“Chu Li, attack its throat!” Qing Xia’s dagger flashed like countless flowers. With her petite figure, she immediately leaped in front of Chu Li. Chu Li’s long spear couldn’t be properly deployed in this place—instead it was cumbersome. Qing Xia suddenly spun upward, abruptly swinging her blade down in a charge, then struck with a backhand palm. With a thud, she felt her palm hit something as hard as stone—solid as iron and painfully sharp.
Qing Xia was terrified and shouted loudly, “Who goes there? State your name!”
But the person opposite seemed to turn a deaf ear, using vicious techniques with swift strikes. Every move carried tremendous wind sounds and boundless strength.
Qing Xia felt hatred rising and thought to herself that they hadn’t provoked this person, yet he was hiding in the shadows launching deadly attacks—she need not hold back either. The opponent wore hard armor, so direct confrontation wasn’t the solution. She immediately bit the dagger between her teeth, stretched out both hands horizontally, and suddenly executed a left-right “wild horse parts its mane” technique, grabbing the opponent’s iron-hard arms. She advanced with “turning and blocking hammer,” borrowing force to strike force, then “single whip wave hand,” immediately slashing at the opponent’s elbow. With a crisp crack, the opponent’s elbow immediately broke.
But that person was extremely resilient—he didn’t even cry out, instantly spinning back to attack. Qing Xia snorted coldly, using “flash through back” combined with “spinning body kick,” sinking her knee down, instantly switching from Taiji’s “entwining character formula” to the powerful strikes of Jeet Kune Do. Another crisp crack—the opponent’s leg bone fractured and his entire body swayed to one side.
Qing Xia retrieved her dagger and said in a deep voice, “What are you? We have no intention of killing you. If you step aside and let us pass, you can keep your life.”
But that person didn’t even grunt and charged again.
“Courting death!” Chu Li roared angrily, suddenly flashing forward from behind Qing Xia. With a horizontal thrust of his long spear—”dragon emerges from the sea”—he struck directly at the opponent’s throat with a whoosh.
“Got him!” Qing Xia had just called out when suddenly strange phenomena occurred. Though pierced in the throat, the person only paused slightly before charging forward again. Qing Xia was greatly alarmed. Her dagger swept horizontally, severing the opponent’s wrist with one strike. What she felt upon contact was actually a piece of hard stubborn stone!
“Chu Li, it’s not human—smash it!” The dagger angrily slashed down, removing one of its arms. Chu Li’s spear flicked upward, and crackling sounds immediately rang out. In an instant, the person fell silent—Chu Li had split open its belly, and a pile of things spilled out.
Qing Xia frowned tightly, breathing heavily. She exchanged glances with Chu Li, then slowly crouched down, holding the fire starter toward the ground. What met her eyes was actually a pile of bronze scrap metal. This thing that had been entangled in combat with them for so long was actually a dummy made of stone blocks and iron implements, connected by mechanical brackets and hooks!
“Chu Li, this place isn’t simple. We need to be careful.”
“Mm.” Chu Li nodded. At this moment, Da Huang, who had disappeared during the fight, emerged from somewhere again, biting Qing Xia’s pant leg and calling out excitedly.
Qing Xia looked at it with annoyance and said, “Fine, considering your meritorious service in giving warning, you’re rewarded.” She took out a piece of roasted meat from the bundle and threw it to Da Huang, then continued, “Scout ahead!”
Chu Li naturally took Qing Xia’s hand and slowly followed.
The air became increasingly stuffy, temperature rising, hot winds dancing wildly. Suddenly they saw bright light appearing ahead. Both felt their spirits lift and quickened their pace.
Finally reaching the end, as soon as they emerged from the crevice, fresh air immediately rushed toward them. The sunlight was blinding, making their eyes ache. It took quite a while before they could open their eyes to see all the magical and magnificent sights before them.
Although both were people who had seen the world, looking at everything before them, they still stood stunned for a long time, unable to return their eyes to their original shape.
They found themselves standing on a high cliff. Only about a foot ahead, if they took another step forward, they would seemingly fall into this ten-thousand-fathom abyss. Behind them, this long crevice was actually on a cliff wall, and below the cliff wall was a different world entirely.
Standing at the heights and looking down, they saw below was an even deeper and larger ravine. The ravine was vast and winding, broad and enormous, stretching over twenty li from north to south as far as the eye could see, and over a thousand zhang wide from east to west. The cliffs on both sides were like giant ax cuts, unfathomably deep with bright red coloring, like the bloody maw of a ferocious giant beast wanting to devour people.
What met their eyes were clouds and mists everywhere, white fog churning. In the center of the ravine stood a towering cloud peak—magical and magnificent, with strange peaks and rocks hidden within, layers of clouds accumulated, mist not dispersing, truly like a fairyland.
Below the cliff near them was an oval-shaped large pit several hundred zhang deep, with burst rocks and rubble scattered everywhere. The surroundings were covered with huge cracks crisscrossing like a spider web, as if they had just experienced a massive explosion.
At the far eastern edge of the ravine, countless yellow earth and flowing sand had accumulated in one place, forming a towering earthen slope over a hundred zhang high, like a collapsed high-rise after blasting, with giant stones and wooden stakes inside—very frightening.
Both stood dumbfounded, unable to recover for a long while. After a while, Da Huang finally called out twice, and only then did the two look at each other, both seeing indelible horror in each other’s eyes.
The world is vast with endless wonders. Who could have imagined that in such a ten-thousand-fathom deep ravine, such a magical place was hidden—surrounded by immortal qi, truly like a fairyland.
“Should we go down?” Qing Xia turned her head to look at Chu Li and asked in a deep voice.
With no retreat behind them, no way up above, though the path ahead was mysterious and unpredictable, it was their only way out. Chu Li nodded and said in a deep voice, “Down.”
The cliff where they stood was over a hundred zhang high, level with the eastern earthen slope. Qing Xia looked around and saw no vines or ropes, frowning slightly and saying, “Can you rock climb? This place is too high—it’s no joke.”
Chu Li’s eyes showed impatience as he glanced at her, seemingly very annoyed at her underestimating him. He lifted the hem of his clothes and began climbing down first.
Qing Xia pouted at his back, crouched down to pat the little white beast that was staring at her eagerly, and said with a smile, “Da Huang, can you fly? Aren’t you a spirit beast? Spirit beasts can all fly. I’ll just throw you down and see if you can grow a pair of wings.”
Da Huang’s eyes widened, its two long ears immediately stood up, and with a sharp cry it ran toward Chu Li.
Qing Xia was quick with her hands and eyes, grabbing its short tail and saying in a deep voice, “If you don’t want to fall down and die, behave yourself later.” She quickly bound its four limbs, then tied its waist and hung it at her own waist, patting its head and saying with a flower-like smile, “Come on, I’ll take you to be an aerial acrobat.”
For Qing Xia, a rock wall full of edges like this was child’s play. The entire process was extremely smooth. Amid Da Huang’s endless sharp cries, Qing Xia landed in an instant. Standing on solid ground, the petite woman looked up and saw the man above still in midair, working hard to find the next foothold. Though his movements were agile, he was clearly a rock climbing novice with no technique whatsoever, relying entirely on his own strength and agility.
Qing Xia finally caught an opportunity to laugh at Chu Li and burst into unrestrained laughter. Suddenly she heard whistling sounds in her ears. Qing Xia was startled and saw Chu Li standing high above, throwing a clod of earth at her. Qing Xia was immediately furious and was about to retaliate when she suddenly heard sharp, strange cries in the distance. A flock of brightly colored, multicolored strange birds suddenly flew from above, swooping down toward Chu Li who was still in midair!
Qing Xia was greatly alarmed and shrieked sharply. Chu Li obviously also saw the strange birds in midair and stopped playing around, agilely climbing down rapidly.
Those strange birds flew extremely fast with huge bodies—actually the size of seven or eight-year-old children. Moreover, they seemed not afraid of people at all, with sharp beaks and fierce eyes, clearly already considering Chu Li in the high sky as a delicious meal.
Qing Xia was greatly alarmed and rolled up her sleeves to climb up and help Chu Li. At this moment she suddenly saw a patch of green bamboo growing below the cliff. The clever woman’s eyes turned, and she ran several steps to the bamboo, picked up a pile of stones and put them in her arms, then whooshed up the slender bamboo. Qing Xia’s movements were extremely agile—even though the bamboo was slender and smooth, she still climbed to the top in just a few moves. Sure enough, Chu Li hadn’t climbed even halfway when the giant bird was already pressing close to him. One large bird suddenly cried sharply, flapped its wings, and its sharp large beak viciously pecked toward Chu Li’s eyes!
Chu Li held onto the rock wall with one hand and gripped his long spear with the other, fighting the giant bird. But more and more birds gathered—over ten of them—and with him in midair without leverage, his arm was immediately pecked and wounded, blood flowing freely.
“Chu Li!” Qing Xia shrieked, holding the thin bamboo with one hand and wielding stones with the other, hurling them fiercely at the giant bird.
Qing Xia’s throwing knife technique was divine—when throwing stones she was also perfectly accurate. With a thud, she hit the giant bird right in the head. Caught off guard, the large bird was suddenly struck by Qing Xia. Though the distance was relatively far, Qing Xia’s arm strength was powerful, and it was actually stunned by the blow. It suddenly fell down, dropping over thirty zhang before spreading its wings to fly up again. But this attracted the attention of most flying birds, and they all swooped toward Qing Xia with whistling sounds.
“Qing Xia!” Chu Li’s eyes were red with fury as he shouted urgently.
While continuously hurling stones, Qing Xia called loudly, “Don’t worry about me! Come down quickly!” As soon as she finished speaking, the stones in her hand were exhausted. Seeing the giant birds flying closer and closer with their foul stench pressing toward her face, Qing Xia suddenly reached to her waist and grabbed the hook and chain that had always hung there, immediately swinging it at the large birds.
This strike was fierce and powerful. Over ten vicious birds circled overhead, but none could approach Qing Xia. Feathers fell from midair—all those injured by the front hook of Qing Xia’s chain were bleeding profusely, severely wounded, crying and roaring sharply, filling the sky with blood mist and unbearable stench.
Before long, the birds seemed to fear Qing Xia’s ferocity. After circling and flying for a while, they suddenly turned their attack back toward Chu Li.