The silence at this moment was such that if a pin were to drop on the ground, everyone would be able to hear it.
Every Wind Slasher Guild member was coldly looking at Chen Xiaolian. The edges of Sara’s mouth revealed traces of cruelty as she sneered. As for Damon, a murderous expression was on his face.
Newton’s gaze gradually revealed a deep sense of disappointment.
“So, you really are an Awakened …”
Chen Xiaolian’s expression remained calm. He pulled the sobbing Soo Soo to his side and gently patted her hair. After that, Chen Xiaolian raised his head to look at Newton. “Truth be told, I do not even understand what you are talking about.”
Newton’s eyes turned completely cold.
“Just kill him.”
The Pattern Man who had been the least talkative gripped his scimitar and was about to head towards Chen Xiaolian.
“Wait.”
Newton extended his hand to restrain the Pattern Man’s wrist.
“Newton, it can’t be that you are still thinking of letting him go? Have you gone mad?” Damon violently snapped.
Newton looked at him before slowly replying. “Before we came in, there was an identity scan. Regardless of whether he is an Awakened or not, he has already entered this instance and had his identity scanned. That means he has already been incorporated into this instance dungeon’s system. Amongst the three conditions within this instance dungeon, do you still remember what the last one was?”
Damon gritted his teeth while remaining silent. Sara and Du Ya turned to look at one another but remained silent as well.
Pattern Man hesitated for a moment before disrupting the silence. “Prohibition of personal feuds between players, not allowed to kill other players, once a violation occurs, it will cause the system to dispense punishment.”
“That is right, regardless of whether or not he is an Awakened, he had already been scanned by the instance dungeon the moment he entered. Thus, he has been incorporated into the system and that means he is protected by the system’s rules. By personally killing him, one would suffer punishment… those of you who do not mind being punished by the system may act, I will not stop you.”
After Newton said those words, no one chose to act.
Sara suddenly laughed out in a tasteless tone. “In that case, all we need to do is not to personally kill him. Bring him along. When we meet monsters along the way, we will just throw him out.”
Newton looked at Sara and nodded silently.
Damon grinned widely and sneered at Chen Xiaolian. He moved to Chen Xiaolian’s side, observing the one twisted ankle and the blood on his head and face. Laughing fiercely, he suddenly raised his leg and kicked Chen Xiaolian’s shoulder!
Chen Xiaolian was directly kicked away and he ended up slamming onto the wall. As he fell, the pain caused his sight to go dark momentarily. He could clearly hear the bones on his shoulders issuing sounds of splintering!
“Depleting his fighting strength alone is not enough as insurance,” Sara smiled with squinted eyes as she moved before Chen Xiaolian.
As Chen Xiaolian was feeling puzzled, a system interface prompt suddenly appeared for him.
“This kid’s item box is empty,” Sara shook her head.
She then bent down to pick up the cross-shaped holy sword in Chen Xiaolian’s hand and threw it towards Newton. Newton looked at it before keeping it back into the system.
“Let us move, do not waste any more time,” Newton coldly said. “Completing the quest first is more important.”
He then assigned the tasks, Soo Soo and the Japanese flight attendant would be left to Sara and Du Ya respectively. As for Chen Xiaolian… Damon had seemingly wanted to volunteer when suddenly, Han Bi who had been remaining silent opened his mouth. “I will keep an eye on him.”
Observing the team members gaze directed towards him, Han Bi spoke out in a sincere tone. “I am a newbie so I cannot contribute much in terms of battle potential. Later on, we may encounter even more dangers. It would be best if your strengths are focused on the battles. As for matters like this, just leave it to me.”
No one suspected his reasoning and Newton nodded.
Han Bi moved forward and pulled Chen Xiaolian up in a seemingly rough manner. Chen Xiaolian coughed out a mouthful of blood and saw a trace of insinuation within Han Bi’s eyes.
Damon walked towards one side and forcibly pushed open the other stone gate.
Just as the gate was pushed open, a surge of cold, sinister air rushed inside. The other side was filled with darkness, devoid of any traces of light.
Damon extended his body forward and looked around before turning back and said. “There is a road.”
There was indeed a road, but the terrain there was very steep.
The stone gate led to what appeared to be an underground stone precipice. A flight of stairs extended down in the shape of a spiral.
The width of the stairs was extremely narrow, allowing a maximum of only two person to walk side by side. To one side lied the mountain walls while the other was the darkness of the cliff… due to the lack of lighting, it was not possible for them to observe what was lying below.
Even though they had applied the Firefly Frog’s secretion onto their bodies, the faint radiance was only barely able to provide illumination for them. This time, Newton had Damon move together with him as vanguard. Damon did not oppose the command and moved forward with his gigantic sword held in his hand.
Du Ya and the rest were in the middle position.
Han Bi was propping Chen Xiaolian with one hand as he secretly helped to support a big part of his weight. Chen Xiaolian had to forcibly hop forward with one leg. Silently, they fell to the rear position of the team. Due to the road being narrow and the fact that there was no way back plus the serious injuries that Chen Xiaolian had suffered, no one paid any attention to it.
Only Soo Soo’s sobbing sounds could be heard. She even called out “Xiaolian oppa” a few times, but after being slapped by Sara the little girl was too frightened to continue crying.
The trip down the long staircase took them close to one hour. The pain that Chen Xiaolian had to endure had caused his entire body to almost collapse. Cold sweat had soaked his underclothes and his breathing became increasingly ragged.
The lower down they descended, the more violent the incoming wind. The lower cliffs also brought with it the humming sounds of the wind as the knife like cold wind blew upon their faces.
“Why is this place so cold? My skin has almost been blown dry.”
Sara muttered in discontent.
“Enough nonsense, be on high alert,” Newton shouted back. “Do not put all your faith on the radar. Since there was a Stealth Hound Demon, it is likely that we will end up bumping into other stealth type monsters. Sara! Keep your eyes open and be vigilant!”
Sara gave a “heng”. She could not help herself as she complained once more. “This instance dungeon is really getting on my nerves.”
Although she complained about it, she still opened her eyes wide and monitored the surrounding area – as an archer, her vision was the best amongst them all.
After a while, Damon abruptly shouted out from the front. “Halt! There is something!”
Before the stone stairs, something black was lying to the side of the stairs. Damon and Newton moved forward. Using the faint fluorescence from their body, they were able to view the outline of this thing. After which, their faces turned ugly.
It was a… giant spider!
Or more accurately, it was the body of a dead spider.
It was shaped like a small dog, with claws as sharp as a sickle. Although it could no longer move, anyone who saw it would feel their mind turning numb. Its head however, appeared to have been partially bitten off by something.
Newton inspected the spider for a bit; and then, his face suddenly changed!
Beside the spider’s corpse was a pool of viscous liquid, clearly having flowed out after its head was bitten off. The viscous liquid had yet to dry up, meaning that the time it was killed was not too long ago!
The Wind Slasher Guild members raised up their weapons as they carefully inspected their surroundings, their forward speed reduced.
After roughly a quarter of an hour, they finally reached the end of the stone staircase.
They were currently within a dark cove. However, the air here was not only cold, it also carried with it the traces of something strange, a slightly sweet scent – this scent was not pleasant to the nose, rather it caused those who smelled it to feel nauseated to the point of wanting to puke.
Damon was walking in the lead. Suddenly, his foot felt something soft. “Puchi”, it was as though he had stepped on something.
He quickly lifted his leg and looked down. “What the Hell is this?”
Upon the ground, the one thing that he had stepped on… it has an oval shape… with the appearance of an egg.
“This is…”
“There are a lot of them here!”
“Quick, look at the corner! There are more hanging on the side of the walls!”
Du Ya and Sara shouted out simultaneously.
It was at this point that the faint radiance allowed everyone to clearly see… within this cove that was not too big in size, its walls, corners, were all filled with piles upon piles of… eggs!
Pale white translucent eggs, covered by a creamy white viscous liquid, each of them the size of a coconut. They were all densely piled up together, who knows just how many there were!