Although they discussed what might have caused that strange sensation, neither brother stopped walking. Both Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong were already Foundation Establishment cultivators, and extending their divine sense ahead to scout a route was a simple matter for them.
They chatted as they followed the tunnel. In the empty passage, their voices echoed behind them.
Unfortunately, even after a lengthy discussion that carried them almost to the tunnel’s end, they still had not found an explanation.
“Forget it. There’s nothing wrong with my body right now, so let’s leave it at that,” Xu Ziyan said helplessly. What else could he do, cut himself open to find the cause?
Xu Zirong remained deeply troubled. He could not tolerate anything that might harm his brother. He had restrained himself from even taking a drop of the blood he so coveted. How, then, could he accept some unknown power invading his brother’s body?
In his mind, Xu Zirong added that power to his private list of grudges. Once his strength returned and he discovered the reason, whoever had set this trap would pay.
The breeze grew stronger, and at last the end of the tunnel came into view.
Emerging from its mouth, they found themselves on a platform projecting from a rock face. Xu Ziyan stood at the edge and extended his divine sense downward as far as he could, but still could not find the bottom.
The ceiling above was not high, and the glow of the Luminous Orb was enough to reveal it. Below, however, darkness swallowed the orb’s light, making the drop seem bottomless.
“Shall we go down?” Xu Zirong asked with his head tilted. A stairway descended along one side of the platform, the first unmistakable evidence of deliberate construction.
Built against the rock wall, the stairs appeared to spiral downward. The orb’s light could not reach the opposite side, so Xu Ziyan could not tell how far they extended.
The stairs vanished into darkness beyond the orb’s range. After thinking for a moment, Xu Ziyan released a fist-sized ball of lightning and sent it flying into the air. It exploded in a burst of brilliance, allowing him to narrow his eyes and glimpse their surroundings.
They were much as he had imagined. This platform was the only projection from the rock wall, with a sealed ceiling above and a dark abyss beneath. They had only two choices: descend or turn back. But having come all this way, Xu Ziyan was unwilling to return empty-handed.
“I’ll go first. You follow.” Xu Ziyan led the way, and Xu Zirong obediently followed. He knew there was no point arguing about such matters. His brother’s determination to protect him was beyond challenge.
Of course, he enjoyed being protected. If anyone ambushed them, he was confident he could save Xu Ziyan at the critical moment. If their assailant was too powerful, though, standing in front would be of little help anyway, so he did not bother insisting.
Guided by the Luminous Orb, Xu Ziyan descended with his eyes and ears alert. All the elaborate traps he had read about in treasure-hunting novels flashed through his mind one by one.
He did not know whether similar devices existed in the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, but there was no harm in being cautious.
They proceeded carefully for quite some time without encountering anything at all. Xu Ziyan relaxed a little. His master had been right when he said the realm was generally not dangerous.
For some reason, ever since entering the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, Xu Ziyan had been unable to forget what happened at the entrance. He might have spoken lightly of it to Xu Zirong, but he did not know why he could not let it go.
He still had not found the cause. Nevertheless, the thought kept circling in his mind, as if a voice were telling him that the matter was important and he absolutely had to find out where that energy had gone.
With a silent sigh, Xu Ziyan became certain that if he did not locate the energy, his own nagging thoughts might drive him mad. _(：з」∠)_
He checked his body once more. Nothing was wrong.
Sea of consciousness: safe.
Meridians: undamaged.
Dantian: the Azure Firmament Divine Lightning was happily playing.
For heaven’s sake, where had that wretched energy gone?!
Xu Ziyan was growing irritable. Patience had never been his strong suit, and after looking for so long without an answer, he was thoroughly fed up.
His knuckles cracked as he flexed his fingers. He wanted to fight someone. There were no enemies nearby, and he could hardly bring himself to beat up his own little brother. He might as well spar with the Lightning Man!
Xu Ziyan immediately congratulated himself on his brilliant idea!
The so-called Lightning Man was a puppet contained within the jade slip he had discovered in the Xu family’s Scripture Pavilion.
Formed from lightning, the puppet was responsible for teaching Xu Ziyan how to cultivate the Nine Transformations of the Purple Firmament.
When Xu Ziyan first began training, the puppet had beaten him mercilessly. Later, as Xu Ziyan grew stronger, so did the puppet. o(╯□╰)o Fine, fine. The truth was that whenever Xu Ziyan practiced the Nine Transformations of the Purple Firmament, the Lightning Man would thrash him. Right now, however, he simply wanted a fight and did not care whether he won or lost.
He had never hidden the jade slip’s existence from Xu Zirong, but he kept it inside Mr. Square to prevent this treasure from being stolen.
He was confident nobody in the world could steal anything from Mr. Square. That more-or-less useless golden finger of his might have no other purpose, but at least it could do that.
(Mr. Square: /(ㄒoㄒ)/～～)
Huh?!
Xu Ziyan abruptly stopped walking. He stared into the empty space before him and rubbed his eyes hard.
After rubbing them, he looked again. Yes, he was not seeing things. Mr. Square really had grown larger!
At first, the square compartment had measured only fifty centimeters on each side. He had vaguely sensed it expanding before, but because he could not take precise measurements, he had never been certain.
Now it was a full meter on each side, a change so obvious that he needed no ruler to confirm it.
So… had Mr. Square actually swallowed that mysterious power? Xu Ziyan stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Big Brother?” Xu Zirong looked at him in confusion. Not only had his brother stopped suddenly, he was staring into empty air. Had he noticed something?
“Huh? Oh! It’s nothing. Let’s keep going.” Xu Ziyan recovered and hurried onward. He had never told Xu Zirong about Mr. Square. For one thing, the whole situation was too fantastical; even in the cultivation world, he doubted anything like it existed. For another, the novel itself remained a thorn in his heart. Although events had diverged drastically from the original Xu Ziyan’s memories, they still had not reached any scene from the original story.
The novel began with Bai Hua overcoming countless difficulties to enter the Tianyu Sect and becoming Lin Xiaotian’s junior brother. There was still a full year before the Tianyu Sect’s entrance examination, which meant Xu Ziyan had no idea where Bai Hua was hiding at present. Otherwise, he would have gone to see him, memorized his face, and avoided him for the rest of his life. A protagonist’s halo was simply too dangerous to provoke, as the original novel amply demonstrated. ╮(╯_╰)╭ Now that he knew where the mysterious energy had gone, Xu Ziyan felt relieved. Mr. Square was his golden finger, after all. Perhaps it had been hungry for years and had simply taken too big a bite this time, leaving itself stuffed?
(Mr. Square: (#‵′)!! I am not stuffed! I’m evolving normally!)
As Xu Ziyan continued down the stairs, Xu Zirong studied his back thoughtfully. Living almost constantly at his brother’s side for years had allowed him to discover many of Xu Ziyan’s secrets. Some things that Xu Ziyan believed he had concealed perfectly had long since fallen under Xu Zirong’s notice. He simply never mentioned them.
From observing him, Xu Zirong suspected that Xu Ziyan possessed an independent space capable of holding small objects. It ought to resemble a Void-Containing Ring, except that no physical ring was required: it seemed to be linked directly to his brother.
Judging by his brother’s reaction, perhaps that space had changed. Whether the change was good or bad remained to be seen.
Xu Zirong withdrew his gaze and quietly descended the steps. The staircase clung to the rock face and was barely wide enough for one person. If an accident occurred here, there was a ninety-percent chance of plunging into the abyss beside them.
Xu Zirong had just discreetly tested the surrounding spiritual energy. Ever since they entered this cavern, it had become slightly chaotic. The disturbance made flying on swords impossible, so falling into the abyss would mean certain death.
Fortunately, the staircase contained no traps. Seen from above, all that could be made out was a faint thread of white light carrying two small figures steadily downward.
After walking for about half a shichen, they finally reached the bottom.
The instant Xu Ziyan set foot off the final step, he felt something unexpectedly soft beneath him, almost as though he had stepped on a person’s body.
He jumped in fright. Earlier, the Luminous Orb had revealed only a patch of black below, which he had mistaken for ordinary ground. He had never expected such a disturbing sensation.
“It’s all right. It’s Soft-Skin Moss,” Xu Zirong said. He had felt the strange texture too, but his expertise with plants allowed him to identify the moss immediately.
“Soft-Skin Moss?” Xu Ziyan frowned. “If I remember correctly, doesn’t this stuff usually grow in graveyards?”
“Yes. The dead provide the nutrients it needs. The more people buried there, and the higher their cultivation, the softer the moss becomes.” Xu Zirong crouched and pulled up a tuft to examine its softness.
Xu Ziyan felt distinctly uncomfortable. He might have spent long enough in the cultivation world to know better than to be squeamish about killing, but the thought that this moss had grown from human remains still made him nauseated.
“Zirong, don’t touch that. It’s filthy!” Xu Ziyan hurriedly grabbed his brother’s arm. How could he handle something so dirty without thinking?