Inside the silent Buddha hall, Haofeiji's sharp and piercing screams echoed, like hammer strikes pounding on our hearts.

I tried to calm Haofeiji down by holding him.

Then I gave Fatty a signal with my eyes, asking him to go behind the Buddha statue to see what was going on.

Fatty pointed at himself and immediately shook his head. This coward didn't dare to go.

He came over and bravely helped me hold onto Haofeiji, allowing me to go behind the Buddha statue myself.

I took out a torch from the bonfire and slowly walked towards the back of the Buddha statue step by step.

The lightning continued to flicker, making the mottled Buddha statue appear extremely sinister.

The majestic and solemn Buddha statue now looked like a terrifying demon Buddha.

"I'll go with you!" Long Shao Ye didn't want to lose face in front of Zhang Yuxin. He took out a knife from his bag, tightly gripped it in his hand, and followed behind me.

When we reached the front of the Buddha statue, I made a hand gesture to separate and surround it, signaling for Long Shao Ye to flank from both sides.

Long Shao Ye bit his lips tightly, nodded forcefully, showing his nervousness.

I extended my finger and gestured: "One! Two! Three!"

When we reached "three," both Long Shao Ye and I rushed toward the back of the Buddha statue.

I waved the torch, and I saw a dark figure rolling towards Long Shao Ye. Immediately, I yelled for Long Shao Ye to stop him.

Long Shao Ye was also a tough guy. He swung his knife and stabbed towards the dark figure.

The dark figure reacted quickly, dodging the knife and grabbing Long Shao Ye's wrist, engaging in a struggle with him.

Long Shao Ye shouted at Curly and the others, "What the hell are you all standing there for? Help out!"

Curly, Xu Wenbo, and Liu Qiang rushed over to help, and they quickly subdued the dark figure, pinning him down firmly.

"Are you a human or a ghost?" Long Shao Ye tapped the dark figure's face with the knife.

The dark figure struggled desperately. "Let go of me! I'm a human! I'm a human!"

Hearing this person's voice, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that he wasn't a ghost. It seemed like a false alarm.

However, I also felt strange. How could there be someone else in the ancient temple? Were they also seeking shelter from the rain? Was he hiding inside the temple earlier, or did he sneak in behind us?

Encountering a stranger in such a remote mountainous area, we definitely needed to interrogate him thoroughly.

I waved my hand, signaling Curly and the others to pull the person up.

Long Shao Ye kicked him, waving the knife threateningly, "You better behave, or I'll poke ten or eight holes in you!"

I examined the person in front of me. He was slightly older than us, around his early twenties, with short hair and a neatly combed hairstyle. He looked quite attractive and wore a pair of glasses on his nose. When the lightning flashed earlier, the lenses reflected a glint, which is what Haofeiji saw as "eyes."

This person carried a bag on his back and wore a camouflage tracksuit with hiking boots, giving off an adventurous vibe.

I asked him for his name and occupation.

He took out a small booklet from his pocket and handed it to me. Surprisingly, it was a student ID.

I opened the student ID and looked at it. It turned out that this person named Zhang Peng was a student at Guizhou University.

Knowing that he was a university student, I let go of my guard a bit and motioned for Curly to release him.

Zhang Peng rubbed his sore arm, and I asked him, "As a university student, what are you doing in such a remote mountainous area?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Zhang Peng told me that there were four people who came together, all students from Guizhou University who loved adventure and outdoor activities. They were experienced hikers and had met on the campus forum. Every summer and winter vacation, they would organize an adventure trip. Their plan this time was to explore the mountains in southeastern Guizhou, but they accidentally ended up here without realizing it.

They actually had four people. I quickly asked where the other three were, and Zhang Peng shouted towards the backyard of the temple, "Laogu, Xiaoyang, Ashui, come out!"

After a moment, three figures walked out from the backyard of the temple. Their appearance was similar to Zhang Peng's, all dressed in camouflage outfits and hiking boots, each carrying a backpack on their back.

Zhang Peng pointed at the three of them and introduced them to us. The tall and skinny one with dark skin was called Laogu, the fair-skinned and slightly chubby one was Xiaoyang, and the one with an old-school center-parted hairstyle was called Ashui.

As the saying goes, strangers become friends through good conversations. Since we were all young people, we quickly became acquainted after introducing ourselves.

Through the conversation, we learned that these four adventurers had entered Youlan Temple one day earlier than us.

Our sudden arrival tonight surprised them, so for safety reasons, they hid in the backyard of the temple and sent Zhang Peng to observe us secretly.

Zhang Peng patted Haofeiji, who had turned pale, on the shoulder. "Little brother, sorry for scaring you!"

Haofeiji laughed awkwardly. He was the tallest and strongest among us, but unexpectedly, he was so timid that he almost wet his pants just now.

Zhang Peng asked how we ended up in Youlan Temple. I told him that we lost our way in the heavy rain and fog, accidentally rolling down from the hillside.

Then I asked Zhang Peng how they arrived here. Zhang Peng wore a pained expression on his face and said that since entering this mountainous area, their compass had malfunctioned. It seemed to be disturbed by some kind of magnetic field, spinning around randomly, causing them to lose their direction. They were like headless flies running around in the jungle and ended up in Youlan Temple.

After a long journey, they were very exhausted, so they planned to rest in Youlan Temple for a day before leaving.

I curiously asked, "Why didn't you leave after staying for a day?"

Zhang Peng's expression became complicated, and his cheek twitched sharply.

Before Zhang Peng could continue, Ashui irritatedly said, "Do you think we don't want to leave? The problem is, we can't leave!"

We looked at each other, not understanding what Ashui meant by "can't leave."

I looked at Zhang Peng with a puzzled expression, and Zhang Peng silently took out a cigarette and lit it, looking heavy-hearted. "We rested in Youlan Temple for a day and left the next day. But... we walked outside all day, until evening when we were astonished to find out that we... actually returned to Youlan Temple..."

What?!

Zhang Peng's words shocked us. What was going on? After walking the whole day, they ended up circling back and returning to Youlan Temple? This was too strange, right?

Fatty tugged at my sleeve and whispered, "Could they have encountered ghostly phenomena?"

When Fatty, Zheng Jun, and I went to the Ghost Cry Valley before, we encountered a phenomenon where we couldn't escape no matter how we ran. It was only with the help of Liu Qingqing that we managed to escape.

According to Zhang Peng's account, their situation was very similar to our previous experience.