Though they have plenty of food and drinks, they can’t stay here forever. Rong Donglin tries to stand up. He is not in pain anymore. Lin checks on his shank and tells him he is not fully healed and the wood board has to stay on longer.
They decide to go down.
Lin wants to use the strong vines around them. Her is light and it will be easy for her to jump between rocks by the vines. She collects lots of thick vines and chops them up with her sword. It takes her quite a while to tie the vines together into a long rope.
Lin Luoran doesn’t know how long the rope is. The rope piles up on the web like a little hill.
Lin Luoran digs out a huge rock and ties it on the end of the rope. Then she throws the rock down.
In the mist, they can’t see what is going on in the dark. Lin starts to pull the rope when the rock hit the bottom.
The end of the rope is wet. Lin is glad. When she pulls the rock up, it is dripping water. Rong and Lin now know what is down there!
It is water! This is good news. First, water can ease the momentum of them falling. Second, if it is running water, they may have a chance of finding an exit.
Lin Luoran begins to dig into the rocks around her. She wanted to tie the rope to the web, but she was afraid that the web might break. Thus, she decides to make a spike out of the rock to keep the end of the rope in place.
It is not an easy work to do.
Fortunately, the Bright Sword is sharp enough. Besides, Lin has great strength after her bone marrow is cleansed and her meridians are cleaned. The only problem is that all the dust sprays all over her body.
It is the first time Rong has ever seen Lin in such a mess. Back when they met on the crowded train, Lin could stay composed like she was enjoying a cup of nice tea.
“Cultivation must be hard.” Rong thinks. He keeps pulling the rope that Lin gave him to check whether it is firm or not.
The two of them are busy doing their work for quite a while. Lin Luoran finally digs through the rocks when her hands are sore.
They have taken some of the vines from the web, so they must walk carefully to avoid falling down accidentally.
They need strength to carry out this plan. Lin Luoran decides to make a feast. She takes out some fruits and a jar of spirit wine out of her space. She made the wine by herself, and it is rather mild. Rong has two cups of wine and feels warm all over his body. Lin drinks a cup of the monkey fruit wine made by the old monkey in the secret land. Reiki flushes in her meridians. Unfortunately, her pubic area is still inaccessible and her Wakan is out of use. Nevertheless, Lin feels more energetic thanks to the wine.
“Ok. I’ll go down first. I’ll pull the rope if it is safe.” Lin flicks the dust off herself and says smartly.
Rong has no choice but to follow Lin’s direction. His leg is not fully healed. If something dangerous happens down there, he will slow Lin down. The best option is to let her go down first.
“Miss Lin, be careful.”
Lin nods. She entangles the rope around her wrist and jumps!
Lin is out of Rong’s sight in a few seconds. Rong respects Lin for being so brave. He wonders what kind of man deserves to be with her.
Lin Luoran doesn’t look so good while falling.
The wind makes her hair messy… Minutes later, she falls into the water.
“Plop.” Water splashes. The water is so deep and cold.
When she emerges from the water, she is quite clean. Lin is shivering because of the coldness.
The water is extremely cold. Thanks to the monkey fruit wine, Lin is alright now. She looks around. The pond is deep, but not so large. She pulls the vines and swims to the shore.
Rong pulls the rope up. After getting to the shore, Lin Luoran looks around and becomes excited.
Rong Donglin jumps. When he lands in the water, his leg is hurt again by the momentum. Painful and cold, Rong almost couldn’t get out of the pond.
Lin lights a fire on the shore. She stands by the fire and looks at Rong smilingly. She throws a vine to him and pulls him out of the pond.
The fire drives the coldness away. Lin takes out some meat and salt and starts to make a barbecue.
Since Lin can’t use her fire Wakan, she picks a stick and goes to get fire by the mini volcano in her space. There are plenty of wood sticks on the ground. This place must be surrounded by trees before the dragons left.
“Miss Lin, what is this?” Rong asks while his teeth are chattering.
“Venison.” She hunted a deer on Mount Jiuhua and put the meat in her space. She never expected to eat the venison at such a place.
The venison smells good. Rong gets more and more hungry after Lin spreads salt and chilly on the meat.
Wow, this tastes so good! Rong takes a bite of the hot meat. He feels energetic after the meal.
When the meal is over, their clothes are dry. Lin Luoran makes two torches and gives one to Rong. The two of them begin to observe this place.
It’s so cold. They have to keep moving forward.
The aisle is neat. It must be man-made. Rong and Lin look at each other and begin to have doubts about what this place used to be.
The torchlight is dim. Lin Luoran checks on the sides of the aisle sometimes. The stone wall is clean and shining, but there are deep cracks on the wall. The cracks look like the scratches of beasts.
Can they be the scratches of dragons?
The two of them speed up. Rong’s left leg is in pain and the way he walks is hilarious. However, none of them is in the mood for laughing. The atmosphere is so serious. They are here to find the treasures of the dragons, and they don’t want to confront any real dragon.
The dragons should have all left… Lin hopes.
There are also cracks and potholes on the ground. Some of the cracks don’t really look like scratches. They are more like the trace of spells and magic weapons. A war might have happened here.
They walk for a while and reach an arched cave as tall as three or four persons in total. An iron gate is locked by a rusted bronze lock.
“No Shui Nationality Allowed.”
This warning is carved on the gate in the Shui script. Some dragon design is carved around the words. The identity of the person who wrote this warning is apparent.
“Miss Lin, we are not from the Shui nationality.”
Lin pushes the iron gate. However, the gate doesn’t open as a gate should. Instead, it falls back. The gate is broken as such a long time has passed. As the saying goes, nothing stands the erosion of time, even if the forbidden area of Dragons.
“Boom.” The gate falls on the ground. Dust is everywhere. The cave has been sealed for so long that a rotten smell comes out.
The air is foul. Lin Luoran waits for a while to let fresh air come inside the cave. Then she goes in with Rong Donglin.
The torches light the cave up. Rong sees a lamp post on the wall first.
Lin lights the lamp with the torch. A fragrant smell pervades. Rong worries that the smell may be toxic. Lin waves her hand and says, “Don’t worry. This is the smell of Ever-burning Light.”
Rong has read about Ever-burning Light. It is fueled by the oil made from mermaids, which can burn forever… It is said that the tomb of the first emperor of Huaxia is light up by the Ever-burning Light.
Nevertheless, thinking about the oil made from mermaids, Rong is disgusted by the fragrant smell.
Lin finds more lamp posts on the wall and goes to light them up. The entire cave is bright as daylight now.
The cave is around ten meters high and a hundred meters wide. She can see every corner of the cave clearly.
The first thing Lin and Rong see is a skeleton in the center of the cave.
Rong screams.
Lin is frightened as well.
The skeleton is shining under the light. More importantly, Lin has never seen such a huge skeleton!
Is this the skeleton of a whale? A dinosaur? No. The size of a whale or dinosaur is not as big as this skeleton.
There are two horns on the head of the skeleton. Lin knows what creature the skeleton belongs to, but she can’t accept the fact for now.
Everybody would be stunned by this. This is the skeleton of a dragon. Even it’s a dead one, with its bones over there, the dignity still can’t be covered.
