"This is a trauma to me. What's my status? I'm a novelist, the leader of the archaeological team, a professor at the academy, and I saved all your lives. I'm asking for two million, and that's too much?"
Zhou Lin responded without politeness.
Jing Xia was so choked up that he couldn't speak, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say.
"You... you're injured? What injury? You look perfectly fine."
Jing Xia looked at the man who was already furious.
"My heart is injured. If I'm not happy, I won't protect you. When you encounter danger, it's uncertain whether I'll protect you."
Zhou Lin's words carried a threat.
Jing Xia gritted his teeth so hard they almost shattered.
He then looked at the people around him and saw them glaring with hatred.
Trying to extract money from them would be impossible.
Fortunately, he had accumulated savings over the years as a professor.
Finally, he took out his phone and called his wife, transferring the money to Zhou Lin's account.
Seeing that the money had arrived, Zhou Lin chuckled and walked over to Huo Qi.
In the live stream.
"Holy crap, it's in his hands already? I feel like this is a setup."
"No, it's not just you. I feel the same way."
"Hahaha, the big boss's brain never loses. Truly amazing, he doesn't admit defeat."
"Haha, amazing. It was all for money. I knew the big boss wouldn't be so narrow-minded. It turns out there was a motive."
"You people from Great Xia are truly detestable."
"Exactly, you Great Xia people are detestable. It's all for money. You are truly detestable."
"Who else would work for you for free? Who would save your lives? Don't you ever think about it? Truly detestable."
"Exactly, exactly."
...
Inside the tomb.
Huo Qi looked at the metaphysics professor, then at Zhou Lin, who was walking towards the 'urn' he had just made.
"Let's go take a look."
Huo Qi was still curious about this thing and wanted to know what was going on.
A group of people, filled with curiosity, went to see what Zhou Lin had made.
They saw the object in Zhou Lin's hand, which was crooked and distorted, with some patterns on it.
It looked like a snake coiled on it, but the snake's scales...
It looked like a caterpillar with horizontal stripes.
"This is my new creation. What do you think? Is it okay?"
Zhou Lin was very satisfied with the object and smiled at Huo Qi and the mercenaries.
But the mercenaries and students, upon seeing the object...
And Zhou Lin's expectant look, they couldn't bear to discourage him.
"Mmm, mmm, not bad."
"It looks pretty good."
"This thing is truly magical. How did you do it?"
Facing the students' barrage of questions, Zhou Lin chuckled and explained.
"The most important thing isn't the shape, but the clay. It's ground powder from meteorites. I just used a bit of it."
Zhou Lin explained slowly.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder. If something they made could attract these things, it would be too terrifying.
"Has the curse on us been lifted now?"
Huo Qi seemed to want to confirm something and quickly exposed his shoulder, wanting the metaphysics professor to take a look.
But the curse marks were still there.
"It's still here..."
Seeing this, the metaphysics professor's heart sank, and he looked at Zhou Lin nervously.
"What's going on? Why is the curse still here even though these snakes are dead?"
The metaphysics professor's words exploded in everyone's minds.
The mercenaries, students, and even the students and professors from Sakura Country looked at themselves.
They looked at the shoulders of their friends and classmates.
The marks were still there, faintly red.
They were all nervous. Things were more terrifying than they had imagined, clearly...
"What's going on? Why is it still here?"
"Yeah, why is it still here? What's going on?"
"Didn't we kill that snake?"
The students from Sakura Country began to panic.
In the live stream.
"Holy crap, what's going on? Why is it still here?"
"Yeah, isn't this situation normal? Didn't we kill that snake? Wasn't that statue destroyed? How could this happen?"
"Hahaha, you have moments of failure too. Isn't this what you deserve?"
"Didn't this professor claim to be very capable before? Why isn't he capable now? It's ridiculous. Isn't this a slap in the face?"
"Are you guys sick? What are you laughing at? There are people from your Sakura Country here too. Are you happy if they die?"
"I've seen idiots, but I've never seen an idiot like you."
...
Inside the tomb.
"Don't be nervous. This curse can be broken. Don't worry. It's not that destroying the statue and killing the snakes will solve the curse."
Zhou Lin saw the expressions on their faces and knew what they were thinking.
"Is there any way? We don't want to die."
Huo Qi looked at Zhou Lin and asked nervously, but his tone was not anxious.
"Yes, this is a cursed tomb of the Demon Kingdom. Curses and dark arts are everywhere. To leave alive, you must go down into the tomb, all the way to the end."
Zhou Lin's words gave everyone some hope.
"Are you serious?"
Huo Qi's eyes lit up.
"Of course."
Zhou Lin looked at the people in front of him and nodded slowly.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless of whether there was a curse or not, they had to go down.
However, the people from Sakura Country didn't think so, as some of their students didn't want to go down.
They wanted to leave here.
"But what about us? We don't want to go any further. Professor, what should we do?"
One student said bitterly to the professor beside him.
"We still have to go down. We can't give up like this. Do you want to die?"
Zuo Lin also really wanted to leave, but now there was no chance, so he could only follow Zhou Lin's words and go down into the tomb.
"It's all Jing Xia's fault. He only knows how to brag and nothing else. Now he's endangered all our lives. It's truly detestable. We should have killed him earlier. Truly detestable."
Another student looked at Jing Xia with hatred.
If it weren't for him, it wouldn't have turned out like this.
The students around also glared at him with the same anger.
Even the mercenaries had the same attitude. This time, they didn't help Jing Xia but chose to watch him with cold eyes.
Song Lin regretted it. He had treated Jing Xia differently before.