Entering the Cave

The northern foothills of the Crimson Firmament Mountain Range, thirty li from the sect's gate.

The mountain path grew narrower and narrower, the trees on either side thinning out, replaced by bare, gray-white rocks.

碎石 began to appear on the ground, fine and dark, crunching with every step.

"This is mine tailings," Xu He suddenly spoke, his voice shrill. "They mined here thirty years ago, digging for Iron Ore. Later, the vein ran dry, the mine was abandoned, and everyone left."

He glanced at Li Xuan, as if showing off that he knew more than others.

Li Xuan didn't reply.

Su Ying asked in a low voice, "What's in the cave now?"

"Who knows," Xu He said. "The sect is sending us on a mission to investigate, which means there's something inside."

He paused, his tone sinister. "Hopefully, it's something valuable. If we run into anything unclean, you deal with it yourselves. I'll just handle the poison."

"Shut the hell up," Shi Yong said without looking back.

Xu He snorted and said no more.

After another incense stick's worth of time.

Ying suddenly stopped.

He stood in place, his gaze fixed on a spot ahead. The others followed his gaze—amidst the gray-white mountain rocks, there was a rift, about two zhang high and one zhang wide, its edges neat, clearly man-made.

Not a blade of grass grew in front of the cave entrance. The ground was covered with a thick layer of black mine tailings, soft and yielding underfoot.

Abandoned mine.

We've arrived.

Shi Yong waved his hand, and the group spread out, approaching the cave entrance in a fan shape.

Li Xuan walked on the outermost side, his gaze sweeping over the cave walls. The rock surface was black, with traces of water flow, but it had long since dried up.

Above the cave entrance, the rocks bore old scorch marks, as if someone had burned something here many years ago.

"There's a marking," Ying suddenly spoke.

He pointed to the rock wall to the left of the cave entrance.

A symbol was carved there: a circle, with a vertical line in the middle, the top of the line splitting into branches.

Li Xuan's pupils contracted slightly.

--A Barbarian Witchcraft Rune.

He had seen it in Iron Wall City. When the Barbarian Shamans summoned Wolf Souls, they would carve this symbol on the ground, only larger and more complex.

"What does it mean?" Shi Yong asked.

Ying shook his head. "I don't recognize it."

Li Xuan remained silent.

He simply looked at the symbol for a while longer, trying to memorize every turn.

"Enter the cave," Shi Yong said. "Ying scouts ahead, I'll bring up the rear, Li Xuan on my right, Su Ying and Xu He in the middle, Zhou Wen and Zhou Wu at the back. Don't panic if anything happens, listen to my commands."

He paused and looked at Li Xuan. "How much has your injury healed?"

"I can still fight, you don't need to worry about me."

Shi Yong nodded and asked no more.

Ying was the first to step into the cave.

The others followed one by one.

The cave was deeper than expected.

There was still a faint light at the entrance, but after walking twenty zhang, the light was swallowed by darkness. Shi Yong lit a fire starter, and the flame flickered, casting dancing shadows on the cave walls.

The passage sloped downwards, not steeply, but continuously downward. The mine tailings underfoot gradually thinned, revealing the hard rock layer beneath. Side passages began to appear on both sides of the cave walls, most of them blocked by collapses or leading into bottomless darkness.

Ying walked at the very front, stopping every ten zhang to listen, then continuing.

Li Xuan followed five paces behind him, his gaze sweeping over the rock walls on either side.

There were pickaxe marks. Traces of mine cart tracks, rusted and broken. Discarded pickaxes, scraps of cloth, rotten ropes.

And also—

He stopped.

On the left cave wall, there was a black stain, not the natural color of the rock, but like some liquid splashed and dried.

He reached out and touched it with his fingertip.

It was dry. Rough, with a granular texture.

As he withdrew his hand, a little powder clung to his fingertip.

He brought it close to his nose.

There was no smell.

"Li Xuan?" Shi Yong called from behind.

Li Xuan retracted his hand and caught up.

They walked another thirty zhang.

Ying suddenly raised a hand.

Everyone stopped.

The passage ahead suddenly widened, forming a natural cavern about ten zhang square. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and the ground was uneven with puddles of water.

But none of them were paying attention to these things.

It was the bodies.

Five of them.

They were leaning against the cave wall, in various postures. Their flesh had long since rotted away, leaving only white bones wrapped in tattered cloth. The color of the cloth was too faded to tell, but from the fragments, they looked like the uniforms of sect disciples.

Shi Yong stepped forward and crouched down to examine them.

"They've been dead for a long time," he said, looking up. "At least ten years."

"How did they die?" Su Ying asked softly.

Shi Yong moved a skeleton, but there were no obvious wounds on the bones. He looked at the other corpses; they were the same.

"I can't tell."

Xu He suddenly spoke, "Poisoning."

Everyone looked at him.

He crouched beside a skeleton and pointed to the tiny gray spots on the surface of the bone. "This is Mine Poison. Staying in the mine for a long time, inhaling mine dust, it accumulates to a certain level and then you die."

He paused, his voice chilling. "These people were probably among the first disciples to come down when the miners had their accident. They didn't die in the mine collapse; they died in this cave."

Shi Yong frowned. "Mine Poison?"

"It's a poison that accompanies Iron Ore. It dissolves in water and, when inhaled into the lungs, takes effect in three to five days," Xu He said, standing up and brushing nonexistent dust off his hands. "It's not too painful when you die, you just can't breathe and slowly suffocate."

He looked at everyone, a slight smile on his lips. "So don't stay here too long. An hour or two is fine, but a whole day—you can figure it out for yourselves."

Silence fell in the cave.

Li Xuan's gaze swept over the five skeletons.

Suddenly, he noticed something.

The skeleton furthest inside had its right hand clenched into a fist, pressed beneath it. The posture wasn't one of natural death; it looked like they were desperately protecting something before they died.

He walked forward and crouched down.

The skeleton's fingers had long since stiffened and broke with a slight touch. He pushed aside the broken bones and saw what was pressed underneath—a palm-sized stone shard with carvings on its surface.

He picked it up and brought it closer to the fire starter.

The carvings were shallow and crooked, as if drawn with blood.

"There's something in the mist. Don't—"

The last stroke was long and trailed off, stopping abruptly.

Li Xuan looked at the words and said nothing.

"What is it?" Shi Yong leaned in.

Li Xuan handed him the stone shard.

Shi Yong glanced at it, his expression changing slightly.

He looked at the five skeletons, then at the deep, dark passage ahead.

"...Let's keep going."

The group moved forward again.

But this time, no one spoke.

The sound of their footsteps echoed in the narrow passage, like the footsteps of another person, following them, neither close nor far.