Chapter 1451: Parting Ways
Duan Cheng and Li Kun intentionally lagged a few steps behind, but they hadn't expected Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu to be so fierce. In just a short while, they had actually taken down three players of the same level—though Li Kun had previously mentioned Xu Huo's prowess, and they had seen Yan Jiayu in action at the performance ground, the ease with which these two handled things was not exactly good news for them at the moment.
Duan Cheng cleverly seized an opportunity, killing the player in front of him before smiling at Xu Huo and the others. "Why didn't you rendezvous with us after coming out of the castle?"
The castle had notified them that the stolen gem had been found, and Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu had left without saying goodbye. Duan Cheng and Li Kun already had a good idea of what was going on. Their deliberate lagging behind the three players had another purpose, but now wasn't the time to burn bridges, so they offered both sides a way out.
Xu Huo looked toward Gem City, unwilling to take that way out. "The first clearance mission is gone. I reckon players who can't make it to Moon City in time will storm the king's castle to rob it. Aren't you going? Not afraid all the good items will be snatched up by others?"
Even if they didn't know this was a newly opened instance, grabbing some gems would still be beneficial for players.
"Isn't there still one clearance mission left?" Duan Cheng stared at him. "As long as the most beautiful gem hasn't been taken, there's still a chance. Could we borrow that temporary official document from you?"
Failing to set up a suitable identity upon entering the instance had put them at a disadvantage. This instance would only become more difficult as more players entered. Soon, all sorts of performers would likely pop up in the city, and as the instance refreshed repeatedly, the people of Gem City would eventually become immune to item-created magic. Even the clearance mission might change. Coming back to the instance to pick up scraps would be nearly impossible, so it was best to get everything done in one go.
"Sorry, we have a use for that document," Yan Jiayu refused, then kindly suggested, "But you could disguise yourselves as magic performers to enter the city. We won't compete with you this time."
Without that document, disguising as circus performers wasn't a bad idea, given the ready example before them. But with the document, why go through all that trouble? In comparison, disguising as a performer was a gamble, involving a lot of chance in the execution. It could end up being days of wasted effort without even getting into the castle. Nothing was as simple as an official document.
"Haven't you already cleared the instance?" Li Kun stepped forward, blocking Duan Cheng behind him, and negotiated, "Give others a chance too. We can trade items for that document."
"How do you know we've cleared it?" Yan Jiayu asked in surprise. "If we had cleared it, we would have left long ago. Why go to Moon City?"
Her puzzled tone and sincere expression made it seem like that was really the case. Li Kun was momentarily confused. Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu held an absolute advantage, so there was no need for them to lie.
But Duan Cheng wasn't so easily fooled. He didn't trust Yan Jiayu at all. "If you haven't cleared it, you wouldn't have sneaked out of the city without us."
"Are you really clueless about why we shook you off?" Xu Huo looked at the two with a half-smile. "We've shown everything we got from the king's castle. What about what you got?"
"You knew I was a Super Evolver. You must have done plenty of preparation before coming to find me."
"I'm guessing, besides items and devices to counter mental interference, you also had corresponding detection items. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been so sure I didn't know you went out last night."
"Since you know we left the room last night, why not think about where we went?"
Duan Cheng and Li Kun's expressions shifted slightly. The former said, "No wonder you were so quick to hand over the stuff this morning. You were waiting for us here!"
"You were the ones who wanted to cooperate, and you were the ones who lied first," Yan Jiayu said. "And you blame others for not being easy marks? I didn't expose you yesterday when you went to grab those items."
With things laid out like this, cooperation was definitely off the table. Li Kun, gauging Xu Huo's attitude, said, "How about we each take a step back and clear the instance separately?"
Xu Huo smiled. "Our cooperation was quite pleasant before. We're all just trying to get by in the game. There's no need to fight to the death every time."
Li Kun breathed a sigh of relief, nodded to him, and pulled Duan Cheng away as they retreated.
"Are they heading back to Gem City?" Yan Jiayu asked. "Duan Cheng looks a bit unhappy."
"Of course he's unhappy. He didn't manage to screw us over." Xu Huo said indifferently. "He knows where the items are hidden, which means he knows more about this instance than he let on. The player who tipped him off might not have left after clearing the instance, so he's not here just to clear it either. There should be more than just those items."
Yan Jiayu nodded. "If it were just about grabbing those items, this instance wouldn't be dangerous at all."
Their eyes met, and both understood each other's intent. Yan Jiayu immediately said, "I'll follow them and see where they're going."
"I'll continue on to Moon City," Xu Huo said. "If I don't find anything in Moon City by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, I'll head to the mine owned by the king of Gem City."
"We'll meet there then." Yan Jiayu had no objections. She patted Da Mao's rump and galloped toward Gem City.
Xu Huo followed the map route to Moon City. On the way, he encountered a stranded merchant caravan and two injured travelers. After lending a hand, the caravan provided him with a shorter route to Moon City, while the injured travelers told him they had also taken a shortcut, but several fierce beasts had appeared nearby, making it very dangerous.
So Xu Huo set off with the caravan.
The caravan thanked him for his protection and voluntarily gave him some gems.
Xu Huo noticed that some of these gems were slightly different from the ores in Gem City and asked about it.
"Moon City also has many gems. Though they aren't used to build the city, there are plenty of gem ornaments." A merchant picked up one and held it in the sunlight. "See these few cracks inside? From another angle, they look like crescent moons. This kind of gem is also a currency in Moon City, along with Moon Coins and Snow Notes. They're called Moonstones."
"Snow Notes?"
"That's the white paper money," the merchant said, showing a White Note. "Outsiders call it White Notes, but we think that sounds ugly, so we changed the name."
The gems from Moon City seemed much inferior to those from Gem City. Xu Huo paused and added a location to his hand-drawn map. "I heard there's a mine here?"
The merchant glanced at it and burst out laughing. "If you follow this map, you'll never find it. The direction of this river is all wrong."
(Chapter End)