Chapter 116 – The Fire Crystal (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

It smelled pretty bad inside.

Thick layers of bat feces covered the ground, and it seemed to have been piled up for years. The upper layer was a little bit fresher, which indicated that the giant bats come here almost every day. It’s only that they haven’t seen them right now. Perhaps they would come later when it becomes dark at night.

On the walls of the pit, there were a lot of big cracks with diameters that varied from one meter to a few meters. Some sounds came out of the crevices, which were the origins of the sound that they heard earlier. The screams of bats could be heard by almost everybody. However, some of the sounds exceeded the hearing abilities of junior totem warriors. Only intermediate warrior like Mai could capture them. Perhaps, there were some noises that even Mai and the other intermediate warriors couldn’t hear.

The sound of airflow rapidly flowing by was always there, and it rang every now and then in a very rhythmic way. Shao Xuan was the only one that could hear it.

Although the sounds of bats came out from those wide crevices, it still sounded from afar. Just because of that, Mai and Cheng allowed the other warriors to climb down the pit. Still, they warned them to be extra careful so they don’t make any noise.

There were claw marks around the crevices, which were similar with the ones they found on the rock near the water spot. Those hook-like sharp claws of the giant bats enabled them to hold on the crevices of the rocks tight and move easily.

“Ah-Cheng!” Cha whispered.

Cha found a stone sword near the big crevices, and it was from one of the missing warriors.

“It seems that they indeed had been brought in here, and got dragged into those cracks.” Cheng glared at the wide big crevices with hateful eyes. He wanted to slaughter those things and kill them all. However, now it was not a good time. They had too few men, while the bats were too large in quantities.

There were a lot of crevices spread all over the walls, which reminded Cha of the holes they found when they were tracking the bats down. Perhaps the holes in the hill were all connected with the crevices in here.

None of them had any idea of how long the crevices were, or where they extended to. All they could do was speculate. However, those things had similar abnormal behaviors, so at least half of their speculations were true.

Shao Xuan kept staring at the ground under his feet. In the meantime, he carefully experienced the direction of the totem flames in his mind.

Unlike when he was outside of the pit, now the flames on his totem had no specific direction. They were just rolling and dancing in a fierce way.

Shao Xuan lifted his foot slowly, and walked forward.

He was not walking fast. Instead, every step that he took was very careful. The others thought that Shao Xuan was doing that in case he made any noise. But aside from that, Shao Xuan was feeling the changes when he made every step.

Something was influencing the totem. According to the totem’s reaction, it felt like some object from the Shaman’s Volumes that he read in the Shaman’s place. It could be embedded on the walls, or buried under his feet. There was more than just one of them.

However, the giant pit was too large. It was impossible for him to carefully check every inch of it since he also had to prevent all the possible crises at any time. All he could do was to feel it roughly, to see if he could locate a general spot.

One step…two steps…ten steps…

Suddenly, Shao Xuan stopped.

It was in here!

Shao Xuan squatted down, and wiped off the layer of bat droppings on the surface with his stone knife. There revealed the ground in the bottom of the pit.

The ground down there was very hard, a lot harder than normal stones. No wonder there were not too many plants in this area. There were only a few grasses and plants here and there. They were all tenacious grasses and plants that they grew in this place.

The rock-like ground was very hard. Shao Xuan tried the rigidity and found that his tooth sword was able to prise off the surface.

Shao Xuan did not mind the filthy feces around, but placed his palm on the ground to feel the origin that aroused the totem in his mind.

It was not buried deep. It was just under his palm. He sensed that he might be able to grasp it in his hand as long as he digs a little. However, that would make too much noise.

Just at that time, Shao Xuan heard Caesar roaring in a deep voice above.

“Uncle Mai! Something’s coming from the sky!” Said Shao Xuan.

Just after Caesar gave them a warning, Shao Xuan promptly rolled over to hide under the leaves of the vines, so that the thing from the sky won’t spot him easily.

“Hide!”

Mai and Cheng both called their warriors to hide themselves.

The others did not say much, but all made quick reactions. They hid behind vines and other plants.

Thirty warriors quickly found their own shelter, and it was very difficult for anything to notice their existence from above.

Not long after that, there appeared some noises from the sky.

Shao Xuan looked through the gaps of the leaves, and realized that a few jet black giant bats were flying down to the pit from the sky. They were all very large, and the smallest of them had the wingspan of no less than five meters.

They were in groups of two, holding giant-antler deers. It seemed that they attacked a herd of giant-antler deers.

Earlier, they heard that the giant-antler herd had already migrated from this place. They were not sure whether the bats attacked another giant-antler deer herd, or they directly went after the one that had already migrated.

Flying down from above, the bats came to a wide crevice, and flew inside with their prey, one after another, until they disappeared in the dark crack. However, during this process, a dark-brown bat with thicker fur remained outside, with its eyes staring at the pit.

Compared with their visual ability, their sense of smell and hearing were actually a lot shaper. It had not seen any abnormal signs, but it smelled something different.