That Dropped Chinese Novel’s Useless Me Says No to the System Chapter 54 The Hall That Shouldn’t Exist

Returning to the Qingyin Cetery felt… wrong.

The place was the sa, yet utterly different.

The first ti we ca, clouds pressed low, gravestones stood like teeth in the dark—

now autumn sunlight fell bright and sharp, and the world was quiet in a way that didn’t feel natural.

“Where is he?” I scanned the rows of stone markers.

No sign of the old servant who’d intercepted us before.

Even that creepy crow gnawing twigs was gone.

Lian crouched and swept a handful of dust through her fingers, brows tightening.

“Signs of struggle. Not wind.”

“Struggle?” My voice shot up instantly. “Don’t tell the old servant just got dragged off by so dog-demon-pig-ghoul hybrid—”

“Not necessarily.” Hua’s gaze sank, sharp. “More than one group ca through.”

Before he finished, a sudden rush of wind curled behind us.

Dry leaves skittered.

Several figures dropped in without a sound.

“West Altar people?” I took a half-step back.

“No.” Lian drew his short blade, eyes gone cold. “Traitors.”

The newcors were masked in black, sleeves marked with the sign used by those expelled from the West Altar.

They moved with lethal intent—no greetings, no threats, straight for the kill.

The Deputy Envoy froze for one beat, then roared, “You ungrateful bastards!” and charged with his iron ruler.

I moved to join him—

but my foot slipped, my body pitched forward, and in sheer panic I grabbed a crooked gravestone beside .

Click.

A very tiny, very ominous click.

“Huh?” I stared down, halfway through saying “This rock’s weird—”

Then the whole ground dropped out from under .

“HEY—HEY HEY HEY—!”

I plumted into darkness.

Lian’s shout—“Careful!”—shredded through the wind—

WHUMP.

My head t sothing painfully solid, and the world blinked out.

—

Don’t know how long I was out.

What ca back first was the damp sll of stone, then the drip-drip of water sowhere.

My forehead throbbed like soone used it to pound rice.

I sat up with a groan, rubbing the back of my skull.

“Where… am I?”

Pitch black everywhere—no walls, no ceiling, just a faint, flickering light far ahead like a dying firefly.

Panic crept up my spine.

“H-hello? Hua? Lian? Deputy Envoy? Anybody?!”

Only the water answered .

Drip… drip… drip…

Like the darkness was swallowing its own spit.

I swallowed mine. Hard.

I grabbed a pebble and tossed it at the light—

no sound ca back.

Oh, that’s bad. That’s very bad.

“System! Hey! SYSTEM! Are you alive?!” I yelled inwardly.

Sothing buzzed in my mind—

a familiar tallic chi.

Ding.

Not a bell.

Not a monster.

Just that shaless, half-dead interface of mine.

【Environntal Scan Initiated……】

【Warning: Host has triggered ancient-tomb chanism and fallen into an undisclosed zone.】

【Recomndation: Do not touch random gravestones, statues, tablets, bricks, carved tiles, or anything that CAN or MIGHT be a chanism.】

My eye twitched.

“You couldn’t have said that EARLIER? I almost died!”

【……Data loading delay. Requesting host’s understanding.】

“Understand your—”

I brushed dirt off , muttering, “You always wait till I fall into so murder hole before chiming in. Can’t you show up TEN SECONDS earlier for once?”

The system stalled, then added:

【Trajectory status: On main route. Host has entered Hidden Plot Area.】

“…Hidden plot?” I blinked. “All I did was touch a crooked rock.”

Then it hit —

the others were gone.

No Hua, no Lian, no Deputy Envoy.

Was this a puzzle dungeon or a burial chamber for solo idiots?

I sighed, groping along the wall to stand.

“Dog-demon-pig-things want my body, my brother wants my soul, and YOU—” I jabbed a finger at the air—

“YOU want my sanity. A perfect cosmic alignnt of suffering.”

The faint light ahead pulsed again.

Looked like… a door?

I edged forward.

Stone door, tight seams, faint traces of chanism slots.

Suspicious. Too suspicious.

Just as I raised a hand—

【System Warning: Sealed passage detected. Entry possible. Confirm exploration?】

“Why would you ask NOW? I’m already touching it!”

Silence.

Even the system sounded embarrassed.

I pushed lightly.

CRAAAACK—

The stone slid open.

Behind it, a long, breathless corridor.

Cold air rushed out, slling of old earth and older secrets.

I shivered, but stepped inside.

The corridor wound on and on—turns, bends, tighter turns.

My limbs numbed, breath whittled thin.

Then suddenly—

fresh air.

Moisture.

Grass-scent.

A breakthrough.

I hurried ahead, turned another corner—

And found a chamber.

Dark stone walls.

A narrow skylight spilling down pale light.

Under it, a rusted wooden ladder leading upward.

A ladder.

A LADDER.

I stared like it was salvation itself.

“Does this go up?”

【Affirmative. Passage leads to surface-level structure. Exercise caution during ascent.】

“You could have told both sentences at once.”

Still, I grabbed the ladder.

It groaned. A very alarming groan.

But it held, and I climbed, slow as a dying snail.

At the top, I pushed open a half-unlatched door—

And the world opened.

A courtyard.

Quiet, elegant, almost serene.

White walls. Green tiles.

Aged pine leaning over eaves.

A faint scent of cold incense drifting by.

A hidden residence.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

Above the main hall hung a plaque—

two words deep in dust:

Qingyin Hall.

My scalp exploded.

“You’ve GOT to be kidding .”

But it was real.

Stone, timber, shadow—

all of it exactly the kind of place soone would swear didn’t exist.

I backed up a step, muttering,

“Don’t tell this is my last dream before dying? The dog demon invited for drinks and instead I fell into a coffin?”

The system murmured suddenly:

【Do not panic. What exists and what does not exist depends not on what you see, but on what has left its trace.】

“I understood none of that.”

Still clutching the doorfra, I took a breath and stepped inside.

Qingyin Hall was dim… but spotless.

No dust.

A teacup on the table still stead.

The wind blew, but the lanterns didn’t sway.

The doors creaked open but made no sound.

A strange warmth crept up my spine—

a familiarity I couldn’t place.

Like I had been here before.

Then it hit so hard I almost cursed aloud.

This—

this was the place where that cursed yellow dog exactly invited in!

I froze in the doorway, eyes wide.

“But— but wasn’t I told that Qingyin Hall doesn’t exist?!”