Chapter 130: Chapter 48: Calling for Backup
While the Wind Attendant Buddha was outside speaking with Yu Sheng, Gao Tian, inside the main hall, dropped his disguise and slowly emerged from the shadows.
"Sorry, everyone."
"There’s been a problem with this cycle. Yu Sheng is already dead. A total loss."
"To ensure everyone makes it back to the Living Human Apartment, I’ve decided to restart. See you in the next cycle."
Wang Wenbo was stunned, not yet processing what was happening.
"Wait, you’re not going to..."
Gao Tian didn’t explain further. He pulled the Terror Blade directly from the mirror and activated its sacrificial effect—
Sacrificial offering: Wang Wenbo.
Target: Lan Chu.
With a sickening THUD, Wang Wenbo was instantly bisected at the waist. A confused expression lingered on his face as he died on the spot, never realizing what had happened.
Seeing Wang Wenbo’s body, which now looked like a shattered Gundam model kit, Lan Chu showed no fear. Instead, she seemed quite interested.
"We only enter the next cycle after all of us are dead, right?"
"When you meet the me from the next cycle, do me a favor and scare her a little. Let me teach you how. It’s like this..."
Gao Tian nodded.
"Okay, got it."
Before Lan Chu could finish, the blade wind from the Terror Blade sliced her in two.
’The "Mother" is right outside the temple gates. I don’t have time to listen to Lan Chu’s request.’
Blood pooled across the floor of the great hall. The only ones left standing were Jiang Yang and Gao Tian.
Seeing Gao Tian suddenly cut down two teammates, Jiang Yang remained remarkably calm. He knew what Gao Tian was doing.
"Someone’s here? Outside the temple?"
Gao Tian nodded.
"Yeah. A ghost."
"A very, very fierce ghost. We have to die right now to force the time loop to start over."
"If she gets in, we might not be able to get away at all."
Jiang Yang nodded, sat down on the floor, and motioned for Gao Tian to draw his blade.
"Do it."
The Terror Blade’s power activated again—
Sacrificial offering: Wang Wenbo.
The Terror Blade in Gao Tian’s hand finished drinking its fill of blood. He then twisted open the Luck Jar and released all the ghost luck inside.
The final strike was aimed at himself.
And with that, the last living person in Longshu Temple was dead.
The third day at Longshu Temple had come to an end.
...
...
The card you have drawn this time is—
The 5 of Diamonds.
You now possess seven cards in your soul: Ace of Hearts, 2 of Clubs, 4 of Diamonds, 5 of Diamonds, 10 of Spades, Queen of Diamonds, and King of Spades.
...
...
The evening wind, the setting sun.
It was now the fourth day at Longshu Temple. This was Gao Tian’s fourth time returning to the same point in time.
Although the deaths of the four people in the main hall, combined with the release of all the ghost luck from the Luck Jar, had made his fortune incomparably strong...
...the risk of death had become considerably high after accumulating seven Ghost Cards. Before killing himself, Gao Tian had still felt a sliver of worry.
Fortunately, he had successfully returned.
"Having a nightmare? I told you to use the Wind Attendant Buddha to scout ahead, and you actually fell asleep?"
Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Lan Chu’s crazed-looking face.
Gao Tian slowly stood up.
"Yeah, I had a nightmare. A very, very long nightmare."
"But thankfully, this time, the dream is about to reach its breaking point."
In this fourth cycle, he seemed remarkably composed.
He briefly explained to Jiang Yang and the others that they had already gone through three consecutive life-and-death explorations in this very temple.
The first two explorations seemed irrelevant now. Once they knew the death rules, those patterns no longer posed any threat.
The key was the third exploration: the conversation with Yu Sheng and learning the story from a thousand years ago.
When they heard that Yu Sheng had told Gao Tian to leave alone and abandon the others, the expressions on Jiang Yang and the rest changed. If Gao Tian had actually followed Yu Sheng’s request, they would likely have been trapped in Longshu Temple forever, experiencing the next millennium as ghosts.
"Thank you, Gao Tian. Thank you."
Cold sweat visibly beaded on Wang Wenbo’s forehead. He didn’t know what else to say, so he just kept repeating his thanks.
Gao Tian said,
"You don’t need to hate Yu Sheng."
"After all, to buy time, he went to tangle with the ’Mother’ by himself and became a ghost after he died."
"He’ll be staying behind too, spending another thousand years with you in Longshu Temple."
Jiang Yang wasn’t bothered by Yu Sheng’s scheming. He’d been through enough green-level missions to have seen all sorts of plotting between teammates.
Besides, Yu Sheng hadn’t just been scheming against them. That bald-ass ghost had included himself in the final tally.
He looked at Gao Tian.
"At this point in time, Yu Sheng should be on his way to find the ’Mother,’ right? He’s not dead yet."
"What’s your plan? Are you going straight to find Yu Sheng?"
’If I do that, I might as well have just followed Yu Sheng’s instructions and left Longshu Temple during the third cycle.’
All of them combined were no match for the "Mother."
If they died at her hands, she would discover the secret of the Kalachakra Crow. Then, they probably wouldn’t even get another chance at reincarnation. Everyone would simply degenerate and become a part of the supernatural phenomenon that was Longshu Temple.
Of course, Gao Tian had no intention of doing that.
’Can’t win the fight? Simple. Call for backup.’
To be honest, Gao Tian had quite a few people he could call on.
First, there were Ghost Cave and Ghost Infant. As long as he gave the order in the group chat, those two had to show up.
Yu Sheng, plus the two hot-tempered ghosts from the Jialan Society, should theoretically be enough to handle the "Mother."
Worst-case scenario, even with Ghost Cave’s help, they couldn’t defeat the "Mother," and were even assimilated into Longshu Temple...
...then Xu Yuan, waiting at the Divine Tree, would discover that his "problem child" was trapped by another supernatural phenomenon in the Inner World. Given his protective nature, he would definitely come out to retrieve his own.
Then it would be Xu Yuan versus the "Mother." The thought of that spectacle was too beautiful for him to imagine.
However, Gao Tian didn’t immediately pull out his phone.
He had to consider the long-term consequences after the Longshu Temple incident.
The downside of summoning Ghost Cave was that it would find out he was on a mission from the Living Human Apartment, and even had a few living people with him.
This would inevitably arouse Ghost Cave’s suspicions and cause unnecessary trouble.
’If I can avoid calling on Ghost Cave for this mission, I should.’
There was another option he could try.
The old man in the military greatcoat eating at the nearby McDonald’s, the one who played dumb and called himself Wang Jianguo.
His strength was unknown, and he was extremely mysterious.
By now, they had figured out almost all of Longshu Temple’s death rules with their lives, and had also grasped the mechanics of the time loop. The only thing Gao Tian needed was a hard counter—someone to deliver the final blow and finish off the "Mother" waiting at the observatory.
That hard counter was, naturally, Wang Jianguo.
He could go and try to persuade the old man to take action.
Of course, if the old man still chose to sit on the sidelines to protect himself, refusing to go no matter what, it would just be a small waste of time and wouldn’t affect the overall situation.
Gao Tian laid out his plan.
"We’ll go back to McDonald’s and tell him everything that’s happened in Longshu Temple—all the death rules and the final boss."
"If he’s really an old veteran from the Spirit Disaster Bureau, he’ll definitely be interested in those things from the stars."
"If that old veteran still refuses to act, I’ll go call for backup elsewhere."
The timid Wang Wenbo couldn’t help but ask,
"What if this old gentleman gets killed by the ’Mother’ instead?"
After all, no one had actually seen Wang Jianguo in action, so they had no idea what his true strength was.
Although he was suspected of playing the fool, the way he was slapped out of the Supernatural Bus window by a stitched-together monster one moment, only to appear at Longshu Temple the next, was certainly impressive.
Gao Tian replied,
"Nothing in the Supernatural World is one hundred percent certain."
"If even Wang Jianguo dies, then I’ll just have to enter the next loop and call someone new for help."
That would be the fifth day at Longshu Temple. At that point, Gao Tian would summon Ghost Cave.
But by then, with little of the seven-day limit remaining, things would become much more dangerous.
As he spoke, Jiang Yang, the most decisive of the group, had already shouldered his backpack without a word and started walking in the direction opposite Longshu Temple.
The intersection where they’d parted ways with Wang Jianguo was just ahead, as was the McDonald’s that stood abruptly in the middle of the wilderness. The four of them retraced their steps. After less than ten minutes of walking, they peered through the glass walls of the red-and-blue building and saw the strange old man at a beige table, munching on a hamburger with ketchup smeared all over his mouth.
Gao Tian pushed open the door, which chimed with a small bell.
Hearing the noise, Wang Jianguo, who had been slurping down his food, looked up and glanced at Gao Tian with dissatisfaction.
"Took you long enough."
"What took you so long to get here?"
Gao Tian froze on the spot.
The moment he understood the meaning of those words, his scalp tingled.
’Something’s wrong.’
’I’ve gone through three loops in Longshu Temple, which means three nights have passed for me.’
’But logically, Wang Jianguo, sitting here in McDonald’s, shouldn’t know about the time loop.’
’From his perspective, he just ordered his food and started eating. The four young people he met on the Supernatural Bus left less than ten minutes ago and have now come right back.’
’Right now, what Wang Jianguo should be saying is, "Why are you back so soon?"’
But instead, he said—
"What took you so long to get here?"
This meant Wang Jianguo knew exactly what had happened in Longshu Temple. His perception was razor-sharp; he knew perfectly well that this was Gao Tian’s fourth time through.
At this point, the cards were on the table. There was no need to beat around the bush. It was time to be frank.
Gao Tian said,
"We’ve uncovered most of Longshu Temple’s millennium-old mystery and its death rules."
"All that’s left is the final mastermind, who is completely beyond our ability to handle."
"I’m begging you, the esteemed elder from the Spirit Disaster Bureau, to help us juniors through this crisis."
The old man smiled.
He wiped his mouth, kicked his short legs, and hopped down from the McDonald’s high stool.
This old man was as cunning as they come. When he first arrived at Longshu Temple, he had explicitly refused to enter. Only after Gao Tian and the others had risked their lives to uncover the temple’s secrets, confirming there was nothing left that could threaten him, did he decide to intervene in causality, preparing to sweep this supernatural site clean with a single, decisive strike.
The old fox always made a plan before he acted, never fighting a battle he wasn’t prepared for. This was probably why he had managed to live so long.
"Then what are you standing around for?"
"Were you expecting an old man like me to treat you to hamburgers?"
"Let’s go. Lead the way."
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