Pathway

The force of the corrosive water had left a slantwise crack in the area of limestone at the right part of the mountain while the other areas had shafts scattered with boulders, pebbles and potholes. It had scoured the shaft smooth, burnishing the stone to a more brilliant yellow luster. We bounded from boulder to boulder. I kept up with them despite finding the going more difficult. It was at this time I started noticing their strength. At times, the slope would approach in a vertical part, making them slowed down slightly to readjust their trajectory. I kept up with them by using more chi energy. We continued our journey until we reached a place where the path descended into a pit."

"A pit?"

Lin Da Xia asked curiously, with a hint of anger.

"Though we didn't know the depth of the pit, Duan Yang, the smallest and the scout, crouched and leapt down the pit."

"Titan's torso! Anything could be down there."

Uttered Fu Yingjie in a whisper.

"Dead right. At that stage, I wished I had reached the Zhuji stage to be able to use a little bit of spiritual sight. Anyway, we continued watching and waiting to hear from him until he called to us that everything was fine at the bottom. I remembered the saying that, the heart of an adventurer, was that of a leap into the unknown. I totally reasoned with that. I fortified my body with Chi energy, and together with others, jumped into the unknown. I landed a little rough to a gentle laugh from all of us. But we pressed on. We came to a narrow crack, lined with geodes that were winking silver in the light of the bugs that were attached to the mountain walls. Beyond the crack was darkness. One of the kids, the one they called Zeng Wuhan, opened his backsac and took out the hundred manifestation firebug."

"That was a risk, wasn't it? If there was something powerful in there, you could have been in mortal danger."

Said Lin Da Xia, looking at Lin Cheung angrily.

"Yes, I thought so too. But, after careful delibration, we all agreed with him sending the firebug. The firebug multiplied instantly, and its light filled the whole crack space and beyond. We could see the path was clear and cautiously followed as Duan Yang led the way through the crack and into another cavern, as huge as the one before. There we saw the Goutou creatures. The kids made light work of the Goutou as they anticipated the arrival of mountain spiders, the necrophilias. That was a battle when the giant spiders arrived but we killed them. One thing was glaring to me. The strength of those kids, were mighty in battle. One of them could crush a boulder in a battle with bare hands."

"Heavens tears!"

Exclaimed Ju Feng as he imagined the scenario before asking no one in particular.

"Battle-Frenzy talisman? The Berserker Seal? The Godly-Essence technique?"

"That, I don't know, Ju Feng. All I know is that they were beyond our level despite being at the same stage. Anyway, after killing the spiders, we heard a splash off in the darkness and the boy, Zeng Wuhan, quickly directed his firebug in that direction as we followed, manouvering our way across the uneven shards of rock. There in front of us in a seperate chamber, was the pile of treasures. It was a lot of gold to be true. Enough gold to make a cultivator's life easier in a world where resources are harder to find. Enough gold to make a mortal rich for the rest of his or her life. A lot. And it wasn't just gold, either. There was the occasional flash of other treasures; there were chalices, few swords and all sorts of other items poking out of the pile. The pile was a treasure, but the true treasure was what was under the pile. A golden glowing stone, the size of a head. This made them extremely happy. This was a treasure of their village. They'll be rewarded."

"Go on."

Fu Yingjie said cheerfully.

"We were actually happy with what we found and we just finished with the sharing, when we heard a giant impact on the ground. We thought it was a quake of the ground until we heard a form of alarm whisper coming from the kid they refered to as Dong Jun."

"What happened?"

Asked Da Xia in anticipation as she urged Chenric to continue who quickly obliged.

"Couple of yards away, there were two feet planted on the ground. The disturbing aspect about these giant feet was that the body to which they were attached wasn't visible. Not that there was no attached body, exactly; the body was just so massive that we couldn't see it all in the average light of the bugfire. All you could see was a pair of huge, scaled, greenish feet, each with four toes, each toe sporting a claw the length of an adult mortal's arm. Also visible, hanging about fifteen feet off the ground, was a brown mastodon, clutched in a huge, clawed hand."

"A Shouren? Heavens tears."

"A Shouren humoid?" 

"And you are still alive?"

They all asked him at the same time.

"Yes, very much alive as you can see. And, a very angry Shouren humoid. Maybe because of the missing pile of treasures, the dead Goutou and the spiders or just seeing us in the place. The Shouren was really angry. I was standing near where the treasures were, but instinct made me moved away. The moment I left where I was, the ground exploded in a deafening burst. It was a terran attack that I didn't even see coming. I could have died right there."

"How could you have seen it? A Shouren is at the least at the evanesce core stage." 

Fu Ying Jie stared at Lin Cheung before shaking his head.

"Yes. I was aware of that fact. So, immediately, one of the girls, Xie Heng, threw a mist in front of the giant Shouren. The mist turned blood red as the giant froze in place."

"The Bloodfrost?"

Asked Ju Feng in slight shock.

"You know about the mist?"

Chenric asked the surprised Ju Feng.

"Yes. Uncle of mine made mention of it before. Very rare to get. That was a treasure."

"And we all know that where you find one Shouren humoid, there will be more around. Thus, we decided to run for it. We had only started, when we were cut off by the rest of the Shourens. It was a great battle. From where I was standing, I could see the kids fighting the Shourens, head on. Four Shouren taking on five powerful kids and me. And, we were winning. The two girls had removed one Shouren from the battle. He was down injured. The Shourens were on the back foot, retreating, until a dark glowing Shouren appeared. This one could only be of the Jindan at the least and their leader. Without waiting, the two girls took out two seals and activated them."

Lin Cheung stopped to make illustrations with his hands.

"Giant pillars of black water formed between us and the Shourens just in time to block the terran attack of the glowing Shouren that shook the entire mountain. Even the girls knew deadly power when they saw one. The fear in their eyes was like a solar flare. We knew that the pillars won't hold them forever, so, we quickly used our flashsteps, to reach the place where we jumped down before. The loud wailing sound at the distant, was an indication that the pillars had collapsed or will soon do so. All the kids started bounding up. I was about to do the same, when I saw a blue-white light after a narrow crack we didn't see before. I turned to look at the kids, but they were already out of my sight. I knew the Shourens would soon be after us and we wouldn't escape them unless we get to into the light of the dsy outside the mountain. I wanted to leave but the blue-white light kept calling to me. It was like a fate I couldn't escape. So, I decided to check it out. Afterall, the heart of an adventurer is taking the leap into the unknown."

"That was dangerous and silly risk. How could you do that?"

Asked Ying Jie, grinning expectantly as he ignored Da Xia's anger.

"Well, I reached the source of the light just as the Shourens were reaching the space outside the pit. I was just placing the item in my sacbag when I saw the glowing Shouren, blurring towards my direction. He was passing through the cracks without stopping. He was almost through to me when I uttered the safe word. It was a dangerous move, probably silly too, but I believe it was worthy of the risk."

"What did you find, Cheung?"

"What was the source of the blue-white light?"

"So, what is it? That you almost killed yourself for?"

"See for yourself, Da Xia."

Lin Cheung answered and opened his sacbag as others gathered around the bag to see the treasure inside.

"The Azure Dragonblade!"

"A blade of unknown nature. Worldly? Heavenly? Luminous? Divine? Nobody knows."

"Heaven's tears!"

They all said in chorus.