“W-what are you talking about?” Lady Vashjana stutteringly asked. Her breathing heavy and she started to back up. Taking a step back as she asked.

“T-though we are blessed to have this divine ability, it doesn’t mean that we are a descendants of Immortal Emperor Gonggong.” She added. Her hands clenched firmly.

Jian Shen was still standing. Placing his hands behind his back. Robes fluttering in the wind. He saw the sky was back to its clear blue sky. Devoid of any dark clouds and flashes of lightning. But suddenly, there was as if an illusion that could make out a shape of a person formed at the sky. Then he murmured.

‘Immortal Emperor huh?’

He couldn’t help but smile and reminisced. But he shook his head and the outlined person above the sky that he was seeing also started to dissipate.

He looked down and his gaze landed on hers. No emotion or any heavy killing intent. Only calm and peace apparent on his scarlet eyes. Eventually he sighed and said something to her made her face turned odd.

‘Okay fine, you may go. Although those illusions seemed weak, but you have a great potentials.’

Soon, Jian Shen’s body started to fade away and Lady Vashjana was dazed by how the sudden turned of events. A while later, she took a deep breath and also left the place.

The deep crater that Jian Shen made in the river was starting to fill up, covering all that happened there in a matter of seconds. Lacking of vegetation and trees in the banks of the river were only the evidence that fight broke out on this place.

At some distance away from the river, in an unknown mountain, a couple were standing on the peak while below them was a pile of large number of tree that brought by the massive tsunami.

The tsunami was already gone and it didn’t further added another damage in the place.

Seeing that the calamity has come to pass, Sikong Yi and Xiao Lin sighed in relief but their face soon returned to anxiety. They quickly climbed down the mountain wanting to find the body of their benefactor.

But to their utter disbelief, they found him at the foot of the mountain without any injuries. Even his clothes were perfectly and completely fine.

Snapping out from his shock, Sikong Yi wanted to ask him how did he survive but when he look at him. He realized that he don’t want to talk about it. Because he soon collapsed on the ground and they were frightened. Thus, they quickly tended their benefactor by finding some secluded cave in the mountain and stayed there for a week.

While Jian Shen was still unconscious and the couple would take turns in taking care of him. Somewhere in the endless part of the wide river, a slithering lady emerged from the waters. With a flash of green light, a pair slender legs appeared with a devastating beauty. The person was Lady Vashjana.

She didn’t wield any weapons except a new pair of clothes, her body was still injured but she was unfazed and only that her face was still frowning and she couldn’t helped but turned back his head looking at a certain direction.

“What are you?” she asked in murmur.

Eventually, she left the place and walked far away until she was swallowed by the horizon.

Days passed uneventfully until the seventh day arrived, Jian Shen woke up.

…

Inside a cave somewhere in a mountainous forest, lay, flickering candle light. When someone would peer into it they would notice that there’s a person lying there unconscious.

But suddenly, the corner of the person’s eyes twitched before it eventually opened with a scintillating scarlet light flashing around the dark cave. Illuminating the whole cave and frightened the sleeping bats.

“Eh? Xiao Lin! Come! Our benefactor woke up!” While the screeching of the bats startled the silent cave, but a man’s voice overbearingly battered the silent cave in a loud voice with trembling excitement.

When the couple arrived and sat at each sides of Jian Shen. He was already awake, he mused on their excited face for a while before he ask.

‘Where are we?’

“We were still near in the river.” Sikong Yi hurriedly answered.

‘Hmmm, then… How many days was I asleep?’

“Seven days had passed since you fell unconscious.” Xiao Lin chimed.

Hearing that he fell unconscious for several days he couldn’t helped but frown his brows. He tried to raise his body but he realized that he couldn’t move. He thought.

‘Why can’t I move my body?’

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Wondering, he wanted to ask the two but a dignified voice of a dragon echoed inside his mind.

“Hmph! You’re too stupid not to realize that you over exerted your strength!”

When he heard Golden Dragon Kampilan voice, he was stunned but quickly answered.

‘I greet the great Golden Dragon Kampilan, with response to your words. I knew that I overexerted my strength but I didn’t think that it would turned out like this.’

“Hmph! Acting humble now? Yet you still don’t know!?”

When Jian Shen heard his question, he helplessly smiled. Thus he bluntly asked.

‘What did I didn’t know?’

“Sigh!” The Golden Dragon could only let out a long deep and resounding sigh.

“Just look at the surrounding more deeply and you will eventually noticed the changes…”

After the last words uttered by the Golden Dragon his voice started to fade. And Jian Shen snapped out from it and returned back to reality.

“Benefactor?”

“L-Lin’er what’s wrong with him?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“Don’t tell me…”

Sikong Yi’s eyes turned wider as he face Xiao Lin whose eyes was also wide. And simultaneously they uttered.

“He’s gone nuts!!!”

‘Who’s gone nuts!?’

The duo shrieked when a loud voice responded. But when they turned their gaze to Jian Shen, they could only shy away out of embarrassment because Jian Shen was sternly looking at them.

When the two didn’t dare try to look at him, he could only sigh and say.

‘It’s fine and I’m fine. Let’s continue to rest here, I still couldn’t move my body.’

The couple’s ears twitched like a rabbit as they attentively listened Jian Shen’s words. Thus, when Sikong Yi heard his words, he quickly looked at Jian Shen and kneeled upright.

“As you command, benefactor!”

“A-As you command, benefactor!” Xiao Lin also shyly followed his words.

‘Huh?’

…

With that, the trio stayed there for another week inside that cave. The couple did the job on cooking and hunting for food while Jian Shen was still contemplating what the Golden Dragon said to him. But no matter how he look at the surroundings with different angles he couldn’t find anything that was wrong.

On one occasion while he was contemplating about ‘the change’ for days, the couple returned with a meat on their hands and started to cook it. Smelling the food, Jian Shen’s stomach grumbled and when the couple heard it, one was chuckling but the other was laughing loudly while pointing his index finger towards Jian Shen and daringly asked that ‘Jian Shen could also do something like that?’

When he realized his grumbling stomach, he quickly act as if he was asleep. Feeling indignant to his grumbling stomach. Much to his shame, he almost lose his act when he heard Sikong Yi’s taunt.

At the third day of the second week of their stay, Jian Shen could finally move his fingers until he could move all the parts of his body and it took him for the whole week to recover. Then the next day they left the cave.

…

As the trio continued their journey, piles of questions upon questions gathered on Jian Shen’s mind yet no matter how he tried to communicate to the Golden Dragon, would turned out to be futile. Thus, he could only sigh helplessly.

Placing all the questions behind the back of his head. He started contemplated his previous fight, though the fight was short but he realized that when he just used only a fraction of his power. A powerful pressured rushed down to him on every direction as if he was carrying a chained mountain all over his body turning him a crippled person, resulting for his body to collapse when he met the two person.

But when he waited for two weeks all that pressure and chained mountains was abruptly gone as if he was leased from his sin, though he didn’t think that it was sinful to use his power.

Still wondering and keep thinking deeply, he realized that in the past he didn’t feel anything like these before. So he thought, maybe this was what the Golden Dragon wanting to imply to me.

“Hmph! It takes too many days before you eventually realized it!”

Suddenly a burst of shocking resounding voice echoed in his mind snapping him out from his contemplation. Wanting to shriek but couldn’t do so because he knew that it was the Golden Dragon. So he couldn’t help but ask.

‘You can hear my thoughts too!?’

“Hmph! As powerful as me would do such lowly tricks on you!?”

‘I didn’t mean to but how did yo-?’

“Hmph! As powerful as me would need to answer such petty questions!?”

As if he was rebuking Jian Shen, he snorted for the second time before fading away.

Jian Shen could only wryly smile thinking how weird this Golden Dragon’s personality.

While he was thinking deeply on his mind, the trio has arrived into a tall and boundless gorge. Two towering cliffs that becomes a boundless mountains stood tall on sides. In between these two towering cliffs yet mountainous height, was a dark path and it was eerily quiet.

The surface of the two cliffs were rough with a pitch black color. It appears that the black cliffs was not made out of a typical soil as if it was blighted by some necromantic entity. Even so there’s no green and poisonous miasma of fogs apparent on the path only deep darkness.

‘Where are we?’ Jian Shen asked.

“We are in the Dark Curved Gorge.” Sikong Yi answered with a hint of seriousness on his face.

Jian Shen nodded when he heard his answer. Then he closed his eyes and started to release his intangible spiritual sense to the black cliff and into the deep dark path. He suddenly frowned and retracted his spiritual sense.

‘It’s really a mysterious gorge.’

“Yes it is. Actually the Dark Curved Gorge was….” Xiao Lin narrated the story of the Dark Curved Gorge.

As she narrated the story of the Dark Curved Gorge, Jian Shen finally understand why the cliffs was black and the path was too dark. Actually the gorge was once a tall pillar that pierce towards the skies, but a large great sword descended from the sky. It fell between the towering pillars body cutting it into half. Half of it turned into dust which fell down to the ground. With such a large mass of disintegrated dust from the pillar it formed into a towering mountains and turning it into what it was. And this deep dark path was the remnants of the large great sword’s intent.

The large great sword’s appearance was so evil. Countless faceless souls were vividly screaming as it moves on the sword’s body, as if it was locked down inside the swords and couldn’t escape forever. The other half of the sword was vague and no one could make out, making it a bit mysterious.

When Jian Shen heard the description of the sword he suck a cold air and muttered before he nodded.

“Hmph! You find it hard to believe right!?”

‘Yeah, I never thought that, that sword would appear again in this world.’

“Hmph! It’s just its appearance turned out to be bigger and you felt afraid. Hmph! Hmph!”

Ignoring the snorting Golden Dragon, Jian Shen asked the couple what to do. And without any plans or whatever, their answer were they took a step forward and enter the deep dark gorge. Leaving Jian Shen dumbfounded.

He could only laugh while feeling baffled, how unusual this world has turned to be.