The exit was indeed close — but it wasn't the kind of exit Zhang Jizu had imagined.
At the end of the main tunnel stood an iron door, half of which had been torn open. Bitter wind howled through the gap, freezing the entire length of nearby pipe into a sleeve of ice.
The headwind and slippery surface slowed them to a crawl. Ai Si, seeing this, raised her great sword, ignited the "flas of war," and charged forward like an icebreaker, carving a path through the thick ice coating the walls.
War followers were supposed to be like this, and yet the sight left Zhang Jizu slightly taken aback.
He'd seen high-tier War Supervisors before. But at this level, most of them knew how to keep their combat tools close to the vest — because an unexpected "backstab" could turn the tide in a clutch mont.
But this one, swinging a great sword like a straight-up warrior? That was rare.
'How does she even heal? Slash her teammates with the great sword?'
'And you're sure the laceration won't partially negate the healing?'
Still, existence implies reason. Zhang Jizu didn't dwell on it. He followed Ai Si until they reached the wrecked iron door.
The mont they poked their heads through the half-open door, however, both of them froze — staring down into a bottomless, frigid abyss below their feet and up at walls of ice at least several dozen ters tall.
"..."
The door opened onto the face of a sheer cliff!
There was nowhere forward to go.
"This is...?"
"A sewage outlet dumping straight into a crevasse? Not unreasonable. But this door is odd." Zhang Jizu frowned and examined it thoroughly.
"The exterior was encased in ice, but the section you lted reveals paint underneath — designed to look like the ice layer. When the door is shut, this opening would be invisible from the outside.
And the engravings inside — this mark belongs to the Tower of Logic's chanical Engineering School. But I'd heard San Dales was strictly a dumping ground for experintal waste. If it's a junkyard, why build such a massive, hidden underground tunnel system?
War Supervisor, any thoughts?"
Ai Si shook her head. "My prior research described it vaguely at best."
'Vaguely?'
Zhang Jizu shot her a thoughtful glance but didn't press the issue. He was about to retrace their steps and try another route when — from beyond the door, fighting the screaming wind — a head popped through.
A pair of frost-encrusted eyes blinked stupidly at the two of them.
"Zhang-lao?"
"?"
It was a Cheng Shi. The jacket-wearing one.
Zhang Jizu blinked, eyes narrowing. He was about to ask "What are you doing out there?" — but then rembered who he was dealing with, swallowed the question, and asked a practical one instead. "Is there a path outside?"
"What, you think I can fly?"
Cheng Shi gripped the iron door, shivering, and caught his breath.
"Sobody left a rope along the cliff face — goes all the way up. The other end is tied to a small tunnel opening. I crawled from that opening to here. Saw this hole and ducked in to rest.
Tough climb. Quick, Zhang-lao — hit
with a heal to take the edge off."
Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes even further.
"You're a priest yourself. Why are you asking
for heals?"
Cheng Shi blinked, perfectly righteous. "Why burn my own mana when I can freeload off soone else? You think climbing a wall isn't tiring?"
"..."
'Sounds like him. But still not sure.'
Zhang Jizu didn't imdiately act. Neither did Ai Si raise a hand. Confronted by two "cold" faces, Cheng Shi sputtered with frustration.
"Suspicious of ?
Fine! Then how about you two prove you're actually the Gravekeeper and the War Supervisor first!
If those two mutts can fake being , they can just as easily fake being you. So here are your options:
Either — verify yourselves with a heal, and then climb up with
to see the real San Dales.
Or — I go up alone and cut the rope, and you two can keep playing maze runner down in the sewer.
Hurry up. Ti is short, and my patience is shorter."
Cheng Shi was seething. Having a player who looked suspiciously like Zhen Yi go rogue was bad enough; running into two inexplicable doppelgangers of himself was even worse. He couldn't pin down who those two were, but based on their verbal sparring, the Dragon King and Long Jing were strong candidates.
Both "dragons" technically had ties to him — and yet here they were, stirring up chaos in his trial.
He had so guesses about their motives, but ssing things up was still ssing things up. 'If that's how you want to play, don't bla
for sticking thorns in your shoes later.'
Of course, the possibility of unknown teammates could never be ruled out, so recruiting allies remained priority one.
Cheng Shi had originally planned to climb the cliff and scope out the area above. Running into Zhang Jizu here conveniently saved him the trouble of looking.
Even better, the other two fakes were nowhere in sight — giving him room to maneuver.
But Zhang the Steady was clearly unfazed by the pressure. He squinted and challenged back.
"Neither of us has ever been to San Dales. How do you know the top of the cliff is the 'real' San Dales?
As the Tower of Logic's waste dump, isn't it possible that these tunnels are San Dales?
Cheng Shi — today's you seems a little... different from the you I know."
"?
Different?
I think the different one here is you, Mister Death Chosen."
Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched, and he went full passive-aggressive.
"Use that freeze-shrunken brain of yours and think. If there weren't climbing marks on this ice wall, do you think I'd just rope up and go?
Where's your steadiness, Mi... lao Zhang?!
Those aren't one person's footprints — they're many. The climbing traces are so obvious they've left deep gouges in the ice.
Now look at my shoes. These aren't climbing boots — they're regular shoes. Without those carved-out footholds, how could I possibly climb here against this wind?
You didn't even step outside to check before doubting . You don't look like the real Mi Laozhang to .
Nice try, mutt. No chance! Bye!"
With that, Cheng Shi kicked off the iron door and swung out through the gap.
Just as he raised a scalpel to cut the rope behind him, a hand shot out from the half-open door and seized the rope. Another hand, holding a second scalpel, parried his blade aside.
Zhang Jizu's head erged. He first cast a heal on Cheng Shi, then — mimicking Cheng Shi's thod — half-tied the rope around his body and began climbing wordlessly.
Cheng Shi's eye twitched. He snorted. "Convinced now?"
Zhang Jizu squinted upward, shaking his head. "Not really. But considering you can scout ahead for , I'll trust you temporarily."
"?"
Without thinking, Cheng Shi swung a kick downward. Zhang Jizu dodged nimbly — and the heel landed squarely on the crown of Ai Si, who'd just poked her head out to watch.
"..."
Seeing the War Supervisor's face blacken, Cheng Shi gazed innocently up at the sky.
"I suppose I'll drag you two along. Move it. Don't be deadweight."
He began climbing. Ai Si, face still dark, brought up the rear. Utterly baffled, she finally tugged Zhang Jizu's ankle and asked:
"How did you figure out that this surna Cheng is the real one?"
Zhang Jizu glanced down with a smile.
"When you question him and he explains himself, he's definitely a fake. But if he can't help cursing you — there's a fifty-fifty chance he's real.
Truth be told, real or fake doesn't matter much. I was only using him to gauge the cliff's safety. And it seems this is indeed a viable route."
"...Is it always this paranoid in Chosen-level lobbies?
Zhang Chosen, you're the Death Chosen. If you're this cautious, when does your talent even get a chance to shine?"
"A careful ship sails for ten thousand years. A Gravekeeper who keeps graves his whole life gets tired too. So if you can avoid dying, don't die."
"You reached your current score with this blasphemous philosophy?"
Ai Si was genuinely shocked — so shocked her voice rose a tiny notch in the howling wind.
But this ti it wasn't Zhang Jizu who answered. It was Cheng Shi, climbing at the top.
He hadn't heard what she'd said clearly — only the wind carrying the word "blasphemy" to his ears. His body went rigid instantly. He brandished his scalpel at the rope and snarled downward:
"War Supervisor, I'd advise you to watch your mouth. I am the picture of piety — who exactly have I blasphed?
One more word and I cut the rope."
"..." Ai Si blinked in bewildernt. She looked at Zhang Jizu, who was grinning with his eyes half-closed, and muttered flatly:
"So surna Cheng got here the sa way. Am I right?"
Then she privately reflected:
'Am I stuck at 2,400 because I'm too devout?'
...
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