Chapter 00162: The Ruined Temple in the Mountains
# The Ruined Temple in the Mountains
Chapter 162
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 162: The Ruined Temple in the Mountains
Being caught by the Plum Blossom Guard right before leaving the pass made everyone's heart sink.
But fortunately, it was just a scare with no real danger.
The Tangfeng Merchant House's ship passed through the checkpoint smoothly and continued along the Jiao River.
Once they were past the pass, they were no longer in the territory of the Yue Prefecture Kingdom.
They didn't have to worry about being pursued by the Plum Blossom Guard again, at least not openly, which was a great relief.
However, this didn't mean they could rest easy.
Besides Zheng Yinping, Li Yingluo was also a hot commodity.
With her father being a first-rank great official, many people had their eyes on her.
What's more, both Li Yingluo and Yang Yiyi had narrowly escaped being used as cultivation cauldrons.
The Liu Family of Yue Prefecture used living people for their cultivation practice, and such a scandal could never be exposed.
Otherwise, no matter how high their reputation in the martial world was, they would be condemned by all.
Although they were just two young girls whose words carried little weight, and it was unlikely anyone would believe them even if they told, what if someone did?
For example, someone might be jealous of the Liu Family's reputation and fan the flames from behind the scenes.
Any normal line of thinking would not overlook such a risk.
It was highly likely they would be silenced to leave no witnesses.
Although fighting off the water bandits earlier had earned them a big favor from Tang Lianyu, it also exposed the whereabouts of Yang Yiyi and Li Yingluo.
Perhaps the assassins sent by the Liu Family were already on their way.
The Tang family's ship was large, a conspicuous target, and could only travel along the river, making it too easy to find.
So, to be safe, just a day after the Tang family's large ship passed through the checkpoint, the three of them announced their departure.
Tang Lianyu never knew the inside story, but she could tell the three of them were still carrying some burdens, so she didn't try too hard to make them stay.
She only gave them a special instruction before they left: if they ever needed help in the future, they could go to any Tangfeng Merchant House and mention her name, Tang Lianyu, and she would certainly provide her full assistance.
After bidding farewell to the Tang family's great ship, they stayed for a night in a small town near where they disembarked.
The next day, the three of them set out again, this time traveling by land.
Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo wanted to go home, while Yang Yiyi wanted to return to the Green Robe Sect to demand an explanation from her master.
In truth, their paths had already diverged at this point.
But rather than taking the main roads, which were crowded and full of prying eyes, it was better to first go with Yang Yiyi back to the Green Robe Sect, and then cross the mountains by taking the smaller paths back to Qi Prefecture.
This way, they could avoid being tracked.
Since they had to take mountain roads, the three of them didn't buy horses or a carriage in the town.
All three had martial arts skills, so traveling with lightness skills was actually faster in the mountain forests.
This was where the lightness skill learned from Peach Blossom Valley came in handy.
In Peach Blossom Valley, there was a horse demon.
After sparring with it, a lightness skill called 'Four Steps of the Swift-Footed' was added to the Teaching Box.
This lightness skill was not particularly outstanding in terms of leaping or speed; its greatest advantage was long-distance running.
Relying on this technique, Yang Yiyi could run for several hours straight without needing to stop and rest.
She could run from morning until noon, eat a meal, and then keep running.
Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo's lightness skills, however, didn't have such an impressive long-distance capability.
For the first two days, Yang Yiyi had to stop and wait for them.
But later, after Li Chengxi taught them the Four Steps of the Swift-Footed, the three of them could finally keep the same pace.
After two days of traveling rough, the weather suddenly changed that afternoon.
Seeing that a heavy rain was about to fall, the three of them, still wandering in the mountains, were very lucky to find a dilapidated Daoist temple.
"Quick, quick, come inside, the rain is about to start!"
Yang Yiyi pushed open the decaying wooden door and waved for Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo, who were still in the courtyard looking over the temple, to come inside.
The wind outside was getting stronger.
Although raindrops hadn't started falling yet, the sky had already turned almost as dark as night.
"This ruined temple looks like it's about to collapse. You'd better stay in the corner."
From his computer screen, Li Chengxi could clearly see that many of the tiles on the roof were gone, leaving many spots completely open to the sky.
"Why should we stay in the corner?"
"Because if the roof collapses, you won't be crushed to death if you're in the corner."
"Oh, I've learned something new. Brother Li is truly an Immortal."
At this moment, Zheng Yinping, who had scanned her surroundings, said:
"This temple must have been abandoned for seventy or eighty years, but I see some footprints left in some places. It's possible that people often take shelter here."
Yang Yiyi was clearing a clean spot with her foot.
Upon hearing this, she said:
"If you don't take the main road and instead take a shortcut to Green Cloud Mountain, you'll most likely pass through here. I stayed here overnight with my parents when we went to the city when I was a child."
The Green Cloud Mountain Yang Yiyi mentioned had a Yang Family Village at its foot, which was her hometown.
The Green Robe Sect was located on the mountain.
And beyond Green Cloud Mountain was Liu Prefecture, the hometown of Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo.
So, taking the waterway was out of the way, but taking the secluded mountain path, despite being a detour, allowed them to continue traveling together.
Li Yingluo could also be considered half a disciple of a Daoist sect.
After entering, she first bowed to the statues of the Three Pure Ones enshrined in the ruined temple, then turned around to help Yang Yiyi clean up.
"Elder Sister Yang, are you really going back to your sect?"
On the road, the two had learned the whole story and knew that Yang Yiyi had been sold to the Liu Family by her master.
Zheng Yinping also chimed in:
"I still think it's better if you don't go back. Just visit your home since it's on the way, and then come with us to Liu Prefecture."
"There are still several junior martial sisters. I have to let them know what kind of person our master is, otherwise others will suffer the same fate as me. When it's their turn, there might not be an Immortal like Brother Li to help them."
"That may be so, but I'm afraid it won't do any good even if you go back."
Since Yang Yiyi's master sold her, he must have prepared an excuse to deal with any questions from the sect.
If he used some other excuse to explain why Yang Yiyi didn't return with him, that would be one thing, but if he claimed she betrayed the sect and ran away on her own, then Yang Yiyi returning now would just be asking for a beating.
The two had tried to persuade Yang Yiyi more than once on the road not to go, suggesting she return to Liu Prefecture with them instead, but Yang Yiyi was unyielding.
Yang Yiyi was just that hard-headed, straightforward and unyielding.
Once she set her mind on something, she would never turn back unless she was beaten black and blue.
Li Chengxi had also tried to persuade her several times, but Yang Yiyi was always worried about her junior martial sisters, so it was pointless to say anything.
After that, Li Chengxi couldn't be bothered to waste his breath.
Just then, a loud boom echoed from outside the temple, followed by a dense curtain of raindrops pattering down.
The rain was so heavy that it made one wonder if this dilapidated temple could withstand it.
The three of them used a lighter provided by Li Chengxi to light a candle and sat in a circle on the empty space they had cleared out inside the temple's main hall.
"How did this temple become abandoned? It looks quite large in scale; there must have been many people living here back in the day."
Seeing this, Li Yingluo laughed and said:
"A Ping, are you still afraid of thunder?"
"I'm just making small talk. I stopped being afraid of thunder a long time ago."
As another muffled roll of thunder sounded, Zheng Yinping instinctively shrank back, and her previous claim fell apart on its own.
It was unexpected that Zheng Yinping, with her soldier-like demeanor, would have such a weakness.
It felt like a bit of an endearing contradiction.
The three of them laughed for a while, then Yang Yiyi said:
"When I was little, I heard the elders in the village mention that this temple is strange."
"It's not haunted, is it?"
"I don't know, but the legends are very scary."
Zheng Yinping swallowed hard.
Just then, amidst the downpour, the three of them suddenly heard what sounded like the sound of horses and footsteps approaching.
They all stood up and looked towards the main gate.
Just then, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.
A pitch-black figure's shadow was stretched long by the flash, cast upon the floor covered in weeds and dirt...
(End of this chapter)