Jiang Zhiyu and White Cat followed the sound and searched.
Not far ahead on the rock wall, a crevice sliced diagonally into the mountain, so narrow that it could only accommodate a person entering sideways.
White Cat raised a paw and formed a hand seal. The invisibility spell flowed like moonlight, condensing into two specks of faint light that sank into the space between their eyebrows respectively.
"Follow your master!" White Cat said, taking the lead and jumping in through the hole.
The invisibility spell had a time limit. It would wear off in the time it took for a stick of incense to burn, so they had to hurry.
"Be careful, Master." Jiang Zhiyu groped the rock wall and went down. "Can you still endure the pain in your front paw? How about you get on my shoulder?"
"..." White Cat kept a straight face. "Brat, the invisibility spell makes it so even our own people can't see us. Where do you want me to land?"
"That's true." Jiang Zhiyu laughed awkwardly and rubbed his nose.
This spell was indeed very fair.
It deceived the enemy, but it also deceived teammates.
They could only perceive each other by sound and touch.
"Go right," White Cat's voice came from diagonally ahead.
Jiang Zhiyu moved in response: "Okay."
When White Cat heard this, why were the footsteps getting further and further away from him?
He hurriedly turned back to chase after him, and relying on his hearing, he accurately slapped Jiang Zhiyu's calf with a paw: "Your master said right! Where are you going?"
Jiang Zhiyu gasped in pain and looked aggrieved: "Master, can we use east, south, west, and north next time? I can't see, how am I supposed to know if you mean your right or my right?"
Before he finished speaking, there were several more fierce whip cracks. This time, it was obviously not striking the rock wall, but flesh.
"Old geezer! You can't even carry a few pieces of Red Fire Sand steadily. I'll whip you to death!"
This time, there was no need to distinguish left or right.
The two of them swept toward the direction of the sound at the same time.
The mine tunnels spread out underground like a spider web, as complex as a maze, and dim and hard to distinguish.
When they followed the sound of the whip and whimpering to a fork, they saw a guard raising a whip and beating an old man curled up in the corner.
The old man's hair was white, and his thin body trembled unceasingly as he begged for mercy over and over.
Three pieces of crimson ore were scattered on the ground. Looking closely, flames faintly danced within the core of the stones, as if a burning fire was sealed inside.
Each stone was as big as a ripe winter melon, and the three stones stacked together weighed at least a picul. And the old man's right leg was empty below the knee. Under the loose trouser leg, a few wooden branches were tied together to serve as a prosthetic leg for support.
Such a heavy weight would be strenuous even for an adult man, let alone such an elderly and disabled man.
But the guard didn't have the slightest bit of sympathy. The whip ruthlessly tore the old man's shabby clothes again and again, accompanied by vicious curses.
Jiang Zhiyu clenched his jaw, the knuckles of the hand holding the fan turning white. Just as he was about to rush forward, another guard happened to walk over from the shadows.
He raised his hand to stop the man wielding the whip, his voice low and cold:
"We've almost lost all our manpower recently. Take it easy with the beating. If you kill another one, will this batch of goods still be transported before dark?"
"The master ordered it. The buyer is pressing us hard. Three carts of Red Fire Sand, not a single cart can be missing."
Hearing this, the guard who wielded the whip spat. Although he stopped, he still left a vicious remark:
"If you dare to drop it again today, I'll build you into this rock wall tomorrow, you old geezer!"
Hearing this, Jiang Zhiyu and White Cat inadvertently swept their gazes toward the surrounding rock walls.
Looking closely, it was hair-raising!
Pale human bones were faintly embedded in the crevices of the stones. Some finger bones even maintained a scratching posture, as if they were still struggling before death.
White Cat's heart sank: No wonder he felt entangled by yin energy as soon as he entered the mine tunnel. This was no mineral vein; it was clearly a burial mound built of corpses and bones.
He sighed secretly in his heart and held his breath, looking deep into the mine tunnel. He saw a huge empty space below, where hundreds of ragged laborers were working like ants, using iron pickaxes to dig crimson ore out of the rock layers.
The ore was loaded into baskets and transported out through different mine tunnels along the stone steps carved into the rock wall.
There were so many branch roads, firstly to prevent congestion during transportation, and secondly, probably to facilitate ventilation and dissipate the almost suffocating heat wave underground.
Every worker was sweating profusely, their skin steamed red by the high temperature.
Several huge water vats were placed on the ground. When they were extremely thirsty, they would scoop up a broken gourd and gulp it down, and then pour some water on themselves. The moment the water droplets touched their skin, they actually evaporated into white steam with a sizzle.
What was even more shocking was that almost all of these workers were physically disabled.
There were those missing arms and legs, those with ruined faces, dwarfs and hunchbacks. Even those with lighter injuries had limps, were mute, or had twisted and deformed finger joints.
It was as if someone had deliberately gathered all the abandoned bodies in the world and locked them into this burning hell.
White Cat couldn't bear it in his heart, but he couldn't easily alert the enemy.
So he secretly urged his own spiritual core, focused his mind and gathered his qi, and quietly pointed his right paw upward.
In an instant, the rumbling sound of thunder came from above the surface.
The thunder penetrated the rock layers and echoed deep in the mine tunnel.
The workers were stunned at first, and then surprised and delighted.
Rain!
It was raining!
In this furnace-like underground, what they looked forward to every day was nothing more than a pouring rain, but it was not the rainy season recently.
At this moment, the torrential rain was like a breached heavenly river, roaring and pouring into the earth. The rainwater seeped through the rock crevices and soil, and the stuffy underground suddenly turned from hot to cool, with a hint of dampness rising.
Jiang Zhiyu stood in the shadows, his eye sockets slightly hot.
He couldn't see his master, but he knew where this rain came from.
Reversing celestial phenomena damages the spiritual core.
This meant that the White Cat, who always clamored to "ascend early and become a god," was one step further away from his Heavenly Dao.
His master was always like this. He always complained that slaying demons was troublesome, acting heroically was a burden, and he had had enough of being a cat and itching his teeth when he saw a mouse.
But every time he encountered the suffering of the world, he was always the first to pop out and do this kind of thing that depleted his own spiritual core.
*
Chai Xiaomi and Ouyang Rui had just stepped into Luoxingyuan when they were drenched like two drowned rats.
It was simply caught off guard.
Who could have thought that one moment it was a clear sky, and the next they would fall into a pouring rain.
"Ahhhh—what the hell!"
Chai Xiaomi covered her head with her hands and hurriedly rushed into the nearest recess in the rock wall. That shallow pit could barely be considered a cave. Her back pressed tightly against the rock wall to shelter from the rain, and she awkwardly wiped the water from her face.
Looking down, her heart went half cold.
After her newly bought light green sheer brocade skirt was soaked, it became a bit transparent and clung tightly to her body, revealing all her curves.
She could already imagine what her hair bun looked like.
Wuwuwu, her new makeup and outfit!
She heard that looking up at the sky at a 45-degree angle would stop tears from falling.
But when she looked up, Ouyang Rui was running toward her, and she hurriedly crossed her arms to protect her chest.
Ouyang Rui dodged into the recess in the rock wall. He had just wiped his face when he looked up and bumped into her soaked appearance, and he froze on the spot.
The light green gauze dress clung tightly to her skin after being soaked, and the water marks outlined her slender shoulder lines. The water droplets dripping from the tips of her hair were sliding down her collarbone into her collar...
"Hey! Where are you looking? Keep looking, and believe it or not, I'll poke your eyes out!"
Chai Xiaomi's exasperated scolding brought him back to his senses abruptly.
"I-I'm so sorry!" He hastily stripped off his outer robe, wrung the rainwater out of it with all his might, and practically shoved it into her hands. "P-put this on first! My clothes are dark, they're not see-through."
He felt his heart pounding almost as loud as the deafening thunder outside.
"Thanks." Chai Xiaomi grabbed the robe and quickly wrapped it tightly around herself. Given the awkward situation, she couldn't afford to be modest. Putting it on was far better than standing there frozen, soaked to the bone with every curve exposed.
She tied the sash securely and looked down to wring the water from the ends of her hair, muttering, "Why is it even raining in this godforsaken place?"
"The weather in the Falling Star Plateau is synchronized with the outside world," Ouyang Rui said, turning sideways to watch the curtain of rain beyond the cave entrance. "Except for the full moon overhead that never sets, the wind, thunder, rain, and snow all occur at the exact same time as they do outside."
"Then where exactly are we?" Chai Xiaomi pulled the oversized robe closer around her and looked around. The wilderness was nothing but barren, rocky mountains and jagged cliffs devoid of a single blade of grass, looking much like a desolate mining vein. "How did we end up falling into a place like this?"
"Upon entering the Falling Star Plateau, your consciousness leads you to the place buried deepest within your memories."
Ouyang Rui's eyes darkened, and he fell silent for a moment.
"This place... looks just like the nightmare that haunts me every single night."
