Chapter 1183: Chapter 796: Wrapped-Head Burial
His whole body was ice-cold, and there was a throbbing pain in his mind, as if he were being completely drained. Before he could react, Yang Xiao lost consciousness in an instant.
...
He didn’t know how much time had passed when Yang Xiao groggily woke up, smelling an enticing aroma of meat.
Forcing his eyes open, he noticed flickering firelight nearby. He found himself in a damp and chilly cave, with twisted cave walls illuminated by the fire.
Instinctively wanting to sit up, he realized with some effort that his hands and feet were bound, tightly tied with rough vines.
Yang Xiao did not rashly struggle. By the dim light in the cave, he saw several other bound people nearby. Counting himself, there were five in total, with one woman having an injury on her leg.
Holding his breath and listening carefully, he heard voices outside the cave, sounding like an argument.
Steadying his nerves, Yang Xiao looked around and roughly assessed his current situation.
These people were all part of the mission team, including those bound with him and those speaking outside.
But before he had awakened, it seemed there had been a conflict between two groups, with the defeated side being controlled and tied up.
"Are you okay?" Suddenly, a voice came from beside him.
Yang Xiao turned his head with difficulty and saw a woman wearing a sleeveless blouse and a tube skirt, her hands bound behind her, leaning against the rock wall at an angle.
The woman was around thirty years old, with disheveled hair and swollen, red eyes, clearly having just cried. Her gaze at Yang Xiao was probing and wary.
"How did you get here?" the woman asked, staring intently at Yang Xiao, lowering her voice and speaking quickly, "Did you also receive a strange box?"
Yang Xiao’s pupils slightly contracted, noticing a peculiar phenomenon: the woman’s lip movements didn’t match her words.
Her lip movements were in standard Myanmar-Tai, but the words reaching his ears were in understandable Chinese, giving Yang Xiao a strong sense of dissonance.
"Is this your first time in a place like this?" Yang Xiao responded with a low tone, answering with a question.
Hearing this, the woman almost cried but dared not make a sound, just biting her lip, holding back, "I want to go home, but they... they won’t let us leave. My mother is still waiting for me..."
"Phew—" Yang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, his tense nerves relaxing considerably.
He roughly grasped the situation; these bound people were all newcomers.
The experienced players were worried these newbies would run off recklessly to their deaths, wasting resources, so they controlled them all.
This was the right choice, but Yang Xiao was not a clueless newcomer; he didn’t deserve such treatment.
"Is anyone there?" Yang Xiao called towards the cave’s entrance, "I’m not a newbie, untie me!"
A moment later, Yang Xiao was sitting by the fire. The flickering flames dispelled the cave’s chill. On a makeshift wooden rack, a rabbit, gutted and opened, sizzled and emitted delicious aromas as it roasted.
Coming to such a place and still having the mood to catch and roast a wild rabbit was a first for Yang Xiao, and he didn’t know how to comment on it.
A middle-aged man tore off a large piece of rabbit meat, gesturing to Yang Xiao, "Want some?"
"Yes!"
Yang Xiao took it and immediately stuffed a piece into his mouth, chewing it heartily. There was no denying how delicious it was.
Opposite Yang Xiao sat a one-eyed old man, dressed in coarse linen, with a square hat on his head, and his one eye was as calm as a lake.
"You are not from here, you’re from Hua Country." The one-eyed old man recognized Yang Xiao’s identity at a glance.
Wiping the grease from his mouth with the back of his hand, Yang Xiao didn’t conceal his identity, calmly saying, "I’m from Hua Country, hired by a boss to do business in Myanmar and Thailand. Didn’t expect to receive a Ghost Script here, damn it!"
Here, naturally, he couldn’t expose his true identity. Who knew if there were Dharma Sect people around? Yang Xiao’s cover was being a Merchant Guard, a very common occupation in the chaotic regions of Myanmar and Thailand.
"Alright, now that everyone’s here, let’s introduce ourselves." A sharp-voiced, gaunt woman spoke up.
Yang Xiao glanced around; including himself, there were seven people sitting around the fire, while four more were tied up around the cave’s corner, totaling eleven.
But according to the mission description, there should be twelve of them.
The one-eyed old man noticed Yang Xiao’s confusion and explained, "Adila is on watch outside."
Adila was a man’s name, and Yang Xiao confirmed then that there were twelve people in their group, six men and six women.
Through conversation, Yang Xiao also confirmed his suspicion that those bound deep in the cave with him were all newcomers.
Their initial panic brought them to attempt escape, and it took the group a great effort to capture them back.
A scruffy-bearded man, gnawing on rabbit meat, complained about only having a few hours from receiving the Ghost Script to entering the Nightmare World, so he didn’t even have time for dinner.
"Everyone, I suggest we release those inside. After all, we are a collective, and the mission requires mutual aid." proposed a girl with a butterfly tattoo on her hand.
The one-eyed elder nodded in agreement, and Yang Xiao noted this old man’s high standing among the group.
Once they all settled down, the elder stood up and uttered some soothing words. He then raised his hands above his shoulders and closed his eyes, reciting scriptures quietly.
Seeing this, Yang Xiao was momentarily stunned. The elder was reciting from the Quran, confirming to Yang Xiao his identity as a religious figure.
