Book 7: Chapter 29: Only Release is Through Death
Book 7: Chapter 29: Only Release is Through Death
The moment Lin Xi fell into water, he immediately felt like there wasn’t a single area on his entire body that wasn’t in pain. He was swept away by the stream until he had no idea where he was, his chest also feeling as if there was a great weight weighing down on him, incredibly uncomfortable. However, a feeling of happiness instead unknowingly appeared in his heart.
It was because his mind was still clear.
It was because he didn’t directly die when he smashed into the pool.
His falling force completely disappeared, body starting to float up.
When he could sense the brightness of the water surface, Lin Xi’s consciousness became even more clear. He felt like his legs were fine, not suffering much damage, but his right hand’s wrist was in so much pain it felt like it was going to split apart, bringing him waves of dizziness and powerlessness. His right wrist should have some bone fractures.
Right now, his eyes were already opened, seeing some oval shadows in the surroundings, immediately realizing that they were all mountain rocks in the pool. If they fell and landed on him, even if he still had abundant soul force, it would still be completely useless.
Honglong!
Right at this time, he suddenly heard strange water sounds, seeing that several unusual white lines were rushing through the waters five or six meters in front of him.
He immediately reacted. This was Xue Wantao throwing down mountain rocks at him because he didn’t know if he was dead or not.
Right now, his condition was already reaching its limit, so if he was smashed by a rock again, he definitely wouldn’t be able to hold on. That was why his legs immediately began to kick, trying to get a bit further away from where those mountain rocks landed. Unexpectedly, when he moved, he just happened to get swept up in an undercurrent, sweeping him out. Everything before his eyes darkened, the radiance above no longer visible.
Lin Xi was alarmed. When he landed in the water, the serious injuries made him cough out blood, the breath of air he took before already spat out, already suffocating right now, so he could only frantically swim upwards.
With a pa sound, his head knocked into something hard, bringing him another wave of intense pain. However, when he saw the scene before him clearly, he instead relaxed a bit, starting to breathe in large gulps.
As it turned out, after the erosion over the years, a deep groove was produced below both cliffs, cutting several meters into the mountain, becoming like a corridor. At this moment the water level wasn’t great, the water surface and the rocks above had a head length gap. Right now, not only did he not have to worry about being struck by rocks from above, he could also breathe freely.
After continuously breathing in fresh air, Lin Xi recovered a bit of strength, his mind also becoming clearer.
However, the stream immediately produced great changes. Before he even had time to think about much else, the stream began to rush towards the cliff in front of him.
With a bit of surprise, Lin Xi discovered that the cave walls had pitch-black cliff caves, unknown where they led to. His legs could only move about in the water, unable to break free from this river flow, as a result, he was directly brought into a pitch-black cave.
A light pa sounded. His body bumped into mountain rock. After a wave of intense pain, he completely lost control over his body, only feeling like he was swept another few dozen meters into the cave. Then, his body finally approached solid land.
Almost out of an instinct to struggle free from the waters, Lin Xi’s body twisted towards land a few times, a larger half of his body leaving this stream.
After calming down slightly, he also already adapted to the darkness before him, instead discovering that he was actually stranded between a rocky shore like a boat. The stream moved over this rocky shore, and then curved around, entering a cave on the side. Meanwhile, what was behind this rocky shore was a cave that was above the water level.
This cave was extremely spacious and deep, the height also rather tall. There was wind blowing through this place, it wasn’t too stuffy.
Lin Xi twisted upwards a bit, his body completely breaking free from the water. Then, he sat up with great difficulty, sitting on this rocky shore.
His eyes adapted to the darkness even better. When he turned around, he was immediately distracted again for a long time. It was because he discovered that on the walls not far from where he was, there were traces of chiseled stones.
While enduring his body’s incomparable heat and the tearing pain, Lin Xi slowly stood up, taking a few steps up with difficulty.
He could see things a bit more clearly.
He saw that the rock surface above the rocky shore was extremely level, making this place seem like a man-made dock. He even saw a lot of dead wood that originally didn’t belong here piled up together, as if they were boards used to repair boats.
Then, he even saw stone stakes used to fasten mooring ropes, as well as some thick rotten hemp rope.
He even vaguely made out some handwriting on a stone stake.
Lin Xi took another two steps forward with difficulty, seeing the words on it clearly. He laughed in self-mockery, then felt extremely at ease, proudly sitting on the flat stone surface next to the stake.
He laughed in self-mockery because this world still wasn’t as absurd as some of the stories he told his little sis. As expected, there was no old master who cultivated some Nine Yang Divine Art, waiting to pass down his hundred years of accumulation to someone who fell down a cliff.
On the stone stake were the words ‘Dragon Light Quarry’.
Fifty years ago, this region from Dragon Snake Mountain Range to East Forest Province was known as the land of ‘baiyue’, the land awarded to some of Central Continent’s king families, nobles, and some small territories loyal to Yunqin. At the time, Yunqin which only had half its current size only exercised absolute control over the north and west, not exercising my administration over this region at all.
The White Cloud Monastery built on Three Reeds Peak that looked quite impressive had already stood for more than four hundred years. There were some who sought to shun the world there, it was created by daoists who sought to cast aside reputation and material attachments.
Since this could also be considered a well-known sightseeing spot near the provincial capital, while hurrying to the provincial city, Lin Xi also heard a bit about this White Cloud Monastery, he heard something that left those of later generations confused; It was rumored that all of the massive mountain rock used to built White Cloud Monastery and the nearby Dragon Light Tower were dug out from this Three Reeds Peak, this also making sense since importing rocks weighing more than five hundred jin would definitely cost far more gold, and those of later generations were sure that the stone material used to build White Cloud Monastery and the Dragon Light Tower was the same. Only, what was puzzling was that no matter where one searched, Three Reeds Peak didn’t have any large scale quarries.
Then where did the shocking amount of mountain rock used to build White Cloud Monastery and Dragon Light Tower come from, just what kind of magic was used to bring all of it over?
Since White Cloud Monastery wasn’t all that well-known and because it was built such a long time ago, because of the endless wars and replacements of dynasties, there were even less historical records that could be examined. Even White Cloud Monastery’s oldest daoist had no idea where the mountain rock from White Cloud Monastery and Dragon Light Tower came from.
The well-known cultivation lands of this world were limited to those few, so there was no way this type of mountain stream between cliffs had some type of cultivation cheat book, there was no way waiting around would bring Lin Xi a dying old master. However, Lin Xi unknowingly cracked this riddle.
Those idle daoists and miners picked material precisely here, chiseling stone material and then bringing it out with boats. They would then follow the stream to White Cloud Monastery and other suitable places and use ropes to drag the material up.
However, later on, the water level between the mountains became higher, covering traces of the quarry. That was why unless someone was just like Lin Xi, drifting along the waters below the cliff with just their head sticking out, moreover just happened to be swept here, there was no way outsiders could discover anything by riding on boats.
Even if Xue Wantao really dared to jump down, he still shouldn’t be able to find this place. Moreover, when he recalled how Xue Wantao was crazily throwing rocks, as well as how serious his injuries were, Lin Xi knew that he definitely didn’t dare jump down, even if he did, he would most likely die.
That was why he felt extremely at ease, knowing that he already didn’t have to run anymore. At the very least, stopping here was safe.
This time, he didn’t even use his ten halt rewind ability, yet already escaped danger. This was moreover an escape under the situation where Yunqin’s army sealed up the mountain, all of those elite soldiers and cultivators trying to trap him. That was why he naturally felt proud inside.
There was no way for Xue Wantao to understand Lin Xi’s pride… Lin Xi could try things again, so he could naturally feel less regard for true fear and death. Normally, Lin Xi would jump off of even higher cliffs to cultivate, so how could Xue Wantao compare to him on this aspect?
…
Lin Xi sat down, feeling like his high temperature was currently disappearing bit by bit. He also saw that blood was seeping out from the injury on his left chest as well, knowing that he had to immediately carry out meditation cultivation to replenish his soul force. As such, he no longer thought too much about anything, sitting down in an empty space next to this ‘Dragon Light Quarry’, closing his eyes.
At this moment, on the mountain summit, next to a waterfall, Xue Wantao and the black-armored Yunqin officer silently stared at that pond that seemed extremely small because of the distance, as well as the mountain stream winding out of the mountains.
Lin Xi didn’t appear in their line of sight.
“We need to find a person if he is still alive, a corpse if he is dead.”
Xue Wantao’s expression already returned to normal, but there was already some blood on the black bandages covering his chest. This made it especially hard for him to speak.
“This mountain stream only has a single exit, that exit leads to Bridge Edge River.” The serious faced Yunqin officer nodded and then turned around to leave. At the same time, his voice also entered Xue Wantao’s ears. “I will lock down the mouth of the river, and then sweep through the river with a barbed wire net. Unless he can crawl back up along the sides of the cliff, he’ll have to stick on a pair of wings to escape.”
Xue Wantao didn’t say anything else. He believed in this Yunqin officer’s pride and ability. However, when he looked into the abyss below, his heart instead became filled with resentment and a feeling of humiliation he couldn’t get rid of, unable to help but release light coughs, coughing out a mouthful of blood.
“I will definitely kill you.”
He wiped away the blood at the corners of his lips, repeating this line.
Then, he also directly sat down at the edge of this cliff to stand guard, waiting for more people to come and seal up both sides of this cliff.
With Lin Xi’s condition, there should be no way he could survive after jumping into the stream from such heights. However, he just couldn’t help but feel like Lin Xi had a chance of living, and it was precisely because of this thinking that he felt many negative emotions that he just couldn’t get rid of… only by seeing Lin Xi’s corpse or personally killing Lin Xi, could he free himself from them.
…
Precisely at the moment when the serious faced Yunqin officer quickly turned around and left, Xue Wantao also just sitting down at the mountain peak, a cultivator on a pine tree on the other side of the cliff also stared into the mountain stream below with shock that was hard to hide.
This cultivator was precisely the powerful archer who sent an arrow through a huge pine tree, injuring Lin Xi’s back.
During this night, he already made his way to the other side of the mountain range. However, when he arrived at the cliff, he just happened to see the final scene of Lin Xi leaping into the waters. His sight was much greater than ordinary cultivators’, so he could also see Lin Xi’s injuries and overdrafted condition. Judging from Xue Wantao’s following scream and crazy throwing of mountain rocks, he also knew that Lin Xi chose to jump himself.
While looking down this altitude that left even him dazzled, he just couldn’t imagine why Lin Xi dared jump down.