Chapter 363

Chapter 364: Convergence (Passive)

Dim Fox Fire drifted like floating fireflies across an underground cavern so huge it seemed impossible. The glow lit the slick ground carpeted with luminous moss, the rock walls wrapped in strange vines, and the underground lake not far away. Within the circle of light, Yu Sheng’s group moved with care, stopping now and then to collect samples of nearby rocks, plants, and water.

Immortal Yuan Ling’s voice came from the Lingxi Mirror hovering in midair: “How odd. Did any earlier reports about this Otherworld mention a cavern this large?”

Xuan Che answered at once: “Underground caverns were mentioned, but none this big, and no one wrote about an underground lake.”

Irene sat on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, gripping his head as she spoke offhand: “So this is another new scene, like that desert before?”

Xuan Che said: “This Otherworld only appeared recently, and many of its traits are still unknown. New changes or fresh areas are normal. Watch your footing. It’s slippery here, and do not fall into the lake.”

Immortal Qian Ji walked on the flank as a guardian. Light clicks sounded now and then inside his skull, and red glints flashed in his eyes as if he were scanning: “This lake is strange. Divine Sense can hardly pass through it. Even I cannot ‘see’ what is below. I fear there is something to it in the depths.”

As he spoke, he drew out a curious brass sphere covered in Talismanic Runes. A few cutouts glowed faintly, and the sphere ticked like a clock. Immortal Qian Ji tossed it to the ground. The sphere split, sprouted several nimble mechanical limbs, scuttled forward, and leaped into the lake.

Moments later, red light flickered under the water. The little sphere popped back to the surface a short distance away and skipped neatly into its master’s hand.

“The Mechanism Orb lost contact at a depth of under ten meters and returned on its automatic program,” said Immortal Qian Ji. He tapped the sphere a few times. It clicked, a panel opened, and a beam of light projected the footage: a murky view of nothing but water, with tiny glowing specks drifting by. Right before signal loss and return, the orb had swung toward the lakebed, yet all it captured was a deep black, as if nothing were there.

Yu Sheng felt Irene’s body tense on his shoulder.

“This place is giving me the creeps,” Doll muttered. “At first the glowing moss and glowing vines were pretty, but the longer we stay, the more it feels like something is pressing down from below. I just feel unwell.”

Foxy came closer and rubbed her thick tail against Yu Sheng’s arm: “Benefactor, I feel jittery too.”

Irene glared: “You’re just furry!”

“She’s bristling, all puffed up,” Yu Sheng said lightly, though a small frown pinched his brow. “I feel it too. The air here has changed compared to before, but I can’t explain it. Luna, can you use your radar? Do you detect anything weird nearby?”

Luna halted. The Artificial Saintess fired up her built-in Targeting Radar to sweep at high power, then slowly shook her head: “No active targets.”

Yu Sheng still frowned. As if catching a hint of something, he looked up at the space overhead.

The air there suddenly seemed a little unstable.

…

“Whoa! Salted Fish, did you see that just now? The huge goose that flew across the sky…”

“That was a Celestial Crane. Rapunzel, read a book once in a while.”

“It’s close enough. Point is, it was beautiful!” Rapunzel stood on a cliffside gallery, staring into the open sky. “It burst out of the clouds and even greeted us. Was it dancing? It circled the gallery again and again. I want to raise one!”

“Are you sure you could raise a Celestial Bird like that? It might be smarter than you,” Mermaid said with a glance. “You can’t even take care of a dog.”

“Ugh, I just don’t like dogs. They always remind me of Red Hood’s wolf, and then the back of my neck hurts,” Rapunzel said with a look of disgust, then turned to their guide, Zheng Zhi: “Hey, little bro, can we adopt a Celestial Crane here?”

“That one just now, definitely not. It belongs to Immortal Yuan Ling,” Zheng Zhi said, shaking his head. “The others are probably off-limits too. Most of them are final projects for Beast Taming Peak students. Also, time’s about up. You two should head back. It’s the weekend, but do first-years not have homework?”

Rapunzel sucked in a cold breath and drooped like a wilted flower.

“I finished last night,” Mermaid said casually. “But we should go. I picked a lot of wild berries. They’re good. I want to bring some for everyone.”

“You finished last night?!” Rapunzel’s eyes went round. “Wait, isn’t your memory only seven seconds? Since when did you get so good at studying? In middle school you copied my homework…”

Mermaid sighed: “Rapunzel, please read a book sometimes, and stop slapping random settings onto me.”

Rapunzel slumped again, waved a hand, and said: “Fine, fine, let’s head back. When we get there, let me copy your math test.”

Mermaid turned to go, then froze: “We still have a math test?”

“…What did I just say?”

“Ahhhh hurry up, we need to go back! I haven’t finished my homework. Which way is it?”

Smiling helplessly, Zheng Zhi took the lead again, guiding them from memory toward Cloud Viewing Terrace, while his thoughts drifted.

[Being in school is great.] He even felt a little nostalgic for his own high school days. Back then, there weren’t many things to worry about. [Keep a wide heart.]

People said the Fairy Tale kids used to hardly live to adulthood. Now they worried about grades, exams, college, and jobs.

That was good too.

He wondered how Brother Yu’s Otherworld exploration was going. Last time they even fought a dangerous group. Fortunately no one got hurt. Otherwise, when he got back he would have piles of reports to write.

[You still have to be able to fight.]

Yesterday Li Lin messaged that he would be heading out on field duty again in the next two days, with Captain Song personally leading the team. No idea what thorny case it was, and it wasn’t something a rookie like Zheng Zhi could join anyway. He did feel a bit sorry for Brother Li.

[Slacking off is the best.]

With random thoughts like that, Zheng Zhi followed the path he remembered toward Cloud Viewing Terrace.

Until the surroundings slowly dimmed. Until a chill, damp touch crept into the wind.

“This isn’t right,” Rapunzel noticed first. She looked around, and her dark hair flashed into a waterfall of gold that trailed the ground. “The road didn’t look like this when we came.”

Mermaid tensed as well. She felt extra moisture in the air: “Weren’t we going uphill? When did it become downhill?”

Zheng Zhi snapped out of his daze.

He stared, shocked, at the narrow, steep slope underfoot and the rock walls that had closed in on both sides. He whirled around, and the broad mountain road behind had turned into a sharp, tight descent. The cliffs on either side seemed to blur into cave walls. The sky overhead was gone, cut off by heavy layers of rock. Then the last thin strip of daylight that still showed the “outside” vanished at the edge of The End Web.

Right then, his foot slipped. Rapunzel yelped: “Hey what the…!”

…

A fuzzy golden furball rushed into view, swelling fast with a familiar scream.

Yu Sheng moved before he could think. He sprinted two steps and reached out to catch the creature making that familiar noise.

One second later, the falling ball of hair slammed into him. Even with Yu Sheng’s body far beyond normal Human limits, the hit knocked him flat. His skull smacked a rock, and blood burst from the cut.

The golden hairball bounced off him, tumbled across the ground many times, and only stopped when it thumped the rock wall.

Almost at the same moment, a splash sounded from the lake nearby. In the underground lake lit by floating water plants and Fox Fire, a huge burst of spray shot up.

The sudden racket startled everyone. Even Immortal Qian Ji failed to react in time, though mostly because he was using a mechanized avatar right now, and the Lingxi Mirror’s link was eating half his transmission bandwidth. Irene, who had been sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, flew off first, screamed all the way, hit the ground, and rolled four or five times before stopping.

Doll scrambled up, dazed and noisy: “What the heck just happened? What is this? What dropped down? Why didn’t I sense any killing intent ow I bit my tongue… what is going on?!”

By then Foxy had already darted forward to shield Yu Sheng. Luna clicked her gear into place and deployed every Fingertip Blade. Xuan Che instantly summoned his attack-grade Frost Longsword and dropped into a Medical Way Killing Fist opening stance, staring warily at the golden hairball by the wall as if facing a great threat. Right then, the ball finally opened.

Rapunzel crawled out of her own hair, dizzy from all the rolling but totally unhurt, and blinked at the scene.

Everyone froze. The cavern fell silent.

Which made the splashing from the lake even clearer.

Rapunzel heard it and reacted at once. She sprang to her feet: “Fish fell into the water! She can’t swim!!”