Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Song Tianming looked even more confused than we were. He said he had been trapped here for a week and had never seen us before.

“You guys got tricked into coming here by playing Black Wuneng too, right? There’s something wrong with this place. We have to find a way out.”

According to Song Tianming, on his first day here, he had actually been excited. He attended Buddhist lessons with his friends, toured the monastery, and was curious about everything.

But that night, he sensed something was wrong.

He was the type who had trouble sleeping in unfamiliar beds. Even though he had spent the whole day climbing the mountain and was exhausted to the bone, once he closed his eyes, he still couldn’t fall asleep.

So he lay on his side, staring blankly out the window.

Then, unexpectedly, the companion beside him moved.

Song Tianming thought the guy was awake too and was about to turn over to chat with him.

“His entire face started melting-”

Song Tianming looked utterly terrified as he said he had been scared out of his wits. The overwhelming fear had left him unable to move. All he could do was watch helplessly as that companion crawled up the wall.

Luckily, after climbing onto the wall, the guy just scuttled around the ceiling like a headless fly and didn’t do anything to him.

Song Tianming didn’t dare sleep, but he didn’t dare fully wake up either. His limbs stiff, he kept his eyes shut and endured it until dawn.

After they got up, however, that companion acted as if nothing had happened, laughing and joking with everyone as usual.

How could Song Tianming dare stay there after that? He immediately packed his things and told the monastery’s abbot that he wanted to go home.

The abbot refused. Instead, he criticized Song Tianming, saying his mind was restless and he lacked enlightenment, and that the more he was like this, the more he should stay here to cultivate himself.

His companions all tried to persuade him too. He had been the first one to call everyone here, so how could he give up so easily?

Song Tianming was thin-skinned, so he had no choice but to endure another day.

That night, there was one more person crawling on the ceiling.

Song Tianming was scared to the point of breaking down. The next morning, he insisted on going down the mountain no matter what.

This time, the abbot agreed. But after Song Tianming returned to his room and packed his luggage, for some reason, he lay down on the bed and fell asleep. When he woke up again, it was already the next morning.

After this repeated for several days, he knew there was definitely something wrong with this temple.

So tonight, he made up his mind not to sleep. No matter how exhausted he became, he had to hold on-until he ran into us.

Song Tianming spoke earnestly. He didn’t look like he was lying at all.

I told him what had happened to us over the past few days, and his already deathly pale face turned even whiter.

“What do you mean, I brought you in? That’s impossible. I’ve never seen you before!

“That wasn’t me!”

I was completely baffled.

Sure enough, things were just as we had guessed. That Song Tianming was fake. But he wasn’t Wriggling Grass, and he didn’t have any sinister yin energy on him either. So what the hell was he?

Forget it. We could talk about it after we found Lingzhu and the others.

I asked Huahua where Lu Lingzhu and the others were.

Huahua pulled a gu worm out of her hair and placed it in her palm. After watching the insect crawl back and forth, she looked up in surprise.

“They’re here too.”

“What? Inside the pagoda too?”

I looked around. The interior of this pagoda was hollow and octagonal. The surrounding walls were covered in colorful Buddhist murals, and each level had several niches holding exquisite Buddha statues.

In one corner was the entrance to a staircase, extremely narrow, only wide enough for one person to spiral upward.

The first floor was empty, with only the three of us here. That meant Lu Lingzhu and the others had to be upstairs.

We searched the first floor but didn’t find anything unusual. I told Hua Yuling I was going upstairs to take a look.

Song Tianming refused to go up with us no matter what. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving him here alone either, so I had Huahua keep an eye on him while I headed up the stairs by myself.