Chapter 254 - Bells
An Sheng came to pick Zhou Wen up and set off with more than ten people. However, other than Zhou Wen, they were basically experts at the Epic stage.
Although most of them were older than An Sheng, they were still respectful towards him. None of them dared to put on any airs with him.
However, most of those people didn’t look like soldiers. There were men and women, old and young. They looked very strange, a mystery where they had come from.
They weren’t interested in Zhou Wen, but Zhou Wen wasn’t interested in them either. Therefore, he was happy to be at peace and game in the vehicle.
With the black-armored general guarding Tiger Cage Pass, Zhou Wen wasn’t able to make any progress. However, he recalled what the Wu siblings had said. There was apparently a secret passage that allowed one to enter Tiger Cage City. However, despite repeatedly searching in-game, he failed to find the secret passage.
Could it be that there’s no secret passage in the game? Or could there be some mechanism to the secret passage? Zhou Wen was momentarily unable to guess.
“Lad, is the game fun?” asked a man sitting opposite Zhou Wen. He had graying hair, but he looked like a middle-aged man.
They were on a military-sized truck. It had very powerful cross-terrain capabilities, but it was a little shaky. It was not too crowded even with more than ten people sitting in it.
“It’s fun,” Zhou Wen answered casually.
“It’s very rare to see young people enjoy gaming like you these days. Back when I was your age, everyone played games and there were all sorts of gaming competitions. After the dimensional storms, not many people play anymore. How nostalgic,” the man said.
“You experienced the dimensional storms?” Zhou Wen looked at the man in surprise. He didn’t look old.
Before the man could say anything, a middle-aged man beside him pursed his lips and said, “You don’t even know the name Lord Alcohol? Young man, you still have a lot to learn. Take your time to learn.”
However, Lord Alcohol laughed and said, “I was originally the ninth child in the family and people used to call me Old Nine. However, with age, I began to enjoy alcohol. Gradually, I became Lord Alcohol. It’s just a nickname. How should I address you, young man?”
“My name is Zhou Wen,” Zhou Wen answered. Clearly, these people didn’t know of his background and only knew that he was brought here by An Sheng.
“Zhou Wen.” Lord Alcohol repeated it twice as though he was recalling information related to the name. Unfortunately, he didn’t find anything. Hence, he added, “Are you going to the ancient battlefield in Zhuolu?”
“I’m still a student. How can I have the guts to go to such a place?” Zhou Wen said.
“Oh, then why are you going to Zhuolu?” pressed the middle-aged man.
“To study and broaden my horizons,” Zhou Wen answered. He wasn’t familiar with these people, so he was perfunctory with his answers.
“Reading ten thousand books isn’t as good as walking ten thousand miles; even more so in this era. It’s not bad for young people to come out and broaden their horizons,” said Lord Alcohol with a smile.
“What’s terrible if he dies before he learns anything,” a woman in her thirties suddenly said.
“That’s right. A place like Zhuolu isn’t a place you can visit at a whim. Even the League’s scouts get trapped inside. It’s practically a land of death. Lord Alcohol, how confident are you in our trip?” The middle-aged man wasn’t interested in Zhou Wen. After saying a few words, he directed his words at Lord Alcohol.
“It’s hard to say. The situation in the ancient battlefield is unclear. Just based on the information we have now, it’s hard to tell. I can only assess the place after I get there,” said Lord Alcohol calmly.
As they were talking, the truck suddenly came to a halt.
“What happened?” Lord Alcohol looked at the driver’s seat and asked.
“There’s something blocking the way.” An Sheng, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, had already opened the door and jumped out.
The group of people came out from the back of the truck and saw that the road ahead was, indeed, blocked by something. However, it wasn’t anything like a rock. Instead, vines had grown on the road, circling the trees on both sides of the road and blockading the road.
Everyone could tell that the vines were somewhat strange-purple vines, dark green leaves, and a few fruits on them.
However, the purple fruits were a little strange as they were not circular. Instead, they looked like miniature, copper bells. When the wind blew, the purple copper bells shook on the vines and produced metallic tinkling.
But everyone could clearly see that the bell was clearly grown on the vines. How could it be metal?
“Adjutant An, let me lead the way,” said a muscular middle-aged man as he walked out.
“Be careful.” An Sheng nodded slightly.
The middle-aged man responded and summoned a dimensional creature that looked like an elephant. He immediately made the elephant charge towards the vines. Flames began to burn from the elephant’s body, making it appear like a hurtling meteor that targeted the vines.
With the Flaming Elephant’s mass and speed, it should have been easy to smash through the vines. What’s more, there were terrifying flames on its body.
But when the Flaming Elephant slammed into the vines, it seemed to fall into a quagmire. It was trapped by the vines and was unable to make any progress.
It released all its strength, hoping to use its flames to burn through the vines that had entangled its body. The flames spread over the vines, and soon, the entire vine began to burn.
However, the vine wasn’t damaged. Instead, the Flaming Elephant’s body rapidly dried up, as if it had been sucked dry by a vampire.
Bam!
In just a short time, the Flaming Elephant’s body was reduced to ash.
Everyone wore a heavy expression as the stout man was perturbed. Although the Flaming Elephant was only a Legendary Companion Beast which he used to scout, for it to be so easily killed by the vines meant that they were probably not so simple.
The flames on the vines gradually extinguished. The muscular man was just about to make another move when he saw the bells suddenly shake violently.
In the next second, a few purple copper bells spewed out large amounts of flames as they swept towards the group.
The cold woman summoned a white fox. The fox opened its mouth and spat out a cold white mist that shot towards the flames. Immediately, the flames were extinguished as the white mist continued floating towards the vines.
Soon, the cold mist enveloped the vines, causing frost to appear on them as if they had been frozen.
“Snow Fox lives up to its name,” praised the muscular man.
But just as he said that the frost on the vines rapidly melted. The purple copper bells shook a few times, and they also spat out a large amount of white mist that swept towards the crowd.