This didn"t happen in the original story. In the original one, Zi Cheng led the group to the tomb without revealing her intentions, and upon finding it, feigned surprise. No one ever suspected she planned the entire thing.

But now Zi Cheng was going off-script, saying things that were never in the story. Ai Lin wasn"t sure how this bode for her.

Everyone was interested in the tomb after listening to Zi Cheng talk about it. They all agreed to set out early in the morning and follow the map and see what destiny awaited them.

Zi Cheng knew she was stronger than her peers in cla.s.s, even the current money-making a.s.signment wasn"t a challenge. However she was not qualified to talk when compared to Ming Xi"s group. Fortunately those in Ming Xi"s group were good people. They saw no problem with Zi Cheng getting more of the share, it was her map after all. Zi Cheng didn"t demand a larger share of the treasure just because she found the map either, instead all she asked for was a chance to search of it.

Regardless what she thought or felt about the situation, this was in fact the best course of action.

Their first night was so quiet it felt like the quiet before the storm, and everyone was uneasy because of it.

There weren"t any large magical beasts, but there were plenty of reptiles. They were nocturnal creatures so they loved to come out at night. They hunted and played then burrowed back into the ground to eat. They weren"t particular about what they ate either, as long as they could get it, they ate it, even humans were OK.

They were a pain for adventurers because of the speed with which they burrowed in and out of the ground, so it was hard to predict where an attack would come from. It was a simple and effective attack when combined with their thick, nearly impenetrable skin.

Fortunately they were timid creatures with a preference for running away when scared. So they would chomp you down to the bones if you played dead, but if you scared them, they"d happily toss you away in order to make a fast retreat.

"It"s too quiet," muttered Elena. It wasn"t her first time in the realm battlegrounds, but it was the first time she felt uneasy.

Ming Xi agreed. "It is too quiet, you"re right. Those on watch duty, be extra careful." He stared hard into the night and squashed the uneasiness in his heart.

Feng Wu gazed off into the distance with a strange look in her eyes. Jier didn"t miss it. He went over and tugged at her sleeve asking, "What"s wrong?"

"Something terrible is about to wake up."

"Something terrible? Xiao Wu, are you seeing something again. Talk!" Wind exclaimed.

The others turned to stare at Feng Wu. Anything she said would be taken seriously. They knew she wasn"t an ordinary girl after everything that happened in town. If she hadn"t mentioned something was wrong with Princess Nai Nai, they would never have been able to locate the demon, and many more people would have died.

Feng Wu shook her head and only said, "I didn"t see it. I heard it."

"What did you hear? Can you tell us?" Rain sidled over and sat down next to Feng Wu.

"There"s someone very powerful in the valley. When he wakes up a lot of people will die." Feng Wu turned to look at Rain"s cute face that was nearly touching her.

"Can"t you be more clear? What"s waking up?" Gerasi asked.

"I don"t know because they don"t know either. All they can say is a lot of people die every time this guy wakes up." Feng Wu was getting her information from the plants. The demonized plants liked to talk and Feng Wu liked to listen so. . .

Ming Xi and Tian Ya looked at each other. Both of them felt something big was going to happen soon. Whatever it was would be even more terrifying than what happened in town.

"Should we leave?" Pei Qing asked. He had complete confidence in Feng Wu"s abilities. Leaving was the first thought that came to mind.

"Out of the question! Didn"t everyone agree we"d go find the tomb together?!" Yifu b.u.t.ted in.

"What does everyone else think?" Ming Xi smiled slightly. There was a faint, peaceful light in his eyes that put everyone at ease.

In the end the only ones who wanted to leave were Wind, Rain and Pei Qing. Zi Cheng wanted to find the treasure so she didn"t want to leave. Yifu would follow whatever Zi Cheng went regardless of the danger. The more reluctant Zi Cheng was to leave, the more reluctant Ai Lin was to leave as well. Jasmine never said much; she would go with popular opinion.

Since the majority wanted to stay, everyone would stay.

Elena wanted to have the freshmen leave, but since they were adamant about staying, she held her tongue. Besides she had the feeling Feng Wu was probably awesome in her own right, Jier was a successor, and they were all students from the school, so they were capable.

Her worries were eased when she thought about it that way. Besides having Feng Wu around would be useful.

Everyone, other than those on watch duty, turned in for the night.

It was quiet the next morning as well. There wasn"t even a single bird chirping. Though early morning light shone golden and bright outside the valley, it was dim inside. The gigantic trees had such luscious leaves that much of the sunlight was filtered out before it reached the ground.