In her hand, it was surprisingly a jade pendant - but it had already been shattered into two halves!
Chen Yan faintly felt a trace of dissipating weak primordial qi on the jade pendant.
Chu Keqing gritted her teeth, then sighed, "This is the protective magical artifact my master left me. If it weren’t for it protecting me in my sleep tonight, I would have been hurt by that beast."
After Chen Yan took a closer look, he nodded. There was indeed a sensation of primordial qi, but after shattering, it had become very weak. The runes engraved on it should be some kind of talisman art.
"Your master is quite skilled, to be able to craft such artifacts?" Chen Yan was somewhat surprised as well.
"My master didn’t make this himself. It’s an heirloom passed down through generations of Cloud Sect leaders. I didn’t expect it to be destroyed in my hands today," Chu Keqing said with a pained expression.
But Chen Yan shook his head, "A protective magical artifact’s purpose is to protect its user. Whether it’s an heirloom or not doesn’t matter. As long as it can save your life, it’s worth it even if it gets destroyed."
Chu Keqing said nothing, carefully tucked the broken jade pendant into her bosom, then tidied up her clothes. She then took a cloth bag out of the wardrobe and slung it over her shoulder, "Senior, let’s go down and take a look!"
The two went down the stairs to the courtyard outside the wooden building, and they both began using their Qi Observation Skill to scan the area...
They watched their surroundings for a while, but both frowned — under the Qi Observation Skill, the surrounding mountain forest was completely silent, with no unusual reactions.
At that moment, two staff members from the temple who lived in the front yard heard the noise and quickly came over with lamps. Chu Keqing, with a serious expression, spoke to them in Japanese for a few moments, then shook her head at Chen Yan, "They say they don’t know what kind of leopard could be in the mountain, they’ve never heard of one."
"Are their words trustworthy?"
"Most likely. They’re local residents," Chu Keqing thought for a moment and added, "When I bought this place, I specifically inquired about the surrounding area. Although it’s a forested mountain, it’s never been known to have large carnivorous wildlife. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought this property."
Chu Keqing bought this temple to use it later for wealthy people to come for Zen cultivation. If there were dangerous wild animals nearby, she certainly wouldn’t have chosen to purchase this property.
He suddenly remembered something and whispered, "Do you remember if you locked the window before you went to sleep tonight?"
Chu Keqing lowered her head in serious thought and then spoke confidently, "I’m sure I locked the window."
After a pause, she said softly, "I’m a single woman. From a young age, I’ve been very careful about safety issues no matter where I stay. Even if I’m staying in my own home, I check the doors and windows every night before sleeping, and I’m even more cautious when staying outside. These are habits I’ve formed over the years!"
Chen Yan nodded, then looked up at the window sill of the small building.
"Your window, when I chased the black panther to the window in your room, I happened to look at it," Chen Yan said softly, "The lock wasn’t broken."
The architecture here is old, and the locks on the wooden windows in the room are not very sophisticated. There’s an insert on the windowsill and a sliding wooden bolt nailed to the window frame. To lock the window, one just needed to slide the bolt into the insert.
To open the window, one would either break it open from the outside...
Or lift the bolt from the inside.
If the black panther had entered by breaking the window from the outside, the bolt should have been broken.
Chu Keqing understood what Chen Yan meant immediately and turned pale, "Senior, you mean..."
"I don’t mean anything," Chen Yan said slowly, "I’m just telling you what I saw, but I actually don’t have any judgment right now."
Speaking this, Chen Yan’s face also looked puzzled, "Qi Observation Skill showed no anomalies. If it were a spirit monster in the mountain or some evil presence, it shouldn’t have escaped the Qi Observation Skill.
Unless... someone opened the window from inside the room?"
"It can’t be the temple staff, right?" Chu Keqing’s face changed, but then she shook her head, "No, those two don’t have any primordial qi; they’re just ordinary people. Besides, if someone could silently sneak into my room, they could have subdued me while I was asleep, so why bother opening the window to let a leopard in?"
The two looked at each other, finding the events of tonight increasingly eerie and bizarre, unable to find any clues.
After a few seconds of silence, Chu Keqing suddenly said, "We can’t stay here, let’s go down the mountain!"
Chen Yan looked at Chu Keqing.
He understood what Chu Keqing meant: since such inexplicable and sinister events had occurred, and Chu Keqing had nearly died tonight, this place was definitely not safe to stay. Whether it was an evil presence or wild dangerous beasts, it wasn’t suitable to continue staying here.
To put it bluntly, if there truly were spirit monsters or evil presences...this would be their turf!
What’s the point of forcing themselves to stay here? There are no treasures to guard here.
After all, the two were just travelers. Since there was danger, it was better to leave.
As for investigating later, that could be done after proper preparation.
"Going down the mountain is fine, but..." Chen Yan looked at the dark forest and said slowly, "Let’s wait until dawn to leave."
Neither of them felt like sleeping anymore, so they simply returned to the small building, turned on the lights in Chen Yan’s room, and stayed until dawn.