Chapter 113. The snake cave [2]
Lin Zhaoyue spread her spiritual sense as far as it would reach yet beneath the collapsed pit, she could not sense the slightest trace of life.
Her brows furrowed.
"There’s likely a formation below..."
The realization came to her almost instantly.
That also explained why the others had panicked.
From their perspective, Lin Zhaocao and Lin Zhaofeng had simply been swallowed by the earth before vanishing into thin air.
Without another moment of hesitation, Lin Zhaoyue stepped forward and leaped into the pit.
The darkness swallowed her whole.
As she continued falling, faint ripples spread through the air around her.
The invisible barrier of a formation briefly shimmered before her body passed straight through it.
A moment later, her feet landed lightly upon solid ground.
She quickly lifted her head and found herself inside an enormous underground cavern.
Towering stone pillars stretched from the floor to the distant ceiling, while countless luminous crystals embedded in the rock walls bathed the cave in a soft bluish glow.
Not far from where she had landed, two familiar figures immediately came into view.
Lin Zhaofeng was kneeling beside Lin Zhaocao, carefully wrapping a strip of cloth around her lower leg.
Fresh blood stained both the cloth and the rocky ground beneath them.
Lin Zhaoyue’s heart finally relaxed as she hurried over and knelt beside the pair.
"What happened?"
Without stopping his movements, Lin Zhaofeng continued cleaning the wound.
"Zhaocao injured her leg during the fall. I checked the bone already. It isn’t broken, but the cut is fairly deep."
Lin Zhaoyue examined the injury herself before quietly letting out a breath of relief.
It looked painful, but it was nothing a cultivator couldn’t recover from with proper treatment.
Seeing her, Lin Zhaocao lowered her head guiltily.
"Young Miss... why did you come?"
Lin Zhaoyue reached out and gently flicked the girl’s forehead.
"What kind of foolish question is that?"
A playful smile appeared on her face, deliberately easing the tense atmosphere.
"I came to make sure you two didn’t monopolize all the treasure for yourselves."
For a brief moment, the cave fell silent.
Then Zhaofeng chuckled, even the anxious Lin Zhaocao couldn’t help but giggle through the pain.
Lin Zhaoyue reached into her storage pouch and retrieved a small jade bottle.
She uncorked it before pouring a single pill into her palm.
The pill was pale green, and a faint medicinal fragrance immediately spread through the cavern.
"Here."
She held it out to Lin Zhaocao.
"This is a High-Grade Vital Essence Pill. It won’t heal you completely, but it will speed up the recovery of your injuries."
Lin Zhaocao looked at the pill before instinctively shaking her head.
"Young Miss, this is too precious. I—"
"Don’t reject it."
Lin Zhaoyue gently interrupted her.
"We have no idea what kinds of spirit beasts are roaming this cave."
Her expression turned serious.
"We’ll need every bit of fighting strength we can get. The faster your injury recovers, the better our chances become."
Hearing that, Lin Zhaocao finally nodded.
"...Thank you, Young Miss."
She accepted the pill without further hesitation and swallowed it.
A warm current immediately spread throughout her body.
She crossed her legs into a lotus position and began circulating her cultivation technique, slowly guiding the medicinal energy toward her injured leg.
The bleeding gradually slowed as the medicine began taking effect.
Seeing that everything was stable, Lin Zhaoyue and Lin Zhaofeng quietly stood guard nearby.
Silence filled the cavern for several moments.
Then, as though remembering something, Lin Zhaoyue suddenly glanced sideways at Lin Zhaofeng.
"So..."
She smiled mischievously.
"Is she your lover?"
Lin Zhaofeng froze and his ears instantly turned bright red.
"W-What?"
He hurriedly looked away, refusing to meet her gaze.
"N-No! It’s nothing like that!"
His flustered reaction only made Lin Zhaoyue’s smile widen.
Jackpot.
She had only been teasing him on a whim.
She hadn’t expected such an obvious reaction.
Suppressing a laugh, she rested her chin on one hand and watched the embarrassed boy squirm, silently wondering whether poor Lin Zhaocao had any idea how transparent his feelings really were.
Lin Zhaoyue’s playful smile gradually faded.
Her gaze drifted toward the depths of the cavern.
In her previous life, she had never entered this cave herself.
Everything she knew came from stories that spread throughout the kingdom after the catastrophe.
She still remembered them vividly.
Violet Log City had fallen in a span of a month and it’s citizens had been brutally massacred.
The awakened Beast King had led an overwhelming tide of spirit beasts, leaving behind nothing but corpses and ruins before claiming the city as its territory.
After destroying Violet Log City, the Beast King had continued marching toward Azure Willow City with its army.
On the way, the beast horde had passed this very cave.
For reasons unknown, they had provoked whatever slumbered inside.
Three enormous spirit beasts had emerged from the darkness.
According to the survivors who later pieced together the tale, the battle had barely lasted any time at all.
The Beast King, a monster capable of rivaling a Nascent Soul cultivator had been crushed as effortlessly as a child facing grown adults.
Its entire army had scattered in terror and those three beasts, not bothering to pursue them had simply returned to the cave as though nothing had happened.
Lin Zhaoyue slowly clenched her fists.
Back then, those terrifying creatures had been the unexpected saviors of Azure Willow City.
Now, she, Lin Zhaofeng, and the injured Lin Zhaocao were trapped inside the very cave those same monsters called home.
If they wished to leave, they would almost certainly have to pass through those three beasts.
The path ahead looked unimaginably grim.
Lin Zhaofeng noticed the serious expression on her face and couldn’t help but ask,
"Young Miss... do you think we’ll be able to get out of here?"
Lin Zhaoyue immediately put on a reassuring smile.
"Of course. I’ve already told my father about our situation. He’ll come save us anytime now."
Despite the comforting words on her lips, her heart ached from having to tell such a lie.