“Sister Lin, what’s in the cave?”
After being together with Lin Luoran for a few days, Li Xi’er now knows that Lin is actually warm inside though she acts cold most of the time. Lin must be in a good mood when she is literally smiling.
Thinking of what she has found in the bear’s cave, Lin Luoran is not able to hide her smile. Since Li Xi’er has asked, Lin decides to tease her:
“You didn’t go in with me. I won’t share the treasure with you.”
Li Xi’er stamps her feet. She is so curious about the treasure Lin found in the cave, but Lin deliberately refuses to tell her what it is.
Lin Luoran pretends to ignore Li’s curiosity. Goldie has finished enjoying the bear meat and it is standing straight on a tree. Goldie flies down fawningly after Lin Luoran calls it.
Lin strokes Goldie’s head and throws some “grass” she took from the bear’s cave to it. Goldie swallows the grass, looking satisfied.
Lin Luoran moves so fast that Li Xi’er fails to see clearly. Li becomes even more curious.
In the first place, Lin Luoran never intended to find spirit herbs like the Luminous Sand. However, what she has found in the bear’s cave prompts her to make up her mind — now that there is a chance that she can make the Foundation-laying Bolus, she may as well try to find the Luminous Sand though its location is out of her way.
Lin Luoran takes a closer look at the Jade Map and makes another comparison between the location of Luminous Sand marked on the map and her current whereabouts. The bat cave which the Luminous Sand locates in is in the east. It is not far from her current location, but it is in the opposite direction to the entrance of the secret land, which means that the cave is almost in the center of the land.
According to the Jade Map, the bat cave happens to locate in the junction of the so-called safe and dangerous area — Lin Luoran can’t make the decision for Li Xi’er, so she explains the risks of going to the bat cave to Li. Still, Li Xi’er insists on following her “Sister Lin” and she refuses to go and look for Wen Guanjing and the others on her own. Therefore, Lin Luoran doesn’t try to stop Li anymore. She calls for Goldie who has digested the “grass” and flies east on its back with Li Xi’er.
Goldie is not able to fly much faster than the flying sword, but the benefit is that Lin Luoran doesn’t have to worry about using too much Reiki of hers.
When they pass by a dark pool, Lin Luoran senses a strong power from afar. Lin is alarmed and she tells Goldie to take another route and go faster. Except that, their flying to the bat cave is quite smooth.
Sitting on Goldie’s back, Lin Luoran withholds her fear and looks back. They have gone over ten miles from the dark pool. A double-headed python roars and raises its head from the water. It stares at the direction which Lin is heading to and hesitates. Fortunately, the python gives up chasing the two human and a hawk because it believes that their meat is not enough for itself.
The huge python has two identical heads, and its four red eyes are creepy. Lin Luoran doesn’t see the python with her own eyes so she is quite calm. However, hawks and snakes are natural enemies. Since the huge python comes out of the water, Goldie’s feathers on the neck all bristle up. Goldie wishes that it had two more wings, and it flies twice as fast as before until it can’t feel the cold temperament of the python
Lin Luoran and Goldie both feel that they have a narrow escape and breathe a sigh of relief. However, Li Xi’er, the silly girl who is not able to sense the danger, is sitting on Goldie’s back and enjoying the view. Li is quite proud of Goldie’s speed, and she is thinking about taming a hawk so she can play with it.
After this false alarm, Lin Luoran is more cautious while choosing the route. Monsters mostly live in mountains or rivers, so Lin directs Goldie to fly over flat and open areas. In this way, they manage to avoid many dangers.
Even so, it takes Lin Luoran five days to get to her destination. Thus, taking the time she spent in the deep valley and the monkey’s cave into consideration, Lin Luoran has been in the secret land for over ten days — the secret land will close in twenty days. Counting in the time she needs to get to the entrance, Lin Luoran is not sure whether she will be able to gather all the other herbs after collecting some Luminous Sand.
The bat cave is easy to identify. Among the beautiful mountains, an isolated peak which kisses the clouds stands out like a skyscraper. Somehow, the peak is smooth like a polished mirror, without even a single blade of grass under the wind action.
What surprises Lin Luoran is that Goldie circles around the peak and refuses to land on the “skyscraper”. Something may be buried under the peak.
Lin Luoran has no choice but to tell Goldie to land on a mountain nearby. She plans to ride the sword to the peak, yet, the Sword of Bright Snow is actually out of control. The flying sword is too unstable for Lin to ride on!
If the abnormality only happened to Goldie and the Sword of Bright Snow, Lin Luoran would not realize the real seriousness of the situation. The bigger problem is that when Lin Luoran tries to ask the white fairy about this, she gets no reply — the Soul Stone is right here in her Universal Sack. What on earth lives in this polished isolated peak?!
That thing scares Goldie away and interrupts her connection with the Sword of Bright Snow. Also, it is able to stop her from communicating with the White Fairy!
Lin Luoran’s heart sinks. She is hesitating about going in or not. The Luminous Sand is the irreplaceable ingredient of the Foundation-laying Bolus. If she flinches now, she may never find the ingredient in the mortal world…
Looking at Li Xi’er who doesn’t figure out the situation, Lin Luoran thinks of an excuse:
“Xi’er, Goldie is throwing a tantrum. I assume that it is tired because of all the flying. You can rest here with Goldie and wait for me.”
Li Xi’er is silly, but not stupid to ignore the fact that Lin can’t ride on the flying sword. Li is suspicious of Lin’s excuse, but she believes in Lin so much that she asks no more questions and goes away with Goldie.
Lin Luoran looks at this cloud-kissing peak. Since there is a mark of Luminous Sand on the Jade Map, someone must have collected the sand here before.
Lin Luoran makes some hand gestures and casts a water spell. This place doesn’t affect spells so Lin Luoran is more determined to go in.
Sword-riding is impracticable… She may as well walk!
Lin Luoran takes some steps on the peak and discovers that it is slippery as it seems to be. She thinks of an idea. Lin Luoran digs two balls of mud and sticks them to the bottom of her shoes. Then she casts an earth spell called “Land Subsidence”. Under the spell, Lin Luoran is dragged to sink into the earth, but she is standing on a smooth surface. In this way, she is tightly stuck to the mountain.
Since the spell is helpful, Lin Luoran starts to jump. She gets over four meters higher every time she lands. Though it is troublesome to cast the “Land Subsidence Spell” every time she lands, Lin can almost see the peak after an hour.
The peak towers into the clouds. Lin Luoran can’t figure out the reason why bats choose to live in such an isolated peak.
Lin Luoran searches for a while and finds a narrow cave in the height of two persons. It should be the bat cave.
The bear’s cave has a fishy smell. Standing at the entrance of the bat cave, Lin Luoran can smell the mold… That’s right. It is the moldy smell of places where the sun never shines.
However, she has gained a lot from the fishy bear cave. Will she find the Luminous Sand in this moldy bat cave?
