When coming along stops meaning we’re nothing but a burden to Second Brother, then wherever he goes, we’ll be willing to follow behind him…
When coming along stops meaning we’re nothing but a burden to Second Brother…
Su Feifei’s heart gave a violent shake. In that moment, all at once, she understood.
It wasn’t that they were unwilling to go with him, or that they didn’t want to… It was that after the adventure in the Demon Shadow Forest, knowing what Ye Tianxie’s strength actually was, they understood their company wouldn’t bring him help. It would only split his attention onto protecting them and load him with things he had to worry about… It would only make them a burden.
So however much they wanted to go, they would still choose to refuse. This wasn’t them treating Ye Tianxie as an outsider — it was the sincere friendship of people who genuinely cared about everything to do with him, in just the way Ye Tianxie himself wouldn’t have minded their holding him back in the slightest.
So when Ye Tianxie had suggested going leveling together a moment ago, they had casually found an excuse; and when it came to a quest that would obviously be enormously challenging, they had reached for the same excuse again.
And… what about her…
With his strength… going leveling alongside him, could she really help him at all? Or would she only be dividing up his gains and dragging at the pace of his leveling? Going along on dangerous quests… she would only become one more thing for him to worry about, one more burden, forcing him to split his attention on protecting her instead of pressing forward as he pleased. The support abilities she had at present were, to him, genuinely something he could take or leave.
She thought back to how, because of her, he had been forced to take a hit from that terrifying little Immortal Spirit Beast with his own body. That had been the only time the beast had landed a blow on him at all… and he had come within a hair of being one-shot. Knowing perfectly well there was a large chance of being one-shot, he had still chosen to put his body in the way… Because his heart was nothing like as cold as his surface. For his friends, for the people he cared about, he could throw himself in without a thought for himself. And in that moment she had been nothing but a burden to him; if he hadn’t been strong enough, that little Immortal Spirit Beast would have killed him.
Living in his home, enjoying his protection, with nothing left in her heart to be afraid of, and carrying that happiness and contentment that grew out of living under the same roof as him… knowing his past, enjoying everything she had because of him — was she still going to hold him back for the sake of her own pleasure?
She had said it herself: she wanted to make him truly happy.
Ye Tianxie nodded at Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui. He understood everything they were thinking, and could only say helplessly, “All right then. Big Sister probably does need the help. Feifei, let’s go.”
“I…” Feifei came back from her daze, glanced down at the time on her wristband, then shook her head and said in a lazy tone, “Never mind, I won’t go either. It’s nearly noon already, and I still have to go cook for you, you great lazybones, or the two of us will starve to death… Tianxie, go do your quest properly, and remember to log off and eat when the time comes… I certainly can’t be bothered to call you.”
Ye Tianxie checked the time, and the corner of his mouth lifted. “All right. Then Young Mistress Su is going to a great deal of trouble.”
“Call me Feifei!”
“……”
North of the City of Stars: Wuhua Temple.
It was a small temple, but tidy and quiet, pressed right up against the City of Stars’ north gate. Ye Tianxie had never been here before, and the fact was that players seldom came at all, since there were no quests to pick up and the atmosphere really wasn’t to modern tastes. Plenty of players had wondered why such a temple existed in the first place — was there some hidden class called monk, or bonze?
That all three System Quest maps had to be reached through some monk at Wuhua Temple had genuinely tied Huaxia’s players in knots when the announcement went out. And yet when Ye Tianxie arrived, there wasn’t another player in sight.
After a worldwide announcement, what should have happened was… players from every major battle region racing to the quest area as fast as they could, fighting to be first to finish. But since a player could enter a quest map only once every three days, and since the quests were certain to be extremely difficult, players were naturally being cautious in the extreme before coming — not only stocking up on supplies but assembling, at once, a party with real strength and a full spread of classes. Otherwise, arriving in a rush would only waste an entry for nothing, and the next chance would be three days away.
So while the players with strength and confidence were preparing all of that, someone like Ye Tianxie, who simply came alone… and came without preparing anything at all… well, there was only the one of him.
Wuhua Temple was very quiet; stepping over the threshold, he heard not the slightest sound from within. The courtyard inside was large and swept clean, and only when he reached the middle of it did he hear, from the building opposite, the knock of a wooden fish (a hollow wooden block struck to keep time during Buddhist chanting) and the faint sound of sutra recitation… and the content of that sutra set Ye Tianxie’s face twitching.
He stepped inside. The spacious interior held only a Buddha statue facing the door and an old monk striking the wooden fish. The statue was of the Tathagata Buddha, which gave Ye Tianxie rather the feeling of having walked into a modern temple.
Seeing someone come in, the old monk stopped chanting, raised his eyes, and came straight to the point. “Young man from another world, you have come to request a teleport, have you not? Set before you are three trials of your strength and your courage. Are you and your companions prepared?”
“Oh, we’re prepared. Send me to the Heaven Soul Graveyard.” Since the old monk was this direct, Ye Tianxie naturally saw no reason to waste words either.
“The Heaven Soul Graveyard… Oh! That was once a sacred place. Countless mercenary corps used to go there to pay their respects to the Mercenary King of old. But it lies too near the Tower of Fate, and ever since the Hour of Fate vanished three years ago, demonic energy has seeped into it; combined with the deathly yin of the place, it has bred a great many terrifying undead creatures, and few have dared approach since… Oh! Your level is only 16 at present. It is far too dangerous a place for you to go. Are you certain you wish to?” the old monk asked.
“I’m certain.”
“Very well, if that is your choice. Oh? And your companions?”
“No companions. Just send me alone.” Ye Tianxie said it with a shrug of his eyebrows.
“You alone?” The old monk showed no surprise, but his voice rose a fraction, and he said at once, “Young man from another world, your courage is worthy of praise. But that place is absolutely not somewhere you can set foot as you are now. Go together with your companions. Only then will you have even the smallest sliver of hope of success.”
“Just me. Send me over.” Ye Tianxie said it without hesitation.
“Oh… very well, if that is your choice. In that case I shall send you alone to the Heaven Soul Graveyard. I hope that when you meet danger you will have the sense to choose flight rather than press rashly onward. Stand still, now. Oh — I have not yet introduced myself. This old monk’s dharma name is… Wuhua.”
Ye Tianxie: “……”
Monk Wuhua muttered an incantation, and in an instant a circular magic array appeared beneath Ye Tianxie’s feet with his body at its center. The array spun several times, then suddenly blazed upward in a fierce white light that enveloped him; when the light faded, Ye Tianxie was gone from the spot.
“Oh, brave and prideful young man. I hope you will know when to turn back.”
Monk Wuhua sighed softly, settled himself again, closed his aged eyes, and took up the wooden fish as before. In time with its beat he resumed a low recitation of the sutra he intoned at least a few thousand times a day, drawing out each syllable with perfect devotional gravity — a sutra that was, word for word, the chorus of a popular breakup ballad about a lover who had been the one to want to leave.
The Heaven Soul Graveyard.
Everything around him was dim. The moment Ye Tianxie appeared, the cold, dank air and the smell of rot rolling over him pulled his brows into a deep frown.
Looking up, he saw pitch blackness overhead, and understood at once: this was inside the graveyard — beneath the ground! Which meant no light would ever reach here. It was a space of true and absolute darkness.
Even as the easiest of the three quests, the difficulty went beyond expectation. And this one… had to be carried out in absolute darkness. For an ordinary player, simply overcoming the dark would be an enormous headache in itself. Players entering for the first time would turn back defeated on the spot.
But for Ye Tianxie, who possessed the Eye of the Evil Dragon, this was no problem at all.
“Oh la la! What a horrible smell… eh, eh, eh? Is it night already?” Guoguo, appearing on Ye Tianxie’s shoulder, rubbed her bleary eyes and stared ahead with a face full of questions… She distinctly remembered having fallen asleep after breakfast. Had she carelessly slept all the way through to night again?
“Yes, it’s night. You can go back to sleep.” Ye Tianxie said it without much grace. This little thing could eat, and was fussy about it; could sleep, and could sleep an extraordinary amount… and beyond that could do nothing whatsoever.
“Eeya! Good night then, Master!” Guoguo promptly turned into a streak of white light and slipped into the Hour of Fate to resume her sleep. Ye Tianxie was left with absolutely nothing to say.
Pitch-black ground, damp and clammy air, an oppressive atmosphere — it was the first time in Ye Tianxie’s life that he had set foot inside a tomb. Out of respect for the Heaven Soul mercenary corps of old, this one had been built with a certain luxury, and its area was relatively vast. In the blackness Ye Tianxie’s eyes stood out like two points of starlight, and wherever his gaze fell, everything within his sight was taken in whole.
Behind him and above him was packed earth; ahead lay a passage whose end could not be seen.
Ye Tianxie took a step forward. In that sealed, absolutely silent place, the sound of his foot on the damp ground was magnified several times over, and he could feel his own footsteps striking against his mind. The environment here was more unnerving than the Skeleton Cave he had once entered. A girl who walked in here would probably think first of leaving immediately, quest or no quest.
Step by step, Ye Tianxie walked several dozen meters. The grimness of the place meant the sound of his own steps very nearly interfered with his heartbeat. The passage wasn’t straight but wound back and forth, and finally, two minutes later, the view opened out: no longer a narrow passage but… a spacious hall, and beyond it, a dead end.
The end already?
It was a broad stretch of ground close to a thousand square meters, empty at a glance — but drop the gaze slightly and one saw, spaced evenly around its edge, thirteen coffins. Twelve of them were silver; and directly ahead, at the very center, one coffin was not only somewhat larger but a striking gold, giving off a searing golden light in that absolute darkness. Set off by the twelve silver coffins around it, it was like a bright moon ringed by stars.
Something stirred in Ye Tianxie, and he walked toward the golden coffin. Just as he reached the exact center of the ground, a sound rang out that raised the hair on the back of the neck.
It was… the sound of a coffin lid being pushed open from the inside.
(End of Chapter 169)