CH 57.3

Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.

The two team members guarding the two of them suddenly came to their senses and looked around in absolute shock. After finding that Chu Yan and Qiao Zhiya, who were sitting on the middle stone, had disappeared, they hurriedly called out Lin Zhen to make a rescue. 

Lin Zhen turned his head, and his expression changed drastically.

On a certain mountain wall not far behind the stone, a big hole unexpectedly appeared at some point. On the grass in front of the hole, a piece of emerald jade that had lost its color was lying quietly.

“Damn it, what’s going on!” Chu Yan seemed to wake up with a jolt. Seeing that both him and Qiao Zhiya were entangled with a black object of unknown material, he quickly dragged both of them away to the ground. His heart was pounding so fast it felt like flying from his ribcage. 

“I don’t know,” Qiao Zhiya frowned. He wanted to look back at what was dragging the two of them, but found that he couldn’t move at all. He tried to mobilize his magic power, but it seemed to be blocked by something, and he couldn’t sense it at all.

But his intuition told him that the beast that dragged them to the depths was not aggressive. He tried to keep his calm and comfort Chu Yan, saying, “Don’t worry, this alien beast that grabbed us doesn’t seem to have any intention of harming us.” 

Chu Yan exhaled, and the erratic beating of his heart seemed to have slowed down a bit. He looked at the surrounding situation very carefully, his eyes lit up, and asked, “So we were dragged back to the cave by the boss of this mountain like that guide? Are we going to find the Star Sand then?” 

“…maybe, but let’s not be too optimistic,” Qiao Zhiya reminded him as he looked around the extremely deep and wide hole.”Lin Zhen is still outside. I immediately left him a message after I found out that something was wrong, but I don’t know if he saw it.”

“What did you leave for him?” Chu Yan was puzzled.

“An emerald jade.” Qiao Zhiya replied.

On the ground, Lin Zhen immediately stepped forward to pick up the emerald jade, feeling a little heavy in his heart. He wanted to report the situation to Chu Rong and ask Chu Rong to mobilize the power of the nearby planets for reinforcements, but found that the communicator request had failed. Later, he found that not only the communicator, but all devices that gave off signals of some sort could no longer use that function. 

“Captain, what should we do now?” One of the team members asked anxiously, blaming himself.

If it weren’t for their inexplicable distraction, the third young master and Qiao Zhiya would not have been kidnapped.

Lin Zhen turned off the communicator that had no signal response and glanced into the cave. With a decisive attitude, he started to plan a rescue mission. “We will go in and save them! First, we need to know how far this signal-jamming area is. We can’t ask for reinforcement, as it will be too long. We will go inside!” 

Meanwhile, with Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan. They didn’t know how far they’d been dragged, but after entering an empty and damp underground cave, their bodies stopped, as their clothes snagged into something. The black unknown “belt” was automatically loosened and fell off. Chu Yan immediately led Qiao Zhiya back against the wall, looking defensively in the direction where the unknown material fell off. 

In the dark underground, a pair of huge blood-red pupils looked down at them. An eerie, bone-chilling hiss reverberated inside the cavern, sounding sharp and shrill in their ears. 

“Ah——” Chu Yan swallowed back his exclamation with difficulty. He looked at massive eyes, his heart rose to his throat. He reflexively touched the mecha’s space button, trying to take it out for defense. 

“Give me back my child.”

The snake’s hissing sound suddenly increased, and an invisible pressure spread over him. Chu Yan felt his spirit sway, and almost fell to the ground with his knees weak. Thanks to Qiao Zhiya’s support, he only slumped against the blond youth. 

Such a strong spiritual power suppression!

“Qiao, I’ll stand in front, you run!” Chu Yan’s expression became ugly. Struggling under the pressure of his spiritual strength, he managed to shove Qiao Zhiya behind his back, glaring at the unknown beast. 

Qiao Zhiya was a little confused. The black-skinned and red-eyed beast in front of him… seemed to be talking?

“Can’t you hear it?” He tugged at Chu Yan’s arm.

“What did you hear?” Chu Yan’s movement of holding the mecha was lost by him, sweat was faintly visible on his forehead. “The pressure of this alien beast has become stronger. Prepare for an escape, I will take out the mecha in a while it’s not attacking, you run outside!”

“Give me back my child!”

The snake’s hissing became louder again, and the red pupils got closer. Chu Yan huffed with a painful expression on his face, and endured the pain. He couldn’t help raising his hand to press his forehead.

Qiao Zhiya was startled. He quickly took out a potion for him to drink, and then walked out to face the monster that was so huge that only its head could be seen. He tentatively asked in Elvish, “Did you just talk to me? “

The alien beast moved its head. It fixed its eyes on him, poked its tongue out, and hissed again, “What are you talking about? Damn human, I saved you, but you stole my child! Curse you!” 

The pressure in the air increased again, and with a click, the potion bottle shattered. Chu Yan’s eyes were red from exertion, and finally he couldn’t bear the pressure and fell down. His hand was still reaching his mecha, and he urged Qiao Zhiya to run quickly with a hoarse whisper. 

Qiao Zhiya hurriedly stood in front of him, feeling a little anxious.

The alien beast in front of him is obviously about to lose its mind, and it doesn’t understand the meaning of Elvish like Xiao Hui. But how did the other party speak in his head, it’s obviously just hissing. 

‘Wait a minute, in my head? Xiao Hei seemed to use this method when he asked for help before. But Xiao Hei’s meaning was rather vague, and they’re both black-scaled…’ 

With a flash of inspiration in his mind, he hurriedly took out Xiao Hei, who seemed to be a little stiff, from his pocket. He tried to mobilize the magic power again into a special wave before replying again in Elvish, “Is this your child?” 

The snake’s crazed hissing stopped abruptly, and Xiao Hei’s stiff body suddenly softened. Hanging on his hand, it hid his head by coiling tightly. It seemed like… Xiao Hei was afraid of facing this monster snake? 

The oppression in the air became weaker, and Chu Yan finally could gasp for air. He felt so much better. 

Qiao Zhiya once again felt the embarrassing feeling when he rescued Xiao Hei. He handed Xiao Hei forward again, and said in Elvish with extra magic power to amplify his voice, “I rescued it on a cliff wall. At that time, it was hanging on a small tree on the cliff, and was very weak. It has been by my side for the past few days, and it has recovered, you see.” 

The alien beast stretched its head forward again, and gently stretched its parts. The tip of its forked tongue came over, licked Xiao Hei who was pretending to be dead, and tried to wrap it up.

“Hiss hiss!”

Sensing its intention, Xiao Hei immediately revived. Without hesitation, it slid along Qiao Zhiya’s arm to his shoulder and hid himself in deception, his tail flapping angrily, obviously throwing a temper tantrum.

Qiao Zhiya: “…”

After Chu Yan regained his breath, he immediately got up, and found that the situation seemed to be a little different from what he expected. He immediately whispered, “What’s going on?” 

“It’s just…” Qiao Zhiya grabbed the slithering Xiao Hei, then glanced at the huge alien beast. Somehow, he felt like the giant snake was sad, somehow. He dryly said, “Xiao Hui’s story is repeating itself.” 

Simply put, they have experienced saving a child, and were approached by the child’s mother. 

Chu Yan: “…”

He turned his head to look at the unidentified beast with two red eyes. The corner of his mouth twitched, somehow feeling the situation hilarious. Chu Yan grabbed Xiao Hei from Qiao Zhiya’s hand, and mercilessly threw it towards the huge beast. 

“Be careful!” Qiao Zhiya was taken aback by his action. He hurriedly caught up to Chu Yan, trying to catch Xiao Hei. But he found that the huge beast had already caught Xiao Hei before them, and rolled its small body with its tongue. 

Xiao Hei began to struggle wildly, hissing and screaming, like a rebellious child who didn’t want to go home.

The huge beast took a deep look at them, took Xiao Hei back, and quickly disappeared into the dark cave.

“So what’s going on?” Chu Yan felt as if the world had gone crazy.

“It seems that a human being was rescued by this alien beast, but he stole Xiao Hei and threw it halfway on the cliff. This alien beast should be Xiao Hei’s mother.” Qiao Zhiya made a reasonable guess based on what the alien beast said.

Chu Yan frowned. “Human? Ah, is it the guide then? Why is he so wicked? So Xiao Hei is blaming its mother for not protecting it?” 

Shouldn’t the normal situation be that the baby jumped into its mother’s arms after seeing its mother again? Telling about the grievances it experienced and looking for comfort? What’s Xiao Hei’s reaction?

“…Uhh, probably yes,” Qiao Zhiya replied vaguely, feeling guilty for Xiao Hei.

In fact, judging from his observations of these past two days, Xiao Hei’s situation was more like a playful runaway who was having fun exploring the world without parental supervision and refused to go home. Another point was that Xiao Hei seems to be fascinated by the feeling of sucking magic power. He wasn’t willing to quit that. 

The two looked at each other in silence for a few seconds. Chu Yan’s eyelids twitched and he said first, “Now that the reptile’s underground lair has been found, can we go look for Star Sand? That alien beast should not attack us again.”

Qiao Zhiya nodded, and then said, “But Lin-laoshi and the others are still outside—”

Before he finished talking, he heard a familiar sound of footsteps faintly echoed from the way they came. 

Lin Zhen and his team found the two lost youths, and he finally heaved a sigh of relief. Qiao Zhiya didn’t waste time and told him what happened, and Lin Zhen fell silent after understanding the situation.

“Let’s look for the Star Sand first, because this powerful beast has no time to take care of us now.” In the end, he decisively changed the subject and brought everyone’s attention back to their original mission. 

Chu Yan looked around since long time ago. He took a small lamp to shine it around, saying, “There are so many holes and forked ways here. Where do we start looking?” 

Lin Zhen looked at Qiao Zhiya, and Qiao Zhiya mobilized his magic power, only to find that it was working as normal. He stepped forward and put his hand on the mountain wall, and said, “Everyone, wait for a moment.” After speaking, the magic power penetrated along the mountain wall.

The alien beast that wandered somewhere noticed this movement, looked back at the humans who came here. It led Xiao Hei, who was still struggling, to go deeper, while silently protruding its strength.

Above the ground, near the entrance of the cave, a controlled alien beast wandered nearby. It quickly dug soil to bury the entrance of the cave, and then tossed around randomly, faking the area as if the alien beasts had fought there.

The volcano seemed to have returned to its usual appearance, and no one had noticed anything happening underground.

Star Sand was a special type of grinded mineral formed due to intense pressure, as smooth as sand. It was generally found distributed across the ground. It was shimmery white, and could emit a faint white halo. Since it’s found in rich, dark, volcanic soil, it looked like a belt of stars in the dark galaxy – hence the name. 

Qiao Zhiya used his earth-type magical power as a radar. He spread it across the mountain wall, and he finally received an echo feedback. He was overjoyed, especially because this reaction happened multiple times. He withdrew his hand and pointed in a direction, exclaiming, “Go to that direction!” 

Chu Yan was infected by his enthusiasm. He shouted, “Let’s go, let’s go dig for treasures!”

Lin Zhen shook his head with a smile, signaling everyone to follow Qiao Zhiya’s guidance.

The underground caves here were like a maze. Without solid guidance, it was easy to get lost. Even with Qiao Zhiya’s acting as their guide, everyone was still confused by the winding roads and intertwining caverns. 

“Behind this earth wall.” Walking into the dead end again, Qiao Zhiya did not feel discouraged like before, but became more excited, “The reaction is very strong, the distance should not exceed two meters.” 

In other words, there was no need to go around. They just needed to dig through this wall. 

“Great!” Chu Yan had walked underground for a day, so he was happy to finally find what he seeked. His eyes were dazzled as he excitedly took out his bag. With a mining hammer ready, he exclaimed, “Then let’s start digging!”

Lin Zhen immediately pressed his shoulder to stop his movement, and reminded him, “Be careful not to make too much noise when digging. This cavern was still underground without a proper structure, so there’s a risk of collapse if we put too much force.” 

Chu Yan nodded. He couldn’t wait to step forward.

The remaining team members and Qiao Zhiya were also busy taking out tools to help.

Fifteen minutes later, the dead-end wall was dug out. Chu Yan’s pleasantly surprised voice came from inside, “I saw it! Star Sand! It’s right in front of me!” 

Everyone showed happy expressions.

Qiao Zhiya hurriedly squeezed to Chu Yan’s side and looked at a small piece of bright white object embedded in the soil. He stretched out his hand to carefully remove it, and then froze – after the Star Sand was dug out, a small hole appeared on the wall. And inside that hole, a ray of white light shone faintly.

‘Is there something behind the hole?’

The two looked at each other, Chu Yan carefully knocked the small hole big with a hammer. Chu Yan peeked inside… and was stunned in place.

On the other side of the hole, in a huge hole covered with Star Sands, a thick black snake was lying. 

Sensing a movement, the giant snake turned its head and looked over. Its familiar blood-red pupils met Chu Yan again.

“Fuck…”

The hammer in Chu Yan’s hand fell to the ground. He thought that this might be the place of his death.