Chapter – 181 - Metal Claw Crab in the Cave

Ye Luo lay stretched out on a large flat stone, his upper body bare as Rihanna inspected the burns covering a large portion of his left chest, neck, face and arms. Even his leg had some minor burns, but they were really minor when compared to the wounds on his chest and arm.

She really missed Little Purple. She had become too used to discussing with him whenever she met a problem, and being guided by him through all obstacles. She wondered how he was doing. He had been silent for so long, and she was still not used to it. She couldn't even enter into that contract space anymore. She had tried multiple times, but she didn't even know how she had entered it in the first place, nor where exactly it was located.

Taking a deep breath to relax herself, she contemplated on how to tackle this. She could probably absorb the fire power still moving within his body. That would bring down the level of injury to some extent. At least the burns would not keep on festering. Should she freeze the largest wounds with some ice energy to control the burn? Perhaps then the ointments wound get more time to heal the wound. Once it was in control she would remove the ice energy?

Unconsciously Rihanna glanced at Uncle Ranaba. Though the three Uncles of her by now knew a lot about her abilities, the way she absorbed energy was not something others could do.

Uncle Ranaba caught her staring at him, and he seemed to understand something. He turned and walked away, moving towards the other side of the pool, from where the water was flowing in. He seemed to be giving her time to do whatever she needed to do. This way she would neither have to explain, nor have to worry about more of her secrets being exposed.

Rihanna sighed. It was not that she could not trust them. They already knew enough. But it was getting more and more difficult to explain all the weird things she could do which others couldn't. She was more concerned with exposing those aspects of her identity which no one other than herself, Little Purple and Fluffy knew.

Somehow, she had this intuition, that exposing the fact that her soul was actually not even from this world, would be far more dangerous than her unique cultivation method or special physique.

Ye Luo was barely conscious. The pain had passed through his flesh and muscles and was now gnawing on his bones. His face looked very pale, and sweat beads clung to his forehead and neck. Even his lips were pale as he pursed them tightly, trying to stop the moans of pain from spilling out.

Rihanna took another deep breath, then sat beside him, cross legged, placing her hands over the burned parts of his body.

Activating the energy within herself, she sent out a thin stream of pure fire energy, trying to attract the fire energy of swimming underneath the burns on Ye Luo's body.

It was a very time taking process. The fire energy was different from normal fire energy, being much more volatile and uncontrollable. By the time she managed to bring it all under control and absorbed it all within her own body, her back and chest were drenched in sweat. Sending the new fire energy straight into the ancient seed space, she didn't pause as she poured in thin streams of pure ice energy on the festering burns.

Ye Luo shuddered as the pain of burning was gradually replaced by a relieving cold energy, spreading slowly all over the areas which were itching badly. As more and more cold energy slowly kept on seeping all over the wounds, the tension of the past few hours gradually relieved his mind, and very soon he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Rihanna finished the process, then generously spread a thick layer of burn-healing ointment over all his wounds, before wrapping him in layers of clean cloth. Covering his body with a thin blanket, she finally stood up to relax her tensed and tired muscles.

Feeling more energetic after walking around the flat stone, she finally looked around to trace out where Uncle Ranaba had disappeared to. The last she had seen him, he was making way towards the place from where the water was coming. Did he find it?

As if on cue, she caught sight of a flicker through the large rocks covering her view, and then Uncle Ranaba stepped out from the cracks of two huge rocks. Seeing her roaming about, he quickly made way towards her.

"It seems he is in deep sleep. Is it over?"

Rihanna nodded, feeling a bit awkward. Both of them didn't mention what method she had just used. Uncle Ranaba checked on Ye Luo's wound and seemed satisfied that the fire had gone down. If he was curious about how she had managed to remove so much of fire energy....well, he didn't ask.

"I found the entry to the cave from where the water is flowing out. The ores over there should be the most concentrated. But it is being guarded by a high-grade Metal Claw beast. Taking it down will be difficult."

"Then how will we mine the ores in there?"

"Hmmm.....I was thinking of diverting its attention. Possibly drawing it more to the interiors of the passage within the cave. Then you and Ye Luo can mine the ores."

"But shouldn't the three of us be able to handle a high-grade beast?"

"The beast is actually very small. It is barely the length of my arm. But the entire thing is wrapped in many layers of metal, giving it a very large and extremely thick shell. It will take a lot of energy to break through the separate layers of the shell. We shouldn't waste too much energy here. We still have a long way to return, and I am not sure what all beasts we might come across. Let's preserve as much of our energy as we can."

Rihanna nodded. This was a very usable advice. Especially since Uncle Ranaba and the others were lone cultivators, and were always travelling around the different countries. They had better idea about what to focus on during a journey as long and unpredictable as this.

Rihanna wandered around, then rested for some time. When she finally opened her eyes, Ye Luo too had just woken up from his deep slumber. Checking on his wounds, she noticed that they were healing nicely. Even his energy had returned to a large extent. Though still not in his best condition, it would be enough for mining the ores within the cave.

Following behind Uncle Ranaba, the two made their way around the pool of yellow water, then started climbing the upward sloping land, walking beside the streams of water flowing past them.

This path was way more rocky, with large boulders blocking their way. Sometimes they had to go around the boulder, and sometimes they would either crawl or walk sideways through the big cracks or gaps in the boulders.

The slope wasn't very steep, but they had to walk a long way upwards before reaching the cave. A large opening stood almost at the top of the slope, and the cave was underneath them.

"Wait her. The beast is resting inside. The water inside this cave is flowing in from somewhere else, and there is a long passage on the other side. I will go in first and lure the beast into the passage. Take that time and be quick. I don't want to waste too much energy here."

Uncle Ranaba tied himself to one end of the string he was carrying before loping the other end onto a large boulder beside the opening, then he swung himself off the edge and disappeared inside the hole-like cave.

Rihanna leaned over the edge to take a peek inside. The light inside the cave was blinding! The cave walls were covered in the light-reflecting yellow ore. Even from this height she could see large chunks of this ore jutting out of the rocky walls.

The cave was quite large, but due to the lighting, every single corner was brightly visible. The water inside the cave had created a spacious pool, before flowing through the cracks in the wall and making their way to the outside. At the far end of the pool, Rihanna could make out the water pouring into this pool through a thick stream flowing in from somewhere further along.

But this space was largely covered by the high-grade beast.

It looked like a large crab. The entire shell, above and below was made of a yellow colored metal. Probably due to absorbing this yellow ore, its body was the exact same color as the ore, and seemed to merge in with the surrounding rocks. It had many legs...Rihanna counted at least more than a dozen, and had very sharp and long pincers, two pairs on both ends.

Moreover, the entire shell was covered in very fine pores, and a orange smoke was being released through these pores. Both Rihanna and Ye Luo covered up their senses using their spirit energy.

Ye Luo had brought a lot of tools from his Master, and Rihanna too had bought some contraptions from the mission hall. Both got their tools and storage spaces ready, waiting for the beast to take the bait and follow Uncle Ranaba up the passage.

Uncle Ranaba didn't attack directly, instead using tools and hidden weapons to attack from all sides, merely irritating the beast. Once he had the full attention of the beast, he started moving up the passage, slowly enticing the beast to follow him. His continuous attacks were making the beast more and more annoyed, and the beast rushed forward in huff, wanting to vent his anger on the tiny-sized creature irritating him.

As both man and beast disappeared through the passage, Rihanna and Ye Luo swung down their ropes, landing softly inside the large cave. Without wasting any time, both took two opposite ends and started digging through the walls, transporting the large chunks of ores into their storage spaces.

They didn't know how long Uncle Ranaba would be able to keep the beast engaged, so they hurried through their task. As the last chunk of ore fell into Ye Luo's storage, Rihanna went around the cave, observing every part carefully to check if they had missed a spot.

"Run! Move up and run as fast as you can. Run towards the blood-bat cave!"

Both Rihanna and Ye Luo were startled by this sudden shout coming from deep inside the passage. hasty footsteps accompanied the shout, breaking them out of their shock. Instantly the two of them rushed up the rope. Initially they had not used much of their spirit power, as they didn't want to catch the attention of the beast. But now they used it openly in order to climb up swiftly. Obviously it was more important to escape than hide their powers!

As Ye Luo jumped out of the hole, Rihanna caught a glimpse of Uncle Ranaba rushing out of the passage, then following behind them as he climbed up.

"Run! Don't wait! Run towards the blood-bat cave. We need to exit the same way we came here."

Rihanna turned and followed behind Ye Luo, wondering what was causing Uncle Ranaba to be this terrified. Was it another Metal Claw beast? Was it of a higher grade than the first one? Or was it something else altogether?