Chapter 564 - 248: Cruel Reality
Chapter 564: Chapter 248: Cruel Reality
A faint, ghostly light glowed from the walls, but the dim radiance couldn’t illuminate the entire space.
Massive natural stone pillars crisscrossed the area, with rock formations jutting out in a chaotic, seemingly random pattern.
Looking down, the chasm was incredibly deep, and the sound of surging water echoed from the very bottom.
But it was impossible to tell just how far down it went.
Fang Shuwen spotted a landing point and said to Luo Shuqing,
"Brace yourself."
With that, he flicked his hand and tossed her across.
Luo Shuqing’s figure twisted abruptly in mid-air, and she landed steadily on a jagged outcropping of intersecting rocks.
These rocks formed a path forward, like a natural stone bridge.
Fang Shuwen raised an eyebrow, and his own figure instantly soared across.
Luo Shuqing watched Fang Shuwen without looking away, as if she had something to say.
But Fang Shuwen didn’t acknowledge her, instead saying,
"There’s someone up ahead."
"You found her?"
A hint of excitement crept into Luo Shuqing’s voice.
Fang Shuwen, however, had already grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward. They would know if they had found her once they took a look; there was no need to discuss it there.
The intersecting rocks and stone pillars formed a strange path—sometimes blocked, sometimes clear, and at times requiring them to use their Lightweight Technique to cross gaps.
For an ordinary person, with a bottomless cliff below, walking here would be like treading on thin ice by an abyss—one wrong step would mean being dashed to pieces.
But for Fang Shuwen, it was naturally like walking on level ground.
At the end of the rocky path was a large patch of fluorescent moss and dark, gloomy vines.
Fang Shuwen pushed aside the vines, revealing a rock cave.
The cavern was large, allowing the two of them to stand up straight and walk side by side.
Moreover, the cave’s interior was also filled with moss that emitted a ghostly glow, illuminating the entire space.
The sight was bizarre and fantastical... as if they were no longer walking in the mortal world.
Of course, it wasn’t a paradise either.
The light was a pale, greenish-blue, giving one the feeling of walking through the underworld.
Before long, they reached the end.
A clear pool appeared before them. The water was so transparent that living creatures could be seen swimming within.
The surrounding rock walls were covered with densely carved text.
On the ground lay a skeleton, so ancient that the bones had nearly weathered away to nothing. It was impossible to know how long it had been there.
Beside the skeleton, a distraught woman looked up with a stunned expression at Fang Shuwen and Luo Shuqing.
"Found you."
Fang Shuwen led Luo Shuqing over and sat down across from Suhe Lan.
Suhe Lan seemed dazed for a moment, then suddenly stood up, walked over to Fang Shuwen, reached out her hand... and, to Fang Shuwen’s complete astonishment, pinched his cheek.
"..."
Fang Shuwen was dumbfounded.
No matter how high his level of Martial Arts, he couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened.
"Wait... you, what are you doing?"
Luo Shuqing’s voice was filled with disbelief.
’Has this woman gone mad?’
’How dare she pinch the Demon Evil God’s face?’
"This feeling... It’s not a dream?"
Suhe Lan looked at her hand, then back at Fang Shuwen and Luo Shuqing.
"You... how did you find this place?"
Fang Shuwen clicked his tongue. It was the first time in his life a woman had inexplicably pinched his face... Not even Yu Yaoguang or Miao Feichan had ever done such a thing.
But as for an explanation, Suhe Lan had already given one—she thought it was a hallucination.
As a grown man, he felt there was no need to make a fuss over it. After a moment of silence, he said,
"It’s a long story..."
’Today has certainly been much more eventful than usual.’
’First, I spent half the day looking for someone, then half the day spying on someone, and tonight I’ve been tirelessly navigating tunnels and secret passages until now.’
’Explaining all of that in detail would be a real hassle.’
So he summarized,
"I suspected your disappearance was related to your younger brother."
"So I followed him in secret and found you..."
Suhe Lan’s hand trembled slightly, and then, with a complete lack of ladylike grace, she sat down directly on the ground.
She let out a laugh, her voice tinged with sorrow.
"So you all know?"
"We know some things, but not much."
Fang Shuwen looked at Suhe Lan.
"But it seems you know a bit more. Why don’t you tell us about it?"
"I don’t know much either. My father knocked me unconscious, and when I woke up, I was underground."
"They were already gone..."
"I wanted to get out, but I couldn’t. So I searched my way deeper inside and happened to find a hidden tunnel."
"I followed it inward, and eventually ended up here."
"As for everything else... it’s all on this wall."
Suhe Lan pointed at the wall.
Fang Shuwen looked up at the wall.
A section of the wall had clearly been cleaned, revealing all the text.
But after a couple of glances, Fang Shuwen found himself in a difficult position.
"I can’t read it. What does it say?"
It wasn’t that he didn’t recognize any of it at all, but many of the characters were unfamiliar, only vaguely resembling ones he knew.
"..."
Suhe Lan froze for a second.
Then Luo Shuqing said,
"Written language is always changing, and it differs from region to region..."
"This is a script that was used in the East Sea several hundred years ago. It’s very different from the characters used today."
Fang Shuwen understood the principle, but then he looked at Luo Shuqing and Suhe Lan in surprise.
"You can both read it?"
"Being the child of an Eight Forbidden Land Sect Leader isn’t so easy."
Suhe Lan said,
"I don’t know about the others, but I had to learn many things."
"I’m just... interested."
Luo Shuqing said to Fang Shuwen while gazing at the text on the wall,