While being cornered a sudden thought entered Zhang’s mind. The black fire that practically allowed him to escape hell. Although he did not have his pendant anymore, Zhang would still be able to barely conjure a bit of black fire. But since he was no longer in the underworld, Zhang could not summon thousands of black flames anymore.
“Well fuck….” Zhang cursed. The flame was tiny and looked like it could go out any second.
As the wall began to flicker and fade away, Zhang decided to take a gamble. He ran back towards Yuying and Ai and put an arm around each of their waists and hopped off the ledge of the cliff. The three of them fell into the darkness.
There was a large underground lake at the bottom of the cliff. The water in the lake was crystal clear and many fish could be seen swimming below.
The particular shore they swam to was sort of cut off and was only a small piece of land sticking out the side of a wall. One end of it was higher than the other and was unreachable from the water. This made for an ideal resting place because there was only one way up or down making it easy to guard.
Then he walked knee deep into the water and did something miraculous. Zhang was able to catch fish with his bare hands. While in the Underworld, Xin Tao had taught him how to clear his mind and heighten his senses which he was making full use of it right now.
All three of them were extremely hungry due to exploring the caves all day and then being chased by demonic beasts. So the fish quickly disappeared and Zhang had to go catch more.
“Ah that was pretty good.” Yuying said.
It was decided that the girls would sleep first and Zhang would keep watch for a while to see if any danger was present. After a few hours Zhang began to doze off and eventually fell asleep also.
So he decided to try meditating and try the idea that he had came up with earlier. He sat cross-legged with the Underworld Heart placed in front of him. Zhang closed his eyes and sent a bit of energy into the Underworld Heart and it floated up in the air.
Normally, this could not be done but thanks to the Underworld Heart's ability to control essence he was able to accomplish it.
Some consumed plants that possessed high concentrations of essence in the form of pills. Some people even absorbed the soul of others. Being a soul of a person or animal, it would be much easier to absorb into one’s body. This was due to the essence having been originally from a person or animal.
He sat there as the Underworld Heart absorbed the essence in the air around it and sent strands of green energy to him. After an hour, he felt that his cultivation had increased one level.
Zhang continued to mediate for another two hours however he did not breakthrough again. What he didn’t know was the Underworld Heart made the essence, in the area around Zhang, too sparse. This was due to it having absorbed a large portion of the essence in the area earlier and it would take some time for essence to once more fill the air again.
As she told the stories she had come to realized that Ai was lacking a lot of common sense and had little knowledge of everyday things. But this might have had been due to memory loss as well
The tunnel began to broaden as they walked into it and eventually opened up into a large room. The first thing that caught Zhang’s attention were many shiny things scattered all over the ground. Upon closer inspection these were gold coins.
Perhaps they were coins from some long forgotten kingdom that had long been forgotten in history. Nonetheless these coins were still made of gold and could prove to be useful later on after leaving this place. So Zhang and the girls collected them and put them into an old rag Zhang had found laying around.
Soon, they entered another opening. This one had a lot of coins also but alongside the coins were many skeletons.
The flag had a skull and crossbones on it. Clearly it was a pirate flag and from the clothing of the skeletons.
Some of the skeletons had swords sticking out of them. The pirates he most likely fought amongst themselves for the treasure and ended up all perishing.
They decided not to disturb the skeletons anymore, beside from plundering the gold coins and swords they could have salvaged some of the clothing on the skeletons but decided against it.
He plucked the piece of paper out of the sack and unrolled it. Turned out this piece of paper was an unfinished map of the cave system. Although it was unfinished, it showed a way out from the place where they currently were to the outside world.
The map even had the territory of various demonic beasts that lived in the caves marked and labelled. Besides the One Eyed Hellhound there were 3 other groups that called these caves home. There were Gigantic Iron Furred Rats. Which had fur as tough as iron and lived in huge groups. Then there were Silverback Bears, that grew to be twice the size of a regular bear and had thick silver fur that covered its entire body. Lastly there were the Acid Spitters that were giant roaches that spit acid.
The map had a chamber label that intrigued Zhang. It was a chamber filled with many types of crystals. Some of these crystals were made up of naturally condensed essence. The crystals would take centuries to naturally form and looked extremely beautiful. Taking so long to form also meant that they were very rare and valuable.
When the trio entered the chamber of crystals, they stared in awe. The crystals naturally emitted light which would reflect off another crystal and then back and forth until a beautiful scene was displayed in front of them.
“Not as beautiful as you two.” Zhang thought to himself.
He decided use a few large chunks and then do the same for the girls, while saving the smaller pieces to use as gifts or for trade later on. He had channeled the essence in the air to them earlier and the outcome had been just like his. So if the crystals worked for him, it would also work for the two girls.
Having built up this the crystal Zhang’s cultivation had once more increased and was now at the 3rd level. And soon, Yuying and Ai were also both at the 3rd level. They would only be able to advance so quickly for a certain period of time. After this period of time, their bodies could not retain as much essence as they could now. So they would not be able to increase their cultivation as quickly as this using this method and as their levels got higher it would require them more essence.
They did not know what was outside and staying inside the caves would be safer since they knew what areas to avoid.
Being at level three meant that Zhang did not have to rely on the Underworld Heart as much as before. As he channeled the essence within his body, Zhang lifted some stones and used them to partially cover the entrance of the chamber that they were going to sleep in.
He was wondering how long had it been in the world of the living since was sent in the Underworld. There was no way of knowing for sure how much time had passed. Although the time in the Underworld flowed roughly ten times slower than in the world of the living he could not be sure.
Many things filled and occupied his thoughts, however, the sight of the two girls sleeping peacefully without a care in the world had helped him calm his mind. Other things could wait but the priority now was for him and these two to safely return to human civilization.
After sleeping for around 6 hours Zhang woke up to see that Yuying and Ai were intently staring at him. They had woken up early but did not wish to disturb him so they sat down and waited for him to wake up.
After a mere two hours of hiking, the exit was in sight. The entrance to the cave was hidden behind a waterfall. No one would have been able to realize that there was a massive cave behind the waterfall if they did not come directly in front of it.
In all four directions some further than the others were all bodies of water.
“Let’s go toward the water.” Zhang suggested.
So the priorities were making a shelter, finding a food source, and building a sturdy raft that was seaworthy.
The western side of the island opened up into a beautiful beach. There was an entire beach made up of sea glass. The sea glass ranged from many colors such as red, white, blue, green, and even purple. It was truly a sight to behold.
“Brother come join us.” Yuying yelled as she splashed water on Ai.
Seeing the girls having so much fun Zhang decided to join in and the three had the time of their lives.After a few hours of merrymaking it was time to get to business.
Zhang skillfully used the rusty sword to chop down huge leaves, vines, branches and some long bamboo. Then he found some fallen over trees and gathered all the materials on the edge of the jungle and the beach.
Zhang used the sword to dig four deep holes. Then he stuck four mid sized logs he had found into them, these logs would be used as the pillars of the shelter. He then used the sword to make four notches on the sides of the logs and then crisscrossed the bamboo into the notches.
Then he would get started to build the raft they would use.
He was able to pry two huge oysters off a reef under the water. And catch a small shark (yes a shark). That night the three castaways held a small feast. The two oysters each had a large pearl inside of them, to which Yuying and Ai claimed.
After the feast, the three laid on the beach and stared into the starry night.
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