94: Chapter 86 The music continues, the dance continues.

The Deer Terrace towered into the clouds, the wind carrying a lavish scent of grease forced out by charcoal, mixed with the fermentation of aged wine.

Pei Duo sat on the bronze main seat that once belonged to King Zhou of Shang, her fingers tracing the ferocious Taotie patterns on the armrests.

Looking past Daji's peerlessly beautiful face, Pei Duo gazed down below.

In the massive bronze pool, wine shimmered like a lake, and several exquisite wooden boats drifted with the current, carrying nobles sprawled in drunken stupor.

By the pool, countless bronze pillars stood, laden with whole roasted Xuan Gui, Dang Kang, and other exotic beasts from the mountains and seas, all roasted to a golden crisp. Grease dripped down the meat, sizzling.

This was the legendary "wine pool and meat forest".

An extremely primitive, wild, and intensely impactful sensory feast.

"Tsk, the aesthetics of the yin-shang dynasty are quite wild, aren't they?"

Lin Sa sat to Pei Duo's lower left, almost sinking into the spacious chair covered with white tiger fur.

She toyed with an ancient-looking bronze jue, her gaze sweeping over the attendants around them.

"This rough and bold style is much more pleasing than those creepy, tentacle-sprouting Western dungeons."

Lin Sa took a sip of wine, her eyebrows slightly raised, clearly quite satisfied with this "retro style" imbued with Eastern charm.

As an assassin who had constantly battled on the brink of death, she showed no tension at all, instead exuding a relaxed air as if on vacation.

Pei Duo set down her wine jue, her gaze sweeping over the Star-Plucking Tower in the distance, which pierced the clouds and was adorned with star-shaped decorations. The month ofmaterial she had memorized in the archives flashed through her mind.

"This is the Deer Terrace. According to the normal logic of the A-rank dungeon 'Lutai Startling Dream,' players should land as 'Xiqi Death Row Prisoners' or 'Escaped Slaves'."

Pei Duo pointed to the fully armed black-armored guards below, calmly giving an on-site lesson:

"See those battle-ge? Under normal procedures, we'd have to fight our way out or prove our innocence, and finally—"

Her voice paused, her gaze falling upon Daji, who was smiling deferentially beside her.

"—survive by guarding our true selves against the Nine-Tailed Fox Lord's enchanting illusions."

Upon hearing this, Daji quickly covered half her face with her wide sleeve, giggling like a trembling flower branch, her eyes full of flattery.

"Your Highness is teasing me. Before you, what little fox charm I possess is hardly worth mentioning? It's only good for dealing with some ignorant ruffians."

Pei Duo ignored Daji's compliments, turning to Xu Mo and Lin Sa, and laid it bare:

"So, what was originally a hell-level survival dungeon has now become our... private banquet."

Lin Sa froze for a moment, then couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"It has to be our Eldest Princess; you know your stuff well. Looks like that month in the archives wasn't wasted."

A long-lost sense of exhilaration welled up in Pei Duo's heart.

This feeling of being in control of the situation instead of cowering behind others was even more intoxicating than thousand-year-old wine.

Knowledge is the true foundation for dimensionality reduction attacks.

Xu Mo, on the side, didn't join the merriment. He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses. He wasn't in a hurry to touch the wine and meat on the table; his professional habit made him instinctively scan his surroundings first.

His gaze swept over the faint golden specks of light floating in the air, and he lowered his head to feel the underworld emissary token in his hand.

The faint light was gentle, no vibrations, no alarms.

"Pure Eastern Underworld laws. It seems this is indeed the territory of the Underworld."

Xu Mo put away the token, and his back, which had been tense all day, finally leaned against the chair, letting out a long sigh like an office worker after quitting time.

"No rule-based kills, no malice. It seems you were right; this is another sightseeing dungeon 'cleared' by your brother's reputation."

He raised his wine jue and toasted Pei Duo from afar, a hint of teasing in his tone:

"Thank you, Eldest Princess, for the carry. I'm very satisfied with this company team-building trip."

The three exchanged smiles, and the tension that had weighed on their hearts before entering the dungeon now completely vanished.

Here, there was only the wine pool and meat forest enjoyed by top dignitaries, and one-on-one attendance from an S-rank Demon King.

Is this the joy of having a powerful brother?

It's simply—too awesome!

"Since Your Highness has arrived, merely drinking would be too monotonous."

Daji, with keen observation, clapped her hands, and the crisp sound echoed through the spacious Deer Terrace.

"Keep the music going, keep the dancing going."

At her command, the previously somber chimes suddenly changed.

Heavy and ancient, yet imbued with a soul-piercing ethereal quality.

A troupe of dancers in five-colored feather robes emerged from both sides of the Star-Plucking Tower, filing out.

They were barefoot, crude beast bone bells tied around their ankles, each step seemingly landing on the rhythm of one's heartbeat.

This was definitely not the graceful and delicate court dance of modern times, but the most ancient sacrificial dance of the yin-shang dynasty.

The dancers' movements were broad and sweeping, their waists twisting with exaggerated and eerieamplitude, as if imitating the postures of some totemic divine beast.

Their eyes were hazy and fervent, combined with the shimmering ripples in the wine pool and the potent aroma of wine in the air, creating a dazzling and hallucinatory atmosphere.

Lin Sa's eyes lit up, and her fingers tapped along to the beat: "This tune is exciting! Much more thrilling than a concert."

Pei Duo was also somewhat entranced; this primitive beauty from thousands of years ago indeed possessed a soul-stirring power.

Just as the three were immersed in this visual feast spanning millennia, a faint rustling sound quietly approached.

A maidservant in plain linen clothes, with downcast eyes, slowly approached the main seat from the side, holding an exquisitely crafted bronze wine pot in both hands.

She maintained an extremely humble kneeling posture, her knees on the cold jade floor, using the strength of her thigh muscles to propel her body, inching forward in a "slide".

Her movements were fluid, her upper body motionless, and not a single drop of wine sloshed from the pot in her hands.

This almost masochistic reverence made Pei Duo frown slightly, but she said nothing, as this was normal under feudal slavery.

The maidservant slid to the table, first respectfully filling Pei Duo's wine jue, then subtly shifted her knees and silently slid to Xu Mo's other side.

The aroma of wine wafted.

Amber-colored wine drew a glistening thread in the air, precisely landing in the bronze jue before Xu Mo.

Xu Mo maintained his relaxed posture, his gaze seemingly admiring the distant singing and dancing, but his peripheral vision habitually scanned the maidservant approaching him.

This was his professional habit as the team's strategist—any creature entering his safe distance would be instinctively subjected to a full scan.

The maidservant's fingers were long and fair, with no calluses on her tiger's mouth, indicating she was likely a domestic servant specializing in waiting on people.

Xu Mo was about to withdraw his gaze, but his vision suddenly paused as it swept past the maidservant's back.

His pupils slightly contracted behind his glasses.

As the maidservant turned to kneel and pour wine for Lin Sa, he could clearly see her bare feet exposed beneath her skirt.

Her feet were not wearing shoes or socks, and her soles were unnaturally pale.

Although the tops of her feet were pressed to the ground, her two big toes were crossed and stacked behind her.

...

Xu Mo's fingers, holding the wine jue, stiffened slightly.

A strange sense of incongruity, like an extremely fine needle, unexpectedly pricked his computer-like brain.

He seemed to have seen this somewhere before?

Was it in some miscellany about exotic customs? Or in the Special Operations Bureau's dossiers on supernatural incidents in neighboring countries?

Is this really... an yin-shang dynasty maidservant?

"Hey, Strategist Xu, what are you spacing out about?"

A crisp clinking sound interrupted Xu Mo's thoughts.

Lin Sa had already raised her wine jue and clinked it against his cup, wine splashing onto the table.

"It's rare to get a chance to relax; don't always be so tense, analyzing this and that."

Lin Sa laughed carelessly, her eyes hazy: "Drink up! This is imperial wine; every cup is precious. You won't get this treatment back home!"

Xu Mo's train of thought was broken, and the surprise in his eyes momentarily faded.

He glanced at his smiling teammate, then at Pei Duo, who was chatting and laughing with Daji on the high seat, and finally, his gaze returned to the maidservant who had retreated into the shadows.

Perhaps he was too sensitive?

After all, it was a dungeon, and discrepancies in NPC settings were common.

"True."

Xu Mo shook his head, a faint smile returning to his lips, forcefully suppressing the fleeting doubt in his heart.

He raised his cup, clinked it with Lin Sa's, and drained it in one gulp.

"Cheers."

As the spicy wine went down, the Deer Terrace was once again filled with joyful air.