Chapter 12 Holy Land

"Due to the Holy Maiden, Mount Gawu Zhangde is considered a sacred place by the local residents. Every year, many believers trek here to circumambulate the mountain for hundreds of kilometers, holding prayer wheels, with firm beliefs and utmost piety."

"If someone wants to climb the snow mountain, in their eyes, it is a blasphemy against the gods and a great disrespect to the Holy Maiden, which will inevitably lead to terrible consequences, and disaster will immediately befall."

Shang Mo's expression was very serious when he said these things, without any hint of joking.

"Okay," Jiang Cheng replied on behalf of everyone.

After Shang Mo carried his backpack again, hunched his back, and walked out of the tent, the remaining people seemed to relax a bit. Interacting with the key characters in the mission always gives people an inexplicable pressure.

The man in the striped shirt turned his head, looked at Jiang Cheng, and said in a relatively polite voice: "Hello, you are Mr. Jiang, right?"

Jiang Cheng couldn't help but frown. What's going on? He was recognized last time, how come he's being recognized again this time? Is his popularity so high now?

The man noticed Jiang Cheng's displeasure and immediately explained: "Mr. Jiang, don't misunderstand. We were here first. Shang Mo showed us the list, which included three people besides us."

"I heard Shang Mo calling these two Mr. Wang and Mr. Huai, so you are the only one left."

Jiang Cheng was quite surprised that there was such a list, but after learning that it only contained vague titles like Mr. Jiang and Mr. Wang, his expression improved slightly.

Fatty and Huai Yi also had strange expressions, apparently they had just learned about the existence of the list.

After a moment of contemplation, Jiang Cheng glanced at the remaining people and said, "Seeing how calm you are, this isn't your first time in a place like this, is it?"

The man in the striped shirt smiled wryly: "Yes, this is our third time, but… but this time we came in strangely. We didn't go through a door, but fell asleep and ended up on a bus."

"Oh, right." The man in the striped shirt extended his hand and introduced: "Mr. Jiang, my name is Zhou Yuxuan. I'm a lecturer at a university. We all come from the same university. Besides me, there are two other lecturers." Zhou Yuxuan pointed to two people as he spoke, and continued, "The rest are students."

One of the people pointed out was a man wearing glasses. The man nodded slightly to Jiang Cheng and Fatty, "Hello, I am Gongsun Zhiruo."

"You can call me Zigui," another woman said. She was fair and pretty, but her complexion wasn't good, giving people the feeling that she was just recovering from a serious illness.

Jiang Cheng nodded to both of them. He remembered them, they had spoken with Shang Mo earlier about tomb raiding.

"The others aren't entirely our students. We all gathered together because of similar interests, but who would have thought that so many things would happen later." Zhou Yuxuan seemed to recall the past, sighed, and said, "Now there are only 7 of us left."

Jiang Cheng was not in the mood to educate them about the old president. There was no point in saying it, and looking at these people, they might not believe it, and it might even make them wary.

"The three of us are together too." Since the other party was already aware, there was no point in hiding it. Jiang Cheng simply gestured towards Fatty and Huai Yi, and continued, "Let's introduce each other. We are teammates for this mission. Let's work together and try to survive."

As soon as he finished speaking, a discordant voice rang out, it was hard to tell if it was fear or disdain, "All survive? Mr. Jiang, do you think this is our first time in a place like this?"

Looking in the direction of the voice, it was a very young woman. She was actually quite attractive, but she had a fierce look on her face. It wasn't clear if it was an act, or if she was like that in real life.

Jiang Cheng glanced at her and nodded. "Okay, so except for this heroine who is determined to die, the rest of us want to live, right?"

"You…"

The woman pointed at Jiang Cheng's nose, her mouth shaping the words of a curse, but in the next second, she was pulled back by the person beside her, "Chan Li, stop talking," a short-haired young girl dissuaded her.

"Mr. Jiang, don't mind Chan Li, a good friend of hers died in the last mission. She hasn't gotten over it, she... she doesn't mean any harm," said Lu Yu, the short-haired girl. She looked at Jiang Cheng, trying to explain for Chan Li. It was obvious that the two were close.

"Lu Yu, why are you holding me back? Did I say anything wrong?" Chan Li tried to break free, but didn't dare to use too much force, fearing that Lu Yu would fall. She could only say angrily, "Are you all idiots? Weren't you fooled enough last time? I don't believe anyone would sincerely help us. In this place, it's good enough if everyone can take care of themselves. Have you forgotten how Su Qi died?"

Jiang Cheng could sense that this girl named Chan Li was not bad at heart. It was just that her friend's death had affected her too much, making her extremely hostile to any unfamiliar teammate.

If he wasn't mistaken, Su Qi, who she mentioned, had been tricked into being a scapegoat.

"Okay, Chan Li, you need to adjust your attitude. Su Qi is gone, we don't want anything to happen to you, understand?" Zigui walked over and patted Chan Li on the back to comfort her.

Gongsun Zhiruo, Zigui, and Zhou Yuxuan were all lecturers at the university. Chan Li and Lu Yu were students.

Besides them, the remaining two boys were Han Juanjuan, who had permed hair, earrings, and a necklace, and Bai Xi, who didn't talk much.

"Mr. Jiang." After comforting Chan Li, Zigui turned to Jiang Cheng. She was a very sensitive person and could sense that Jiang Cheng was the leader of the three, so she communicated with him more, "Like Zhou Yuxuan said, we all gathered together because of common interests. Everyone is about the same age, so we usually have a lot of fun, and no one cares about the teacher-student relationship."

"About a month ago, there were still 15 of us, but now you see, there are only 7 of us left." Gongsun Zhiruo pursed her lips and lowered her eyes.

"What kind of hobby brought you together?" Huai Yi couldn't help but ask curiously.

"We are all following a novel, so we formed a book club to discuss the plot and stuff," Han Juanjuan said, "It's a supernatural novel, not scary, but quite interesting."

"When we get out, add me too. See if you can arrange a main character for me or something." Jiang Cheng felt that the topic of these people was getting off track, and couldn't help but interject.

"Chan Li, right?" Fatty looked at the girl with red eyes and said softly, "I also had someone very close to me leave me, so I know how you feel, but no matter what, we must have confidence, Dr... Mr. Jiang wasn't lying, we didn't have anyone die on our last mission, we all survived." Fatty's voice had a strange kind of affinity, the same words were much more believable when he said them than when Jiang Cheng did.

Chan Li's eyes widened slightly, and she looked at him with an expression that said who knows if what you're saying is true or not, but it was obvious that she was not as resistant to him as she had been to Jiang Cheng before.

"Because the last time we met, it was a group of very good people," Fatty said with a smile.