Chapter 77.3 - Tower of God: Fairy Illusion (1/2)
Xiu thought it over for a while, then decided to escort the porcelain people home again; he seemed to want to see if they would get a different result this time.
The result: they got another good guy card.
The group was silent as the porcelain people disappeared into their homes. In order to send this batch of porcelain people home, they once again turned away from the right path. Before Enoch could even begin to complain, the vines appeared again. Du Ze wasn’t sure but he thought that this time there were more vines and each vine was bigger, around two feet in diameter. Ariel immediately nocked an arrow, found the location of the fruit, and shot at it.
“Thunk.”
The arrow pierced the vines that protected the fruit but was stopped before it could stab the fruit. Ariel looked at it with amazement. She had used all of her strength but could not penetrate all of the vines – the green plants seemed to be twice as tough as before.
“Give me the arrow!”
Xiu caught the arrow that Ariel threw over to him. He changed Qian Bian into a bow, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. When they opened his blue eyes had turned green. The silver-haired elf drew his bow and loosened his finger at almost the same moment he aimed.
“Boom.”
The vine trembled then fell limp, withering and shrinking.
When they analyzed the situation, everyone knew what it meant: The vines are getting stronger.
Enoch glanced at the vine, then focused Xiu’s body. He was unusually excited and circled around the silver-haired elf: “Hey, you’re back! Is this an illusion or a martial arts technique? Teach me!”
“…”
Xiu’s face was cold. Du Ze looked apprehensively at the Moe Lord. Xiu in elf form was not the amiable type like the human form. Therefore some silly, cute person was afraid that Xiu will lift his bow and shoot that rash fellow. However, perhaps because fools have good luck, a group of porcelain people appeared and drew the Moe Lord’s attention and hate.
The porcelain people cried but Xiu just glanced at them once then coldly turned away.
“The vines are terrible, please don’t leave us.”
“Please help us, escort us home.”
……
The cries of the porcelain people gradually faded away. Du Ze heard some smashing sounds as though a group of panicked porcelain people tried to run towards then but accidentally fell and were broken. Their voices mixed together and it was very hard to bear.
“Don’t think too much. It was a trap,” said Xiu, who seemed to perceive Du Ze’s repressed feelings.
Du Ze knew that all this was a trial by the Tower of God, so he felt a little depressed but did not object to Xiu’s choice.
At the entrance to the maze, the sign written by the Tower of God said: “You can only walk to the maze exit to reach the Elf Kingdom, do not do unnecessary things.”
Du Ze finally understood the “unnecessary things” part meant. Based on their two encounters, helping the porcelain people out does not benefit the tower climbers. Escorting them home is a very time-consuming and thankless task. If they were to help the porcelain people, it would only be because they enjoy helping others.
Du Ze’s nature is such that he would like to help them out but doing good deeds here is not advantageous for them. This is the Tower of God which is trying to mold the tower climbers into the shape that it wants. On the contrary, doing good deeds might even get them killed.
The tower already hinted that they should ignore the porcelain people. Therefore, if the tower climbers spend time on “unnecessary things” then there will be more and more vines and fewer arrows to use, leading to the tower climbers’ death.
This is a rule that is really worthy of the elf race’s trial – those beautiful people that gave away their passion and received the gift of archery.
When they arrives at the path, Xiu lost consciousness due to his transformation. Muir carried Xiu and they followed the correct path according to Ariel. No matter the time, it’s always night in the fairy illusion. Though the scene was still as dreamy as before, Du Ze now wants to rush through the maze and get out of it so that he can stop feeling so depressed.
One day later, Xiu had not woken yet and they were attacked by the vines again. First they were attacked after two days, then it was a day and a half, now it was just one day. It seems like the interval between attacks is getting shorter.
Compared to the first time they were attacked, this time the vines were not only bulkier, they even started to grow some thorns scattered over its length. Ariel was at a loss; even though she could aim at the fruit, her strength was not enough to pierce through all of the vines. Muir, Old John, and the others have the opposite problem; they have the power to break through the vines but their archery skills are not good enough to hit the constantly moving target.
The group thus decided to use a more dangerous method to fight the vines. Muir rushed right into the middle of the vines. When he was surrounded, he suddenly changed into his dragon form which stretched the vines out until there were gaps in between them. Rachel and Old John used this opportunity to open up a path to the fruit and allow Ariel to shoot it.
It was a close call, but in this way, they were able to finish off the third vine attack. They did not wait for the porcelain people to emerge and walked off right away. Based on the progression, the vines might attack again in half a day. Along the way, Xiu finally woke up. He quickly took charge of the situation and took the quiver of arrows from Ariel.
With the Moe Lord awake, Du Ze immediately felt relieved. He saw the ferocious Moe Lord solve the fourth vine problem with just one shot and a certain silly, cute person realized that, for the vines that have a weakness to long-distance attacks, Xiu’s elf form is their nemesis.
The Moe Lord made a double kill;1 the Moe Lord went on a killing spree.