Chapter 7
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Chapter 7: Hope of Escape
Dust flew and thunder roared.
After throwing the thunder pearl with all his might, Xu Yan leaped toward the back of the stone coffin, followed by earth-shaking tremors.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the shaking in the limestone cave gradually stopped. The area around the stone coffin was already covered with mud and sand. Tiezhu’s head emerged first, and when he saw the scene before him, he immediately froze. Then the other boys successively emerged from the soil, and without exception, all were stunned on the spot.
The black wolf was gone.
Not just the black wolf—even the limestone cave was gone!
The mountain’s interior had been destroyed by a massive force, and the collapse had almost filled the once-spacious limestone cave. Only a space of about ten feet remained around the stone coffin. The boys who emerged from the sand seemed like prisoners in a cramped sealed room.
“Earth-dragon turning over!”
“The black wolf was crushed to death, we’re saved!”
Soon, the group of boys began to cheer and celebrate. The black wolf had been crushed to death, and they had finally escaped the shadow of death. The older boys were now wiping the corners of their eyes. This feeling of surviving a disaster would be hard to suppress even for adults, let alone half-grown children.
One companion had already died, and no one wanted to be eaten alive by the black wolf.
The children were still cheering, but Tiezhu’s face grew increasingly ashen. His throat moved, and he said with difficulty, “The cave… collapsed, the cave collapsed!”
The cave had collapsed, the black wolf had been crushed to death, but the boys were also trapped deep inside the mountain.
‘Buried alive!’ they thought.
When this even more terrifying concept appeared in the boys’ minds, the ten-foot-square space became silent as a grave. Then, sporadic sobbing began.
They had escaped the black wolf’s pursuit, but the boys still lingered in a place of death. Unless they could leave the mountain’s interior, before long, these children would all become sets of white bones, companions to the skeleton in the stone coffin.
“I want to go home, I don’t want to die, wuu wuu wuu…”
Xiaohua was the first to cry out. The ten-year-old girl had probably never imagined she would experience so much danger and despair. When she cried, all the other younger children began crying too.
“Stop crying, we’ll dig our way out!”
Tiezhu clenched his fist and said fiercely. He was the oldest here, and if he gave up, there would truly be no hope. Even knowing that digging a passage out of the mountain’s interior was basically impossible, Tiezhu still swung his machete, desperately prying at the rocks.
With one person taking action, the others saw a glimmer of hope. So the boys with tools used their tools, and those without used their hands, continuously digging at the rocks. In this desperate situation, they laboriously and numbly searched for a way to survive.
After digging with the machete for a while, they had only excavated a few rocks. Tiezhu wiped the sweat from his forehead. He knew that continuing like this was futile. At this moment, he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly called out, “Xu Yan, where’s Xu Yan?”
“Brother Yan seems to be buried, wuu wuu wuu…”
Xiaohua pointed at the edge of the stone coffin, crying as she spoke. Tiezhu was stunned for a moment, then quickly rushed to the side of the stone coffin, desperately digging at the rocks.
“Quick, dig Xu Yan out!”
With Tiezhu’s call, the others immediately came to help. After a great effort, Xu Yan, who had been deeply buried in the sand and rocks, was finally dug out. Although he was covered in dust and dirt, he wasn’t seriously injured—just some superficial wounds. If it had been a bit longer, he might have truly been buried alive.
“Cough… cough… ptui ptui!”
Spitting out the sand in his mouth, Xu Yan gasped for breath for a long time. Only then did his eyes regain some clarity. The other boys thought the black wolf had been crushed to death by the “earth-dragon turning over,” but Xu Yan knew that the black wolf hadn’t been crushed to death—it had been blown up.
‘A small thunder pearl could actually blow up the entire mountain interior!’ he thought in amazement.
Despite his shock, Xu Yan became happy. There were three thunder pearls in total. One had been used to blow up the black wolf, but he still had two left in his possession.
The common people of Linshan Town didn’t have much knowledge, but they knew there were extraordinary people in the world. Some had even witnessed the power of the imperial army’s cannons. However, Xu Yan knew some strange tales that ordinary people didn’t understand.
These were stories that the old Taoist priest Xu Daoyuan had told him, about some unusual people who lived by cultivation. Some of these unusual people could leap thirty feet in a single bound, light as a swallow; some could wield swords like rainbows, splitting mountains and rocks; and even more remarkably, some could command the power of heaven and earth, bringing down wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. These unusual people were called cultivators in the old Taoist’s words.
People who struggled in cultivation to reach their own limits.
Stories always make people yearn, but once the scenes from the stories appear before one’s eyes, for ordinary people, what they bring is probably not joy, but inexplicable fear. But Xu Yan was different.
The things Xu Yan had seen were already extremely bizarre. He could even see ghosts, and people who were invisible to others. It was indeed difficult for such a person to feel fear. After learning about the immense power of the thunder pearls, Xu Yan was not shocked, but rather delighted.
With his own exquisite stone-throwing skill, perhaps becoming a warrior in the future wouldn’t be difficult, but he was still far from being a cultivator. Now, having witnessed the true power of cultivators, it was like opening up another sky for Xu Yan. Though it was full of the unknown, it was even more full of wonder.
“Xu Yan, Xu Yan!”
Someone was shaking him. Only then did Xu Yan recover from the joy of obtaining the thunder pearls. Before him was Tiezhu’s large face, which had almost lost all color.
Feeling Xu Yan’s forehead, Tiezhu said anxiously, “You weren’t knocked stupid by the rocks, were you? Xu Yan, you’re already stupid enough—if you get any stupider, you’ll really be an idiot!”
Tiezhu had been calling Xu Yan for a long time and found that he kept staring blankly. He thought Xu Yan had been knocked stupid by the rocks. ‘Xu Yan’s usual behavior is already stupid enough—if he gets any stupider, he won’t even be able to catch rabbits,’ Tiezhu worried.
“I’m fine.”
Xu Yan stood up, supporting himself against the stone coffin. When he spoke, Tiezhu and the others finally relaxed.
“You scared us to death. We thought your head had been damaged,” Tiezhu let out a long breath and said, “We’re trapped here. I’ll lead them in digging a passage. You rest for a while, and when you have strength, come help.”
Confirming that Xu Yan wasn’t seriously injured, Tiezhu continued to lead his companions in digging the passage, though progress was extremely slow.
Xiaohua didn’t have much strength, and no one expected her to help. The little girl sat down beside Xu Yan and said, wiping her tears, “Brother Yan, can we still get out? Xiaohua wants to go home.”
Embracing Xiaohua’s thin shoulders, Xu Yan comforted her softly, “We can get out. Brother Yan never lies. Don’t be afraid, Xiaohua. We’ll be able to get out very soon.”
The “very soon” in Xu Yan’s words was indeed very soon, because very soon a day had passed, and the passage the boys had dug was not even twenty feet deep.
To leave the mountain’s interior, a passage of several hundred feet would be necessary. Digging only twenty feet in a day—this hope of escape was so slim that even Xiaohua couldn’t feel it, because in another two days, these boys would all starve to death.
People can go several days without food, but without water, these half-grown children definitely wouldn’t last three days!
Xu Yan’s arms had recovered considerably. He didn’t go help Tiezhu and the others dig the passage because it was just a futile effort. Xu Yan had thought about using another thunder pearl to blast a way out, but the surrounding space was too small. If the thunder pearl exploded, no one would survive.
As time passed, great fear once again surrounded the boys. Collapse was inevitable. With his ability to move restored, Xu Yan turned his gaze toward that strange stone coffin. In his eyes, this stone coffin became the only hope for escape.
