"Let's make a plan, first." Zhou XinYi stopped the two relatives from fighting, coming to the conclusion that if he didn't—this mission could no longer be completed.
"What do we do?" Wang GuiYing enthusiastically asked.
Zhihao sighed as he tried to control his temper and answer, "Since it doesn't want us to go to the last cave, that's exactly where we should go next."
Li Ling and Kaoru nodded in turn, agreeing to the idea.
Zhou XinYi, "That would be best. Since we already know the location of the last seal, we should now focus on sticking together and breaking it."
"Sounds easier said than done." Aunt Su sneered as she folded her hands and rolled her eyes.
"If anybody has any objection, you are more than welcome to stay behind. It's not like we are forcing you." Zhihao announced to the entire squad, but in reality, the one he was really speaking this for was his aunt, who seemed to openly show her discontent towards his decisions.
"If you plan on abandoning us at a crucial point or are only looking forward to standing by the sidelines to watch and collect the loot, please refrain yourself from following us. I'm not polite to such people." Li Ling glared at BBtrash.
Innocent Kaoru, who was unaware that the dialogues were aimed at two people, in particular, thought that it was said for the entire team; Maybe these players didn't trust him enough and so he exclaimed, "I won't back down. I'd rather die than be that shameless."
"....."
Aunt Su and BBtrash glared at the poor man.
Li Ling nodded in satisfaction as he heard this, "Good."
"If someone does decide to push a teammate and run away, I'll personally make sure that they go through a system re-birth." When Zhihao said this with a dangerous smirk; Wang GuiYing shuddered at the sight, knowing that this man was certainly not joking around with his words.
"Since that problem has been cleared out of the way, the ones that want to follow should follow and the ones that want to stay behind can stay." Although Zhou XinYi had said this with a straight expression—honest and making it seem like the players had a choice before them—his gestures contradicted his actions as his hand which was holding onto Wang GuiYing's hand, made sure that the man never got to choose between the two options—plainly speaking—he was making the decision in his partner's stead and he was open about his own discriminatory actions.
Aunt Su was a cunning woman who had already planned to run away when adversity struck and only came to collect the loot but even if the players had seen through her plans and warned her, she would still not openly raise her hand and stand aside. If worse comes to worst she could always just run away at the last moment and deal with the consequences afterward. Why should she worry about something that hadn't happened till now?
Zhihao was also very well aware of his Aunt's thinking and he knew it would not make any difference so the reason why he warned the players was because he had already made up a plan to use them and if they would not agree, he could always just throw them in front as bait. In such a situation—where any of the players decided to turn their back on the team and betray them—the guilty would not be easily dealt with, and if such a situation arises, they would surely receive their punishment.
When the team finally started moving towards the last cave, they got lost on the way. It was only natural that they did as neither Zhihao nor Li Ling had memorized the location of the last cave, they had only seen the direction of its location and in such a big region, seeing only the vague direction was just not enough.
Throughout the whole way, Zhou XinYi, Zhihao, and Li Ling were discussing what they should do next, while Kaoru and Andy just silently followed them and wholeheartedly listened to their plans—nodding every once in a while as they did. The other two pro-gamers, Aunt Su and Wang GuiYing were thoroughly complaining about every little thing they could nitpick on.
Suddenly Shuang started glowing—indicating that they were near something. This something could be the cave or the snake or any other treasure beast that had run away.
The shine was hard to ignore and the whole team noticed it in a split second.
Li Ling was the first to react, "We are near."
Zhou XinYi nodded in agreement, "Everyone, proceed with caution."
Zhihao stopped in his tracks as he moved the sword around, trying to find the direction in which it shined the most—when he could finally pinpoint the location the sword pointed at, the team cautiously made their way towards it.
Kaoru, "I think we are being followed."
"Are you talking about the cursed snake that has been stalking us?" Zhihao smirked, "It can tag along as long as it does not attack us."
Li Ling also agreed to this and the team did not falter in their steps as they continued on the path that the sword had pointed at.
After walking for the next ten or more minutes, the group finally saw something; it was a hole inside the ground. A huge hole that could easily accommodate the size of the 20 meters long cursed snake. There was no mistaking it, this was the beast's home; the last cave which they were looking for.
Aunt Su, "Are we going inside that thing?"
"We sure are." Zhihao confirmed.
Wang GuiYing seemed to feel a shiver go down his spine as he glanced at the eyes of the snake that was hiding in the woods behind them, glaring at them with unhidden hostility.
Zhou XinYi, "Let's go inside."
Zhihao and Li Ling moved forward and summoned their spiritual swords to protect the group of people from anything that may attack them from the inside.
Kaoru looked inside the hole, finding it too dark and scary to enter but he would still put aside his fear and enter the cave.
When the team stepped inside the cave, the way out behind them was shut close by a falling stone shutter that trapped them inside. The cave was less spacious than the other caves and it felt more like a gutter than a cave—Zhihao could almost imagine smelling the disgusting smell that lingered inside it.
The walls of the cave were covered with a thick layer of dust and when Zhihao wiped the dust away, what he found was an identical pair of carvings that he had seen in the other caves or so he thought.
Kaoru was the first to notice that something was different as he pointed at a particular carving, "This."
Zhou XinYi looked over at the carving as it was pointed out, "That's a snake."
Kaoru shook his head, "The other caves didn't have this snake."
Zhihao tried to remember the carvings he had observed in the other caves and was suddenly shocked to find that this carving was certainly not there in the other caves.
Andy, "What do you think this means?"
"I don't know." Zhihao answered honestly.
Li Ling moved closer to the carving and started analyzing it, "I think I get it."
Zou XinYi looked at him, "What did you get?"
"This part was carved on the other caves as well but was covered with scratch marks, making it impossible to know what lay underneath."
Zhihao seemed to suddenly have a higher comprehension of the carving as he spoke, "The other treasure beats did it?"
Li Ling nodded, "If my guesses are right, the other treasure beasts unitedly hold some sort of animosity towards this one."
Kaoru, "Could it be that this beast was the reason they were all sealed?"
Zhihao looked at the man, "What makes you say that?"
"A lot of reasons actually. This beast is named cursed, the others hate him, and the beast doesn't want to gain its body back. There is certainly something wrong with all this and if we try to connect the clues, this is the only thing my mind can manage to come up with." Kaoru explained, somewhat confidently.
"Sounds plausible." Zhihao responded, pleased with the player's keen eye for noticing the small details, "Now we need to find out why this one is different."
Wang GuiYing. "Why don't we just ask the system?"
Zhihao, "Do you seriously think the system would answer us?"
Wang GuiYing, "System, what is the history behind the cursed snake's name?"
[Answering player's question: The cursed snake owes its name to it's karmatic deeds.]
[Congratulations on finding a hidden clue! +50 T-points gained.]
The screen suddenly turned black as a single notification popped up on the screen.
[There was once a time when the beasts of this land were at the peak of their prosperity and enjoying all the glorious gifts the sun goddess had given to them. The land was so blessed that one day, the sun goddess directly sent her son down to personally go and visit. Her son was innocent and naive to the workings of the human realm, when he met up with all the beasts that happily helped him and treated him well, he was more than happy to return the trust.
One of the beasts was not so happy with the arrival of the young god and lured it into a trap from where the beast attacked the man and devoured his body. The young god was not dead but had lost his mortal body and when the incident came to fall in the ears of the sun goddess, she was angered and cursed the whole land. The beasts started growing weaker and weaker as the spiritual energy in the land started depleting.
There were forest fires every once in a while and when it rained; it flooded and caused landslides. The beasts came together to beg for forgiveness from the sun goddess but the goddess didn't feel any sympathy for them. They had deserved this.
When a month of time passed, half of the beast had already died and the land was in too bad of conditions for the remaining beasts to survive in. When the anger of the sun goddess had finally somewhat subsidised, she decided to test the sincerity of the beast; she gave them a preposition. She would save them but the cost of it would be six beasts whose bodies would forever be sealed away and souls would belong to her.
Five beasts agreed and came forward voluntarily—with the fifth beast being the fox spirit who dragged the cursed snake along with it. The sun goddess was more than happy to see that even the cause of all this was within the number of sacrifices she asked for and so she granted them their wish. Their bodies were sealed in their caves and their soul were set free to wander around the region, contracted under the sun goddess and working for her.
The land was both blessed and cursed by a barrier that stopped time to flow inside it, making it so that nothing ever changed. The first five treasure beasts were given special abilities and were the eyes and ears of the sun goddess whereas the sixth one, the cursed snake was stripped away from the advantages received by the treasure beasts, its soul was stripped away from the body but the soul would still feel all the same things its original body felt. The hunger would still be there but the beast would never be able to satisfy that hunger. This was the curse given to the beast and when the beast finally regains its body, the pent-up hunger would directly kill the beast , shattering its soul as well, with no reincarnation.]
"...."
Li Ling, "This system is more useful than it seems to be."
Zhou XinYi also nodded, "I did not expect that to work."
Zhihao, "We should've done this long ago."
Kaoru looked at the other players in shock, "So that was reason the beast doesn't want to regain its body?"
Wang GuiYing, "The goddess is so cruel."
Zhihao, "I think the sun goddess is very generous."
Li Ling nodded, agreeing with Zhihao, "In the end, she still forgave them and left a way out for them."