131 Chapter 130: Charging into the tomb (2/2)

Just as when he was about to leave, a bunch of people came across him and his pet spirit magical beast. The moment they saw the four lifeless corpses on the floor, they became afraid of the overpowered Mary Sue protagonist that he was, and backed away as he casually strolled out of the hut with his pet.

The crowd quickly dispersed, having seen an example of what happened if they were foolish and reckless enough to attack the protagonist with super plot armor and his pet. They were aware that he had taken all the treasures, because protagonists were entitled to all the damned treasures in whatever adventures they had, but they lacked the strength to do anything. All that bullshit ”strong eat the weak” and ”survival of the fittest” thing that I hated so much. The world didn't work like that. It was a lot more complex than simply the strongest bullying the weakest. No man was an island, and even the most powerful martial artist needed to eat. Where was he going to get food from, if he abused and killed all the farmers?

In any case, you were probably wondering how I knew all this even though I wasn't on the scene. The short answer was because I am an Omniscient Reader. Uh, no, it has nothing to do with a certain Korean webnovel…

And also because this whole arc smacks of Wu Dong Qian Kun. Hell, even some of the chapter titles took on the same name! If we were to replace Lin Dong with Zhu Jiao, we could guess what sort of developments he would breeze through with fairly high accuracy.

”Hey, hey, hey!” JC192209 shouted. ”I don't want to know about Zhu Jiao! What about your adventures?!”

Good point. After all, there was little point narrating my little jaunt in the tomb if I was just going to rant about how lucky Zhu Jiao was.

”Twenty-three thousand Pure Yuan Pills!” Zhu Jiao shouted happily. Apparently he was overjoyed at the millions of gold he could make with these pills. His master then directed him to some other place filled with demonic spirits and…

”OI!”

”Sorry. Yeah, yeah, I gotcha.”

Looked like my best Ryan Reynolds impression had failed. How did Deadpool pull off this fourth wall-breaking business without being abused and criticized by readers like I was? I honestly had no idea. Evidently the writers of Deadpool had something I lacked. Admittedly, my sense of humor was pretty horrible and tended to piss people off more than it amused them.

Unlike Zhu Jiao, I didn't have a guide telling me where to go, so I chose a tunnel at random and wandered into it.

”…”

Despite following a bunch of people, we ended up walking into a deadend. The martial artists ahead cursed at their bad luck, and then turned to run past me, backtracking to choose another path and hoping they would make it in time before the other treasures were snatched up. I lingered for a while longer, but after scanning the place with my glasses and relying on my Heaven and Earth senses, I couldn't find anything.

This place is a bust, huh?

I sighed. Of course it would be. I wasn't some wuxia/xianxia protagonist where everything would work out for me smoothly. I wasn't a perfect wuxia/xianxia protagonist who never experienced failure and had everything go his way. Of course I wouldn't be able to stumble across treasures and valuable spirit pills on my first attempt.

As disappointing as it was, I didn't have cheats that enabled me to go around the system or exploit it. I could only work harder than others.

”Let's go back and choose another path.”

Shaking my head bitterly, I hurried along the path like the others did and chose the nearest one. This one branched off into a vault, but I was too late. People were already leaving the vault, many of them bruised and battered. Curious, I snuck into the vault, going against the flow, only to see that it was empty. The traces of raging qi that continued to swirl within the interior told me that a ferocious battle had just taken place. Judging from the damage and scars left on the walls and floor from spirit weapons and divine techniques as well as a few dozen bloody corpses strewn across the ground, it appeared that they had fought and killed each other over the contents within the vault.

A cursory inspection revealed that all the contents had been taken. Anything of value had been looted by the survivors. Hell, judging from the bitter expressions of the people I saw earlier, the majority of the survivors probably departed empty-handed, but they were wise enough not to challenge those who now held the treasures.

No doubt the strongest prevailed, and it would be suicide to fight them. Seeing their injuries and the numerous dead martial artists left to rot in the vault, they most likely figured that out the hard way. I pitied them.

Yeah, worry about yourself…you're probably going to end up returning home empty-handed at this rate!

At least I would be returning home alive and in one piece, unlike the poor bastards who got beaten up for trying to snatch the treasures and spirit weapons from each other. And which was more than the dead, who would never be returning home ever again.

To die in a place such as this…over fighting for treasure. It just didn't seem worth it. Well, the smarter ones knew when to back off, but some people were blinded by greed and desire that they were desperate enough to rob others when they shouldn't.

I had no intention of robbing or attacking others. If I couldn't find a treasure or spirit weapon or arcane artifact, then that was it. At least I gained some combat experience and learned how to navigate the tomb. The knowledge and experience would have to suffice.

Still…I did want something. I wanted at least a small token thing for spending all the time and effort climbing to this place.

But how? I don't have the luck of a protagonist, nor will I ever have any fated encounters or whatever. All I have is hard work and the will to defy fate.

But just because I wanted to defy fate didn't mean I would start running into lucky encounters or stumble across treasures. It was like gacha or lottery. Everyone wanted to win the lottery, or hoped to get the rarest gacha character/merchandise. Like my friend who played Fate/Grand Order and spending millions of yen on the gacha mechanic in hopes of getting his favorite Servant (mine was Scathach, but because she was only available in limited-period campaigns, there was no point in me getting the game and trying my luck because I had always been unlucky in real life), and in the end committing suicide because he couldn't get the Servant he wanted.

Good thing I didn't bother with that game. I was totally against microtransactions. Besides, I didn't like role-playing games or turn-based games. I was more of a sci-fi horror shooter fan, like Dead Space, or even Alien: Isolation. Which incidentally was getting a cellphone version that I wasn't going to bother with. Either they make a full PC game or I had no intention of buying it.

I spent the next few hours wandering from corridor to corridor in hopes of getting something, but failing each and every time. Frustration mounted, especially when I saw people scurrying away with treasure in their hands, but I firmly clamped down on the urge to attack them. I was not that sort of person. I was not a villain.

Even so, I couldn't help but continue to be frustrated by my repeated failure to get anything. Even in the rare occasions that I finally got into a vault, I was overwhelmed by the number of elite martial artists in there, who grabbed the treasures before I could. Obviously I backed off the moment they snatched the artifacts. As I said, I had my moral code. I wasn't going to snatch or rob other people from a treasure or artifact that they seized first.

Readers would call me stupid. But I didn't care. If I condemned people who robbed others as villainous, if I didn't approve of their actions, how could I have the conscience to go commit that sort of atrocious deed that I criticized other people of? Fine, I was going to get out of this empty-handed, but at least I would be leaving with my spirit intact. I was a much better person in terms of moral values than others, who allowed their greed to blind them to what was proper etiquette.

”Ha…”

And this repeated over and over until I finally stumbled across a familiar face.

”Zhu Jiao!”

”…?! Oh! Wu! You're here!”

Zhu Jiao spun around, almost defensively, and relaxed when he saw me. From his cheerfulness and large, silly grin on his face, it was obvious that he had benefited a lot and collected a lot of priceless treasures when we were separated.

”How goes your exploration?”

”Uh, well…” my shoulders slumped a little. ”Okay, I guess?”

”Did you find anything?”

Way to rub salt in my wounds. I grimaced, but shook my head. Not known for being tactful, Zhu Jiao laughed and patted my shoulder.

”Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find something pretty soon.”

He looked as if he wanted me to ask him what he found, so I sighed and indulged him a little. Swallowing my annoyance, I glanced at his spatial pouch.

”Seems like you've found quite a lot of treasures.”

”Of course!” Zhu Jiao was grinning smugly as he patted his spatial pouch, which shook and jingled a little despite the space inside being in an alternative dimension. ”You wouldn't believe what I found…!”

”Let me guess, twenty-three thousand Pure Yuan Pills?”

”W…what?!”

Zhu Jiao's mouth was hanging open, the wuxia/xianxia protagonist gaping so wide that I could probably shove my fist into his jaw without any difficulty. He spluttered and closed his maw before shaking his head.

”How did you know?”

”Because you're the protagonist.”

”Huh?” Zhu Jiao stared at me, stupefied. I suppressed a sigh and continued.

”And let me guess, you also found a whole bunch of demonic spirits…which your spirit pet fed on.”

”Huh?! How did you know I have a spirit pet?! I've never told anyone!”

Zhu Jiao spluttered again, his eyes wide in disbelief. I smiled and shrugged.

”You're the stereotypical protagonist of a cliché wuxia or xianxia story. Obviously you would have a pet spirit beast or some sort of mascot character.”

”Man…even though I have no idea what kind of reasoning is that, but you caught me.” Zhu Jiao winced, but he then smiled knowingly and held up his hand. ”Since you're my bro, I might as well let you know.”

A golden glow burst into life and illuminated the area. Before I knew it, I found myself staring at a golden dragon-like creature. It resembled a Kirin (or qilin), but with golden scales, a gleaming horn and a majestic figure.

”This is Little Gold!” Zhu Jiao boasted to me, patting the Kirin and stroking the length of its back. The Kirin purred at his touch. ”He's pretty powerful! He has the ability to blast apart a top-level Flowing Qi practitioner in a single attack!”

”Heh…”

I pretended to be impressed, though I already suspected that the Kirin was strong long ago. If it was the protagonist's pet spirit beast, then there was no way it wouldn't be powerful. Yet another way of making Zhu Jiao a special snowflake.

Furthermore, I knew how rare Kirin are. There were only maybe a hundred of them in existence, according to the monster encyclopedia I read anyway. Entire nations would go to war over just one Kirin. Such was their power that they could tip the scales in any war. No wonder Zhu Jiao kept the secret so closely to his chest.

”Don't let anyone know, okay? I'll trust you.”

”Yeah, sure.”

No matter how envious I was of Zhu Jiao's status as the protagonist, I wasn't mad enough to resent him or destroy our friendship over such a frivolous matter. I was going to carry this secret to the grave if I had to. That was what I did for his relationship with his master, Qi Lin, and him being the direct successor to the Golden Kirin Sect, after all.

”Anyway, I'm heading this way.” Zhu Jiao pointed down the central corridor, which looked larger than most of the other pathways. ”Why don't you come along?”

”Okay. But why that way?” I asked curiously. Zhu Jiao racked his brain for a moment.

”Uh, well…it seems that the main hall of this ancient tomb is that way.” He paused for a moment, as if listening to someone. ”That's where the real treasures are kept. However, we must be careful. The defenses there will most likely be the most powerful.”

To his relief, I didn't ask him how he knew. The answer was evident. His master, Qi Lin, had been feeding him all the various information. I just nodded.

”All right.”

”Let's go!” Zhu Jiao said hurriedly, and then grinned. He turned to Little Gold, who was absolutely preening. The Kirin was exuding a potent aura, most likely benefiting from devouring a lot of demonic spirits earlier.

I suddenly recalled a few screams and the roars of demonic creatures while traveling through one of the corridors. Most likely Zhu Jiao had left some unpleasant surprise for the people who charged into the chamber that held the demonic spirits, so as to reduce the competition and keep them off his back. Typical ruthless wuxia/xianxia protagonist…

Little Gold vanished, turning into a golden ball of light that streaked inside Zhu Jiao, who then began rushing impatiently toward the huge corridor.

Shaking my head and sighing, I made to follow them even though I knew there was only a low probability that I would get anything out of this.

In fact, I knew I would only serve as a foil to the protagonist Zhu Jiao, who would get his hands on the most valuable treasures by the sole virtue of him being the main character…