Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups Chapter 1401 - 677:

At midnight, deep in the desolate mountain village.

Grayish-white dense fog slowly flows through the valley.

No barking or chirping can be heard around, so quiet that only the sound of mist condensing into droplets and dripping onto dead leaves can be heard.

A few old trees have bare branches pointing straight at the sky.

A full moon hangs on the edge of the clouds, appearing and disappearing as the wind blows.

Cold silver light penetrates the fog, slanting onto the stone monument at the village entrance.

A figure wearing a white suit is standing beside the stone monument at this moment.

The moonlight illuminates his face; his features are handsome, with distinct eyebrows and eyes, exuding a touch of the refined appearance of a popular young actor.

This person is currently the most popular idol singer Cheng Jiashu.

He looks ahead at the dilapidated village path, and suddenly his nostrils itch.

"Achoo!"

Cheng Jiashu turned his head and sneezed.

He raised his hand to rub his nasal tip, then took out a neatly folded handkerchief from his suit pocket, and wiped his mouth.

After that, he put away the handkerchief and muttered:

"Who’s cursing me behind my back?"

Cheng Jiashu shook his head, picked up a black luggage bag, and strode into the village.

His leather shoes stepped on the uneven dirt road, creating a faint sound of footsteps.

The chill crawled along the ground, and dense fog surged between the alleys.

The village was pitch black, without any lights.

The doors of the mudbrick houses on both sides were tightly shut, window frames were broken, and there were no signs of life.

The cold wind blew through, making the broken windows rattle.

Walking alone in such an environment feels quite like a horror movie.

Cheng Jiashu looked around.

The low walls on either side were covered with dark green moss, and occasionally some slender black worms would dart out from the brick crevices, quickly hiding in the shadows.

A damp musty smell crept into his nose, making him, a sufferer of rhinitis, feel the urge to sneeze again.

He could only helplessly sniff his nose and quicken his pace.

Following the main road, he turned two corners, then walked forward for dozens of steps.

A somewhat grandiose blue-brick building appeared in the fog, in stark contrast to the surrounding low mudbrick houses.

On the plaque above the tall gate, the gold paint had long peeled off, leaving only vaguely recognizable remnants of the words "Ancient Locust Tree Ancestral Hall".

Cheng Jiashu halted, standing on the empty space before the ancestral hall, listening intently.

The heavy wooden door was slightly ajar, with silence inside.

There wasn’t any sound of fighting, not even a trace of living breath could be caught.

"The aura is completely isolated... It seems they’ve all entered the Inner World."

Cheng Jiashu reached out a hand, touched the old door panel, and pushed it open with force.

Accompanied by a long creaking sound, dust accumulated on the door frame fell down in a shower.

He stepped over the high threshold and entered the courtyard of the ancestral hall.

Inside it was quite spacious, overgrown with wild grass, showing a state of ruin.

The roof of the main hall had collapsed halfway, with broken tiles scattered all over the ground.

A few thick red-painted pillars were already faded and mottled, cobwebs layered in the corners.

In the middle of the courtyard, an abrupt sight of an old stone well stood.

The mossy outer rim of the well was covered with some red-brown moss, exuding a chill mist.

After glancing around, Cheng Jiashu withdrew his gaze.

He walked to the edge of the well, peering into the dark hole.

Afterward, he put down the shoulder bag he had been carrying in his hand and unzipped it.

He reached into the bag and took out a stack of yellow paper covered with vermillion talismans.

Then, he took out a small dark golden Three-faced Buddha Statue.

The statue was no larger than a palm, cast in bronze, and had a rather peculiar shape.

It wore a skull crown, each of its six arms holding a Demon-Subduing Pestle, Vajra Bell, and other magic artifacts.

The three faces respectively showed expressions of wrath, compassion, and extinction, exuding the unique solemnness and murderous aura of Esoteric Buddhism.

Cheng Jiashu admired the statue for a moment and said in a low voice:

"I specifically invited you from Gufeng Temple, hopefully, it has a real effect."

After speaking, he slowly bent over and placed the heavy copper Buddha directly in front of the well.

After standing upright again, he leisurely rolled up the sleeves of his white suit, revealing a segment of his pale wrist.

He pinched two pieces of yellow paper between his right index and middle fingers, and with a swift flick of the wrist.

The talisman paper flew out of his fingers, drawing two straight trajectories in the air.

As if they had eyes, they attached precisely to the columns on either side of the main hall’s threshold.

Immediately afterward, he began pacing around the well, his steps seemingly slow yet fast.

His leather shoes moved over the wild grass in the courtyard, yet without causing any sound.

Every three steps, a talisman paper would fly out from between his fingers.

These talisman papers didn’t scatter with the wind but seemed to be drawn by some invisible force, landing straight into the soil at specific positions like Qian, Kan, Gen, and Zhen.

Under the moonlight overhead, the vermillion symbols on the paper faintly glimmered with a red glow, echoing with the Buddha statue in front of the well.

After walking several circles, a complete Eight Diagram Array was formed around the well.

As the array settled, Cheng Jiashu stopped his steps and stabilized himself in front of the well.

He raised both hands before his chest, fingers swiftly intertwined, creating a complex Esoteric Buddhist handprint.

Simultaneously, he began chanting, and a series of low and obscure scriptures slipped through his teeth.

The sound of the chanting wasn’t loud, yet it carried a peculiar resonance, buzzing through the dusty cobweb-filled courtyard.

As the chanting speed accelerated, the dark golden surface of the Buddha statue began to shimmer in flickers.

The three already terrifying faces looked even more sinister and frightening under the intertwined moonlight and red glow.

About half a minute later, the space above the well seemed to stir, causing ripple after ripple.