With the nausea of spatial distortion enveloping him, Gao Feng was spat out onto the floor of the hidden cave that served as an antechamber to the Earth Dragon's Grave.
As gravity asserted itself on Gao Feng in contradictory directions, the greatsword in his left hand clattered to the ground as he attempted to stay upright. Reaching out to catch himself with a hand that no longer existed, Gao Feng fell forward onto his shoulder before giving up and sprawling out over the stone of the cave.
"Ahh… Hahaha…" After the unbearably turbulent past few days, Gao Feng was content to simply lie back and rest, even as his destroyed arm slowly leaked blood onto the cave floor.
However… "Junior! What happened in there!? What became of the Earth Dragon's Blood!?" A green-sleeved arm reached out, and Gao Feng was quickly picked up, dragged away from the rift, and lifted towards an improvised row of beds, formed from the Emerald Blade Pavilion Elder's wood-aspect Sorcery. 'Ah damn it…'
Clattering onto the curved wooden bed, Gao Feng let his sword fall aside. Looking around, he saw a number of other disciples on similar beds. Most were upright, having been cultivating silently until Gao Feng arrived. Qin Yihua, Guan Heng, Yuan Bolin, and a few others.
At the furthest end of the room, a disciple of the Tiger Slaying Sect laid back, unconscious, wrapped in bandages and missing a hand. "Focus, Junior! What happened in the Grave?" The Elder of the Emerald Blade Pavilion spoke clearly, dragging Gao Feng's attention back. "And where is Junior Qian? What happened to her?"
At that last inquiry, Yuan Bolin sat up, his legs leaning off his bed as he too looked intently towards Gao Feng. All this intent pointed in his direction left Gao Feng more annoyed than anything else.
"Sorry, you're better off forgetting everything left in the Grave…" Gao Feng let his head lean back and hit the curved backrest of the wooden bed. "Qian Ruo is gone, both drops of Earth Dragon Blood are gone, and…"
"...I can't imagine anyone here being able to stop that monster…" Hearing those words, the Elder of the Emerald Blade Pavilion leaned away from Gao Feng, her expression somewhat dejected by how terrible a disaster this decade's opening seemed to be.
To the side, Yuan Bolin held his head in his hands and looked to the ground with an empty gaze. Beyond him, Qin Yihua stood up and made his way over to Gao Feng, the stump of his right arm encased in bandages.
"You said 'that monster.' You couldn't mean… her, could you?" He knew that Gao Feng of all people wouldn't describe Jun Li that way, regardless of her strength. "Ah, yeah… There's some other guy in there, someone at a realm of Cultivation far beyond any of our own...."
Overhearing those words, the three Elders who had begun to speak among themselves were visibly shaken and moved towards Gao Feng. "Junior Gao, what do you mean by that? How could someone beyond the Crimson Palace realm be in the Grave!?"
"Ah, well…" Gao Feng was a bit caught off-guard by the intensity, though he felt as if he should have seen it coming. "To be honest, I have no idea. Either way, there's no doubt about his strength. He… did things I couldn't even have imagined."
These words, naturally, were not even close to enough to satisfy the three elders, who immediately went to the side and began discussing between themselves the possibility of such a thing, and if it were actually true, how they should prepare for his appearance outside the realm, and whether or not the realm's closing would even force this enigmatic person out.
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The energetic discussions and arguments of his elders caused Gao Feng to shoot a vacuous look to Qin Yihua, who merely sighed and walked back to his bed, believing Gao Feng would be repeatedly ambushed with questions for some time and wouldn't be able to hold a conversation.
Gao Feng let out a groan of exhaustion and looked his body over. Despite the loss of his arm and his horribly tangled state of Cultivation, he felt good, mentally speaking. 'I've made every mistake possible, so I guess there's nowhere to go but up, right?'
… … … … … …
Weighted down by Little Yun's newly enhanced bulk, Jun Li had sweat beading on her forehead, flowing down into her hair. She hung upside down, hands and feet adorned with hooked spikes of solidified blood, and slowly climbing the curved, overhanging wall of the Earth Dragon's Grave.
Resting on her torso, Little Yun's head peeked out to point her in the right direction. Following the snake's gaze, Jun Li saw a shadowed crevice a few meters above her. "...Alright…" Unable to free a hand and wick the sweat out of her eyebrows, Jun Li could only shut her eyes for a moment and move on, slowly crawling up the wall.
"I hope this sort of escape doesn't become a habit…" Reaching a hand up, Jun Li wedged one of the hooked implements of solid blood that emerged from her palm into the stone of the crevice. "There!" With the hook buried solidly in the stone, Jun Li let one of her arms and legs free of their holds and allowed herself a moment to rest.
"Hold on a bit tighter now." Jun Li spoke to Little Yun before reaching up with her other hand and wedging a second hook into the crevice, allowing her legs to drop and hang below.
The moment her body went vertical, the weight of Little Yun pulled down on her torso uncomfortably, the weight threatening to stretch her bones to the point of dislocation. "Not… carrying you anymore after this…"
Pulling both herself and her companion up with all of her strength, Jun Li managed to lift her torso into the shadowy crevice. "There! Now wher-" Jun Li's words were cut short as an intense disorientation overtook her body, and her obscured vision swam in a swirl of black and brown distortions.
When the nausea faded, it was replaced with discomfort and mild pain, as gravel and loose stones pressed into her body. 'Where the hell am I…?' Looking around, Jun Li saw only a pinprick of light, barely illuminating the space between her and the dirt that surrounded her.
All around, soft dirt filled with roots and stones threatened to suffocate her. It seemed that the very act of her emergence had forced the earth around to displace to accommodate her, something Little Yun may not have struggled with when entering from this point.
Pressing the soft earth away from her body, Jun Li looked down towards Little Yun, who squirmed uncomfortably in these narrow confines. "At least we're alright…" Allowing the tools of solid blood on her extremities to melt away into the dirt, Jun Li braced herself against a root, and pressed forward towards the pinprick of light that showed her the way out.
Breaking free, now covered in loose dirt and stony detritus, Jun Li took a deep breath as her eyes adjusted to the surroundings.
Deep foliage, distant canopies, and pillars of sandstone told her that this was, approximately, the same place she had entered from. The exact entrance was obviously different, but it seemed to be close enough that she wouldn't need to worry about not knowing where she was on a map.
"This… could be worse, but it could be better." Jun Li had a degree of anxiety about being this close to her original entrance. After all, the three Elders who oversaw the disciple's entrance would surely be nearby. "I just have to trust they're focused on that cave, and won't notice me slipping out…"
Freeing her legs from the earth, Jun Li pulled Little Yun off her body and coaxed it to the ground. Kicking herself out of the disturbed soil she had left, Jun Li relished the feeling of being upright and on solid ground. "Let's get out of here!"
Jun Li started running slowly, making sure Little Yun was able to follow along well before anything else. "New Spatial Rings, more information about my 'inheritance,' more combat experience… I even have some promising new techniques for study!"
She laughed to herself as she increased her pace. "Haha! Not bad at all! Maybe I'll stop by those three Sects and thank them when I make my way back to the Zhao Kingdom!"
