Chapter 16: The Seal in the Cave (Part 1)

  Following the bloodstains, a sudden chill hit her in the face. Shen Baiying parted the wild grasses that were as tall as a person and saw a not-so-large cave entrance not far away.

  Bloodstains dripped onto the rocky entrance, disappearing into the dark expanse. Shen Bailian couldn't confirm if the bloodstains were left by her mother, but she couldn't shake off the unease in her heart. Standing there wouldn't reveal the truth, so she gritted her teeth and charged forward.

  Inside the cave was very dark, and the road was even more rugged. Shen Bailian was regretting not bringing some flammable materials to serve as a light source. As he supported himself against the stone wall, his hand felt empty, and he almost fell into another hole within the hole. After walking for a while, his eyes were no longer as pitch black as when he first entered, and with a bit of faint light, he made out that there was actually a fork in the road ahead.

  This cave is really strange, not only is it as cold as an ice cellar, but it's also very different from the warmth of the peak. There are also forks in the road, if Shen Bailong wasn't a demon with agile limbs and extremely good eyesight, I'm afraid she would have fallen before getting lost.

  Fortunately, the smell didn't dissipate easily in this cave. Shen Bailian sniffed that bloody smell and even though she couldn't tell east, south, west or north, she wasn't afraid of taking a wrong turn. She just kept turning left and right, vaguely feeling that this cave seemed to lead underground, and was very deep and remote. Gradually, there wasn't even a single ray of light left.

  In the darkness, he didn't know how long he had walked when his foot suddenly slipped. Shen Bailian hurriedly bent his knees and lowered his body, feeling the ground with his hands. His fingertips felt icy and wet, and it was actually covered in a layer of ice. He touched the stone walls along the way, and they were also like this. He didn't know when the temperature around him had dropped to such an extent. Fortunately, Shen Bailian was a demon, not like humans who feared the cold, otherwise he would have been shivering with fear by now, where would he have gotten the courage to go deeper?

  After winding around in the ice cave for a while, the bloody smell grew thicker, but Shen Bailian didn't feel much joy. He was afraid that his mother's old wounds would worsen, leaving behind this trail of blood, and that all the nourishment she had gained over the past month would be lost.

  Along the bloody smell and turned left, this time didn't walk for long before suddenly brightening up in the darkness. Shen Bailian hurriedly closed her eyes, after a moment opened them again, only to find herself standing in an extremely narrow fork in the road, with a faint light shining from the front right side.

  He hastened along the light, quickening his pace, and after a right turn, he found himself in an even more desolate place. It was as if he had entered a vast underground cavern. The ice here was thicker, and a thin layer of cold mist hung in the air. Shen Baiying carefully made his way forward, step by step, hugging the icy ground, while constantly looking up to marvel at the sight above him. On the ceiling of the cave, numerous icicles had formed, some stretching tens of feet long, like sharp arrows pointing straight down, forming a forest of ice. The only path in this cavern was the small one he had taken to enter, and yet it was surprisingly bright underground. At first, Shen Baiying thought that the ice was glowing on its own, but after a while, he gradually realized that there must be something hidden behind the thick ice, emitting a faint blue light from within. The thickest and most radiant part of the ice seemed to be where this object was located.

  Shen Bailian stared blankly at the ice layer, thinking to herself: It's so thick, I'm afraid it would take a big stone to crack it open. What is that glowing thing... Hmm, it looks a bit like the pearl I found in the tree cave on Bailian Island last month, but that one emitted green light, not blue light... Ah yes, didn't I come here looking for Mother?

  As soon as he thought of this, he suddenly turned his gaze back, and only then did he catch a glimpse of a black shadow huddled in one corner of the ice cave. Under the pale blue glow, the shadow was wrapped in a crimson robe. As soon as Shen Bailian saw it, her heart began to thump wildly.

  He rushed over in a flurry, but didn't expect to slip and fall. Before he could get up, he had already caught up with the figure. He turned him over and saw that his face was pale, his eyes were tightly closed, there was blood at the corner of his mouth, and his breathing was weak. Who else could it be if not Shen Danqing?

  Shen Bailian's heart ached and she repeatedly called out, "Mother, mother! Why did you run to this place? Are you coughing up blood again?" But Shen Danqing lay with her eyes closed, as if she hadn't heard. She didn't move at all, and if it weren't for the slight flutter of her nostrils, she would have seemed like a dead person.

  Shen Bailian lowered her head and took a closer look, only to realize that something was off. Shen Qing's body was also covered in bloodstains, but if it were just hemoptysis, it wouldn't have splattered all over his body. She hastily tore open the shoulder of her mother's blood-stained robe, which had already been damaged beyond repair. With a slight effort, she ripped out a large hole, revealing the pale skin underneath, which was already mangled with blood and flesh. The wound was split open, with some areas charred black, as if it had been burned by fire or struck by lightning.

  He hastily rummaged through the small pouch, shaking his hand for a long time before finally pouring out the remaining few pieces of fragrant medicine. However, he couldn't find the flint anywhere and had to put the medicine in his mouth to chew it into fragments. He then applied the crushed medicine to his mother's wound. Before long, yellow pus began to seep from the wound, and the bleeding gradually stopped.

  Shen Bailian held his mother's head and shoulders in his arms, his heart racing with anxiety. However, as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy, he was afraid that if he tried to carry her, it would aggravate her injuries. All he could do was stare blankly at his mother's pale face, hoping she would wake up soon.

  His eyes swept across his mother's face, and suddenly he thought to himself: Little Monkey said it wrong, Ah-Niang is actually... actually very beautiful, I've seen these women, none of them can compare to her, even Little Monkey's mother and Ah-Ci also... Hmm, Ah-Ci is still young, when she grows up maybe... maybe she'll be very beautiful too. Ah-Niang is so beautiful, why did her marriage end in disaster? She... although her temper is bad, but she's good-looking and capable, my father... what was my father thinking?

  Just as she was lost in thought, a low voice suddenly came from her bosom. She lowered her head to look again, and saw that Shen Qing's eyelids moved slightly, and his eyes opened immediately. Those cold autumn water-like eyes first stared blankly around, then slowly fell on Shen Bailian's face, who had been staring at him all along.

  "Mother, you're awake!" Shen Bailian exclaimed with joy, his hands still wrapped around her shoulders, a huge smile spreading across his face, as if every single strand of hair was radiating happiness. "Mother, how did you end up here? Do you know...?"

  Who would have thought that before the words were even finished, Shen Danqing suddenly struggled free, and then Shen Baiying felt a chill on her neck. In an instant, the sky spun and the earth turned, and all she could hear was "bang, boom" several times, followed by a severe pain in her back.

  Shen Bailian was shocked, his back suddenly aching as if it were about to split open, and his neck felt like an iron chain had been tightened around it. He could hardly see, with black spots dancing before his eyes, and numerous golden stars swirling wildly. When the pain subsided slightly, and his vision cleared somewhat, he was even more astonished to find that the person who had pinched his neck and slammed him against the stone wall was none other than his own mother, Shen Danqing.

  Shen Qing's hand pressed against his neck, the tiger's mouth tightly clamped on Shen Bailian's throat, for a moment there was no other movement, only panting. She had just woken up and suddenly attacked, using too much force, and the wound that had already stopped bleeding cracked open again, with a lot of blood seeping out from the shoulder.

  "Mother... why..." Shen Bailian felt a sharp pain in her throat, making it hard to speak and even breathe. She didn't resist at all because the person in front of her was her mother, but she couldn't help asking this question.

  Her lips slightly parted, but before she could speak, a fit of coughing shook her entire body, causing the wound to bleed faster. She gasped for half a day, and when she lifted her head again, a thin layer of sweat had formed on her face, but her narrow, phoenix-like eyes seemed even more piercing. Her expression was unreadable as she suddenly raised her other hand, folding it across her chest, her slender fingers forming a lotus-like hand seal. After clearing her throat several times, she spoke in a cold voice: "Dreams and misty flowers are all empty..."

  Shen Bailian's eyes widened, and he felt a chill run down his back as the ice wall behind him melted due to his body heat. He didn't have time to pay attention to it, and with great difficulty, he shouted: "Mother... Mother, what are you saying?!"

  "...cough cough, because of chaotic thoughts..."

  Shen Qing's icy voice echoed in her ears, but Shen Bailian's eyes became increasingly blurry for some reason. In the misty water, her mother's pale and beautiful face showed a very complex expression, but those moving lips never gave an explanation.

  "Ah Niang..."

  "...... Cough, cough ...... Fang Wannian Zhudun ...... Not as good as ......" Shen Danqing's phoenix eyes suddenly opened wide with anger, and the hand that was holding the hand seal pressed fiercely on Bai Ling's forehead, "Not as good as ...... Wan, Ban, Jie, Wang!"

  "Ahhh!!!!!!"

  Suddenly, a mournful cry echoed from the depths of the cave, accompanied by a chill in the air. The sound was piercing and filled with pain, like the howl of a wild beast before its death, making one's heart tremble with fear and unable to calm down.

  In the depths of the ice cave, Shen Bailian had long been in agony, her eyes rolling back into her head as she nearly fainted. However, her mind was a jumble of chaotic thoughts, with countless images flashing before her eyes like a kaleidoscope. It was as if she were a small boat on a vast ocean, tossed about by the waves, crashing and colliding into a thousand pieces, like a thousand red-hot needles piercing her skull, or ten thousand sharp claws scratching inside her brain. Even wanting to faint became impossible, as her entire body convulsed uncontrollably.

  He opened his eyes, but felt as if there were a dozen layers of white gauze in front of him, and he could see nothing except for a blue, flickering light. But amidst the pain, his mother's long, gentle sigh was unusually clear.

  “…it can't be helped, you... child, don't blame me…” Shen Danqing said in a low voice, and coughed several times. Shen Bailian only felt that the cold hand on her neck also trembled for a while before listening to her mother continue, “Those two people...cough, those two people will soon be chasing after us, the bloodstains on the ground...you can find your way here, I'm afraid...I'm afraid they also...hmm, but what's the difference? The Water Spirit Pearl they've been longing for...isn't it still...still taken by me first!”

  Shen Bailian stared blankly into the void in front of him, his mind throbbing with pain, as if it was about to burst. He gritted his teeth, muttering to himself, his thoughts disjointed and unclear, only vaguely thinking: ...what Mother said... who were those two people... what is the Water Spirit Pearl...

  Shen Danqing seemed to know his son's miserable state at this time, but he didn't even bother to care about it. He just muttered to himself in a low voice: "Mother... cough, bleeding so much, the wound is on the heart meridian... Mother won't survive! This Water Spirit Pearl... cough... I'll give it to you..."

  The cool sensation on his neck suddenly left him, Shen Bailian lost the support of that great force, and his body softened and fell to the ground, leaning against the ice wall and slumping in the corner. All he could hear was a loud rumbling sound, with many ice chips flying onto his face. Shen Bailian felt the coolness on his face, and struggled to look forward, thinking to himself: ...Mother is doing what... did she break that piece of ice?

  The darkness in front of him gradually dissipated, and the blue glow seemed to have gone out. However, after a moment, Shen Bailian only felt his fingers being pried open, and a round, smooth, and cool ball-like object fell into his palm. By his ear, he heard Shen Danqing's voice again, this time much softer, like a gentle breeze brushing against his face, as if his mother was speaking right next to his cheek: "Mother... Mother hit you, they saw the bruise on your neck, and naturally wouldn't think we have any familial relationship. Seeing that you have this pearl, they must think I'm trying to rob you of the Water Spirit Pearl... Mother has always been cruel to you, precisely because you don't have any demonic aura, hating how much you resemble that person... Who would have thought that now she's deeply grateful for it!"

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