Chapter 124: Lure the Ghost Away from the Mountain

This time, he drew the Ten of Spades.

A total of six cards had accumulated on his soul: Ace, Two, Four, Ten, Queen, and King.

Even with the Fortune stacked up by the Black Tie, this number still made Gao Tian feel a hint of pressure.

The further he went, the higher the probability of drawing a fatal hand. The luck gained from just two or three deaths might not be enough to keep him safe.

Even if Gao Tian died every time his luck was at its absolute peak, the Ghost Card limit would eventually stack up to thirteen. It was impossible that, after placing all the cards from Ace to King, his Ghost Luck could somehow help him draw a fourteen.

That wouldn't be Fortune anymore; that would be directly altering reality.

It seemed that after obtaining the Ansheng Stone from the Divine Tree, he needed to hurry up and subdue Hanged Man 57 in the Old District.

But none of this was what Gao Tian should be thinking about right now. He had to survive the Longshu Temple incident first before considering the future.

"Having a nightmare—"

The afterglow of dusk, like crushed gold dust, draped layer upon layer over the temple ridges, the treetops, and the stone steps. A warm breeze gently brushed past his body.

The very first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Lan Zhu's crazy, looming face. Before she could finish speaking, Gao Tian shoved her aside and urgently called out to Jiang Yang, who was observing him, "I've been reborn. And more than once. We've already been completely wiped out twice in this damned place."

Without pausing, he picked out the key points and quickly ran through the main events of the first and second cycles.

Compared to their inexplicable deaths in the first cycle, the situation in the second cycle had been much better.

They had made significant progress and discovered the secret inside the giant Buddha. In this third cycle, if nothing unexpected happened, there was a high probability they could survive past nine o'clock and meet that master of Longshu Temple who had been away for so long.

Hearing Gao Tian's rapid-fire explanation, Jiang Yang and Wang Wenbo both wore expressions of utter shock. Their memories had been completely reset. From their perspective, this was their first time here. They never imagined that they had already experienced so much in timelines that no longer existed.

Wang Wenbo fiddled with his watch and began to spout his extensive knowledge of physics again. "If time flowed backward—"

Gao Tian already had the speech memorized backward and forward. He cut Wang Wenbo off and continued speaking on his behalf: "If time flowed backward, then according to the theory of reverse entropy, a negative spacetime must be introduced—it would be very difficult to make time flow backward in a space the size of a palm."

"Of course, this is the Inner World—we can't just rigidly apply macroscopic physics."

Wang Wenbo choked on his words. That was exactly what he had been about to say next.

It was just that while he was still organizing his thoughts, Gao Tian had expressed them far more fluently than he could have.

Gao Tian cast a sympathetic glance at him and delivered the final blow. "As for why you know so much? It's because you got three master's degrees in university. The first major was forced on you by your parents; computer science is your reality, while physics and geology are your life."

That did it.

His identity was verified without a doubt. Wang Wenbo now believed with one hundred percent certainty that this Gao Tian had time-traveled back from the previous two timelines. Even he himself hadn't known exactly what he was going to say next; only a time-traveler could have completed his sentence so perfectly.

Regardless, knowing that he had died twice in the previous timelines and performed so poorly each time... it was still a terrible feeling.

It also took Jiang Yang a bit of time to digest the information Gao Tian had brought back.

He looked thoughtful. "So, based on the circumstances of the first and second cycles...

"...on our third day, we first have to avoid the Killing Rules of the coffin and the giant Buddha. Then, we have to find a way through the endless starving ghosts and enter the main hall. We'll use the scriptures inside to fend off the bear roar that follows.

"This way, we can break Longshu Temple's time curse of who-knows-how-many years, meet the great master, and trigger the next stage of the plot."

"Exactly," Gao Tian said.

"But there's still one problem I want to confirm," Jiang Yang said.

"Go ahead."

"How do you know that the great master of Longshu Temple will definitely appear after nine o'clock?" Jiang Yang asked.

"All this intelligence came from those starving ghosts inside the giant Buddha, right?

"You said it yourself earlier: those starving ghosts are just a pack of mad spirits controlled by hunger, completely devoid of reason. They were only able to hold a brief, lucid conversation in the first cycle because they ate Lan Zhu and temporarily satisfied their stomachs.

"The words of a Fierce Ghost cannot be taken as proof."

He spoke slowly. "Second.

"Even if everything those starving ghosts said is true, and their great master will return as long as we survive past nine o'clock...

"...how can we be sure that the event will develop in a positive direction, rather than deteriorating even further?

"This temple has been trapped in a time loop for years. Perhaps decades, or even centuries.

"After going through cycle after cycle, the monks in the temple have all turned into evil spirits and fused into a part of this Supernatural Zone.

"The probability of that great monk who has yet to appear still being human is very low. If we survive past nine o'clock, what we end up waiting for will most likely just be another, even more ferocious Fierce Ghost.

"This operation carries a massive risk."

Gao Tian replied, "Because—

"—these were the exact deductions you made during the second cycle, Jiang Yang.

"It was your guess in the last loop that as long as we survived the nine o'clock bear roar and met the master who returned afterward, we would be able to advance the plot. We might even be able to terminate this entire time-loop system.

"I honestly don't know which version of you across the two timelines makes more sense.

"I really wish I could drag the second cycle's Jiang Yang over here to debate the current you."

Jiang Yang's expression cracked slightly. "Did the second cycle's me really say that?"

"Yeah, you did," Gao Tian said.

"Let's do it like this. Since the third cycle's you just refuted the second cycle's you, the four of us will simply take a vote to decide our next course of action."

Should they stick to what everyone agreed upon in the second cycle—find a way to survive past nine o'clock, meet the old master at ten, and break Longshu Temple's time loop?

Or should they abandon this route entirely, completely avoid meeting the old master at ten o'clock, and look for a new way out?

The result of the vote was obvious.

Four to zero. A unanimous vote in favor of the first option.

Even Jiang Yang himself admitted that whether the ten o'clock old master was human or ghost, it was still better to meet him.

After all, they currently didn't have any better breakthroughs.

Moreover, after confirming that they could be reborn and that Gao Tian retained his memories after each reset, the mindset of the group had undergone a subtle shift.

When it came to some of Longshu Temple's unsolved mysteries, there was no harm in taking a few risks and trying things out first.

Even if the old master they met at ten o'clock turned out to be a Fierce Ghost and wiped out all four of them, the worst that could happen was entering the next cycle and avoiding him then. Since the decision was made, they would enter Longshu Temple in batches and begin the operation.

Having experienced this process twice already, Gao Tian was intimately familiar with it.

First, he and Lan Zhu entered the temple, hoisted the Transparent Coffin inside, and carried it outside to place it in the open.

This prevented Wang Wenbo from being killed on first sight.

Then, the four of them entered the courtyard at the same time. Under Wang Wenbo's guidance, Jiang Yang once again shot five bullet holes into the giant Buddha's belly.

The starving ghosts inside the giant Buddha absolutely had to be released.

But not immediately.

In this cycle, they had prepared extensively.

Gao Tian had already memorized the scriptures and corresponding movements he had seen inside the giant Buddha's belly.

He demonstrated them on the spot. Everyone, including the manic Lan Zhu, followed Gao Tian's movements, observing and learning as if they were already inside the Buddha's belly, practicing until they were sure everyone could do it perfectly on the first try.

Next, before breaking open the giant Buddha's belly, Gao Tian placed two Mirrors in the farthest corner of the main hall. He also distributed a Mirror for everyone present to keep on them.

Gao Tian and Jiang Yang found sturdy tree branches and began ramming them against the upper side of the crumbling Buddha's belly.

Non-combat personnel evacuated to the temple plaza ahead of time, climbing into the large trees inscribed with the Diamond Sutra to take refuge.

Wang Wenbo, that athletic idiot, couldn't climb a tree even when his life depended on it, which had led to him being sucked into the Mirror with an unknown fate in the second cycle. This time, they definitely couldn't afford to make the same mistake.

Lan Zhu, that freakishly strong wild monkey, simply hauled him up into a Diamond Tree and hid him away in advance.

Finally, the front of the giant Buddha in the main hall had been rammed until it was tottering, needing only one last strike.

As agreed upon beforehand, Gao Tian left the main hall and sought refuge in his pre-selected Diamond Tree.

Only Jiang Yang was left. After delivering a forceful strike to the Buddha's belly, causing the wooden planks to collapse and reveal the mural behind them, Jiang Yang turned on his heel and fled. Sprinting at top speed, he reached the nearest Diamond Tree outside the hall and scrambled up.

Under the illumination of the sunlight, the portraits of starving ghosts on the mural peeled off one by one. From a sea of corpses and mountains of bones, many Fierce Ghosts were released from the hollow belly of the giant Buddha, stampeding madly toward the center of the plaza.

Excellent. Everything was going according to plan. Not a single mistake had been made.

Seeing that the main hall was now empty and the scriptures inside the Buddha's body had been revealed, Lan Zhu gripped the Mirror in her hand, itching for action. "Let's go!"

Gao Tian maintained his composure. "Don't rush. It's not time yet.

"If we enter the main hall now, those starving ghosts will definitely turn around and slaughter their way back inside, eating us one by one in the Buddha's belly.

"We wouldn't even survive until nine o'clock that way.

"The reason these starving ghosts were stimulated into waking up is that they were exposed to the sunlight from outside.

"Wait until the sun sets in the west and Longshu Temple loses all its sunlight. These starving ghosts will fall back into a deep slumber. That's when we'll make our move."

Time ticked by, minute by minute, second by second. The four people in the trees and the countless starving ghosts pacing below were engaged in a silent standoff.

Their timing had to be absolutely precise: after the starving ghosts fell completely asleep, but before the roar of the bear rang out.

That tiny window of safe time.

Looking at the bright, clear moonlight overhead—"It's time.

"Everyone, let's go."

Gao Tian activated his Mirror Ghost ability, becoming the first to pull himself from the tree into the Mirror's surface.

A moment later, his figure reappeared on the opposite side, stepping out of the Mirror he had placed in the corner of the main hall beforehand.

Although Longshu Temple imposed restrictions on the Mirror Ghost, severing its connection to the Mirrors in the outside world, the Mirrors within Longshu Temple itself were still linked to one another.

Using this method, Lan Zhu, Wang Wenbo, and Jiang Yang were transferred from the trees into the main hall one by one.

Completely undetected, everyone bypassed the starving ghosts in the center of the plaza and entered the main hall.