Ch 30 - Where is my Sister!?

"Senior sister, the deer's cry should be coming from here," Yino thoughtfully said, standing in front of a stone door at the end of the cave.

He reached out to touch the formation on the stone door but was thrown back due to his incompatible qualifications. Fortunately, Jinyue quickly caught him, preventing Yino from falling to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Jinyue raised her eyebrows slightly, staring at the door with a more serious tone. After a long rest, her energy had recovered considerably. As long as she didn't use illusions, Jinyue's eyes wouldn't hurt, and her body condition could be maintained at a normal level.

"I'm fine, but it seems this door is protected by a formation," Yino said, standing steady with some helplessness.

Behind this stone door was the forbidden area where Gu Wanglan imprisoned the nine-colored deer. This formation was Gu Wanglan's final lock.

Yino actually knew there was a spare key hidden nearby left by Gu Wanglan, but in front of Jinyue, he still had to act a little. Otherwise, finding the key right away would be no different from returning to his own home.

"Let me try," Jinyue sighed helplessly as they seemed to have reached a dead end.

Jinyue came up to the formation in front of the door, looked back at Yino, and saw his eyes full of wonder and eagerness, which made her feel reassured and gently pursed her lips.

Three fox tails grew from her back, and at the same time, blood-colored flames appeared floating around Jinyue...

-Thinking carefully, this might not be a bad thing-

-If I hadn't revealed my identity to Yino in advance, who knows how much time we would have wasted in front of this door now!-

Jinyue smiled softly, gathered her spiritual energy, and pressed her hand firmly against the formation's mark.

*Crack crack crack—!*

The entire stone door was shaking.

Jinyue continued to pour spiritual energy into the formation, and within 10 minutes, the formation on the stone door began to shatter.

Yino, who originally wanted to watch, couldn't help but widen his eyes at this sight.

*Boom boom boom—!*

Finally, the formation cracked, and the whole stone door collapsed with it, creating thick clouds of dust.

-Wow, is it this violent...-

Yino was dumbfounded. In the game, this stone door required a key to unlock, then it would open left and right to reveal the passage.

However, under Jinyue's violent attack, it directly blew the entire door away.

Apart from illusions, her true strength was not to be underestimated!

"Cough, cough cough—!"

Amidst the swirling dust, the cherry-haired girl walked out covering her mouth.

Her face looked paler, and her appearance had returned to that of the usual human form, not maintaining her foxy true form.

"Yino, the door is open now, follow me," Jinyue said in a serious tone, beckoning to the young man behind her.

She wasn't as energetic as she had been before due to tiredness from her physical strength and revealing her identity. Her expression was filled with exhaustion, and she didn't bother acting anymore.

Yino stood at the entryway, watching her back, his thoughts complicated.

Seeing Jinyue's figure disappear into the dust, Yino followed closely behind, passing through the collapsed stone door ruins—

"Senior Sister?"

He stood on the remnants of the stone entrance, looking at the empty and deserted dungeon with a puzzled expression.

In the dungeon, there was no response, only Yino's own echo.

Yino jumped down from the stone door ruins and continued to walk forward.

He saw at the end of the dungeon was a lava inferno, and above the boiling magma hung an iron cage, in which was imprisoned the legendary nine-colored deer.

The nine-colored deer sensed the arrival of someone and stood up, dragging its chains. Its spiritual eyes were lively, and it raised its head to let out a mournful cry for help.

-I can't believe I'm actually seeing a living nine-colored deer...-

-In the game, when this little one first appeared, it had already been sacrificed by Gu Wanglan into a pile of white bones.-

Yino couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Undoubtedly, the infernal iron cage before him was the final settlement scene of the Mountain Temple instance.

Everything here, even the mournful cry of the nine-colored deer, was exactly the same as Yino's memories from his previous life!

But compared to the temptation of countless treasures here, there were now two questions tormenting Yino's mind—

-Where is the lord-level boss guarding the Mountain Temple?-

-And... where is Jinyue?-

...

...

...

*Boom boom boom!!!*

Below the dungeon, there existed another hidden dungeon.

As a white light formation appeared, the lovely fox demon girl stood frozen in place.

Her lips revealed her sharp teeth, and her eyes became keen as she gazed around, but all she could do was draw her sword and stare around in confusion.

"What kind of place is this again?"

"Did I trigger some mechanism again?"

"And… Where's Yino..."

Jinyue cute little face looked a bit dazed.

A second ago, she had just blasted the stone door and was walking in front, calling for Yino to hurry up.

But the next second, the space in front of her became distorted, and at the same time, a white light appeared, and Jinyue was inexplicably teleported to this gloomy place.

Now, Jinyue not only couldn't sense Yino's aura.

Moreover, this place was pitch black, and Jinyue was as blind as a bat, only able to hear the dripping sound of water droplets falling not far away.

"Damn! What a disgusting aura..."

"How many ghostly things did Gu Wanglan hide in the Temple?"

Since Yino wasn't here, Jinyue no longer needed to pretend to be a righteous cultivator.

Her beautiful eyes flashed a murderous desire laced with anger, and she stretched her tails as she looked around.

However, as the sense of an unknown disaster came, Jinyue's initial momentum dissipated, and huge beads of sweat rolled down her face.

This place was too gloomy, with the smell of blood in the air.

The thick fog obscured vision, and even when Jinyue lit a flame, she still couldn't see the surrounding environment clearly.

And what was more bizarre was that as time passed,

Jinyue could vaguely hear something quietly wriggling not far away.

Her heart sounded a great alarm, recalling what Yino had said in the Mountain Temple. Jinyue felt a chill down her spine, as if something ominous was staring at her...

"Damn it, I'm a demon!"

"I'm supposed to be the one scaring others in this world!"

The fox lady spoke fiercely, but the tails behind her had already tucked in.

Jinyue was becoming very terrified.

Her original plan for coming to the back mountain tonight was just to look for the location of Gu Wanglan's Mountain Temple according to the prophecy, and then find an opportunity to spread the information to attract the protagonists to the back mountain.

So, Jinyue's original plan did not intend to personally explore.

But because Yino was also by her side, and he had Yuyan's jade pendant, it gave Jinyue a glimmer of hope and courage.

She thought... If they were really discovered by Gu Wanglan, she would use Yino's jade pendant to have Yuyan kill Gu Wanglan!

Killing Gu Wanglan would still align with Jinyue's interests.

But now, Jinyue realized she had gambled too big!

She not only overestimated her own strength but also underestimated the net Gu Wanglan had set for the Mountain Temple!

Thinking carefully, Jinyue had only heard fragments of the prophecy. Apart from the nine-colored deer, she knew almost nothing about the Mountain Temple — she didn't know how many secrets the Temple hid, she didn't even figure out which evil cult Gu Wanglan actually believed in.

Jinyue truly regretted it now!

*Whoosh whoosh whoosh—*

An eerie gust of wind blew on the back of her neck.

Jinyue suddenly turned around but still couldn't see anything.

She was terrified, her heart pounding, not daring to make a sound — the self-proclaimed Pleasure Demon fox lady didn't seem to be as crazy as the rumored evil cult members.

*Hiss hiss hiss—!*

Another eerie wriggling sound.

This time, Jinyue's fox ears keenly detected the direction.

She looked up and saw that at some point, rows of red compound eyes had lit up in the space above and behind her.

There were eight pairs of these dense compound eyes, and in the depths of each pair of eyes were reflected different ancient incantations.

*Crack crack crack—!!!*

This time, the joints could be heard cracking as the giant creature moved.

It hung upside down from the ceiling of the dungeon, eight compound eyes staring straight at the fox lady below, making an evil, human-like squeaking sound.

But more unsettling than its horrifying appearance was that the moment it appeared, almost the entire dungeon's air was filled with a bloody life essence.

The so-called [life essence], in Jinyue's perception, was not an adjective.

It was a noun that ordinary people would find hard to understand.

Because only those who had dealt with the followers of the Full Moon Cult would deeply understand what [life essence] meant.

*Crack crack crack crack—!*

Another sound of joints twisting and rubbing.

This time, as the giant worm with eight pairs of compound eyes lunged at her, she lightly bit her white teeth, her unyielding little face finally tinged with fear and despair—

"Not good..."

"It's the Full Moon Cult's breeding worm!"