“Uwah~!” Jin woke up violently on the floor and realised he was not in that cultivation dream state that he was in. But instead of sludge pool which Jin should have been immersed in upon waking up, he found that the black sludge was floating above him in a more condensed form like a cloud hovering at his ceiling.
Jin quickly absorbed all that sludge into his storage ring and decided to not give up. There was obviously something Ming wished to hide actively from Jin, but at the same time, his grandfather seems to not be thrilled to let him take that particular information.
“So much for being an open book! What lies! Anyways, it’s only 4am. I think I can force myself to sleep again.” Jin said to himself as he went into a sitting stance which allowed him to mediate and subsequently absorbed himself into the cultivation dream state. True enough, the moment Jin opened his eyes, he returned exactly to the point he got violently awoken.
In the middle of falling.
“Snowboard, Snowboard!!” Jin looked around and noticed there was nothing but snow and ice all around him, and he believed he had less than thirty seconds before he made an impact onto the ground.
Unlike last time in his dream state, Jin could feel that the Maqi in the surroundings was still unstable, maybe because he was forcefully entered into the dream state as compared to previously where he naturally fell asleep.
“Ah, fuck it!” Jin said to himself as he tried to use his body inertia and whatever Maqi he could gather as the force to move himself closer to the mountain. The result was not pleasant, and he felt pain all over his left shoulder, but Jin attempted to hold onto anything he could grab.
Unfortunately, it was all snow that Jin held onto, and the Astral Panda cultivator was still falling until he managed to grab onto a cliff. Yet, the pain he received was tremendous, but somehow Jin managed to tolerate it by gritting his teeth.
Even with his bruised left shoulder, Jin forced himself to grab onto the cliff and had a proper footing while he looked downwards. There was still a much longer way to go, yet he did not dare to move much. Jin was afraid the small little ledge which he was holding onto might give way with the amount of force he exerted. Suddenly, he heard echoes within his brain rather than from the surroundings, and they were obviously from Ming.
“You still alive? Should have taken my offer of leaving the dream state when I kicked you out. Now you possibly have to suffer just like how you fought with the White Tiger to get to that secret now.” Ming chuckled within his thoughts before it came into an awkward silence. “But I am not that evil.”
A shimmering light was seen within the depths of the valley which the page had dropped, and Ming told Jin that was the only help he would render. Knowing his grandfather, diving straight towards the light would only bring unwarranted danger. It was either a major risk to take or waste his time going through the safe route.
Obviously, Jin would take the former.
But Jin was not that dumb either, he held onto the ledge for some time first, gathering whatever Maqi he could muster. After which, he took a deep breath and dive into the unknown.
With no weapons, no armour and a limited amount of Maqi at his disposal, the Astral Panda cultivator steeled his nerves to brave the darkness.
Unfortunately, the one who took pleasure in this scene as much as Kraft was Ming himself. Within the darkness, the shimmering light dissipated and two blue, glowing orbs emerged in the dark as Jin dived into the valley.
Soon enough, a loud thundering roar echoed through the valley, and the two blue glowing orbs got nearer to Jin. Within a split second, Jin finally saw that those orbs were eyes.
The eyes of a serpent.
Only then Jin realised that there was no way to evade the attack in midair, considering the typical movements of the serpent and his experience fighting against Ke Mi’s Great White Snake. Even if he utilised his Green Panda Wind Energy, he would not be able to collect enough Maqi from the surrounding to do a counteroffensive.
So, he decided to fight head on.
With his fists slowly imbued with Black Panda Fire Energy, he raised his hands towards the snake like creature like how Superman would fly towards his enemies.
However, it seemed like Jin had underestimated the serpent’s intelligence as it hesitated to attack upon seeing the flame charged fists that Jin was wielding.
Instead, the whole bottom of the valley glowed with a dull green light in a peculiar pattern and out flew a piece of hard shell that impacted with Jin. Even with his Black Panda Fire imbued fists, Jin could felt that there was no effect against the shell. The only one that was in pain was probably just himself.
But that was not the end of the attack. The piece of hard porcelain looking shell flew up so high that Jin had to hold onto the edge of the shell in order not to fall over. That was when he noticed the serpent attempted to attack him when Jin had his hands full.
“Shell?!…Serpent? The Black Tortoise of the North?!” Jin thought to himself and an echoed sound of Ming laughing hard.
“Perhaps but even if you discern its identity, how are you going to defeat it?” Ming asked as the shell violently shook Jin sideways to make him fall. It succeeded without much attempt, and another piece of the shell popped out to attack the Astral Panda Cultivator.
“Not this time!” Jin gritted his teeth as he converted his Black Panda Fire Energy into Green Panda Wind Energy. Although the conversion potentially cost him half of his limited Maqi, Jin needed to at least survive the attack.
“You could always restart, you know?” Ming replied, and Jin snarled back.
“Yeah, and let you revive me to the exact same point which I began falling from the peak of a mountain? No, thanks!” Jin said as he was able to move out of the way at the nick of time. But that only bought him an extra second before the serpent strikes at him again.
Perhaps…it might be wise to revive and rewind.
