Leaving the Cave

Leaving the Cave Even cultivators, for all their breathing in of spiritual qi, still had to take Bigu Pills, and Martial Artists had even more astonishing appetites; feats like eating an entire ox in a single day were common enough. After several consecutive death duels, An Jing had also used Qi-Raising Pills to squeeze his body. The Jade Dew from the Red Armored Guards could replenish only a little of the lost nourishment. By now he was so hungry that his vision kept blackening, his stomach and bowels churning, craving something to digest. "Can these luminescent vines be eaten?" Rubbing his belly, An Jing shook his head to clear himself. He stared hollowly at the dimmed luminescent vines, which still looked rather chewy, and swallowed instinctively. "They could at least fill my stomach a little..." "Glowing things are probably poisonous." The Sword Spirit was not quite sure either. After all, it was a sword spirit, not a cultivator, and had no experience with eating. "Best not to eat it. Even purging poison with Inner Breath requires water, and we're short on water." "Mm, I know." An Jing could not actually just start eating vines. He shifted his gaze toward the depths ahead. "The vines on that monster were very damp. Wherever it was, there must be water." Following the direction from which the vine monster had come, An Jing soon found a dark little cave. There had to be an underground waterway nearby, perhaps even a hot spring. The vine monster's usual lair was a constantly dripping stalactite cave, quite damp, with a nest made of shed vines in the center and many shaggy mane mushrooms along the sides. From afar, it looked like a dark green ring-shaped pit surrounded by white fungus. The shaggy manes beside the large nest sounded poisonous by name, but if An Jing was not mistaken, this mushroom was commonly called a chicken-leg mushroom: delicious, nutritious, and quite pleasant to eat. "Now there's food. As for the water... a little shouldn't hurt, right?" Collecting some groundwater from the stalactites to quench his thirst, though its mineral content was excessive, An Jing no longer cared much what the chicken-leg mushrooms had grown from. It was all a gift from Lord Huangtian anyway. After gathering some larger mushrooms that were intact and not rotten, An Jing glanced into the monster's nest and could not help a soft exclamation. "So that's where the corpse is." The source of the nest vines was a corpse, long decayed into a skeleton, but the bones were bright and translucent, like jade. "It is the divine marvel 'Jade Marrow Bone,'" the Sword Spirit said. "This demonized cultivator must have had considerable Body Refining cultivation in life. He had cultivated this jade-bone divine marvel to great completion." "It's lucky only his head was demonized. If his body had been demonized as well, he would be a 'jade-bone demon corpse.' We would probably have no chance against it." "His bone age was in his early twenties. His cultivation method was good, his cultivation decent, and the faction behind him must have been sizable. It is rather strange that he died here." The Sword Spirit's assessment was quite objective. An Jing looked thoughtfully at the vine-entangled skeleton and said slowly, "It seems there really is something in these ruins that keeps drawing cultivators here. "Unfortunately, our strength is not enough to meddle in it now." Shaking his head slightly, An Jing thought no more about it and left with the mushrooms. The First Cave. After the vine monster died, the vines all over its body had rapidly withered and dried, losing all vitality, making them perfect firewood. As a Destiny Pattern Martial Artist of the Inner Breath Realm, An Jing found lighting a fire effortless. He casually picked up two stones, struck sparks from them, and set the dried vines alight. The pale yellow flames brightened the dim cave. The clothes on the corpses burned well too, so An Jing soon had a fire going. In the flickering firelight, he roughly cleaned the mushrooms, wiped them off, and began roasting chicken-leg mushrooms. With no seasoning or oil, it was simply roasted mushrooms. By ordinary standards, it could not be called tasty at all. But for An Jing, who had experienced the Frost Calamity, even a mouthful of warm dirt when starving would have been hard to come by; he could have swallowed icy tree bark and grass roots along with snow. A piping hot, thoroughly cooked mushroom was a delicacy no matter how he ate it. Chewing and swallowing with reverence, more than twenty pieces of mushroom at least filled An Jing's stomach a little. His Inner Breath circulated naturally with his body's instincts, rapidly absorbing the nourishment and barely allowing him to suppress his dizziness. At least for now, An Jing no longer wanted to gnaw moss, and seeing those luminescent vines no longer made him salivate. "That's enough. Time to set off." As soon as his condition improved, An Jing clapped his hands and stood. Because of the treatment he received as the top-ranked champion at Suspended Fate Manor, he had eaten plenty of meat and still had some fat stored in his body. He would not actually starve to death from missing a few meals; at worst, he would return to the weak state from when he was a refugee. But next, An Jing was going to try to leave these ruins, so he naturally needed to ensure he remained battle-ready. The reason was simple. Although the First Cave was still relatively safe after the vine monster was killed, An Jing could not be sure whether new monsters or demonic beasts would appear from the depths of the ruins and attack him. At the same time, the place lacked clean water and a stable food source. The shaggy manes and cave water might stave off hunger, but they would run out after a few days and were not a long-term solution. While escaping the gazes of the Demon Sect, the Extramundane Demon, and Great Chen's officials, An Jing would have to stay in this other world for a long time, so he had to think farther ahead. A stable, or at least reliable, source of water and food. The First Cave lacked that condition, so he had to leave, and the sooner the better. "I hope I don't have to use these." Before leaving, An Jing first collected some tinder, storing it in an empty magazine. Then he gathered a large amount of dried vines and nearly rotted clothing from the corpses. These were excellent fuel; at a critical moment, whether as tinder or simply as firewood, they would be useful. An Jing also collected a large number of bullets. After making sure all his gear was in order, he selected a still-usable rifle from the corpses and slung it over his back. This time he was fleeing, so he no longer needed to conceal his abilities at Suspended Fate Manor. The pistol's power was still too weak; with the rifle, An Jing would finally have a proper ranged attack. As for the "Ink-Jade Skull" left behind after the vine monster dissipated—so hard that even the fiend sword could not pierce it—An Jing hung it at his waist. This black jade bone had been refined to some degree, after all. Once the demonic qi dispersed, it was just an ordinary spirit material. Carrying it was no trouble—if worse came to worst, he could take off the skull cap and use it as a heart-protecting mirror. After finishing all this, he followed the "way he had come" toward the cave exit and the "outside world." The way back was deep and dark. It was an extremely long, dark corridor—a naturally formed karst cave, or perhaps the channel of a dried underground river—damp and stifling. As An Jing walked through this water-carved rock cave deep beneath the earth, the Mysterious Step operated instinctively, leaving no sound of footsteps. Only faint, lonely breaths echoed continuously through the passage. In the darkness, crimson light kindled in An Jing's eyes. That faint glow allowed him to see the road ahead—mostly natural terrain, though here and there he could also make out steps and sculptures carved into the rock by human hands. And corpses.