Then it stopped, and a few seconds later, the footsteps sounded again.

This time, the footsteps were not just simple walking, but had a certain rhythm and pattern, like marching.

What is it doing in the courtyard?

Michael Bolton, supporting his cold body, struggled a bit to stand up, and looked out through the tattered window paper, staring intently.

In the moonlight, amidst the wild grass, a pair of brand new, Western-style red dancing shoes were tap dancing in the night.

Moonlit night, abandoned temple, red dancing shoes, a solo dance.

This scene looked both absurd and eerie, yet carried an indescribable... loneliness?

How could there be a pair of Western-style dancing shoes in a mountain god temple from the Ming Dynasty?

This broken temple is getting more and more bizarre... He quietly crouched back down, patiently waiting.

Time passed by, second by second. The resentful spirit lying on his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy, his body growing increasingly stiff, the soreness in his shoulder turning into stabbing pain.

He felt that if this continued, he would either die from his yang energy being completely drained, or from his shoulder bone shattering.

In the midst of this painful torment, the dance in the courtyard disappeared.

Michael Bolton still didn’t dare to show himself. He waited a moment longer before cautiously poking his head out, peering into the courtyard through the window.

The courtyard was filled with moonlight, the wild grass stood silently, and those strange dancing shoes had left.

“Whew...”

He let out a heavy sigh of relief. Just as he was about to stand up, his knees gave out and he collapsed to the ground.

After his taut nerves relaxed and the adrenaline faded, he finally realized his condition was worse than he’d thought.

His shoulder throbbed with a burning, stabbing pain, as if the bone was about to crack. His knee joints were stiff, his blood felt as if it had congealed.

With trembling hands, he picked up the bronze mirror. In the dusty reflection, Michael Bolton saw his own face, deathly pale, spiritless, his pupils dull. This was no normal person—he looked like a dying patient whose oil was about to run dry.

On his shoulder, the resentful spirit with black lips stared at him in eerie silence.

If this continued, he would surely die, but what could he do? He couldn’t touch the resentful spirit on his shoulder at all.

The intense pain in his shoulder forced him to lean against the wall for support.

He turned his head to look at the corpse of the worker predecessor. The posture of the man and the corpse was exactly the same.

“So that’s how it is...” Michael Bolton gave a bitter smile.

He seemed to see his own ending, to hear the sigh of the Grim Reaper.

But Michael Bolton did not give up his desire to survive. His mind was still active, like an overloaded CPU, searching for hope of survival in this desperate situation.

In a flash of inspiration, the corpse under the main hall’s table flickered through the chaotic stream of information.

“The degree of shoulder bone fracture is different between the two corpses. The one in the main hall didn’t have a fatal shoulder injury. Did the shoulder-clinging spirit spare him? No, the spirit would never show mercy...”

“Why did he hide under the table...”

“The red dancing shoes secretly followed me when I entered the temple, but when I entered the main hall, they left...”

At this thought, a glimmer of hope lit up in Michael Bolton’s dull, murky eyes.

Return to the main hall, return to the main hall immediately!

He got up at once and staggered out of the room, each step heavy as if he were carrying a mountain.

“Thud!”

He fell in the courtyard, collapsing into the wild grass, unable to stand up again.

Michael Bolton’s teeth chattered, making a “ta-ta” sound, as if he were in the depths of a bitter winter.

The “severe cold” stole his warmth and eroded his will.

Michael Bolton crawled bit by bit toward the main hall, using all his strength. He held his head high, keeping the outline of that building always in his sight.

Only then would the hope in his eyes not be extinguished.

It had only taken about a minute to walk from the main hall, but now it felt as distant as the ends of the earth.

Finally, the moment he crawled under the eaves of the main hall, a phantom wail sounded in his ears, his shoulder suddenly lightened, and all the cold, dizziness, and stiffness vanished in an instant.

Michael Bolton rolled and crawled up onto the pedestal, staggered around to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and threw himself over the threshold.

The candlelight glowed like a bean, dispelling the gloom and bringing a spring-like warmth.

He lay on the ground, arms and legs spread, his chest heaving as he gasped for breath. He lay there for two or three minutes before finally feeling alive again.

“That was terrifying, truly terrifying... My guess was right—the main hall is a safe haven.”

Based on the different shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he judged that something must have stopped the resentful spirit from pursuing the person inside the hall.

And the worker under the table had died curled up, which fit the psychology of someone hiding in extreme fear.

In that worker’s mind, the main hall was safe.

And the fact that the red dancing shoes gave up chasing him further confirmed this guess.

For the time being, Michael Bolton stayed in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature returned to normal.

Sure enough, he didn’t encounter any more danger.

“If the main hall is a safe house, then my chances of survival have greatly increased. Even if the shoulder-clinging spirit drains me again, I can escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the spirit and get chased by the red dancing shoes, I probably won’t make it back.

“And the most bizarre and terrifying source in this temple is definitely not just the resentful spirit...”