Immortal

Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates

Chapter 7: Trapped

Zhong Shan was badly hurt; only his arms could move slightly.

He took out a Blood Puti. If it could also work as a healing medicine like Tianling-er had said, then it should help speed up the healing process for him.

With great difficulty, he managed to swallow the Blood Puti.

Once it entered his body, it transformed into a tremendous amount of heat energy and flowed throughout his body. He was at the fourth level of Xiantian now, thus, he was able to withstand the energy from the Blood Puti. The heat energy now didn’t feel so violent as before, rather it felt like the energy was continuously mending his body.

It took merely two hours for him to feel better. His depressed chest also had completed raised back up. Tianling-er was sound asleep on his chest.

Zhong Shan quietly sat up and pulled her up. She wasn’t fully clothed with her undergarment torn open.

Zhong Shan shook his head and tried to tidy her clothes so she wouldn’t be embarra.s.sed when she woke up.

While he was doing so, it was unavoidable to touch her skin and even a old man like Zhong Shan couldn’t help but blush.

Finally, in a short while, he had tidied her clothes and then had the chance to look at himself.

His clothes had been torn by Tianling-er almost into pieces.

Shaking his head, Zhong Shan set Tianling-er against a large rock.

He got up slowly and tore off his clothes to throw them into the pool of lava. Now naked, he took out another set of clothes from the storage bracelet and began to dress himself.

Tianling-er woke up in a daze when Zhong Shan set her down against the rock.  She felt like she had been dreaming, a somewhat embarra.s.sing dream.  She dreamt that she had taken off both her and Zhong Shan’s clothes.

Tianling-er woke up with a bright red face. How could I have such a dream? What had happened? Suddenly, Tianling-er thought about something.

She thought about earlier when Zhong Shan had been injured when he had impacted into the wall and she had rushed over to help. Yet, it seemed that she didn’t try to save him, rather she tried to peel off his clothes.  She was stupefied.

It couldn’t be possible. How could I do something like that? It must be a dream, for sure, it was just a dream.

Tianling-er kept telling herself.

While she was a.s.suring herself, she heard a strange sound.

It was the sound of clothing being torn apart.

The sound made Tianling-er open her eyes and curiously looked towards the direction of the sound.

She happened to see Zhong Shan, with his back to her and naked, throwing his clothes into the lava.

Tianling-er froze in astonishment by the scene. She almost screamed, but she quickly closed her eyes tightly again.

“I didn’t see anything. I didn’t see anything. Nothing at all.”  Tinaling-er kept convincing herself in her head.

But soon she heard the sound of Zhong Shan dressing himself and without knowing why, peeked open her eyes to look at Zhong Shan’s body not too far away.

“Zhong Shan’s body looks pretty good!” Tianling-er instinctively commented in her head.

After she realized what she was thinking, her face burned red once more. She hurried to close her eyes. How could she do that? She shouldn’t watch; Tianling-er tightly shut her eyes.

Zhong Shan finished dressing in no time. He turned around and saw Tianling-er’s tightly shut eyes. Zhong Shan thought only an idiot would think she was still sleeping since her eyes were all wrinkled from her efforts to close them tightly.

“When did you wake up?” Zhong Shan asked.

“I didn’t seen anything. Nothing.” Tianling-er immediately answered.

Looking at Tianling-er, Zhong Shan didn’t know what to say and simply shook his head.

“Alright, I got it. You didn’t see anything.”

Tialing-er slowly opened her eyes and saw Zhong Shan’s smile. She quickly said, “I didn’t see anything.”

“En. I haven’t fully recovered yet. I’ll do some breathing exercises now. You go change.” Zhong Shan said.

Zhong Shan found a corner and sat down cross-legged after he finished talking.

Tinaling-er just discovered that her clothes were in tatters.

“Ah, what happened?” Tianling-er asked in shock.

“They were torn when we were fighting earlier.” Zhong Shan closed his eyes after explaining.

Zhong Shan certainly wouldn’t explain that she was the one who had torn apart her own clothes.

Tianling-er didn’t bother to look for that old man. She quickly found another corner where Zhong Shan couldn’t see and took out a set of clothes to change.

Zhong Shan woke up in an hour, though his body was still in some pain, he was feeling much better. When he opened his eyes, he saw a very anxious Tianling-er

“What’s wrong?” Zhong Shan got up and asked.

“Zhong Shan, what had happened while I pa.s.sed out? Where is that old man? And, we have no way out now. This cave is totally sealed off. What are we going to do?” Tianling-er spoke worriedly.

“That old man? He fell into the lava and died.” Zhong Shan told her. What a way to go. Even now Zhong Shan still felt for him.

He fell into the lava? Tianling-er instantly looked over at the lava pool.

Zhong Shan also looked over and something in the lava that caught his eyes. What was that?

The old man, even with his high level of cultivation, melted into the lava without any trace.

Yet now, there floated a piece of paper on top of the lava.

A piece of paper? What sort of paper couldn’t be destroyed even by lava?

Tianling-er, with a wave of her hand, the paper flew into the air together with a lump of lava onto the bank.

It fell next to Zhong Shan’s feet with a splash of lava.

Zhong Shan didn’t touch the paper until the lava had cooled enough to harden.  He then picked it up with care and Tianling-er came over to look at it too. There were some small characters written on this paper which was made of some unusual material.

Fourth Level Pellet Formula: Kuang Hua[1] Pellet.

These were the words on the top of the paper, followed by a list of various medicinal herbs and methods of preparation.

“Fourth level pellet?” Tianling-er cried out in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Zhong Shan frowned.

“What kind of paper is this? It can even survive lava. A fourth level pellet, though rare, can’t be recorded on this kind of paper. I think the value of this paper is much more valuable than the formula. What a waste.” Tianling-er kept expressing her opinions.

Zhong Shan thought it amusing to see Tianling-er’s reaction. He quietly put the paper away.

A fourth level pellet formula recorded on such special paper, maybe it had some unexpected effects.

Tianling-er didn’t say anything as Zhong Shan stowed the formula away. She spat towards the lava to show her disdain towards the old man.

“Zhong Shan, how are we going to get out of here? It caved in and we can’t get out.” Tianling-er became anxious again.

Zhong Shan checked the surrounding area. It was true that the cave had collapsed, it was impossible to simply walk out now. They were over a thousand meters below the ground. Zhong Shan was speechless.

Obviously, there was no way they could go back the way they had entered.

What to do? Zhong Shan looked around and saw no other opening except the pa.s.sage right above the lava pool which led to the volcanic crater.

Zhong Shan looked up.

It was a pa.s.sage of at least three thousand meters going upward. Additionally, the wall was very smooth and hard. How could he get up there?

This was the only pa.s.sageway left.

“Ling-er, where is your red silk? Can it still carry you?” Zhong Shan asked.

“The red silk is broken. It would take at least two months to repair it. And it can only take me after the two months. But, can we last for two months?” Tianling-er answered worriedly.

Zhong Shan quickly checked their store of food and water. He came to the conclusion that they could last for one month at best.

What to do?

“Has your dad given you anything to use for self preservation?” Zhong Shan asked again.

“There are some powerful item, like the Jade Rune that day. But, there’s nothing that we can fly on. What do we do? Zhong Shan, are we going to die here?” Tianling-er anxiously asked.

“Let me think. Let me think.” Zhong Shan pondered with knitted eyebrows. What to do?

Flight? Maybe a hot air balloon will do? Yet, though it was extremely hot in here and hot air goes up, he had no time to create a balloon now, it also didn’t help that he had no idea how to build a balloon. Besides, the air inside was getting thinner; even with a hot air balloon, it wouldn’t be able to fly high enough.

Heat? Thinning air?

Suddenly, a bold idea came into his head and his eyes brightened up.

“Zhong Shan, you have a way out?” Tianling-er’s faith in Zhong Shan was almost unshakable now.  When she saw the change on his face, she immediately became excited.

“Wait, let me think some more.” Zhong Shan excitedly reviewed the plan over and over in his head.

“En.” Tianling-er nodded and patiently watched Zhong Shan.

Finally, Zhong Shan had thought it through back and forth. He was sure that the plan would work and exhaled a long breath.

“What about it?” Tianling-er kept asking.

“I’m not completely healed yet. I’ll take you out of here tomorrow.” Zhong Shan smiled and kept his plan a secret.

Footnotes