Chapter 419: Breaking the Cages
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Zhang Yang replied immediately, "Naga King. I assume that you have a brilliant idea?"
Cynapor laughed. "Brilliant? Wrong there. I’d called it the last measure. That idiot Julio is our answer. Didn’t he want my head? Then, a head he shall get. I’d bet the Trident of Poseidon that he would take the head to meet Madran! When he does, I want you to follow him! That is how you can sneak past the magic seal."
Joe Was suddenly grew anxious. There was a glint of panic in his eyes. "My king, you are our king! The King of Naga! Without your leadership, we would be nothing but wandering soldiers!"
Cynapor sighed and smacked Joe Was lightly at the back of his head. "You fool. Do you think that I would take my own head off for the death of a simple human? I never said that I would give him my head. I will use magic to create a head. The human warrior could take the fake one and trick the idiot Julio!"
"Phew! That freaked me out!" Joe Was calmed down.
"What’s up with those naming…Joe Was?" Wei Yan Er cocked her head.
"It’s just a name, get over it," said Zhang Yang.
Cynapor clapped his hands together. A faint light glowed around his hands, which grew larger and brighter in a green hue. The light formed a ball and flew a few centimeters away from him and started to form a human-sized ball. The ball kept on spinning and spinning as if it was a 3D printer. After two minutes of "printing", the light faded and revealed a head that was the exact copy of Cynapor’s. There was even blood dripping from the severed neck! Complete with a dangling spine and blood vessels! Anyone who sees it would surely be struck with horror!
The move had surely taken a toll on Cynapor. Panting heavily, Cynapor lifted the head from the ground and handed it over to Zhang Yang. "The magic in his head will last only for 12 hours. I urge you to hurry. Fu…"
Zhang Yang accepted the head and immediately placed it in his inventory. "Thank you. We will set off for the Island of the Sacred One immediately."
The 10 of them headed out of the palace without saying anything else, and shot towards the island. Besides Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue, the rest of the team had no water mounts and had to swim by their own efforts. Zhang Yang feared that by the time they reach the island, the "head" would only have only a few minutes left. That was unless they swam like Michael Phelps.
During the designing of this quest, the person had already factored in the possibility of a player not possessing any aquatic mount. That was why, the assigned magic duration was 12 hours.
"Take the time to train here, guys. I’ll reach the island first, and I will summon you guys there with the order."
Everyone nodded and turned around to start killing underwater monsters.
The [Party Summon Order] only one hour of cool down time. Zhang Yang had taken close to 2 hours to travel from the island to the place in the beginning, which left him plenty of time to use the [Party Summon Order].
Since he was in a hurry, Zhang Yang had summoned the turtle and used all its strength to get him to the island as fast as possible. He had not even had the spare time to harvest the herbs! In return for his efforts, the turtle had only taken half an hour to reach the island. He quickly used the [Party Summon Order] and called the nine other members who were left behind.
"Let’s go!"
Everyone summoned their mounts and galloped towards the location of Julio. With haste, the team had reached hillside, leaving a trail of dust behind them.
"Lord Julio. I have completed my mission!" Zhang Yang jumped down from his bear and handed the bloody head to him.
"Hmm?" Julio turned and check the head that he had just received. After a short duration of skepticism, the man smiled sinisterly and laughed manically. "This is it! This is wonderful! Magnificent! The bloody seaman is dead! With this head, Lord Madran will finally have an audience with me! I will be one of his trusted men!"
After laughing for a good minute, Julio stopped promptly when he realized that he was completely out of character. "Good job in completing the mission. Well done," said Julio, back in his usual stern voice.
Since the quest [Kill Cynapor] was deleted, the party had not received any rewards.
Just when Julio was about to turn away, Zhang Yang placed a hand on his shoulder and put up the best fake smile. "Lord Julio. We are loyal believers of the Sacred One. We wish to have an audience with the Lord himself. Would that be too much to ask?" Zhang Yang could physically throw up right away, if he ever heard himself saying that out loud.
"Imbecile! Do you think I do not know what are you up to?! You wish to take all the credit away from me!" Julio started to get all aggressive and raised his voice. "Scram! Begone!"
Wei Yan Er frowned angrily. With her finger tapping on the handle of her axe, she asked Zhang Yang, "Noobie tank, can I skill this douche now?"
"Hold your horse, sweetheart. Let him disable the magic seal first." Zhang Yang grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. The party left, but not for long. They went into hiding in the bushes, near the station where Julio was. After a while, Julio was spotted leaving the station with a horse. Zhang Yang gave the signal to his team and tailed him until Julio reached the center of the island, where the palace was.
After a short gallop, Julio had arrived at a magic circle. He got down the horse rather sloppily and took out a piece of crystal. He walked to the magic barrier and pressed the crystal against the magical wall. The barrier wall absorbed the crystal and formed countless of bright lines which formed the hologram of a human head. "Why are you disturbing me, Julio!?"
"Lord Marvados!" Julio kneeled down and unwrap small cloth to reveal the head of Cynapor. "Your humble servant has killed the King of Naga, Cynapor and wishes to deliver his head to the lord!"
The hologram looked down on Julio and glared at the head. "You have done well Julio. You shall bring the head of Cynapor and come to me. The Sacred One will be pleased!"
Bzz…
The head hologram dispersed. The barrier that Julio was facing suddenly made a loud, thunderous crack. A tear in the barrier seal was seen opening up.
Pleased, Julio wrapped the head and walked into the barrier.
"This is it! Jump him!" Zhang Yang cried. All the party member kicked their mounts and dashed towards the crack in the barrier.
Hidden behind the opaque barrier was a huge circular magical altar, surrounded by many stone figure. Each of the statues was anomaly huge and were made to be positioned to look at other stone statues at the center of the circle.
Zhang Yang had immediately recognized one of the statues at the 1 o’clock direction. It had the same face as the man who had appeared as the hologram earlier on. If that was the case, these 13 stone statues would represent the 12 Disciples and Madran himself.
"You---!" Julio turned back and found that Zhang Yang had successfully breached the barrier. With rage in his eyes, Julio bellowed angrily. "I’ll crush you! I’d do anything to prevent you from grabbing the right to meet Lord Madran!"
"…What a stuck up boss. I’d say, he might be as stuck up as the fatty!" said Han Ying Xue with a sinister grin.
"Yo…What did I do to you?" said Fatty Han with a sad, close-to-crying kind of expression. In his defense, Fatty Han felt that he was indeed a little more perverted than a regular man. But being a pervert had nothing to do with being an *sshole like Julio!
Julio puffed out angry steam from his nostrils and jumped down his horse. He unsheathed the sword from his waist and attacked Zhang Yang who was the closest to him.
"Little brat. You can now kill the man. Go wild!" Zhang Yang received the attack and grabbed onto the boss’ aggro firmly.
From the moment she saw the NPC, she already had insatiable urge to beat the crap out of him. Now that she had received the green light from Zhang Yang, she yelled her battle cry and leaped into the battle axe-first.
The rest of the party did not stand to watch, and moved to their attack positions.
It did not take long for the party to kill a mere Yellow-Gold boss. In the end, they had killed the boss and obtained a Yellow-Gold and two Gray-Silver equipment from Julio.
[Sinister Ambush Chestplate] (Yellow-Gold, Leather Armor)
Defense: +24
Vitality: +302
Strength: +121
Dexterity: +274
Level Requirement: 90
Without the shine of a Violet-Platinum light, the best they got was a shiny gold luster. The four Leather Armor classed players rolled for the item which was won by Hundred Shot, rolling 87 points.
As for the Gray-Silvers, there was a silent agreement that it should be sent, packaged, and delivered to the Little Merchandise Shop. There were no Violet-Platinum drops, since the boss was nothing but a small minion. It was already fortunate of them to obtain some loot in the first place!
"There’s a door there!" cried Daffodil Daydream. The young lady pointed at the direction of the statue at the 1 o’clock direction. Beneath the statue was a secret passage, with a staircase that led down to the underground. It was probably opened for Julio.
"Hmm. Looks like the master is welcoming us directly. Well, might as well make ourselves at home!"
Everyone walked down the stairs and was greeted with nothing but darkness. With a quick thought, Zhang Yang had reactivated the equipment effect and it had lit up the pathway like a megawatt lantern.
Wan Yan Er suddenly laughed out of control and had to stop walking. "Noobie tank! Pffft! Are you a---wait for it---a firefly?! HAHAHAHA!"
"Wait! He’s not some bug! I’d say, he like the sun in the sky! Shining brightly!" said Endless Starlight, kissing Zhang Yang’s butt.
Everyone laughed and immediately understood the underlying meaning behind Endless Starlight sudden cries. However, it was indeed helpful. With Zhang Yang leading down the staircase, it was much easier to see.
After 5 minutes of walking, they had walked out of the narrow pathway and had arrived at a large, empty hall. The hall was much brighter now, and the party had just realized that it was extremely huge. The ceiling was at least a hundred meters tall, and the hall was at least the size of three football stadiums! In this massive empty hall, there was an indented area, which revealed itself as a pool of blood when the party had gotten close. No one knew how deep it went, but one thing was sure, it was blood, and it was boiling.
Right behind the massive, Olympic-sized pool, were cages with a human in each cage. Despair, dread, and hopelessness were in their eyes.
From afar, Zhang Yang could see three soldiers doing something. One of the soldiers had opened a cage up and pulled out a man. The two other soldiers dragged the man by his feet towards the pool. With nothing but the screams of horror, the soldier had pulled out a long broadsword and had cleaved the man’s head off, clean.
Thud…*rolls*…Splash!
The head rolled on the ground and fell into the pool of blood. The soldier then picked up the headless body and tossed it into the pool as well.
"Not bad. A clean cut, today! Looks like you’re getting the hang of it."
"Yeah. It’s the sword, it’s all about the sword. It’s nice to have it sharpened once in a while."
"Don’t sweat it. We’ll be given a new blade soon enough when this is over."
"Hahaha. You’re absolutely right! I swear that---"
The chattering of the soldier dissipated into the darkness as they left the pool.
Zhang Yang saw what had happened and felt the dread of it. "Erhm…I think Cynapor was wrong after all. It’s not a special sacrifice that Madran needed to retrieve. Its blood. A lot of blood."
"That looks more like a human goulash…"
The party moved around the pool and tried to follow the soldiers. As they walked closer to the scene, they found more markings on the stone slab where the most recent parting of a head from its shoulders had just occurred. It appeared that countless heads had rolled into the pool and had stained the flood with so much blood, that it had dried and formed a thick layer of blood plaster. Rage burned in their hearts, and the urge to seek revenge boiled like the pool of blood.
When Zhang Yang had gotten closer to the cages, one of the women in cages reached out her extremely thin arms, begging for Zhang Yang and his party to save her.
"H-Help…me…pl-ple-se…"
Her voice was so frail. Her face, especially, told of the days or even weeks she had not been fed. She was so skinny that she was practically skin and bones left.
Sun Xin Yu was the first person to react to her plea. With quick movements, she jumped to the cage and busted the lock, releasing the poor woman from her captivity.
"You’re safe now." Said Sun Xin Yu with the softest voice that Zhang Yang had ever heard. It was extremely soothing to hear her voice when she was not putting up a cold act. The woman cried and hugged Sun Xin Yu. "Why…Why…I don’t understand. Why would the Sacred One do these to us! We believed him! We worshiped him! The Sacred One…no…his is not the Sacred One. He is the Damned! The Damned One!"
"Hush now. It’s alright. I will make this right," said Sun Xin Yu as she wiped away the tears from the poor woman’s eyes.
After stroking her hair and face for a while, the poor woman calmed down and said, "Brave ones, I beg of you! Please save everyone here!"
‘Ding! Lena has a quest for you: Breaking Free. Will you accept it?’
Accept.
[Breaking Free] (Difficulty Level: A)
Quest Description: Lena had requested that you rescue all of the captive prisoners. Note: There are 12 places such as this. They are all guarded by Madran’s 12 Disciples. Every 5 minutes, each blood pool will claim one prisoner. To complete the quest, you must prevent the deaths of 500 prisoners. The quest will be deemed failure when the death toll had surpassed 500. Each rescued prisoner will increase the reward experience points by 1%
Progress: Rescue all the prisoners 0/1
Zhang Yang then unsheathed the blade and swung it forcefully, causing the metal cage in front of him to collapse, freeing the prisoner inside. With a loud voice, he yelled, "We will free all of you. Please, find a way outside this place and inform everyone of the truth of Madran!"
One by one, the prisoners were freed by Zhang Yang with the help of everyone in the party. All of the prisoners had mixed feelings. Some were extremely grateful for Zhang Yang and his party while the others were burning with rage, even though there were little to no life force to them. From their perspective, they had traveled a great distance just to worship the person who they thought was the Sacred One. Who would have known that they were captured and treated as livestock, instead!
"Something’s wrong!"
A voice came from the far side of the pool. It was the three soldiers who had killed a person from before. The soldiers had found out there the prisoner had escaped their cages and had alerted more soldiers to come into the hall. Close to 10 or more soldiers had mysteriously spawned out of nowhere and had joined the fight.
Some of the prisoners who had just been sprung from their cages ran back to the broken cages in fear. Zhang Yang had dashed to the front and called out to Endless Starlight. "Starlight. Come. Let’s wrap this up quick."
"You got it boss."
With the battle hammer in his hands, Endless Starlight did not wait for Zhang Yang, and rushed at the incoming soldiers.
The enemies were only Level 93 monsters. There was a total of 15 of them. For other parties with average equipment, this situation might be a little too much for them to handle. But for Zhang Yang and Endless Starlight, it was just a regular grinding session. The soldiers could not break through the line of defense and could only throw insults at them.
"Heretics! The wrath of the Sacred One shall befall upon you! The judgment of God is absolute!" cried the soldiers.
"Tch! Sacred One? Don’t make me laugh. He is nothing, but the devil himself!" said Endless Starlight.
Zhang Yang activated {Blast Wave} and stunned the soldiers. The Sword of Purging Devourer glowed and repeated the skill over, and over again!
Sun Xin Yu and the rest started their attack. Like hungry tigers, the team devoured the soldiers in just two minutes. Among the loot that they had picked up, there was a new cloth material, the [Inscribed Cloth]. Besides using the cloth in the profession of Tailoring, it could be used to create [Inscribed Bandages] which could heal 20,000 HP over the period of 10 seconds.
Zhang Yang had picked up a set of keys from the fallen soldiers, and had given the keys to the freed prisoners and had released the other prisoners who were still in their cages. The party then left the place and searched for the door of which the soldiers had come through.
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