It has to be said that Mo Sheng hid this fragment of the cross very well. If Jiang Ran hadn't used his abilities to find out its exact location, it probably wouldn't have been so easy to find it.
Fortunately, the result was good, and the process did not take much time. The position of the word seemed to stay at the same point for a long time. Did she encounter some problem?
There was really no need to meet in the back hall. Since the two of them had a shared spot, they definitely wouldn't get lost. Jiang Ran put away the fragments and prepared to go find Yu Cheng directly.
"Look at this location... this church actually has a basement? The space is probably much larger than I imagined."
Jiang Ran followed the stairs back to the lobby on the first floor, a smile appearing on his lips, because it seemed that someone else had also come to the Holy Church!
Han Xiaodong! That's right, the location shown on the unknown shared platform is in the back hall. Jiang Ran gripped the short knife tightly. The pause in his speech meant that he hadn't encountered any danger, but rather some kind of puzzle. In that case, he could have helped her after dealing with Han Xiaodong.
Who knows, given enough time, she'll figure it out herself; it's not like she lacks the ability.
Han Xiaodong knew that Jiang Ran wanted to kill him, but he had no choice. He had to come to the Holy Church. With location sharing, his whereabouts were impossible to hide.
"You're pretty quick, Virens."
Jiang Ran pushed open the door leading to the back hall. To his surprise, the room was quite large, but it wasn't empty. Instead, there was a huge round table.
Han Xiaodong and two other ghost story tellers sat around the round table, seemingly chatting about something. When Jiang Ran pushed the door open and entered, Han Xiaodong smiled slightly: "I guessed right, you really came."
"That's obvious."
The other two are John, an SS-rank ghost storyteller from the Iron Tower Kingdom, and Burrough, an SS-rank ghost storyteller from the Iron Blood Kingdom. Judging from their talent levels, they became ghost storytellers a long time ago, and their abilities and experience are enough to support them to get here.
"What, the three of you sitting together, are you old acquaintances?"
"You're joking. We just bumped into each other by chance."
Burrough said this, and although it sounded like a lie, it was indeed true.
He and John met at the beginning. Although they didn't have a deep relationship, one of them had a talent for verifying rules and the other had a talent for killing strange things. After agreeing on three rules, they briefly formed an alliance.
Burrough acted as the "brain," while John was the "fist." The two fought their way to the Holy Church. Of course, they were lucky not to discover each other's bounties; otherwise, the nature of human nature would be hard to predict.
As for Han Xiaodong, he was completely different from them. They just happened to run into each other on their way to the Holy Church. At the time, none of the three had a reason to kill each other, so they didn't fight and just politely came together.
“Sir, I am [Holy Serpent].” In the corner of the room, a man wearing a golden serpent head mask stood up and walked up to Jiang Ran with a smile. “In my room, sir, you must abide by the following rules.”
"First, I don't care how you fight outside, but fighting is forbidden in my room unless you have my permission. Of course, I usually won't allow it because it would make my room a mess."
"Second, I have what you want in my hands." [Holy Serpent] rummaged in his pocket for a moment, then pulled out a handful of crucifix fragments and waved them in front of Jiang Ran. "Don't get excited, and don't try to take it away. If you really want it, why don't we play a game?"
"It's games again. Do you want to play games with me?"
"No, no, no, I am the Holy Serpent! How could the Holy Serpent play games with humans?" The Holy Serpent chuckled and took a half step back, then opened its arms. "Everyone in this room, except for me, can be a game player!"
“My game requires multiple participants, divided into two opposing sides. Whichever side wins, I will give the cross fragment to that side, and I will not care how you distribute it.”
"Also, just one more thing: my game allows fighting, and people can die in this game!"
It seems like a multiple-choice question, but in reality, there is no choice at all. The Holy Serpent holds a fragment of a cross in his hand. If you don't participate in his game, it means that this world can never be completed.
People will die... That's totally normal, isn't it? You might not even survive wandering around this deserted island. There are just too many deadly dangers. Jiang Ran has become numb to the idea of someone dying.
"But the three of you could have started the game earlier, right?" Jiang Ran looked at them teasingly. "What, you were waiting for me to come? Well, I'd really like to thank you."
The relationship is easy to understand: a plural number of people can start the game. If three people start the game, Burrough and John will definitely team up, and Han Xiaodong will have to fight two against one, which he will definitely not accept.
If Han Xiaodong doesn't participate in the game, then the two guys will have to fight amongst themselves, which they definitely don't want to see either. So waiting for one more person to make it four seems like a last resort.
"Alright! Alright! Then I'll ask one more time—" [Holy Serpent] let out a cryptic laugh, "Who wants to participate in this game? Please raise your hands—"
Jiang Ran and Han Xiaodong extended their right hands at the same time, while the other two guys were clearly still hesitant.
"Alright! You two confirm you're joining the game, no backing out!" [Holy Serpent] turned to the two guys, "What about you guys, are you really not participating?"
Neither of them were fools. Four people participating in the competition meant they would have to split into two teams. If they were on the same team, it would mean Jiang Ran and Han Xiaodong were on the same team. What was the point of playing? They might as well just surrender!
If the two of them split into two teams, what's the difference between that and internal strife? It would have been better if they had participated together from the start; at least that would ensure the cross fragments didn't fall into the hands of others...
"Brothers, let's enter the competition."
Han Xiaodong's voice rang out.
"Who do you think you are?" John gave a mocking laugh. "Do you think your words carry any weight with me?"
"I'm just analyzing this from a rational perspective for you two." Han Xiaodong turned his head and met John's gaze. "[Sacred Serpent] only said to form pairs, but it didn't say that it had to be two people per pair!"
“The three of us can easily team up, making it a three-on-one situation!” Han Xiaodong’s gaze turned fierce. “Jiang Ran, let’s settle this in this game!”
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