Chapter 720: Shattered Cavern Heaven
When Lolan Hill entered, the two people in the main hall turned their heads towards her. Tu Hao’ang did not speak but roughly guessed what had happened. It was likely that this young lady had not revealed her talents before Gro. He paid no mind to it and waited for her to explain everything to Gro.
After a few incense sticks, Grandma Gro also understood the situation. She nodded slowly and said,
“If Jialan has such abilities, she could try it out. However, at present, the underground areas of the Dusk Mountain Range are overflowing with dark energy and filled with demons and monsters. If one wishes to venture deep, there will be considerable danger.”
She worried about this girl encountering an accident here.
“I think you might not understand what such abilities can be used for,” Tu Hao’ang shook his head slowly.
“In ancient times, the Five Virtues Phoenix, the Yellow Phoenix, had similar abilities, and it was under its leadership that hidden Cavern Heavens across the land were discovered one by one. It could casually travel between worlds, and ordinary beings could hardly catch up.”
“For others, the underground is extremely dangerous now, but for this young lady, it may not be difficult. Even if she cannot win, she can always teleport out at any time,” Tu Hao’ang clearly thought differently from Gro.
While Grandma Gro was concerned about the dangers, Tu Hao’ang immediately thought of the various changes and benefits such talent could bring.
“Perhaps I am getting old.” Seeing Lolan Hill’s confident demeanor, Grandma Gro stopped advising her and took out a stack of yellowed old papers from a compartment behind the shrine.
“These are records I made when I explored underground in my youth. Many are rather messy and layered, so they might be hard to read. But I believe they will help you find your way and prevent you from getting lost easily.”
“If we can mend the gaps in the Cavern Heaven, then the Nine Netherworld Dark Energy underground will greatly decrease, and the demons and monsters will be sealed within those fragmented Cavern Heavens.”
“Oh, and take this too.” Grandma Gro took out another book, which seemed even older than the messy map based on its cover and paper quality.
“This is something an early friend obtained from an unknown source, containing many secret arts used by the Palace of the Waxing Moon to seal the underground,” Grandma Gro said calmly, but Lolan Hill noticed a hint of nostalgia on her face.
“Thank you, Grandma.” Lolan Hill accepted these items.
“Do you need some helpers?” Seeing this, Tu Hao’ang spoke up. He wasn’t worried about the young lady having an accident but was concerned about whether they could quickly seal the gaps. After all, he had taken significant risks, and if she failed, he wouldn’t fare well either.
“Hmm, no, thank you Governor.” Lolan Hill thought for a moment and shook her head.
It would be more flexible and convenient for her to act alone, allowing her to easily conceal her presence. Bringing others along might mean having to watch over them, making it harder to avoid powerful enemies.
“That’s fine. But if there’s an emergency, you can use temporal abilities to return here for help. The Red Blood Dragon Riders outside the shrine can provide support at any time.”
“Okay.” The young lady nodded.
Seeing that Lolan Hill was ready, Grandma Gro stood up.
“Since you have made up your mind, follow me. Time is pressing.”
Grandma Gro retrieved an old bronze lantern from inside the shrine and led Lolan Hill to a secluded area behind it. Seeing this, Tu Hao’ang did not follow but went outside the shrine to instruct his subordinates to set up camp and fortifications in the valley to prepare for possible attacks.
—
Lolan Hill followed Grandma Gro down a winding path through the forest until they arrived at a grayish-blue mountain wall.
To outsiders, this place seemed like a remote corner with nothing particularly noteworthy.
Grandma Gro examined the area for a long time and finally stopped beside a tree. She started walking westward seven steps from the tree trunk and stopped.
“This is it. Dig up the soil, and you’ll find a hidden passage.” The elder stepped back, giving the young lady space.
“Alright.” Lolan Hill nodded and placed her palms together in front of her.
Streams of swift air rushed from all directions, swirling around her palms to form a dense ball of wind blades that compressed continuously. She slowly pressed down this vortex-like ball of wind, causing the air currents to lift layers of soil, which she constrained within a ring.
Soon, a standard circular pit appeared in the ground, revealing the steps and cover plate of the hidden passage beneath.
The young lady opened the cover plate, revealing a deep, straight passage leading underground. Intermittent cold breezes could be heard, suggesting connections to some ventilation ducts.
“This is it. Speaking of which, I haven’t been down this passage for over forty years,” Grandma Gro lit the old copper lantern, illuminating the stone steps.
“You can look at the map. There’s a winding red line describing this passage.” Grandma Gro handed the bronze lantern to the young lady, explaining the key locations on the map.
“Okay.” The young lady nodded and took the bronze lantern.
“Well, I’ll leave you here. Good luck sealing those gaps.”
“Alright, I’m off.”
Lolan Hill bent down and stepped into the deep underground. If she had paid attention, she would have noticed Grandma Gro standing quietly at the entrance for a long time before letting out a long sigh and turning away.
—
Underground.
After getting used to the environment, Lolan Hill quickly moved forward.
Although the lantern in her hand was dim, she didn’t need to rely on its weak light to see. Her figure easily crossed rugged steps and rocks, moving through the underground cavern.
Compared to the outside, it was quiet and cold here. Occasionally, the sound of dripping water from above could be heard. Some stones were smooth, still retaining traces of moisture. Breathing deeply, one could feel the cold air entering the lungs, gradually dispersing the heat within the body.
As Lolan Hill descended for thousands of meters, the surroundings became increasingly colder. Finding places to step became more difficult than before.
There were no signs of human excavation; the natural cave features remained intact. Some stalactites were incredibly smooth, making it hard to gain traction.
The young lady occasionally stepped on flat rocks, and when she couldn’t find a foothold, she used the air to create fleeting air steps to navigate through challenging areas.
At this point, she stopped in front of a collapsed rock pile. From the crevice under the rock, faint dead spirit magic could be seen seeping out.
Let me check, is this blocked? Lolan Hill placed the lantern on the map paper, searching for her current location.
Whoever drew this map had rough handwriting, unlike Grandma Gro’s. The young lady found her location.
From the description, she had just entered the edge of the underground Cavern Heaven. The nearest gap to this Cavern Heaven was still nearly a kilometer away.
“It seems I can’t take a detour; otherwise, it will waste too much time.” Lolan Hill looked at the rock in front of her and extended her empty right hand.
Pale nails emitted a faint glow in the dark underground. Transparent streams of air followed the movement of her nails, drifting in the air.
Her slender fingers moved nimbly in the air and then fell, causing the transparent strands to fly toward the massive rock, effortlessly slicing it into small, smooth pieces.
However, things didn’t end there. As the rock broke into smaller pieces, the suppressed dead spirit magic began to spread, permeating the surroundings. Through the opening, Lolan Hill could faintly hear the breathing and movements of demons.
Seeing this, Lolan Hill slowly closed her eyes and then opened them again. Her originally emerald eyes transformed into deep, bottomless blue.
Before the demon could sense the anomaly, Lolan Hill charged in, her black dress fluttering, revealing some of her pale skin.
A curled-up snake demon with a human face spat out its tongue, awakening from its slumber and starting to shed its skin, preparing to find the intruder.
But before the ghost snake could locate its target, an invisible soul sword pierced its consciousness, pinning it in place.
After a while, the ghost snake fell back into a deep sleep, but unlike before, it would not wake up again because its consciousness and soul had shattered into fragments.
Perhaps hope was not entirely lost. It could pray that one of its soul fragments might accidentally regain its self-awareness and transform into a ghost, becoming a true ghost snake.
The young lady sensed everything around her, including the jagged rocks underfoot and the moving demons in the distance. Every detail was vividly reflected in her mind, allowing her to attack or evade ahead of time.
As she advanced, demons lurking underground died one by one, until she reached a huge, tilted abyssal gap in front of her.
The gap in the stone wall seemed like a gateway to another world, bottomless.
Feeling the distortion and tearing around the gap, the discordant sensation clearly reflected in her mind, Lolan Hill finally confirmed that she had found the first shattered Cavern Heaven gap.
If a complete Cavern Heaven was like a water jar, the enclosed hollow space was its interior. After shattering, the Cavern Heaven resembled broken pieces of a water jar, with most of its space dissipated in the chaotic flow of time and space, only a small part remaining attached to the fragments, maintaining an unstable balance.
The cold magic of the Necromancer Sequence gathered, and a scythe taller than Lolan Hill gradually emerged from the void, materializing in her hands. She swung the extraordinary blade made of necromantic magic, flashing several crescent-shaped silver arcs in the dark underground. Several beasts rushing from the side were split into pieces and piled up.
With no more demons to disturb her, Lolan Hill began to focus on the dimly glowing gap, a silver crescent symbol appearing on her smooth forehead.
With the aid of the Moon Crown, Lolan Hill extended her perception into the temporal gap, examining the situation inside.
The place where her perception extended felt like traversing an immensely distant time, eventually arriving at a dark world. This world was not large, possibly as wide as a football field.
Its spatial edges were a blurry, chaotic flow of time and space, constantly tearing apart anything nearby. At the center of this space, a distorted demon squatted.
Its appearance seemed like a hasty recombination of hundreds of dismembered bodies, filled with crude, twisted forms. It had multiple heads with different expressions, and its consciousness was in chaos.
Although terrifying to look at, the demon’s sequence rank was not high, only Sequence 2. The only difference was that it contained dozens of Extraordinary Cores instead of just one.
Perhaps before the changes in heaven and earth, such demons could advance purely by stacking power, but now it could never reach Sequence 3.
While Lolan Hill observed, part of the demon suddenly detached from its limbs and rolled into the surrounding Nine Netherworld Dark Energy.
Soon after, the demon mindlessly crawled up and wandered around until it hit the edge of the space, swept away by the chaotic flow of time and space.
Seeing this, Lolan Hill roughly guessed where the demons inside and outside the Dusk Mountain Range came from.
They probably originated from such chaotic and clustered demons shedding parts.
Only by forming independent individuals could they continue advancing, rather than being stuck at Sequence 2 and failing the self-awareness test.
After confirming there was no danger, Lolan Hill retracted her perception and slowly approached the gap.
A short while later, the crescent moon on her forehead grew brighter, correcting and stabilizing the distortion and fuzziness around the gap.
Soon, the crack slowly opened under the influence of the Moon Crown, forming a round hole the size of a young lady.
Seeing this, Lolan Hill leaped lightly and entered the narrow black portal beyond.
A silver-haired, black-dressed young lady slowly floated upward in this small, fragmented world.
Her eyes glowed faintly, standing out in the dark environment. A full moon appeared behind her head.
The moonlight was white with a hint of snow, surrounded by a faint golden vine that rotated slowly around the moon.
Under the moon’s illumination, the unstable edges of the temporal space gradually stabilized and became clear, no longer as blurry as before.
Looking at the twisted and discordant demon hybrid below, the goddess-like young lady raised her right hand, cold moonfire rising above her palm.
These cold white flames sprinkled down like fine rain, burning the ground below.
Enhanced by the Moon Crown, these flames of destruction became even stronger, ignoring the struggling souls of the demons and burning them clean, until they were completely scattered and vanished.
Once the flames had burned away any remaining flesh and blood residue on the ground, this fragmented world became simpler.
The vast, gray-white land was empty except for some scattered broken stones, with no other life forms present.
Only then did Lolan Hill slowly approach the center of this small world, where a faint dragon vein aura could be sensed.
Pressing her hand against the warm, gray-white earth, Lolan Hill carefully felt the energy for a long time before lifting her hand.
“So it’s like this. The dragon vein is like a river, and the Cavern Heaven is like a lake. Magic flows within, passing through different Cavern Heavens for various purposes. And the magic concentration within these Cavern Heavens is much higher than outside.”
This Cavern Heaven was currently connected to a small dragon vein, and it was precisely this input of the dragon vein that maintained the rich magic concentration and kept the Cavern Heaven stable.
“In this way, even without entering the Echika Sea, the creatures on Earth can mimic the environment suitable for cultivation and nurture powerful individuals.”
During the middle period of the Eden Era, ancient humans lost the two crowns again and had to explore new paths. The dragon vein system of the Eastern Continent was also a relic left behind from this exploration.
But why did they abandon this path later? Lolan Hill shook her head, flying out gracefully from the fragmented Cavern Heaven. Gradually, the temporal gap in the stone wall began to mend, eventually converging into a single point that merged into the full moon behind her head.
I’ll post another chapter later, but it might be quite late. Everyone, go to bed early. Good night~
