NOVEL NEXT Chapter 96
Secret Cave 2
“Long, lead us in the direction where the bats are flying up ahead.”
“Yes, Father.”
Hearing that a swarm of bats had taken flight, my adoptive father immediately ordered me to guide the team at the front.
Of course, with the jungle being what it was, we needed someone to clear the path ahead, so he attached warriors from the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace to assist.
“Some of the Wolf Deputy Commanders, head out and clear a path in the direction Wei So-ryong is going.”
“Yes, Commandant!”
“This way!”
“Understood, Lord So-ryong. Let’s go!”
“Yes!”
Following my adoptive father’s command, I stepped forward to guide our party as the warriors from the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace charged ahead with their large swords, beginning to cut through the jungle’s dense vegetation.
–Swish! Swish!
As the tall jungle plants and vines were sliced away, the path opened up, quickly followed by Mandok God, my grandfather, and the warriors from the Tang Clan.
“We’ll follow Wei So-ryong!”
“Yes, Patriarch!”
And so, I led everyone up along the northern ridge of Namna Mountain in the direction where the bats had flown up earlier.
Occasionally ascending with Chao to confirm our direction from above.
“There’s a cliff ahead, let’s go around to the right.”
“Yes, Lord So-ryong!”
“Long, Father said it’s getting dark, but he decided we’ll rest once we reach the cave entrance, so hurry.”
“Understood, Older Sister Seol.”
As I directed from the front, with the sun setting, Older Sister Seol conveyed my adoptive father’s decision that we should reach our destination and set up camp.
Using the cave was definitely preferable to getting drenched by the night dew.
Responding to Older Sister Seol, I urged the warriors ahead.
“We’ll move a bit quicker.”
“Yes! Lord So-ryong!”
–Swish! Swish!
The warriors swung their arms faster than before, and the thick jungle quickly began to part.
We moved forward for quite some time.
We should have surely reached our destination by now, but we couldn’t find the cave my adoptive father anticipated.
The sun had already set, making it impossible to search for people.
“It should be around here, though?”
–Rustle!
Chao, following beside me, confirmed that this area was indeed correct, yet the cave remained elusive.
Ascending into the sky once more, I activated the Cat’s Night Stealth technique to scout, but I couldn’t pinpoint the exact location due to the difference between viewing from afar and arriving directly.
“It should be around here, but it’s getting dark, so I can’t confirm.”
As I voiced my frustration to Hua Eun and Older Sister Seol, who were following behind, Older Sister Seol nodded knowingly and commanded the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace warriors.
“I’ll search from here. Release the Wolf Deputy Commanders!”
“Yes, Elder!”
At her command, a few wolves brought by the Southern Barbarian warriors scattered into the surroundings, and shortly after, the howls of a wolf began to echo from one side of the jungle.
–Awrooo!
“It seems to be that way!”
The wolf’s howl signaled they had discovered something.
Adjusting our direction towards the source of the howl, we continued on.
Breaking through the jungle, we soon found ourselves in front of the cave that Father had described, with wolves howling at the dark sky.
“Long, I think this is the place!”
“Hmm… It feels like it, but it will be tough to use this cave.”
I suspected it to be a cave because the large entrance was completely blocked by a pile of rocks and stones that had tumbled down.
The entranced was entirely shut off by collapsed rocks, with climbing vines adding to the barrier.
Older Sister Seol used her Lightness Skill to check above the fallen rocks but reported that while there was a space for bats to enter, it seemed too cramped for a person to crawl through.
“There is some space, but it would be hard for a person to squeeze in.”
Then, my adoptive father, after a moment’s thought, decided it was best to camp here.
“Since night has fallen, we’ll set up camp here.”
“Understood!”
Well, this wasn’t decisively the base of the Five Poisons Sect, and it was better to search in the daylight.
Even if I did activate the Cat’s Night Stealth technique, it wouldn’t provide daylight brightness, and it wouldn’t hurt to have the Tang Clan’s support either.
We decided to investigate more thoroughly when the day broke, quickly preparing a resting spot by the cave entrance.
The resting spot consisted mainly of cutting grass to make a bed and lighting a fire.
After starting a small fire and having a simple meal, I settled down to sleep, leaving the lookout to the animals we had brought from the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
‘Brr, it’s cold.’
I woke up shivering from the cold.
As I groggily noticed, my clothes were damp.
A dew had begun to fall with the dawn, giving me a wet feeling.
“Ugh… Even though it’s a warm place, the dawn is chilly.”
As I sat up, I noticed that Older Sister Seol, who had been sleeping beside me, had pulled my banana leaves over herself, likely because she was cold.
Dew had also gathered on the back of Chao, who was cuddled close.
I quickly covered Older Sister Seol and Hua Eun with the banana leaves to protect them from the dew and surveyed my surroundings.
Then my eyes fell on my grandfather and adoptive father, who were sitting by the fire, grilling partially dried meat.
Since they were both experts, they must have woken up earlier than others, needing only two to three hours of sleep.
“Have you woken, So-ryong? If it’s cold, come over here and warm yourself by the fire. It seems the dewdrops are heavy in the northern mountains.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
As I approached the warm fire at his invitation, my adoptive father offered me a skewer of grilled meat.
“Here, eat this to warm up.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way, we need to give you a beast too. Being part of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, it’s strange for you to have no beasts at all.”
What my adoptive father meant was that everyone from the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had at least one animal to curl up with for warmth while sleeping.
I had been cuddling with Chao, but she seemed a bit cold.
After hearing this, my grandfather smiled and spoke.
“You could just sleep hugging Hua Eun, but why is this boy so cautious? Though the wedding will come later, if you have a child beforehand, it wouldn’t be too much trouble… No, that’s right, the Tang Clan is in short supply at the moment, so it’s a good thing; you’d be praised for it.”
“Cough… cough…”
As I dramatically expelled the greasy meat that had slid down my throat, Chao crawled over to my side.
As her head rested on my knee, the adults smiled.
“Oh, those are all females, right? So, So-ryong, is that your thing?”
“Well, considering those little creatures, it seems unlikely to have a beast.”
Those little beasts could be unpredictable, making it hard to tell how they’d behave.
–Rustle… Rustle…
Suddenly, the adults made an awkward comment connecting my first daughter and me.
I waved my hands, wondering what that even meant.
“What? What does that mean? Chao and I, we’re like, uh, parent and child…”
–Thud! Thud. Thud thud thud…
It was as if a stone fell from the cliff above, and the sound of rocks tumbling down echoed through the still morning air, drawing everyone’s attention towards it.
In the brightening dawn, we all stared at the rock pile above.
And at that moment,
Mandok God, who had been gazing over the cliff, suddenly shouted in surprise.
“Hmm? What’s that!?”
He dashed towards the portion where Older Sister Seol had previously confirmed the collapsed rocks.
“What’s wrong?”
“What is it?”
While my adoptive father and I exchanged worried looks about the suddenness of Mandok God’s actions, a voice called from above the pile of rocks.
“Southern Barbarian Lord, you ought to come see this.”
My grandfather seemed to have found something, and following my adoptive father, I leaped up towards the rocks, landing beside him where he gestured towards the crack at the entrance of the fallen cave.
He placed his hand on a certain point of the rocky surface, then pulled back his hand to speak.
“Look here, Southern Barbarian Lord.”
“What is this!?”
“Handprint!?”
In the dim morning light, where my grandfather had pulled his hand away, a palm-shaped print became clear against the rocky wall of the cave.
Marked in bright red, it looked like a human handprint etched into the rock.
And as he brushed aside the vines hanging down from above, clear letters emerged, even after a hundred years.
“Here, we forever seal the Five Poisons Sect.”
This inscription was undoubtedly left by the ancestors of the Tang Clan or the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
Looking at the unveiled words, my adoptive father and I couldn’t help but be amazed.
“Oooh!”
“This must be the place!?”
It certainly felt like we’d found the last stronghold of the Five Poisons Sect.
“Indeed. This seems to be it. This mark must be the work of the original family’s Red Bellied Palm… The ancestors must have cultivated it to this level…”
“Wow, what an impressive technique.”
A technique that had created a crack in the rock wall to block the cave entrance.
While I had thought the Tang Clan merely had the arrogant martial arts of toxins and poisons, this was unexpectedly impressive.
‘Maybe a hundred years ago, they were quite a decent family?’
As I mused over that notion, the conversation between the two continued.
“For now, let’s rest, and come daylight, we’ll investigate if there’s a way inside. If not, we may have to shift the stones at the entrance.”
“Sounds about right.”
Although it seemed we had indeed come to the right place, I was concerned that the warriors would have a tough time due to the boulders blocking the entrance as I prepared to leap down from the pile of rocks.
–Kreeee!
At that moment, a strange noise rang out from above.
It sounded like some auditory feedback from audio equipment, and hearing it, my adoptive father shouted in a hurry.
“Oh no! The bats are coming back!”
The source of this strange sound belonged to a swarm of bats returning home.
As dawn broke, the bats that had gone out hunting the night before began to fly back.
Turning my head, I saw the brightening sky, filled with dark clouds of bats soaring back in a mass.
“Step back!”
Recalling that the entrance Older Sister Seol had noted was directly in front of us, we quickly leapt down as instructed by my adoptive father.
I felt we might get surrounded by the returning swarm of bats.
Well, bats weren’t particularly dangerous, but having them fly in swarms right in front of me would definitely be bothersome.
Since I wasn’t a fan of bats either, I followed my father’s orders.
‘Snakes and lizards are cute, but bats are an entirely different story with their wings and fur.’
However, to our surprise, the thick swarm of bats flew past us and headed up toward the cliff above.
Seeing this, my adoptive father shouted to me.
“Long! It looks like there may be another entrance. Take that girl and climb to the top of the cliff to check it out!”
That girl he meant must be Chao.
I hurriedly called out to her.
“Alright! Chao! Let’s go!”
–Zoom!
At my call, Chao quickly wrapped around me.
As we both rose into the air amidst the tides of bats, the massive wave of bats split around us and sailed past on either side.
And as I gazed up at the dark tide of bats parting in the sky, I heard Chao’s voice ringing out.
“What? Did you discover something?”
Following her shout, I turned to see the bats that had split reforming into a large hole above the cave, where they were being drawn inside.
It seemed that after a hundred years, the entrance of the old Five Poisons Sect had been opened to another direction.