Daomu Biji: Restart

Book 1: Chapter 216: Alive

In the process of falling down into the darkness, there were only two possibilities waiting for me: one was that my skull would hit a rock and fracture, causing my brains to burst out; the other was that someone would catch me, causing the joints in my arm to be in severe pain. There were a few seconds where I was just waiting for the moment my skull would crack open.

I quickly fell into the darkness, but it hadnt even been ten seconds after I finished shouting that I felt my arm immediately get grabbed by someone. The man's hand was so strong that I immediately felt all my skin get torn and pain shot up to my shoulder from where he had grabbed me. At the moment I was finally grabbed, I felt as if my shoulder was going to break.

I didnt know what Xiao Huas situation was at this time. All I knew was that after I was stopped, I was swung to the tower wall and crashed into it. Fortunately, I hit my chin first instead of my nose; otherwise, my nose that had finally started to heal would've been broken and I probably wouldve needed a prosthesis just to show my face out in public.

Then, I was quickly dragged up and pulled into a niche on the tower wall. I immediately knew from the display of strength that this man was Poker-Face.

"Bro, 666 (1)," I blurted out as I tried to slow my racing heart.

I couldnt see Poker-Face clearly in the dark, but at this time, I heard someone tapping slightly below: "I caught Xiao Hua."

I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that my intuition was correct and they had already been prepared. If I had been shot down just now, they probably wouldve caught me as well.

Poker-Face didnt wait for my brain to catch up and whispered to me, "Come with me." I saw an orange glow stick suddenly appear in the darkness, illuminating his face and revealing a passage behind this niche.

The opening was blocked with leather figurines and the glow stick was very dim, so this light probably wouldnt be visible outside. As he quickly receded into the darkness, I followed after him. There was a very narrow crevice in the niche, which led to the depths of that huge, top-to-bottom crevice I had seen before. The cave walls inside were covered in layer upon layer of those bronze reeds. It was just like the scale effect formed by those small grottoes all over the mountains and plains around the Cave of Ten Thousand Buddhas (2).

"What is this place?" I asked softly. But as soon as I spoke, I found that my voice was instantly transmitted through these reeds, and they all began to resonate and transmit one by one. These reeds were as thin as silkworm wings, but sharp enough to scratch your arm with the slightest touch.

Poker-Face motioned for me not to talk, so I moved to cover my mouth. At this time, I saw that there were several bloody wounds on my hand, but I couldnt remember when I had been cut.

When we started walking on these reeds, I noticed that the holes werent parallel and there were many slopes and turns. We had no choice but to crouch down as we moved forward, and I knew I had to walk very carefully. If I fell down and encountered a steep slope, I would end up rolling three or four meters out. There wouldnt be a bit of good flesh left on my body after that.

I followed Poker-Face all the way into the crevice, but as it started to go downhill, the reeds became too sharp and we couldn't go down with our bare hands. I heard Poker-Face tap his shoe lightly by one of the holes, the sound resonating slightly with the reed and passing down.

Fatty replied not far below: "Come down. Boss Jiao will start soon."

****

TN Notes:

(1) Its Chinese internet slang used a lot in gaming. Wu Xie is basically saying Poker-face is awesome/amazing.

(2) The Cave of Ten Thousand Buddhas (aka Wanfo Cave) is in the Longmen Grottoes and is the most complete cave there. It was built in 680 by Gaozong and Wu Zetian. It houses 15,000 Buddhas carved in small niches. Theyre all different from each other, with the smallest Buddha being 2 centimeters (0.79 in) in height. Here are some tourist pics and reviews.