Chapter 185: Dragon Valley (17+18)
The Duke obviously wanted to stop Su Yue from going to the tree hole, but he had no way to stop him.
After all, he is just an NPC.
NPCs may have strong combat power or abnormal authority in the dungeon, but their behavior must be restricted by the rules. As long as the player's behavior does not violate the rules and death conditions, they cannot do anything to the player.
So when faced with a master of word games like Su Yue, the Duke had no way to deal with it.
...Of course, this time it was Cang Zhi who was playing word games with the Duke.
"How did you learn it?" Su Yue looked at Cang Zhi in surprise.
"Isn't it possible?" Cang Zhi asked back.
"...Yes, I can." Su Yue was choked and thought to himself, it's just a little unlike you.
After all, the only difference between the previous Cangzhi and Mu Tou was that he could breathe and didn't have so many thoughts.
It was even more impossible to help him with my hands when he was poisoned—
stop.
Why do I think about yesterday even at this moment?
.
Now that they had triggered the hidden quest "Help the Dragon Clan Escape," the purpose of their exploration became clearer. He planned to go into the cave and revisit the two caves he had seen from the dragon clan's memories: the dragon clan's burial place and the dragon clan's breeding ground.
Su Yue was very concerned about the huge black pillar that he saw in the dragon clan's memory, which seemed to reach the ceiling, because he did not remember seeing such a thing in the cave.
He wanted to go and see it in person again. The deviation between memory and reality might be the key to solving the mystery.
Moreover, the villagers all spoke the language of the dragon clan. He learned this key information after eating the fruit. The Duke and other NPCs who did not speak dragon language also cared very much about this cave.
This is a game, not reality. No invalid information will be given in the game. All information revolves around the cave. There is no doubt that the cave is the key to solving the hidden task.
The other players seemed very curious about what Su Yue and the others were doing. After all, the hidden mission was open to everyone, but they did nothing. Naturally, they knew that it must be Su Yue and the others who triggered the hidden mission.
However, these players didn't ask. Because in a game of this level, players are more powerful and more cautious. Even if they asked Su Yue, he might not tell them. It's better not to ask, highlighting that they are harmless, which can actually make the atmosphere more friendly.
"By the way, can you guys do me a favor?" It was Su Yue who asked.
The players immediately rushed to answer, "You say."
Su Yue gathered everyone together, making sure the Duke couldn't hear, and then whispered, "I'd like you to help me find something thick, something like a pillar, or any legends related to it, in the library or in this town. Thank you."
On the one hand, the dragon clan remembers the pillar in the cave, but now the pillar is gone.
On the other hand, the pillar can stimulate the reproductive power of the dragon clan. The poison in Su Yue's body was caused by him getting close to the pillar in an illusion, and he became completely uncontrollable. This shows that the pillar is definitely famous.
Whatever it is, it will never go wrong to do some research.
Last time, no records of the coexistence of humans and dragons were found in the library. Now we know that the content of the coexistence between humans and dragons is not important, and understanding the dragons themselves is the key.
Su Yue also told Zhao Shuo privately that he could find one or two players he trusted to search for content related to the dragon clan, curses, rituals, or the dragon clan's enemies.
Because he already had the suspicion that the villagers were dragons, then seeing the villagers' unfriendly look, he knew that they were not staying here voluntarily.
The players didn’t know what Su Yue was planning, but this person came back alive from the cave and was able to trigger a hidden mission. Even if they were afraid and unwilling to help, they would still agree to it verbally.
Moreover, there are a few people who have already decided to cling to Su Yue, so they are naturally more active.
At that moment, everyone agreed with a good attitude.
Su Yue didn't expect them to help much, as long as they could give him some face. Anyway, Zhao Shuo was there, so he just had to rely on Zhao Shuo.
"Can you guys go now?" The Duke looked at the players gathered in a circle and chattering, and finally couldn't help but raised his voice to urge them.
He didn't get the fruit from the tree last night, and was taken advantage of this morning. Now Su Yue took advantage of him and ignored him. He was so angry that he almost died.
As the Duke spoke, his teeth chattered and the muscles on his face trembled strangely, as if he could no longer maintain his human form and was about to reveal his true form.
Biography
The Duke said fiercely: "If you don't leave now, then——"
Su Yue: "Don't worry, we'll leave now."
The Duke had no prestige at all and was toyed with by Su Yue and Cang Zhi. When he finally wanted to be fierce, his spell was interrupted. It seemed that the Duke was on his last legs.
The players had no good feelings towards NPCs like them, and were secretly happy at this moment.
.
Came to the familiar cave again.
Although it is called a cave, we should emphasize the terrain here again. The town is actually a mountain settlement located in the belly of the mountain, surrounded by mountains on all sides. The only way to get here is a "line of sky" sandwiched between mountain walls on both sides. In reality, such a town is unlikely to exist. Even if there are townspeople, they will soon move out, because staying in such a deep mountain, there is no way to grow crops, it is difficult to make a living from the mountain, and there is no way to communicate with the outside world.
So the cave next to the town is actually connected to the entire mountain outside the town. The entrance to the cave is very small, but there is a different world inside the cave. Even if you don’t encounter any danger, if you walk around inside, it is normal to get lost and die of starvation or thirst.
However, for Su Yue and Cang Zhi, passing through such a cave is not a difficult task.
They quickly followed the old road and found the dragon clan's burial ground. The last time Su Yue passed by here, he saw river water under the stone beam and the faint reflection of the skeleton under the river, but he did not go down.
Because the underground river has no sunlight all year round, the water is icy cold, and there might be something in it. At that time, he was only interested in finding the fruit, so it was not appropriate for him to go down.
But this time Cang Zhi was also by his side, so he naturally went down without any worries.
It was very cold when they first entered the water, but not unbearable. Su Yue and Cang Zhi swam one after the other, and no one spoke.
The only sound in the cave was the sound of the waves breaking when the two people splashed in the water.
After swimming for about two or three minutes, the water level became noticeably shallower. I waded forward a few steps and my view suddenly became clear.
They came to the burial place of the dragon clan.
The vast, empty underground cavern was exactly as Su Yue had seen it in his hallucination. A faint blue light flickered on the cavern walls, perhaps some kind of ore or insect swarm, illuminating the entire cavern. The ground was littered with bones, their remains visible, and one could still discern the dragons' final postures: they lay prone or crouched, having already found the most comfortable positions for their death.
Su Yue subconsciously slowed down his footsteps. Any louder noise here would be considered a disturbance to the dragons.
He and Cang Zhi walked around in the underground cave. The further they went into the inner circle, the more dragon bones they found. When they reached a certain place, they both stopped.
Those were two particularly conspicuous dragon skeletons. Their skeletons were a circle larger than those of other dragons and had an ivory-like, exceptionally smooth color.
What is more noticeable than their appearance is the shape of the two dragon bones. Their necks are wrapped around each other, their claws are on each other, and it is almost impossible to tell whose bones are whose.
It was as if they were hugging each other tightly, welcoming death in an inseparable form.
"Suicide for love?" Su Yue muttered, then looked carefully again, "No."
"He died in a fight." Cang Zhi said.
Su Yue also saw that one dragon's sternum was shattered, and another had dents and scars on its neck and skull. These wounds were deep into the bone, so you can imagine how serious they were.
I'm afraid these two dragons are still fighting until they die. In the end, no one knows who will win or whether they will die together.
Su Yue sighed, "Sure enough, we shouldn't imagine such a beautiful love."
He squatted down to observe the two dragon skeletons, because this was definitely not an ordinary fight. Just looking at the size of these two dragons, they were obviously much larger than the other dragons in the tomb. They were at least small leaders.
Cang Zhi stood beside Su Yue, seemingly distracted by what he had just said, but soon he came over and cooperated, and together with Su Yue, tried to find some useful information from the two dragon bones.
.
Su Yue quickly noticed that one of the two dragon skeletons had a faint dark blue tint beneath the ivory white bones, but the other dragon skeleton did not have this condition.
In order to confirm their discovery, they specifically looked at the broken parts of the dragon bones. Sure enough, the inside of one of the dragon's bones was the normal grayish white, while the other dragon's bones could be seen from the cross-section. Except for the outermost circle which was still the normal ivory white, the inner circle had turned into a dark gray color.
They searched for other dragon bones in the tomb. Most of them were grayish white, but there were also five or six with a rotten gray inside.
This should represent two factions.
To some extent, this explains why the dragon clan is becoming increasingly rare. Apart from that, there is nothing to explore here in the cemetery. Su Yue continued to move forward along the route he remembered from the perspective of the dragon clan. Soon, he smelled the sweet fragrance of tree fruits in the air. They were about to walk from the dragon clan's burial place to the dragon clan's breeding ground.
A rich sweet fragrance floats in the air.
Su Yue: "..."
He paused, realizing a very serious problem.
.
When reading the memories, the dragons felt the rich fragrance of tree fruits near their breeding grounds. Simply put, this fragrance has aphrodisiac effects, and the effect on the dragons is particularly strong.
The first time Su Yue was poisoned was when he took the ambergris. The faint fragrance of the ambergris itself is a toxin that can arouse lust, and when it is stimulated by the fragrance of the fruit, the player will be unable to control himself when faced with the illusion of lust and will go to die.
So this time, he also knew that he would be poisoned if he took the ambergris.
But if it was based on the fruity scent he smelled when he first came to the cave, that concentration was not enough to arouse the poison.
He didn't care.
The problem is that the fragrance of the fruits from this road leading to the dragon's breeding ground is several times stronger than the first road we took.
…
Still with Cangzhi.
…………
Su Yue stopped.
As the sweet fragrance floated in the air, he could feel his body temperature slowly rising, and the familiar feeling of heat in his blood vessels slowly surfaced. He knew that Cang Zhi must have felt the same way.
"If we go further, the poison will take effect quickly." Su Yue said.
"I can feel it." Cang Zhi said.
Su Yue tried hard not to think about what this sentence meant. He didn't dare to have too much eye contact with Cang Zhi at the beginning.
What's going on? I've been poisoned by love for two consecutive days and I have to trouble my colleagues to deal with it.
This is so...
But it is not a good idea to let Cang Zhi wait outside now. We have come this far. It would be too pretentious to suddenly cut off a powerful combat force for such a reason. Deep down in his heart, perhaps Su Yue is still a little bit indulgent.
Anyway, they continued to move forward.
.
The dragon clan’s burial place is exactly the same as what Su Yue saw in the dragon clan’s memory, but the place where they reproduce is completely different.
In the illusion seen after eating the fruit, there were dragons mating everywhere, the air was filled with the smell of body fluids, and the cries of dragons could be heard everywhere, hitting the surrounding stone walls and echoing.
However, at this moment, the dragon's breeding ground has become a dead place.
Come to think of it, although the dragon clan has not become extinct, the current population is very small. It is the same angry dragon that throws fireballs back and forth every day. If it had another brother, it would not cause such a mess of having the same dragon go to work every day.
The cave was dead silent, with only the occasional draft causing the vines on the ground to sway.
"Where is the pillar you mentioned?" Cang Zhi asked.
Su Yue was also looking for the pillar. In his memory, the pillar was very conspicuous. It was located in the middle of the entire breeding ground, slightly to the northeast. It was like an ancient tree that had existed for thousands of years, nestled in the shadow of the cave.
So Su Yue easily found the location of the pillar.
It was easy to find that the pillar was gone.
Where the pillar should have been, there was only a coal-black pit, more than ten meters in diameter. It was as if someone had uprooted the entire pillar. Now there was nothing in the pit but some natural dirt and debris.
The disappearing pillars, the dragons whose bones turned black, the villagers who were suspected to be the incarnations of the dragons... Su Yue seemed to have outlined a story related to the curse.
He was just about to talk to Cang Zhi about his idea when suddenly a breeze blew by.
The sweet fragrance in the air became increasingly thicker, and the sweet fragrance of the fruits almost became a substance, about to turn into rich honey and drip down.
The sweet fragrance of the fruit will stimulate the love poison accumulated in the body. The stronger the fragrance, the more serious the stimulation effect.
Su Yue was already aware of the power of this thing, and the moment he smelled the sweet fragrance, he immediately held his breath.
Cang Zhi also realized the seriousness of the problem and held his breath.
Only when the sweet, rich trade wind faded away did Su Yue breathe a sigh of relief and walk to the edge of the big pit to look down.
It was too dark here, so although he could roughly see the situation at the bottom of the pit, he couldn't see it clearly. After hesitating for a moment, Su Yue asked, "Shall I go down and take a look? You stay here and guard."
"Okay." Cang Zhi followed his advice.
The big pit, more than two meters but less than three meters high, was of course easy for Su Yue with his skills. After jumping in, it was pitch black all around, so Su Yue used his divine power to light up a little light.
He tried to look for some clues at the bottom of the pit, but found nothing more. Just like what they had just seen on the ground, there were only some scattered dirt, gravel, and fallen leaves blown by the trade winds.
But the shape of the bottom of the pit is a bit strange.
It is widest at the bottom and gradually narrows towards the pit mouth. It can be said that it has some curvature. If you continue to rise in this shape, the shape of this pillar is actually like a large chimney.
In the illusion, Su Yue didn't see the shape of the pillar clearly, but if it was a chimney shape that was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top...
Su Yue's mind shuddered as if an electric shock had struck him, and he blurted out, "That altar!"
.
In the middle of the village, there is an altar that is said to be completely immune to attacks from dragons. Many people in black robes gather there, and strange and confusing rituals are performed there.
The so-called "altar" is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, a bit like a cone, exactly the same shape as this pit.
But because there were many colorful flags hanging outside the altar, Su Yue did not associate it with the "pillars" in the cave at first.
Moreover, moving a large stone pillar from the cave to the open space outside the mountain is a bit too bizarre to think about.
"You said that the 'altar' is this stone pillar?" Cang Zhi stood on it and asked knowingly.
"That's right." Su Yue said.
Cangzhi did not see the stone pillar itself, but Suyue had seen it in a hallucination. It was not very clear, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it looked exactly like the "altar" in the town.
At this point, the clues in the cave and the clues in the town were finally connected.
Su Yue was a little excited. He snapped his fingers and said, "Let's go now."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surging trade winds rose without warning, blowing warmly across Su Yue's clothes.
The fruit had an aphrodisiac effect, and its strong and charming sweet fragrance was carried by the wind and quickly filled the entire bottom of the pit, invading all of Su Yue's senses.
.
The first time the trade winds blew, Su Yue was able to calmly avoid them, but this time he was too excited and his attention was completely focused on his own discovery.
Moreover, he just noticed that the trade winds actually blew up from the bottom of this big pit, which meant that he was standing on the wind's edge and had no room to retreat.
The fragrance of the fruit is like pheromone, which is the most important medicine for the love/poison in Su Yue's body.
If you think about it carefully, this can't be considered poison. The dragons came here to reproduce, so they should be able to arouse people without restraint.
The only problem is that Su Yue didn't come here to reproduce.
So they become innocent victims and suffer unbearably.
Su Yue only felt waves of heat surging in his body, and he had no strength at all. He thought it was a bit outrageous that a god would become so miserable because of his desires.
Cang Zhi above was silent for a moment, perhaps sensing the intoxicating aroma in the air and holding his breath in anticipation. When the gust of wind passed, Cang Zhi asked, "Are you okay?"
Su Yue bit her lip, trying hard not to let Cang Zhi hear that her voice was weak: "...It's okay."
Su Yue didn't need a mirror to know that his face was very red, because he was very hot and his heart was about to jump out of his chest.
He wanted to take a break here, or solve the problem himself and let Cang Zhi wait.
But before he could say anything, he heard a noise beside him and Cang Zhi jumped down.
.
"You..." Su Yue leaned to the side, his back against the wall, "Don't worry about me, just go up and wait for me."
"You look very uncomfortable now." Cang Zhi said.
"Nonsense." Su Yue gritted his teeth and said angrily.
What made him even more annoyed than being seen in such an embarrassing state by Cang Zhi was that just hearing Cang Zhi's voice made him feel waves of uncontrollable emotions.
Are you really that greedy for Cang Zhi's body? Although you are obsessed with looks, it's a bit too much.
"Don't worry about it, I..." Before Su Yue could finish his words, his body suddenly became lighter and he was actually picked up by Cang Zhi.
Of course Cangzhi's body was hot, but when Su Yue was close to him, he could feel a coolness that made him feel comfortable besides the heat. He held on for a while and then gave up, hugging Cangzhi's neck.
"We don't know when the fragrance will be smelled again down there, so let's stay away from it for now." Cangzhi's voice was calm and soothing.
He was very strong. He hugged Su Yue with one hand and grabbed the protrusion on the edge of the pit with the other hand. He jumped up, used his legs to exert strength, and climbed to the ground easily.
Su Yue listened vaguely. He put his arms around Cangzhi's neck and put his face on Cangzhi's chest. He thought drowsily, let's do whatever makes me comfortable.
Cang Zhi held Su Yue in his arms and found a secluded corner. Even though this was originally a cave for just the two of them, he had deliberately chosen a spot with rocks forming a natural, three-sided, light-proof hole. Su Yue was shy, so even then, he probably still had to stand dozens of meters away before Su Yue could feel comfortable enough to do it herself.
But when he carefully placed Su Yue in the stone nest and was about to leave, he was caught off guard and Su Yue grabbed his neck.
Su Yue was very strong, and Cang Zhi staggered and almost fell on him. Fortunately, he used his hands to support himself at the critical moment and did not crush Su Yue. However, there was only half an arm's length between the two of them, and they could even clearly feel each other's breath.
"Give it to me." Su Yue whispered, "Then help me."
He thought that he could not say such words when he was sober.
There was a brief blank in Cangzhi's expression. He stared at Suyue blankly, his eyebrows and eyes as handsome and clear as if carved by a knife.
Su Yue was too familiar with this face, including this embrace and this god himself. He no longer wanted to and could not hide his desire for Cang Zhi. Anyway, everything could be blamed on love/poison.
The sweet fragrance that stimulates lust is the medicine, but no one can tell whether the root of the disease is the ambergris or Su Yue himself.
Su Yue could feel that the muscles in Cangzhi's arms were very tense. He knew that the other party was very nervous because he was nervous too.
When Cangzhi dropped his knees to the ground beside his legs and put his arm around his shoulders, Su Yue said, out of modesty or pride, "You look like a detoxification tool."
Su Yue knew that this sentence was disappointing. In a sense, he thought that if Cang Zhi didn't like this title, he could stop, or be willing to be a tool for his colleagues.
He is self-contradictory, greedy and self-respecting, and he doesn't know what kind of ending he wants.
When Cang Zhi heard this, he glanced at Su Yue. Just when Su Yue felt that he was really going to give up halfway again, he heard Cang Zhi say seriously:
"It's okay if you want to use me as a tool. I'm willing."
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