Chapter 230: Cave

Jangar took the torch and started lighting a fire near it, but his hands were trembling with the cold, and he could hit the stones properly. 

"Let me help you, Uncle," Famir said and closed his eyes. Suddenly, fire burst on top of the torch and it was lit up. The people around him were surprised that he could do that, but for now, they didn't say anything. 

Jangar walked up to his father's corpse and covered the face again. Then, he lit the pyre on fire. 

The fire in the snow helped relieve some of the coldness the crowd was feeling. They stayed there for another half an hour as the fire crackled to a stop. 

Jangar walked forward with an empty pot and gathered the ashes. Then, he stood up and started walking. 

The other 10 people who were also carrying pots of ashes followed him. Ning soon realized that they were going to go around the mountain. 

So, he followed the people and walked. 

As he walked he started to realize the familiar environment once again. 'I fell on this site, didn't I?' he thought. 

The group walked and stopped at the clutter of wooden planks stuck on the ground. 'The headstones,' Ning thought. Some of the men brought out other planks of wood and started carving on it. 

Ning didn't even need to read it to know what it read. 

Famir walked up to a headstone and got on his knees before it. "Hello father, how are you doing?" he started speaking. 

Ning watched as the other people also got on their knees and started speaking with the headstones there. 'Everyone here has lost someone,' he thought. 

As Jangar had mentioned, every month or two, somebody in the village died. So, by now every single person had to attend the funeral of their family. 

Ning still remembered the first funeral he had attended, his parent's. It was a rainy day and he was mostly unsure about what had happened. 

Unlike him from that time, these people were very used to this stuff. Seeing this, Ning got angry. 

'Nobody should be used to the death of their friends and family. They shouldn't have to say goodbye to their loved ones on a regular basis,' he thought. 

The group got up and walked away from one by one. Ning saw a new headstone next to the one that said 'Here lies Feroy'. The new one was the headstone of the Old Grand Uncle. He was now reunited with his son. 

Ning gave a deep bow and walked behind the rest of the group. 

As he was walking away, he saw something strange. There were still two people behind that were talking to the headstones, but Ning didn't remember seeing them amongst the villagers that were at the funeral back in the village. 

'Did they join after we left the funeral pyre?' he wondered. He was currently looking behind him with his omnidirectional vision, so to a normal person, it would look like he is turning forward. 

As Ning and the rest walked further away, the two people finally brought up their heads and looked at each other. Once they made sure nobody was looking, they started running below. 

'What the hell are they doing?' Ning wondered. However, this wasn't the time to feed his curiosity. Jangar and the other 10 people circled back to where they began.

Then, they started walking up to the peak where the burst of Qi and Aether still flew to the sky. Once they reached there, they gently tossed the pot into the crater. 

The little specks of light immediately destroyed the pots as well as the ashes inside of it and threw it into the sky. By the time they reached the top, not a single thing remained. 

The 11 people had now entered the afterlife. 

They prayed for another minute or two for the departed's safe journey and started walking down the mountain. Ning stood where he was and didn't move. 

"Senior?" Famir asked when he saw that he wasn't moving. "We need to go past that barrier again. It will close in less than 3 hours," he said.

"You guys go down. I have some things to do here," Ning said and sent Famir away. Famir wanted to ask some questions but decided to keep quiet and leave. 

Once they were gone, Ning went to the other side and followed the footsteps the men had left on the snow. 'Just where did they go?' he wondered.

He was nearly at the foot of the mountain when he saw the footsteps change direction. It went to the right and a little down.

'A cave?' Ning thought when he saw what was there. 'Why is there a cave here?' he wondered. As he walked close to the cave, he could hear of metal clangs. 

He quietly walked into the cave. 

"What the hell?" he couldn't help but exclaim loudly when he saw what was inside. The two men, who were mining inside with a pickaxe, were startled and got into an attacking position with their pickaxe. 

Ning didn't care about them, however. The thing that garnered his full attention was this cave. 

Bluish-black crystals shined even in low light all around him. It was as if they were embedded onto the rocks themselves. From Ning's estimate, there was at least a large truck full of materials here. 

"Aether Ore," he spoke in absolute surprise. He then finally looked at the two men and asked, "who are you, people?" 

The two men didn't seem to like the questioning very much. 

"Isn't he the man who brought in Khrom?" one of the men asked. 

"Yes," the other man said. 

"No answering huh?" Ning said and walked forward. 

"Don't come closer or we will attack!" one of the men said as he readied his pickaxe. 

"Oh, you wanna do something with that toothpick? Go ahead," Ning said as he taunted the men.

Both the men got angry and ran forward to attack him with the pickaxe. 

CLANG

However, it did nothing to Ning. Ning caught the stopped pickaxe from the metal side and bent it upside in a U shape. 

"Now, are you willing to talk?"