The Trial Game of Life

The fact that the mouse was a prince really had Jin Cheng astounded, because in his impression, the prince was meant to turn into a frog. Not to mention, the name McCaw didn’t sound as fancy as Legolas, the famous Elf PrinceA reference to Legolas, the Elf Prince of the Woodland Realm of Mirkwood, one of the major characters in the classic novel Lord of The Rings..

Thinking about this, Jin Cheng opened the Mission panel again.

The side mission remained unchanged.

Jin Cheng looked at McCaw. Who he was and the abnormal happenings at the Secret Lake must have a connection. He roughly guessed that McCaw’s transformation definitely had something to do with the Secret Lake.

Something must have happened in the Royal Palace, or else the elf guards wouldn’t arrest their own prince for no reason.

The most important thing was that at the bottom of this trench, there was really a path that led to the outside or the Royal Palace, otherwise, how did the elf guards come down? It wasn’t like they could always jump off the cliff like Jin Cheng.

When the guards left, Jin Cheng decisively led McCaw in the direction they came from. Just before leaving, he fed something to the Griffin and regrettably gave up on keeping it as a ‘cool’ pet to ride on.

In order to not be spotted should another elf guard suddenly appear, Jin Cheng walked closely along the cliff, which made it easier for him to find a passage. Logically, the passage should be on the side close to the Royal Palace. In that way, this trench was likely used to deal with people that couldn’t be messed with in front of the public’s eyes.

Jin Cheng searched very carefully, not letting go of any inch of the cliff wall. Fifteen minutes later, the gods really didn’t let him down and he finally found a passage on the cliff wall, which was about 10 meters above the ground.

The passage was covered up by magic, thus it wouldn’t easily be discovered by anyone who didn’t understand magic. Moreover, it was situated more than 10 meters above the ground. When ordinary people looked for a passage, they would subconsciously think that it should be near the ground. How would they think of it hanging randomly in the air? This distance nicely helped to prevent it from being exposed, yet it wasn’t a distance too high up for people to fall down dangerously.

The passage’s entrance wasn’t closed. Perhaps it was because the guards had to come back often and there was only one passage, they didn’t close it. Jin Cheng swaggered inside, and after passing a long tunnel, he saw a stone staircase leading upward.

This was really the path to the Royal Palace.

“Squeak.” McCaw grabbed Jin Cheng’s pocket, his eyes revealing a tinge of sadness. Then he slid down Jin Cheng’s arm, pointed at the stone staircase and squeaked again in excitement.

“You want to lead the way?” Jin Cheng finally managed to come to understand him better.

McCaw nodded sharply, and one person and one mouse set foot on the road to the Royal Palace.

The path took some time to walk through, because the stone steps were winding left and right, with some parts very wide yet some parts very narrow, and there were no fences at all on both sides. This place directly below the Royal Palace was actually an underground prison. These intricate stone steps connected cells to cells, which were empty with absolutely no guards around.

The further they went up, the smaller the space became. Finally, Jin Cheng caught sight of the prisoners, who were all elves.

With McCaw leading the way, Jin Cheng didn’t waste time asking every prisoner, but he would try his best to pass in front of each cell to see if he could trigger any mission.

McCaw had a clear goal, and soon, he led Jin Cheng to a cell where a dying young elf dressed as a guard was breathing feebly inside.

“Squeak!” Having a tiny body, McCaw easily slipped in, then he pressed his head on the elf’s face and tried to wake him up.

Jin Cheng directly took out a potion and threw it to him. The little mouse burst into tears and bowed at Jin Cheng vigorously, then he tremblingly held the potion that was even taller than himself to the elf’s mouth.

Still having some consciousness with him, the elf opened his mouth slightly, which allowed McCaw to pour the potion in. It was just that as a mouse, the act of pouring a potion was too difficult for him, causing half the flask to spill. Out of nervousness, McCaw almost shed tears.

“It’s okay, he’ll be fine.” As Jin Cheng said so, he checked the side mission again to see that it remained unchanged. The elf lying on the ground showed no signs of recovery for the time being. To not delay their trip any further, Jin Cheng asked McCaw to bid goodbye to the elf so they could leave.

McCaw nodded, climbed to the elf’s waist and grabbed a bunch of keys. Only then did he reluctantly get out of the cell.

As the keys were handed over to him, Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows — this was a nice surprise.

Soon, one man and one mouse came to the end of the stone steps, where they found a stone gate. What made it pleasantly surprising was that the magic formation on the stone gate was located outside, so they could open it from inside without any difficulty.

But what was even more startling was that someone was outside the gate, and the sound of a conversation seeped in through the gaps on the gate.

“Elder Evans, what should we do about the Secret Lake? This person dared to tail behind you, he must’ve found something.”

“Just lock him up and ask him about his accomplice.”

“You mean that young knight?”

“Uhm. When I gave him my blessing, I vaguely felt a hint of Elven blood in him.”

“This…” 

As the conversation was interrupted, the person who was talking seemed to be lost in thoughts, or perhaps he suddenly figured something and didn’t want to speak any further. A moment later, Evans asked again: “Where is our Prince? Haven’t we found him yet?” 

The other elf replied: “No, we’ve already sent more guards to find him, but as you’ve instructed us, we won’t let the matter leak out easily, especially to Elder Philgarro. He seems to be unwilling to believe that the problem at the Secret Lake is related to His Royal Highness. If he finds out that it was our doing, then —”

“Hm, Philgarro’s vain plan to destroy the Elven blood is foolish. How could he accept a mixed-blood elf to ascend the throne? This would be a shame to the Elf race! Don’t worry, now that none of us can enter the Secret Lake, what’s the use of relying on those outsiders? It’s absolutely impossible to wake up the real Secret Lake.”

“Elder Evans, the Secret Lake has become so terrifying and so many outsiders still haven’t returned — Will there be any problems with the method that those men told us?”

Hearing this, Jin Cheng couldn’t help but frown. 

When this elf uttered the word ‘those men’, there was a noticeable pause. Earlier, Evans said that McCaw’s blood was impure and thus he was opposed to McCaw ascending the throne. This was likely the source of the problem at the Secret Lake. As an elder, Evans, in order to maintain the purity of the Elf race’s blood, didn’t hesitate to inflict harm on McCaw and even did something to the Secret Lake.

The mention of ‘those men’ proved that he had accomplices, and the transformation of McCaw was likely a plan from someone else, which caused the problem at the Secret Lake. Judging from the tone of their dialogue, chances were that these accomplices were from outside the Elf race.

Jin Cheng slightly narrowed his eyes and thought about the settings of this Western Fantasy world, and a guess was formed in his mind.

“Don’t think too much, finding McCaw is the key.” As Evans said these words, there was a trace of exhaustion in his voice: “Take this man down. Keep him at the lowest level, and don’t let anyone come into contact with him.”

After hearing this, Jin Cheng immediately took McCaw and left the stone gate. There was no good hiding place in the prison, so he simply found an empty cell and lay down with his back facing the door. 

Almost at the moment he lay down, the stone gate opened. The sound of footsteps came nearer and nearer and directly went past Jin Cheng, who was lying silently in the darkness. When they walked over, Jin Cheng quietly opened his eyes and saw the man who was dragged by the two guards — Celtic.

At the same time, the battle at the Secret Lake finally came to an end. 

With everyone working together, the Abyssal Serpent let out an agonising cry and smeared the Secret Lake with its blood, its huge body slowing sinking to the bottom of the lake. Naturally, the illusion was broken.

That was a fierce battle.

Although the serpent died, everyone was more or less injured, especially the two druids, who were drenched in blood with their faces as white as a sheet. They sat on the ground panting desperately, wearing an expression of both fear and happiness at the same time.

Hayes, who had been staying by the lakeshore and assisting them from afar, was the least injured. He helped Heimen, Don and the others to gather at one spot to rest together. Seeing Tang Cuo coming over, he said: “Inside the illusion just now, the serpent’s strength should only be half of the real one.”

Heimen also nodded: “Indeed, otherwise we won’t stand a chance to win against it.”

Tang Cuo pretended to nod at them, then he said: “The problem now is, if all we see is an illusion, where is the real Secret Lake?”

“Cough, cough…” Don coughed a few times while clutching his heart and said: “If there’s no way to find the real one and we have to keep breaking one illusion after another, I’m afraid we won’t last long.” 

There were more than ten members in the group. If everyone brought on an illusion, this was only their second one.

Hearing this, Hayes and Heimen’s expression also turned solemn.

Tang Cuo kept paying close attention to Celtic and the druids. The former’s expression didn’t change, while the latter’s eyes flickered the moment they heard what Don said.

Are the druids hiding something?

The men from the Pinwheel Harbour office and the five adventurers were still missing. Who were enemies and who were friends?

What Tang Cuo didn’t know was that about two kilometers away, the two groups he was thinking about had encountered each other. It was just that the men from the Pinwheel Harbour were quietly hiding behind the tree, making absolutely no sound.

Among the five adventurers, some were sitting while some were standing, and one of them was rubbing his head, looking like he had just woken up. Hawk and his teammates glanced at each other, each guessing that this person was probably the initiator of the illusion just now, just like the dwarf Hammo.

“Why did I fall asleep just now? I’ve been very careful and didn’t drink like that vulgar dwarf.” The one rubbing his head was puzzled.

The rest of the five adventurers said: “Don’t talk about this just yet, we have to act quickly. Let’s kill everyone as soon as possible, then we can get back to fulfil the order.”

“When we pushed that human down just now, did anyone find out?”

“Unlikely, otherwise they wouldn’t have let us leave so easily.”

As soon as these words came out, Hawk and his teammates hiding behind the tree almost made a sound. They didn’t expect that the adventurer who died in the dwarf’s illusion was actually pushed down the lake.

And the intent hidden in those men’s words was even more shocking. Were they going to send everyone to their death?

Why?

Hawk opened his eyes wide to keep looking, then a scene that had him literally shaking in his boots appear. The five adventurers moved close to each other, muttered something under their breath and one of them started glowing. As the light beamed brightly, that man turned into Tang Cuo.

He touched his face, moved his neck a bit and said: “This guy named Theodore seems to be the most difficult to deal with. I’ll go to see him first. You all keep hiding, don’t come out for the time being.”

“Remember, don’t just fall asleep.” 

The five discussed for a moment, then turned and left.

Hawk and his teammates walked out from behind the tree and looked at the direction where the five had left with complex expressions. They touched their backs to find cold sweat oozing out. One of them said: “What do we do now? Should we go back and warn them? If they’re all killed, we can’t escape.”

Hawk frowned: “Who are those people?” 

The other teammate touched his chin, as if thinking of something: “Looking at their shapeshifting, they look like druids. What if he goes back with Theodore’s face and the two Theodores confront each other? On the other hand, there are already two druids there, so looking at the five human adventurers, no one will suspect that they’re actually five other druids shapeshifting into humans.”

Hawk: “But doesn’t Theodore still have his companion? Shouldn’t his companion be able to tell if he’s real or fake?

The teammate asked again: “Don’t you think that companion is also strange? He was the first person to stray off from the group, so why wouldn’t anyone suspect that he was swapped? Both of them have suspicious identities. Who would be more trustworthy?”

In fact, neither would be.

“But since they said they want to get back to fulfil someone’s order, it means there’s still a way to leave from here. We’ll quietly follow them.”

Eventually, Hawk chose to listen to his teammates’ suggestion and the three of them tailed behind the fake Tang Cuo, watching him turn up in front of everyone while pretending to be all panicky.

The always-calm twin brothers were startled. How could there be two Theodores?

“He’s fake! He must’ve come from the Secret Lake’s illusion to deceive us. Everyone, stay away from him, don’t be fooled!” After the fake Tang Cuo finished speaking, he angrily pointed at Celtic, planning to gain the upper hand: “I was obviously separated from Celtic at the beginning, who are you? Are you his accomplice?!”

Tang Cuo looked at the scene in front of him with icy eyes, watching everyone’s reaction silently and not saying a word. 

The other Tang Cuo snorted coldly: “You aren’t saying anything, which means I guessed correctly? Say it, what’s your intention to be in this group? When I was separated from Celtic, was it your trick?”

This blaming tactic of his was indeed well-played.

Tang Cuo almost couldn’t help applauding him, because his hands were feeling seriously itchy. Meanwhile, he really wasn’t in the mood to talk nonsense with this fake man, so he simply drew his sword. Before anyone could even react, his sword pierced the other man’s heart, truly as fast as the wind. 

The fake Tang Cuo subconsciously reached out to hold the blade, but he couldn’t stop it in the slightest. All he could see was his own bloody hand. The face that was exactly the same as Theodore’s was full of shock and even a feeling of tremendous absurdity. Why was he stabbed?!

Tang Cuo wouldn’t bother explaining to him anyway. He drew his sword back and watched the other man slump down, his expression unflinching.

All around him, everyone remained utterly silent.

After thinking about it, Tang Cuo felt that he still had to say something, so he took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood on his sword while looking at the man lying on the ground: “I won’t be as noisy as you.”

Subconsciously, the others took a step back, but facing the current situation, it was difficult to make judgment. Then, the moment Tang Cuo finished wiping the blood on the sword, the fake Tang Cuo finally breathed his last, his body glowed with a flash of light and he restored his original appearance.

This was neither Theodore’s face nor any of the five adventurers’, but a druid with two horns on his head.

Everyone’s gaze was once again fixed on the two druids.