Underground

"So, what are you doing here?" Grandpa Long asked.

"Oh, I followed the voice until here. I found a boy before, around five or six years old. I left him resting after saving his life." Answered the toddler nonchalantly.

"Oh?" Old Master Long raised an eyebrow. 

Seeing his interest in the boy, she decides to tell him her intention.

"I plan to bring him with me." Before letting the Old Master tell something, she continues.

"Of course, if the boy has no one, and if he's willing to follow me." 

Old Master Long nodded. 

'A playmate for her is nothing bad. Her brother spoiled her to no end. She needs someone not related to blood and similar in age to take care of her. She can learn how to behave with other kids.' 

The Old Master worries that his granddaughter's childhood. She hasn't experienced what it means to be a child. Her brothers are 10 and 15 older than her, and their mentality is different. If he added the boy, she can enjoy her childhood.

Xiao Ling didn't know the thoughts of her grandfather. If she knew, she will be grateful, and moved.

Understanding the nod as he agrees, she smiled.

"Now, where is the voice calling you?" The Old Master didn't forget the principal issue.

"Yes, the voice comes from there." Says Xiao Ling while point it out to the north.

Old Master looks towards the direction, point it out, and his eyes with a deep meaning, only he knows what he's thinking.

"Well…" after a pause, he continues. "I'll keep on track with your aura. You can go ahead and search for the voice's owner. However, at any sign of danger, I'll take you back." The Old Master relented to his granddaughter. 

He knows, once she has something in her mind, nothing can change it. She has always been like this in their past life too.

"OKAY!" the excited Xiao Ling move forward. She couldn't wait. She wanted to continue and find the owner's voice. 

Old Master Long shakes his head at the sight of the overexcited toddler. And now he looks behind her and saw an enormous beast lowering his head at him.

Raising his eyebrow, he looks at the toddler with inquiries.

"Oh, this is Bai Xin, he agreed to follow me, so for fun he came with us." Nodded Xiao Ling, satisfied with her grandfather's curiosity.

"Then, what about father and the rest?" the toddler continues with some hesitation.

"I can use the magic stone for communication and tell them about your whereabouts." the Old Master eases her worries.

"Oh, okay." Xiao Ling can understand about the magic stone, a stone with wind magic, capable of delivering sounds like voices between stones.

After knowing that she has her grandpa's approval, she continues walking, paying little attention behind her.

Suddenly the voice spoke once again, and Xiao Ling can feel it closer than before.

"Come, I have been waiting for you for a long time."

She fasted her speed and Bai Xin with Jin increases their speed too. Old Master Long follows them, not so close nor far away.

The enchanting male voice keeps urging her to reach the place where he is…

"Come… Come, my dear." 

Just when she was about to give another step, she felt something wrong. She took a step backwards. But that one step backwards had put her foot over loose soil and her entire person lost her balance and she fell into a home below the loose soil's surface.

"WOA…"

She cried out in surprise, and everything suddenly turned black. Her body slid down a steep drop, and the incredible speed that everything was happening did not allow them any time to react.

"Xiao Lin!"

"Chibi Master!!"

***

~POOF~

Underground, Xiao Ling's cry of surprise reverberated in the tunnel as her body continued to slide down. It was completely dark and she could see nothing. She only knew that the tunnel twisted left and right as she slid all the way down. Midway through the unstoppable fall, her foot seemed to have kicked into something hard and with a crack, that hard ball had rolled down together with her.

~Bam!~

"Ouch! Argh!"

She cried out in pain as her body fell forward from the momentum of the crazy slide. But she did not fall to the ground. She had fallen into the hard and smooth surface thing that had been before her down that slide.

Having slid down at such a pace all that way, she could not imagine the abrasions on her body as she felt her entire body burning up in pain.

"Ow, ow! That hurts!!" The toddler screamed.

Her scream echoed throughout the entire place.

"Eh, where am I?" startled by what she's watching.

Glancing around at the surroundings, she did not see a single other person.

She knows that Mount Hulu has several high-grade ferocious beasts of the third level, and now this hidden place surely has a beast guarding the place.1

Xiao Ling felt a movement under her. Looking closely, she found she's sitting up on an enormous egg. Moving from it, she observes it.

She raised a hand to feel the golden egg to make sure it didn't get any damage from the fall, making an illusion about the crack. For some unknown reason, she felt relieved. However, she pays no more attention to it.

She notices her injuries are not light. But she can't do anything for the time being. She just ignores the egg and everything else.

Looking around, she felt something from a certain direction. She went step by step in that direction, where she felt a slight breeze. With every step, the pain grows stronger.

She walked for almost close to half an hour and the first sound she heard was the sound of flowing water, and thereafter, a gradually brightening ray of light. As there was water present, the surrounding air was rather humid, and she bit down hard with every step, tolerating the almost unbearable pain, taking step after step, till she reached the flow of water.

It was a deep pool, the bottom not visible, but the water was crystal clear. The water was moving and flowing, but she did not know it where the water flowed out to.