92 Into the Dark Den

Yun woke up drowsily as the sun began shining on her face. She slowly began to gain cognition of what had happened and looked around quickly, ensuring she was still safe. There was a small knot in her heart from not knowing where Wuying was — or if he was alive — but she had to move on regardless.

Stretching out a little bit, Yun winced at the soreness in her arms and legs from the desperate climbing yesterday. Normally a day of climbing wouldn't leave her tired or sore, but after the large drop she had as well as the fight with the Immortal Wyrm she had overtaxed her body. This was certainly going to be an interesting day of climbing.

Yun looked up and down the cliff beside her, trying to decide what to do, before she finally firmed her heart and started to ascend. If an Immortal Wyrm was living on this cliff and had achieved such a high level it most certainly was guarding some kind of treasure. Vicious beasts loved to guard natural treasures until they matured so they could use their auras to grow stronger.

Slowly, painfully, Yun climbed inexorably upwards. Every time she encountered a small ledge she would rest and stretch her sore muscles as much as she could, but there was very little opportunity to do so on these sheer cliffs. In a few places she managed to pull out some shattered stones, from where the Wyrm was trying to grip the cliff face when the giant bird ripped it off the wall, and create a small space to sit in, but these were few and far between.

After spending the entire day climbing Yun finally reached the wider ledge below the mouth of the Immortal Wyrm's den. She sat down to rest at this point, needing another short break before finishing the climb up to it's cavern.

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Hours earlier, during the early morning before the suns had risen over the horizon, Wuying had prepared himself to climb up to the mouth of the cave. He had chosen this early hour because once the suns began to rise they would shed some light into the cave mouth and give him a better idea of the interior.

He slowly climbed the cliff face and arrived at the entrance just as the suns began to rise over the horizon. Looking out over the territory before the mountains, Wuying watched the suns rise gloriously on what was known as the Great Boneyard.

A massive tract of land that had few trees, but many hills and valleys covered in all sorts of smaller greens such as bushes. This was a land of death. Every centennial conflict there would be large scale battles here between the Volvaka and the Iron Warriors Sect. Various swaths of land would become stained with blood and covered in bones. Bodies would never be recovered because of the Fire-Eaters creating massive wildfires after each battle from burning the corpses of their kin.

Volvaka fire-worship was taken to the extreme after these large scale battles, after all.

After watching the suns-rise for a short time Wuying turned and began to enter the cave's dark interior, relying on the light reflected from the walls to navigate deeper until he had completely left it behind.

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Near the end of the day Yun finally managed to climb to the mouth of the cave and step inside. As she retrieved her glowing lantern from her spatial storage she noticed what looked like small tracks in the softer earth inside the cave mouth.

Could these be Wuying's?

Yun couldn't help feeling a little excitement at the thought that Wuying was inside the cave already, alive and well. With that feeling pervading her heart she began to walk inside a little more quickly than she probably should have.

After walking for over half a kilometer Yun finally reached a branch in the path. The stone in this area had been worn down to an extremely smooth surface with no dirt cover, so Yun couldn't even try to track Wuying by his footprints here. She was entirely reliant on her instinct to lead her.

Looking at the five paths before her, she really couldn't decide which way to go. Thinking the best option was the simplest she chose the furthest right and entered it immediately. After walking for a short distance she reached a circular room roughly 150 meters across and looked around. The room was almost perfectly spherical and incredibly smooth. There was nothing in it, not even a few pebbles at the bottom; was this how Immortal Wyrms made their nests?

Shaking her head and shining her light around to verify there were no other points of interest, Yun returned to the branching path and took the next cave on the right.

Within this cave she traveled nearly twice the distance of the previous one, but again it ended in a perfectly spherical room, this time only around 75 meters across. Yun had started to develop her suspicions, but she decided to keep trying the following caves to be sure. Sure enough, the next two caves were also the same, one was 50 meters and the next was 25 meters. Four of the five caves had now been explored, but Yun had a strange feeling about the fifth space. She felt like there was some kind of repulsive, disgusting energy within that made her hackles tingle with micro-activity.

Regardless of her feeling, Yun determined to continue forwards in the hope that she would find Wuying within.