Chapter 94 - 89: "Is This a Prerequisite for Greatness?
Chapter 94: Chapter 89: "Is This a Prerequisite for Greatness?
"When we went out for supplies yesterday, Hey Hey brought us back. We had left the flatbed carts we were pulling at a nearby unmanned station, and we just went to retrieve them."
...
「In the time it took a stick of incense to burn.」
Chen Fan dismounted from the crocodile and stood on the summit, surveying his surroundings. He was on the very highest ridge of the mountain.
Hey Hey’s old lair was some distance from here.
It was also some distance from his camp.
The mountain wasn’t particularly large, but the ridge had a relatively flat stretch. They were now at the end of this ridge, and from this vantage point, they could clearly see the Jiangbei Wilderness, shrouded in rain and mist.
If the rainy season were over and the weather good, one could probably take in the entirety of the flat Jiangbei Wilderness from here.
There were few trees around.
Only scattered trees, not enough to form a forest.
The crocodile set him down before a massive boulder that seemed to merge with the mountainside. A hole had been carved into the stone, slanting downward into the earth—the entrance to a cave.
"This is..."
Chen Fan frowned, staring at the cave entrance before him. A feeling of extreme familiarity washed over him. He gently stroked the marks at the entrance, which were clearly left by heavy claws that had carved out the cave.
The claw marks were about twice the size of Hey Hey’s.
The entrance was also wider.
"Hey Hey, did you dig this a long time ago?" he asked, turning to look at the crocodile behind him.
The crocodile shook its head.
It pawed at the ground with its claws, then raised its head and whimpered.
"I understand."
Chen Fan’s eyes narrowed slightly, his expression growing serious. "You’re saying your parents dug this place, but they haven’t been back for a very long time, right?"
...
Standing to the side, Zhou Mo looked blankly at the messy claw marks on the ground, replayed the crocodile’s movements in his mind, and found it absolutely impossible to connect its recent body language with that sentence.
"Has anyone approached this place before?"
Chen Fan asked again.
The crocodile nodded, then shook its head.
Zhou Mo silently tried to guess the meaning of the gesture. ’Did that mean someone had approached, or that no one had?’
"You’re saying people have approached before."
"But you sensed them and drove them all away, right?"
The crocodile nodded.
"Have any Ghost Objects approached?"
The crocodile again nodded, then shook its head.
"You mean there were some in the past, but no Ghost Objects have come near recently, right?"
The crocodile nodded.
"When was the last time a Ghost Object came near?"
"A year ago?"
The crocodile nodded, patting the ground with its front claw.
"I understand."
Chen Fan let out a soft breath, a complex look flashing in his eyes. ’It seems the situation is clear now. This cave is the old nest of Hey Hey’s parents.’
’But its parents left a long time ago, and for some reason, they didn’t take Hey Hey with them.’
’After that, even though Hey Hey found a new home for itself, it continued to protect its parents’ old nest, not letting anyone get close. The aura left here is so strong that ordinary Ghost Objects don’t dare to approach either.’
’The last time a Ghost Object came near was a year ago.’
’And a year ago was precisely the point in time of Big Fish Village’s destruction.’
’Hey Hey’s own nest is right on the edge of the Celestial Pit’s cliff.’
’A group of intelligent Ghost Objects tried to break in here to lure Hey Hey away, and then they descended to the bottom of the Celestial Pit to attack Big Fish’s village.’
’If that’s the case...’
His eyes narrowed as he continued his analysis.
’This group of Ghost Objects was clearly acting under command. They weren’t the Ghost King’s subordinates, since the Ghost King was clearly sending people to Nameless Mountain for the first time. So, it’s highly likely they were subordinates of another, unknown Ghost King.’
’The Natural Ghost Fire Zone.’
’A mortal village.’
’What was worth scheming so elaborately for? Unless there was something down there. Did they get it?’
’Most likely not.’
’That night, Big Fish had an explosive burst of power and killed all the Ghost Objects.’
’Which means—’
’There must be treasures both inside this cave and beneath the Natural Ghost Fire Zone.’
’The treasure that unknown Ghost King was scheming for obviously wasn’t the Mountain Remains Embryo, but the thing beneath the Natural Ghost Fire Zone...’
"Let’s go."
After a moment of thought, Chen Fan looked at Zhou Mo beside him and said softly, "The situation is quite clear now. Hey Hey, you lead the way. Let’s go down and have a look."
...
Zhou Mo followed behind with a blank expression, asking no questions.
’He felt his name was very fitting.’
’All he had to do was stay silent.’
’He actually really wanted to know how the Station Master had managed to understand the crocodile’s crude and contradictory body language. If a crocodile had nodded and shaken its head at him like that, he would have just thought it was having a seizure.’
...
The inside of the cave was extremely bright.
Every few steps, the walls were embedded with pebbles that emitted a faint yellow glow, the same kind as in Hey Hey Cave. Even the size and spacing of the "food storage rooms" were identical to those in Hey Hey Cave.
The only difference.
Was that this cave was wider.
"Hey Hey."
Following behind the crocodile, Chen Fan suddenly started laughing. "Have you never even seen your parents since you were born?"
The crocodile, lying at the very front of the passage, didn’t turn around, but only whimpered softly.
The spacing of the pebbles embedded in the walls was identical to the spacing of the pebbles in Hey Hey Cave.
This was enough to prove it.
Hey Hey had simply copied what it saw.
’And this kind of near-perfect imitation often happens when one has never seen their parents and doesn’t know how to survive in a strange environment. That sense of insecurity is terrifying for a small child, so they copy every trace their parents left behind.’
’Actually, he had been a little puzzled when he first saw Hey Hey’s nest. The entrance to that cave was slightly raised above the ground.’
’This design...’
’Was to prevent rainwater from flowing back into the cave.’
’But—’
’When he had first arrived at this mountain, he had discovered that all the rain that fell on it would turn into a watery mist and disappear, completely unlike in the Wilderness, where rainwater would flow into crevices.’
’Only if the rain was particularly heavy could it form temporary pools of water.’
’Floods were even more impossible.’
’Under these circumstances, there was absolutely no need for a raised entrance design; the rainwater simply couldn’t flow back into the cave.’
’Of course.’
’The rainwater during the rainy season was special. In the dry season, normal rain wouldn’t be absorbed and there would still be a risk of backflow. He had guessed at the time that this might be the reason.’
’Thinking about it now, when Hey Hey dug its own nest, it hadn’t thought about the design at all.’
’It had just copied the cave its parents had carved out, one for one.’
...
"Station Master."
"Doesn’t something feel wrong?"
Sitting next to Chen Fan, Zhou Mo glanced behind him uneasily and whispered.
The passage was quite bright.
There was nothing out of the ordinary.
But...
This was too deep. They had been crawling for a full hour on the crocodile’s back.
Hey Hey’s speed wasn’t very fast; it seemed a little cautious, much slower than its speed climbing the mountain, but it was still much faster than they could run. The passage was extremely long.
He even felt that at this depth, they were already far below ground level.
They were crawling deep underground and heading even deeper.
"Let’s just wait and see."
Chen Fan didn’t reply. He just sat on the crocodile’s back, letting Hey Hey carry him deeper into the earth. ’He figured he now understood why the creature wanted to move. It had to travel this long just to get home every time it went out.’
’It was definitely tiring.’
’After eating its fill, it would get hungry again just from the run home before it could even get to bed.’
’But looking at its cautious manner, as if afraid of shaking loose a single speck of dirt, it was obvious it cherished the nest its parents had left behind. This was probably Hey Hey’s only emotional anchor.’
’And the fact that Hey Hey was willing to bring him here...’
’..AllNovelF(ull).Comant that, in a way, it saw him as its second family member after its parents.’
’In reality...’
’This little guy was just a Little Crocodile that had been abandoned at a young age.’
They passed another food storage room.
He looked again, and as expected, it was also empty.
’He had seen many food storage rooms along the way, all of them empty. He seriously doubted that if Hey Hey’s parents had lived here before, just how many Ghost Corpses would it take to fill all these storage rooms?’
’At least a tenth of all the Ghost Objects in the entire Jiangbei Wilderness would have to die.’
’That felt like it would barely be enough.’
Just then—
Suddenly, the view ahead opened up. The passage had come to an end, and at its end was a huge cavern. The crocodile also slowly came to a halt.
They had finally arrived.
This was the deepest part of the passage.
..
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