After his cousin finished breakfast and left for work, Zhang Yuanqing went back to his room for a nap.
Waking up from his sleep, dynamic sound effects filled his ears. Opening his eyes, the TV screen's flickering glow lit up the room, while the ceiling light remained off.
Sitting up, he looked toward the window and saw his aunt sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, playing his PS5. She had rolled up her sleeves, revealing two fair, smooth forearms. Her delicate body swayed side to side as she manipulated the controller.
Zhang Yuanqing yawned, turned on the light, and walked behind her to watch her play.
She was playing a horror game — the art style dark and gloomy, the music eerie. The protagonist was a grotesque little figure wielding a blood-stained axe, cutting through enemies, leaving carnage behind.
The TV light reflected in her clear, bright eyes, her round, smooth face bright with a faint excitement.
"This game's pretty good — perfect for playing at night, kind of therapeutic," his aunt said without looking away from the screen.
She had three big hobbies: shopping at malls, watching horror movies, and playing horror games.
"Must be a depressingly twisted person, you freak…" Zhang Yuanqing muttered under his breath, reluctantly agreeing, "Yeah, it's quite interesting."
His aunt glanced back and rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap with me."
Turning back to the game, she continued:
"Actually, it's a self-healing game. The monsters on screen are all the hallucinations of a little boy who's mentally ill. To avoid being consumed by his inner demons, he fights back hard, eventually carving a bloody path to see the light at the end. The ending is very touching."
As she spoke, Zhang Yuanqing poured himself a glass of water and replied while sipping, "Nice theme."
She hummed in agreement and added:
"Every boss follows specific patterns. If you pay attention, even a little boy can defeat those terrifying demons. But the horrifying visuals and sounds make people lose their calm judgment."
"You should try it," she invited.
But Zhang Yuanqing wasn't in the mood to play. He'd been out of the spiritual realm for nearly 20 hours. The realm would open again in just over a dozen hours, and what awaited him might well be death.
He might as well think about what to do in his last hours of life, so he'd have no regrets.
Call and yell at his mom? Cry on his aunt's shoulder? Sing and dance rap with his uncle one last time?
He suddenly realized he had no deep regrets or desperate wishes. As a university student from a fairly well-off family, his life hadn't been full of troubles.
Only those who had weathered great storms had many regrets they could never let go.
"Come on, play with me!" His aunt twisted her waist, pouting coquettishly.
Looking at her beautiful figure, Zhang Yuanqing's gaze softened. He sat down beside her and took the controller.
If life had only a few hours left, spending them playing one more game with her wasn't so bad.
With his aunt munching on chips and chattering instructions, Zhang Yuanqing completed the game. Checking the time, it was already 11 PM.
"Not bad, not bad. You've got talent," his aunt praised, sucking on her fair fingers, patting his shoulder, and wiping saliva on him at the same time.
"Gross! So dirty," Zhang Yuanqing grimaced.
"Pfft, this is nectar of the gods. Don't be ungrateful," Jiang Yuer shamelessly said.
"Nectar of the gods? How much per pound?" Zhang Yuanqing sneered.
"Not for sale, but I can give you a few licks," Jiang Yuer puckered up, clearly aiming to slobber on him.
Zhang Yuanqing leaned back to dodge.
Click.
The door handle turned. Grandma stood at the door, frowning at the two.
Zhang Yuanqing and Jiang Yuer instantly sat up straight, suddenly serious.
"Are you going to eat or not?" Grandma scolded. "Sleeping all day and gaming all night — thinking you're some immortal being? Born on earth but wanting to go to heaven?"
Zhang Yuanqing put down the controller. "Okay, okay, I'm coming to eat."
Grandma shot his aunt a cold glare. Jiang Yuer sulked back to her room.
...
Dinner stayed warm on the stove. Grandma reheated some cold dishes. Zhang Yuanqing stuffed down food carelessly, then returned to his room and summoned his inventory to check his corpse-sealing talisman was still there.
Next, he reviewed his status panel.
While silently hoping for good news from Li Dongze's side, he pondered every detail from the mountain god temple.
During the game with his aunt, he had a new insight.
If the spiritual realm is also a game, does it have rules? If he could find the pattern, even if he was a weak little boy, maybe he could clear the level smoothly.
Lost in thought, a harsh ringtone suddenly made his heart skip a beat.
He grabbed the phone by his bed. The incoming call showed an unknown number. He accepted it.
"Hello, is this Zhang Yuanqing?"
A sexy female voice came through the speaker. Zhang Yuanqing's expression lit up as he asked eagerly:
"Did you get the info on She Ling Tunnel?"
Guan Ya responded with a soft "Mm."
"The Chief got you more detailed information. He asked me to send it to your email. I know you young people never check your inbox, so I'm calling to let you know."
Official channels for the win. Joining them was definitely the right call... Zhang Yuanqing felt his mood brighten instantly, biting back the urge to rush to his computer to check the mail.
"Please thank Chief Li and Sister Guan Ya for me. When I finish this trial, dinner's on me."
Finishing the trial... Guan Ya sighed silently, hesitated a moment, then softened her voice:
"Okay, we'll be waiting."
She had already seen the documents passed down from Taiyi Sect. After reading, all she felt was cold despair. No wonder the Chief was gloomy all day.
In Li Dongze's mind, this newly recruited Night Roamer was probably going to die in the trial.
After hanging up, Zhang Yuanqing leaned back in his ergonomic chair and eagerly opened his laptop to check his email.
Amid the chaos of unread messages, he found the one from Guan Ya.
He downloaded the attachment.
...
[She Ling Tunnel, Spiritual Realm ID: 0079, Difficulty: S, Type: Solo (Death Mode)]
[Main Task 1: Survive for three hours.]
[Main Task 2: Explore Spiritual Realm #0079.]
Same as my trial task... Zhang Yuanqing's spirits lifted. The closer the content matched his own mission, the better.
[The #0079 realm isn't actually She Ling Tunnel but an ancient Ming Dynasty temple called Sandao Mountain Niangniang Temple.]
[From my deduction, this Niangniang must be a very high-ranking Night Roamer — no, perhaps no longer a Night Roamer. It's unclear if such an elegant Niangniang truly existed in the Ming era; the realm might be fabricated.]
A long passage followed, describing the deeds of the Sandao Mountain Niangniang, matching what Zhang Yuanqing had seen in the temple.
Reading on:
[The three-hour survival task is relatively simple. At first, after reviewing the notes, I encountered a lingering spirit that continuously drained the living's yang energy until death.]
[Night Roamers have a natural suppression against spirits. I easily dispelled it. But when I tried to consume it, I faced huge resistance — possibly the realm protecting the lingering spirit.]
[Everyone who reads the notes is cursed, continuously pursued by the lingering spirit. All removal methods are temporary. Each dispelling grants about 15 minutes of safety.]
[Notably, the temple layout consists of a main hall and two adjacent backyards. The candles in the main hall are extremely powerful talismans capable of warding off evil and purifying. Staying inside means safety. However, the candles dispel fear, and long exposure makes one fearless — fatal in such a dangerous realm. The candles cannot be moved or taken outside.]
[After spending half an hour in the main hall, I suddenly heard cries for help from the backyard, mixed with bone-chilling roars that didn't sound human. After hesitation, I decided to explore the backyard.]
The main hall really is a safe house — Zhang Yuanqing confirmed personally. But the source was the candles, not the beautiful mountain god Niangniang, as he had assumed...
The cries came from the big banyan tree. The roars? He hadn't heard them. The east yard was truly terrifying... Zhang Yuanqing shivered inwardly.
Taking a deep breath, he focused on reading further — the information ahead was crucial. If he knew the other yard's situation in advance, he could avoid danger.
[The big banyan tree is dangerous. Do not look back, do not look back...]
[This tree seems sentient, but why does it cry for help? As for the terrifying roars, I never found the source because their appearance interrupted my exploration. It was a pair of... red dancing shoes.]
[It didn't attack immediately but invited me to dance. Out of curiosity, I accepted.]
[I couldn't memorize its dance steps — too chaotic and complex. For someone with no dance experience, impossible. Even experienced dancers couldn't remember them. I failed. The red shoes began to chase me.]
[I managed to escape to the main hall but suffered two broken ribs from the shoes stomping me. I think I've uncovered its true nature: a terrifying talisman that tracks relentlessly, ignoring terrain and obstacles. Initial guess: a rule-based item.]
Unbelievable — a trial realm actually had a rule-based talisman. Now he understood why Qian Shouming, who carried a talisman, still died in the mountain god temple, and why no one had ever cleared this realm. What a joke. Those who enter She Ling Tunnel were either low-level rookie Night Roamers or ordinary humans. How could they clear it?
The cause of the temple's decay and the millennium-shaping secret remained unknown. Hopefully, the second main task would uncover the truth for the organization.
The document ended there with no follow-up.
Zhang Yuanqing knew that Night Roamer had most likely died during the second main task.