Chapter 384 Entering the Cave
Early in the next morning, it was astonis.h.i.+ngly cold in the moist Black Stone Forest. Jin Ying walked behind w.a.n.g Yu. Once she got out of the protection boundary, she felt so severe that her face became pale. She had to use her vital energy to get better.
Seeing this, w.a.n.g Yu gave each of them a protective jade token to keep them from the cold. Before they reached the sixth level, she still had to maintain the necessary sympathy with these two little girls.
Su Li took the jade token and activated it, even if she could stand the cold with her physical body.
Right after the arrival of Tian Sanren and other pract.i.tioners of Yuanying Realm, the crowd immediately headed to their destination with no delay.
“Today, the yinqi in the Black Stone Forest was the darkest in a year, so even the stone ghosts will be reluctant to come out for a walk…”
Su Li followed w.a.n.g Yu silently, and her gaze swept over the deep darkness in the stone forest with a thoughtfulness flas.h.i.+ng over her eyes.
A moment later, Su Li withdrew her gaze and found a sallow side-face that happened to turn around from the front of the group. Her footsteps stalled slightly and went back to normal in the blink of an eye.
No one, but w.a.n.g Yu, who was next to her, noticed this oddness.
“Another acquaintance…”
Su Li glimpsed at the person’s back and drew back her sight at once. But she made up her mind to observe the man closely.
The atmosphere was quiet and depressing, so they moved very fast. Some of Lianqi Realm couldn’t keep up with the others at all, so w.a.n.g Yu had no choice but to take out her sword and put Jin Ying and Su Li on it.
Half a day later, the group had gone several thousand miles in the stone forest, and the surrounding yinqi had become even visible with the naked eye. The visibility was no more than 15 meters. Even those of Jindan Realm, who had evolved their psychic awareness to divine awareness, would risk contaminating their awareness sea by the yinqi if they tried to inspect.
“Almost there.”
Tian Sanren looked serious and spoke softly, in case that his sound vibrations would attract something troublesome from the yinqi.
The group of pract.i.tioners was encouraged to hear the words, while they were more careful and slowed their steps, following Tian Sanren to go even further.
After five minutes, the black air began to fade suddenly, and a Giant Stone Matrix with irregular patterns arranged came into view.
“It’s here, exactly like what the map ill.u.s.trates!”
Someone was so surprised that he whispered, but he quickly realized that he said something wrong. In a panic, he shut up immediately.
But it’s obviously too late to close his mouth at this point.
“Oh, this little friend has a map to the ancient cave! What a surprise! We are in the same boat now; won’t you share it with us?”
Tian Sanren spoke with a smile, while the remaining eight old foxes of Yuanying Realm gazed simultaneously at the young man, especially the elder with the surname Yuan, whose face was gloomy and went an ugly green.
“Master, have mercy! I didn’t mean to hide anything from you!”
The young man who spoke just now was filled with fear and immediately handed over the yellowish paper scroll, which had turned into a hot potato, to his master, Yuan.
Yuan took it with a cursory glance and then sneered out, “You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How dare you hide such an important thing from me! Are you hiding something else?”
The young man changed his expression greatly at the words, turning around to flee without saying a word, but how could he, a pract.i.tioner of Zhuji Realm, escape the strike of an old fox of Yuanying Realm. Before he could take two steps, he had exploded into a cloud of blood mist without warning, which scared Jin Ying to cover her eyes and hide behind Su Li.
Having killed his disciple, the elder with the surname Yuan looked slightly relaxed, but still in a bad mood. He reached out to grasp the youth’s universe ring into his hand and threw it directly to Tian Sanren. He said after a moment of silence,
“I have no idea of what this evil villain has done! His ring will be personally inspected by Tian Sanren. As for the map, we can just share it together.”
Tian Sanren checked the ring with his divine awareness, the lost smile reappeared, “There’s nothing else in the ring. You may check it yourself if you want. Fellow Pract.i.tioner Yuan, you were careless this time. Pay attention in the future.”
Yuan barely pulled out an ugly smile at the words and responded, “Fellow Pract.i.tioner Tian, you are extremely right. I will definitely pay attention in the future.”
After the matter was settled, the atmosphere became relaxed, and everyone gathered around the map for a closer look. Since the Giant Stone Matrix had been found, the group was in no hurry to enter the cave before the end of the day.
The elder with the surname Yuan sat aside and did not gather around. His heart was gloomy.
It’s not a good start!
It’s heartbreaking to lose a male pract.i.tioner for nothing. Still, if Yuan hadn’t been decisive to act and aroused suspicions that he and the sinister disciple had hidden ulterior motives, the loss would definitely be greater than a male pract.i.tioner.
“Well, well. If that information is correct, the treasures at one level would be enough for me to cultivate dozens of pract.i.tioners. I can afford one death now.”
As Yuan was forcibly comforting himself, Tian Sanren had finished studying the map and said with slight disappointment, “This map seems to show only the route to enter the Giant Stone Matrix from the outside. Since we’ve arrived, the map is no longer useful.”
“Tut-tut, we just worked for nothing and saw blood at the beginning, what bad luck!”
A chunky elder, who wore a green robe and had lots of pustules on his face, shook his head and spoke in an extremely impolite tone. Yuan snorted at the words and didn’t say anything.
“Well, every fellow pract.i.tioner, hold your horses. Although today is the best time to enter the cave, no one knows what will happen if we stay in the Black Stone Forest too long. It’s now or never. I am opening the entrance to the cave!”
As Tian Sanren spoke, everyone immediately stopped talking and quietly waited for his action.
When Tian Sanren saw this, his smile remained unchanged, and he raised his hands to wave in the nothingness in succession. He sketched golden arcs one after another, murmuring words so that the spiritual power around was immediately absorbed into the arcs, rippling with them.
As time went on, the arcs, which were mellow originally, gradually became sharper. They cut through the nothingness, and golden sparks twinkled.
“Fellow pract.i.tioners, come quickly to my aid!”
Tian Sanren looked serious, shouted lowly, and changed the gesture in his hands.
Those of Yuanying Realm immediately sensed something that seemed to exist in the nothingness and bound with the golden arcs. Five grooves appeared. They changed their expressions immediately and didn’t hesitate to throw out the key to the cave they carried.
Golden, red, blue, and green lights flashed and disappeared into the arcs, and the nothingness trembled violently at once!
Su Li’s eyes were narrowed. These four jade tokens were obviously like the Divine Thunder of Earth she had gotten. The jade token of the Divine Thunder of the Five Elements had all appeared… And these people were clearly unaware of the secret and didn’t sense the pneuma of the Thunder attached to them.
“Where is the fifth jade key?!”
Seeing a groove was unfilled, Tian Sanren’s face was slightly gloomy. w.a.n.g Yu, who had been waiting for someone else to throw out the jade key, did not dare to hesitate and threw the last key into the golden arcs to reach completion.
The lights of five colors appeared in unison and rotated slowly. They merged into a white light, around which tiny electrical arcs flickered. Even Su Li wouldn’t have been able to notice this, if she hadn’t been aware of the pneuma of the Divine Thunder.
“Holy s.h.i.+t! It’s the unity of the five elements and the Thunder of Pureness… This cave looks extraordinary. Little Su Li, you should be more cautious. There’s no good if you get your hand caught in the cookie jar…”
Black Lotus’ voice sounded full of suspicion. Before Su Li could ask what the Thunder of Pureness is, she was sucked into the arcs by a huge suction force and disappeared.
After losing consciousness for an instant, Su Li came back with her bright eyes rolling. What she saw had changed dramatically. They were no longer in the dark and gloomy Black Stone Forest, but an incomparably large cave, where she couldn’t see the end at a glance.
They were standing on a single circular platform, in front of which a stone path floating in the nothingness stretched into the distance, leading nowhere.
Except for this path, it was nothing but darkness everywhere, and no one knew where this stone platform was standing and how high it was.
After checking the group and finding that there was no one lost, Tian Sanren looked solemn and said, “Attention, please! We have entered the ancient cave, but no one knows exactly what are ahead in this cave, dangers or serendipities? The only way to get more out of it is to stick together. To explore this cave, I referred to many ancient books. Although I couldn’t find out who left this cave, from the setting of the circular platform, I can tell it is a cave of inheritance!”
“Those who can pa.s.s the test are likely to inherit this cave from the owner. There’s no need for me to tell you how capable an ancient pract.i.tioner could be, right?”
Hearing this, everyone was excited with their eyes lighting, and a faint gleam of greed leaked out either.
A cave of inheritance?
Every pract.i.tioner in the cultivation circle nowadays was dreaming of it, for the Mighties in Qingshui Circle, who had skyrocketed and changed from flop to top in a short time, could be found everywhere after they had inherited!
This was definitely a shortcut to the top of the pyramid!
At this moment, everyone was getting excited, even Jin Ying’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning with expectation.
Seeing that his words took effect, Tian Sanren smiled and said, “However, the level of cultivation in ancient times was much higher than today. Even if we have broken through into Yuanying Realm and any one of us takes the test alone, death is inevitable!”
“Therefore, the only way to get your benefits from this cave is to cooperate!”
The crowd, who had illusions before, immediately got a clear head, and a trace of unnaturalness flashed across their faces.
Su Li laughed at those people lightly in her heart. Tian Sanren had planned very well. He knew that these old foxes had lived long enough to get their experiences. Even if they were temporarily blinded by the so-called inheritance, they would come to their senses soon.
It was a smart move for Tian Sanren to enlighten them before they came to the idea themselves, which could invisibly strengthen his right to speak and gain more trust to direct the action later.
Even if Yuan and the others understood Tian Sanren’s intention eventually, they would never have bad feelings against him.
“Ahem… Ahem… It’s well-known among pract.i.tioners from Jiuzhou Region that Tian Sanren’s means are profound. Today, I can confirm that he deserves the reputation he enjoys.” Immortal Bingshu said slowly but spoke the words of the crowd.
Tian Sanren smiled carelessly at the words, ignored the topic, pointed at the stone road, and said, “If I had predicted correctly, the first level is right at the end of the stone road. There is no time to waste. Let’s get started now.”
The green-robed chunky elder snorted lightly at the words, led the way, waved his wide sleeve, and said insolently, “Let me find out how difficult the test of the ancient cave could be!”