72: Chapter 72 The Silver Treasure Chest Was on Him

Zhang Mu felt that the skeleton on the throne was truly too stingy.

There were at least seventy or eighty Silver Treasure Chests in its home, so what if he just took four?

Of course, complaining wouldn't solve the crisis.

Before the Half-moon Energy Blade could strike him, Zhang Mu took a large stride through the gap in the door and immediately pressed himself against the right wall of the tunnel.

"Boom—"

The two thick and tall stone doors were blasted to pieces, with stone fragments flying everywhere.

The attack was blocked by the doors. Worried the undead would chase him out, Zhang Mu hurriedly ran back along the tunnel.

"My... door!" An angry roar echoed from the cave.

"I'll come back and help you fix it when I have time! Just stop chasing me!" Zhang Mu pulled out a flashlight and shouted as he ran further away.

He ran without stopping for roughly two hours. Only when he didn't hear the sound of horse hooves behind him did he finally stop, panting heavily as he set Frederica down.

"It's all right now." Zhang Mu bent over with his hands on his knees, comforting her while gasping for breath.

After catching his breath, he straightened up and leaned against the tunnel wall, waving to Frederica who was standing in the middle of the passage. "Come here, let's see what's in the treasure chests."

"Zhang Mu." Frederica walked over slowly, her head lowered. "When you got the third chest, we should have turned back."

"You... why, why..."

"Why can't you just understand the value of life!"

She suddenly looked up and grabbed Zhang Mu's collar with both hands, her expression more agitated than he had ever seen.

"Why, just why?"

"Mother doesn't understand, the Great Elder doesn't understand, Vag doesn't understand... and you don't understand either!"

"I thought... I thought!"

"I thought that you, who were willing to face a tide of demonic beasts for unrelated townspeople, would understand..."

"Zhang Mu, Zhang Mu, this isn't courage, this is recklessness..."

Her screeching turned into soft cries, tinged with a bit of a sob. Zhang Mu noticed the hands gripping his collar slowly loosening.

Pressed against the tunnel wall with his arms pinned, Frederica rested her forehead against his chest. Zhang Mu couldn't see her expression.

He could only see her smooth emerald hair and the tips of her ears, feeling his chest gradually grow warm and moist.

"Frederica." After a moment of silence, Zhang Mu smiled. "Courage and such, I probably don't have much of it."

"If you really look at it, I have quite a cowardly personality."

"As for what you said about facing the beast tide and all that, I told you, I caused that trouble, so I should be the one to solve it."

"That's a principle."

"Are principles more important than life?"

Zhang Mu frowned in thought. If he didn't have the resurrection function, would he still help if his teacher or senior sister ran into trouble?

He would.

Without much thought, he told himself this in his heart.

"Yes, principles are more important than life."

Zhang Mu explained softly, "I don't deny the value of life, but a person must have something they stand for. Otherwise, living is just too meaningless."

"Similarly, I don't deny that most people are unwilling to do this, but there are always some who are willing—willing to sacrifice their lives for certain reasons."

"Frederica, it's not that life isn't precious, but that for humans, there is a... meaning more important than life."

"I don't understand." After a long silence, Frederica responded dully.

It was normal for her not to understand; her experiences were different from his.

Therefore, Zhang Mu didn't explain further. "Perhaps one day in the future you will..."

"Your Highness!"

"Alice, Vag, come quickly! I've found Her Highness and Mr. Zhang Mu!" A light shone from a corner not far away, followed closely by Saldari's voice.

The light source quickly approached the two of them.

"Your Highness, Mr. Zhang Mu, we've been searching for a long time. We thought... uh..."

Running closer, Saldari saw the two of them pressed tightly together face-to-face and froze.

"Go on over." Alice's voice urged from a bit further away.

"Wait!" Saldari turned around in a panic and jogged back, spreading his arms to stop Alice and Vag. "Let's wait a bit before going over."

"Why?"

"There's no why. Just listen to me, you can't go wrong!"

Saldari was not built sturdily, so the two elves easily bypassed him and saw the man and elf hurriedly separating not far away.

"Heavens... Gods above!" Alice hopped up and down while clutching Saldari's arm. "Saldari, is our Princess falling in love?!"

"Does that mean Mr. Zhang Mu will travel the continent with us?"

"If I had known this, I would have just used the Princess to entice Mr. Zhang Mu into agreeing to my suggestion!"

Saldari's mouth twitched. "Her Highness will kill you if she hears that."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Frederica walked over slowly, her tone returning to normal, with Zhang Mu following behind.

"Vag." She looked at the silent Vag. "How did you find this place?"

"Saldari was in charge of everything, just ask him," Vag replied indifferently.

Then, the group talked for a while.

It turned out that after the three elves lost track of Zhang Mu and the others, they chose to search for a secret entrance in the hall where the Lava Beasts roamed.

They were lucky and found it in just half an hour.

After entering the tunnel, they followed the wider path until they found the two of them just now.

"Zhang Mu and I have already been to the Final Treasure Ground. We've taken everything we could. Let's retreat."

The Undead Knight could give chase at any moment, and this was not a place to stay for long, so Zhang Mu didn't say much and followed them back to the entrance.

Activating the mechanism Saldari had discovered, the man and four elves were enveloped by a sudden light and teleported to the Lava Beast hall.

Zhang Mu quietly took out his phone and glanced at it. Three days had passed since they had accidentally entered the secret tunnel.

Thinking that going further wouldn't yield any better chests than the silver ones, the group prepared to leave the labyrinth.

Walking back the way they came, they nearly reached the labyrinth's entrance hall.

Just as they stepped out of the archway, Zhang Mu immediately saw two groups of people standing dozens of meters apart.

"Are they planning to charge us a toll?"

Frederica shook her head. "They don't have the courage to force an elf to do anything."

After saying that, she walked ahead, leading the four of them toward the exit to the surface.

"Lady Elf, please wait." A middle-aged man dressed as a mage blocked the way. "You may call me Fritz."

"I have some questions for this human."

"Not allowed." Frederica took out a circular Identity Nameplate from her Storage Pouch and responded coldly.

Fritz narrowed his eyes, staring at the nameplate. This was no ordinary elf... he couldn't afford to offend her.

Thinking this, he made a strange hand gesture, signaling his clansmen disguised as Adventurers not to act rashly, and prepared to step aside.

"The treasure chests from the Final Treasure Ground are on him."

A calm voice echoed in the hall. Everyone's gaze shifted; it was Vag.

He pointed at Zhang Mu, his expression like a pool of stagnant water. "We luckily entered a secret tunnel that leads directly to the Final Treasure Ground."

"Vag! Are you crazy!" The three elves glared at him.

Seeing this, Fritz smiled. That male elf wasn't lying.

"My apologies, Lady Elf. I promise not to harm you. Please step aside."

He waved his hand, and the clansmen behind him closed in.

Men die for wealth, birds die for food—this logic holds true everywhere.

If this elf really wanted to fight, then he would kill her. With the chests from the Final Treasure Ground, he could find a remote city and rebuild his family.

After all, he could always have more sons if one died, but if the treasure from the Final Treasure Ground was gone, it was gone for good.

Sneering inwardly, Fritz said loudly:

"Lady Elf, I hope you understand that life is precious. Is it worth throwing it away for a human?"

"Step aside." Zhang Mu pushed aside Frederica, who was standing in front of him. "I'm not close with these three elves. Let them go."

"As for the treasure chests." Zhang Mu's lips curled into a wild grin. "You want them?"

"Come and get them."