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Chapter 496 Night Patrol
Zhou You was taken aback, and then couldn't help but retort.

"Senior brother, I've only been a disciple for a short time, and I'm already being asked to work the night shift? According to the rules, this is a job that only formal disciples should do, right?"

Upon hearing this, Xuan Cheng burst out laughing.

"Junior brother, don't be so modest. I've seen your performance all this time, and Uncle Chen has praised you highly. So I specifically informed our master and let you officially join the sect ahead of schedule. How about that? Aren't you happy?"

His words were full of smugness and self-satisfaction, but when he looked down, he did not see the terrified face he expected.

The other person simply stood there, staring at him intently, head tilted, as if deep in thought or perhaps preparing to make a decision.

strangeness.

it's wired.

—Why is this guy so calm when he's the one in control of life and death?
Without realizing it, Xuan Cheng suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Honestly, he had only ever felt this way with his master and his uncles—but it was different from what he had experienced before.

The pressure from his master and uncles was like a mountain, weighing him down so heavily that he couldn't stand up straight and could only kneel and grovel. Zhou You, on the other hand, gave him this feeling...
It's as if there's a sword blade across your neck; if you're not careful, you'll be decapitated!

However, just as Xuan Cheng involuntarily took a step back, someone suddenly seemed to have heard something, tilted their ear, and showed a slightly surprised expression, but immediately laughed again.

In an instant, all the chills vanished.

Or is it just an illusion?
After a few breaths, for some reason, an inexplicable anger suddenly surged into Xuan Cheng's heart.

—Am I scared?

Are you afraid of this thing that hasn't even grown a single hair yet?
Otherwise.

Before he could angrily pull out his whip, Zhou You bowed slightly and said politely.

"Thank you for your care, senior brother. I'll start work tomorrow, but since it's my first time working the night shift, I need to be prepared, so I won't bother you any longer."

Having said that, Zhou You ignored the furious Xuan Cheng, turned around, and walked straight towards his room without even entering the cafeteria.

Xuan Cheng was left staring intently at that retreating figure with a sinister gaze.

After entering the house and closing the door to make sure that all prying eyes were blocked from the outside, Zhou You shook his head and sighed softly.

"You son of a bitch, you really know how to cause me trouble."

In fact, because of this sudden incident, he was ready to immediately open the Liberation Army gates, kill Xuan Cheng, and then fight his way out.

There are two reasons why he wasn't allowed to do it.

First, he was not well-prepared to act at this time, and if he acted rashly, it would be difficult for him to break out of the mountain gate with two burdens.

two is
Just now, the Black Book, which had been offline for a long time, suddenly sent a notification.

"Dear player, the story has reached a critical point. If you can complete this night patrol, you can randomly unlock one of your carried items (non-consumable)."

Although it was just a simple sentence, to be honest, it really gave Zhou You a lot of surprises.

Although it's said that you draw from all the equipment, if you happen to draw the Evil Breaker, at the very least, the difficulty of this scenario will be significantly reduced.

Zhou You shook his head, walked to the bedside, and sat down. But instead of resting, he squinted and carefully reviewed what had happened during this period.

"First of all, this mission has given me two choices. The first is naturally to find a way to escape from this sect. The difficulty lies in how to escape the pursuit with two burdens, and the strength of the ancestor and my master and uncles is unknown. But if I have enough time to prepare, it shouldn't be too difficult. The problem is that I will lose sight of the main plot. Moreover, because of that bastard Xuan Cheng causing trouble, I have to make a decision tomorrow. There is definitely not enough time."

"The second one"

Zhou You raised his head and looked at the thick, sturdy gate.

"It must be about how to survive in this sect, and not only survive, but also climb up step by step. In that case, the strangeness hidden in this sect cannot be avoided."

The conversation suddenly stopped at this point.

After a long while, he frowned and continued speaking.

"Thinking about it this way, this crisis can actually be considered an opportunity—after all, according to those rumors, the death rate of the night patrol brothers is indeed very high, but quite a few still survive. Therefore, the sect should have taken some protective measures for the night patrol. If things go well this time, we might be able to learn about the strange nature of it."

"So, should we fight our way out of the sect or actually go on night patrol? Should we take the gamble?"

After a moment, Zhou You shook his head.

—There isn't enough time to prepare now, and the risks of both options are probably similar, so I'll definitely have to choose the one with the higher potential returns.

but.

Well, for a child's body, this is indeed a bit troublesome.

After thinking for a moment, he took out the book that Uncle Chen had given him.

In essence, this thing is just an ordinary qi cultivation technique, and Uncle Chen did not give him any preferential treatment because he was under his command—or rather, Zhou You was just like any random cat or dog on the street to him.

—Just stay next to him and help him with some chores, that's all.

But Zhou You didn't value the content of the book.

It's the materials.

I rubbed the book cover a few times with my hands, then casually flipped it open, grabbed a page, and then...
Completely ignoring Uncle Chen's warning, he forcefully tore it off!
The book wasn't some strange, disguised thing, so it was easily torn off. Zhou You looked at the scrap paper in the candlelight and finally smiled with relief.

—He was right when he looked at it; the book was indeed made of yellow paper.

Presumably to save money, the book was not written on the common white cotton paper, but on much cheaper yellow mounting paper—which is not a material for making books—but that was not what Zhou You cared about.

Yellow mounting paper also has another function.

That is to make talismans and use contemporary items as materials for the White Gate to make some common ritual implements.

Early the next morning.

As expected, just as Xuancheng had said, Zhou You got a whole day off. He didn't have to go to work, or even attend lectures at Master Chongxu's place.

The senior students in the cafeteria, like Xuan Cheng, looked at Zhou You with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man. Some of them even seemed to have set up a bet on whether Zhou You could come out alive. However, they still served him a rather luxurious meal.

— Half a roast chicken, steamed buns and mantou, and even a small lamb leg roasted to a golden brown and crispy!
Clearly, this is a death sentence.

However, Zhou You accepted all offers without hesitation. He ate a lamb leg in one hand and a roast chicken in the other, his mouth dripping with oil. Then he sat there, ignoring all the strange looks, and waited quietly.

for a long time.

The children came and went, most of them avoiding Zhou You like the plague, and quite a few even gloated. Lin Yunshao wanted to go up and talk to him with a worried look on his face, but after Zhou You waved him away, he could only give up under Xuan Cheng's watchful eye.

Finally, even the people in the cafeteria all left, leaving only Zhou You sitting in a chair, watching the setting sun, eating his second last meal in silence.

After an unknown amount of time, the last rays of sunlight sank behind the mountains.

At the same time, a figure suddenly appeared at the door.

"Are you one of the disciples on night patrol?" Strangely enough, Zhou You hadn't sensed anyone approaching, but just as the sun was setting, the person appeared out of thin air at the door, without even making a sound.

Zhou You stared at the face in the shadows, trying to recall something, but could only vaguely remember that this person was one of the senior uncles and senior masters in the ancestral hall, but he had no recollection of who it was.

Seeing that Zhou You remained motionless, the man coldly repeated the sentence.

"Are you one of the disciples on night patrol?"

It wasn't a urging, nor did it sound like a confirmation; rather, it was as if it were stating an established fact.

After a moment of silence, Zhou You put down the bone he had already gnawed clean, then stood up and bowed respectfully.

"Indeed, my name is Zhou You, and I have not been given a Taoist name. May I ask who you are?"

“Master Qingjing, you can call me Master Qingjing.”

"Alright, Uncle Qingjing, may I ask you?"

However, before Zhou You could finish asking, his uncle, who called himself the Taoist of Tranquility, picked up the lantern in his hand, turned around and walked out without looking back.

In the end, only two words remained.

"Follow!"

This person is really sparing with words.

Zhou You shrugged, but still quickened his pace and followed.

As I stepped out of the cafeteria, a chill instantly enveloped my body.

It should be early spring now. The daytime is fine, but once night falls, the temperature drops sharply. Although it's not freezing cold enough to kill you, it always makes you shiver.

In contrast to the cold, there was a profound silence all around.

The sun had just set, but there was no sound of human voices in the Taoist temple except for the occasional chirping of birds, the movement of insects, and the sound of some animal moving through the grass.

How can I describe this feeling?
It was as if, as night fell, all of humanity retreated into their fortresses, surrendering the outside world to some 'abnormal and inhuman' beings.

In the quiet of the night, only the sound of the two walking could be heard.

After an unknown amount of time, the Taoist priest suddenly spoke.

"Junior."

Zhou You, who was observing his surroundings, suddenly realized something and quickly replied.

"Disciple is here, what's wrong?"

silence.

After a while, Qingjing Daoist spoke again.

"Did your senior brother tell you what you need to do tonight?"

Zhou You answered crisply and clearly.

"No, not a single word was mentioned."

Silence again.

After a long while, the Taoist Qingjing finally spoke.

"Alright, I'll tell you."

However, at that moment, the candlelight between the lanterns suddenly flickered.

It was so slight that even Zhou You didn't feel it, yet the Taoist Qingjing immediately stopped in his tracks, and all his movements ceased—

Although there were no words, Zhou You understood perfectly. At the same time, he kept his eyes closed and mind at ease, imitating Zhou You by standing still like a wooden statue.

for a long time.

Only when the candlelight returned to a steady state did Qingjing Daoist finally breathe a long sigh of relief.

Then, he turned to Zhou You and said.

"He's quite a clever fellow; it's a shame he's doing this job. Oh, what did I tell you before?"

Zhou You lowered his eyes and answered with neither humility nor arrogance.

"My master is telling me what I need to do tonight."

"Yes, that's it."

As he spoke, the Taoist priest resumed his steps.

"The place you will be inspecting today is the Incense Hall—the place where the gods are worshipped. It's not very big. Besides the statues of the Three Pure Ones in front, there are only a few altars in the back hall. You can inspect it every now and then. You can take the food and water in the room yourself, but remember, do not leave the hall before daytime, or you will bear the consequences. Do you understand?"

Unlike before, the Taoist Qingjing spoke this series of words continuously without stopping, and it took Zhou You a while to understand its meaning before he nodded in agreement.

"Disciple understands."

After that, the Taoist priest Qingjing did not say another word, but simply carried the lantern and led Zhou You to the front of the mountain.

Unlike other places, however, there are still quite a few candles lit here—even though there isn't a single worshipper, it's a deliberate attempt to create a brightly lit scene.

The Taoist priest arrived at the largest of the rooms. He first searched his pockets for a long time and found several sets of keys. Then he aimed at the large lock on the door and unlocked the first one.

Then came the second, the third, and the fourth.
By the time the tenth one started, Zhou You's eyes were already twitching a little.

—No, are you a lock wholesaler? What kind of locks are on one temple gate?
But the Taoist priest was unaware of Zhou You's thoughts. After painstakingly removing the last lock, he raised his head, carefully picked up the lantern at his feet, and then pushed the door open and entered.

—However, unexpectedly, it was brighter inside than outside.

Outside, at least there were candles, but inside the hall, they used ever-burning lamps. Seeing that Qingjing Daoist hadn't noticed him, Zhou You took a moment to touch a lamp next to him and sniff it.

Then, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He recognized the smell of the lamp oil.

In the previous script of "Exorcising Evil," the Hidden King used this material when he entertained his guests. It was said to be refined by the merfolk of the South China Sea, and its light was as bright as day. It was also said to have the effect of prolonging life.

But then a problem arises: the Hidden King was incredibly wealthy, having amassed a fortune from the people over his centuries-long reign, enough to afford such expensive lamp oil. Yet this Taoist temple—even a very popular one—used this kind of...
Isn't that going a bit too far?

But before he could think it through, the Taoist priest Qingjing had already called out to him.

"This is where you'll be working tonight. If you have any questions, you can ask this senior brother. I won't stay any longer."

(End of this chapter)