"Watch out, Senior Sister!"
On the sheer, thousand-foot cliff, Zhao Ling'er pushed off lightly and leaped from a slightly protruding rock.
Hugging the cliff face, she crossed thirty feet and landed steadily on another protruding rock.
The rock was tiny, with barely enough room for one foot.
Shing...
A clear ring sounded as a sword left its sheath.
As Zhao Ling'er landed, she drew her sword and drove it into the rock face beside her.
That extra safeguard would keep her from falling.
Behind her, Tian Xiaoqing, Xu Kunlun, and He Pingsheng leaped across one after another, following the route she had just taken.
For all his bulk, Xu Kunlun moved with remarkable agility.
"Senior Sister, can you see it?" Xu Kunlun shouted.
Up ahead, Zhao Ling'er turned her head. "I can... it's about another five hundred feet ahead. I just need to find a few more footholds to get there... there's a crack in the mountainside!"
"The whole colony is in that crack!"
As she spoke, Zhao Ling'er pushed off lightly again, soaring up before landing on a protruding rock a hundred feet away.
When she jumped, the others followed one after another.
After seven or eight such leaps, all four reached the crack in the mountainside.
The foothold here was large enough to accommodate all four of them.
They peered through the crack, but it was pitch-black inside. They could see nothing.
Bzz...
Bzzzz...
From time to time, enormous golden bees flew in from afar and entered the crack.
Others flew out of it.
A few came toward Zhao Ling'er and the others, only to be decisively cut down by her.
"Remember this, all of you!" Zhao Ling'er looked solemn. "Once we enter the Mountain Cave, every one of you must put up your defenses!"
"Tiger-Striped Golden Bees