Dead silence.

Apart from Zhao Rui’s barely suppressed sobbing, the entire forest was filled only with the mournful wail of wind through the treetops.

The sound was like countless wronged souls whispering, worming into the ears and pouring bone-chilling cold directly into the marrow.

Fear’s invisible hand clenched Su Ming’s heart tightly, each beat heavy and laborious. He stared fixedly at that dilapidated temple; that flickering orange-yellow firelight brought not a shred of warmth. Instead, it was like a hellish guiding lantern, emanating a fatal allure.

We’re done.

This thought uncontrollably surfaced.

Just as he was almost swallowed by despair, a voice sounded in his mind, calm as a stone dropped into an icy lake, instantly shattering the thin ice of panic.

“Disciple, there’s no time to hesitate.”

It was Master!

Lin Yu’s voice carried not a trace of panic, yet held an unprecedented seriousness.

“This maze formation is draining your vital essence, energy, and spirit. Look at Zhao Rui, he’s almost at his limit. If we delay any longer, even without any ghosts, you’ll be exhausted to death right here.”

Su Ming whipped his head around to look at Zhao Rui, who was slumped on the ground, hugging his knees and trembling violently. His face was as pale as paper, his lips were blue, his eyes were unfocused—clearly, his mind was on the verge of collapse.

“Master…” Su Ming’s voice was hoarse and dry.

“This master… has one method, perhaps worth a try.” Lin Yu’s voice paused, as if weighing his words. “But, it’s extremely perilous!”

Lin Yu’s inner world was currently far from being as still as an ancient well; it was more like a pot of boiling lava, bubbling wildly with complaints.

“Damn it, we’re going for it! My five-hundred-year slacker life was peaceful and uneventful. How come I run into this kind of newbie village final boss scenario just after taking on a disciple? This isn’t scientific! This goes against the Way of Survival spirit!”

“But this feeling… this pure, sinister aura… For others, it’s deadly poison, but for this wisp of a remnant soul like me, it’s practically a perfect tonic! Even if it might be laced with arsenic, it smells so good!”

“Gamble! Fortune lies within danger! Bah, survival lies within danger! If we keep passively draining like this, the bit of spiritual energy gathered by the spirit gathering array won’t even be enough to fill the gaps of this ghost wall! My soul body will degrade from ‘semi-transparent’ back to ‘almost invisible’! My pension fund can’t have its payments cut off!”

He quickly suppressed these chaotic thoughts, reassembling a profound and unfathomable tone.

“Disciple, listen carefully.” Lin Yu’s voice was steady as a mountain. “This master is a remnant soul, formless and immaterial. I am most sensitive to the yin souls and ghostly entities of this world.”

This half-truth, half-falsehood immediately captured Su Ming’s full attention.

“That thing inside the temple, the aura it emits, is precisely the source of this maze formation. It laid down this formation to trap passing living beings, like penning livestock, waiting for the prey to become exhausted and mentally defenseless before emerging to slowly feast.”

Lin Yu’s description made Su Ming envision a picture of a spider spinning a web, quietly waiting for moths.

And they were the two moths that had already crashed into the web.

“Then… Master, what do you mean?” Su Ming held his breath.

“Take away the firewood from under the cauldron!” Lin Yu’s voice was resolute. “Since there’s no retreat, then we strike directly at the heart! This master will personally go and meet the source of this formation!”

Su Ming’s eyes instantly lit up, as if grasping the last lifeline. “Master, you can deal with it?”

“Hmph.” Lin Yu let out a meaningful snort, appearing full of confidence.

Inner thoughts: “Deal with what? I don’t even have a physical body, how am I supposed to deal with it? My plan is: you tank at the front, I’ll follow behind and secretly siphon mana, take a sip and run! This is called ‘strategic resource theft’!”

“However,” Lin Yu changed tack, “this master’s soul body is currently weak, confined by this ring’s seal, unable to stray too far from you. More importantly, if I approach such a place of evil alone, the clash of yin energy would likely scatter my soul to the winds on the spot.”

The hope that had just ignited in Su Ming was doused with another bucket of cold water.

“Therefore, this method requires your cooperation.” Lin Yu finally revealed the core.

“Me?” Su Ming pointed at himself, his face full of astonishment.

“Correct.” Lin Yu’s tone brooked no argument. “You are a living person, possessing yang energy. This yang energy is like scorching flames to that evil entity, but for me, it is the best protection. What you need to do is walk to the front of that temple’s door, use your own yang energy to cover for me. This master has a secret method to infiltrate the temple and strike directly at its vital point!”

Su Ming was completely dumbfounded.

Go… go to the temple door?

Wasn’t that actively putting their heads under the executioner’s blade?

He instinctively retorted, “Master! Didn’t you say safety first, think thrice when encountering matters, and that anything abnormal must involve demons? Us actively delivering ourselves… this…”

This completely violated the “True Scripture of the Way of Survival” that Master had taught!

“Foolish!” Lin Yu’s low shout jolted Su Ming.

“The core of the Way of Survival is seeking life, not waiting for death! When all escape routes are blocked, and the only path to survival lies within the tiger’s mouth, we must learn to pull the tiger’s teeth!”

“Right now, we are trapped here—this is a ‘desperate situation.’ Waiting for death is a ‘dead end.’ This master’s plan seems perilous, but it uses the smallest cost to seize that sliver of hope—this is ‘breaking the deadlock’! This is the supreme realm of the Way of Survival—’seeking life through death’! Do you understand?”

Lin Yu inwardly complained: “Damn, I’m a genius! I can spin such ridiculous nonsense into something so stirring and moving! What a waste of talent not becoming a pyramid scheme leader!”

His words made Su Ming’s blood surge with excitement, yet also filled him with fear and trepidation.

He looked at the dilapidated temple crouching in the darkness like a giant beast, then at Zhao Rui beside him, who was already losing his mind.

Master was right.

Waiting meant death.

Taking a gamble might offer a chance to live.

Moreover, Master was a remnant soul whose life was connected to his own; he would never joke about his own survival.

This risk had to be taken!

“Master, I understand!” Su Ming gritted his teeth. The fear in his eyes faded, replaced by the determination of a youth. “What should this disciple do?”

“Good! Worthy of being Mysterious Dust Master’s disciple!” Lin Yu praised. “Your temperament is not bad. Listen, first find a way to calm Zhao Rui down. His crying and shouting will alert the thing in the temple. Then, adjust your breathing, eliminate distracting thoughts, and walk step by step, at a steady pace, towards the temple door.”

“Remember, your steps must be firm, your gaze must be steady, silently recite foolish things like ‘Heaven and Earth possess righteous energy’ in your heart… uh, envision the scorching sun at its zenith, imagine yourself as a walking flame. The stronger your yang energy, the stronger the protection for this master, and the greater our chances of success!”

Inner thoughts: “Don’t you dare chicken out, good disciple! Your yang energy is my bulletproof vest! If you chicken out, these old bones of mine will be directly exposed to enemy fire!”

Su Ming took a deep breath and nodded.

He turned around, walked up to Zhao Rui, crouched down, and shook his shoulders firmly.

“Zhao Rui! Stop crying! If you want to live, listen to me!”

Zhao Rui’s crying abruptly stopped at his shout, only staring at him blankly.

“Listen,” Su Ming’s tone was authoritative, carrying an unprecedented sense of command. “We must go to that temple now. You follow behind me. No matter what you see or hear, you are not to make a sound, not to run around! Grab my clothes tightly, you take one step for every step I take! Understood?”

Perhaps infected by Su Ming’s calm demeanor, or perhaps because the instinct for survival overpowered fear, Zhao Rui nodded as if bewitched.

Su Ming pulled him up, positioning him half a step behind.

He closed his eyes and, following Master’s instructions, visualized in his mind the blazing sun of a summer afternoon in his own courtyard.

The scorching sensation of sunlight on his skin, the sticky feeling of sweat trickling down his back, the steaming heat waves in the air…

A warmth seemed to truly rise from his Dantian, flowing through his limbs and entire body.

He opened his eyes and took the first step.

“Thud.”

The sound of footsteps was terrifyingly clear in the dead silence of the forest.

He no longer detoured, but walked straight towards the dilapidated temple emanating an ominous aura.

The mist in the forest seemed to thin slightly, the path ahead becoming clearer.

The dilapidated temple continuously enlarged in his vision.

He could see the peeling wall plaster, the collapsed eaves, and the two stone lions at the entrance, eroded by wind and rain into blurred, unrecognizable forms.

The closer they got, the more piercing the cold in the air became, mixed with a faint, cloyingly sweet and fishy stench, like old cosmetics blended with rotting flesh.

Zhao Rui behind him trembled like a sieve in the wind, his teeth chattering, but he bit his lip hard, his fingers clutching Su Ming’s clothes so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Ten zhang.

Five zhang.

Three zhang.

Su Ming finally came to a stop, only a few steps away from the temple door.

The old, dilapidated temple door, its red lacquer long since peeled away, was slightly ajar.

The orange-yellow firelight seeped precisely through that crack, casting mottled light and shadow on a small patch of ground before the door.

The wind stopped.

The insect chirps also vanished.

The entire world seemed to consist only of him and this eerie, broken temple.

“Master?” Su Ming called out in his heart.

“Very good, disciple, stand firm, don’t move!” Lin Yu’s voice held a trace of suppressed excitement. “Now! Watch your master!”

Before the words fully faded, Su Ming felt a slight chill on the fingertip wearing the ring.

A shadow he could not see, a wisp of nothingness, drifted silently out of the ring like a puff of blue smoke. Sheltered by the yang energy of Su Ming’s body, it shot like lightning through the crack in the door and vanished into the deep darkness within the temple.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep