228: Chapter 223 Abandoned Cave Heaven

Never in his wildest dreams did he expect this situation; it was even more bizarre than he had previously guessed.

“What on earth?” His ultimate move was cut short, leaving Cao Xiao dumbfounded and unable to resist complaining. “A formation space? Another dimension? An alien planet? A teleportation array? The future world? Or perhaps another universe?”

A long string of question marks popped up in his head. After exhausting many brain cells without reaching a plausible conclusion, he felt a bit lost, unsure of how to proceed.

“There are obvious fluctuations of spatial power. That should be a spatial node leading to an unknown location. Beyond it lies an endless expanse of yellow sand with no other landmarks, making it impossible to guess where it is. However, the mystery of the disappearances is essentially solved. That spatial passage appeared suddenly, and a mysterious, evil existence on the other side released a type of negative energy through the node that can affect people's minds. It controls tourists who appear nearby, making them involuntarily fall into the water and move toward the node, eventually vanishing there. No wonder the Detection Function failed to find anything despite so many attempts. That spatial node doesn't even appear in this world unless it's a specific time. I just don't know if those missing tourists are still alive; the evil source controlling people to enter certainly doesn't have good intentions. But thinking about this now is useless. Without knowing the situation on the other side, or when the node will disappear or reappear, the risk of going over rashly is too great. I might get trapped and unable to return. Besides, the methods I prepared aren't enough yet. There's no rush; once I find the pattern of the spatial node's appearance and am properly prepared, it won't be too late to enter. For now, it's better to settle everyone else first.”

After carefully pondering it, Cao Xiao calmed down. He didn't let anger cloud his judgment; when facing the unknown, being extra cautious was only right.

Looking at the pale figures sprawled across the ground, Cao Xiao could only give a bitter laugh and get to work. Niu Zhen and the others were as strong as bulls, weighing nearly a hundred kilograms. Anyone else would have found them impossible to move, but Cao Xiao picked them up easily and returned them to their places one by one. Then there was Boss Hu and his wife; he carried one on each shoulder and brought them to the top floor.

Just as he came down the stairs, preparing to settle Hu Zhen and her sister as well, he found the floor empty. The sisters were nowhere to be seen. Cao Xiao was stunned, immediately realizing that something had happened again. It had only been a few short minutes since they lost consciousness; it was impossible for them to have woken up on their own. The only possibility was that they were controlled by that evil power again!”

This was unacceptable. He had a good impression of the sensible twin sisters and couldn't let anything happen to them, or how would he face Boss Hu and his wife? Besides, even if it were a stranger in trouble right under his nose, he couldn't just stand by and not save them!”

In his haste, he was about to use the Detection Function to find them when a sudden gust of wind whistled past his ear. A sense of crisis surged within him. The powerful senses of a Mingjin Martial Artist, which surpassed those of ordinary people, allowed him to react instantly. He ducked, leaned to the side, and rolled across the floor to the middle of the room. Before he could even turn to see what was attacking him, a dark shadow smashed toward his head. Having just stabilized himself, he didn't have time to dodge and could only raise his right hand, quickly forming a fist to strike directly at the shadow.

“Bang!”

A wave of pain shot through his hand; he didn't need to look to know he was injured. Only then did he see that what had been thrown at him was a potted plant originally sitting on the coffee table. The person who had attacked him was none other than Hu Zhen! Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the one who had ambushed him from behind the hallway door was Hu Zhu!”

“Xiao Zhen, Xiao Zhu, what are you doing?!”

Dodging another kick from Hu Zhen, he pressed his back against the wall and shouted at the two girls in shock and anger.

At this moment, the sisters were still clad only in their underwear. Their faces were twisted into malevolent smiles, and they didn't speak. Instead, they let out sinister, eerie chuckles as they assumed combat stances and closed in on Cao Xiao.

Seeing that the sisters didn't answer him, he was struck with horror. Looking closer, he finally noticed something strange. The two sisters seemed like completely different people. Their eyes were no longer the lifeless, dilated pupils they had when they were first controlled; instead, they were contracted sharply like a snake's, emitting a terrifyingly cold gaze. With disheveled hair and evil smiles, their fighting stances clearly showed traces of martial arts techniques. The sisters were just ordinary people; how could they suddenly become martial artists? When they attacked just now, their punches and kicks were as fast as the wind, and their power was not inferior to an ordinary Mingjin Martial Artist. A sudden increase in strength like this was completely illogical! Although there was still a spark of spirit in their eyes, unlike the dull look of being controlled, Cao Xiao knew they were indeed possessed—more thoroughly than before. Conscious entities were residing in their bodies, controlling them to attack him. And there was no other possibility for what was controlling them besides that evil existence on the other side of the spatial node.

To save them now, he had to capture them first. Otherwise, even though his body was much tougher than a typical Mingjin Martial Artist's, he was still made of flesh and blood; a careless hit would still cause injury. Even though the two were definitely no match for him, he didn't dare to use his full strength. With his immense power, a single punch would definitely leave them severely injured.

Just as he made his decision, their fists and feet were already whistling toward him. He didn't dare to strike hard, while the two were equivalent to Mingjin Martial Artists with rich combat experience and decent reflexes. His several attempts to grab their arms were unsuccessful. Facing two at once, he found it very taxing to cope, and for a moment, he was almost unable to hold them off. In a moment of carelessness, he even took two punches to the chest. That massive force, converted into power, was extremely destructive. Anyone else might have suffered broken bones or internal injuries. He wasn't much better off; experiencing this sensation for the first time, the pain made him grimace.

Unable to take them down for a long time, Cao Xiao grew very anxious. They had lost their self-awareness and become manipulated puppets, while their physical potential had been stimulated, which was why their strength had suddenly become several times greater than an ordinary adult man's. However, this method of stimulating potential was constantly overdrawing their life essence. The longer it went on, the greater the damage to their bodies, and it would be permanent. He had read online about people who accidentally stimulated their physical potential in moments of crisis; afterward, their bodies became extremely weak and took a long time to recover, or they even experienced rapid aging, looking decades older overnight. In more severe cases, they could even be on the brink of death. So, he couldn't let this drag on any longer. He had to use extraordinary means to restrain them all at once, allowing him to free his hands and focus his energy on dealing with the foreign consciousnesses in their bodies.

But at that moment, the two of them simultaneously pulled back their attacks. They let out a shrill scream and looked at Cao Xiao with venomous gazes, croaking out: “I... will... remember... you! I... will... come... back... for... you!”

Cao Xiao was catching his breath, waiting for the next move, but he was startled by the sudden voice. Before he could react, the two girls had already leaped from the window, followed by the sound of them hitting the water. Cao Xiao's expression turned terrifyingly grim. He hadn't expected the opponent to suddenly stop and flee, leaving him no time to even prevent it.

Without a second thought, he ran to the bow and leaped into the water, swimming desperately toward that spatial node. He covered the hundred-meter distance in two minutes. Reaching the vortex above the node, he dove into the water but saw no sign of the sisters. The spatial node was slowly shrinking. Cao Xiao stopped hesitating; Hu Zhen and her sister were in life-threatening danger at any moment. If he waited until he was prepared next time to enter, their very bones might be gone. Thus, he immediately plunged down, following the current into the node.

The node was over ten meters above the ground. If he were to fall with the impact of the water flow, he would definitely be seriously injured. Cao Xiao flipped in mid-air, feet pointing toward the ground. With a thought, a giant log one meter in diameter appeared beneath his feet, firmly embedding itself into the soil. Cao Xiao stood upon it as the log slowly sank into the ground, bringing him closer to the surface.

When he reached the ground and looked up, the passage above had already closed. Without taking the time to observe his surroundings, he saw two figures running rapidly in the distance and gave chase. As he ran, he took out the Yin-Devouring Array Plate from his space and held it in his hand. Feeling it wasn't safe enough, he also deployed a thick layer of yang energy around himself.

Perhaps noticing that Cao Xiao was pursuing them, the other side also continuously accelerated. They were actually running faster than Cao Xiao. Seeing the distance widening, Cao Xiao grew anxious. He took a motorcycle out of his space, started it, and roared after them with the throttle wide open. However, on the sandy ground, the motorcycle couldn't go very fast, only slightly faster than the opponents, so he couldn't catch up immediately.

After chasing for about five minutes, the outlines of some buildings appeared ahead. Just as he was about to catch up, the two figures vanished from his sight in the blink of an eye. Reaching the buildings, Cao Xiao didn't rush in but stopped outside to examine the structures before him.

Calling them buildings was an overstatement; they were actually a field of ruins. Not a single house was intact; only some walls remained standing, and it looked as though they had undergone a severe fire. Everything was charred black, making it impossible to tell the original material or color.

These ruins covered a vast area of nearly a hundred acres, but there weren't many buildings, and they were sparsely distributed. However, each one occupied a large area; they didn't look like ordinary residences but rather like a series of palaces. Looking at this layout, Cao Xiao could faintly imagine the magnificent scene of this place in its prime. He just didn't know if this place was still on Earth or what had happened to turn it into ruins.

Looking as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but yellow sand. Not a hint of green, nor any sign of other things. No mountain peaks, no rivers, no plants, and naturally, no animals. No sun or moon could be seen in the sky, not even a single star. The sky was a hazy gray without a single cloud, and the light was dim. It seemed that this world, aside from these ruins, was nothing but sand. There wasn't even any sound, nor could he feel any natural wind from moving air. A desert environment would be ten thousand times better than this; it was simply a desolate land where all things had perished. Staying here for long would fill one's heart with endless despair.

Unable to figure out where he was, he had no time to hesitate. Fearing that every minute of delay put Hu Zhen and her sister's lives at risk, he quickly activated the Detection Function to search for them.

Before long, he found their location. It was the center of these ruins. The two were lying on a tall stone platform. The platform looked like a sacrificial altar built for worshipping heaven in ancient times. Although somewhat dilapidated, for some reason, it still maintained its complete structure and showed no signs of being burned. One could clearly see the carvings on the railings around the altar. In the center stood a four-sided stone stele, on which relief characters could still be seen.

Carefully identifying the inscriptions on the stele, Cao Xiao breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Although they looked strange, he could recognize them as Bronze Script from Chinese history. It originated during the Yin-Shang period and fell out of use during the Pre-Qin period. The appearance of Bronze Script meant that he was still on Earth. After having the AI chip analyze the text, Cao Xiao finally understood that this was actually the location of a Grotto-heaven from the Grotto-heavens and Blissful Lands of myths and legends!”

Grotto-heavens refer to sacred Daoist spaces within the universe. Besides dividing the entire universe into thirty-six layers of heaven and infinite space, Daoism also describes various spaces connected to the Earth's space. These are the Grotto-heavens and Blissful Lands. They include Grotto-heavens, Blessed Lands, Jurisdictions, Water Palaces, Sacred Mountains, Sea Islands, and so on. Specifically, there are the Ten Great Grotto-heavens, the Thirty-Six Small Grotto-heavens, the Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, the Eighteen Water Palaces, the Five Sacred Mountains and Seas, the Twenty-Four Jurisdictions, the Thirty-Six Quiet Chambers, as well as the Ten Continents and Three Islands, and the infinite void of the cosmic world.

The worlds of Grotto-heavens and Blissful Lands have their own unique spatial-temporal structures and are isolated from the world. Most entrances are located in or between the famous mountains of China, inhabited by celestial spirits or reclusive groups.

Although this place was also a Grotto-heaven, it was not among those recorded in Daoist texts. It was named Chuliang Grotto-heaven. It was only about two hundred li in circumference. Compared to other famous Grotto-heavens and Blissful Lands, its perimeter was considered small. It originally belonged to a local cultivation sect from the Yin-Shang period called the “Jin Ding Sect,” governed by Perfected Man Xiao. Once, the celestial spiritual energy in the Grotto-heaven was extremely dense, with lush vegetation and abundant resources, making it flourish during that ancient era.

There was no other useful information for him on the stele. The subsequent thousands of years of the Jin Ding Sect's history were not recorded there, and it was still unclear what caused a perfectly good Grotto-heaven to be destroyed and abandoned. But knowing this was enough. The urgent task now was to save Hu Zhen and her sister; this was not the time for archaeological excavation.

However, before that, he had to resolve the source of the problem—the evil existence controlling Hu Zhen and her sister. Cao Xiao had already discovered the opponent's location; it was also on the altar, and the opponent seemed to be watching him through the obstruction of the buildings.

It was a figure sitting cross-legged in front of Hu Zhen and her sister, but Cao Xiao didn't know how to describe the other's current state of existence. From the neck down, it was a mummified corpse, just skin and bones. In Cao Xiao's Detection Function, there wasn't a single living cell. Although the skin was shriveled, it was exceptionally tough, and the bone density was comparable to steel. There were no internal organs inside the body. However, the head was just like a normal person's—full of flesh, vibrant with life, with all facial features intact, and even the hair was jet-black and glossy. Not a single organ was missing from the brain, and blood was even flowing within it. Furthermore, the eyeballs were moving, and a malevolent smile hung on the corners of its mouth.