Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 969 - 962: Vanguard

Chapter 969: Chapter 962: Vanguard

Hearing his words, Hu Daoke stared at him for a very long time before finally speaking in a gloomy tone, "Why do you always like to keep things from me?"

"Keeping things from you is for your own good, don’t forget how big a mess you made last time you found out about Luo’er’s condition," Cheng Ziang rolled his eyes as he spoke.

"I, I’ve corrected myself, and now my lips are sealed," Hu Daoke was taken aback, then stammered in response.

"Sealed lips, huh? You wouldn’t tell even if your sister or Luo’er asked you?" Cheng Ziang asked.

"That’s a different matter," Hu Daoke said with a sense of guilt.

"Come on, give it a rest and just keep watch up there until we get back!" Cheng Ziang said as he forcefully patted the back of Hu Daoke’s head.

After the discussion, the group decided to rest for a day before setting out the next day to try entering the tomb; this timing allowed Luo’er and the others to adjust their physical conditions.

Speaking of which, they were lucky last time, with only Luo’er, Cheng Ziang, and Feng being attacked. Among them, Luo’er, protected by Fulajie’er’s cover, did not suffer a fatal impact, only re-aggravating some internal injuries of his body.

Although Feng took a solid hit, her unique body constitution prevented it from being fatal. Luo’er even felt that if Feng continued to be attacked with such intensity, it might actually strengthen the vascular system inside her body.

While magic attacks were lethal to Earthlings and most other people, they were not without a solution. The higher one’s magic aptitude, the more intense the magic they could use and the better their bodies could resist high-intensity magic assaults.

Of course, the human body always has its limits. Even if one’s magic aptitude is higher and they can harness more intense magic, there is still a boundary. Surpassing this boundary would lead to death by intense magic concentration, even for genius-level mages; hence, forbidden curse mages in the Otherworld are regarded as expendable—one less with each use.

The only real way to break through the limit is to shed the confines of the body, embrace the components of magic, and achieve what is called spiritual ascension to become a true deity, thus gaining access to a nearly infinite amount of magic.

Luo’er’s body had greatly improved after the last treatment, so the current attack was not fatal, causing only a significant part of his vascular network to burst.

Fortunately, the blow had not directly eroded his internal organs; otherwise, it would have been a true terminal condition, resulting in Luo’er’s immediate death with no chance of being saved.

The next day, after adjusting their condition, everyone headed to the entrance of the tomb in the daylight. There were still no people around, and the dead bodies lay quietly stacked inside the tents. The Advance Team didn’t bother with them; it wasn’t yet spring, and the bodies could remain frozen for a while without the worry of decay and the diseases it might cause.

According to Axia, by springtime, someone would likely come to collect the bodies, as deaths at this tomb were not a rare occurrence. Hence, the local villagers had pretty much gotten used to it. While coming to scavenge, they would also take care of the deceased.

Axia said that these mercenaries clearly didn’t understand the tomb well enough, thus recklessly setting up camp at its entrance. In fact, previous adventure teams usually camped at a distance from the entrance, precisely because the creature would come out to wander near the entrance at night and seize the opportunity to kill.

The behavior of the Flying Head Monster somewhat confirmed Luo’er and the others’ speculation that this creature, just like Fulajie’er, was restrained by some kind of bond and couldn’t stray too far from the tomb. If they could find the key to its bond, they might be able to kill it outright.

The Flying Head Monster would not emerge during the day; experiences showed that she generally roamed around in the latter half of the night. Therefore, the Advance Team was safe during the day, except that the surrounding corpses were somewhat nauseating.

Once at the campsite, Luo’er had Cheng Ziang and Fulajie’er enter the tomb first. Their main task was to initiate communication—if the creature could communicate normally, the following work would be much easier. If not, Cheng Ziang had to go in and find her life source and eliminate her.

As for Fulajie’er, her primary mission was to protect Cheng Ziang and act as a conduit for communication between him and the rear. If it truly became necessary to take out the creature, Fulajie’er would cover for Cheng Ziang as he delved deeper into the tomb to find and kill the Flying Head Monster directly.

With the plan set, after arriving at the campsite, Cheng Ziang made some quick preparations and then walked towards the wide-open gates of the tomb. The rest, who stayed put, lit a bonfire and waited for his safe return.

Talis, with nothing to do and driven by curiosity, opened a tent. The contorted corpse inside made her scalp tingle with horror, almost causing her to scream.

"If you had been willing to open these tents initially, you wouldn’t have ended up with your entire team wiped out," Luo’er shook his head and remarked.

"How was I supposed to know that the people inside were already dead? I thought you were part of this camp," Talis said as she took a deep breath.

She turned her head away, closing the tent flap, unable to bear the sight of those twisted bodies, because the sight would inevitably bring to mind her own teammates whose deaths resembled almost identically.

Ziang’s gaze returned to him, and under the company of Fulajie’er, he cautiously moved through the grand tomb gates and then arrived at the inner hall.

This was the entrance to a natural cavern, quite spacious inside. Gaps in the mountain allowed light to penetrate, ensuring the inner hall wasn’t completely dark.

Looking around, Ziang noticed scattered corpses and skeletal remains lying all around—likely those of adventurers from ancient times up to the mercenaries who had only recently ventured inside.

"Damn, who knows how many have died here over the past few centuries; it’s truly a grave in every sense of the word," Ziang couldn’t help but exclaim.

After his moment of reflection, he called out to the air, "Fula, Xiao Fula, are you there?"

"What is it," a voice of impatience echoed inside his head, "are you scared?"

"Not really, I’m just bored on my own. I want to talk to you, come on out!" Ziang cheekily pleaded.

"No way, you think I’ll just come out just because you asked? That would be so humiliating for me," Fulajie’er refused without hesitation.

"Come on, we’ve got no past grudges, and I haven’t wronged you lately, so why the cold treatment?" Ziang implored with a grin on his face.

"Hmph, like you haven’t bullied me enough on normal days, not only me, but you also pick on Luo’er, hmph!" Fulajie’er said with a prideful tone.

"Oh come on, let’s talk about Luo’er. I grew up with him and know a lot of his secrets," Ziang said, winking mischievously, devoid of his usual stern demeanor with strangers.

"Really, you’re not lying to me?" Fulajie’er seemed to be swayed already.

"Why would I lie to you? You can ask me anything about Luo’er, just come out," Ziang said, his face unblushing, his heart steady.

"Alright then, but if you lie, I’ll never bother with you again," Fulajie’er huffed and then manipulated the air’s magical energy, her faintly glowing figure appearing in front of Ziang in the blink of an eye.

"Aye, that’s more like it, just perfect to shed some light on things," Ziang smiled and said to her.

"You just called me out to provide light?" Fulajie’er squinted, asking with a look of annoyance.

"Of course, not. As we go along, you can ask me anything, including stuff about me," Ziang said, turning on his magic crystal flashlight and striding deeper into the tomb.

"I’m not the least bit interested in your stuff!" Fulajie’er followed close behind him, floating and responding huffily.

"That’s fine, you can ask about Luo’er," Ziang shrugged, not turning his head as he spoke.

"Hey, was Luo’er really pretty when he was young?" Fulajie’er asked while pursuing him.

"Of course, Luo’er was the belle of the school," Ziang answered.

"What’s a belle of the school?" Fulajie’er asked.

"It means someone everyone loves!" Ziang explained.