Death Game: Starting as a fraudster, pretending to be a god

#667 - Destination and Curse

"Is this the ‘escort’ you mentioned?"

Hearing Lin Yu's words, Snow Owl, Seagull, and Gaoshan all looked incredulous, their faces filled with shock.

"The cargo this镖队 (biāo duì,镖队 means escort agency, but in wuxia context, it could also mean a group of martial artists that escort valuable goods) is escorting is actually a corpse… no, it doesn't even qualify as a complete one, just a fragment," Gaoshan said with some surprise, "Why is that?"

After a close examination, Seagull was the first to realize the extraordinary nature of the thing behind Lin Yu.

"How strange… could this thing be alive?"

Having learned from the Great Witch Priest of the Black Marsh Realm, Seagull certainly possessed some skill.

Lin Yu nodded: "Yes, this thing is alive."

"Even if it's alive, even if it has some strange qualities," Snow Owl said, still perplexed, "how is this thing connected to Willow Town and the Spider Demons?"

"I don't know about that," Lin Yu shook his head, "But I did manage to glean some information about this thing's origins from an NPC earlier."

As Lin Yu spoke, he detached the remains from his back, holding it by the arm and displaying it to the three: "This remnant belonged to a martial arts expert native to this world, nicknamed ‘Demon Blade’ and named Xie Chong…"

Then, Lin Yu simply recounted Xie Chong's story, as he had heard it from Chen Yuan Ye, to the three.

Hearing Lin Yu's retelling, the three all understood.

"What a convoluted story," Seagull exclaimed, "Although this Xie Chong is a fiend, he's still a character."

"Who told you to listen to the story?" Snow Owl glanced at Seagull helplessly, "Focus on the important points—think about why this Xie Chong would be connected to Willow Town and the Spider Demons?"

"How am I supposed to figure that out?"

Seagull pouted: "This story just sounds like a martial arts expert's tale of love and hate, with no connection to Willow Town or demons."

Li Nian also sighed: "It seems that none of you three have deep roots or much activity in the Prison Mountain Realm, so you don't really understand the various situations there…"

Although veteran players have a basic understanding of the various worlds and [Instances] within the Ten Realms, they usually only have in-depth knowledge of the one or two worlds where they are most deeply rooted.

"If Old Zhou were here, that would be great."

Li Nian couldn't help but exclaim.

Someone familiar with the Prison Mountain Realm might know more about Xie Chong and the Jianghu (江湖, jiāng hú, the martial arts world) here, and might be able to directly deduce useful information from the existing clues.

However… clearly, none of the current six have that ability.

Even with the addition of the three newcomers, their understanding of the Prison Mountain Realm is limited.

"It seems that we can't glean any useful clues from the current information," Gaoshan said calmly, displaying the excellent qualities of a frontline police officer, "We still need to gather more information and conduct more investigations."

Lin Yu nodded: "That's right, that's why we were heading in this direction—even if we hadn't seen the commotion you guys made, we would have still been moving in this direction."

"Because, based on the information we've gathered… this ‘remnant’ likely has another part somewhere northwest of Double Saw Mountain, probably inside a building similar to a Taoist temple."

Hearing Lin Yu's words, the three Seagulls exchanged glances.

"A Taoist temple? We seem to have actually seen one!"

"It's not far from the mountain stronghold where we started."

As Seagull spoke, Lin Yu said with some surprise: "There really is one—do you still remember where it is?"

After all, Lin Yu could only determine the general direction; this map was from a hundred years ago, so its reliability was questionable.

If someone could directly lead the way, it would undoubtedly increase efficiency greatly.

Seagull shook his head.

Snow Owl looked at the surrounding spiderwebs and spiders, and also looked troubled.

"Well, if these ghostly things weren't here, I might still be able to find the way… but now, I have no idea."

However, Gaoshan, who was on the side, gave a definite answer.

"I think I still remember the way, but the journey is a bit far, if we want to go there…"

He looked at Li Nian, hesitated for a moment, and still spoke normally: "Um, ‘Thief’ lady, how much longer can your [Siren's Lament] last?"

This time, Li Nian looked at the sculpture in her hand and gave a direct answer.

"Oh… well, not much longer."

"How long is not much longer?"

Snow Owl frowned and asked.

"It's… five, four, three, two, one…"

Li Nian suddenly counted down, and then—

The light of the sculpture suddenly dimmed, and the singing stopped abruptly.

The invisible barrier disappeared, and Flying Dagger cried out in surprise.

"Why did it suddenly disappear!"

The spiders, which had been constantly attacking the barrier and being blocked outside, suddenly lost their obstruction, and swarmed towards the six people inside the barrier along with the pale spiderwebs.

"Damn it!"

Snow Owl cursed inwardly, then drew his long saber and swung it.

"Swish—!"

The long saber sliced through the air, and the biting cold gathered into a substantial blade of light, instantly severing most of the spiders and spiderwebs.

This icy blade light was clearly greatly weakened in the Fire Prison, but even so, it still forced back most of the demons once again.

However, Snow Owl also seemed to be unwell; after attacking, dense black thorn patterns appeared on his arm, and a layer of fine blood oozed out along the patterns.

Lin Yu watched this scene, and Old Zheng spoke.

"Hoh… she has a high-level curse on her body, no wonder she can be ranked as such an seemingly-not-simple ‘Tier 3’; it turns out that her strength has been discounted."

"Considering that this little girl is from the ‘Night Watchers’, this curse might have been created by that guy ‘Adler’."

"Anyway, the good news is that in this [Confrontation] Instance, her strength should only be able to exert at most half of its power."

"The bad news is that you don't seem to need to confront her anymore; you've already become teammates."

Old Zheng said quickly, and Lin Yu sighed.

"Indeed, if she were a powerful ‘Tier 3’ in excellent condition, she wouldn't have been made so embarrassed by these spiders and spiderwebs."

"Now it seems that I can only take action."

Lin Yu turned to look at Li Nian and reached out his hand.

"Give me the sculpture in your hand."