Chapter 00248: Earth Evasion Step
# Earth Evasion Step
Chapter 248
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 248 Earth Evasion Step
No one could be certain what the future held.
Even cultivators who could divine and calculate the future had a very blurry and confused view of it.
Li Chengxi heard from Lei Lei that someone close to her would experience a major upheaval in the near future, but whether it was fortune or misfortune, good or ill, she couldn't say.
She couldn't say what it was specifically either.
After listening for a long time, it was as if he had only heard a single sentence.
He felt this was standard practice for divination—spouting a bunch of ambiguous words.
It seemed cultivators weren't very reliable either.
So, he really didn't pay it much mind.
After seeing Lei Lei off, he turned his attention back to the computer.
Because her bone and sinew attributes were no longer what they used to be, and she had also learned a skill like Light Body Fall which could reduce fall damage, Yang Yiyi wasn't seriously injured from the fall this time.
She was only unconscious for a few minutes before waking up, after which she had to listen to Li Chengxi nag for a good half hour.
It was a good thing Lei Lei came in and interrupted Li Chengxi, otherwise he would have kept on nagging.
Yang Yiyi moved her still faintly aching body, stuffed the Jade Tablet into her clothes, and picked up the emergency lantern, which was as big as a paper lantern, shining it around her.
She seemed to have fallen into a karst cave.
Not far from her were stalagmites as tall as half a person.
Thank goodness she didn't land on them.
Seeing them now, Yang Yiyi felt a wave of delayed fear.
On the other side of the stalagmites, she could faintly hear the sound of running water.
Walking a few steps forward, a calm underground lake appeared before her eyes.
She raised the lantern and shone it upwards.
About ten meters above her, at an angle, was a hole that let in a faint light.
That was where she had fallen from.
However, the entrance to the hole was now completely blocked by rubble, and to get up there, she would have to climb a rock wall with a very large arc.
Returning the way she came was almost impossible.
Now, Yang Yiyi started to panic.
Being in an enclosed space underground, in a completely unfamiliar environment, if she couldn't find a way out, she would be trapped to death in this sunless place.
"Now you're panicking? Think more before you act next time."
Hearing Li Chengxi's voice, Yang Yiyi felt as if she had grabbed onto a life-saving straw.
"Brother Li, can I not get out?"
"I don't know either."
As soon as he said this, a speech bubble with the kaomoji w(Д)w popped up next to the head of the chibi figure representing Yang Yiyi on the screen.
It was obvious she was panicking badly.
Then, Yang Yiyi heard Li Chengxi sigh.
"Although I'm not absolutely certain, it's not entirely impossible. Look, the water in this underground lake is flowing. Perhaps you can follow the water to find an exit."
Yang Yiyi was instantly relieved, but Li Chengxi was not so optimistic.
There was no pattern to the flow of underground water.
It might flow to the surface through a cavern to form a river, or it might go deeper underground.
Especially in this kind of karst cave, who knew how deep the underground water would go.
Natural karst caves one or two thousand meters deep were not unheard of on Earth.
"Then which way should I go?"
"Let's check upstream first. Maybe we can find an exit there."
The downstream of an underground river was very likely a bottomless underground cavern.
Upstream, on the other hand, it was more likely to find an opening leading to the surface.
Although it wasn't absolute, heading upstream was definitely better than heading downstream.
Yang Yiyi carried the emergency lantern, observed the direction of the lake's flow, and then headed upstream as instructed by Li Chengxi.
She was being obedient this time.
This underground karst cave was much larger than expected, feeling like a massive plaza.
Yang Yiyi walked forward slowly, a little scared, always feeling the illusion that some terrible monster might be hiding in the darkness of the underground.
She walked along the lake for nearly thirty minutes, finally reaching the rock wall on the other side.
The lake water gushed out from a long, narrow, inclined channel.
The flow wasn't very strong, and it was wide enough for a person to crawl into.
Yang Yiyi held the emergency lantern's handle in her mouth and spread her limbs to brace herself inside the channel as she climbed up.
This was a very grueling task.
The rock wall was wet and slippery, difficult to grip, and she had to use all her limbs to support herself.
Water splashed on her face from time to time, and what was even more frustrating was that the incline was getting steeper and steeper, almost becoming vertical towards the end.
Climbing further up, the light from the emergency lantern revealed a distinct depression on the rock wall.
It seemed there was an opening there.
Yang Yiyi, who was climbing with her head tilted up, saw it too.
She quickly scrambled up with her hands and feet and sat on the edge, panting heavily.
It was unlikely she could continue climbing up.
Yang Yiyi didn't have the stamina, and she didn't know how much further it was.
However, the depression Yang Yiyi had climbed into was actually an entrance to an even deeper, darker cave.
"Let's follow this path and see. Use this red marker to draw a symbol on the wall, so you don't get yourself turned around."
Underground, humans lose their sense of direction, especially when navigating a complex karst cave like this, which was like entering a natural labyrinth.
After marking the spot, Yang Yiyi raised the emergency lantern and continued forward.
This time, the passage seemed exceptionally long.
The good news was that there were no forks in the road.
The bad news was that she saw no exit, not even feeling the slightest breeze that might indicate one.
The further Yang Yiyi walked, the more frightened she became.
She had to ask if Li Chengxi was still there every few steps just to bolster her courage.
This time, she walked for nearly another twenty minutes before the light ahead distorted again.
Yang Yiyi walked over and arrived in a spacious underground cavity.
It looked to be about a hundred square meters.
The ground was exceptionally flat.
Although it was now in a dilapidated state, it seemed as if someone had once maintained it.
Yang Yiyi suddenly remembered the legend of a great wild man living in a mountain cave.
When she was a child, her parents would scare her by saying that if she didn't sleep properly, the wild man from the cave would come and snatch her away to eat.
This brought back Yang Yiyi's childhood trauma.
No matter how she looked at it, this cavity resembled a lair.
But that was indeed just something to scare children.
Yang Yiyi took a few steps forward.
She didn't see a great wild man, but she did see a flat stone wall.
There were words carved on the stone wall.
At the very bottom, some blurry and unclear text read: ‘Based on the Five Elements Evasion Arts, I have comprehended the Earth Evasion Step.
Those who practice this footwork can pass through stone, their movements becoming divine and ghostly.’
When Li Chengxi saw this inscription, he felt it was absurd.
Wasn't this a Wuxia world? How did an Earth Evasion Technique from Xianxia appear?
Looking at the rock wall again, Yang Yiyi said:
"This has been destroyed. I can't see anything clearly."
Except for the inscription at the very bottom, all the words and diagrams on the stone wall had become illegible.
From the marks, it looked as if someone had taken a hammer and chipped them all away bit by bit.
It seemed this Earth Evasion Step was supposed to be a divine technique, but now only a single inscription remained.
"On the bright side, since there's a secret manual stone carving here, there must be an exit."
"Mmm, Brother Li is right."
Yang Yiyi was finally somewhat relieved, but Li Chengxi felt that, following the usual trope, was it possible that one had to learn the Earth Evasion Step to get out?
Just like when Zhang Wuji learned the Heaven and Earth Great Shift.
The inscription said the Earth Evasion Step could allow one to pass through stone.
Perhaps she had to use the Earth Evasion Step to pass through a specific hollow section of the stone wall.
But he couldn't tell Yang Yiyi this for now, or she would surely panic enough to start picking at her feet.
Yang Yiyi continued along the stone wall, trying to find another exit.
But as soon as she turned, she couldn't help but let out a sharp scream.
Not far from her, illuminated by the light, was a skeleton leaning against a rock.
It looked like it had been there for many years.