I have entered Kōtani Temple.
"I don't know why I went in, but in any case, I did, and Twin Monk saw me."
"After he kept me there, he noticed that I had a problem with my consciousness, so he didn't do anything to me."
"But the next day, you came, and the old Chu was left behind. Twin Monk questioned him about the purpose of coming here. After Chu said his intention, Twin Monk didn't take any further action but pretended to say that he knew me very well and had a good relationship with me."
"The old Chu is straightforward and honest, so he blurted out his dissatisfaction with you. He also mentioned the Luo family. Twin Monk then said that he could work with him to deal with you."
"Then enter the tomb again to wake me up."
"Old Chu believed it and, coupled with the trouble caused by you, allowed him to release old Chu."
"If you return on the same route now, it's highly likely that you'll encounter Twin Monk."
"You two are not their match."
Yang Gui spoke with absolute certainty.
Laogun spat and angrily said, "Old boy didn't die, all thanks to the old man's grace. What kind of twin monk is it? Neither male nor female, neither positive nor negative. Kill him."
"Twin monk... is it two people?" Shigure asked tentatively.
Yang Gui nodded, rubbing his forehead before saying, "They are identical twins, with an extraordinary bond. Their strength is not inferior to that of Douyu Dao Ren. We didn't easily escape back then. Douyu Dao Ren was injured, and this scared the Twin monks, preventing them from continuing the fight."
At that moment, Laogun suddenly stopped talking.
"Did he want to enter Gao Tian Guan himself but dare not? That's why he wanted to keep you?" Shigure asked again.
"Back then... the purpose was not the magical artifact," Yang Gui exhaled a stream of stale air before saying, "What he truly wanted was something that Brother Muye probably didn't bring out. Ordering Douyu Dao Ren to act was likely to keep us captive and enter the Gaotian Temple again."
Hearing this, my heart sank again.
It was not because Twin Monk was two people, but because... Yang Gui said re-entering the Gaotian Temple.
In fact, Twin Monk treated my parents as pawns back then?
If my parents could make it out of the Gaotian Temple, that would mean they had cleared all the dangers within and had found a way through?
Then bringing Douyu Dao Ren was their plan to co-plot with the Gaotian Temple?
Taking action against Laogun definitely disrupted Twin Monk's plan.
If not for me reporting the incident, forcing him to release the person.
He would definitely strike us when it gets dark!
Even if he released Laogun out, he might still cause trouble for me when it gets dark.
Or... he might not bother me...
Thinking of Laogun urging me to go up the mountain, I felt a chill run down my spine.
Invisible as it is, Laogun has already become a traitor. If we go up the mountain together, I might not even know when I'm being sold out. Twin Monk would be like a wily magpie...
"Do you know the safest way down?" I just asked this question, and Yang Gui nodded in excitement.
"I frown and ask again, "Why can't the souls of those who died while scouting come out?"
"Capturing souls." Yang Gui did not hesitate to tell me that there were charms for capturing souls on all the rooms they entered, which were actually mausoleums, and the spirits of those who died in the mausoleums would be trapped. To leave, they would have to break the charms.
Shigure's expression darkened as well, and she said, "There are also coffins in the mausoleum. Inside the coffins, there may be souls as well. If the charms are broken, wouldn't that also let the things inside come out?"
Yang Gui, however, fell silent, his eyes extremely resolute.
"Twin Monk's strength... is equivalent to Douyu Dao Ren. If Douyu's Temple is the same as Changfeng Dao Temple, then Twin Monk's strength would be on par with Han Zizi..." Shigure glanced at me awkwardly.
My expression couldn't help but look ugly.
Twin Monk, we cannot defeat him. We have basically no chance at all.
Returning the same way and fighting Twin Monk...
Indeed, it's not as good as going down from the Gaotian Temple, since Yang Gui knows the way...
"I know, you have a powerful magical artifact on your body," Yang Gui's eyes showed a hint of complexity.
I took a deep breath, knowing that Yang Gui was referring to the Si Gu Ming Jing.
"As long as you don't touch anything here, at least in the mausoleums where Huanshi encountered trouble, there are no ghosts that can counter your magical artifact. Even if there are some troubles, you should be able to handle them. You are Brother Muye's son."
Yang Gui spoke with absolute certainty.
I remained silent.
Yang Gui referred to Brother Muye repeatedly.
But for him, I couldn't feel any particular affinity.
Even with everything he told me before, he's trying to exploit me now.
It's still clearly exploiting me.
I don't feel guilty because my dad gave too many favors to the Huanshi back when he was handling things.
Human beings are willing to die for wealth, and birds are willing to die for food.
Afterwards, Huanshi's actions were just average.
I believed in the leader, but he nearly killed me as well.
Therefore, I don't want to save the ghosts of those who die for Huanshi.
"Don't you want to see the corpse of Gaotian Daoist? You weren't curious about what 'Bingjie' meant before?"
"Isn't it fascinating to explore the hidden secrets Mr. Qin is searching for?"
"Maybe you can find some useful things down there as well?"
Yang Gui's eyes carried a trace of urgency.
His ability to confuse people was too poor, lacking any appeal.
"How do you know that the twin monk has to chase us on the mountain path and not wait outside?" Laogun suddenly spoke, staring at Yang Gui.
I felt a slight jolt in my heart. Laogun's words had reminded me of something.
"Because... he knows that I will wake up, once I'm awake, I will naturally know that there are problems with leaving Gaotani Temple, so I will return via the mountain path. Therefore, he will chase us on the mountain path. We counter this by taking the opposite route down from below and it's foolproof!" Yang Gui explained.
His breathing grew more rapid, and he looked deeply at me before suddenly stopping talking and heading towards the direction of the statue.
Even without bothering to look at me and Shigure, it was as if he insisted on going down, and whether we followed or not didn't matter to him.
Closing my eyes again, my breathing became heavy.
"Willow mouse... perhaps it's worth a try to avoid them. It's not necessarily impossible." Shigure looked at me.
I remained silent and didn't respond.
At this moment, Laogun suddenly coughed forcefully.
As he coughed, his head shook violently, and his mouth kept moving as if he was trying to dislodge something.
In the next moment, Laogun coughed forcefully and spat out several big yellow teeth.
To be honest, ghost teeth have a pungent smell, but Laogun kept muttering incoherent words.
I didn't know what Laogun was planning to do next.
Shigure's eyes, however, brightened slightly.
"Laogun... seems to be giving us a fortune-telling..."
Yang Gui stood next to the statue for a while, seemingly watching us.
We didn't move, which seemed to make him especially anxious.
However, it was only about half a minute before Yang Gui's figure vanished.
Laogun's head dropped back to the ground, and he began chewing on his teeth one by one, his cheek still moving.
Soon, Laogun spat out, "Going back is a great catastrophe, almost certain death, going down is equally uncertain with an equal chance of survival."
"Ah..." Laogun turned his head towards the statue's position and his face suddenly changed.
