Chapter 110: We Are the Champions

[Congratulations to all players in Prince Huai’s Faction for successfully passing the four trials of Princess Anping’s tomb and securing the final victory in this act of “Agents in the Shadow.” You are now granted access to the eighth level of the tomb, as well as the right to enter the Final Battle at Qingliang Prefecture’s Star Gate.]

[Congratulations, Prince Huai. Throughout the four trials of Princess Anping’s tomb, you have demonstrated exceptional wisdom, leadership, responsibility, and courage. The existence that has been waiting for you here for many years is pleased with your performance and has confirmed that you are the one they were seeking.]

[Because Prince Huai has overcome all trials and survived until the end, he has successfully activated a hidden level at Qingliang Prefecture’s Star Gate—the ninth level of the princess’s tomb—as well as a mysterious inheritance.]

Three consecutive system notifications echoed in the ears of every player in Prince Huai’s faction.

The joy came too suddenly, and after so many twists and turns, it almost left them in a daze, stunned…

“Holy shit, No. 5 is insane! I definitely picked the right side… We won, little sis!” Imperial Inspector Liu’s face was flushed with excitement. He grabbed the frail Tang Feng and pulled her into a tight embrace, planting two kisses on her cheek.

“We… we really won.” Tang Feng’s body went limp, but he didn’t protest against Imperial Inspector Liu’s excessive actions. He simply let out a long breath, shook his head, and said, “This Star Gate experience was truly unforgettable… I’m completely exhausted.”

“Little sis, we won! Get hyped!” Imperial Inspector Liu shook Tang Feng’s shoulders enthusiastically.

“I’m very hyped, I’m even moist, okay?” Tang Feng’s face lit up with joy, joking just as he always did, before turning his head to look at the chamber next door.

Inside that dimly lit secret room, the Scholar, the Horsekeeper, and Guo Cai’er all looked utterly defeated, as if their souls had left their bodies.

“Are those bastards gonna die?” Imperial Inspector Liu asked.

“They shouldn’t, since the Final Battle hasn’t started yet. But I think… whether they live or die still depends on whether the Courageous One can make it to the end of the Path of Rebirth.” Tang Feng replied softly.

“Heh, serves them right.”

Imperial Inspector Liu sneered, then shamelessly walked over to the transparent bronze mirror. Completely naked, he put his hands together in a prayer gesture.

Like a shameless old monk, he gazed at the three defeated opponents on the other side of the mirror, chanting Amitabha with exaggerated reverence while continuously making a “stay calm and at peace” gesture.

The Horsekeeper trembled with rage, his eyes bulging.

The Scholar slumped to the ground, too drained to even look at Old Liu.

“Swish!”

With a flash of light, Imperial Inspector Liu and Tang Feng vanished from the tomb chamber. Li Yan’s “corpse,” however, remained kneeling in place, unchanged.

The Horsekeeper shook his head in confusion. “We clearly had the advantage. How did we still lose? Why?!”

The Scholar sighed helplessly. “Their No. 5, after being revived, immediately focused on how to make up for their disadvantage and how to leverage the rules. But our revived player? The first thing he did was threaten us. He had no deeper strategic thinking… That’s the difference. That’s why we lost.”

The Horsekeeper was silent.

“We also lost in the previous trial. Under extreme conditions, we were all too tense, our minds turned dark, and no one took the time to recall details or reanalyze the rules… If we had deciphered the sacrifice puzzle in advance and let either me or the Mute Woman take on the revived role, we wouldn’t have lost, given our initial advantage.” The Scholar spoke with deep regret, feeling like his thoughts and actions had been thrown into disarray ever since No. 11 died.

The Horsekeeper, however, firmly disagreed. “I refuse to believe that their side didn’t have conflicts in the previous trial. Human nature… is never that resilient.”

As they spoke, Xing Tao, who was still struggling through the Path of Rebirth, received the notification of their team’s defeat.

Yet even as his body bled profusely and his breath was weak, he continued crawling forward with sheer determination…

…

Princess Anping’s Tomb, Eighth Level.

A flash of light, and Imperial Inspector Liu and Tang Feng appeared at the entrance of the next tomb chamber.

Looking down, they saw a figure covered in blood.

“Swish!”

Tang Feng crouched down and carefully moved the bloody figure, brushing aside his disheveled hair—only then did he recognize him as Ren Ye.

He was in a horrifying state, his entire body riddled with wounds, as if he had been torn apart by venomous creatures. Even his nose seemed to have been gnawed away… His whole face was pitch-black, his body trembling violently, like someone who had just encountered a ghost on a midnight road.

Even Old Liu shuddered at the sight. No doubt only the ghosts knew what kind of horrors he had suffered along the Path of Rebirth.

[Ding~! Successfully passed the fourth trial. All players in Prince Huai’s faction receive one Essence Replenishing Pill, which can heal all injuries and ailments.]

“Holy shit, that’s considerate. Very player-friendly!” Liu looked down and found a pill resting in his right hand.

Truth be told, Old Liu was also in rough shape, his body covered in wounds. Yet, instead of immediately swallowing his pill, he simply stared at Ren Ye with anticipation.

Tang Feng quickly found a pill in Ren Ye’s hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

A soft glow enveloped Ren Ye’s body. In mere seconds, all his wounds healed, and even the Yang energy that had been devoured by ghosts was fully restored.

Seeing how effective a single pill was, both Old Liu and Tang Feng finally swallowed their own.

On the ground, Ren Ye slowly opened his eyes, his face filled with lingering fear and exhaustion.

“Damn it… that was way too close…”

Imperial Inspector Liu saw that he had woken up and gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder.
“Hurry, tell me everything about the Path of Rebirth in detail…”

…

A moment later, at the entrance to the tomb passage on the eighth level.

With a bit of embellishment, Ren Ye vividly recounted his experiences on the Path of Rebirth to the two of them.

The blue flames had indeed been a great help, allowing Ren Ye to travel through the one-third of the path without any interference from evil creatures or ghosts…

However, for the remaining two-thirds, it was sheer willpower and blood that kept him going. It wasn’t until the evil creatures and ghosts had torn his skin open that he realized—his blood actually repelled them.

He suspected this had something to do with his “resurrection.” After the sacrifice, his body had been altered by fortune¹ within the mirror realm, turning him into a Heavenly Pardoned One, so it was only natural that his blood possessed an exorcizing effect.

But!

Ren Ye was well aware that the Court Faction’s resurrected player would also possess this ability. Their body must have undergone a transformation as well—after all, the Star Gate ensured absolute fairness in mission design and wouldn’t favor any side.

The difference, he speculated, was that the Court Faction’s resurrected player hadn’t been altered by fortune. As for what exactly changed them, he had no clue.

In the end, the Path of Rebirth was fundamentally a test of courage and willpower. Whether it was the blue flames or the exorcizing blood, they were merely auxiliary “tools.”

The experiences he had just been through were ones Ren Ye would never forget for the rest of his life. But when recounting his journey, he left out certain details—such as the moments when he had broken down multiple times, when he had cried in pain and despair before even catching sight of the endpoint…

After finishing his account of the Path of Rebirth, Imperial Inspector Liu immediately asked, “We won, but why hasn’t Li Yan revived? Could he really be dead?!”

Ren Ye turned to him and said bluntly, “Did you receive a notification about a team member being removed?”

“No.” Old Liu shook his head.

“If he were dead, there would definitely be a notification,” Tang Feng added. “He mentioned before that he was originally a soul. He wouldn’t have dared to kill himself without some level of certainty.”

“No matter what, I have to retrieve Old Li’s body.” Ren Ye stood up, his expression resolute. He looked at the others and said seriously, “Getting this far wasn’t the achievement of just one person—it was the result of all of us working together. Every decision we made was the best possible choice. Now, get up! Let’s keep going, brothers!”

“Well said. And it makes my ass feel less exploited.” Imperial Inspector Liu’s words were as blunt as ever.

“Let’s go. Let’s see what’s really going on with this eighth level.” Ren Ye stepped forward, heading deeper into the tomb passage.

Tang Feng followed behind and asked, “The Star Gate announced that the Second Act is officially over. Does that mean there’s no more danger on the eighth and ninth levels?”

“Who knows? Either way, let’s not let our guard down.” Ren Ye shook his head.

The three of them walked side by side, continuing forward.

Before long, they passed through a narrow tomb passage and, upon looking up, saw sunlight.

A vast burial chamber, clearly having collapsed in the past, stretched before them.

The once-sealed chamber now had several fallen walls. Rubble, bricks, and debris littered the ground in disarray. Through the gaps in the walls, they could see the sun outside the mountain and smell the fresh scent of forest vegetation.

It was as if this chamber had been forcefully blasted open by some external force. Not only were the walls collapsed, but the objects and furnishings inside were shattered, toppled over, or buried under the ruins.

As their eyes swept across the burial chamber, a chill ran down their spines.

Among the debris, there were countless bodies—some lying sprawled, others crushed beneath rubble. A rough count suggested at least a hundred corpses.

Judging from their degree of decay and the coloration of their skeletal remains, they had clearly been dead for a long time.

“I see now.” For some reason, Old Liu suddenly had a moment of clarity. “These must be the tomb raiders the Star Gate mentioned, right?”

“Probably.” Ren Ye nodded.

“Let’s not separate too much. Search around,” Tang Feng reminded.

With that, the three of them each moved in different directions.

Ren Ye first inspected the breach in the eighth-level tomb chamber, wanting to see if he could leave the mountain through it.

However, as soon as his body neared the gap, a flicker of light abruptly appeared, repelling him three to four meters backward without warning.

“Hah, of course there’s an invisible wall.” Ren Ye sneered, using a modern gaming term. “Otherwise, why would we have needed to start from the first level to break through?”

Just as he finished speaking, Imperial Inspector Liu suddenly shouted, “Look what I found!”

Ren Ye and Tang Feng turned their heads simultaneously and saw Imperial Inspector Liu holding up a dusty, yellowed modern notebook. The corner of the notebook bore the name of a manufacturing company.

“Holy shit, why is there a modern item here?!” Imperial Inspector Liu looked down at the corpse at his feet. “I found this on him. Which means…?”

“The tomb raiders from years ago… were players?!”

Tang Feng and Ren Ye spoke in unison.

…

Seventh Level.

[Prince Huai’s faction has successfully passed the fourth trial of Princess Anping’s tomb. The Court Faction has completely failed in this act and is now barred from entering the eighth level.]

[Congratulations! The Martial Artist has successfully completed the Path of Rebirth. You should thank him, for it is his courage and willpower that allowed you to survive even in failure.]