After a night’s sleep, the hunting group gathered their things and started to go through the mountain early the next day.
Shao Xuan had a pretty good sleep and he did not see anything terrible in his dreams.
“Everyone, stay close together, especially Ah-Xuan and Mao. This is your first time going this way, so I need you to promise to focus, for you may never have the chance to come out if you get left behind.” Mai said seriously.
He was not trying to intimidate but only telling the truth. Even the few generations of their ancestors paid a heavy price before they could finally find the correct way out when this hunting route was first established. In this huge maze, numerous warriors went in but never managed to find their way out.
“Okay. We’ll pay extra attention. You rest assured.” Said Shao Xuan.
Mao also nodded. In the hunting group, he had always been disciplined, and he also knew that it was always better to listen to the elder warriors’ words.
It became darker as they went deeper inside. People in the hunting group were separated into a few smaller groups, and there was someone holding a torch in every small group.
When they left the entrance behind, the only light source came from the torches. It was not very bright, but good enough for them to see their feet.
It was just like how Mai had described it to Shao Xuan, in this cave, the deeper you went in, the more complicated you would find it to be. There were many intersections and crossings inside. Sometimes you would even find three forks when you make a simple turn. However, the hunting group would only choose only one of them, which they had always chosen in the past.
Even if there was more than one way that connected with the outside, someone who didn’t know the way would easily get lost when he went inside. Perhaps he would return to his starting point after walking in circles.
Probably because there was more than one exit, people didn’t feel suffocated inside, there was always a gust of breeze, with a rhythmic pulse, which sounded like the breath of some large animal.
Currently, they didn’t see any aggressive creatures, but it was said that some worms and spiders lived in this cave.
The paths inside were not only curvy, but also rose and dipped constantly. Sometimes the path headed down, while sometimes one had to climb up a really steep slope, during which all the totemic warriors needed to pay attention not to be left behind. Basically, those who were familiar with the path the most were those experienced old warriors in the hunting group. Those young warriors like Lang Ga might not remember the route clearly.
Actually, someone had thought about making marks on the wall before. However, every time when they went inside again, those marks made last time would completely disappear. All these events together, made the hunting team increase their believe in the ancestors conclusion, that there must be a king stone worm living inside this mountain. It was just that no one had seen it yet.
So later on, warriors in the hunting team stopped trying to leave a mark on the wall. Also, they tried to be quiet and make no loud sound when they went through the cave, in order to not wake up that giant creature living inside.
In the tribe, the stone worms seemed harmless. However, it was not the same when it came to the king stone worm. Or else how could it be addressed as “King”?
Just the same as when they were travelling through the woods, Shao Xuan and Mao were in the middle of the group, in order to get better protection from the others.
Shao Xuan used his special ability to observe the other parts of the cave. Sometimes he would see some worms of relatively larger sizes, however, those worms did not attack the hunting group, and the warriors in the hunting group also did not actively provoke them. First of all, whey did not know how many similar insects were living together in the cave, and it would be pretty annoying if they drew the attention of a swarm of them. Secondly, no one wanted to make a scene in the cave, for it would be a real disaster if they woke up the big guy in the mountain.
If it was a straight route, it wouldn’t have taken them such a long time to come out. But in fact, they only heard Mai saying “we are almost there” when they had been walking for half a day later.
After yet another turn, they finally came to a tunnel with a fork. Only one of them was the way out, but right now, both passages were blocked by spiders.
That was a kind of eyeless spider. Perhaps their eyes had degenerated because they had been living in the dark cave for many generations. The body of this spider was not large, but they did have pretty long legs, which could cover the entrance of the passage.
Mai and two other warriors who were at the head of the group used torches and long spears to silently threaten the spiders blocking the entrances. The spiders felt the fierce heat from the flames waving at them, and retreated.
On the passage that led to the outside, only two eyeless spiders were blocking their way. Compared with the other passage, there were much less spiders. Because of the waving torch, spiders in both sides began to move and they were threateningly waving their pincers and fangs towards the hunting group.
“Ignore them. Let’s just go!” On his side, Mai had already driven away those two eyeless spiders, and he shouted out to tell the other warriors to keep up with him. Based on his experience, the eyeless spiders would rarely fight persistently against humans, for their prey were the kinds of worms in the cave. So in theory, as long as they stayed calm and tried not to irritate them, they could avoid conflict with a little compromise on both sides.
However, the accident happened just at that time. Shao Xuan in the middle of the group felt a chill on his neck and was immediately alarmed. Glaring at the eyeless spiders with their trembling pincers, he realized that it was not them!
Shao Xuan suddenly looked up, only to find a black shadowy whip drop down like lightning and all Shao Xuan could do was block it with his sword. However, he got coiled up tight by that whip and was pulled up.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, and since most warriors in the hunting group were focusing on guarding against the eyeless spiders nearby, nobody expected there to be something else above them. It seemed not to be the eyeless spiders, but whoever saw it did not have the time to stop it.
“Ah-Xuan!”
“Mai! Ah-Xuan got pulled away!”
“Why is there a hole above? It wasn’t there when we came in last time!”
“What was that?!”
At that time, the crowd did not intend to make any compromise. They fought fiercely to force back those eyeless spiders, they even wounded a few of them. However, Shao Xuan was dragged away from above, and it was not so easy for them to climb up. Mai commanded the others to deal with the eyeless spiders, while he climbed up along the wall into that hole. A while later, Mai came back with a pale face.
Whatever creature dragged Shao Xuan away, it was too fast for Mai to chase. When Mai climbed up there, it had already gone, and Shao Xuan’s shouting could not be heard again. What’s more, there were different forks when Mai went up. Different forks were stretching towards different directions. After several attempts, Mai had to go back without success.
In the heart of the mountain, those creatures which had been living in this darkness for a long period of time had a far better understanding of the cave.
Mai had to go back to the group out of the worries for the others. He was the group leader after all, and he had to be responsible to the other thirty warriors.
Mai went back to deal with the growing number of eyeless spiders with the others in the group, after he punched at the wall in anger.
The situation had grown more and more bad for them, and warriors in the hunting group had no other option than to rush out along that passage. It was not far from the outside, and they all knew that none of the spiders would chase them out, for they could not endure the light.
It happened a lot that a hunting group had one or two casualties. This time it was Shao Xuan, later on the others could be facing the same fate. Those young warriors like Lang Ga were not that sensible and they wanted to go inside again to search for Shao Xuan. However, they were stopped by the others, the older warriors were already used to that kind of farewells.
Many warriors were still sighing in their mind. Why did Ah-Xuan have to be so unlucky? He was in the center of every storm, and it was his first hunting trip!
Not long after, people in the hunting group saw traces of light, and those eyeless spiders stopped their chase.
While on the other side, Shao Xuan who got dragged away was not feeling good as well.
The thing that pulled him up was a kind of insect that lived in the cave. It was a little smaller than the eyeless spider, but was just as fierce and fast.
The thing that coiled up Shao Xuan was the insect’s feeler, on whose tip there were hook-like serrations. If it weren’t for Shao Xuan’s quick reaction to hold up the sword against those serrations, he could’ve easily gotten wounded when he was dragged away. The sword and serrations even created crackling sounds as they rubbed against each other.
After struggling really hard, Shao Xuan only got loosened up just a little bit. After a sharp turn, Shao Xuan was directly slammed onto a stone wall and he nearly threw out all his breakfast.
With pain all over his body, Shao Xuan put himself together and finally pulled out his tooth sword, which had already lost its tip, and fiercely chopped on that feeler.
Pa!
The feeler which was binding Shao Xuan was chopped off, and its owner began to jump up and down out of the pain of losing its feeler. In the meantime, Shao Xuan was finally freed, but he rolled over and fell into another hole, which headed down steeply. Before he could stand up on his feet, he slid down along that slope.
He did now know how long he had been sliding but when he could finally stand up, Shao Xuan felt dizzy in the head and dim in sight. He felt painful and sour all over his body, for he had hit the wall for quite a few times and was dragged a long way.
It took him some time to catch his breath, after which Shao Xuan wanted to go back along the same way, for it would become more and more dangerous if he stayed there for too long.
Just when he was about to climb up the slope, Shao Xuan heard the sound of a breeze coming from a tunnel in his back. It was like a breeze, but with the rhythm of a breath.
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