Chapter 91 - 78: The Sleeping Giant, About to Awaken..._2

Lost in thought, Su Chen was pulled to the edge of a small path without realizing it. By the time he came to his senses, he was already in the middle of it! He shuddered violently, letting out a cry of surprise, nearly freezing on the spot! Beneath him lay a bottomless abyss shrouded in mist, with only two half-human-high chains on either side of the path as protection, which appeared quite frightening. The moisture in the air hit his face, making Su Chen more alert and more terrified. "Su Chen, stop dawdling and follow me quickly." Yue Xianling led the way ahead, seemingly unafraid at all. Su Chen took a deep breath, thinking to himself, even Senior Sister is a girl and she’s not afraid; being this scared would just make her laugh at me. So, he mustered his courage, tried not to look down into the abyss, and focused forward, pushing himself to follow. Once they passed the narrow path, Su Chen secretly sighed with relief, though his back was already soaked with cold sweat. "Look at how nervous you are. When I came the first time, I wasn’t nearly as cowardly as you~" Yue Xianling said with a slight smile. Su Chen felt a bit embarrassed inside, but outwardly he asked, "Senior Sister Ling’Er, what is it that you wanted to show me?" "Oh, just follow me; it’s in the cave ahead and it’s quite fascinating." Upon being reminded, Yue Xianling showed a hint of excitement, and pulling Su Chen along, she ran ahead. A few minutes later, they stopped at the mouth of a cave covered with green moss. The light mist seemed to part in an orderly manner here, emitting a faint green glow from inside the cave. "Let’s go in. Once it gets dark, you won’t be able to see anything here." Yue Xianling said as she first stepped into the eerie cave, and after glancing around, Su Chen followed her in. As soon as they entered the cave, a sinister damp chill hit them. The cave spanned nearly a hundred square meters, with the ground covered in scattered stones and three walls lined with cobwebs, clearly untouched for a long time. Su Chen noticed Yue Xianling’s gaze fixed on the far wall and asked, "Senior Sister, what are you looking at?" "You’ll see soon enough!" Yue Xianling suddenly picked up a dried tree branch from the ground and swept away the cobwebs in front of the wall. Before long, Su Chen was astonished to discover that the wall was completely covered in human-shaped patterns! "This is..." He stood there, mouth slightly agape, stunned by the scene before him. "Hehe, I discovered it by accident. Don’t you think it looks like the sword forms you practice?" Su Chen nodded, as images of the seven-style wind shadow sword techniques flashed through his mind. But each move was starkly different from those etched on the wall. Could this be another kind of swordsmanship? "Su Chen, have you finished looking? Isn’t this the sword form you all practice?" Yue Xianling grabbed Su Chen’s arm, urging him. "No, Senior Sister. I haven’t seen these sword moves before. I think they must have been inscribed here by someone else, another advanced form of swordsmanship?" Su Chen shook his head. Yue Xianling’s face brightened with joy. "Isn’t that perfect? Su Chen, quickly memorize these sword styles, and when you master them, it will be a big surprise for everyone!" Su Chen couldn’t help but laugh. "Senior Sister, these sword styles are at least a dozen or so. How could I memorize them all at once? Let alone memorize, just looking at them would take the better part of an hour, and haven’t you noticed that it’s incomplete?" Yue Xianling paused, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed, and pouted, "I don’t understand these things, you know that..." Su Chen chuckled softly, then walked to the front of the wall and looked at the ending of the sword style at the very bottom corner, his brows slowly furrowed. This sword style seemed to still have an unfinished feel to it. "Su Chen, what are you looking at?" Yue Xianling walked over and stood beside him. "I feel like the last move here isn’t complete, but strangely enough, the rest of it seems to be hidden somewhere else." Su Chen said with a thoughtful frown. Yue Xianling chuckled lightly. "Wherever the sword style goes, that’s where it’ll be hidden?" Su Chen’s heart trembled, and his gaze involuntarily fell on the small patch of grass at the bottom of the wall, feeling quite uneasy. Could someone have carved the sword style on the ground? His heart raced as he slowly walked forward to gently part the grass and took a closer look. "It’s a brick." He said, both relieved and disappointed. Unexpectedly, Yue Xianling rushed forward in a flash, extending her fair and delicate hand to effortlessly flip over the moss-covered brick! Clang! The brick was turned over with a flip, but the ground beneath seemed to collapse, suddenly twisting around! "Senior Sister, be careful!" Su Chen cried out urgently, reaching to grab Yue Xianling! But sadly, the abrupt incident left him unable to take care of himself, let alone save Yue Xianling. Both of them fell into a dark, narrow passage as the ground flipped sharply. Su Chen and Yue Xianling slid down the dark, narrow passage until they reached the bottom. Su Chen was relieved that there were no obstacles in the passage, so they made it to the bottom without any harm. As Su Chen slid out of the passage, he saw Yue Xianling laying unconscious on a pile of straw. He patted the dust off himself, hurried to her side. "Senior Sister?" Yue Xianling’s delicate brows furrowed, her pretty face pale, invoking pity. Su Chen called out several times but still couldn’t wake her, so he had to give up. He carefully surveyed this unfamiliar place, noting that, like the previous cave, it showed signs of long abandonment, albeit with one notable difference: the walls were engraved with exquisite sword dancing images! Su Chen raised his head, his gaze never before so focused. Having practiced swordsmanship, he easily discerned that the images on the wall were the continuation of the sword forms from the previous cave! "Such profound sword forms. The attack trajectories are unprecedented, and the movements flow seamlessly together. Without sufficient Beast’s Qi Energy, it would be impossible to execute them, right?" Su Chen squinted his eyes from strain, barely managing to commit these images to memory. Though his mastery over sword forms wasn’t deeply profound, he could still glean some understanding. After memorizing the sword forms, he went over and pinched Yue Xianling’s acupoint, finally reviving her. Yue Xianling opened her beautiful eyes, her complexion pale as she asked, "Su Chen, where are we?" Su Chen replied helplessly, "I don’t know either, but what we can confirm is we’ve fallen to the base of Yue Peak." Yue Xianling’s pretty face fell, and she choked up. "What should we do now, Su Chen, do you have a way back?" Su Chen replied sadly, "The passage we fell through is our way back, but unfortunately, we can’t go up..." Yue Xianling glanced where he pointed, her expression turning more sorrowful. "What should we do, the passage is so long, and the bottom has no footholds for climbing, it’s impossible for us to get up!" Su Chen sat cross-legged on the ground, shaking his head. "We can only take it one step at a time." Yue Xianling stood up, vigorously dusting off her dusty skirt, her delicate nose wrinkling slightly, "What’s the outside of this cave, have you been out?" Reminded by her, Su Chen’s eyes lit up, immediately standing up, "Ah, why didn’t I think of that? Senior Sister, let’s go have a look outside!" With that, he unwittingly took Yue Xianling’s delicate hand, turned, and headed for the cave entrance. A blush rose on Yue Xianling’s face, but she allowed Su Chen to lead her out of the cave. When they stepped outside the cave, they were immediately taken aback. In front of them lay a vast, open gorge with no visible top! In all directions, there appeared no end in sight. Directly ahead of the gorge lay a vast, muddy marshland. But what stunned Su Chen the most was the sight of a giant, peculiarly featured beast reclining within the marshland! The beast was as tall as a small thirty-meter-tall hill, its body covered in large, round, smooth gray scales. Its enormous head nestled between two wing-like protrusions, sleeping soundly. Looking further, Su Chen saw the beast had four strong legs, each as large as tree trunks, with webbed feet that made it resemble some mythic dragon from ancient lore. Su Chen swallowed hard and whispered, "Senior Sister, shall we... go back?" Yue Xianling’s face turned white with terror as she was about to nod when they heard a loud, screeching cry, scaring her out of her wits! Su Chen looked up in shock, only to see an enormous beast with massive wings, hideously shaped, taking flight! "Caw~!" The monstrous bird let out a sharp cry, and its flapping wings generated a fierce windstorm, the cyclone whirred like razor-sharp blades, slicing towards the massive beast still in deep sleep!