Chapter 73: Ling Xiaoxuan, Wearing a Green Hat

Chapter 73: Ling Xiaoxuan, Wearing a Green Hat

As soon as they approached the temple gate, they heard a man inside asking nervously, "Who's outside?!"

His tone was forceful and tense, and anyone could hear his panic and trembling.

Ling Xiaoxuan recognized the voice and her face lit up with joy as she hurried towards the temple gate.

"Dou Changheng, it's me. I've brought people to rescue you!"

The Ling family's bodyguards saw their young miss rushing towards danger and quickly stepped forward to stop her.

Before anyone could react, the old temple door was opened from the inside by someone.

A young man with a pale, sleep-deprived face and a weary look was revealed, standing behind him were several men and women who all looked fearful and uneasy.

When Dou Changheng saw Ling Xiaoxuan, a strange excitement rose in his face and he stretched out his arms to embrace her.

Just as he was about to touch her, Qin Ruan grabbed Ling Xiaoxuan's collar and stepped back.

Dou Changheng stared at Qin Ruan with a gloomy expression as if he had just lost something precious.

Ling Xiaoxuan was also a little puzzled. She didn't expect Qin Ruan to be so strong that she could easily lift her up, considering that she weighed almost 300 pounds.

Qin Ruan stood in front of Ling Xiaoxuan and said to the man in front of her, "If there's anything, go inside and talk about it."

Dou Changheng's eyes were deep and he gritted his teeth to let her go.

There were several clay Buddha statues in the dilapidated temple, and there were seven men and women, including Dou Changheng, inside the main hall.

When a girl saw Ling Xiaoxuan, she immediately burst into tears.

"Xiaoxuan, you finally came. Xiao Mei is dead, she's dead!"

"I'm so scared, I want to go home, but we can't get out no matter how we go. We keep coming back here, I'm so scared, I want to go home..."

The girl hugged Ling Xiaoxuan and cried uncontrollably, gasping for air, and kept crying out that she was afraid and wanted to go home.

This time, Qin Ruan did not stop the girl from approaching Ling Xiaoxuan.

She stood tall in the temple, taking in the sizable area around her.

"Sister Ruan, have you found anything?" Qiao Jiu walked up to Qin Ruan and whispered.

Qin Ruan shook her head and remained silent, noticing Master Qiao Nan Yuan observing the surroundings with a somber expression. She figured he had also discovered something.

Qin Ruan's gaze shifted to the young man standing behind Ling Xiaoxuan, who happened to be Du Changheng, the fiancé of her senior sister.

"Miss Ling said you couldn't leave Qishan, and although the road was difficult to traverse, we managed to make it here with relative ease. I want to know what exactly happened to you that caused you to be trapped here," one of the Taoist priests spoke up, his tone direct and unambiguous.

A member of the exploration and paranormal team stepped forward and recounted the entire incident in detail.

They had been traveling towards the Qin emperor's tomb for a week when they stumbled upon a burial chamber behind the dilapidated temple and decided to explore it. There was a mechanism that blocked the entrance, but they were unable to decipher the esoteric symbols and patterns necessary to unlock it.

They assumed it was the entrance to the Qin emperor's tomb and became extremely excited. However, things took a turn for the worse that same evening.

The male member of the team who had spoken up paused and glanced at Ling Xiaoxuan, who was being comforted in someone's arms. He continued, "That night, Du Changheng and Xiao Mei were together. We heard her scream, rushed over, and found that she had already died."

"Xiao Mei's body was horrifically mutilated, as if precision instruments had cut every piece of flesh into evenly sized fragments. Blood and flesh were scattered all over the ground." 

(The end of this chapter.)