by Tinalynge
The group had intentionally stayed away from every kind of village, even the smallest and poorest, as Hui Yue wished to leave behind not even the slightest trace.
Hui Yue had brought forth everything at his disposal. Earlier he had used technology which he had brought with him from his old world. Although they were in their most primal versions they were still foreign to this world. Should the royal family of the Taiyang Kingdom get a hold of them, they would know for sure that Hui Yue had some knowledge which they could not afford to have fall into the hands of their neighbouring kingdoms, not even high ranked nobles who might revolt.
Although the kingdoms had a positive relationship with one another, one never knew. In the past more than one war had broken out in the hopes of uniting everyone under one flag. Hui Yue’s knowledge might not be limited to interesting inventions. The Royal family would definitely want him for that knowledge alone.
Another reason why there would definitely be someone after him was the fact that he had revealed his power as a Saint ranked expert. The reason some came after him was, obviously, for the sake of testing whether or not his strength truly was that of the Saint rank.
If it turned out that he was a Saint ranked expert, they would do their best to persuade him to join them. Hui Yue was not dumb, a Saint ranked expert was not something that could be dealt with easily, yet the Taiyang Kingdom was bound to have at least a few experts of such caliber. If Hui Yue did not follow their polite invitation, it was quite likely that he would be forced to join. In worst case he would truly be erased.
Shaking his head, Hui Yue stopped thinking about the eventless last four months where he had reached the third star of the Master rank, as absolutely nothing had interrupted his cultivation on the trip. He instead focused his entire attention on the cliff wall, and a sigh escaped his lips.
‘Just fly to the middle of this cliff.’ Lan Feng’s voice was incredibly carefree as it explained what they needed to do. ‘Although the land has changed, it is impossible to remove the dungeons so fly and search the cliffside until you find a cave with a size of at least two metres wide and four metres tall. I guess its gate would have long vanished with the land.’
Hearing those words, Hui Yue could not help but snort slightly. Although Lan Feng made it sound simple it was anything but.
Hui Yue would have to rely on the Qi Fan to allow him to personally inspect an area which could be hundreds of kilometres long, since the phoenix was unable to pinpoint the exact location.
Although Hui Yue had opened his middle dantian, his Qi spiral was not growing in size because his cultivation technique was greedily absorbing strand after strand of Qi, only to refine it into spiritual essence.
To inspect such a vast area as needed, Hui Yue would need at least a few days of constant searching mixed in with meditation to replenish his Qi pool.
It was possible for him to produce multiple Qi Fans and have his friends search with him, but if he did that he would use more of his Qi up faster. Not to mention his friends would be unable to control the Qi Fans as they only reacted to Hui Yue’s commands and had a maximum range of a kilometre away from him, before they would dissipate.
Seeing the different possibilities, a sigh escaped Hui Yue as he activated the Qi from his lower dantian and stepped onto a pearl white Fan, which slowly brought him down the cliffside.
Searching the cliffs took the better of a week. Hui Yue would spend half a day thoroughly inspecting every nook and cranny of the rough stone walls and the rest of the day resting and cultivating while at the same time replenish his Qi spiral.
While Hui Yue was inspecting the walls, Sha Yun would stay with him and constantly observe him quietly always alert, ready to help as soon as needed.
A benefit for Hui Yue while he was observing the cliffside was that he came across some rare herbs. He knew nothing of these particular ones, but Lan Feng ordered him to pick them up and promised that when they entered the dungeons, then he would be taught a little about herbs. Because they would be incredibly important throughout their journey through the underground.
While Hui Yue and Sha Yun were busy at the cliff, Wang Ju Long and Deng Wu would travel towards the closest forests or grassy fields on their hunt for their dinner meal.
They would bring back anything from fresh wild berries to magical beasts ready to be grilled. During the entire trip Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long had taken on the job of finding food. Usually the two would bicker about what they wished to eat, but considering that they were camping outside and that they would have to gather the food from the wild, none of those two spoiled youngsters got the food they wished for.
At first, Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long found the camping lifestyle rather fun, yet after a month neither of them enjoyed it any longer, as they had both been used to the luxury of having servants wait on their every need, granting them anything they wished for. In nature they had to get everything they wanted on their own.
After three months the two finally came to terms with their new lifestyle and the previous young masters ended up fighting to prove that they were the better suited for the rough life. Hui Yue could not help but laugh at them both, and he never once regretted bringing them as they provided him with a lot of fun.
Lan Feng was also very pleased with the two joining them. Both Wang Ju Long and Deng Wu were experts of the Master rank, and both of them trained with cultivation methods provided to them by Lan Feng.
They were far stronger than the average Master, or even Grandmaster, ranked cultivators, and they owed it to Lan Feng and his cultivation methods which in turn had caused them to be greatly thankful, willing to do anything which he might ask for.
Although Deng Wu and Wang Ju Long both saw Hui Yue as their friend, they almost worshipped Lan Feng. The phoenix had granted them all their wishes. He had given them the strength to stand on their own two feet.
Although little dragon had previously granted Deng Wu a boost in his cultivation that was just that, a boost. Lan Feng had given him a method which he could use to cultivate from now until he reached the rank he wished to reach. Also he had gifted Deng Wu a few high ranked martial attack skills, and finally he had even been willing to reveal himself for the sake of giving the Deng and Wang families a small possibility of survival.
Wang Ju Long shared this adoration as she had been gifted the same things as Deng Wu, not to mention a new lease on life as the woman she was. Although it was hard for her to get used to the new lifestyle, it was still a place where she could be free and where she was accepted for who she was.
Every time Lan Feng heard the two praise him his feathers would flutter, puff up, and make the phoenix seem self-righteous as though he had saved the world from a great disaster.
Hui Yue would usually laugh whenever it happened, yet he could understand why his friends thought this way and for him it was also a great help to not be alone on the trip. There was some safety in numbers, but it also made the trip much less depressing as there was someone to spend time with.
….
On the fourteenth day of searching the cliffside, Hui Yue finally found the remnants of what had been a cave opening. He had searched the entire area multiple times, before Lan Feng finally mentioned that the entrance was likely to be hidden beneath vegetation or a boulder to protect itself from unwanted visitors.
It turned out that this was exactly what had happened as a large boulder was blocking the entrance, yet this boulder was easily smashed by Hui Yue as he infused his Black Blood with Spiritual Energy. As soon as the dagger touched the boulder it shattered into thousands of pieces.
Looking inside the cave, Hui Yue frowned slightly as it was completely black. Within seconds he had created another three Qi Fans which he used to gather his friends and fly them to his location.
Together they all stepped into the black world of the cave, yet as soon as their feet touched the ground it seemed as though the entire world started spinning around them.
Grabbing a random hand, Hui
Yue felt a suction force appear, and the four of them were thrashed around within the complete darkness before suddenly Hui Yue found himself on solid ground once more.
Hui Yue instantly calmed down and flicked his hand, summoning a memory stone from his storage stone. Within the memory stone in his hand was a seed of sunshine, and as the rays of light lit up the cave Hui Yue had ended up in, he could not help but widen his eyes as he saw Deng Wu by his side, yet neither Wang Ju Long nor Sha Yun was together with them.
‘Well that was very bad luck,’ Lan Feng commented upon the discovery. ‘They arrived at another room. I guess we should go out and find them.’
Chapter 97 - The Maze
* * *
Chapter 97: The Maze
Hui Yue stood up but did not rush towards the exit to start searching for Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun. Instead, he quietly observed his surroundings with an alert expression on his face.
The cave was as barren as he had expected, but a few types of mushrooms grew in the darkest corners. As soon as Hui Yue activated a light stone, the mushrooms started to disintegrate as though sunlight was toxic.
The light stone was truthfully a low grade storage stone which contained a seed of light. The storage stone was of such poor quality that the interior was exposed, allowing for the rays of sunshine to illuminate everything around it.
The seed of light was not an actual plant. Instead, it was a small pearl refined from the sun’s rays of light. Creating one seed of light required more than a year, and the price was extravagant, as both plant and pearl were very important. Seeds of light were not something just anyone could buy.
That name was given because it could be planted in the ground and a tree of sunshine would grow. A tree would absorb the light shining down upon it, bearing fruit that contained more seeds of light.
Although this sounded like an easy process, it was important that the trees had a constant supply of sunshine while it refined its seeds. If not, the trees would be unable to create seeds. Within all of the Taiyang kingdom only one place lived up to the harsh requirements needed for farming seeds of light.
Hui Yue had only brought two seeds of light on this trip, yet both were with him, so he could not help but feel worried about Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun, who were stuck within the black maze with no light at hand.
The room that the stone lit up was dark and damp. It was completely closed off from the world with no windows and only one pathway they could follow, leaving behind all discussion about which direction to take.
Thinking the situation through, Hui Yue handed over the light stone to Deng Wu before he quickly sat down in meditational position.
Seeing this, Deng Wu furrowed his brows in confusion, as he did not think now was the best time for cultivating, yet he said nothing and just waited patiently for the younger man to finish whatever he was doing.
Hui Yue synced with the earth, yet at the same time he did not have full control over it. Even when perfectly synced, because the young boy still needed to hone his affinity he was not able to command larger masses of earth.
Hui Yue was seated down in meditation, yet, unlike what Deng Wu thought, he was not cultivating; instead, he was manipulating his Earth elemental affinity to scan as much of the entire mountain as his ability would allow him to.
Hui Yue was one with the earth. One with the walls of the maze as it twisted and turned inside the mountain. Unfortunately, Hui Yue’s control over Earth only allowed for him to thoroughly scan up to a few kilometres away from his location, but no matter how he searched, it was impossible for him to find any trace of Sha Yun and Wang Ju Lon.
Frowning, Hui Yue opened his eyes and stood up, patting his robe to remove the dust that had gathered when he was seated on the floor.
“I could not feel the presence of living beings, nor signs of any ever having been here,” Hui Yue said aloud, explaining what he had seen. “The maze continues on for much further than I am able to scan. It goes upwards and downwards and has different levels. It also turns left and right. It is quite complicated. We should expect this maze to fill up quite a large amount of space, so our biggest question is which way we should walk to find the two others.”
Deng Wu nodded. Although he was unable to sync with his element, he was still able to use it, and he quickly found a carving knife after which he engraved an inscription at the front of room they had ended up in.
This was a safety inscription which had multiple benefits. Deng Wu wrote it because he could leave behind a message in the inscription, and he would instantly know if any living being got close to it.
Should Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long happen to stumble upon the inscription, an illusionary Deng Wu would appear, telling them to stay within the room, and at the same time Deng Wu would be informed about the two’s arrival at their previous location.
As an inscriber, there was no range limit for how far away he could be to sense it. As long as the inscription was created by him, it would inform him, even if he were to leave the plane. An inscription was something which one created by pouring their own cultivation base into.
Seeing Deng Wu create an inscription, Hui Yue nodded in approval before he slowly started to make his way down the only path, Deng Wu following behind.
Although these roads were obviously millennia old, it was easy to see that they had been created with perfect attention to detail. The now moldy and damp stone walls had once been dry and adorned with light stones every fifteenth metre.
Such extravagance shocked Hui Yue deeply, as he had personally investigated the size of the maze, since he knew how rare seeds of light were. These seeds had long since withered up, unfortunately, leaving no light on the now deserted hallways, causing Hui Yue to feel slight regret.
Walking through the maze was done ina world of darkness with only a little light from the Light stones. It was impossible for the two men to keep track of the days. When they got hungry they would sit down and eat some rations. When their energy was nearly depleted, they would sit down and cultivate.
….
In another room, days before, Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long had woken up, just as Hui Yue and Deng Wu had done, only to find that they had been separated from their friends.
Unlike the calm and collected Hui Yue, Sha Yun was instantly panicked, as she was about to charge out of the stone chamber to look for her master, only to forcefully be held back by Wang Ju Long.
The two women were of quite similar strength, yet currently, Wang Ju Long had the advantage, as she only needed to hold back the former, and even Sha Yun had to give up.
“What do you expect us to do then?” the snake-woman hissed at the girl she was stuck with, hate evident within her eyes. Sha Yun had been unhappy when Wang Ju Long followed along on the trip, but since it was Hui Yue’s wish, she would not oppose. It was however quite certain Sha Yun would do anything in her power to ensure that the other knew that she was unwelcome.
Wang Ju Long was an aloof kind of person. She was the complete opposite of Sha Yun, and although she did feel that Hui Yue was special, she never once paired that emotion with love. Not even when her face was flushed red and her heart beat rapidly. Wang Ju Long was only capable of seeing these symptoms as a sign of lacking food or rest.
Currently, within the room, Sha Yun was fuming with rage, as she had been held back by Wang Ju Long, who was searching through her different storage stones only to finally break into a smile as she fished out two light stones, tossing one to the snake-woman.
Wang Ju Long’s elemental affinity was that of wood. She had a special connection with the seed of light, because she had been using it while practicing her elemental affinity, causing a much brighter light to flash out from within the transparent memory stone.
Looking at the moist stone, which was surrounding them, a frown could be seen on Wang Ju Long’s usually very tranquil face before she turned around, looking at Sha Yun for a moment, clearly deep in thought.
Sha Yun could not help but cross her arms when
she noticed Wang Ju Long staring at her, and backed away slightly. She had no idea what the other was thinking, but it seemed to have something to do with her, and that alone caused her to be cautious.
An eerie silence was slowly creeping up on Sha Yun, causing the snake-woman to involuntary shiver, her eyes flickering between the contemplating Wang Ju Long and the black world outside the cave.
Finally, just as Sha Yun thought that she couldn’t take the silence any more, Wang Ju Long opened her mouth, a friendly voice sounding out. “Your affinity is Earth, right?”
Sha Yun was started, yet listening to the question, she nodded her head. She did indeed have an affinity for Earth. An affinity she had lived with since birth, and therefore honed to the best of her ability.
Looking at Sha Yun and Hui Yue, both of them had an affinity with Earth, but, even so, their abilities were quite far from each other. While Hui Yue had perfectly synced with the earthen element previously, he was still improving his affinity. Although he was now capable of becoming one with the earth, it was limited, After all, he could currently only fuse with the earth so much.
