Chapter 42 Part 2

Just as Zhu Ming was about to descend, a long, grating sound— scraape! — echoed from ahead.

The ground trembled slightly.

From her elevated position, Zhu Ming looked in the direction of the sound but saw nothing…

Something was around a corner in a passageway ahead and to the left, behind the Stone Giant. Judging by the noise, it was another massive, heavy creature. But this one seemed to move by scraping along the ground, unable to step like the Stone Giant.

The Stone Giant’s advancing foot suddenly halted.

The entire passage fell into dead silence.

Wenren Tu looked up at Zhu Ming. “What’s happening? Do you see anything?”

Zhu Ming shook her head. “No.”

In the next second, something completely unexpected happened. The Stone Giant suddenly craned its neck to look left, then right, into the horizontal passage where Wenren Tu was. Seeing dead ends, it immediately turned and fled, abandoning the two prey creatures on the ground.

Its flight made the ground pound—dum, dum, dum, dum. Zhu Ming was jolted violently, nearly thrown off. She quickly hugged the Giant’s head tighter, abandoning the idea of climbing down, and shouted over her shoulder at the two below, “Follow it! Run!”

What on earth could make the high-attack, high-defense Stone Giant flee without a second thought? But since they couldn’t even handle the Giant, there was no need to mention this unseen newcomer.

Wenren Tu quickly grasped this logic. She pulled Yun Zouchuan up and ran right on the Giant’s heels.

They dashed through three passages. Suddenly, the Stone Giant stopped, turned, and with a sweep of its arm, pushed Wenren Tu and Yun Zouchuan into a different branch. Holding Zhu Ming aloft, it continued its thundering advance: dum, dum, dum, dum.

Wenren Tu rolled to a stop, cursing, “Using me as bait! Just you wait, you won’t shake me off!”

But just as Yun Zouchuan helped her up and they prepared to follow the sound, the tremors of the Giant’s running abruptly ceased.

The nearby passages were silent. They searched forward, left, right, but found no trace of the Stone Giant—and naturally, no trace of Zhu Ming.

If anything remained there with them, it was…

Scraape—

That scraping sound against the earth echoed again.

…

Unlike Wenren Tu and Yun Zouchuan, Zhu Ming had been pinned on the Giant’s head the entire time. When it sprinted at full speed, her stomach and back were bouncing directly against it. Dizzy and disoriented, she felt nauseous and terrible.

The dum, dum, dum, dum sound droned on endlessly. Zhu Ming looked back but didn’t see Wenren Tu or Yun Zouchuan. Her face paled.

Just how much stamina did this Stone Giant have? It had actually outrun them.

As for where they’d run to now, Zhu Ming had no clue. Judging by the Person Pointer on her hand, they’d long since deviated from their previous position.

She had no way to make the Stone Giant stop, but fortunately, its pace gradually slowed. Zhu Ming breathed a sigh of relief, looked ahead, and saw a woman standing in a corner, wearing a trench coat over a cheongsam.

Zhu Ming: “…”

Yin Yu: “…”

Instantly, Zhu Ming’s expression hardened into a cold mask. She straightened her back, propping herself on the Giant’s head, and looked down at Yin Yu with disdain.

The Stone Giant also spotted Yin Yu. The crisis averted, the Giant remembered its duty—to guard the treasure chest, though it had no idea where the chest was now.

Without hesitation, the Stone Giant began attacking Yin Yu. It cleverly blocked her escape route. Behind her was a dead end holding a treasure chest.

“Make it stop, and I’ll share this chest with you,” Yin Yu proposed.

Zhu Ming had no clue how to stop it. She said coldly, “If you die, I can have the chest all to myself.”

Yin Yu dodged the Giant’s attacks while retreating, saying, “In that case, I’ll have to open the chest myself and see if I can get something useful out of it.”

Saying this, she moved out of the Giant’s attack range, actually grabbed the treasure chest, and hurled it directly at the Stone Giant!

The white chest tumbled through the air. When Zhu Ming saw the pattern on its clasp, the chest naturally tipped open downward—a plume of white smoke erupted, obscuring the view of both the Giant and Zhu Ming.

The Stone Giant’s movements instantly became sluggish. Its massive body tilted sharply, trembling violently. Zhu Ming was thrown off balance and nearly slid off. Just as she steadied herself, she felt a shower of dirt cascade over her head.

The white smoke cleared. Zhu Ming turned her head and spat out the dirt that had gotten on her lips, her gaze at Yin Yu filled with death rays.

The chest had yielded soil—the soil needed for planting! But now, all that soil was spilled over Zhu Ming and the Stone Giant.

At the same time, a Pitfall Trap had appeared from nowhere at the passage entrance. The Stone Giant’s leg was stuck inside, unable to pull it out. Its entire body tilted, plugging the entrance completely.

The Stone Giant couldn’t move position, but its arms and the other leg could still move. The precious soil slid off with the Giant’s movements, but it all landed in front of it.

Whether trying to gather the soil or to leave this dead end, one had to enter the Giant’s attack range.

This was a dilemma. If Zhu Ming took advantage of the Giant’s immobility and slipped down its back to escape, then Yin Yu, now alone, would face a very difficult situation.

Yet Yin Yu seemed completely oblivious. Looking at the dirt-covered Zhu Ming, she suddenly covered her mouth and turned her head away, her hair tips and shoulders shaking.

“Hahaha…”

Zhu Ming: “…”

Unable to hold back, Yin Yu turned back to look at Zhu Ming, laughing softly. Even covering her mouth couldn’t hide the crescents of her eyes or the faintly visible dimples. “Sorry… pfft, I really didn’t mean to, hm…”

A surge of fiery anger rose up inside Zhu Ming. She directly drew her bow. Instantly, a blazing fire arrow materialized on the bowstring, the arrowhead aimed at Yin Yu as if about to kill.

“What’s so funny?! Your sense of humor is so cheap, why don’t you go be a laugh track audience member!”

The fire blazed fiercely, partly due to Zhuque’s own amplifying effect, and partly due to the fury burning in Zhu Ming’s heart.

Honestly, sometimes Zhu Ming even felt grateful to Yin Yu. If Yin Yu didn’t keep tap-dancing on her last nerve over and over, Zhu Ming might never have known her Supernatural Ability could erupt to this degree.

“Alright, I’ll stop laughing, ahem.” Yin Yu cleared her throat forcefully, forcibly suppressing her upturned lips. She wanted to convey a serious attitude, but the mirth in her eyes was impossible to hide.

Zhu Ming grew even angrier. Yin Yu always displayed this kind of ambiguous, noncommittal attitude, yet claimed there was no love. Then what? Friendship? Familial affection? Ptooey! Zhu Ming refused to believe she was as unlucky as Wenren Tu, always running into straight women who played with feelings.

She must be trying to confuse her with this flirty attitude, waiting to strike when Zhu Ming’s guard was down!

Watching the fire arrow burn ever brighter, Yin Yu raised her hands to show she genuinely hadn’t meant it. She proposed, “Mingming, you can’t make it stop, can you? How about this: one of us distracts it, the other gathers the soil. Then we split it fifty-fifty.”

Zhu Ming didn’t yield an inch. “You’re wrong. I already know how to stop it. This soil is all mine. As for you, considering your luck helped me unlock it, I’ll allow you to leave alive. If you refuse, I don’t mind sending you on your way.”

Yin Yu had been quiet while Zhu Ming spoke, seeming to seriously consider her suggestion. But she had a better proposal. Yin Yu folded her arms and tilted her head. Even with a faint smile on her lips, a subtle arrogance emanated from her. “Or perhaps I kill you and keep all the soil for myself?”

The garish pinkish-purple light and the rough, monotonous stone walls formed this eerie, sinister underground labyrinth. Yin Yu stood within it as if strolling through a garden, completely at ease.

She seemed utterly confident, completely unthreatened.

Zhu Ming didn’t waver in the slightest. She was crystal clear that when facing Yin Yu, she absolutely could not show weakness, otherwise Yin Yu would push her advantage relentlessly. Therefore, she absolutely could not reveal… that she had no idea how to shoot an arrow.

And furthermore, she guessed Yin Yu wasn’t as confident as she appeared.

“If you could do that, why didn’t you from the start?” Zhu Ming analyzed calmly, not losing an ounce of momentum. “You don’t know this monster at all. You don’t know how to stop it. You can’t collect the soil from under its nose, and you need me to distract it so you can leave. Give it up, Yin Yu. With your luck, you’re better off leaving now to open other chests.”

The two stared at each other for a moment. Zhu Ming showed no sign of backing down, and Yin Yu didn’t seem willing to either.

Zhu Ming’s hand, pulling the bowstring taut, trembled slightly. The bright fire arrow shot forth with a whoosh, slamming into the wall behind Yin Yu and exploding into a dazzling shower of sparks.

She hadn’t managed to hit Yin Yu, which Zhu Ming found slightly regrettable. She rubbed her aching back. “If you don’t scram right now, the next arrow will be aimed at you.”

Being threatened like this, Yin Yu pursed her lips and sighed, nodding gently. “Very well. I didn’t expect Mingming to see right through me. Since that’s the case, I’ll obediently listen to Mingming and leave first. Remember to draw this big fellow’s attention for me.”

Despite such hostility, Yin Yu seemed quite at ease entrusting this to Zhu Ming. Zhu Ming used her fire arrows to draw the Stone Giant’s attention, and Yin Yu seized the opening to flip over its body.

Yin Yu left the passage without looking back, the click-clack of her footsteps fading away.

Zhu Ming waited calmly for half an hour. During this time, the Stone Giant restlessly twisted its neck and arms from time to time, trying to find prey to attack. But with no living thing in its line of sight, the range and frequency of its movements remained low. Zhu Ming braced against her back and adjusted to a more comfortable position for lying down.

After half an hour, seeing that the other party hadn’t circled back for a sneak attack—truly gone—Zhu Ming sat up, put down Zhuque, and prepared to stop the Stone Giant’s activity.