"Drip, drip—"
The crisp sound of water reached his ears, like pearls falling, stirring a string of soft echoes.
When Wu Tianzhen opened his eyes, he only felt an unbearable pain in his chest and abdomen, as if his entire being was hanging onto something extremely hard.
He jolted awake, almost breaking out in a cold sweat from the sight before him—
Below him was a bottomless abyss. The black cliff was like a gaping maw of a deep-sea demon welcoming his arrival, exuding a chilling gloom from every inch.
"Holy crap!" Wu Tianzhen clutched tightly to the only support beneath him, but the smoothness of the object made him pause.
He cautiously looked down and saw that the thing preventing him from falling into the abyss was none other than the Black Gold Ancient Blade!
To be precise, it was the Black Gold Ancient Blade still in its sheath. The tip of the sheath was deeply embedded in the stone wall, indicating the immense force with which it had been thrown.
... Little Brother was afraid the blade would cut him, so he threw it with the sheath.
... But if the Black Gold Ancient Blade was here, where was Little Brother?!
"Little Brother, Little Brother!!!" Wu Tianzhen called out in panic, but only heard eerie echoes from the depths of the cliff, each one like a soul-calling chant.
... If Little Brother were nearby, he would never have left before Wu Tianzhen regained consciousness.
The more Wu Tianzhen thought about it, the more he felt Zhang Qiling had fallen into the abyss. He was consumed by anxiety, momentarily forgetting his own perilous situation.
Just then, he suddenly thought of something strange—
This abyss was silent, and deep underground, there should be no light source no matter how one looked at it. So where was the light that had allowed him to see for so long?!
His jumbled thoughts paused, and Wu Tianzhen finally heard the subtle sounds he had been ignoring.
The sound came from above. He looked up and saw a胖子 (pàngzi - fatty) peering down with a flashlight.
"Holy crap, you finally got the donkey hair out of your ears!" Seeing Wu Tianzhen finally look up, the 胖子 was so excited he almost fell. "Do you know how many times Fatty Ye has been shouting himself hoarse here?"
"You were like you were blinded by some damn thing, not making a sound. Fatty Ye was already planning to perform an exorcism if things looked bad!"
Wu Tianzhen had to admit that seeing the 胖子 in this inexplicable place brought him a slight sense of relief. He watched as the 胖子 lowered a climbing rope, but didn't immediately grab it:
"胖子, did you see Little Brother?" Wu Tianzhen asked urgently. "The Black Gold Ancient Blade, his blade is with me, but he's gone. What's your situation? Did you see him?"
The echoes from the abyss reverberated, jumbling Wu Tianzhen's words into a mess. The 胖子 was silent for a moment, then sighed.
"Tianzhen, come up first, we'll talk when you're up."
This sentence sent Wu Tianzhen's heart plummeting to the bottom. He gritted his teeth and, to avoid worrying the 胖子, grabbed the climbing rope and climbed up.
When he got up, he realized that the place where the 胖子 was was also very cramped, just a protruding stone platform on the cliff, barely enough for the 胖子 to sit.
The 胖子 gestured for Wu Tianzhen to make a simple safety rope secured with climbing rope, similar to the one he was wearing, and then spoke:
"I'm not sure about Little Brother's situation. When we brothers fell together just now, I was still conscious. I only saw a blur of chaos in front of my eyes, and then we were suddenly like falling objects, hurtling towards the bottom of the cliff."
"Little Brother was close to me at the time, so he grabbed me and threw me onto this platform. But perhaps it was an emergency, and the force was a bit too much. I hit my head on the rocks and was knocked unconscious."
"The last thing I saw was Little Brother tapping a few times on the cliff and rushing towards you. It looked like Little Brother used a flying knife to secure you."
"Then, then..." Hearing this, Wu Tianzhen's mind became a chaotic mess, like a ball of yarn maliciously tangled by a cat.
He tried to sort out his thoughts, but it only became more difficult: "Then what about Little Brother? He doesn't have his blade, could he—"
"Don't think too much!" The 胖子 directly interrupted Wu Tianzhen's panic. "Little Brother is so capable, how could he be stuck in this place? He's definitely like before, temporarily unable to rejoin us."
"What we need to do now is not to scare ourselves here, but to quickly pull ourselves together and keep moving forward. Maybe we can still catch up to Little Brother!"
The 胖子's words were like a shot of calm. Wu Tianzhen took a few deep breaths and managed to calm down.
"...Let's keep moving forward, 胖子, do you have a direction?"
"I don't really have a direction..." The 胖子 chuckled twice, looking a bit smug. "But I haven't been doing nothing since I woke up!"
He shifted his body, revealing a very fresh carving on the stone wall behind him. It was a flower carved with a dagger and a pair of carved glasses.
"I don't have a direction, but Grandpa Hua does~"