“I have come for you, my little sweet Sandy,” Shu spoke in an irritating voice as the others turned to look at Sandy, the Sand Witch. “I am sorry to disappoint but I have a contract that I need to fulfil.” Sandy stepped out of the truck and walked towards Shu. He did not harm her, unlike the others.
“I have one condition though. Let them go. They are innocent and not under the cursed contract.” Sandy said without even turning back to look back at them.
“I am sorry Sandy, but I cannot leave any witnesses behind. You know what the contract demands.” Shu said as it peeled off a piece of its bark, making the accursed blood contract in the open for everyone to see. Shu even poured some magic into it and the contract glowed bright red. Upon doing so, Sandy screamed in pain as her backless dress revealed a similar blood contract that stretched from her shoulders down to her lower back.
“Now, return to me when you are done.” The Treant laughed hideously as Sandy tried to control her powers and defy the Treant. But alas, her will was weak against the command of the blood contract. She could not help but fire a magical blast of sand towards the truck. “That is if you survive!”
“Sandy!” Ke Mi shouted as she deflected the sandblast away with her own sonic blast.
“You have to kill me! I cannot stop the blood contract!” There were conflicted feelings present on her face. The group was not able to get a grasp on her feelings as they seemed contradictory based on her expression. She was crying buckets of tears while smiling deviously at the same time.
“Snake!” Ke Mi could not voice out more than a few words but this was still a major improvement since when she had only just started working under Jin, all she could verbalise were primitive grunts. As if that one phrase had magic in it, the Great White Snake woke up from the slumber it had been put in by the roots of the Ancient Treant Shu.
The Sand Witch knew each of the musical troupe members’ strengths and weaknesses so she knew that the Great White Snake would pose a threat to her if she was not careful. From a range, Sandy would have a better advantage against it so she took her chance to eliminate the threat as soon as possible.
However, the truck that was initially stationary started moving towards her. She then noticed Ku Wai driving it under the command of Yang Ling to smash straight into her. Instead of attacking head-on, the slight shock from seeing a truck rushing at her made her movements slow, which caused her to hesitate before transforming into sand.
It was at that point though that Sandy realised she was being ignored. She watched as the truck continued to drive towards where the ancient treant disappeared. “Oh? Seems like Yang Ling knows something.” Jin smirked as he drank a cup of Black Ivory Coffee and ate a plate of cheesecake for his midnight supper.
“I have no idea what you are doing Princess but I trust you!” Ku Wai gulped down some saliva as he ran the truck with a broken tire through the vast thickets of the jungle. It was obvious that the truck was being battered by the obstacles of the jungle yet Ku Wai did not care as he pushed through, trying to maintain as much of the truck’s integrity as possible.
“Trust me, if I have learnt anything from the reports regarding Jin’s story themed dungeons, it’s that we are given a choice for every action we take, making it as close to real life as possible. And if that does not work, we can always play the dungeon again and try to find the optimal outcome once more. Trust me, I don’t like this either… it’s like we’re being controlled like a marionette by a puppeteer, except the puppeteer is a dungeon supplier. Anyway, despite that, I have to say that this is way better than any dungeon instance I have ever entered before.” Yang Ling calmly spoke to Ku Wai but her heart was actually racing as the truck went through the jungle.
It was not from the challenge of escaping from the Sand Witch, nor was it from the thrill of riding in a truck through the jungle. It was because she saw Jin’s monsters. Fire and Ice breathing ants? A tree that could initiate a blood contract? A humanoid monster manipulating sand? What in the world had Jin seen that made him able to visualise all of this? How complex was his manipulation of his dimensional technology and his knowledge of vast subjects like western magic? Basically, she wanted to know how on earth he was able to create such an intricate dungeon? She could hardly believe Jin was just a graduate from an engineering course.
Jin was definitely hiding something and even if he would not, or could not reveal it to her, she would try her best to use him to his full potential, for her sake. After all, she had power, money, and youth on her side. Sure, she was currently crippled but who knows, maybe Jin could do something about that too.
Maybe she would assign him the role of her sole dungeon supplier since she could manipulate some funds from the Royal Zodiac Tiger sect for her private use. Or maybe…just maybe get him to like her. That would save a lot of effort. Yang Ling could not help but blush a little at the prospect of having such a capable guy by her side. “Perhaps that would increase my standing with Father.”
“Hmmph, Looks like the Great White Snake and Hui were able to escape.” Sandy breathed a sigh of relief before standing still to regain her original body. Turning into sand was an escape ability for the Sand Witch but it took some time for her to regain her physical body. She might be able to take on a sand form but she would only be impregnable towards physical attacks, not magic attacks… and the Enlightened members were elementally and magically inclined.
As much as she wanted to defy the orders of Shu, she was unable to because of the blood contract. Jin purposely integrated this into the instance to encourage the players to find ways to save Sandy. The Venus Four used brute force and subdued her to the point that she was unable to move before they sealed her up until they were able to defeat Shu. They kept her alive despite having the chance to kill her because Jin had told them that defeating her was not the true ending of the instance. However, their method of “saving” her sort of eluded the essence of the “true” ending.
The truck eventually broke down as it crashed into a fallen log but beyond the log was a clearing where the ancient treant humming to himself happily. “What a pity, Sandy did not kill a single one of you. Well, since you are all here, how about you entertain me a little.” Shu said as he grabbed a beehive he had been growing by the side of the clearing and delicately squeezed the beehive as honey began to flow into his mouth.
“Great tree, are you able to break the blood contract? If so, what do you require of us to break it?” Yang Ling was being pushed through the clearing on a wheelchair that was conveniently kept in her storage ring.
“Did I not say that no witnesses were to be left behind? She will be coming for you guys soon enough. Besides, why are you helping someone who you just met not too long ago?” Shu scoffed at Yang Ling’s politeness.
“Let’s say it’s for mutual benefit. Sandy seemed to be in pain when she tried to kill us and I’d like to survive this particular ordeal.” Yang Ling replied.
“You sure she was in pain? Are you sure she was not delighted?” Shu asked once more as he shook his branches, causing sakura blossoms to fall all around the clearing. It was really beautiful to watch, provided one had the time to enjoy it.
“I am certain she was in pain. To be honest, she probably still is” Yang Ling affirmed her answer as Ku Wai kept quiet and let Yang Ling handle the talking.
“Then let me ask you this. What is your motive? Are you truly breaking the contract in an act of kindness or are you only doing this because you hope to be rewarded and this is the most logical course of action?” Shu went off the script a little as he pried into Yang Ling’s mind. To his surprise, her mind resistance was rather strong but the question confused her a little, which allowed Shu to enter her thoughts and see what was in there.
Jin was not stupid either. He had purposely sent her into the Music Theatre because of this reason. Shu was capable of something similar to mind control. The sakura blossoms were how the praying mantis was tamed by Shu. Even if Shu could not control the mind entirely, he was capable of carrying out some mind tricks, one of which was taking a look at people’s thoughts. Of course, it wasn’t an all-seeing eye, and the stronger one’s cultivation was, the harder it was for Shu to peer through.
However, Jin remembered that Yang Ling’s cultivation was crippled, hence he had asked Shu to quietly infiltrate her mind so that he could learn what she was thinking. A Member of a Royal Zodiac sect would never come with zero strings attached so Jin purposely acted dumb to make Yang Ling think he was a gullible target.
“I am doing this because it is the most logical thing to do. Kindness does not exist in my view of the world. It is an illusion or a trick people use to manipulate others.” Yang Ling answered boldly.
“Your answer is commendable. Very well.” Shu had already searched through her thoughts as he snapped his roots, which suddenly caused Ke Mi to erupt in a series of screams.
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