Underground Ruins

According to the Count of Earl of Monte Cristo, the entrance to this ruin is inside the temple.

"Let's go, everyone be careful," Xiao Yu said, leading the way inside.

Although he kept saying he was being careful, Xiao Yu wasn't particularly nervous. He had weathered many storms, and this small ruin was nothing to him.

Entering the temple, Xiao Yu looked around at his surroundings. The temple before him seemed to have endured the test of time, or perhaps it had survived a massive storm. Walls were partially collapsed everywhere, and a large hole had been torn in the roof. The massive stone slabs that served as the ceiling had shattered into pieces on the ground, and sunlight streamed through the hole. The entire temple seemed to be teetering on the brink of collapse.

The reliefs and murals on the walls are completely unrecognizable, making it impossible to determine the temple's age or ownership.

Passing through the empty outer sanctuary, and entering the inner temple, one sees a group of people standing in the main hall of the temple; who else could it be but the Earl of Monte Cristo and his men?

Xiao Yu counted them; there were exactly twenty people, not one more, not one less.

It seems the Earl of Monte Cristo is quite trustworthy.

Upon discovering their arrival, the adventurers instinctively raised their weapons.

Xiao Yu's side, naturally, was not to be outdone, and they all became vigilant as well.

Both sides instinctively felt a tense standoff!

However, the atmosphere quickly relaxed as the Earl of Monte Cristo walked over with a smile, gesturing to his men to lower the fog as he went.

"Don't be nervous, everyone, good morning! You're all pretty punctual."

He had already arrived in front of Xiao Yu while he was speaking.

"Same here. By the way, are you sure this is the entrance to the underground ruins? I don't see any passageway at all," Xiao Yu asked, looking around in confusion.

"Haha, don't worry, I saw it clearly in the Undead Andrew's soul fragment. The entrance is right here, just follow me. Oh, by the way, let's form a team first."

As the Earl of Monte Cristo spoke, he extended a team invitation.

[System notification: The Earl of Monte Cristo invites you to join his team.]

"Huh? You can actually team up?" Xiao Yu couldn't help but sigh. Adventurers teaming up with monsters? This game is really bizarre. But wait a minute, if I accept his invitation, wouldn't he become the team leader?

Xiao Yu said, "Why don't you join my team?"

The Earl of Monte Cristo patiently explained, "I don't mean to take the captain's position, but I feel that as the only one who knows anything about this ruin, it would be better for me to be the captain and give command. Don't you agree?"

"A perfectly reasonable reason," Xiao Yu thought for a moment, then smiled slightly, "As you wish."

But in his heart he thought, "This guy is also someone who refuses to be second to anyone."

Everyone readily accepted the invitation, and soon the team was complete: twenty humans and twenty Undead, a total of forty people. However, the sight of the Undead and humans acting together was somewhat eerie.

Although the teams had already been formed and their names appeared as green friendly units, both sides remained on guard, with a clear distinction between them.

Led by the Count of Earl of Monte Cristo, the group arrived at the deepest part of the temple.

"See that statue? The entrance is behind it," the Earl of Monte Cristo said, pointing to the enormous statue before them.

It was a headless statue that was over ten meters tall and looked to weigh at least ten tons.

Although the game's environment is destructible, due to the laws of physics, pushing it aside is probably impossible, and blasting it open would consume an absurd number of spell slots.

This stone statue became the first problem facing everyone.

"Use magic—use Transmute Rock to Mud! Two shots to the legs, mage!"

As the Earl of Monte Cristo spoke, one of the wizards in his party immediately stepped forward.

The sorcerer looked the stone statue up and down. In fact, it wasn't necessary to turn the entire statue into mud; just the legs would suffice. He pointed his staff at the statue's knees, which were clearly the thinnest part.

Level 3 Magic - Transmute Rock to Mud!

The statue's knees suddenly went limp and could no longer support the statue's enormous weight. The massive statue immediately tilted to one side, broke off at the knee, and crashed to the ground.

Everyone was so frightened that they scattered and hid. With a loud bang, the floor beneath their feet trembled.

Looking at the statue again, only the base containing the two feet and lower legs remained. This made it much easier to push it aside. With everyone working together, they easily pushed the base of the statue to the side, revealing the entrance to a passage below.

"See, I told you so," the Count of Earl of Monte Cristo said with a smile, pulling out a torch without hesitation and leading the way inside. The group followed in single file and soon entered the passageway.

The passageway sloped downwards, a huge tunnel five meters high and wide. As the group gradually went deeper, all the light around them disappeared. The entrance to the passageway became a point of light in the distant darkness behind them, with only the light of torches illuminating the surroundings.

However, this darkness has no effect on the Undead.

As he walked, Xiao Yu surveyed his surroundings. This was clearly an underground city, and quite large at that. Generally, the size of an underground city is proportional to the size of its entrance.

The sides of the passage are very smooth and flat, and so far we haven't seen any monsters, so it seems safe.

However, a doubt arose in his mind. He had gone through the process of loading soul fragments. The memories in the soul could only record the memories of the person in question. Since the god of Naraku, God of Death, sent the Undead Andrew to find this ruin, and Andrew attacked Fang Fortress for the ruin, and the entrance to the temple did not seem to have been opened, it was clear that Andrew had not yet succeeded. In other words, he had not yet entered this ruin.

So, it's clear he wouldn't have any memory of the interior of this ruin, but why did the Earl of Monte Cristo act as if he knew it all too well?

This thought immediately put him on alert. The Earl of Monte Cristo was indeed suspicious; it was very likely that this ruin wasn't something he discovered from Andrew's memories, but something he already knew about. Andrew's memories were just a pretext. He wondered what Count Monte Cristo intended to do by leading him to the ruins.

Had he already arranged for his men to ambush him inside the ruins? But that's pointless. At most, he'd kill himself and his men once, get some equipment, and cause them to lose some experience. But this is just a game; he can't possibly defeat himself completely.

"Boss, could the Earl of Monte Cristo have sent men to ambush us down there?" the Big Water Cunt behind him suddenly asked.

"Don't worry, what good would it do him?"

"Wow, loot drops! We're all wearing our best gear this time!"

It's impossible to set up such a huge scheme just for a little bit of equipment.

Xiao Yu thought to himself, "But wait a minute, who says this Earl of Monte Cristo is necessarily going to defeat me? Maybe he's just an ordinary gamer trying to make money this way. For the average player, wiping out an elite team and getting a bunch of equipment is already a huge gain."

The thought immediately startled Xiao Yu. He suddenly realized that he had fallen into a cognitive trap, forgetting that not everyone has bigger goals like him. For ordinary players, equipment level is what they pursue.

Just as I was thinking about it, suddenly, a fork in the road appeared ahead, or rather, a crossroads.

A main road stretched straight ahead, with two smaller paths on either side.

Wait, it's not like we're sticking to one path all the way through?