Translator:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
Mo Wen felt his body slide down again. The cliff walls narrowed as he descended, but were still at least two palm widths wide.
He had barely began to descend, when suddenly it felt as if he was stepping on thin air. The next moment, his body plummeted downwards at an accelerated pace. The space below suddenly became much larger.
Mo Wen’s facial expression changed. He drew the dagger from his leg and stabbed it into the rock wall. The sharp dagger’s edge grinded against the cliff wall, sending off sparks.
It seemed as though he had dropped into a large space. Luckily the bottom was not far down, only about eleven yards or so.
Mo Wen rolled on the ground and dissipated the energy of his fall completely. As he got up his eyes searched around. He discovered he was in a karst cave within the heart of the spacious mountain. Above him, the moonlight crept in through the cracks and illuminated the cave with a faint glow.
What was that? Mo Wen’s pupils suddenly dilated. He saw a gigantic net hanging in the air not far away. Both ends of the net were tied onto the cliff walls and the net seemed to be man made.
But that was not what attracted his attention; there was someone was lying on the net. Even though the body was curled up, Mo Wen could immediately recognize that it was Qin Xiaoyou.
Mo Wen let out a deep breath as a weight had been lifted off his chest.
He coulnd’t believe what good luck Qin Xiaoyou had. She had fallen off the edge of a cliff but still managed to land on a net. It could have been caused by the friction between her and the cliff wall resulting in a reduced speed of falling. If she had fallen on the hard rock, she would be paralyzed.
He walked over, and with a leap, climbed onto the net. The net was very soft. He did not know what material the net was made of, but it was smooth to the touch.
He did a flip and crawled towards Qin Xiaoyou. Carrying her in his arms, he examined her. After discovering that she was not suffering from any serious injuries, he could finally relax.
The only thing that still worried him but that Qin Xiaoyou seemed to have suffered too much shock and fainted.
Although she didn’t have any major internal injuries, her external injuries were rather severe. Her arms and legs were covered in cuts and bruises. Her military uniform had big tears at five or six different areas and quite a lot of blood was on her uniform.
It was certainly caused by the continuous friction between her and the narrow cliff walls when she was falling down. Fortunately, Qin Xiaoyou was wearing the specially made military uniform. If she was wearing normal clothes, then rubbing against the cliff walls at such high speeds would most likely cause injuries deep enough to expose her bones.
Caressing her slight pale, dainty face, Mo Wen felt a slight pang in his heart, but was thankful that she survived the scare and was not in any danger.
He scanned the surroundings. With his eyesight, he could only see as far as eleven yards in the karst cave, but he could tell that people were most likely using this karst cave for some purpose. There were a lot of signs of artificial alterations being carried out.
The gigantic net that caught Qin Xiaoyou was probably used as a bed.
He rolled off the
bed
and walked around the karst cave. He discovered there was a ten foot wide pool nearby. The clear water rippled while reflecting the cold moonlight like a layer of glass.
What a pool of stalactite water,
Mo Wen thought to himself as his eyes lit up with surprise. He was looking up and sure enough, the ceiling was covered in layers of stalactites with crystal clear water droplets occasionally rolling off their tips.
A natural karst cave would need hundreds of thousands of years to form, and each one of was a wonder of nature.
The pool of crystal clear water collected from drops of stalactites was not just any ordinary water. For some alcohol brewers, this was something extremely hard to obtain.
For Mo Wen, it was very useful too. Using stalactite water to decoct medicine could bring about miraculous effects.
In addition, if one consumed stalactite water for a long period of time, it could even help strengthen the body and prolong longevity.
Whoever found such a cave abode must have been a Feng Shui expert.
Mo Wen only took a glance at the surroundings, then moved deeper into the cave. Although stalactite water was precious, he had no means to carry it with him now.
The further he walked in, the smaller the karst cave became. At the end, a passage carved by hand attracted the attention of Mo Wen.
He gently paced along the front of the passage and to check for booby traps, and then entered the passageway once he determined the area was clear.
Barely 55 yards in, the passageway divided into three branching pathways.
Mo Wen hesitated for a bit, and then walked towards the path in the middle. Around 22 yards in, he came face to face with a stone door.
The stone door was covered in dust and spider webs. It had obviously not been opened in a long time.
This is most likely an ancient cave abode,
Mo Wen thought to himself. Although he hadn’t ruled out the possibility of a hermit sage living in isolation in the mountains, it seemed that this cave abode had no signs of recent human activity. It was probably sealed long ago.
He walked up to the stone door and scanned it for a bit. He found a stone ball protruding at one side of the door. Naturally, he placed his palm over it and pressed it.
The heavy stone door started to rise and revealed a stone walled room inside.
Mo Wen stood outside the door and quickly scanned the inside of the room. Upon seeing that it looked safe, he took a step in.
The stone walled room had simple furnishings. A stone table, stone stool, and stone bed: all the furniture was made of stone.
The stone table was placed in the middle of the room, with just a few things on top: the usual brush, paper and ink, and a few sandalwood boxes.
There was an altar in the east side of the room with the remnants of offerings on top. Behind the altar hung a portrait. The portrait was yellowish, showing how much time had passed.
The room’s west side had two bookshelves which contained many paper books. The bottom of the shelves had a few large boxes that seemed to also be filled with books.
The north side had a stone bed. On the bed was a snow white skeleton sitting upright and cross-legged. It looked like a monk.
He must have passed away in sitting posture many many years ago,
Mo Wen guessed to himself after quickly scanning the skeleton.
The master of the stone room was clearly the master of the skeleton. However, looking at the skeleton, the person would have been dead for a few hundred years. Despite that, the skeleton remained completely intact without even a shiny glow to it. This was unlike normal skeletons that would have decayed over a long period of time.
Crystal Muscle Jade Bones! Mo Wen gazed in awe. The master of this skeleton must have been an elder with an extremely high Cultivation level, or at least higher than the old, otherworld Mo Wen.
For ancient martial arts practitioners, they never stopped training their bodies even as their level of Cultivation got more and more advanced. This brought out hidden potential, which in turn made their bodies far stronger than that of common folk.
Legend has it that some mighty monks could cultivate a body of Crystal Muscle Jade Bones. Even after death, their bodies would not rot and decay.
Calling it Crystal Muscle Jade Bones was a bit of an exaggeration, but from the looks of this skeleton: pristine even after a few hundred years, the master was surely a person with high Cultivation levels. Possibly even one in the Golden Elixir realm.
Mo Wen solemnly bowed to the skeleton. He showed great respect towards elders.
It was probably fate to accidentally stumble upon an expert elder’s resting place.
Mo Wen walked towards the stone table at the center of the chamber. It had been a few hundred years since anyone cleaned the chamber, and the stone table was covered in a layer of thick dust. Many things were hidden underneath the dust.
He reached out and dusted the table. A small booklet was revealed. It seemed like a handwritten article used to record happenings.
Even though it had been a few hundred years, the handwritten article was still well-preserved, other than slight yellowing and loosening.
Mo Wen opened the handwritten article that had been sealed for hundreds of years, and began to read it in detail.
