The Eerie Rift Valley (Part Two)

(Sorry for the little rant earlier, everyone. Sixue knows so many of you are still here with her, and she thanks you all! Please recommend and bookmark the story while you're at it, hehe!)

The mountain forest here was extraordinarily dense. Vines linked one strange Abyss Tree to another, tangling them into a thick mass. In the tiny gaps between them, countless flowers vied for splendor.

Er Dongsheng could not quite understand how those flowers spread their pollen. He had not seen any peculiar insects pollinating them.

But that was none of his concern. He rounded a mountain ridge, and a pitch-black rift valley appeared before him.

He peered inside. The rift was unfathomably deep, and at its center, two branching chasms split it in two. One seemed to lead down into the endless earth; the other slanted into the mountain to the west, forming a vast cave. Boundless darkness poured from it, with no end in sight.

Water rushed and splashed. Streams of unknown origin and destination seeped from the rift's rocky walls, joining into great waterfalls that flowed toward one side of the valley. There, they formed a bottomless lake within the chasm.

Er Dongsheng's destination was the cave on the rift's southern side. Wind Demon had explored it once and jokingly called it the Snake Den. Endless swarms of snakes lived inside, vast in number and size. Venomous and harmless, colorful and colorless—every variety was there, enough to make the eyes swim.

Had Er Dongsheng come for those snakes?

No. He had not.

Wind Demon had once mentioned in passing that a peculiar tree grew inside the Snake Den. It gave off a faint fragrance that calmed anyone who smelled it. Curious, Wind Demon had picked some and brought it back, only to throw it away