices becoming more and more frenzied, devoid of any monkish tranquility. Instead, they sounded like wild beasts from the mountains that had caught the scent of blood—bloodthirsty and savage.
As the chanting inside the temple accelerated, the consumption rate of the black cloud above Gao Tian’s head also sped up to a visually perceptible degree. It was as if an invisible, cavernous mouth was chewing away at the black cloud, bite by bite.
’The murmuring of these ghost monks... can it consume the power of my ghost luck?’
Gao Tian quickly made his judgment.
He immediately changed his mind, unscrewed the Luck Jar again, and sucked most of the released ghost luck back into it.
As the last drop of remaining ghost luck was sealed back in the jar, the malicious murmuring of the monks’ sutra chanting in the temple gradually slowed down again, as if they had lost their prey.
However, compared to normal chanting, it was still slurred and deeply unsettling to listen to, like being surrounded by countless flies.
Standing to the side, Lan Chu seemed to sense something and asked loudly,
"How strange, how strange.
"Have you guys noticed? The chanting speed of these dead monks in the temple is fluctuating, fast then slow.
"A moment ago, it was so fast it was almost bursting, and then suddenly, it slowed down again."
Wang Wenbo, the techie of the group, also nodded.
"True, I felt that too.
"Wait a moment, I’ll use my digital watch to record these sounds and analyze what sutras these ghost monks are actually chanting."
Gao Tian knew his deduction was ninety percent correct.
Others couldn’t see the ghost luck above his head that symbolized his fortune, but they could faintly sense what the monks’ murmuring was targeting.
He now understood why there was a high probability he would die in Longshu Temple.
His greatest trump card, his endless fortune, was being surrounded, consumed, and neutralized by the fly-like curses of these terrifying monks.
Before entering Longshu Temple, Gao Tian didn’t dare open the Luck Jar again for the time being.
For now, he could only use it sparingly, releasing the ghost luck at critical moments.
Of course, he hadn’t resigned himself to his fate, accepting a destiny where his corpse would lie in Longshu Temple.
’In any case, I shouldn’t panic. I’ll assess the situation and act accordingly.’
It wasn’t that the ghost luck was completely unusable, just that he couldn’t be as extravagant as he was at Jin Hai Mansion, leaving it on the entire time without even bothering to turn it off.
In the blink of an eye, the Wind Attendant Buddha had reached the temple gate.
The "Gao Tian" puppet flexed its arms. Although the two doors were heavy, they had clearly been pushed open once before, as the sand and dirt blocking them at the bottom had been displaced. The Wind Attendant Buddha exerted some effort and managed to push them open.
It had just stepped into Longshu Temple when, a second later, the two large doors slammed shut behind it, completely blocking the view from outside, making it impossible to see what was happening inside the temple.
"Dammit, what the hell is in that temple?"
The hot-tempered Lan Chu directly grabbed Gao Tian by the collar and demanded loudly.
Gao Tian shoved her away.
"Don’t touch me, I’m controlling the Wind Attendant Buddha.
"Jiang Yang, you restrain this crazy woman so she doesn’t disturb me."
After shooing Lan Chu away, Gao Tian could finally concentrate, sharing the Wind Attendant Buddha’s perspective to see what was inside Longshu Temple.
To be honest, his biggest worry was that the temple would be packed with vicious ghosts. He feared the Wind Attendant Buddha would be taken out the moment it entered, before it could even see anything.
Fortunately, his worries didn’t come to pass.
Longshu Temple was perfectly quiet. Aside from the two rows of lush, blood-red trees lining the main path, there wasn’t a single person in sight.
In the trees, several fat crows stood with their wings folded. They didn’t caw, nor did they show any fear at the newcomer’s arrival. If not for the occasional crow ruffling its feathers and shifting its position on a branch, Gao Tian would have thought they were fake.
The bluestone path underfoot led toward the main temple building ahead, which was already in a state of utter disrepair.
The main hall, the largest building in Longshu Temple, was likewise dilapidated from years of neglect.
A bodhisattva statue that should have had a compassionate face now looked like it was sneering menacingly due to the faded paint on its eyes.
The Vajra warriors, with their wide, angry eyes, were also covered in dust. From this angle, they looked rather sinister.
That strange, collective murmuring of chanting voices still lingered in the air, impossible to ignore. Yet, he couldn’t find where so many chanting monks could possibly be hiding in the empty temple.
"Gao Tian, do you see anyone inside the temple?"
Jiang Yang, standing beside him, couldn’t help but ask when he saw Gao Tian standing motionless for so long.
Gao Tian shook his head.
"Right now, I don’t see a single person in the temple’s main square.
"I’m controlling the Wind Attendant Buddha now to go deeper into the temple and search."
