Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 974 - 967: The Guide

Chapter 974: Chapter 967: The Guide

"Everyone, don’t panic. She won’t hurt you. Just don’t move rashly to avoid startling her," Fulajie’er reassured them.

"Let’s stay calm, everybody, stay calm," Luo’er still wanted to believe what Fulajie’er said and therefore took the initiative to pacify the team members.

Most people were okay, but the newly joined Night Elf Talis was a bit of a problem. After all, her teammate had died here just a couple days ago, and when she entered, she was even able to see the bodies of those team members. Therefore, her fear and hatred for the Flying Head Monster were naturally deeper than most.

"Hey," noticing her reaction, Tangmo gently tugged at her sleeve and then whispered a warning, "Don’t do anything rash. We can’t beat her, and now that we’ve finally calmed her down, your acting up could spell trouble for all of us."

"I know." Talis stared fixedly at the Flying Head Monster, her body trembling as she clenched her teeth and replied.

The group stood silently in place, undergoing inspection by the Flying Head Monster. Because Fulajie’er did not trust her, she stayed by her side the entire time, keeping a close watch on her for fear she might suddenly become hostile.

Most people dared not look directly at the Flying Head Monster, for just one glimpse into her pupil-less eyes would cause an inexplicable terror to surge within them.

Two orbs as pure as angels’ intertwined, circling around the group several times. In the end, the event Fulajie’er worried about did not happen; after a cursory inspection, the Flying Head Monster left the group and flew towards Cheng Ziang as if, in her eyes, these people were not even as important as him.

"Did we get through?" A relieved Luo’er, looking at Fulajie’er, asked cautiously.

"I guess so," Fulajie’er, watching the Flying Head Monster, nodded somewhat uncertainly.

"Let’s go, I’ll lead you inside. Just follow me," Cheng Ziang beckoned.

Now that the Flying Head Monster was following him, even though it made him uncomfortable, he was willing to make this sacrifice to ensure the safety of the others.

Along the excavated staircase, the group descended, moving through the tubular passage. The deeper they went, the more obvious the signs of excavation became; it was clear that those who had built the tomb had expanded upon natural cave passages to construct it.

Eventually, they reached a straight and smooth corridor, which was almost certainly artificially excavated, as natural passageways would not be so perfectly straight and smooth, with barely anything to trip over on the ground.

At the end of the passage was a heavy stone door with what seemed to be some strange mechanisms on it; these appeared to be key to opening the door. Around it were heaps of skeletons, suggesting that most people met their end here, killed by the Flying Head Monster.

Luo’er closely examined the door, which had several circular depressions with a circular protrusion in the center, a little longer than the thickness of the stone door’s surface.

In those circular depressions, complex characters and pictures were carved, suggesting some sort of puzzle. There was a very noticeable mark on the handle at the center of the protrusions.

At first glance, the mechanism on the door reminded Luo’er of the kind of combination lock found on safes. If the principles were the same, then deciphering the code on this door would be problematic.

With roughly ten circular figures scattered irregularly on the door, there were almost ten code combinations to consider. Even for a computer, this would take a long time to calculate, let alone by human effort. If they were to derive it by Exhaustive Method, they might as well settle in for a lengthy stay in the tomb.

The key, therefore, lay in finding and deciphering the password for this door, as brute-forcing their way through it was a pipe dream.

"With so many passwords, when will we ever break through?" Luo’er shook his head in dismay while turning to Baiyue and asking, "Is there any shortcut to crack it?"

"Technically speaking, it’s probably just the Exhaustive Method. However, if we can find some valuable information from the signs of wear on these cipher disks, maybe we can unearth a few clues," Baiyue shook his head and said with a furrowed brow.

"This door is covered in all these strange symbols; just memorizing them is going to take forever, not to mention cracking them," Tangmo lamented with a shake of his head.

"Does Aunt Axia recognize these symbols?" Hearing Tangmo’s words, Luo’er turned to Axia and asked.

"I don’t recognize it; this is neither Elvish script nor Aud script. It should just be some symbols." After a careful observation, Axia shook her head gravely.

"Ah, traffic’s bound to get jammed up when we reach the mountain," Luo’er couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh.

"I do have a straightforward solution," Baiyue stated.

"What solution?" Luo’er was immediately ecstatic upon hearing her words.

"Use all our explosives and blast it open!" Baiyue replied.

"This... really is a straightforward method..." Luo’er showed an embarrassed smile, then shook his head and added, "But we don’t have enough explosives. You should be aware of that. If we hadn’t used any before, there might have been some hope, but now with only these left, I think it’s unlikely we can blow this door to pieces."

"If we concentrate the explosives, we only need to blow open a hole big enough for a dog." Baiyue suggested.

"Hmm, that might be worth a try," Luo’er nodded in agreement.

"It seems we won’t need to go through that trouble. Look." Tangmo spoke, gently tapping Luo’er’s arm, and then pointed towards Cheng Ziang.

Following her gaze, everyone saw Cheng Ziang attempting to turn the dial on the door. He was confident because right beside him, the Flying Head Monster was teaching him how to crack the code, hand over hand.

"This..." Seeing all of this, Luo’er was dumbfounded and speechless for a long while.

Just what kind of relationship did Cheng Ziang have with this Flying Head Monster? Why was she, who should have been the guardian of the tomb, willingly helping Cheng Ziang to open the door? It was like the security guard at home collaborating with a thief to open the family’s safe and rob it clean.

But the thing was, there was no apparent connection of interest between the Flying Head Monster, Cheng Ziang, or the Advance Team. This assistance brought her no benefit; it would’ve been better if she had simply not interfered, but why was she actively helping?

The Flying Head Monster’s silver-white hair was entwining Cheng Ziang’s hand, guiding him to turn the dial in the right direction. She seemed so patient that it made everyone find it difficult to believe that she was the same murderer who had killed dozens of mercenaries.

Cheng Ziang, too, wasn’t panicking. He calmly twisted the dial under the Flying Head Monster’s guidance. Luo’er stared blankly at his back, and whether it was an illusion or not, he seriously thought the Flying Head Monster and Cheng Ziang resembled a kind and patient mother tirelessly teaching her child to write for the first time.

This unreal sense of dissonance made Luo’er feel somewhat dazed for a moment. His gaze slowly dropped, and the surprise in his eyes gradually turned dull and listless.

"Luo’er!" Tangmo was the first to notice that something was wrong with Luo’er. As soon as he lowered his head, she immediately realized something was amiss and quickly started shaking him vigorously.

"What’s wrong?" Talis asked, puzzled by Tangmo’s actions.

"Damn, where did he throw the Soul Summoning Bell this time?" After shaking a few times and not hearing the sound of the bell, Tangmo asked in annoyance.

"It’s here, it’s with me, I forgot to give it back to him." At that moment, Axia took out the Soul Summoning Bell from her pocket and began to shake it vigorously.

The whining sound that lingered in their minds rang out again. Everyone subconsciously covered their ears, but still couldn’t stop the sound from penetrating their brains.

Under the influence of this sound, Luo’er’s body jolted as if he’d been shocked back to life, and then he quickly woke up.

"I, I was possessed again..." Luo’er asked, holding his head and frowning.

"Thank goodness," relieved to see Luo’er awaken, Tangmo immediately relaxed and hugged him tightly. She muttered through gritted teeth, "Dammit, Tana, when will this ever end?"