Chapter 238: Self Created Technique: Ripples of Light (I)
Searching around the area where those Fiend Demons appeared from, Long Haochen and his teammates finally found their destination, the Desolate Hissing Cavern.
Rather than saying this was a cavern, one should say that it was a crevice.
The crevice was three meters broad, six or seven meters high and the interior was pitch-dark. With an unknown depth, countless cracks covered the cave’s wall, clearly made from the terrifying sound waves.
Using his spiritual energy in an attempt to inspect the hardness of the rock, he figured that it was even harder than granite.
After observing this place, everyone looked at Long Haochen and Lin Xin unhappily complained, “This mission the Alliance bestowed us is really quite something. They didn’t make it clear to us that the Desolate Hissing Cavern was such a terrifying place. We haven’t come prepared at all.”
After pondering for a moment, Long Haochen said in response, “From my estimate, the demon forces won’t dispatch reinforcement over the upcoming three days. How about this: everyone will head to the side of the mountain and have a rest there while I will be trying to figure out the intensity of the hissing sound coming from inside of the cavern and to estimate how long we would be able to last using our own ability.”
“Captain, you are the whole team’s leader, how can we let you face such danger by yourself? I should be the one to do this: if I can bear it, it shouldn’t be a problem for any one of us.”
Long Haochen shook his head, reacting immediately, “It won’t do: no one knows what or who is inside of this cavern, and you don’t have any defensive power. If you meet another Grand Fiend, what will you do? I will be the one going in the cave, it’s the best option. I won’t penetrate too deeply; in case I sense any danger, I will immediately retreat and that will be it. Lin Xin, prepare some countermeasures against these bursts of sounds. We have to find a way to isolate ourselves from this sound, or else, we’ll be hindered by it.”
“Okay.”
What was a true leader? A true leader was the one who would assume the most dangerous roles during a mission. This was the main reason why Long Haochen had gotten everyone else’s approval.
Long Haochen pinched Cai’er’s hand, hinting to her that he would be all right, and headed into the cavern with large strides.
The cavern was very dusky, but it wasn’t any problem to Long Haochen. The Light Elemental Fairy Yating flew in front of him, and the thin golden light released from her delicate body immediately illuminated the surroundings.
After he entered only a dozen or so meters deep into the cavern, two Little Fiends’ corpses appeared before Long Haochen’s eyes. Disregarding them, Long Haochen proceeded with his venture into the cavern.
Of course, he wouldn’t plan on penetrating too deeply into the cavern, where the hissing sound that he would have to endure would be far louder, and the same goes for its intensity.
A dense stream of air flowed within the cavern: this place was a lot colder than the outside world, and the air was also clearly muddier. Long Haochen advanced slowly, carefully observing the surrounding rock walls as he did so.
He noticed that there was no trace of the rock walls having been tampered, that they seemed to have been formed naturally and that these rock walls had something in common with the rest of the cavern: there were many cracks on it, coming from the hissing sounds’ intense vibrations.
There was no pathway before him, only a rugged floor, making it increasingly harder to advance. There was no lighting of any type in the cavern, located in an irregular crack in the maintains and only illuminated by the light essence naturally released from Yating’s body. Long Haochen could thus only see his surroundings at a range of ten meters away.
As Long Haochen advanced, he silently counted the total distance separating from the entrance.
Suddenly, an immense crevice appeared in front of him, after he had walked for an approximate distance of two hundred meters. This crevice looked extremely deep, to the extent that one couldn’t see its bottom.
Waving the Holy Spirit Sword forward and aiming a Light Thorn in the crack, Long Haochen observed the situation a few dozens meters deep in the crevice, with the help of the light emitted from it.
Letting out a breath, surprise immediately appeared on Long Haochen’s handsome face.
Within the crevice were multiple serrated snaps, and in fact, there were several locations he could use to go down inside, but more importantly, he was unable to determine how deep it was. Furthermore, he could distinctly feel that dull spiritual energy fluctuations fluttered around this crevice.
These traces of spiritual energy were mild, but carried a fierce aura, as if it belonged to a man-eating monster. Aside from the two Little Fiends of the entrance, Long Haochen hadn’t seen any other corpse of demon. It was quite probable that the Fiend Clan had already penetrated deeply into this cavern, so he didn’t advance any further. What’s up with this crevice in the end?
This crevice was broad, but every place inside was covered in sharp rocks. Thinking that if he was to meet with a powerful enemy in this kind of terrain, he wouldn’t even have the chance to display the slightest part of his strength, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his brows.
The route forward contained no bifurcation, which was to say that the only way to go forward was to penetrate deeply into the crevice before his eye. It was also precisely from this direction that the terribly hissing sound busting out from the cavern came from.
Not taking the risk to enter more deeply inside, Long Haochen took a few steps back, looking at a section of wall that he could use to lean on it and found a relatively smooth spot to sit, taking a calm stance as he gathered his thoughts.
Since the Desolate Hissing Caverns was a place full of unknown danger, the safest method would be to avoid as far as possible to stay in the range of dangerous spots.
This time of pause didn’t last for long, and at the time the third series of terrible hissing sounds started, Long Haochen’s first reaction was to loosen his breath. The reason why he loosened it was not a reduction of its level of danger, but because of the matter of time.
Each of the three series of hissing sounds seemed to have happened with exactly the same interval of time from the previous one. Under such circumstances, they needed to have at least an ample time of preparation. If they weren’t certain of themselves at the time the hissing sounds started, the level of trouble would be far greater.
However, it was only for a very short time that Long Haochen loosened his breath. As he expected it, the level of danger was a lot greater after entering inside of the cavern.
Ear-piercing sharp sounds made the whole cavern tremble violently, and Yating immediately made her way back into Long Haochen’s body.
Holy Mantle was the ability Long Haochen immediately released, doing his utmost to block the mournful sound. While defending himself with particular attention, he dispersed the liquid spiritual energy in his whole body, resisting the sonor invasion with all his strength.
Aside from the fact these sounds sounded even more mournful than when they were outside, Long Haochen felt some distinct differences inside of the cavern.
Regarding these mournful sounds, the reason for these important differences compared to the outside was that in the cavern, the hissing sounds would be even more concentrated. The power their movement produced was enormous, and these violent vibrations seemed to be completely tearing Long Haochen to shreds. The terrible seismic waves that were produced went as far as to cause cracks to appear rapidly in the Holy Mantle, leading to its collapse.
The sound waves’ spreading speed was indeed extremely fast. When Long Haochen felt the formation of the gaps through his mental connection with the Holy Mantle, he immediately released a Divine Light Mantle to reinforce it.
Staying completely motionless and doing his utmost to operate his spiritual energy to stay in the most stable state possible, he released a second Holy Mantle around him.
An insight would often only appear for a short time. The reason why Long Haochen tried hard to maintain his body’s state was to not let the burst of insight he suddenly had slip away.
A short time later, the second Holy Mantle ruptured as well.
Although the hissing sounds inside of the cavern were terrible, Long Haochen was still and after all a powerhouse of the fifth step. Since Grand Fiend could barely resist these hissing sounds, how could he not do the same? With the help of this mysterious surge of insight, Long Haochen didn’t have the slightest twitchy sensation. Instead, the radiance in his golden eyes lit up increasingly and became more and more brilliant.
Holy Mantle was nothing but a Guardian Knight ability of the third step. With Long Haochen’s current spiritual energy cultivation, it wasn’t difficult to spread it at a hundred meters diameter, to say nothing of the fact he had the help of the Light Elemental Fairy Yating.
Until this Holy Mantle shattered once again, Long Haochen stayed totally motionless, and didn’t attempt anything, only trying to get hold of this burst of insight, not letting it go away, and feeling it through his senses in silence.
Deep in his innerside, he felt an intense joy: as this sensation became more and more distinct, the feeling of joy also strengthened without limit.
His internal spiritual energy having reached the 99th level, Long Haochen could be called the most talented knight that had ever existed in the whole continent. Taking this fact in consideration together with his exceptional innate mental capacity, it could be said that outside from Cai’er, no one could possibly match him in the aspects of perception and understanding.
Prepared people will always be the ones to grab the opportunities. With this burst of understanding, Long Haochen gradually revealed a smile on his face.
At the time the hissing sounds disappeared, Long Haochen felt disappointed instead of the opposite, but this burst of insight would never be able to run off from him anymore, because it already became an entire part of Long Haochen’s understanding.
A light purple radiance appeared in Long Haochen’s forefront, and in the next instant, he disappeared without basis from the depths of the cavern.
With a flash of purple light, Long Haochen appeared by Haoyue’s side. At this time, the two Demon Hunt Squads were working together in building a simple rock cavern to cut off the sound.
Long Haochen’s sudden appearance caused everyone to have a fright, almost taking out their weapons aggressively.
“It’s me.” Long Haochen hurried to say.
Seeing him, everyone couldn’t help but open their eyes wide, and even Cai’er wasn’t an exception. It was because the method he used to appear so suddenly was too unusual. He was after all a knight, and not an expert in camouflage like an assassin.
Long Haochen revealed a smile, “Since we all belong to the same side, I don’t need to conceal it from you, but I share a blood contract with Haoyue, and thus, through the connection between our blood vessels, we are able to teleport at each other’s side. For this reason, I can say that no matter what kind of danger I am confronting, as long as Haoyue is outside, I have the assurance to be able to get away.”
The members of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad were still better off, but outside from Li Xin, everyone of the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squads felt as if they were confronted with a total freak.
They even felt disappointed that they weren’t part of the same Demon Hunt Squad as Long Haochen.
Long Haochen declared, “As we anticipated it, the hissing sounds will be even more powerful inside the cavern, and carry violent sound waves and vibrations, efficient in clashing against spiritual energy.
However, I did a test back then: when confronting the last round of hissing sound, I was approximately depleted of 20% of my spiritual energy. Since there are differences in everyone’s strength, I estimate that it will at most consume 40% of your spiritual energies.”