Chapter 1083: Heavenly Immortal, Save Me!
The scouts quickly dispatched a few men to notify Cheng Xu.
Li Daoxuan turned to the remaining scouts. "Wait for me at the foot of the mountain."
With that, he walked toward Lingwu Cave alone.
The entrance to Lingwu Cave hung midway up the mountain cliff.
In modern times, platforms and stairs had been built there, making it easier for tourists to enter, and even a cable car existed for effortless access.
But in the Ming Dynasty, there were no cable cars, platforms, or stairs.
It was just a bare rock face, with a very steep slope marked by many footprints—those made by Gu Tianxing's men ascending and descending.
Climbing up would indeed require some technical skill.
Inside the cave, Gu Tianxing and his subordinates watched, dumbfounded, as Li Daoxuan walked right up to the cliff face and looked up.
Another subordinate exclaimed, "Should we throw rocks at him?"
The group was in utter panic.
Gu Tianxing said, "Don't throw anything! He's climbing alone; it doesn't look like he wants to fight. Let's just watch for now."
They watched as Li Daoxuan reached the cliff edge, extended his hand, and with a soft crunch, plunged it into a rock crevice. The crevice wasn't actually large enough for his hand, but as he thrust it in, rock fragments flew, and he actually widened the opening.
Gu Tianxing was stunned: "!!!"
His subordinates were equally speechless: "!!!"
Then, Li Daoxuan moved his hands and feet, alternately digging into the rock crevices, and in a short while, he had climbed up.
This sight terrified Gu Tianxing. "What's happening? What kind of bizarre move is that?"
"What do we do, boss? He's coming up," Gu Tianxing's subordinate stammered, trembling with fear.
Gu Tianxing ordered, "Retreat, retreat! Let's hide in the cave."
He quickly led his subordinates deeper into the cave. It was pitch black inside, so dark they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. He lit a tinder, providing a faint red glow, and scurried into the cave, finding a strangely shaped rock to hide behind.
No sooner had they hidden than Li Daoxuan stood at the cave entrance.
He saw fresh mud footprints on the ground, but no one inside dared to speak to him, indicating their extreme timidity.
Since they were so timid, he decided to scare them out.
Li Daoxuan sat down at the cave entrance and chuckled, "You people hiding in the cave, do you know the name of the cave you're hiding in? Let me tell you."
As he spoke, his voice echoed through the cave, reverberating deeply between the walls, reaching even the refugees hiding furthest inside.
Li Daoxuan continued, "This cave is called Lingwu Cave... and rumor has it..."
He was about to invent a scary story, but storytelling required skill, not something anyone could just conjure up on the spot, otherwise authors would be out of a job. Li Daoxuan was a designer, not a storyteller; how could he easily make one up?
He had no choice but to "borrow" a bit.
He addressed the eerie darkness of the cave: "A very, very long time ago, a monster lived in Lingwu Cave. His name was the Lich King. He commanded a terrifying army of evil, called the Scourge Army, and intended to conquer all of Aze... *cough*... to conquer the entire world."
At these words, everyone hiding in the cave jumped, startled. What kind of strange story was this? Why was he suddenly telling them a story?
Li Daoxuan went on: "The Lich King's evil army had not traveled far from the mountains when they encountered a divine immortal named Thott. Thott defeated the Lich King, but the Lich King could never truly die. So, Thott imprisoned the Lich King in the deepest part of this mountain cave... and that is how this cave got its name, Lingwu Cave."
As these words left his mouth, the refugees hiding in the cave felt a chill run down their spines.
Li Daoxuan continued, "The Lich King's lesser monsters were also imprisoned in this cave. For example, one is sealed inside a stalactite..."
A refugee hiding behind a stalactite jumped in fright. His imagination made him feel that the stalactite he was gripping was cold, icy, and its shape... it looked like a monster.
His legs gave out, and he crumpled to the ground with a thud.
Li Daoxuan added, "Another is trapped above a dripping rock."
What was a "dripping rock"? The refugee didn't know, but in the spot where one refugee was hiding, water was constantly dripping from the cave ceiling. He hadn't noticed it before, but now, hearing the words "dripping rock," he suddenly felt, *Could he be talking about here?*
He quickly looked up, but it was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything, only hear the "drip-drop" sound of water falling near him.
Li Daoxuan declared, "The drips from the dripping rock aren't water at all; they're the monster's drool."
"Aaahh!" A nearby refugee shrieked and immediately bolted for the cave entrance.
When one person ran, others naturally followed. But in the pitch darkness, if thousands of people ran chaotically, it would surely lead to fatalities.
Li Daoxuan bellowed, "Stop! Nobody move!"
His voice thundered, making the entire cave hum.
The refugees froze as if acupoints had been pressed, their movements stiff.
Li Daoxuan commanded, "Light a fire! The Lich King won't dare to move then."
His words carried an inexplicable power that made people willing to obey, and sure enough, some refugees fumbled in the dark and lit bonfires.
Slowly, the cave began to glow, with fires flickering here and there.
The massive cavern grew brighter and brighter.
Only then could Li Daoxuan clearly see the situation inside Lingwu Cave. Ahead, there was a vast space, as if the entire mountain belly had been hollowed out, filled with stalactites of various shapes and sizes. Beside this main cavern, many smaller passages extended, though they remained dark, unlit by fires.
The number of refugees in the cave was truly astonishing. Li Daoxuan had thought there were only a thousand or so, but now he saw there were actually five thousand people, enough to fill at least two high school sports fields if lined up.
Gu Tianxing stood at the very front, looking utterly timid. "You... who are you? What kind of ghost story was that? You... please don't scare us with made-up stories! This is the only cave we have to live in. If you tell such ghost stories, we won't dare to stay here anymore. Where else can we make a living?"
Li Daoxuan smiled. "I'm here to help you. Pack up your things and come with me. I'll take you to a good place, a very suitable place to live, where you can eat your fill."
Gu Tianxing looked bewildered. "Why should we trust you?"
Li Daoxuan said, "You don't believe me? Then let me show you something."
With a snap, he detached his own head and held it in his hands.
"Aaaahhhhhh!"
All five thousand refugees were scared out of their wits.
Li Daoxuan snapped his head back into place. "If you believe me, I am a Heavenly Immortal, and I will help you. But if you don't believe me..."
He snapped his head off again, holding it in his hands, and grinned, "Heheheh."
The five thousand refugees were so terrified they didn't even dare pick up their hoes. They all dropped to their knees with thuds, crying, "Heavenly Immortal, save me!"
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