"What the hell is going on? What sacrifice? What trickery are you guys talking about? Why don't I understand anything?" Wang GuiYing questioned with a frustrated expression, scratching his head as he did.
"Let's have the system explain." Zhihao responded, not wanting to say out loud what he had understood, not only because it was unpleasant to speak but also because he still hoped that he was wrong, "System, what is the beast conference?"
[Answering player's question: The beast conference is a once in a life event that takes place when the savior has come. The beasts believe in a prophecy of their land and according to that prophecy, the treasure beasts would be saved by the savior who would one day descend on this land. This is a grandiose event that takes place in the heart of the land, inviting each and every beast living here to come together and rejoice together for their salvation.]
It was the same answer—not a single word changed yet the message made Zhihao frown even more.
"System, what is the significance of the beast conference according to a treasure beast's perspective." Zhihao asked once again, rephrasing the question in hopes of getting a different answer.
[Answering player's question: The beast conference is a sacrificial ritual that all treasure beasts must participate in.]
"...."
Kaoru could not move, paralyzed on the spot as he heard the system's answer.
Aunt Su also had a twisted expression on her face as she asked, "Why?"
"I don't think you'll want to know." Li Ling commented with an indecipherable expression on his face.
Zhihao had originally wanted to ask a few more questions, but he was stopped by an eager old friend who came up to him and nudged him—rubbing against him lovingly—it was the crying eagle who had made a spirit pact with Zhihao.
When Aunt Su saw the huge creature come up to them, she screamed as she thought it had wanted to attack them but when she saw that the beast was only interested is getting attention from Zhihao, she stopped screaming and looked at the scene with disgust filled eyes, "What the hell is that thing?"
Li Ling shot her a glare as he responded, "Cricro."
Zhihao looked at Li Ling in confusion, wondering what a Cricro meant. Wasn't this the crying eagle?
Li Ling noticed Zhihao looking at him and winked, sticking out his tongue, "I named it without your permission.
Zhihao couldn't help but suddenly smile as he heard this—thinking in his mind as he did, 'this man really loved to give weird beast's cute names.' And somehow, Zhihao found this habit to be extremely cute.
"Cricro sounds good." Zhihao nodded, receiving weird gazes from the other players who looked at him as if he had a screw loose in his head.
"A-Zhi" Li Ling walked towards him as he spoke, "What is Cricro saying?"
"Huh?" Zhihao glanced between the beast and Li Ling, "What do you mean by say?"
"You can communicate with the beast since you are both in a blood contract." Li Ling answered, "Click on the beast and you'll find an option bar, enable the communication button in that and you should be able to understand its language."
Zhihao did as he was instructed and indeed found the option that said communicate, flipping it on and he could now see a voice box pop up—this box was only visible to him and only he could read the things written on it. Zhihao stared at Li Ling with an odd expression, dying to ask the question 'How do you know this?'
He really wanted to ask but knowing Li Ling, the man would just brush it off and never answer honestly so there was no actual point in asking the question.
Zhou XinYi, "What is it saying?"
Zhihao glanced at the text box and carefully read it, "It's saying that it..."
"It what?" Wang GuiYing asked enthusiastically.
"What does it want?" Kaoru also asked with great interest.
Zhihao couldn't help but close his eyes as he said the answer through gritted teeth, his ears suddenly turning bright red, "It said it wants us to dance and sing."
"...."
"...."
'Such a thing exists?' Aunt Su who had been well aware of Zhihao's incapability in artistic things such as dancing and singing looked at the eagle in shock, thinking it was amazing if it wanted to hear Zhihao singing and dancing. Such courage and will was worth complementing.
Li Ling suddenly reminisced about the time he had heard Zhihao singing, thinking in his mind, 'it wasn't that bad' but that didn't mean he was looking forward to hearing it again.
Zhou XinYi was not so shy at expressing his dislike for the idea, shivering at even the thought of having to hear it again, it was torture to the ears and he didn't want to go deaf at such a young age.
Kaoru, and Andy who hadn't gotten such rotten luck had no idea why everybody's face suddenly turned white.
"Li Ling." Zhihao called out, still not having the strength to open his eyes.
"Hmm?"
"Are you sure I can't kill this beast?"
"..."
Li Ling nodded, "I'm sure."
"Even if it makes me want to kill it?" Zhihao couldn't help but clutch his fist as he read what the eagle was saying to him
"Don't let your emotions get the best of you but if you end up killing it, in any case, I won't blame you."
The other players glanced between the two players with an odd expression, not understanding why there was so much chemistry between them, so much that it made the others feel like the third wheelers—unwanted and ignored.
"Understood." Although Zhihao had expressed his thoughts on killing the eagle, his hand only moved forward to pet the head of the eagle with no killing intent.
"Ask it why it's here." Li Ling spoke.
Zhihao nodded and although on the outside it seemed like he was just patting the beast, he was actually communicating with it, through the beast chat box that was only visible to Zhihao.
A moment of anticipation passed as the players looked at Zhihao with eyes that were twinkling as they waited for the man to come back and tell them about what the eagle had to say. When compared to the rest of the players who were so enthusiastically waiting for the mysterious answer, Li Ling was much more laid back and unworried.
Zhihao seemed to have finished interacting with the beast as he looked at Li Ling and spoke, "It said that it was here for blessings."
"They really are being tricked." Li Ling sneered in displeasure.
Wang GuiYing could not be blamed for not being able to keep up with the high thinking ability of the players as he scratched his head and asked his next stupid question, "What do you mean by tricked? How are they being tricked?"
Zhihao could now somewhat guess what was happening so he only frowned as he responded to the question, "The treasure beasts are tricking the other beasts into gathering here in the beast conference by telling them they were going to be blessed but as you can see...."
Zhihao didn't complete his sentence and this time even Li Ling didn't dare complete the sentence for the man, but even if the sentence remained unfinished, all the players suddenly understood the situation they were in.
The beasts were being killed as sacrifices and they thought they were being blessed, hence, they happily stood in the circle, waiting for the goddess to bless them which is actually by killing them, body and soul—shattering both into uncollectable pieces. The main question that remained at this moment was why? Why was this ceremony taking place? Just how much hatred did the goddess have towards them, so much that she took these extreme measures of showing them hope just so she could crush that hope and kill them without them ever realising their mistake.
It was so cruel that Zhihao could feel the goosebumbs rise up on his skin, from his fingers, all the way up his arm and then down his spine.
"Why would the treasure beasts do this?" Kaoru asked, his tone making it clear that he was both shocked and distressed.
Zhou XinYi was one of the only two players who maintained a straight expression, not letting the sudden information affect him, "No matter what the reason is, we should first stop it."
Zhihao nodded in agreement, feeling that the more they waited in shock, the more beasts that would be sacrificed.
"What's the plan?" Li Ling asked but before he got an answer, a sword with a cold element named Shuang came to life and aimed at the middle of the circle—exactly where the treasure beasts were gathered.
RoRo was the first to look up and see a sword aimed at it but it didn't move, nor did the little fox blink an eye. Why would it when before the sword could even touch them, it was deflected just by coming in range just a few feet away from the treasure beasts.
Zhihao was shocked to see his sword fail like this and so were the other players who knew the sword as a rare spiritual sword that could penetrate through almost everything. To deflect a sword like that? The power that defended them did not belong to the treasure beasts, and this was a fact no one could fight against. The treasure beasts were powerful but not this much so could it be their collective power? The theory was still impossible because Shuang was just that type of sword, a high grade limited edition item. So what was the source of the power that defended the inner circle formed by the treasure beasts?
There was only one thing that could provide an answer to the question.
"System, who defended the treasure beasts from my attack?"
[Answering player's question: The treasure beasts are the eyes and ears of the sun goddess so it is only natural for them to also attain certain benefits from the goddess and these benefits include being protected by the sun goddess.]
Zhihao felt his head ache. His in-game character suddenly went to sleep as Zhihao took a small break to calm his mind and drink some water so that he could refresh his mind.
Aunt Su saw the 'zzz' above Zhihao's head and emmediately cried out, "Who was it that said 'A player can't abandon the others?' Running away when a small miscalculation popped up? This brat hadn't changed at all."
Li Ling had an ugly expression as he looked at the woman with clear dislike written all over his face, "If you are so good, why are you tagging behind him?"
Aunt Su suddenly took offence to the disrespectful words aimed towards her, "Did I say anything wrong? I'm not the one who ran away, it's him."
Wang GuiYing felt like the two players were very close to causing an internal triffle among the squad, in which case, no player would be able to solve the mission and in this squad, Wang GuiYing and Zhou XinYi were the only one's who really needed to complete this mission so that they could qualify for the next stage. For the other players, even if they failed this mission, they still had previously won the other two and it would qualify them for the next stage no matter what the outcome of this one was.
"Let's not get all worked up, we are supposed to work together. Calm down, Aunt Su."
Although Wang GuiYing had stepped between the two, in hopes of ending the fight, his contribution in trying to stop the fight was just that—a try, a helpless try that was ignored by both the players who glared at each other.
"Kid, why are you being his lap dog? What is he paying you?" Aunt Su asked hatefully to which Li Ling only got more anger.
"Who's a dog?!" Li Ling was seconds close to summoning his sword as he retaliated, he had always hated verbally fighting with woman and that was why whenever he and his sister fought with each other, they would always use their fists instead of their words cause words once said can never be taken back.
"Are you not? Always tagging behind him with a wagging tail and protecting him no matter what he did?!"
"You're right, I'm biased to him, do you have a problem with that?" Li Ling tried to calm down, reminding himself in his mind constantly as he did, 'Do not get worked up over such a small thing.'
At this moment, both the players didn't realise it but the 'zzz' on top of Zhihao's character had already disappeared since a short while ago.