It was dark. But that wasn't an issue for Yu Yanlin who wore a blindfold in the first place. He rested a hand on the collapsed tunnel and gauged the situation.
It didn't look good.
Behind him, the little Princess was groaning and dusting off her dress. She stomped her feet a few times and let out a loud, huffing sigh. "Aren't you going to get us out?" As usual, her words were direct, even a bit on the crass side.
The softness that Yu Yanlin often used when speaking to Zhang Wang wasn't present when he addressed the Princess, "I can't. That would be counterproductive. The entire cave is likely to collapse if I try to break through with force." He withdrew his hand, no longer interested in the blockade.
"Oh." The Princess replied, "Then what now?" Despite the question, she was already looking around and seemed intent on going down the tunnel. She was rather thoughtless and brave, wasn't she? Yu Yanlin thought absently.
The demon king himself couldn't really complain. His personality was not so different in that aspect. Dangers never daunted him, uncertainty was only amusing and not scary. After all, what would the demon king even be afraid of? He wasn't even afraid of death. Or losing his powers. Not even shame and humiliation scared him all that much. Aside from his responsibilities, there was little else he cared about in life. Perhaps a few people here and there, such as his mother, Consort Han and his friend, Li Sun. But even that felt distant and the majority of those people were already dead.
But there was one thing that Yu Yanlin felt concerned about recently. And that was the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms with whom he had entangled with. In truth, he wasn't even that worried over their souls being entwined; Yu Yanlin really couldn't care less. Kill him, skin him alive, rip apart his soul. All these things were impartial to him.
And yet, he wondered if Zhang Wang was okay.
Even if he couldn't see, Yu Yanlin could hear the Princess's grin through her voice, "What, are you thinking about that stupid Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms?"
"..." Did that really deserve an answer? Yu Yanlin debated this in his mind and remained quiet.
The Princess already set out to start walking down the tunnel and Yu Yanlin followed her while quietly taking in the sounds and smells that surrounded him. There was rumbling within the walls still, the snake not having gone too far. It didn't sound like it was positioning itself to strike though, so Yu Yanlin ignored it as he walked.
Strange, Yu Yanlin noted that the demon snake seemed to have been corrupted and was no longer under Su Zui's direct control. Usually, Su Zui servants tended to be more on the sneaky side, itching for gossip and news.
This snake was completely mindless. There was something within the depths of the cavern that brewed a nefarious aura and corroded the snake's consciousness. It was not uncommon to find evil locked away and hidden within the far reaches of the world, tucked into corners where they were unlikely to be found.
It was another thing that Yu Yanlin couldn't be bothered with. He didn't care about the little evils tucked away, or injustices that were abound in the world.
"Are you even listening?" Ariunbayar huffed in front of him, pulling him out of his thoughts.
The demon king was definitely not listening, but he answered her easily anyway, "I believe that you already know I'm from Xianggu."
"But where are you REALLY from?" The Princess went on, her eyes veering up with suspicion, "You can't possibly expect me to believe that such an OP side character just randomly appeared to be a system holder's lover. Isn't that basically cheating?"
Yu Yanlin didn't wish to follow her ramblings and decided it was best to answer with dismissive huffs and grunts.
But Ariunbayar rambled on without a filter. She tended to say things that didn't make sense. "Isn't your character design a bit flawed as well? Like, why did your personality suddenly do a 180 now that Zhang Wang's out of the picture? Do you really like him that much?"
"..." What was she even talking about? Yu Yanlin ignored her and focused on their surroundings. He channeled his attention inward, seeing if he could find a way to contact Zhang Wang through the curse that bound them together.
It felt like a long-shot but he was willing to try it.
He searched inside himself and found…something like a string that flickered in and out of his consciousness.
Yu Yanlin latched onto that and tried to send a message through it, curious if Zhang Wang was beyond whatever void the string stretched into.
'...Hello?'
'...'
There was a soft pulse, but no response.
Hm, strange. He will investigate that further when given the time.
"Look I know you're ignoring me, but this is kind of important you know?"Ariunbayar crossed her arms, stopping in front of what seemed like a crossroad.
Yu Yanlin didn't even hesitate before walking down the one furthest to the right, knowing that this tunnel would circle back to the cavern hall where they found the serpent. Despite ignoring the Princess outright, she didn't seem extremely upset with him either and didn't fume at him with anger.
That was good.
Because he needed to find Zhang Wang and was consumed with this thought. If the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms had stayed put, that would make things easy. But if he left his original spot then maybe Yu Yanlin would be able to pick up on a trail of sorts. It shouldn't be too much trouble but Yanlin was still impatient.
"So where does this one lead?" Ariunbayar asked casually as she followed after his steps. Despite the questioning, she didn't seem particularly concerned or doubtful of his choice. "Are we going toward the monster? Let's hurry. I want to kill it before I get too sleepy."
"We're just going back to where we came from," Yu Yanlin answered plainly. Their steps echoed after them as they strolled. But as they approached the original hall, there was rumbling under their steps, traveling in the opposite direction.
Princess Ariunbayar's attention was caught, she quickly snapped her face to the ground and then behind them where whatever beast below them had just burrowed toward.
Yu Yanlin didn't care about the creature though and just said, "If you want to go after it, you can go on your own."
She grumbled at him, "You're the one that's supposed to help me out, you know?"
"That's incorrect. Zhang Wang is the one who has obligations toward you. Meanwhile, my obligations are toward Zhang Wang. Whether or not you retrieve the Dawn Star is none of my concern."
She frowned at him, "Why must you be so unpleasant when gege isn't around?"
"..." That wasn't the first time he was called unpleasant and definitely wasn't going to be the last. That was why he left most of the diplomacy to his officials. "Is there a point in being pleasant?"
"Well yeah? If you're pleasant, other people will be nicer to you too."
"That's debatable." He'd seen Su Zui batting lashes and sweet smiling. Xiao Yao was 'pleasant' as well.
Their conversation was cut short when they came upon a semi-sealed exit from the tunnel. There was debris covering the majority of the tunnel, with only a small hole above. Even when Ariunbayar stood on tiptoes, she couldn't see into the opening. But Yu Yanlin could feel that beyond the narrow gap was the cave from which they came. Now, instead of being a wide-open area, it was littered with debris with some parts completely blocked off.
That oppressive evil force was still abound, obscuring the light that Ariunbayar tried to send back into its depths. "I guess we're where we're supposed to be."
"Hm." Yu Yanlin nodded. After inspecting the wall and surrounding structures he assumed it would be safe. With his bare hands placed on the rock, he pushed the whole slab aside as though it weighed nothing at all. Ariunbayar whistled behind him as she witnessed such a feat.
Seriously though, wasn't this guy's power scaling just a little bit absurd? She wondered if he was a system holder as well but unlike Zhang Wang, this guy didn't react at all to any of the weird terms that she had spewed out.
Then maybe not…perhaps just an oversight on the devs then.
Ariunbayar nodded at her own assumptions and was left behind as Yu Yanlin walked into the shroud of darkness.
"Hey, wait up!" She ran after him-- or right into him. "Oof! What? Why did you stop?"
Yu Yanlin was still and silent. Neither of them could see the thing that laid before them but whatever it was, it was wrong and evil in nature.