Chapter 171: Cave
This is fucking ridiculous! Wu Xie was already dazed from the fall, but this smashed him awake, nearly cursing out loud: “Lin Yan, get off me!”
“Hm?” Lin Yan was also stunned from the fall, and hearing Wu Xie say that, he hurriedly scrambled up, almost slipping and falling himself, but luckily grabbed the nearby root system with quick hands to avoid disaster.
“What kind of position is this?”
Coming back to his senses and looking down at his body, Lin Yan nearly burst out laughing. He saw Wu Xie sprawled awkwardly mostly on the boardwalk, with half his body sticking out, looking like he was protecting his head and face with his hands, but clearly not very successfully, because.
Lin Yan kindly pointed at his face, holding back a laugh: “You’re bleeding from your nose.”
“Ah?”
Wu Xie shook his head and stood up, feeling the world spinning, his vision going black as he nearly passed out. Once he finally steadied himself, he heard Lin Yan’s words and only then noticed the pain from his nose, touching it to find a handful of blood. Damn, he wouldn’t be disfigured, would he!
Wu Xie glared at Lao Yang, who was pretending nothing happened as he barely stood up, gritting his teeth: “Lao Yang!”
Lao Yang looked at him, his mouth twitching as he suppressed a laugh: “That was to save you!” He looked up at the bronze pillar that looked ready to collapse, then reached out to grab Wu Xie’s shoulder again: “Hurry and go!”
Wu Xie was furious, but Lao Yang was right and he had nothing to retort. Though Lao Yang’s maneuver had some minor issues, it really was for his own good! He knew his own personality; jumping down from such a height would still scare him, and hesitating might lead to some accident. But… his ribs!
Wu Xie shook off Lao Yang’s hand, rolled his eyes at Lao Yang’s shocked look. He’d eaten this loss once; was he going to eat it twice? In his dreams! He pushed Lao Yang: “What are you standing there for? Hurry and go!”
Lao Yang didn’t mind. At this moment, finding a place to hide from the bronze pillar that might— no, definitely would— smash down was more important. He looked up at the altar emitting a teeth-gritting sound, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes. Though he didn’t know what thing was about to come out, the sooner they went down the better! The caves they’d passed weren’t too big, but the one they’d sheltered in before was decent; maybe they could hide there!
As for Master Liang… he had to take responsibility for his own decisions. Ever since Master Liang decided to climb up, the three of them hadn’t glanced at him again. In the end, Master Liang wasn’t really one of them; they had no responsibility or obligation to persuade him earnestly to come along. Besides, they weren’t even sure their own path was right; what right did they have to comment on Master Liang’s decision?
In this line of work, when disaster strikes, everyone flies their separate ways— that’s normal. One could only hope everyone survived, whether they’d meet again or not. With everyone’s thick skin, even if they met again, it probably wouldn’t be too awkward; adults understood.
After running down for just a few seconds, the banging sounds from above stopped. The few couldn’t help looking up curiously, but that one glance changed all their faces. Lao Yang looked below, gritted his teeth, and grabbed Wu Xie: “No time, jump!”
“Ah?” Again? Wu Xie had thought nothing could be worse than before, but now he suddenly had an ominous premonition. He looked at the boardwalks several levels below, his eyes filled with fear… When they’d come up, it seemed like there were more than one level…
The reality was even more brutal than he thought. When Lao Yang grabbed him and jumped down, using only one hand to catch the boardwalk edge as a buffer, they fell almost straight down, like riding a Macau bus that brakes hard often. The constant falling and stopping made Wu Xie feel carsick…
Lin Yan had been alert when Lao Yang said to jump. The rope at his waist moved, and he immediately reacted, jumping down after them. Unlike Lao Yang’s skillful handling with a person in tow, Lin Yan used raw strength. Since he jumped later, he even slowed the descent for the two ahead. Luckily he was strong, and these boardwalk segments weren’t too high; bearing three people’s weight wasn’t hard, but if the drop distance was longer, it might not have been.
Behind them, the massive altar went quiet for a moment after the banging stopped, then completely shattered in a huge crash. The banyan root system above broke entirely. Master Liang stared in terror, not even getting a scream out before falling with the broken roots in his hands… The last thing he saw was that big rat, head tilted, squeaking as it pounced toward him.
The top of the bronze pillar no longer existed. The hollow pillar couldn’t bear the weight of the statue above and the banyan roots wrapped around it after the thing inside came out, shattering into pieces falling down. Many surrounding branches were hit too, falling like raindrops. Those sharp cut edges— anyone could tell getting caught by one would mean a gash.
The coffin chamber at the pillar’s center had been completely burst open, replaced by an incredibly massive thing. If he had to describe it… maybe more like a snake?
Finally landing on the lowest boardwalk, Lao Yang nearly lost his grip on the edge, but luckily Wu Xie was quick-eyed and grabbed the side, preventing his own weight from dragging Lao Yang down too, until Lin Yan landed and he relaxed a bit.
Lin Yan grabbed the boardwalk edge, pulled himself up with one heave, then grabbed the rope at his waist and yanked Wu Xie up too. Lao Yang’s rope at his waist wasn’t tied to theirs, but he was strong enough. Though his hands were a bit weak from extreme fear, he could still climb up.
Looking up, his gaze flickered strangely, as if choked: “This thing… is Banajiemu? You’re fucking kidding me?!”
Wu Xie also looked up, shrinking back at the writhing body like a mad golden snake dance: “Who cares what thing came out!” Just as he spoke, a broken branch whistled past his face, scaring him to immediately hug the stone wall: “Hurry and go! I don’t want to be skewered by falling branches!”
Lao Yang shuddered too, nodding with lingering fear. He turned on his flashlight to check the direction and ran forward fast, not caring how hard the root-wrapped boardwalk was to navigate, sliding then borrowing the force to get up and keep going, not daring to look up, afraid something would smash down the moment he did.
“Holy shit!”
Lin Yan looked at the thing above, vaguely feeling a trace of familiarity, like he’d seen it somewhere, and couldn’t help frowning: Was this thing a real ancient creature or something they imagined? Could Banajiemu really look… like this freakish thing? Then he really had to worry about the ancients’ aesthetics— don’t sacrifice any freakish thing; if this could really bless descendants, this place wouldn’t have been buried in history!
Hm? Something off? Why did it feel like he was cursing himself?
Lin Yan didn’t dare think deeply, just followed the rope at his waist and ran forward, turning with Lao Yang into a fairly large cave.
Once inside the cave, Wu Xie and Lao Yang collapsed. After a long while catching their breath, Wu Xie rolled over, looking at the intermittent falling branches outside, still shaken, relieved: “Good thing nothing smashed our heads before; if it had…”
He shuddered in aftershock. Lao Yang lay on the ground chuckling twice, teasing: “That probably wouldn’t be skewered; you’d be a porcupine! You’re lucky at times like this!”
Wu Xie rolled his eyes at him: “Is your luck bad? None of us got hurt, right?”
Lin Yan nearly laughed out loud, holding back: “Interrupting— want to touch your own nose?”
Wu Xie froze, the pain on his nose bridge suddenly clear again. He carefully touched it and hissed in cold air: “Damn, my nose might be broken!” Thinking of the desolate mountains outside after leaving gave him a headache; who knew where the nearest hospital was or if it was reliable. Fuck, he wouldn’t be disfigured, would he?
Lao Yang lazily got up, roughly feeling up and down Wu Xie’s nose, making Wu Xie yell in pain: “What are you doing! Don’t actually break it!”
Lao Yang withdrew his hand, glancing lightly and scoffing twice: “Relax, it’s fine, won’t disfigure you. I just checked; just some bruising. Rest a few weeks back home and it’ll be good.”
Wu Xie was skeptical: “…Really?” Lao Yang hadn’t shown any talent in this before, making it seem unreliable. Lao Yang rolled his eyes, pointing outside: “You forgot where we are?”
Careless— with this bronze pillar, what couldn’t be done? No, the bronze tree was gone!
Wu Xie sat up in shocked “deathbed” startle, nearly leaping up with a carp flip, startling the two: “Wait, didn’t you notice? The bronze tree is gone!”
He pointed at the nonstop falling… uh, construction debris outside? His eyes widened a full circle: “It’s all gone; does your ability still work?”
Lao Yang’s smile froze, involuntarily looking at Lin Yan. Lin Yan was sitting down to rest, just having picked up Xiao Bai Jiang in his arms when he felt a burning gaze on him, helplessly opening his eyes to Lao Yang’s hesitant expression: “What?”
Lao Yang helplessly pointed outside: “Bronze tree, gone.”
“Yeah, gone so what? Then?”
“Then… your ability? Mine’s still temporarily there, but I don’t know if…” It wasn’t Lao Yang over-worrying; he really didn’t know if the bronze tree’s ability came from the bronze tree itself, the sacrifice of the bronze tree, or the thing in the hollow bronze pillar… But with this big thing emerging, the thing inside the bronze pillar should be gone too, right?
Or maybe this thing was the one from the corpse cocoon? Lao Yang glanced at the tail-like thing occasionally flashing past the cave entrance, shuddering inwardly: The thing below wouldn’t be a monster sealed in human form in the corpse cocoon, now showing its true form, would it?
The moment he thought of it, he knew it was over. If this ability worked now, then this thing might really be like that. Lin Yan beside him glanced at him; though he didn’t know what weird thing Lao Yang thought of, it clearly wasn’t good, or his face wouldn’t look so bad.
He wasn’t Lao Yang; he had no mother to revive and didn’t care much about this ability. Anyway, without it, hadn’t he lived fine before? Though here, using this ability had given him some gains, like the thing in his brain, now temporarily sealed by his method. If the bronze tree’s ability failed, worst case he used the old way: eat a few more pieces of jade.
The three watched the apocalyptic scene outside, each lost in thought in silence for a moment.
After a long while, Wu Xie remembered something, hesitating: “Uh… when the time comes, we go out from below?”
Lao Yang paused: “That’s the only way out, right? What, worried about the waterfall? Or the hot springs?” Lin Yan beside them was idly stroking Xiao Bai Jiang, also casting a doubtful gaze.
Seeing neither realized, Wu Xie sighed: “I mean, the bronze tree is so huge; what if it blocks the bottom?”
The words made Lin Yan and Lao Yang’s expressions change. They hadn’t thought of that before; going down to find the exit would be easy. But now Wu Xie said it, they both pictured it— exiting to… Lao Yang thought of the ground covered in bronze tree branches and hissed: “Shut up, or we’ll have to climb out the top!”
Wu Xie wisely shut up but still wanted options, so after a few seconds of silence, he unwillingly asked Lao Yang: “Lao Yang, last time you really didn’t see any other exits?”
Lao Yang rolled his eyes, listlessly answering: “When I got out, I was totally dazed; remembering that one path was good enough! Where would I remember others?”
Lin Yan suddenly interjected: “Not necessarily… You remember that mine tunnel outside?”
Wu Xie thought and his eyes lit up: “You mean…”
“Yeah.” Lin Yan nodded: “That mine tunnel branches everywhere. If this place was mined by several dynasties, there must be more than one exit; other mine tunnels must lead in, maybe… disguised as some cave! If we search around here, we might discover something!”
Wu Xie’s breathing quickened, scrambling up, looking outside impatiently, much relieved: “Alright, once outside stops, we search around here!”
None noticed Lao Yang beside them, whose face had changed somewhat.
“Lao Yang?” Wu Xie saw Lao Yang unmoving and looked back. Lao Yang quickly forced a smile: “…Wait till outside stops first; that thing doesn’t look like it’ll quiet down soon!”
