章 28: Ch 28 - Not Like Acting
Earlier at the Buddha statue in the main hall, Yino already knew the trigger conditions for many traps.
But considering it was their first time decoding, he was worried that the mechanisms in this world might have changed. So he didn't immediately risk himself, but instead gradually guided Jinyue to the correct solution.
However, now it's different.
The smooth passage of the first level has already made Yino certain that the structure of this Mountain Temple is no different from the game.
Yino now has confidence.
Next, he must figure out how to trick Jinyue into falling into a trap so he can steal the hidden wealth from the Mountain Temple.
Yino won't soften his heart towards Jinyue just because of a moment's acquaintance.
He still remembers how Jinyue personally sent him to intrude into Yuyan's bath at the Grand Tutor's Mansion.
Even if Jinyue never showed malice towards him from beginning to end, the Pleasure Demon's mental state is not normal. She could say things like letting Yino "die more meaningfully" with a gentle face. Who knows if tonight she might use the same routine, looking at Yino's face with pity, and then cast an illusion to invite him to die?
In the past, Yino had no choice but to obey her.
But now, Yino has all the advantages, and he won't risk his life again to bet on Jinyue's conscience!
Moreover... The basement of this Mountain Temple is the forbidden area where Gu Wanglan imprisoned the Nine-Colored Deer.
If Yino can trap Jinyue here, when the secret treasure goes missing, there will be someone to take the blame.
"You must be very careful."
"Although I said I would protect you, we'd better not trigger any strange traps!"
Walking in the narrow passage of the basement, Jinyue said with concern.
Although Yino can't tell if she's playing, she's really adept at fitting into the role, acting as though she and Yino are truly close and relying on each other to survive.
"Don't worry, I'll only walk where you've walked."
Yino appears sincere as he dutifully trails Jinyue.
They gradually pass through the underground passage, but at the end, they glimpse a new world.
"!!..."
"There's actually a natural cave underground?"
Jinyue stands at the exit of the tunnel, looking around the cave with surprise.
This is genuine surprise. Although Jinyue possesses the power of prophecy and knows that the Nine-Colored Deer is hidden in the Mountain Temple by Gu Wanglan, she didn't know the specific internal structure of this place. This is her first time seeing it tonight.
*Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!*
Several bats fly by flapping their wings.
Jinyue was struck by a cold gust of wind, reminding him of the stifling danger lurking in the cave.
Jinyue's sixth sense as a fox spirit is ringing alarm bells. This is several times more dangerous than the aura of the Buddha statue in the main hall just now!
After all... How big can the Mountain Temple built above ground be?
But this underground cave is so vast, there's plenty of room to hide traps and mechanisms!
"If Senior Sister is scared, we should go back..."
Yino was still trying to persuade her to retreat.
In reality, he doesn't care what Jinyue decides.
If Jinyue chickens out, he can come to the Mountain Temple alone to loot.
If Jinyue doesn't chicken out, then he'll personally send Jinyue on her way in the upcoming cave!
"How could I be? This place looks quite spacious, it feels much safer than that creepy Buddha statue just now!"
The cherry-haired girl puts her hands on her hips and turns to smile at Yino.
But the drop of sweat sliding down her forehead still betrays her underlying uneasiness.
Although Yino doesn't understand why Jinyue is so obsessed with the Mountain Temple, he actually understands Jinyue's current awkward situation. She's a fox spirit with an innate succubus body, specializing in illusions, but illusions are only effective against living things. When it comes to dealing with physical traps and mechanisms, they're not as useful.
Otherwise, Jinyue would not have simply walked on a trap and been struck by an iron ball hanging from a tree.
Could she cast an illusion on the iron ball to make it not hit her?
Obviously not.
And this is precisely what gives Yino confidence for what's to come!
"Let's go!"
After a moment of adjusting her breath, Jinyue still musters up the courage to speak.
But she didn't jump into the cave alone. Instead, she turns around and extends a jade hand towards Yino.
Yino was just plotting how to get rid of Jinyue, and now suddenly being addressed, he stands there stunned, not reacting.
The girl blinks and curiously urges:
"Come on, hold my hand! It's so high down there, and you've just joined Wuji Sect. What if you fall and get hurt when we jump down?"
"Ah, oh..."
Yino nodded and steps forward to hold Jinyue's small hand.
She pulls him, and they jump into the cave together.
In mid-air, Jinyue tightly holds his hand. Turning back to see Yino's nervous expression, she can't help but smile and give him a sweet, flirtatious wink.
She didn't seem to hold any grudges at all.
At some point, this hand-holding seems to have gradually changed from Yino taking advantage at the beginning to becoming a habitual behavior for Jinyue.
Now, it's Yino who feels a bit of an unusual heartbeat.
-Is this the invisible influence of the succubus physique?-
Yino couldn't help muttering to himself.
It's not until they land safely that he snaps out of his trance from the girl's beautiful face, and warns himself not to truly believe in Jinyue's gentleness.
Another deer cry echoes from deep in the cave, providing them with a direction to move forward.
Jinyue's lovely eyes narrow and her look becomes determined:
"Let's go, it should be inside!"
"Mm."
She walks in front, and Yino follows after.
This time, Jinyue takes each step with extra caution. She remains fully alert, even considering each floor tile thoughtfully.
Yino is not in a hurry, just following Jinyue expressionlessly at a safe distance.
Until an unusual sound comes from beneath the girl, only then does a strange look flash in Yino's cold eyes.
He reacts quickly, taking two steps back early to keep his distance.
The next second, an unexpected change occurs. Several crossbow arrows shoot out from the mechanism behind Jinyue.
"Senior Sister, be careful!"
Yino shouts convincingly.
But Jinyue didn't have time to answer. She delicately nibbles her red lips, her captivating eyes reflecting a blood-red light, carefully watching the surrounding arrows and evading by bending her waist.
One, two, three...
"That was close!!"
Jinyue grits her teeth and lets out a light exclamation.
The last arrow grazes her chest. Although Jinyue dodges at the limit, it still cuts through the strap on her chest.
Jinyue covers her chest with her hand, leaning against the wall and breathing heavily in nervousness.
But at this moment, the sound of a young man's footsteps comes from not far away.
"Senior Sister, are you alright?"
Yino runs towards Jinyue with a worried face.
In an instant, alarm bells ring in Jinyue's heart. She wants to shout for him not to come over, but it's already too late when she opens her mouth.
*Click!*
Yino, following suit, also steps on a mechanism.
-Tsk, this fool.-
-I'm still waiting to use your jade pendant to kill Gu Wanglan, I can't waste it on such a small trap!-
Jinyue couldn't help but inwardly click her tongue as the situation approached, worried about Yino.
She rises up, frowning, her lovely eyes anxiously scanning Yino's surrounds, attempting to figure out where the trap will come from.
But the following second, Jinyue was swamped by an unparalleled deadly stimulus.
-Wait! Why is the trap he stepped on coming towards me?!-
*Rumble rumble rumble!!!*
A huge stone ball falls from above.
This time, Jinyue reacted quickly, lunging forward to avoid the tragedy of being flattened into a meat patty.
The stone ball crashed to the ground, cutting off the path between Jinyue and Yino, and also raising a cloud of dust that blocked their view of each other.
For a moment, with her retreat cut off, Jinyue couldn't help but feel a bit flustered.
She had already been as careful as possible, standing still and not daring to move, but the traps in this cave seemed to be pre-set chain reactions. As the falling boulder forced Jinyue to move, other dormant mechanisms around her were triggered again.
Suddenly, poisoned arrows and spikes came at Jinyue from all directions.
"Not good..."
Jinyue tried to dodge.
But the more she jumped left and right, the more mechanisms activated, forming a dense crossfire of hidden weapons that, combined with the terrain advantage, surrounded Jinyue.
"Damn it, what kind of sick taste does Gu Wanglan have..."
Jinyue was out of breath after several minutes of urgent dodges.
Now she no longer cared about being careful and simply let loose, recklessly triggering mechanisms in the cave.
As the number of activated mechanisms reached a certain level, Jinyue finally revealed her true fox spirit form without restraint.
Invisible flames spread over her body, transforming into a Gothic-style blood-red evening gown.
At the same time, three flaming red tails formed behind her, clearly displaying her true form.
*Rumble!!!*
Several more boulders rolled down from above.
Jinyue didn't bother dodging anymore. She swept her large, fluffy red fox tails, using them as a three-dimensional defense to brutally intercept all dangers in mid-air.
The battle continued for several more minutes.
As the dust gradually settled, the figure of a white-robed young man appeared on a pile of rubble not far away.
His eyes were icy as he stood on the stone pile, looking around. His white Daoist robe was clean of dirt.
Perhaps realizing that his clean clothes were out of place in the surrounding environment, the young man casually leaned against a nearby stone pile to dirty his white robe, while also smearing some mud on his face.
After finishing his disguise, he continued deeper into the cave.
Along the way, the young man tried his best to erase his footprints and took out a piece of felt from his bosom, scattering the hairs it contained on the cave ruins along the path.
These were hairs with the scent of a fox spirit.
He had used various accidents to hug and embrace Jinyue, unknowingly collecting many of her hairs and scents.
Finally, after half an hour's journey, he saw the cherry-haired girl collapsed on the ground at the end of the cave.
She looked as disheveled as he did.
But the difference was that he had dirtied himself on purpose, while she truly had blood at the corner of her mouth and tattered, blood-stained clothes...
Yino stood at a distance, staring at her, his cold eyes narrowed as he observed for a moment.
After a while. He cried out in alarm and rushed forward.
"Senior Jinyue! Are you alright?"
"I'm sorry... It's all my fault..."
He hugged the dying girl, his face pale with guilt.
Seeing that the young man was about to cry, Jinyue finally opened her enchanting eyes.
She gazed at Yino's tear-filled eyes, and a blood-colored seal like a kaleidoscope flashed in her lovely eyes.
At the same time, the blood-colored seal was reflected in Yino's eyes, but he showed no unusual reaction, just continued to hold Jinyue and apologize with a heart full of guilt.
Until a teardrop fell on Jinyue's face, the girl's suspicious blood-colored enchanting eyes suddenly became a bit clearer.
-It's not an act...-
-He really cried for me.-
At some point, Jinyue's lovely eyes took on a strange expression.
How many years had it been since someone had cared for her since her homeland was destroyed...
Jinyue said nothing, allowing Yino to bury his face in her bosom and sob.
She leaned against Yino, quietly feeling his heartbeat.
A long time passed.
Perhaps tired of playing dead.
Jinyue opened her peach blossom eyes again, her lips curling into a smile:
"Silly, look how scared you are..."
"I'm not dead yet!"
This time, Jinyue comforted him sincerely.
She sat up, gently touching the young man's face and whispering sweetly.
As if the girl's complexion had suddenly improved dramatically. Her lovely little face, leaning on Yino's shoulder, reddened, and her breathing changed dramatically from when she was dying.
It was like an inner play that both parties had predicted for each other.
On the other side, after passing Jinyue's illusion test, Yino's eyes also briefly flashed with coldness.
He wiped tears from the corners of his eyes and held the girl in his arms with a joyful expression:
"Senior Sister, you really scared me just now!"
"I thought I would never..."
Yino spoke sincerely. In those few seconds just now, he had almost thought through all the sad things from his previous life.
Jinyue pursed her cherry lips, her feelings torn, as she noticed the culprit was worried about her.
She had actually thought about grabbing his collar and asking why he had come over to trigger the trap on his own, but all these blaming emotions became speechless at the instant when that tear full of guilt fell.
Because Jinyue had confirmed his sincerity with her illusion.
This meant he didn't do it intentionally.
He was just a junior brother who had just entered the sect, brought by Jinyue to this dangerous place like the Mountain Temple. Even if he made a mistake unintentionally, what right did Jinyue have to blame him?
Hadn't Jinyue triggered enough mechanisms herself?
Moreover... He was wholeheartedly devoted to Jinyue, but Jinyue only treated him as a pawn, once sending him to his death.
Jinyue was now really starting to doubt if he had already fallen in love with her.
Otherwise... Why would he, being so afraid and uneasy, still follow her to the Mountain Temple to take risks without hesitation?
Otherwise, how could he shed tears for a strange girl? Since infiltrating the Wuji Sect disguised as a junior sister, Jinyue had been confessed to by righteous cultivators many times.
If Yino had also fallen in love with her, it wouldn't be strange at all.
-Foolish...-
After another long rest, Jinyue broke free from Yino's embrace.
She sat up by herself, rubbed her eyes, and then looked around.
"Senior Sister, why don't we go back? This place is really too dangerous..."
Yino advised for what seemed like the umpteenth time.
Of course, he wasn't sincere. He just didn't want to continue gambling.
If so many traps hadn't harmed Jinyue at all, then there weren't many chances left in the final stage ahead.
"We've come this far..."
This time, Jinyue obviously hesitated for a few seconds.
But soon, she shook her head, her enchanting eyes determined as she said, "The end should be just ahead. Let's finish this last part."
"But I'm worried about you Sister..."
Yino sighed with some helplessness.
Jinyue smiled and voluntarily turned around in front of Yino, showing that her body was unharmed: "Look, I'm really fine! Alive and kicking! Those little traps were nothing!"
"Alright, instead of worrying about me, you should worry more about yourself!"
"You're right."
Yino's lips twitched slightly. Seeing there was no way out, he could only helplessly follow Jinyue.
He hadn't expected Jinyue to be so tough, enduring all the traps and mechanisms with only scratches. In his previous life, Yino had respawned at checkpoints countless times while exploring the Mountain Temple in the game!
-Next, there's the final stage...-
-She just pretended to be dead to test me, which means Jinyue is already suspicious of me!-
-If I can't kill her in this last stage, it might be my turn to be thrown of after she's done using me!-
Recalling the walkthrough of the Mountain Temple from his previous life, Yino's thoughts were tense in his mind.
But just then, he accidentally stepped on another mechanism.
This time, Yino didn't do it on purpose. He really hadn't expected there to be a trap on this path that Jinyue hadn't triggered.
"Yino, Be careful!"
In the last second before the poisoned arrow struck, a red tail swept across.
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