26 Mastermo has lost faith in gratitude

This was certainly weird, but when Zhihao took a closer look—he found out that RoRo was not attracted to Li Ling as per se, but instead was actually attracted to an ornament Li Ling was wearing. This ornament was a ring, but Zhihao had never seen or heard about such an in-game item before and could not know what it was or what was its specialty. He would've guessed that RoRo was just interested in the sparkle of the object—but when he thought about it further, He ruled out the possibility as the item that glittered more than the ring was Shuang, however, the fox spirit was more interested in the ring than the sword and so there had to be something about the ring that attracted RoRo.

When Li Ling moved forward, RoRo took a few steps backward and once again started to run further inside the cave. Zhihao and Li Ling ignored the newfound team of players they had come across and followed RoRo further inside the cave.

This time, following the beast, was rather easy—because of its tail, which was emitting a white glow and they could easily spot it running in front, not too far ahead of them.

RoRo was certainly trying to lead them somewhere.

As they went deeper, the path inside the cave seemed to divide with more twists and turns and they had to keep up with RoRo's speed with the other team running after them for some reason. This annoying Aunt Su was not looking forward to leaving Zhihao alone, but luck seemed to be on Zhihao's side this time as a sudden turn came and this time the path behind them was closed off by a sudden stone shutter that fell from above.

Li Ling glanced at Zhihao, "It seems this cave has built-in traps. We should be cautious."

Zhihao didn't seem to care about the fact that their path to retreat was sealed shut, he was in fact happier that the sudden obstacle had helped them get rid of his Aunt who was shocked at the sudden development and could no longer follow them.

After running for about 10 minutes or more, it seems that they had finally reached somewhere as in front of them there seemed to be an opening with light coming through however it seemed not to be a cave opening—so where was the light coming from?

Inside the cave, they finally came to a stop when they reached a place that seemed like a hall and RoRo was waiting for them right in the middle of a circular stone platform located in the center of the hall. The light was coming from right above the stone platform; there was a hole in the roof of the cave, this hole was so perfectly aligned in order to let the moonlight shine right on top of the huge stone platform—making it seem more like one of those platforms used for worships and sacrifices.

RoRo looked at the ring on Li Ling's hand and then towards the moon. It seems that the fox spirit was trying to tell them something.

[Congratulations on finding an important segment of the side story! +50 T-points gained.]

Zhihao was delighted to see the T-points rolling in, "System, where are we?"

[Answering players question: You have reached the ancient stone plate. This is like a prayer hall for the mystical beasts.]

"What is the significance of this area?"

[Answering players question: The ancient stone plate is a burial ground of treasures. The body that, once upon a time, belonged to the treasure beasts is concealed under this ancient stone plate.]

Suddenly Zhihao had a stroke of genius as he thought; What was their mission again? Wasn't it to catch treasure beasts? If so, how could they possibly catch a spirit? Wasn't it useless to chase after it? But now, here they were, in the middle of the treasure beast's ancestral grave. Could it be that there was a reason behind this?

Zhihao looked at the fox spirit, RoRo, who was still glancing at the ring on Li Ling's hand and then back at the moon.

Li Ling, "What do you think it wants us to do?"

Zhihao thought about it for a moment, "I think it wants you to go near it."

Li Ling nodded, his thoughts seemed to match.

As Li Ling took a step forward and approached the stone plate, RoRo's eyes sparkled. This was exactly what the little beast had wanted them to do.

Li Ling moved closer to RoRo but this time—the fox spirit did not run away and instead stood its ground, letting Li Ling reach out his hand to pat it, however, when his hand was about to touch the soft white fur of RoRo, the hand instead of touching the beast's head—passed straight through it. Li Ling glanced back at Zhihao, they once again seemed to communicate telepathically.

Them chasing after the treasure was indeed useless and this would be the case for all the other players who were currently playing this level. The so-called treasure they were all after was nothing more than the soul of the creatures who had sacrificed themselves so how could anybody catch it? After all, the soul was nothing more than an apparition that could only be seen and not touched so what was their mission?

It seems the place they were standing at could be the answer to that question. If they collected the body of the beast would it not be considered as catching the beast?

But there was another point worth noting and this was related to the fact that RoRo had led them here. Why would this level be designed this way? Why would RoRo lead them towards its body; the key to completing the mission?

To plainly put it—it was too damn easy and neither Zhihao nor Li Ling trusted T.I.A.D. missions to be this easy.

When Li Ling stood on the center of the stone plate—with his hand stretched out in front, the moonlight seemed to reflect off of the ring on his finger and suddenly the stone plate was lifted off the floor. RoRo who was standing on the stone plate seemed to be very thrilled when the stone plate had shown signs of movement and enthusiastically jumped down from it.

Li Ling looked down as he realized that the ground he stood on had started trembling.

This scene was much like what Zhihao had seen in movies during an alien abduction. Was Li Ling being abducted right now? Certainly not!

When the stone plate reached a certain height—it stopped—not aiming to rise any further.

Li Ling, who stood on top of it could not see it, but Zhihao who was under it could see it clearly.

Under the stone plate were statues of different animals arranged in a circle.

An owl, A fox, A deer, A turtle, and a number of other animals; all of them having somewhat the same position with their heads bowed down. These were just stone statues of the treasure beasts and not their bodies.

The stone plate had risen to such a level that it made it so that the moonlight formed made the shadow of the stone plate to fall on the statues hence not letting the light touch it and the light was instead refracted to the sides, illuminating the place Zhihao stood.

Li Ling, who stood on the stone plate was even more shocked to find that the ground started to vibrate once again, this time with a greater force; this was certainly not a good sign.

Li Ling wanted to jump down, but when he saw the height of the jump, he seemed to rethink his decision.

The stone plate shook for a minute with a rumbling sound—this shake was caused by the disfigurement of the stone plate.

From the ends of the stone plate, holes seemed to open up, these holes were big enough to let the moonlight pass through it and fall directly on top of the stone statues. For each statue; there was a different hole.

Li Ling looked down at his feet, suddenly noticing the carvings that were now visible due to the dust being shaken off of them. These carving seemed to portray another story—with a moon, a sun, and constellations. All the carvings inside the cave were certainly related to each other. Maybe this was another part of the story.

As if on cue, the system dinged up with a notification.

[Congratulations on developing the side story! +50 T-point gained.]

[The body of the animals who sacrificed themselves was sealed as the foundation of the new spiritually rich land. This seal was placed by the sun goddess who turned the bodies of treasure beasts into stone and only with the blessings of the moon goddess can this seal be lifted. With the rays of moonlight that shall fall on top of the stone statues—the seal will come undone and the treasure beasts would be able to retrieve their bodies.]

The system was certainly right.

Slowly, with the sudden rays of white light that fell on top of the stone statues, the statues seemed to come to life as the stone started to disappear and the skin was once again visible.

RoRo jumped around in joy as if it had been waiting for this day since forever. This joy was self-explanatory. The little beast had been separated from its body for who knows how long.

Zhihao felt like something was wrong. How could it all be so easy?

He couldn't explain it, but there was a feeling that something was going to happen. It was a feeling, Zhihao wished would not come true.

When RoRo's body had finally unfrozen completely, the little fox spirit jumped around in joy. It jumped around a few times and then jumped directly into its body.

This last jumped caused the body and soul to be reunited once again.

For Zhihao and Li Ling, this was something that should have been a celebration since they could now catch the little beast and complete their mission but it seems that the inner gut feeling of Zhihao was certainly right.

The moment RoRo got back its body, the Fox spirit was so elated that it ran away.

"...."

"..."

Li Ling and Zhihao were dumbfounded; didn't they just help that mystical beast? What happened to the feeling called gratitude??

Zhihao opened his arms and exclaimed, "Jump!"

When Li Ling heard this, he directly jumped from the top of the stone plate into Zhihao's arms, who caught him and saved him from being crushed on the ground.

The two players, without wasting further time, ran after the ungrateful RoRo who had made a fool out of them.

They took the same path that they took to come here and this reassured Zhihao that they'll be able to catch the little beast because as he remembered it, the path was already blocked.

When they reached the certain area where the path would've been blocked, the fox indeed stopped in its tracks as it sniffed around the stone shutter, however, from the other side, came the sound of a blast, and the blocked path was once again cleared. This blast was caused by the team that was previously stuck there and was unable to follow Mastermo any further.

When Aunt Su saw her nephew's face, she somehow felt content with her decision; this could most certainly be said to help her nephew or so she thought.

The aunt Su who had only wanted to provide help was met with a fox paw as it jumped over her face and what followed next was an expected glare from Zhihao.

This aunt of his really knew how to cause trouble for him.

"Out of the way!", Zhihao snapped and when he saw that the team in front had not reacted, he summoned Shuang.

When Aunt Su saw the sword that had previously almost amputated her arm, she immediately screamed and moved aside.

Zhihao and Li Ling ran at their maximum speed, but when they reached the opening of the cave, they were rendered helpless as the fox spirit had already managed to run away, and in this wide forest, finding it was by no means easy.

Suddenly, from behind the trees came out a voice, "Mastermooooo!" It was the face of an annoying BBtrash that peeked out with a stupid expression.

The team they had managed to ditch had caught up with them, that is, to say, both the teams.

From behind came the voice of his annoying aunt, "Zhihao!"

And from the front came the annoying voice of BBtrash, "Darling!"