10 minutes ago
While Xuelan was distracting the bandit with her best efforts
Ming and Lian effortlessly slipped through the cave entrance
It was an eerie winding tunnel with lit torches hung on the walls
The deeper they went, the narrower it started to become, at first was wide enough for Ming and Lian to walk side by side comfortably
Two minutes in, it's basically a funnel that could only be walked in comfortably with a single file line
Taking advantage of the narrowing cave walls, Zhu Lian swiftly held onto Ming's arm, pressing it against her chest while being careful to avoid his shoulder injury
'Finally some alone time with Ming, there's no one to intrude on us here, hehe' Lian smiled mischievously as she tightened her grasp
Surprised by Lian's bold action, Ming blushed like a tomato and started to fidget with the hem of his clothes, trying his best not to act weird about her touch, not knowing that that's exactly what Zhu Lian was gunning for
With a muffled voice and a blushed face turned away, Ming nervously uttered
"L-Lian, what are you doing" Ming stumbled over his words
"The cave is getting narrow, this is the only way to walk comfortably~"
Lian answered sweetly in a sing song voice, aiming to tease Ming
"Can't we just walk in a single file line?" Ming scratched his face with his index finger shyly as he asked, Lian's actions were puzzling him
"We can't" Lian immediately answered as if Ming asked the easiest question in the world
"W-why not?" The sensation of Lian's chest pressing against his upper arm was getting to his head, Ming's brain was practically emitting steam and shutting down trying to make sense of Lian's behavior
Hearing Ming asked again, Lian pouted, her cheeks puffed up like a gerbil as she held his arm tighter
"Don't question your Young Miss! Hmph!" Lian said cutely with playful anger
"Okay…" Finding her reaction cute, Ming tried to keep a straight face and kept walking, reciting all kinds of mantras in his head
'Don't have dirty thoughts, don't have dirty thoughts, Lian would hate a lustful man, don't have dirty thoughts'
Contrary to Ming's belief, the thoughts Lian was having was quite the contrary
'Ming! You lord of density! Make an advance on me already~'
Lian was biting her thumb, sulking at Ming, thinking that her charms weren't working
All the while, Ming envisioned his happy place, a small cottage up the mountains, to keep himself from falling into lust
Before long, the both arrived at the end of the tunnel, a metal gate with engravings of a strange language and the Heavenly Destruction Sect's Symbol stood in front of them, sturdy and timelessly mighty
The door and engravings appeared extremely worn down, as if it's been used countless times over the millennia
"So this is the start of the ruins"
Zhu Lian uttered in amazement as she let go of Ming's arm, having been at Crimson Cloud Manor her entire life up until recently, ruins and old martial master's legacy sites have only been stories to her, but now she was standing in front of one of them
Ming smiled in excitement and grabbed Lian's small hand, pulling her towards to gate
"Mhm~"
His suddenly touch broke her out of her trance, his firm hands suddenly grabbing hers sent an involuntary yelp out of her mouth
Ming didn't seem to notice as Lian's face started to turn red with embarrassment
'It's not fair! Even just his hands can make me blush this much while me grabbing his arm didn't even faze him!' Lian cursed inwardly as she pressed forward with Ming to the gate
Without hesitation, Ming pushed gate open, the sound of screeching metal reverberating and echoing in the cave makes their skin crawl
Walking through, they found themselves inside was a wide cavernous clearing with intricate arts and patterns carved onto the cave walls, depicting battles, victory, blood shed and most glaringly: a single man standing before an army, with one hand, the painting depicted the man causing an explosion so great it leveled the surrounding mountains, leaving only ruins and despair
"Whoa… The bandits weren't lying, this person must be the progenitor of the Heavenly Destruction Sect" Ming gasped in amazement as he studied the carvings
In the middle of the clearing was a shrine made of a strange black stony material
The shrine's surface was reflective and clear yet it pulls attention as the material seems exude a passive aura of oppression and latent might
"Look Ming! Over there" Lian quickly patted Ming on the shoulders and pointed her finger at three skeletons laying on the ground
They look charred, as if these people were immediately killed by an intense flash fire
At a glance, Ming could tell that these corpses were new by the subtle smell of burnt flesh emanating from their direction
Looking closer, Ming saw that they were lying beneath a statue, one in a fighting stance carved out from the same material as the shrine
"Lets not go over there, haha" Ming laughed nervously as he moved towards the shrine to investigate
But before he could, Ming bumped his head into something, sending him falling backward on his buttock
Seeing this Lian chuckled
Ming stood up, confused, he turned to the still giggling Lian
"Lian, what did I bump into?"
"Nothing, idiot~, you just fell out of nowhere" Lian replied singsongly and she stepped to where Ming was before he hit his head
Reaching out a hand towards the shrine, she touched something, studying the feeling as she traced her fingers on seemingly nothing, Lian felt an invisible wall of Qi preventing them from approaching the shrine
She took a stepped back, lowered her stance, pulled back her palm and struck forth
//Crimson Flame Palm, Low-silver grade, mastered//
Ablazed, her palm smashed into the invisible barrier to no avail, even the rage crimson fire failed to penetrate it, the fire blared out like spewing flame against a concrete wall
"It's a protective array, a strong one at that"
Lian remarked calm and as she stepped back
"No wonder the bandits haven't raided the shrine already" Ming remarked lazily and sighed
"Hah… looks like we worked hard for nothing"
"Wait" Lian suddenly took another stepped back, extending her arm, blocking off Ming from the shrine
As strange glowing letters of Qi started appearing in the air, letters they recognized to be the same one on the metal gate
"This must be then conditions to pass the barrier then" Ming chuckled and continued "Too bad we can't read this"
"Lets not give up yet, we'll see if Brother Wei or Miss Xuelan knows anything about these" Zhu Lian replied, wracking her mind to find ways to break through
"Sounds good, let us go outside and aid them"
Ming stretched his limbs and walked towards the gate
"Mhm" Lian nodded and followed after, making sure to grab onto Ming's arm as they went
As the emerged from the cave, that's when they found the bandit leader lying dead in a pond of his own blood with Xuelan staggering above him, a gigantic wound splitting through her shoulders
"Xuelan!"
Alarmed, Ming hurriedly rushed towards her, barely catching her fall
"Lian! Get the supplies, she's losing too much blood!" Ming barked orders, frantic as Xuelan subtly smiled before closing her eyes
Lian nodded and instantly ran back to their camp at max speed with her movement art
//Drifting Cloud Stride, Low-Silver grade, mastered//
Lian launched towards their camp site at breakneck speed, her swift feet like floating and dancing on clouds
Ming slowly rested Xuelan's body down on a tree, ripped out his shirt with one hand while pressing down on her wound, stopping the blood flow with the other
With practiced motion, Ming used his ripped off shirt as a makeshift bandage to patch up Xuelan, to desperately hold on until Lian gets here
"Brother Ming, what is the matter!?"
Li Wei emerged from the forest, it seems like the bandits gave him some trouble, seeing how dirty his clothes were, he even had a small cut on his face, which was uncharacteristic considering how strong Li Wei was
"Xuelan killed the bandit leader but suffered a dangerous injury, Lian is heading back to camp for supplies, help me stabilize her brother Wei!" Ming muttered hurriedly as if every second was precious
Li Wei quickly understood and went by Ming's side
"Brother Ming, what I'm about to perform is our Wudang Sect's secret art, do not tell others of this" Li Wei frowned as he looked seriously at Ming, using this art is a huge risk to his Sect as a whole, but he couldn't let Xuelan die like this
"I'll keep it a secret until I die" Ming nodded, his eyes of truth and honor
Li Wei grabbed the two unconscious bandits, the ones he himself knocked out before and dragged them near where Xuelan was
Placing a hand onto one bandit and the other on Xuelan's wounds
Li Wei closed his eyes and channeled Qi, his mouth constantly muttering the mantra
"Harmony in life, harmony in death, balance in all creation"
//Wudang Life Harmony, Mid Platinum, Novice//
Li Wei's Qi glowed yellow as it formed the shape of a bagua on the ground. Enveloping the four of them, the two bandits on one side, Li Wei in the middle, Xuelan on the other side
Ming saw as the unconscious bandit's faces became paler and more emaciated, as if they were slowly being mummified
After two minutes, Li Wei retrieved his Qi, the bandits were still breathing, albeit barely
"How's Xuelan?"
"See for yourself"
Ming turned back at looked at her bandaged wound, they bleeding had stopped, by some miracle
"Her wound should be gone now, but she still lost too much blood, take care of her" Li Wei answered calmly and he stood up
"I have to go cultivate now, I used too much Qi being the medium, I'm in risk of Qi deviation if I don't cultivate soon"
"Go inside the cave, it's secured in there" Ming said
Li Wei nodded
"Oh by the way, what happened to them?" Ming said as he gestured his head to the eerie looking bandits
"I channeled their lifeforce into Miss Xuelan's wound to heal it, they've lost decades of their lifespan, my mastery of the technique is limited so such subpar efficiency couldn't be avoided" Li Wei said before he promptly left for the cave
Just in time, Lian came back with the supplies and started to help Ming with Xuelan
"Ming? What happened while I was gone, where did the wound go" Lian asked, deeply confused at the fact that Zhou Xuelan's wound completely disappeared when she unwrapped Ming's makeshift bandages
"Oh, Brother Wei fed her a rare healing pill from Wudang"
"Mhmm, I see" no doubting his words, Lian nodded and checked up on Xuelan's pulse
They nursed Xuelan for two hours before she woke up, and the three promptly made their way into the ruins to meet with Li Wei
Inside, Ming promptly explained the situation of the shrine and the strange protective array