Chapter 8: Sweeping Through the Ancient Cavern

The author’s note: Aunt Hua’s family has vanished completely.

Luo Yu spent the night in another villager’s home and, when dawn broke, borrowed a flashlight and some candles, packing them carefully along with replenished food and water. Once again, he set out toward the mountains.

The journey back and forth had honed Luo Yu’s control over his mental powers. He experimented with concentrating his psychic energy, increasing its offensive strength several times, which led him to deduce: psychic energy could also be dispersed—enabling him to expand his area of exploration.

Passing through the woods, Luo Yu mercilessly killed a wild rabbit… He’d intended merely to test his power, but the rabbit twitched its legs and fell still. It wasn’t the first time Luo Yu had taken a life, but it was the first time he’d killed a small animal. He stood beside the rabbit’s corpse for a long while, unnerved by his “abilities”—it was fortunate he hadn’t used them on a person, or else he’d be a murderer now. Life, in the face of such powers, was shockingly fragile. If he encountered someone else like himself, what would he do? With psychic offense, could he also defend himself mentally?

These thoughts swirling through his mind, Luo Yu picked up the rabbit and returned to the ancient cave.

Standing once more before the “cave wall,” Luo Yu decided to attempt “psychic defense.” He enveloped his consciousness in a shell of mental energy and slowly reached toward the jade fragment. At close range, he could sense the object shift from placid to glowing, clearly activating its passive defense and launching routine attacks at him. Luo Yu felt his defensive shell gradually being worn away. After a moment’s thought, his reckless spirit surged. He retreated slightly, focused his mind, concentrated all his psychic power, and struck at the jade with full force, then retreated instantly. A wave of invisible force surged over him, and pain exploded in his mind—he blacked out.

It was a long time before Luo Yu stirred, barely able to sit up, his head too heavy to lift.

“Damn… Why is it so fierce… It hurts so much…” he groaned, rubbing his temples.

His mind buzzed with tinnitus. Half-conscious, he thought: If this goes on, I’ll end up dead… I underestimated that jade’s power… Why didn’t it flare up like this earlier?… I thought retreating would be safe… Hope there’s no aftereffects…

He looked up—wait, the barrier was broken?

The cave wall had vanished, exposing a dark passage to daylight. Luo Yu staggered to his feet, clinging to the wall, looking as battered as the bird he’d once struck—a fitting retribution.

He rushed into the passage, intent on grabbing the damned jade for a thrashing, only to discover it lying shattered—barely the size of a fingernail, broken into more than a dozen pieces scattered on the ground.

His anger evaporated, replaced by a pang of regret—how could it have broken? As he slumped against the wall, his head still aching, he gathered the fragments one by one, mentally berating himself. This was a lesson; the thing was clearly dangerous, so why had he acted so rashly? Thinking of the rabbit, he was filled with dread: never again—he must value his life, even in pursuit of adventure.

After resting for some time, the pain faded. He tested his psychic power—just a bit depleted, likely recoverable after a while, but for now, useless. So he used the flashlight to see what kind of place he’d entered.

Sweeping the beam around, he saw a stone table, a stone bench, a pile of rotten planks in a corner, and a stone bed. At the head of the bed was a hole in the wall, holding something. Luo Yu hurried over, reached in, and retrieved it—illuminating it with the flashlight: a finely wrought bronze phoenix lamp! Examining it closely, he noted the rich patina, smooth and lustrous, a genuine Han Dynasty treasure.

Luo Yu was beside himself with joy, chuckling wickedly: at last, he’d tasted the thrill of tomb-raiding! The feeling of striking it rich, empty-handed, was exhilarating. He stowed the lamp, vaguely sensing he might have overlooked something, but his excitement swept aside the thought. He scanned the room again with the flashlight, but saw nothing else. He was a bit disappointed: the cave’s owner had only a lamp—how frugal!

Unwilling to give up, he shone the light on the table’s surface—something seemed amiss. Approaching, he saw a thin layer of dust, but in the center, a square mark. Luo Yu touched it—his fingers came away clean. Astonished: what was going on? It looked as if something had stood there but was now missing, and the absence felt recent. Could someone else have entered before him? Why leave a lamp for the next visitor?

He began a careful search and discovered several clues: marks at the bed’s head where something had once sat, perhaps a small scrap of cloth, now gone; and most telling—a second set of footprints on the floor! How had the other person entered?

He traced the prints—they appeared to come from the passage. The footprints were several sizes larger than his own, slender and elegant, and the detailed patterns in the sole suggested high-quality leather shoes. Luo Yu immediately thought of that young heir.

Damn it! He gritted his teeth: no wonder the lamp was left behind—perhaps it wasn’t even worth a glance!

Luo Yu alternated between rage and dejection: so he’d become a scavenger, picking up leftovers. How had the other gotten in? He’d struggled so much—he felt utterly resentful.

Since the bronze lamp was left, maybe there were other discarded items—he’d better search thoroughly.

After another combing of the place, he found traces of a decayed meditation cushion on the bed, as if something else had once rested upon it… Besides a person, what else could go there… A person? Luo Yu’s scalp tightened: surely not—could it really have once held a body? He quickly banished the thought and avoided the bed, turning to rummage through the rotten wood.

The wood crumbled to dust at a touch, but Luo Yu dug out a battered wooden box, its type unidentifiable. As soon as he took it in hand, it fell apart, dropping two rolls of books to the ground. Luo Yu was startled, afraid to touch them, certain they’d turn to dust if handled.

Yet the books hit the ground with a crisp “snap!” and remained intact.

He carefully picked them up, worried about damaging them. To his surprise, they felt quite sturdy—not paper, but thin and supple; not silk either, their material was a mystery. He gently opened the books and shone the flashlight—astonishingly, the writing was in seal script—though regular script would have been more logical. At last, he realized what had felt “off” when he picked up the bronze lamp.

His own alchemy furnace was from the Wei-Jin period, the lamp from the Han Dynasty, and now the books in his hands were written in Qin seal script. He wondered whether the cave’s owner was simply nostalgic—how could a Wei-Jin person use a Han lamp and write in Qin script? That spanned five centuries! If the books were from the Qin era, they’d likely be bamboo slips—bound volumes weren’t yet invented. If the cave owner merely loved Qin calligraphy, the contents were both text and diagrams, circles and dots, clearly not the work of a calligraphy enthusiast but rather a narrative record.

All clues pointed to a shocking conclusion: the cave’s owner was at least four hundred years behind his time… Perhaps he’d lived at least four centuries? Luo Yu was stunned by his own speculation. When he’d first pursued the “Immortal’s trail,” he’d thought the “immortal” might merely possess unique abilities and live a hundred years or so. But this situation… from what he’d seen, it far exceeded human limits. Was immortality real?

He flipped through the books; one contained strange circles and what looked like an alchemy furnace; the other had chaotic diagrams of human meridians. Unable to read the script, he wrapped both volumes in cloth and tucked them into his bag.

There was nothing else of interest in the cave. Luo Yu used his recovering mental powers to search for hidden mechanisms but found nothing new. With lingering resentment, he turned back.

His adventure at Huangyang Ravine concluded, Luo Yu finally set out on the journey home.

Cultivation Chronicle of Brotherhood 8—The sweep of the ancient cave mansion is complete!