Chapter 131: Calling for Backup

While the Wind Attendant Buddha spoke with Yusheng outside, Gao Tian dropped his disguise in the main hall and stepped slowly from the shadows. "I'm sorry, everyone."

"This loop went a bit wrong. Yusheng is dead. He's ruined."

"To ensure we all return to the living apartment, I've decided to restart the run. See you in the next loop."

Wang Wenbo froze, not yet registering what had happened. "Wait, you're not—"

Gao Tian offered no further explanation. He drew the Terror Blade straight from the mirror and activated its sacrificial effect. The sacrifice: Wang Wenbo.

The target: Lan Zhu.

With a dull thud, Wang Wenbo was severed at the waist. Confusion froze on his face; he died instantly, never realizing what had happened.

Seeing Wang Wenbo fall to pieces like a disassembled Gundam model, Lan Zhu showed no fear. Instead, she looked incredibly intrigued. "We only enter the next loop after we all die, right?"

"When you see the next loop's version of me, do me a favor and give her a good scare. I'll teach you how. Like this—"

Gao Tian nodded. "All right. Got it."

Before Lan Zhu could finish speaking, the lethal gale unleashed by the Terror Blade cleaved her in two.

Mother was right outside the temple gates. There was no time to listen to Lan Zhu's request.

Blood pooled across the main hall. The only ones left standing were Jiang Yang and Gao Tian.

Watching Gao Tian suddenly slaughter two teammates, Jiang Yang remained remarkably calm. He knew what Gao Tian was doing. "Someone is outside the temple?"

Gao Tian nodded. "Yes. A fierce ghost."

"An incredibly vicious fierce ghost. We have to die right now to force the time loop to restart."

"Otherwise, if she gets inside, we might never be able to leave."

Jiang Yang nodded and sat down on the floor, gesturing for Gao Tian to draw his blade. "Do it."

The Terror Blade's power activated once more—

The sacrifice: Wang Wenbo.

The Terror Blade in Gao Tian's hand finished drinking blood. He immediately twisted open his luck jar, releasing all his ghost luck.

The final strike was aimed at himself.

With that, the last living person in Longshu Temple died.

The third day at Longshu Temple had come to an end.

The card you drew this time is the Five of Diamonds.

Your soul now holds seven playing cards: the Ace of Hearts, the Two of Clubs, the Four of Diamonds, the Five of Diamonds, the Ten of Spades, the Queen of Diamonds, and the King of Spades.

Evening breeze. Setting sun.

It was now the fourth day at Longshu Temple. This was the fourth time Gao Tian had returned to this exact point in time.

The deaths of the four in the main hall, combined with the release of all the ghost luck from the luck jar, had pushed his fortune to unparalleled heights.

However, with his ghost cards stacked to seven, the risk of true death was exceptionally high. Before committing suicide, Gao Tian had still felt a sliver of apprehension.

Fortunately, he had made it back.

"Did you have a nightmare? I told you to send the Wind Attendant Buddha in to scout the way, and you actually fell asleep?"

Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Lan Zhu's manic face.

Gao Tian slowly stood up. "Yeah, I had a nightmare. A very, very long nightmare."

"Good thing this dream is finally reaching the point of waking up."

—

In the fourth loop, he appeared remarkably composed.

He gave Jiang Yang and the others a brief rundown, explaining that they had already gone through three consecutive life-and-death expeditions together within this very temple.

The first two expeditions now seemed largely inconsequential. Now that they knew what they were, those fatal killing rules posed no threat to them whatsoever.

The crucial part was the third expedition, his conversation with Yusheng, and uncovering the story from a thousand years ago.

Upon hearing that Yusheng had told Gao Tian to leave alone and abandon the rest of them, the expressions on Jiang Yang and the others shifted. Had he actually followed Yusheng's request, they likely would have been permanently trapped in Longshu Temple, doomed to spend the next millennium as ghosts.

"Thank you, Gao Tian. Thank you."

Cold sweat visibly beaded on Wang Wenbo's forehead. Unsure of what else to say, he could only repeat his thanks over and over.

Gao Tian said, "You don't need to hate Yusheng, either."

"After all, he went to stall Mother by himself to buy us time, becoming a ghost after he died."

"Then he would have had to stay behind and spend another thousand years with you all in Longshu Temple anyway."

Jiang Yang didn't mind Yusheng's scheming. Having survived numerous green text missions, he had seen every kind of calculation between teammates.

Besides, Yusheng hadn't really been plotting against them. The bald bastard had factored himself into the equation, too.

He looked at Gao Tian.

"At this point in time, Yusheng should have just set out to find Mother, right? He isn't dead yet."

"What are you planning to do? Head straight over to find him?"

If they were going to do that, they might as well have followed Yusheng's request during the third loop and left Longshu Temple immediately.

Even if they all attacked together, they stood absolutely no chance against Mother.

If they died at Mother's hands and allowed her to discover the secret of the time wheel crows, they probably wouldn't even get the chance for another loop. Everyone would instantly devolve into a part of Longshu Temple's Supernatural Zone.

Naturally, Gao Tian had no intention of doing that.

If they couldn't win, what else could they do? Call for backup.

To be honest, Gao Tian actually had quite a few contacts he could call on.

First up were Ghost Cave and Ghost Infant. As long as he issued an order in the chat group, those two would be forced to appear.

Yusheng combined with Galan Society's Aggressive Twin Ghosts should, in theory, be enough to put up a fight against Mother.

In the worst-case scenario, even if Ghost Cave was called over, failed to beat Mother, and ended up assimilated into Longshu Temple—

Then Xu Yuan, who was waiting at the Divine Tree, would notice that his troublesome kid had been trapped by another Supernatural Zone in the Inner World. Given how fiercely protective he was, he would definitely come out to drag them home in person.

It would end up being Xu Yuan versus Mother. That scene would be too beautiful; he couldn't even bear to imagine it.

However, Gao Tian didn't immediately take out his mobile phone.

He had to consider the aftermath of the Longshu Temple incident.

The consequence of summoning Ghost Cave would be letting it realize that he was carrying out a mission for the living apartment, and that he had even brought several living people along.

This would inevitably arouse Ghost Cave's suspicions and invite unnecessary trouble.

For this mission, if he could avoid calling on Ghost Cave, he would.

There was another option he could try.

The old man in the military overcoat who was eating at the nearby McDonald's, acting like a fool and calling himself Wang Jianguo.

His strength was unknown, and he was incredibly mysterious.

Right now, they had essentially used their own lives to deduce every single killing rule in Longshu Temple and had fully grasped the mechanics of the time loop. The only thing Gao Tian needed was a creature unbound by rules—someone to deliver the final blow to Mother, who was waiting at the observatory.

That rule-breaking monster was naturally Wang Jianguo.

He could go over there and try to convince the old man to lend a hand.

Of course, if the old man was still intent on saving his own skin and refused to follow them no matter what, preferring to watch from the sidelines... well, that would just waste a little time. It wouldn't affect the bigger picture.

Gao Tian laid out his plan: "We head back to McDonald's and tell him everything that happened in Longshu Temple—all the killing rules and the final boss waiting at the end."

"If he really is a veteran from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, he'll definitely be interested in those things from the stars."

"If the old man still refuses to help, then I'll go looking for backup somewhere else."

Wang Wenbo, being rather timid, couldn't help but ask, "What if this old gentleman ends up getting killed by Mother instead?"

After all, no one had actually seen Wang Jianguo fight yet, so they had no real concept of his true strength.

Although he was suspected of playing the fool to hide his power, getting slapped out the window by the abomination on the supernatural bus only to instantly reappear at Longshu Temple a second later was certainly an impressive feat.

Gao Tian said, "Nothing in the supernatural world is ever one hundred percent certain."

"If even Wang Jianguo dies, then my only choice will be to enter the next loop and summon someone else to help."

By then, it would be the fifth day at Longshu Temple. Gao Tian would call Ghost Cave over.

But at that point, the seven-day time limit would be almost up, making things far more dangerous.

As they spoke, the highly proactive Jiang Yang had already slung his backpack over his shoulder and, without a word, started walking in the opposite direction of Longshu Temple.

The intersection where they had parted ways with Wang Jianguo was just ahead, the McDonald's standing abruptly in the wilderness. The four of them retraced their steps. In less than ten minutes, looking through the clear glass walls of the red-and-blue building, they spotted the eccentric old man gnawing on a burger at a beige table, his mouth smeared with ketchup.

Gao Tian pushed the door open, triggering a cheerful chime.

Hearing the noise, Wang Jianguo paused his messy eating. He looked up, shooting a dissatisfied glare in Gao Tian's direction.

"You're moving too slowly."

"What took you so long to get here?"

Gao Tian froze in his tracks.

The moment he processed those words, his scalp went completely numb.

Something was wrong.

He had gone through three loops in Longshu Temple, which meant the equivalent of three nights had passed.

However, logically speaking, Wang Jianguo, who had been sitting in McDonald's this whole time, shouldn't have known about the time loop.

From his perspective, the old man had just ordered his meal and started eating. The four youths he had met on the supernatural bus had left for barely ten minutes before turning right back around.

Under normal circumstances, Wang Jianguo's reaction should have been, 'Why did you come back so quickly?'

Instead, what he said was—

"What took you so long to get here?"

This meant that Wang Jianguo was fully aware of what had happened at Longshu Temple. His perception was piercing; he knew perfectly well that Gao Tian had repeated this scenario four times.

At this point, their cards were on the table. There was no need to beat around the bush anymore. It was time to speak openly.

Gao Tian said, "We have already uncovered the thousand-year mystery of Longshu Temple, along with most of its killing rules."

"Now, the only thing left is the mastermind behind it all, whom we cannot handle no matter what we try."

"I implore you, veteran of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, please lend us your strength and help us juniors overcome this ordeal."

The old man grinned.

Wiping his mouth, he gave a push with his short legs and hopped off the high stool at McDonald's.

The old man was incredibly shrewd. When he first arrived at Longshu Temple, he had outright refused to enter. Only after Gao Tian and the others had used their lives to figure out the temple's ins and outs and confirmed there was no threat to him did he finally intervene in the karma, preparing to flatten this Supernatural Zone with a thunderous strike.

The old fox always planned before acting and never fought an unprepared battle. This was likely the very reason he had survived for so long.

"Then what are you standing around for?"

"Don't tell me you're expecting an old man like me to treat you to burgers."

"Hurry up and go! Lead the way."