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Chapter 29 Auspicious and Tranquil Ghost Mother Bodhisattva
"you are dead."

"His death was somewhat worthwhile."

"The path to escape has been opened for you. Patrol this last stretch of the route, and in two days, you will achieve final victory."

"Since the player's death rating was above average, they will receive an additional Soul Stone reward."

"The player currently holds 110 Soul Stones."

"Your remaining resurrection attempts are: 10"

"Merchant Entity: The Witch Dies."

"The Witch's Shop is closed, and you can no longer purchase any items related to her."

Zhou You re-entered the game, and that crossroads was reflected in his pupils once again.

Although he already had the items to pass the level, he didn't rush to choose a path. Instead, he took out the face, eyeballs, and incense, carefully compared them, and then chose one.

However, it wasn't the 'Faceless Demon' that he was more familiar with, but rather the path with the Eyeball Demon.

Because he was paying special attention, as soon as he entered the intersection, he felt something creepy creeping up behind him—but it wasn't an eyeball, but a light, childlike figure. The thing rested its mutilated head on his shoulder, and if he turned around, he would immediately collide with it.

Zhou You used the eyeball decisively.

The system's message to him was to crush it.

The murky crystal shattered instantly in his palm, and a sticky, goosebump-inducing sensation spread across his hand. But the next moment, the strange chill behind him dissipated as well. Zhou You cautiously glanced behind him and saw a semi-transparent figure desperately trying to stuff something into its empty eye sockets.

At the same time, he saw it; it was the very eyeball he had just crushed.

"So this seems to be the effect of these three special items? Replacing the missing bodies of these ghosts with fakes to delay them... But the question is, why is the third one incense?"

Zhou You only made a brief connection before giving up on guessing further. Instead, he rushed forward as quickly as possible while the other party was still trying—after all, he didn't know how long the old hag's method could fool them—what if the other party realized what was happening before he even reached the crossroads?
That's something that can't be described simply as 'being embarrassed and angry'.

However, whether it was because the old woman's goods were of high quality or because Zhou You was lucky, he actually made it to the end of the road without any problems. But then something unexpected happened.

At the end, the road splits into two forks.

One of them was undoubtedly the path to the ultimate destination of this trip, the Long Pine Slope. The other was a small path that was never recorded on the patrol map; it was dark and gloomy, and its destination was unknown.

Clearly, this is yet another mystery where you have to choose between two options.

If Zhou You only had a few lives left, or had only obtained an item from the witch, he would immediately ignore the suspicious path and head straight for the end of the patrol. But...
Zhou You glanced at his 10 coins, as well as the remaining face and incense. After hesitating for only a few seconds, he turned and headed towards the path.

—Normally speaking, there are hidden treasures at these forks in the road in RPGs.

—And the system probably wouldn't open up such a new path for no reason.

So, with a safe way out, why not take the gamble this time?
-
However, the scenery along the path is fundamentally different from the surroundings.

Over the past few days and nights, all Zhou You could see were scenes of modern cities. Even if they were old and dilapidated, they were still jungles of reinforced concrete formed after entering the technological society. But when he got here, the surroundings suddenly turned into a wasteland. Occasionally, he could see a few low trees and shrubs, but they were basically all completely dead, leaving only a few broken branches and leaves.

The streetlights disappeared completely, leaving only a crescent moon hanging high in the sky.

But compared to the residential buildings full of ghost faces, the desolate wilderness common in ghost stories actually put Zhou You at ease.

After walking for an unknown amount of time in the desolate wilderness, Zhou You finally saw a building.

It was a temple.

The temple is not large, the kind that can be seen at a glance, but it seems to have been neglected for a long time. Half of the walls have collapsed, and the outside is covered with layers of green vines. The vermilion gate is also full of mottled marks left by wind and rain. Only the plaque on the top is relatively intact, but unfortunately, because most of the characters have fallen off, it is impossible to see what is written on it.

However, Zhou You immediately thought of the news he had seen before. "A temple... Could this be the Sanhua Temple? The one that's about to be demolished?"

Zhou You walked around the temple gate, making casual comments as he went.

"It's not unreasonable that it was demolished; it was almost a dangerous building. But there might be clues to the script here."

He first glanced at the copper bell on his wrist—and seeing that it didn't ring, he cautiously entered the temple.

There were no strange creatures suddenly appearing.

The environment inside was just like the outside, dilapidated and overgrown with weeds. Only a Buddha statue was enshrined in the very center of the temple. But when Zhou You looked up, his eyes suddenly narrowed.

The statue enshrined in the temple was not that evil bodhisattva, but a guardian statue of Vajrapani.

Thanks to a devout Buddhist relative, Zhou You knew that this was a guardian deity in Buddhism, renowned for expelling evil spirits and protecting the Dharma. However, this Buddha statue had clearly suffered damage.

No, it shouldn't be called damage.

The Buddha statue itself was not damaged, but its body and limbs were covered with countless bloodstains, exuding a chilling aura from afar. Even though the temple was in such a dilapidated state, the bloodstains never dried, and every inch looked as if they had been freshly applied.

If you look even closer, you can see that the bloodstains are constantly changing into characters, deeply engraving the curse of despair into the clay sculpture.

It is clear that the Buddha statue has been defiled.

It was still that kind of extremely fierce and insidious defilement.

"Is this the seal that was believed in sophistry?"

Zhou You tore off a piece of his clothes, trying to wipe away the bloodstains, but the moment he touched the Buddha's body, the bell on his wrist suddenly rang out!

Without any hesitation, he decisively threw the corner of his clothes aside, and then flipped himself several meters away!
When they looked up again, they saw the cloth disappear silently into the Buddha's body, as if it had been swallowed up.

"No way, another instant death? It looks like this seal can't be broken either. Could there be other clues or mechanisms?"

After wandering around for a while, he found that the dilapidated temple didn't seem to be hiding any other clues. Just as he was scratching his head, a system notification suddenly came.

"Players arrive at the hidden location: the Temple of Weituo, the Heavenly Protector of the Three Transformations Temple."

"The conditions for triggering this hidden location are: completing the side quests 'Playing Games' and 'Drinking Soup' before the third day, finding the clue of 'Auspicious and Tranquil Ghost Mother Bodhisattva' in the orphanage, and having ≥7 resurrections."

"The script's completeness has been greatly improved."

"For every temple of the Three Transformations Temple you find, the script's completion level will be greatly improved."

"The player has gained 50 Soul Stones, and now has a total of 160 Soul Stones."

"The name of that Bodhisattva was 'Auspicious and Tranquil Ghost Mother Bodhisattva'? How come I've never heard of such a thing before?"

Looking at the Buddha statue, Zhou You tapped his arm and suddenly began to mutter to himself.

"It seems that each of the three intersections corresponds to a temple, and each temple will give a lot of script completion points."

"But then a problem arises."

"—With such a huge, tainted seal right in front of me, why did the system only tell me to find the temple, but not a word about the filth on the Buddha statue, and not even give me a mission?"

After thinking about it for a while, Zhou You showed a thoughtful expression, but did not delve into it further, and instead walked back the way he came.

"Forget it, I'd better finish my patrol mission first—at least that will ensure my own safety. As for what comes next... we'll talk about it later."

(End of this chapter)