Bab 8: Chapter – 8 - Deep Underground

"Aaahhhhh!!"

Why was she always caught in these predicaments?! First she fell off a cliff....then a tree...and now she was free-falling down an abyss suddenly formed in the ground! And this was some really long hole that caterpillar had managed to dig up! She had been screaming for so long that now even the light at the top of the hole had disappeared...yet it didn't seem the fall would be over anytime soon.....she wanted to pat on the back of the caterpillar to praise their tenacity and potential. To think that back on earth people had to build so many different digging contraptions, yet could not achieve half this success!

Some of the trees around her had also collapsed. Since the rock she had been clinging onto had already crumbled away to nothing, mid air she caught onto a branch of a tree and pulled herself onto it. Though the tree would probably not survive this great fall, but it still gave her some semblance of security.

The fall was taking so long that her thoughts started scattering – what had happened to Ye Luo.....wait, he could cultivate! She did not need to think about him. Rather she should think what would happen to her. Was this the end of her line, did she need to get ready to say bye to this world?....But if she died here and now, what were the chances that she would return back to her world?

She was still lost in thought when the rebound of the tree hitting the end turned her body into mush and her mind dizzy. She felt her hands being knocked off the branch she had been clinging onto, and she fell on something hard, rolled down, got stuck inside a hole or something, then slowly slid through it, fell again and finally hit the ground below, rolling around in a very thick layer of dirt before coming to a stop.

She felt like a train wreck. The tiniest movement of her fingers or neck sent her into spasms of pain. Her brain was buzzing, apparently going into shock mode. She simply lay there. The events of the entire day caught up, and a very heavy layer of exhaustion and numbing pain washed all over her. Rihanna tried to keep her eyes open, panicked that if she closed her eyes she might never open them again. But every part of her body and mind was flipping into shutdown mode, and finally losing the battle, her eyes closed shut, relieving itself into darkness.

'Aish....This girl seriously knows how to keep me on my toes! Every-time I look away, and she tosses herself into a pot full of boiling trouble!.....How does she keep falling every-time? Tsk!"

Unknown to Rihanna, a deep purple light slowly seeped out of her body. It was the same light which had mended her bones and body after falling off the cliff. Soon, she was cocooned inside that same warm light, her tortured and wounded body basking blissfully in this warmth. All the cuts on her body, small and big, were healing at a speed visible to the naked eyes. The light grew brighter, and then was slowly absorbed into her body. Rihanna grunted, then turned round and blissfully kept sleeping.

Sleeping....sleeping...sleeping....she slept for so long that when she finally woke up, she was hit by a bout of dizziness, making her disoriented.

Where was she?.....Why was it so dark?

Ohhhh....she had fallen down a long hole!...

Hey....that's strange! She remembered being thrown off the tree and hitting her body every-which way as she fell down and reached here....but how come there was no pain?

In fact she was feeling energetic.....her body felt light, lithe and ready for action....absolutely opposite of what she should be feeling!

Come to think of it....was this familiar?.....She had not really thought about it, but....even after falling off the cliff she had not sustained any injuries!

Wow....was this her golden finger.....or maybe special ability?!.....Super-ability of healing?

Rihanna bounced off the ground, feeling curious and enthusiastic about this newfound info. Still feeling excited, she looked around.

Though she was underground, there seemed to be some kind of dim light in this place. Perhaps something like phosphorescence on the walls or something. In this dim light all she could make out was that she seemed to be inside some kind of old, dilapidated underground architecture. Specifically inside a tunnel of sorts. The tunnel was blocked off on one side by a huge cave-in. The other side meandered along for a while before abruptly ending in a large hall. It was so large that Rihanna couldn't make out the other side of the room.

There was some kind of a large raised dais in the center. Three short stair cases led up to the dais on three side. A long narrow and short platform stood on the fourth side.

With nothing but time at her disposal, she roamed around the entire room. There were four very tall statues on four corners of the room. Weird statues of half animal-half man – maybe some kind of god or divine being worshiped in this world? Other than these statues and the platform, there was absolutely nothing else in this room – not even a door, window or skylight! Rihanna went around tapping on all the wall blocks, jumping on each floor tiles, and even tried to push, pull, rotate every part of the statues.

Nothing!

No trap doors, no secret passages, no hidden tunnels.

How in the world was she going to exit this place?

Feeling dejected and depressed, she went back to the entrance of the room and plopped down unceremoniously on the dust covered floor. A lot of thoughts were walking, running, jumping in her mind, making her feel dizzy and sleepy. Very soon her mind became increasingly fuzzy, all prior excitement washed out with her sweat, and she nodded off, her body leaning heavily against the wall.

In between her state of half-daze, something flashed in the corner of her eyes. Her eyes cracked open unwillingly, and then snapped completely open in surprise.

The dais was glowing!

Rihanna jumped back to her feet and moved forward in fearless curiosity.

A large pattern was glowing on the dais. She had not noticed anything drawn or etched on the floor of the dais earlier. Yet a very complicated, entwined pattern, with some weird characters – maybe words or numerical were glowing with a silver-gray light on the same floor. She couldn't understand the pattern, but somehow they looked like the array patterns and inscriptions she had seen in books. They were mostly related to different ancient cultures back on earth, and other than glancing at them in curiosity, she had never really bothered to study them more deeply. Being a person from the modern world, who didn't believe in superstitions, who would really believe that arrays can gather and use the energies of heaven and earth. And yet, there was actually a glowing array pattern in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of meters below the ground?!

Looking around she also noticed the statues were glowing in tandem with the pattern. They also seemed to have some patters on them, albeit different from the pattern on the floor.

After making another round, she stopped in front of the dais once more.

'Do I keep sitting here....or do I enter the array?.....If I stay here, I might be safe, but then there is no other way out....but if I enter the array, I have no clue what will follow. Hmmm....'

Rihanna took a very long breath and released it through her mouth, trying to calm her anxiety and restlessness. Then pursing her lips, she released another sigh.

'Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If this is indeed the end, then so be it. It is still better to move on than wait around helplessly. Come on girl, lets not falter due to the fear of the unknown!"

Rihanna pumped her fists inside her mind, trying to boost herself with chicken blood, and then scrambled up the stairs to stand in the middle of the glowing dais before the freshly inserted blood ran dry.