The flickering Fox Fire floated like drifting fireflies, spreading and hovering in the unbelievably vast underground cavern. The light illuminated the slippery ground covered with glowing moss nearby, the rocky cave walls entwined with bizarre vines, and the underground lake not far away. Yu Sheng and his party cautiously explored within the lit area of the Fox Fire, occasionally stopping to collect samples of nearby rocks, plants, and water.
The voice of True Man Yuanling emanated from the Lingxi Mirror floating in midair: "Truly strange... Have such colossal caverns been noted among the many ’scenes’ in this Exotic Realm ntioned in previous reports?"
"There have been ntions of underground caverns, but none on this scale," Xuan Che responded imdiately, "and the reports didn’t ntion any underground lakes either."
"So this is another new scene then?" Erin, sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, casually comnted while tightly gripping his head, "Just like that desert before..."
"This Exotic Realm only recently appeared, and many of its characteristics have yet to be fully explored. It’s normal for previously undiscovered changes to occur or new areas to appear," Xuan Che said, "Everyone, be careful with your footing; it’s very slippery around here. Don’t fall into the lake."
"Rest assured, young ones, I’m watching over this side," True Man Qianji walked on the other side of the group, with a light clicking sound occasionally coming from his head and a red glow sotis flashing in his eyes, as if scanning for sothing, "This lake water is indeed peculiar, and even Divine Sense cannot penetrate it. I can’t ’see’ what’s underneath either; there must be sothing going on deep down."
As he spoke, he fished out a peculiar little brass ball from his pocket. The ball was engraved with talismans and had several hollow spots emitting faint light, with a ticking sound like a clock emanating from within. True Man Qianji casually tossed the ball on the ground, which then cracked open, sprouting several pairs of agile chanical arms and legs, quickly scampering and jumping into the lake.
A mont later, a red glow flickered in the lake, and the ball jumped out of the water not far away, swiftly flying back into its owner’s hand.
"The chanical Ball lost contact at less than ten ters deep and returned according to its automatic program," True Man Qianji said, pressing a few more tis on the ball, which made a few clicking sounds and opened a side of its shell, projecting a beam of light that displayed the underwater footage in midair.
The blurry footage only showed the water, with so floating luminescent debris. Before losing contact and returning, the chanical Ball even changed direction to shoot the lakebed, but it only captured deep darkness, revealing nothing.
Yu Sheng felt Erin’s body tense up a little.
"This place is giving the creeps," the little puppet muttered, "At first, the glowing moss and glowing vines were quite beautiful, but the longer we stay, the more suffocating it feels down there... Just uncomfortable."
Hu Li joined them, rubbing his big fluffy tail against Yu Sheng’s arm: "Savior, I’m feeling a bit creepy too."
Erin rolled her eyes: "You’re furry!"
"She’s feeling creepy, her fur’s all fluffed up," Yu Sheng said casually, his brows slightly furrowed, "I feel it too, like the atmosphere here has changed a bit from before, can’t say... Luna, can your radar work? Did it scan anything strange nearby?"
Luna paused, and the Artificial Saintess’ built-in radar scanned the surroundings again at high power, then she slowly shook her head: "No, active targets."
Yu Sheng still frowned, then seed to sense sothing, looked up into the air—
The space there seed to suddenly beco a bit unstable.
...
"Holy cow! Salted Fish, did you see that thing just now? That big goose flying by in the sky..."
"That’s an immortal crane—the long-haired princess, you should read a book soti?"
"Eh, they’re about the sa. The point is that thing is so beautiful!" The long-haired princess stood excitedly on a hanging gallery at the edge of a cliff, looking at the vast sky in the distance, "It just burst out from the clouds and greeted us, was it dancing just now? It flew around the corridor... I want to raise one!"
"Are you sure you can raise this kind of ’Immortal Bird’? Its intelligence might not even be lower than yours," the rmaid glanced at the long-haired princess, "You can’t even take care of a dog."
"Hey—I just don’t enjoy keeping dogs; they always remind of Red Hat’s wolf, makes the back of my neck hurt," the long-haired princess grimaced, then turned to Zheng Zhi, who acted as a guide, "Hey, hey, young man, do you know if they allow adopting these immortal cranes?"
"That one just now definitely isn’t allowed; it’s True Man Yuanling’s pet. The other immortal cranes shouldn’t be either; they’re basically final assignnts from the Beast Taming Peak," Zheng Zhi shook his head, "Also, it’s about ti you two head back—despite it being the weekend, you don’t have howork in freshman year?"
The long-haired princess inhaled sharply at that, slumping completely.
"I finished mine last night," the rmaid said casually, "But we should really head back now. I just picked a lot of wild fruits; they’re quite delicious, and I’d like to bring them back for everyone to try."
"You finished it last night?!" The long-haired princess widened her eyes instantly, "No way, Fish, isn’t your mory only supposed to be seven seconds? When did you get so good at studying? Weren’t you not like this in middle school, you used to copy my howork back then..."
The rmaid looked helpless: "Long-haired princess, you should read a book sotis... And don’t casually give setups!"
The long-haired princess continued to droop, and with another sigh, waved her hand: "Alright, alright, let’s go back—let copy your math paper when we return."
The rmaid was about to turn back, but upon hearing this, she froze: "We have math papers too?!"
"...What did I just say about you!"
"Ah ah ah, hurry back! I haven’t finished my howork... Where are we going!"
Zheng Zhi looked at the situation with mixed emotions, quickly taking the lead, while feeling a bit nostalgic—
High school days were really wonderful, he even started to miss his own high school life; there were really few worries at that ti... though even now, there aren’t too many.
It’s important to keep a wide heart.
It’s said that these "Fairy Tales" kids would hardly survive to adulthood in the past, but now they have to worry about exams, university graduation, and career prospects.
That’s quite good too.
Who knows if Brother Yu and the others are doing well in Exotic Realm exploration, last ti they seed to have a fight with a dangerous group, luckily everyone was unhurt, otherwise, he wouldn’t know how many reports he’d have to write upon return.
It’s vital to be able to fight.
Yesterday, Li Lin ssaged saying he had to go on another field assignnt these two days, and Captain Song was personally leading the team, who knows what tricky case they’ve encountered, anyway it’s not sothing a newbie like him can ddle in, to be honest, he felt a bit sympathetic towards Brother Li.
Slacking is nice.
Zheng Zhi’s thoughts drifted aimlessly as he walked towards the Cloud Viewing Platform, following the route from his mory.
Until the surroundings gradually darkened, until the wind carried a chilly, damp feeling.
"Sothing’s not right," Changfa noticed sothing amiss first, she raised her head and looked around, her black hair transford into a waterfall of golden hair reaching the ground in a blink, "This path didn’t look like this when we ca, right?"
The rmaid also grew nervous, she sensed the moisture in the surrounding air: "We were still going uphill just now, when did we start going downhill?"
Zheng Zhi suddenly snapped out of his daze.
He looked in shock at the mountain path beneath his feet and how the walls of the canyon on both sides suddenly felt oppressive and enclosing, then quickly turned around—
The once wide mountain path had turned into a steep narrow downhill, the cliffs on either side had seemingly morphed into cave walls, the sky above vanished, the thick rock layers obscured vision, and imdiately after, the last sliver of daylight from the "outside" disappeared at the edge of his sight.
Right then, Zheng Zhi felt his feet slip, simultaneously hearing the long-haired princess’s startled cry, "Whoa...!"
...
A fluffy golden ball appeared suddenly in view, accompanied by a sowhat familiar exclamation as it quickly enlarged and approached.
Yu Sheng hadn’t even had ti to react to what was happening, instinctively taking two steps forward to catch the fuzzy ball creature that was making a familiar sound.
The next second, the hairball fell solidly onto him, despite Yu Sheng’s current body strength being far superior to human, he was knocked over, hitting his head on a rock, causing it to bleed.
The golden hairball bounced off him, rolling and jumping several tis before bumping into a rock wall nearby and coming to a stop.
At nearly the sa mont, a splash echoed nearby, in that underground lake illuminated by glowing algae and Fox Fire, scattering a large spray of water.
The sudden commotion startled everyone, even True Man Qianji didn’t react in ti (of course, the main reason being he was using a chanical Incarnation, and his transmission bandwidth was half occupied by True Man Yuanling’s Lingxi Mirror), originally sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder Erin was thrown out, loudly exclaiming in mid-air, rolling four or five tis upon landing before coming to a stop.
The puppet struggled to get up while bewilderedly exclaiming, "What the heck is going on here? What’s falling from the sky and why didn’t I sense any killing intent, ow, bit my tongue... What’s going on?!"
As she spoke, Hu Li had already rushed over to protect Yu Sheng, while Luna quickly equipped all her Fingertip Blades with a few clicks, Xuan Che imdiately summoned his attack-oriented Ice Long Sword, adopting a dical Path Killing Fist stance, looking at the fluffy golden object that had just stopped near the stone wall as if facing a formidable enemy, and at this mont, the hairball finally opened.
The long-haired princess, dizzy from tumbling but unhard, erged from her hair looking bewildered at the scene before her.
Everyone froze, the cave descending into silence for a mont.
Thus the splashing sounds from the lake nearby beca particularly noticeable.
The long-haired princess imdiately realized the situation upon hearing the noise, "Boom!" and jumped to her feet, "Crap, the fish fell into the water! She can’t swim!!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)