A Clash of Gods - Chapter 19

Chapter 19 Easy Travel
The sun shined on the waterfall, and the bright radiance reflected by the waterfall was cast into the stone room, leaving it shimmering. Yang Ning’s eyes moved away from the skeleton, staring at the stone wall in front of him.

To his surprise, the stone wall in front of him was very smooth, without uneven rocks on it. The whole stone wall was as smooth as a mirror. Indeed, the other two walls were no exceptions.

It was not new to see smooth stone walls. However, there were many murals on these three stone walls, mixed but not confused, forming series of murals.

The murals on the stone walls seemed to demonstrate a dance. The contours of the figures were quite sketchy over the waists, so it was difficult to identify whether they were male or female. But they were finely carved below the legs. He estimated that on the three stone walls there were as many as forty or fifty murals in total, all hand-carved.

Yang Ning glanced at the skeleton and realized that if he had guessed correctly, the murals on the stone walls should have been carved before the man was dead. Maybe the man lived in the cave alone and felt dull and dry, so he carved these murals on the stone walls.

However, when this man arrived at this cave, he naturally knew how to leave. It was easy for him to get out of trouble whether he chose to walk through that crack or jump over the waterfall. But why did he stay here?

These murals could never be carved overnight. This person stayed in this stone room even to death, but Yang Ning didn’t know why.

Yang Ning did not have any interest in dancing. When he returned to the stone table, he saw that the box was covered with a thick layer of dust, and there were even thick cobwebs on the edge. He flicked the dust off with his sleeves, and then he found that the box was made of brass and its cover was engraved with a pattern like a lotus flower. The overall color of the box was copper and yellow. Only the lotus seemed to be painted in black and became a black lotus.

The box was not locked. When Yang Ning opened it, he found that it was piled with writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and inkstone, and the thick pile of paper was quite yellowish.

“It seems that this person is a man of letters.” Yang Ning originally thought that there was some treasure in the box, but when he saw those ordinary writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and inkstone, he couldn’t help laughing. He removed the dust on the table for a clean place, and then took those things out of the box one by one. In addition to two writing brushes, the inkstone, a few ink sticks, and a thick sheet of yellowish paper, a cutlass was placed in the bottom of the box.

Yang Ning picked up the cutlass. The scabbard looked very simple, without many decorations. He pulled out the blade inside with strength, and then a dazzling light flashed with a puff of cold air.

Yang Ning couldn’t help shivering.

The cutlass looked like a dagger, but it was a little bit longer than the ordinary dagger. And the blade could show its sharpness completely.

He stretched a finger against the blade, just like touching the ice, cold and chilly. He couldn’t help saying, “It is evil.”

He certainly had played with swords, but he never felt such a cold blade.

“Are the murals on the walls carved by this cutlass?” Yang Ning couldn’t help thinking. But the blade was so brilliant, and there was no flaw on the blade or the edge of it. He took the cutlass to the edge of the stone wall, found a blank space and then made a deep scratch on the wall. The cutlass was extremely sharp, and it was not damaged at all.

“It really is a treasure.” Yang Ning was overjoyed. One of his hobbies was collecting swords, and he especially preferred such short swords. In his previous life, he had collected a lot of daggers.

Ordinary people couldn’t identify whether a sword was good or bad. But experts knew that there were many tricks.

No matter from its appearance or its sharpness, Yang Ning was sure that this cutlass was really a famous one-in-a-million weapon. If it was shown in the later generation, it definitely would be priceless.

After putting the blade back into the scabbard, Yang Ning placed it in his bosom, and then he returned to the table and sat down. He turned over the pile of yellowish paper, half of which was written with characters. Although he hardly understood the ancient characters, Yang Ning could see that this person was good at penmanship because his handwriting was free, bold and quite imposing. And most of them were poems and prose.

Suddenly he saw a piece of paper which seemed like a letter, and after recognizing it carefully, he read it with difficulty, “I was suspicious, but our friendship had lasted for half a lifetime, so I was really in a dilemma. All I could do was to live in seclusion, so that our relationship might remain as it was in the past.” Leaving white space for a paragraph, he continued to write, “Killing all the dissidents was just like burning the bridge. There was no chance for us to see each other again. Although the gap of strength between us was wide and it was difficult for me to achieve his level, I had learned the skill of Easy Travel, so he couldn’t hurt me!”

Yang Ning was totally confused by this, not knowing what it meant.

He put the writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and inkstone back into the copper box again, and took out the scroll painting from his bosom, unrolling it on the stone table. He thought the Skills of Six Directions was not simple since God of Wood was wholly preoccupied with it.

He had memorized the first six of the eleven pictures. At present, he was bored and free, so he began to observe the seventh picture, hoping to find some clues with his wisdom.

Yang Ning did not want to leave this place immediately.

He was very certain that God of Wood would never give up for this scroll painting and he might wander around this place. If Yang Ning went out at this time and met him, he would definitely die.

God of Wood might not know that he was still alive, but he would never give up looking for the scroll painting so easily. He was the kind of person who refused to give up until all hope was gone, so Yang Ning definitely would not leave away just because God of Wood saw that he had fallen off the cliff.

Yang Ning knew that the hope of catching up with the escort team to find Xiaodie was getting slimmer, but he was in great danger now, so he could only save himself first.

If he rushed out and met God of Wood unluckily, he might lose his life instantly, let alone rescuing Xiaodie. Only if he survived, could he continue to find Xiaodie and rescue her from despair.

As for the remaining five pictures, Yang Ning merely spent half a day to confirm the acupuncture points that the red lines passed through. However, after reading all the eleven pictures, Yang Ning still could not understand what its magic was. Anyway, he had memorized the position and direction of these acupuncture points connected by each red line.

After noon, Yang Ning felt hungry. He searched every corner of the stone room, but could not find any food, wondering how the skeleton had lived before. Could it be that this man was starving to death in this stone room?

He could only drink the water of the waterfall first, and filled half of his stomach with it. Fortunately the water was sweet and refreshing, and could temporarily relieve his hunger.

He walked around the stone room, looking at the murals one after another. After a circle, he suddenly found that the first mural on the left wall was exactly the same as the last one on the right wall. The first mural on the left seemed to describe the starting posture. After the whole dance, the last mural seemed to be back to the starting point.

After seeing the last mural, Yang Ning found that there were several lines of characters inscribed in the corner. He looked at them carefully, and found that it seemed to be a poem that read, “Sand and dust were blew thousands of miles away. There was strong wind passing through the forest today. Within the universe and around the world, only I could make an Easy Travel.”

“Only I could make an Easy Travel?” Yang Ning said lightly, and immediately thought of the inexplicable paragraph on the yellowish paper just now. He wondered if this poem was related to that paragraph.

Is this dance called Easy Travel?

He was really at leisure for being trapped in this room, so Yang Ning couldn’t help but stand in the posture of the first mural, and then moved in accordance with the second mural. After looking at seven or eight murals, he found that the dance was very strange. It seemed that the movement in each mural was very clear, but the connection between them was quite abnormal. For example, if he wanted to change his step into another step in the next mural, he needed to turn around over half a circle.

He looked at the murals while imitating the actions, but the connections between the movements later became more and more awkward. Sometimes, he had to move forward or backward in a semi-arc. Sometimes he needed to slant to the left or made a 180-degree turn to the right. He didn’t feel strange when looking at those murals, but after doing it himself, he found it was difficult.

Yang Ning managed to move like that step by step, but his movements were still stiff, which were far from being free and easy like the murals. He couldn’t help but wonder if this series of murals omitted many steps?

After taking ten steps in accordance with the murals, Yang Ning felt a little anxious. This was not because of his poor patience, but because that each of his step seemed to be awkward. And he felt that his movements must be unpleasant to the eye, lacking the sense of natural grace. Yang Ning’s confidence was greatly decreased, so he gave up studying and lay on the ground to sleep.

But after he lay down, his mind was not clear. He was thinking about the various acupuncture points in the scroll painting now and the steps he just took then, wondering how to walk in a free and easy way just like murals.

After lying down just for a while, he got up and practiced again. Having practiced for a short time, he was a little frustrated and then stopped. But soon afterwards, he couldn’t help but continue to practice. The dance seemed to have magic power. The steps were strange but appealing, attracting him to figure out how to practice well.

In fact, although there were nearly fifty pictures on the murals, there were only forty or fifty steps all together. But these steps were weird. After practicing a set of steps uncomfortably, he was drenched in sweat.

In the next two days, Yang Ning repeatedly practiced the steps carved on the walls. He practiced countless times from beginning to end and was already very familiar, but he still lacked that natural charm. Luckily, his movements were much more proficient after two days and were no longer stiff.

By the evening of the third day, Yang Ning could not bear to be hungry. In these days, he drank the water of the waterfall to relieve his hunger, but he still lacked food to replenish himself. Lack of physical strength, coupled with a few days of practicing the Easy Travel, he was dizzy because of hunger. He knew that if he still stayed here, he would really starve to death.

Thinking that three days had already past, he supposed that God of Wood should leave here even if he was patient. It should be okay if he got out now.

There were two ways to go out. One was that he could walk along the crack and then climb the vines to the top of the cliff. And the other was very straight. He could jump directly from the waterfall.

Jumping from a height of more than ten meters was very dangerous. Yang Ning knew that if he jumped from such a high level, the impact would be tremendous. If an accident occurred, he might break his bones or even die.

But if he got out through the crack, he could only climb up to the top of the cliff. That’s not safe anyway.

Yang Ning looked at the cliff below the cave entrance, which was quite steep. Instead, he could climb down the cliff first. Even if he fell off, there was a pool below, and there was always a chance to survive.

Yang Ning did not hesitate and climbed down carefully from the cave entrance. Thinking of the sharp and cold cutlass in his bosom, he took it out and inserted it into the cliff. It was truly sharp and sank into the cliff easily. Yang Ning moved down a little bit, and with the cutlass, he went down for several meters.

After he pulled out the icy blade, he was about to thrust it into the cliff again. In this flash, he slipped and fell down. Yang Ning released his hands quickly. With a thump, his feet fell into the pool first and then his whole person immediately sank into the pool below. In the moment when he fell into the water, he was hit by an impact all over the body, his internal organs rolling and his head dizzy.

The pool was extremely deep. Yang Ning came around in the water for a while. Then he initiated his pull with his limbs, and after swimming for a moment, he floated to the surface. Seeing the bank, he swam over and climbed up it. He was wet all over, and still felt a little bit uncomfortable after the impact. But he was not hurt, not to mention the risk of life.

Looking around, he found that this was a valley, with plants and trees, and it was surrounded by towering mountains on all sides.

He was so hungry that he just wanted to find some wild fruit to eat. He saw a forest not far ahead, so he walked over quickly and then entered the forest. The sky was getting darker. After searching for a while, he found several fruit trees. He neglected everything, and sat in the tree to eat the fruit after picking it.

After eating six or seven fruit, his hunger was finally relieved. He got up and stretched himself. At this moment, he heard a sound around him, so he turned his head to look over, only to see a pair of eyes which were as sharp as the blade of sword. A figure was a few steps away from his side, like a beast that found prey.

It was exactly God of Wood!