Chapter 271.1: There Was Someone Behind Her
By the time Tang Doudou managed to get to that precipice while dragging Mu Ye, she was tired enough to collapse. However, once she stopped moving, she started to scold herself. She had a such a large amount of inner strength yet she didn’t know how to efficiently use it, it was seriously so dumb!
After resting near the cliff for a while, she started to check the depth of the precipice. What she saw gave her a pleasant surprise. It turned out that there was a cave inside the cliff so it would probably serve well as shelter!
The black clouds above them were getting thicker and lower. There were even rumbles of thunder in the distance. Upon seeing this, Tang Doudou didn’t dare to delay any further and immediately started hauling Mu Ye into the cave.
It wasn’t very bright outside so it was extremely dark inside the cave.
As of now, she had gone through so many scary situations that her guts had grown large enough for her to be immune to this bit of darkness. She first helped Mu Ye in, then took advantage of this time to gather some firewood nearby. Then she set up a campfire in the cave, and sat near Mu Ye to looked around the cave.
However, what she saw gave her chills. The bright fire illuminated both sides of the cave to show that there were blood red murals all over the walls. They seemed to be recording the story of ancient tribes warring against all sorts of strange beasts. The strange human figures seemed to often fight with those strange monster figures. The murals were actually quite engrossing. Since she had nothing to do, she decided to pull a lit firewood out from the campfire and explore deeper into the cave.
However, the deeper inside she went, the more confusing the murals became. Although there were words on the murals, she couldn’t understand them. From time to time, she would be able to guess some of the meanings, but it wasn’t enough to link all the murals together.
Following that, she started seeing familiar things. The originally strange human figures were starting to look more dignified and aloof. They seemed to be standing on all sorts of weapons and gliding gracefully through the sky. These were probably records of those cultivators. The murals showed them exhibiting all sorts of magical abilities. However, Tang Doudou felt like these weren’t records of actual cultivators, they seemed to be fantasy drawings.
A lot of places contained exaggerated decorations. These were clearly drawings of people, yet the artist had added things like wings to those people’s backs, causing them to look strange.
As she continued looking, she discovered something else. In all the murals, there was the presence of a strange person. That figure was made through simple thin lines. Because it had been too simple, Tang Doudou hadn’t noticed earlier and thought it was just part of the background.
Later on, that simple figure started to change and become more detailed. It was gradually starting to resemble the black-robed people of the Saint Tribes!
This black-robed person seemed to be a spectator in all the murals she had walked past. It was very strange.
Although she didn’t understand murals very deeply, she still knew that in ancient times, people used murals to express stories. There was no way a figure that didn’t relate to the story would appear in the story. Did that mean that this black-clothed person was present in the story these murals were depicting?
Then wouldn’t he be an old monster that had lived several thousand years?
When Tang Doudou’s thoughts arrived at this point, she subconsciously shivered. If he had lived for that long, could it be that he was still alive?
She immediately pushed this thought out of her head. If this person was still alive, then he was more than just amazing! If such a powerful person existed, how could the Seven Great Saint Tribes have fallen to such levels?
Tang Doudou was a little tired of looking at all of them. In addition, this cave seemed to go on much deeper, so she didn’t dare to continue walking onwards on her own. She turned around and started retracing her steps to head back.
Unexpectedly, after she turned around, a problem arose.
She had clearly walked in following the left side, yet when she turned around and followed the same wall, she wasn’t able to find the campfire she had started. She started to panic. Could it be that she had been too engrossed in looking at the murals earlier and missed the fact that there were other passages?
That wasn’t right! If she had accidently taken a different path, then why were the murals still the same?
They were still displaying the same story and…
Suddenly, she realized that something was off. These murals were exactly the same as before except for the fact that the person was gone!
That black-clothed person!
This discovery instantly made Tang Doudou’s hair rise on end. Her back became covered with cold sweat. Could she have encountered a ghost!?
The more she thought about it, the more scared she became. She felt as if cold eyes were looking at her from the darkness and silently spying on her every move. She was so scared she wanted to slap herself for not being more cautious earlier.
Just as she was becoming so tense she couldn’t think straight, a rattling sound came from the darkness.
The cave was spacious and echoed, so the sound seemed to come from right beside her. Tang Doudou almost screamed in fear.
She hastily covered her mouth and moved the lit wood in her hand towards that direction.
It wasn’t that she was brave, it was just that she felt like it was possible to accept things when they were in the light. But unseen things in the shadow that one sensed through sound or touch easily scared people out of their wits.
Moreover, if it really was a ghost, it definitely wouldn’t dare to approach fire. That was why she gradually walked backwards the way she came as she continued staring at the darkness in front.
That rattling sound came continuously. It seemed far away, but also seemed close. As she listened, her heart seemed to speed up and beat with the same rhythm as the rattle. She couldn’t help but remember a ghost story that she had heard before. It was pretty much about how a certain sort of ghost would make a strange sound. When you heard it and your heartbeat started pounding at the same speed, your soul would be snatched away by the ghost…
When Tang Doudou’s thoughts reached this point, she hastily held her breath and then breathed out slowly before inhaling again to mess up her heartbeat. Only then did she wipe the cold sweat off her forehead. However, before she could even lower her head, she saw that there was a person’s silhouette in the shadows she was pointing her light towards!
This figure had appeared too suddenly, Tang Doudou wasn’t prepared for it at all. She immediately screamed and waved her fire to try and scare that thing away.
However, since she moved too abruptly, the fire ended up becoming extinguished!
…
At this moment, Tang Doudou really wanted to just ram her head against the wall behind her and die. However, she had no time to entertain such thoughts in this situation.
She sent her inner strength into her feet and ran like crazy without looking back.
As she ran deeper into the cave, someone picked up the firewood she left behind and blew on it. Flames once again lit up the cave and illuminated Mu Ye’s handsome face.
He looked in the direction Tang Doudou ran off in with an unreadable expression. Then he lifted the firewood and slowly looked at the murals on the two walls of the cave.
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