Chapter Eighty-Six: Exploring the Cavern

A roar erupted at once from the soldiers gathered around the fissure, so loud that it even drowned out the rush of water in the mountain gorge. They were probably never this happy, not even when pay was handed out.

Soon, each man took four torches and two lanterns from the quartermaster carts. As for the more advanced brass flashlights, only officers above deputy squad leader rank were permitted to use them.

Of course, in this era the flashlights still ran on old-style batteries and used tungsten bulbs, so in terms of portability and usefulness, they might not even have been better than lanterns.

“Bai Yang.”

Zhang Shihan called over the young intelligence operative who had always stayed at his side.

The man wore the green hooded cloak of the intelligence platoon, and his pupils were a pale gray-white. If one did not look closely, one might have thought he was blind.

With a clang, Bai Yang summoned a phantom of a giant white hound more than five meters long from behind him. Aside from the mysterious red markings on its body, it was unlike an ordinary beast in one remarkable way: it had nine ears.

After the phantom poured into his heart, his body immediately swelled. His cotton armor stretched taut, his nose turned black, and his two ears transformed into long, elf-like ones.

“Sss...”

In his transformed state, Bai Yang crouched at the edge of the fissure and sniffed into the darkness below. After a brief pause, he turned and said, “Deputy Squad Leader Zhang, the space inside is enormous. There is indeed the scent of a demon spirit, but there is no danger near the entrance for now.”

A support skill that strengthened the sense of smell?

Awakened techniques that broke through the threshold were often tied to the characteristics of one’s guardian spirit.

For example, Du Huaishan’s spirit was a four-hoofed beast, skilled at explosive running.

Or take Wang Zhenglin’s guardian spirit, which was actually a giant crab.

Looking at Bai Yang’s ability, he could not help but recall how Sun Jianheng, when scouting Greenstone Mountain, had always been able to find traces of the altered ones and fragments of corpses.

This kind of skill was indeed practical, especially in a large-scale military operation like this.

Sometimes, even a second’s advance warning in reconnaissance could save the lives of several, even dozens, of soldiers.

Hearing this, Zhang Shihan nodded.

“Everyone, stay close to me!”

After receiving confirmation, Bai Yang waved them forward, carrying a lantern as he led the way into the cave.

Wang Zhenglin’s reconnaissance platoon followed close behind.

The moment Du Huaishan stepped inside the fissure, everything before his eyes darkened. When his pupils finally adjusted to the dim light, he looked up and his mouth unconsciously formed a round O.

The interior of the fissure was indeed astonishing, and calling it a hidden paradise would not be an exaggeration.

Both sides of the cave were lined with rock walls, and the farther inward they went, the deeper and more vast it became. Torchlight and lantern glow painted the stone in orange-red hues, revealing all manner of strange formations—rocks, pillars, stalagmites, curtains of stone, and more—each reflecting light differently, like the underground caves found at tourist sites in many cities.

Compared with those places, this one was neither damp nor cold. In fact, it was somewhat hot.

“My God, this place is huge!”

“Yeah, I’ve been to White Camel Mountain so many times, and I never knew there was a subterranean cavern this big under it!”

“No wonder those demon spirits can live here with bodies that enormous!”

The soldiers were all like a country woman entering an opulent garden for the first time, marveling at the uncanny craftsmanship of nature.

Bai Yang led in front, when his brows suddenly knitted.

Li Anqi pinched her nose. “What’s that smell? It’s so foul. Old Wu, did you have diarrhea?”

“Go to hell! Want me to take my pants off and let you smell them?” Wu Ming shot back at once. “If anything, maybe your feet stink!”

“Get lost!”

Li Anqi rolled her eyes.

Guo Tingyu sniffed, then hurriedly covered his mouth and nose. “It’s the smell of sulfur. It’s toxic...”

“Look at him, hired a gentleman and he already speaks differently!”

While Li Anqi was talking, the torch in Du Huaishan’s hand suddenly flickered and sent down a shower of sparks. He felt a little relieved. “There’s airflow in this cave. It’s not a completely sealed space.”

Even so, he still took a handkerchief from his pack, soaked it with water from his canteen, and tied it over his face.

“Everyone, cover your mouths and noses!”

Seeing this, Wang Zhenglin immediately relayed the order to the rear.

At once, everyone found cloth to cover their faces. The torches cast their shadows onto the walls, and if one did not know better, they would have looked like a band of mountain bandits.

Clop, clop, clop.

From behind the cave came the echo of hoofbeats.

Because the underground space was so vast, the logistics team and the machine-gun platoon had also brought the horses inside.

After walking for half an hour, two enormous openings suddenly appeared ahead.

Bai Yang stopped and crouched before the two holes, sniffing each one in turn.

“Can you tell where the red marrow and the demon spirit are?”

Zhang Shihan stepped up to the opening and asked.

“No, I can’t.”

Bai Yang shook his head apologetically. “The sulfur smell inside is too strong, and the space is too wide. I can’t make an effective judgment.”

“In that case, we can only split into two groups.”

Zhang Shihan made his decision with lightning speed. Turning to the company commander beside him, Jiang Dayi, he asked, “Company Commander Jiang, what do you think?”

Jiang Dayi stroked his chin. “No problem.”

Among the many soldiers present, only the two of them had completed a second spirit awakening.

“The units whose names I call, step forward!”

In total, Jiang Dayi had lent Zhang Shihan one infantry platoon, two machine-gun squads, and one artillery squad. “Deputy Squad Leader Zhang, which path do you choose?”

“Either one is fine. Please, Company Commander Jiang, go first.”

Zhang Shihan courteously gestured with his hand.

“Then this old brother will not be polite. The rest of you, follow me.”

With that, Jiang Dayi led his men to the right.

Zhang Shihan had no extra words and simply followed Bai Yang into the left-hand cave.

The rock between the two passages was probably not very thick.

Du Huaishan could faintly hear echoes of footsteps from the other side, along with the boisterous chatter of the veterans.

“Brother Huaishan, look!”

Tan Hai lifted his torch and shone it on the wall beside them. In the play of light and shadow, huge claw marks emerged—left by a demon spirit.

“We need to be careful. Even though the underground space is large, compared to the endless plains aboveground, it’s still much narrower. If something really happens, there’ll only be two ways to run.”

At the thought of the monkey demon spirit from yesterday, a grave look settled on Du Huaishan’s face.

In a confined space like this, if that creature used its explosive jumping power to ram in, the soldiers would be crushed in droves like bowling pins.

“Don’t you think the sounds next door have changed?”

At Lin Sizhi’s words, everyone listened more closely, and only then did they realize that the footsteps of Jiang Dayi’s veterans had somehow shifted from the right to the left.

“How could that be?”

“It’s normal. Maybe these underground tunnels are twisted to begin with.”

Wu Ming had been in caves before. Though none were as enormous or complex as this subterranean cavern, the fundamentals were mostly the same.

“Wu Ming, do you know where red marrow is usually buried?”

Xing Zhenhao cut in at that moment.

He was desperate to find the red marrow mine quickly. If the veterans of the main force reached it first, then that first merit would be lost.

“I’m a hunter, not a miner. How would I know something like that...”

Wu Ming was still speaking when—

Boom...

Suddenly, a violent roar echoed through the cavern, as if thunder had been stuffed beneath a blanket. The entire rock wall trembled slightly with it.

“It’s coming from ahead!”

“Quick! Maybe the red marrow mine is up front!”

The strange noise did not make the soldiers tense. Instead, it excited them.

In an instant, two veterans broke into a run.

Not only them; excited, disordered footsteps also rang out from the adjacent tunnel. This was not merely the allure of the red marrow mine itself, but also the desire to seize the first credit when the honors were tallied.

Du Huaishan followed at the rear of the column, his right hand never leaving the hilt of his saber.

The closer they got to the objective, the closer they were to danger.

And who knew—maybe those demon spirits were already gathered around the red marrow mine, gnawing at the red marrow ore.

“There are two more openings ahead!”

After turning a corner, one veteran stopped before the two caves and hesitated. The next second, a comrade beside him pointed at the cave on the right and exclaimed, “They’re above us!”

Everyone looked.

From the right-hand opening, looking down, there was a pit so deep its bottom could not be seen. Looking up, however, one could see a huge terrace.

At this moment, Jiang Dayi and his men were standing on a stone bridge more than two meters wide, running toward another opening.

The entire cave system was linked in all directions, looking like an ant nest.

It seemed the other side had also heard the shouting from below. One veteran even stopped to toss out a couple of taunts: “Hey! Looks like we’re going to beat you there first!”

Bai Yang crouched by the opening, sniffed into the abyss below, and his expression abruptly changed. He shouted, “Watch out!”

Boom!

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a huge black shadow shot up from the pit below. With a succession of rapid scraping sounds as it clawed up the rock wall, it slammed in an instant onto the stone bridge above.

Crack!

Half the edge of the bridge shattered at once, and several veterans, along with a military horse pulling supplies, plunged straight down.

“Whinny—!”

“Aaah! Help!”

One veteran activated his transformed state midair and urgently shot out the grappling line from his arm armor, catching himself on the pit wall.

But the others from the machine-gun unit were not so lucky.

Their screams lasted more than five seconds, and then only a few weak impacts came back from below. It was obvious they could not have survived.

More than five seconds. By free-fall calculations, that was at least nearly one hundred fifty meters.

A pit that deep?

Unfortunately, once they fell, the torches were utterly insufficient to illuminate the bottom. Du Huaishan could see nothing but darkness.

“Aaah... let go of me...”

Another cry of agony pulled everyone’s gaze back up from the depths.

Under the weak torchlight, the soldiers saw a giant pink python clinging to the cliff wall. Yes, it had a pair of batlike wing-claws that could grasp the stone, and a mane running along its back.

Its body, more than eight meters long, made it look like a dragon from myth.

Splat.

The veteran who had just been joking was now clamped in the jaws of that dragon-serpent demon spirit.

Its white venom fangs, thick as a man’s arm, pierced through his abdomen. Like a straw, they drained every last drop of blood into its throat.

“Scatter! Get back!”

Jiang Dayi roared from the far end of the bridge. Most of the men at the rear were ordinary infantry from the machine-gun unit; if they faced the demon spirit head-on, they had no fighting power at all.

Bang!

One veteran reacted quickly and fired at the serpent body of the dragon-serpent demon spirit, trying to draw its attention.

The next second, the soldiers all brought their cavalry rifles down from their backs and fired wildly at the creature. Even a machine gun began sweeping across it: ratatatata!

In an instant, flashes of fire flickered repeatedly within the rock walls.

The scales of the dragon-serpent demon spirit were soon riddled with holes, large and small, all spilling blood.

But the demon spirit did not know the meaning of pain, nor fear. It raised its head, opened its blood-red maw, and with a gulp, swallowed that veteran alive on the spot.

Then, turning its head, the dragon-serpent demon spirit fixed its gaze on the cave entrance where Jiang Dayi and the others stood.

“Back! Retreat!”

Jiang Dayi bellowed, waving his men all back into the cave. A towering golden phantom more than ten meters high flashed into being and poured into his heart.

Roar!

His body began to swell rapidly. With a sweep of his right arm, a huge broad-bladed saber appeared in his hand. The blade burst forth with blinding golden light, striking the rock wall overhead in a single blow.

That golden radiance was like the blade qi of martial tales. With a thunderous crash, several great chunks of stone came down and sealed the cave entrance where Jiang Dayi stood, giving the pursuing dragon-serpent demon spirit a slammed door in the face.

“Deputy Squad Leader Zhang! This dragon-serpent demon spirit has a very strong scent of red marrow essence on it!”

After sniffing for a long while, Bai Yang finally confirmed the source of the red marrow mine from the demon spirit’s body.

The so-called red marrow essence was a liquid-solid mixture, like crude oil. Red marrow steel, red marrow gas, and all kinds of energy potions were extracted and processed from it.

“So the red marrow mine is below!”

Zhang Shihan’s eyes sharpened. “We go down! This way!”

“Deputy Squad Leader Zhang, but Company Commander Jiang and the others...”

At that moment, one of the infantry platoon leaders from the main force suddenly spoke up.

After all, the soldiers being pursued by the dragon-serpent demon spirit were his comrades and companions he saw every day. It was only natural for him to worry about them.

But Zhang Shihan’s expression did not change in the slightest. “You are carrying out a secret military order mission. Everything must serve the mission. Company Commander Jiang has more tricks than that—you have no need to worry about them! Move out at once!”

“Yes, sir!”

A soldier’s duty is obedience. The infantry platoon leader could only straighten his back and turn to charge toward another opening.

At times like this, saying one more useless word might mean sacrificing one more comrade.

With the appearance of the demon spirit, the soldiers’ earlier ease vanished at once. Led by Bai Yang, they moved deeper underground. The closer they got to the lower levels, the stronger the stench of sulfur became, and the hotter the cave grew.

Openings branched in all directions.

Now and then, one could hear the sounds of impact, or a cry of agony.

“Platoon Leader Zhang, there are simply too many openings. I can’t tell them apart...” Bai Yang observed for a moment, but still could not distinguish which path led to the mine.

“In that case, split into several smaller teams and move separately. The first group to find the red marrow mine will be credited with second-class military merit!”

This morning I left as early as four-thirty and did not get home until after six in the evening. Then I had dinner with my family, and it took far too long. It was already very late when I got back, and I still owe six thousand words. I’ll make them up over the next few days.