"Aunt Su? If there is something you want to say to me, make it clear."
"..."
"..."
Both the players who were ready to rip out each other's throats looked at Zhihao, their eyes almost screaming "I'm innocent."
"Shall I take your silence as your answer?" Zhihao squinted at the woman with unhidden dislike visible in his eyes, "And I would request you not to disrespect Li Ling any further. He's not my dog nor am I paying him, if I ever hear anyone saying that again, I won't be so forgiving."
Now that Zhihao had finally calmed down and his mind was refreshed from the short water break, his aura was back, the calm and collected scary aura that sent shivers down the spines of the players.
When Aunt Su felt the demeaning presence of her scary little nephew, she could not say anything, finding it best to keep her mouth shut for the meantime.
Li Ling on the other side suddenly felt his heart stop when he saw Zhihao standing up for him so openly like this—so protectively that it made his heart almost stop.
Wang GuiYing chuckled awkwardly, "Darling, you should also calm down. We are all a team, just a bit of joking here and there, no need to get all alpha mode."
Wang GuiYing, like expected, only got glared at by Zhihao in return.
Zhou XinYi was not as useless in putting water over the situation, "Mastermo, private matters can be discussed later, let us focus on the mission in front of us."
Kaoru also supported Zhou XinYi, "Mastermo, do you have a plan?"
Zhihao looked at the player and smiled softly, "I don't."
Kaoru looked at the smile and suddenly found it out of context, why was the man smiling like this if he didn't have an idea?
"But" Zhihao wasn't done speaking, "I have an idea. Not a plan that would succeed but an idea that we can try."
"What is it?" Andy asked enthusiastically.
"We break up the outer circle of the beasts."
"How do we do that?" Zhou XinYi asked, feeling that the idea could very well work.
"We ask Cricro to do it for us." Zhihao answered as he patted the crying eagle who had suddenly become a chirpy bird under Zhihao's hands.
"How?" It was Aunt Su who asked and like expected, she got no direct response from Zhihao.
Li Ling who had always seemed to be able to telepathically communicate with Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "We'll step aside."
"Make sure you hide somewhere far enough and cover your ears." Zhihao instructed and Zhou XinYi understood what the man was planning.
Zhou XinYi, "What about you?"
Zhihao mounted on the eagle's back as if it were his transport, "I'll be fine. Cricro can't hurt me."
Zhou XinYi nodded in understanding, cringing on the inside as he heard the beast's name being called so lovingly as if it were Mastermo's real-life pet.
Li Ling led the rest of the players afar, so far that they could hardly see what was happening in the beast conference. The players equipped a double layer of protective gear with helmets so that they can cover their ears and skin well.
When Zhihao was sure that the players had moved far away to somewhere safe, he gave his pet eagle a set of instructions and this had been the first time, the crying eagle had received any commands to obey by its master so it was more than happy to follow along with it.
The eagle spread its majestic set of wings and with a swing, it flew up from the ground and encircled the sky above the beast conference. From here, Zhihao could have a clearer view of things and after encircling it five times, the eagle opened its mouth and screamed, aiming all the screaming towards the beast conference below.
As expected, even the cries of the beast didn't reach the inner circle of treasure beasts that was protected by an invisible spiritual power layer, however, the outer circle of beasts who were being sacrificed was in an entirely different situation.
It didn't take long for the beasts to notice the earth-shattering cries, this cry could strip the skin off of the bones of humans but to the other spiritual beasts, it was not so severely fatal. That however did not mean that it had no effect on them, it still caused their ears to feel immense pain and their skin to tingle all over.
Zhihao who was sitting on the back of the beast was safe from the cries because he was in a spiritual pact with the beast, through which, it was impossible for the beast to actually manage to hurt Zhihao.
Zhihao looked at the crowd below, who were suddenly not able to take any more and started breaking the circle, fleeting away from the scene. It seemed like his idea was working but just as he was happily looking down at the beast conference being completely ruined, his eyes glanced at the inner circle from where, RoRo was looking at him.
Zhihao glared back at the beast and the two shared a rather negative connection.
When the eye contact was broken, Zhihao suddenly felt the cries of the beast getting weak. He looked at Cricro with worry and tried to pat it and communicate with it but the eagle slowly descended on the ground and stopped crying.
Zhihao jumped off from its back and asked it what was wrong but the eagle only shook its head as it opened one of its wings and Zhihao saw it starting to disperse into the air.
Cricro had already started being affected by the sacrificial power that was slowly killing it.
"What did you do?!" Zhihao roared at RoRo who only looked back at him with a blank gaze.
Zhihao was furious, although he had originally wanted to kill the crying beast himself, he talked to it a bit and found it to be a useful subordinate and Zhihao wasn't heartless to his subordinates. He ordered the eagle to run far away from the place, hoping that the distance may stop the process.
The outer circle had already been broken by the cries of the eagle so there was no need for it to stay here and elevate the process of dying.
Cricro was reluctant to leave its master, after many failed attempts of trying to act cute, Zhihao had finally ordered it to go away so it could not fight against the order.
Zhihao stood there. He had, for the first time in his life, ran out of ideas. His aim was clear, he only needed to break through the invisible protective barrier on the inner circle of the treasure beasts and catch them but how to accomplish that? He did not know. How can you fight something you can't see and don't know the origin of?
All he could do was stand there and let his brain try and do its job.
Another few minutes passed and his teammates had returned.
"What do we do know?" Wang GuiYing asked as he looked at the scene of fleeting beasts and an untouched inner circle of the treasure beasts. If they did nothing—Wang GuiYing would very well have to forget about his reputation as a pro-gamer and dreams of winning that one million dollars cash prize.
Li Ling patted Zhihao on the back, somehow understanding that the man had been mentally and physically exhausted at this point and was probably feeling helpless, "It's okay. Take a deep breath. We can figure it out."
Zhihao looked back at the man, suddenly feeling his heart to be at ease as he saw that reassuring smile.
"Thank you." Zhihao meant it from the bottom of his heart. He was extremely lucky to have met such a person who understood him without even having to say anything, "I feel better now."
Li Ling suddenly felt proud of himself for having done something useful for Zhihao.
Zhou XinYi, "We are waiting for your decision, Mastermo."
Huang Zhihao took a deep breath in and calmed himself done, telling himself that 'this is not enough to break me down'
The spell seemed to work on him as he opened his eyes with determination, "Let's recall every clue we found."
Li Ling nodded, "When we got here we were tasked to solve a riddle and through which-"
Li Ling was cut off by Wang GuiYing, "Let's not go that back, it seems we don't have much time."
"Huh?" the players looked at the man in shock
Wang GuiYing pointed at the circle and the scene had changed, the beasts who had dispersed due to the crying eagle's cries had started regrouping, still not understanding that this was all a trap.
Zhihao, "There is only one person who would do all this, let's focus on the sun goddess."
Zhou XinYi agreed to Zhihao's suggestion, "What do we know about the sun goddess till now?"
Li Ling, "The land was burnt and the sun goddess blessed it with spiritual powers. Prosperity in the land and then her son got eaten. She cursed it and said that the curse can be broken by the saviors who'll arrive, which is us. And it was all a lie."
Zhihao listened to it as he thought back on how each and every clue was presented to him, "The question is, why would the sun goddess go through all this trouble?"
Zhou XinYi, "Right"
It was as if a light bulb had flashed on in Zhihao's mind, "I have a theory."
Kaoru, "What is it?"
"But I need to check something first." Zhihao responded, "System, Are the sun goddess and the moon goddess related to each other, and what is their relationship with each other."
[Answering player's question: The sun goddess and the moon goddess are related by birth, they are sisters.]
[Congratulations on unlocking a hidden side story! +50 T-points gained]
[The sun goddess was born a year before the moon goddess and the moon goddess had always followed behind her when the two were still mortals. The sun goddess ascended first and the moon goddesses ascension was a little later. The moon goddess had always looked up to her big sister and had loved following her footsteps but the Sun goddess only hated her in return. Hating the fact that no matter what she achieved she could never differentiate herself from her sister as if what she had achieved was easy and everyone can achieve it. When they both ascended, the sun goddess had originally thought that she would have more powers than her sister but to her surprise, both of the sisters received an equal amount of power even though the sun goddess was the first to ascend.]
"Is this supposed to be some sort of clue?" Aunt Su sneered
Zhihao, "It is actually a really big part of the key to completing the mission."
"How so?" Andy asked
"Do you guys remember the terms behind the curse she placed on the treasure beasts?" Zhihao asked, not expecting them to reply as he continued, "The seal can be only broken through the blessing of the moon goddess but why would it be so? At first, I thought they were one and the same person but them being sisters and enemies makes more sense now."
Wang GuiYing shook his head in confusion, "I don't think I'm getting you."
"With the clue given, we know that the sun goddess hates her sister but the hate doesn't go both ways. If the sun goddess had treated her poorly, the moon goddess would never keep looking up to her so the sun goddess could only play petty tricks to show her dislike towards her sister in a manner her sister would never realize the hate she has been receiving."
Zhou XinYi listened attentively till this point, and suddenly felt like cutting in to ask a question, "But she made it so that only the moon goddess was able to break the seal and the curse, isn't that a good thing? If I were to give someone the power to destroy a seal I created, I would definitely not choose my enemy to do the honors."
Zhihao's eyes sparkled, "But as we can see, the breaking of the seal is the real curse and that curse is indirectly on the hands of the moon goddess."
Li Ling, "She made her sister take the blame."