Chapter 51: The Entity Within the Temple's Black Fog

It must be understood that there are no original physical copies of the Blazing Sun Saber Technique within the village. Descenders wishing to learn this saber art must study it little by little from the militia members who have already mastered it.

Currently, due to the Blazing Sun Saber Technique's characteristic of being able to harm eerie spirits, quite a few descenders among the fifth squad are studying this art, yet not a single one has managed to master it.

Throughout the entire Ancient Pool Village, apart from himself, Lin Yi had only ever seen Chang Kongkuo use the Blazing Sun Saber Technique. However, Chang Kongkuo was, after all, a veteran player of Ancient Pool Village, and it must have taken him a very long time to learn the technique.

"Village Chief, three items dropped. Take a look and pick two of them..."

The old village chief did not even glance at them, waving his hand as he said, "No need, they are all yours. Items dropped by level-ten monsters are of no use to me anymore."

"Hehe, then many thanks, Village Chief."

Lin Yi stood on no ceremony, promptly placing all three dropped items into his storage pouch.

A descender's pouch had only ten slots, but identical items could be stacked.

Aside from food and water, Lin Yi's pouch was packed with corpse monster drops: green-grade corpse monster bones from various parts, a large quantity of white-grade corpse monster oil, and the precious rotted wood fruit he had foraged yesterday...

Combined with the [Corrupted Corpse Monster Heart] and the [Corpse Fiend Fangs], Lin Yi's pouch was completely stuffed. He had no choice but to hold the Silver-Glazed Saber in his hand and shove the [Blazing Sun Saber Technique] into the pack on his back.

Considering that there might be more than one corpse monster king nearby, the old village chief did not recall the tauren warrior, instead having it lead the way ahead.

They had not walked far, however, before Lin Yi's heart began to thump heavily.

"Village Chief, I sense the presence of eerie spirits."

"It seems we have arrived at our destination."

The old village chief had been here before and was clearly somewhat familiar with the place. He then led Lin Yi out of the mist-shrouded woods, stopping in front of a withered, dilapidated temple.

Most of the temple's roof had collapsed, the painted murals on its exterior walls had long since peeled away, and the surroundings were overgrown with weeds, presenting a scene of utter ruin.

Lin Yi felt that the architectural style of this temple was very familiar, but upon a second thought, wasn't this temple simply a smaller-scale version of Ancient Pool Village's divine temple?

It was only because the temple was in such a state of ruin that he had failed to recognize it immediately.

"Village Chief, is this the legacy cave?"

The old village chief nodded, his expression solemn as he said, "Yes, the cave is directly behind the temple. However, it is infested with numerous eerie spirits, and there is no shortage of professional-grade eerie spirits among them."

"Then do we go inside?"

"No need to rush. This abandoned temple is already a part of the ghost domain. If we enter rashly, unknown circumstances are likely to occur. The corpse monster king we killed nearby just now should have startled the entities inside; let's wait for them to come out instead. But whatever happens later, you must stay closely behind me to prevent any accidents."

"Understood."

Although Lin Yi had already slain a semi-professional fog ghost in direct combat, coming to such a lair of uncanny entities still filled him with an inexplicable sense of tension.

Lin Yi tightly clutched the divine talisman given to him by Gu Tian before departure, prepared to tear it apart and flee at the first sign of trouble.

[Return Divine Talisman]: A tier-one professional divine talisman. The moment it is activated, it can teleport the user to a bound divine temple within a thirty-mile radius.

Clearly, this divine talisman was the Apocalypse World version of a town-portal scroll. Yet according to Gu Tian, this talisman was extremely precious, requiring even him to accumulate divine power for a long time to craft a single one.

Perhaps, just as the old village chief had said, the eerie spirits within the cave had already sensed their presence.

Before long, a plume of black smoke surged out from the cave behind the ruined temple, resembling a demon manifesting in the world, and hovered above the temple.

Immediately following this, a harsh, low, nightmare-like language echoed from within the black mist.

The old village chief's expression remained unchanged as he actually opened his mouth and spoke the exact same language in reply.

Astonishment stirred in Lin Yi's heart, but he did not dare to interrupt.

He guessed that this was the language of the eerie spirits.

The old village chief conversed with the ghost in the black mist within the cave for a long time. Whatever the old village chief said seemed to provoke the ghost in the black mist into releasing a burst of furious roaring.

The roar was piercing and grating to the mind, shattering even the few remaining tiles on the temple roof.

Lin Yi hastily covered his ears and retreated a few steps, hiding behind the old village chief.

The old village chief continued in the ghost tongue, "You need not be angered. After all, you are still unable to break the seals left behind by that group of ghost-controller predecessors back then. My request remains the same as before: you retrieve the village's original legacy from within the cave, and I will lift the ghost-controllers' contract for you in advance, allowing you to use greater strength to assault the seal."

The ghost in the black mist retorted, "Damn humans! Back then, we acted out of good intentions and wholeheartedly aided our contractors, yet you human contractors actually sealed me away right before your deaths. No matter what, I shall exact vengeance for this grievance! As for the legacy within the cave, it is impossible for me to let you obtain it..."

Upon hearing this, the old village chief let out a soft sigh inwardly. After a moment of thought, he spoke again, "Do you know who the person behind me is?"

"Who? Just a human brat. Could it be that you brought him as food for me? Not bad, he looks quite delicious indeed."

"If you offer him to me, I guarantee to spare your life when I break free from the seal."

The ghost in the black mist fixed its gaze on Lin Yi, sending a sudden creep of horror through the clueless youth as if he had been locked onto by some terrifying entity. The ghost stone at his chest also beat violently, sounding frantic warnings.

The old village chief frowned and said, "He possesses the contract artifact you shared with the ghost-controllers back in the day. With this item, I have the certainty to help you lift the contract ahead of time. Moreover, he is a descender."

The ghost in the black mist was greatly startled, "A descender? A new descender has appeared once more?"

"Indeed. You also know what the appearance of a descender signifies. If you still wish to remain trapped in this cave for this period of time, I have nothing more to say, but this is your only chance. Consider it carefully."

Having said this, the old village chief fell silent. After pondering for a moment, the eerie spirit within the black mist spoke, "If the era of descenders has truly arrived, then making a deal with you is not out of the question. Only, your Ancient Pool Village must sign a new contract with me: once you obtain the legacy, you must not hunt or attack us."

The eerie spirit in the black mist was abundantly clear on the matter: among the legacies that those ghost-controllers had seized into the cave back then, quite a few were formidable methods specifically designed to deal with eerie spirits like them.

Had it not been for this, it would not have bewiged and instigated its own contractor to rebel against Ancient Pool Village and plunder the legacy items.

Yet it never expected that its damned contractor would double-cross it on the verge of death, sealing them all within the cave and forbidding them from destroying the legacy either.

For a full three hundred years, none of them had been able to leave this place.

Now, learning that descenders had appeared on the Apocalypse Continent, it shed its reservations, desiring only to free itself from this place at the earliest possible date.

As for Ancient Pool Village acquiring the legacy and becoming powerful—so what?

The world was vast; hereafter, it would simply stay far away from this place and never return.