CH 73

The wind howled in their ears as they fell toward the bottom of the ravine. That stomach-churning feeling of free-falling was horrible, and the awful knowledge that they were plummeting to their deaths turned their bones to water.

Even as Chen Ziqi screamed, he remembered to hold on tightly to the front of his clothes so that the little red bird wouldn’t fall out. Suddenly, two pairs of hands grabbed hold of his arms and slowed down the speed of his descent. 

The black-clad palanquin bearers had their feet perpendicular to the mountain wall, running down it as if they were on flat ground. Chen Ziqi only saw small shrubs and grasses disappearing behind them as they plunged into darkness at the bottom of the ravine.

If the palanquin bearers today had been the usual ones, they wouldn’t have been able to lift Chen Ziqi with just two people. Today, the ones who had been sent to escort Chen Ziqi were all birds of prey, and they had outstanding martial arts ability, so catching Chen Ziqi as he fell down a cliff wasn’t a problem at all.

“AHHHHH!” Even after touching down on solid ground, Yühu was still screaming her lungs out.

Chen Ziqi rubbed his cheeks, which had turned stiff and cold from the wind, then pulled out the little red bird for a look. Dan Yi flapped his little wings and chirped excitedly nonstop. Young birds really did seem to love this type of flying game. Chen Ziqi stroked his feathers to arrange the ones that had been blown askew back into place, then set the little bird on his head and walked over to pat Yühu’s shoulder. “We’re safe now. Stop screaming,” he said. 

“AHHHHH… Ah?” Yühu’s mouth was half-open as she looked around, then used her hands to feel her own arms and legs. She was in one piece! “We reached the ground?” she asked in surprise.

“Nn,” Chen Ziqi said, smiling at her. He then looked up in the direction they had fallen from.

This was a ravine between two peaks, and they were surrounded by sharp precipices on all sides. The back of the Hidden Library was at the top of the cliff.

Yühu had finally accepted the fact that she wasn’t deceased. She followed Chen Ziqi to check out the place. “This is bad – we’re in the Four Corners Ravine!” she exclaimed.

“The Four Corners Ravine?” Chen Ziqi asked, tensing up immediately. “Does it have traps or something?”

“There are no exits from it,” Yühu said, sitting down on the floor and hugging her knees with a pained expression on her face. The Four Corners Ravine was so called because it was surrounded on all sides by sharp cliffs, and there was no way out. The older generation of disciples had refused to let them come near this place because they were afraid the young ones would slip and fall into it. When she was young, she’d heard many frightening stories about the Four Corners Ravine, and she’d been so scared then that she couldn’t even sleep at night.

“Qtja rabglfr?” Jtfc Ildl jrxfv. Lf ralii ibbxfv jr cbcmtjijca jr fnfg. Qlat obeg qjijcdelc yfjgfgr klat tlw, atfs mbeiv vfolclafis ois bea bo atlr qijmf. Pc atf kbgra mjrf rmfcjglb, tf mbeiv pera xcbmx Tüte bea jcv jrx atf obeg ab aegc lcab atf teuf ylgvr atja atfs kfgf jcv ois atfw bea.

“The stories I’ve heard say that there’s a frightening beast in the ravine with a green face and long fangs. Every time there’s a full moon, it will crawl up the cliff on the west side…” 

“Oho~~”

Yühu hadn’t finished speaking when a strange sound came from a distance. It sounded like the hoarse howling of an old woman, and it echoed ominously in the ravine.

“AHH!” Yühu screamed. She was so frightened that she instinctively thrust herself into Chen Ziqi’s arms.

Chen Ziqi had also gotten a huge shock, but he patted Yühu on the back comfortingly. “Don’t be scared. Let’s go over and have a look,” he said. 

This ravine was very small and narrow, and Chen Ziqi didn’t believe that there was any strange beast that would be able to climb up its steep sides.

“It might be the sound of the wind blowing through hollow parts of the cliff,” one of the black-clad men said.

“Whose subordinates are you?” Chen Ziqi asked, looking at the serious-faced palanquin bearers. The real question he wanted to ask was what kind of birds they were.

“The four of us are from the Eagle Wing,” the palanquin bearer replied. 

The Eagle Wing… Chen Ziqi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. During this time, he’d more or less figured out how the Cloud Palace was structured. Tu Buxian was a vulture and was from the Vulture Wing. Wu Bujian was a crow from the Crow Wing. It would follow that if these black-clad fellows were from the Eagle Wing, then they were probably eagles, rocs, hawks, or some similar large bird in this family.

“Tweet!” the little red bird suddenly leapt out and pecked hard at Yühu’s hand, which was holding on tightly to Chen Ziqi’s sleeve.

That peck hurt, and Yühu instinctively withdrew her hand.

Chen Ziqi grabbed the little bird. A bird beak was still a mouth, and that peck was technically a kiss! What was Dan Yi doing, kissing some girl’s hand?! 

The little red bird put on an innocent look and bobbed its little head at Chen Ziqi, its two long crown feathers swaying jauntily. Chen Ziqi placed the bird on his shoulder so that it couldn’t go near Yühu, then continued walking in the direction from which the strange sound came.

If there were hollow parts in the mountain, then there might be caves or gaps in the cliff wall. If there was a gap, they would be able to just walk right out of this place. That strange ululating sound could still be heard, and it sounded particularly sinister and frightening in this desolate ravine.

Chen Ziqi saw that Yühu was afraid and took the initiative to take hold of her hand. “Have you read the book called ‘Tales of an Amazing Warrior’?” he asked.

“Yes,” Yühu said, her eyes lighting up as she nodded vehemently. “Tales of an Amazing Warrior” was a book that told of the legends in the martial arts world. The storytellers in restaurants and teahouses often based their stories on it. Actual practitioners of martial arts all sniffed at this book – they took the view that the legends were a load of fanciful rubbish without an ounce of truth in them. The Suxin Sect was very strict with its disciples and did not allow them to read trashy books like these, so Yühu had secretly read it when she went down the mountain to run errands for the sect. 

“Amazing Warrior Zhou once got thrown off a cliff when he was duelling with someone. He somehow managed to survive, and he found a cave when he was exploring the area,” Chen Ziqi said, bobbing his head up and down as he summarised the story.

“Yes, that’s right! There were strange treasures and lost manuals in that cave!” Yühu said excitedly. It was very rare for her to meet someone whom she could talk about this book with, and she forgot her fright in her excitement.

Before they knew it, they had walked over to another side of the cliff. That strange howling sound now could only be heard on and off. Chen Ziqi’s eyes followed the direction of the sound, and saw that there was a huge opening the cliff face about ten feet from the ground. About the opening, there were clear signs that the place had been civilised by man before, but that it had fallen into disrepair a long time ago. Cut greystone blocks that had a thick layer of moss growing on them were scattered messily all about.

“Ohohuhuuu~” A gust of wind blew past and made the same spine-chilling sound they’d heard earlier. 

A black-clad man immediately leapt lightly up and touched the rockface. He knocked on it with a hand, and the rockface immediately produced a ringing sound like a clap of thunder.

“It’s phonolite,” the black-clad man said with a serious face.

“Phew, so it was just phonolite,” Yühu said, patting her chest in relief. Phonolite was a type of rock that produced a ringing sound when struck. It was sometimes found on secluded cliff faces. This phonolite was right next to a hollow opening and would definitely produce a loud sound when the wind blew past.

Chen Ziqi didn’t say a word as he looked at the strange cave in the mountain. A ravine that was supposed to have no exit now had a man-made opening in the cliff-face – this was very much like the story in that legend. 

They all climbed up to the cave entrance and found that it was a very shallow cave – they could see the back of the cave right from the entrance. It wasn’t even ten feet in depth. Even a bear wouldn’t bother living in such a shallow cave – there certainly wouldn’t be any treasures, lost manuals or white-haired elders passing on their secret gongfu in here.

Which idiot would bother wasting his time chiselling out such a shallow cave? Dan Yi tilted his head, then gave a derisive little chirp.

“Perhaps a sect elder wanted to carve an image of Buddha here in the past…” Yühu said rather awkwardly.

They looked at the smooth back of the cave, and could see in their mind’s eye a devout old nun chiselling away at the mountain wall with a stone hammer, reciting a line from a Buddhist sutra with each stroke. After years of chiselling, she discovered that she had no talent for stone carving, and all she could do was make this gigantic hole in the rock. She howled vulgar curses upon realising this, then tossed down her chisel in anger, deciding that it was better to just go back and chant her sutras in peace. 

The corners of Chen Ziqi’s mouth twitched. He felt that things weren’t that simple. If an old nun had really come here to chisel at the cliff face back then, how had she come down, and how had she gone back up? He raised a hand and brushed against the mossy green phonolite rock. The part at the bottom felt rather strange – there were fairly regular depressions in the rock that didn’t seem natural. Chen Ziqi used more force to brush away the moss, and found that there were ancient-looking characters carved into the rock that read “凝心”.

These two words were written in a vigorous, powerful manner. Every stroke seemed to have the strength of profound Buddhist teachings behind it.

This calligraphy… Dan Yi jumped up and looked at it carefully, scratching at it with his claws. This ancient style of calligraphy probably dated back around a thousand years or so, and this place…

“Did you notice something?” Chen Ziqi asked. He pressed down on the stone with one hand and cupped the little bird in his other hand. Suddenly, the rock was depressed downward. 

With a loud grinding sound, what appeared to be a smooth rock wall started moving. That dead end suddenly turned into a cave entrance, and the path it opened to sloped downwards gently.