Masked Knight

Rody crouched and slowly snugged to the pillars below the wooden platform to evade the mountain warriors.

It would be wrong to say that God was not helping him. That night, there was no moonlight, and not even a single star could not be seen. The only light came from the surrounding torches.

The two mountain warriors did not notice any changes. They only felt a gust of wind blow by. The flames on the torch flickered twice, but everything seemed normal.

Rody was holding the pillars that were supporting the wooden platform. He slowly climbed the pillars and occasionally looked at the two mountain warriors below him. His heart could not stop palpitating. If either one of the warriors decided to look up, they would immediately see him.

Rody climbed faster since he felt nervous. The wooden platform was about seven to eight meters high. When both of his hands reached the top of the wooden platform, he looked up to see the situation up there. He saw two mountain warriors guarding the entrance of Wuya’s home. They held short spears in their hands and were alert. Rody sighed as he hanged onto the wooden platform with his hands. He slowly moved to the side of the platform. His movements were extremely slow as he was afraid of making noise. The wooden platform was big. Rody took almost an hour just to move from the front to the side. Even though Rody was strong, his arms started to ache. Seeing that there was nobody on the side of the platform, Rody quickly arced his body and jumped up. The wooden platform was old and had been under the sun and rain. As a result, when Rody landed on the platform, the wooden platform squeaked.

Rody felt tense and his body stiffened. He strained his ears for a long time before he heard the movements quieten. He then relaxed and quickly tiptoed to the side of the building. He looked at the two warriors guarding the entrance from the side. Rody gave a wry smile as he wondered how the blacksmith could manage to secretly sneak in. Rody thought he would ask the blacksmith if he had the chance to.

Rody pondered for a moment. He then gathered his courage and tapped the walls of the building. The two guards heard the tapping sound and they looked at each other. One of them then took his short spear and walked to the side of the building. The moment he turned the corner, he felt a large hand grab his neck. He was unable to resist the person who forcefully pulled him towards the corner.

From the other side, the other mountain warrior heard his companion give a soft cry before turning silent. He could not help but call out to his companion. However, there was no response. Clenching his short spear, the warrior ran towards the back of the building. He then tripped over something on the floor. The guard stumbled forward and saw that he had tripped over his companion’s short spear. While he tried to balance his body, he saw a hand holding the short spear. Just as he was about to call out, he felt a pain in his neck and fainted.

Rody sighed in relief and thought to himself. Lucky.

If the two warriors managed to shout more, they would have attracted more mountain warriors to come. However, it seemed that the mountain people were really simple minded. Rody looked at the two warriors that he had knocked out. Those few days, he was treated well by the mountain people. He was provided with good food and comfortable lodging. Wuya also did not treat him unfairly. Rody felt that it was not right to kill Wuya’s men. He sidled along the wall until he arrived at the entrance. Gently pushing aside the gem curtain, he entered the building.

The copper stove in the middle of the house was still emitting a white mist. The room was dark, and there was no light anywhere.

Rody had been to the room twice in the last two days. Both times, he had felt that the room was weird but he could not tell what. This time, he had the blacksmith’s map and now he could understand what was strange.

Rody slowly walked to the wooden shelves on the wall. After that, he followed the instructions in the map, and gently pushed away a small cabinet. He then grabbed and forcefully pulled a piece of concave wood from the wooden wall, revealing a dark hole in the wall.

As expected, according to the instructions on the map, except for the wall next to the mountain, the remaining three walls of that wooden house were hollow inside.

Rody carefully walked through the hole in the wall. The space between the walls was like a narrow channel. There was just enough space for a person to squeeze through. Rody groped his way forward in the dark. He turned a corner and walked a bit further. Soon, he touched a very large boulder in front of him. Rody knew that he had followed the hollow gap in between the wall and finally arrived at the back of the wooden house.

At that moment, he was standing at the side of the mountain wall. The surrounding space was also a little bit larger. Rody took a deep breath and smelled a kind of rotting matter. It was a very unpleasant smell. He forcefully pushed the boulder to no avail.

Rody knew that the blacksmith had found this place that day. However, he could not proceed further, so he had turned back. Rody was curious about the secret passage in Wuya’s room. Rody felt around the wooden wall, but he could not find any crevices. He then closed his eyes and started to gather his fighting energy.

When Rody suddenly opened his eyes again his body emitted a pale golden ‘Holy Light’. The flame seemed to wrap around his body and illuminated the dark space. In front of Rody was the mountain wall with a shape that looked like a circular hole. A tall boulder was blocking the opening.

Rody stretched out his hands and placed them on the boulder. He exerted himself and slowly pushed the boulder. He then heard the sound of the boulder moving as he managed to create a small gap. Rody gasped for breath and after that, he pushed again to increase the size of the gap. He made sure that the gap was big enough for him to squeeze through. Rody withdrew his fighting energy. Right now, he was in a dangerous situation. He dared not rush because he was not sure whether Wuya had noticed his aura.

There was no light in the cave. In the first two steps, he could still see something. However, the further in he went, the darker it became. Rody could not even see his fingers when he stretched his hands.

As he felt his way through, he noticed that the walls were unusually moist. Evidently, the moisture was caused by water vapors. As Rody continued, he felt that the cave became more and more narrow. In the end, he was not able to stand up straight and was only able to crawl forward. He cursed Wuya and was thinking of retreating. However, he could not help but think. If Wuya could crawl pass this, why can’t I?

Not knowing how long he had crawled, Rody felt his palms and knees stinging in pain. Presumably, Rody’s pants also had holes in it. The cave was very strange. The cave occasionally led up, then down, sometimes left and sometimes right. Suddenly, there was a bright light in front of Rody. He was excited. He sped up and crawled to the exit. He moved too vigorously and only realized that the exit was on the edge of the mountain after his body was halfway out in midair. Rody was caught off guard and fell down. Fortunately, the hole in the mountain was not too high. It was only a drop of a few meters. Rody crashed onto the ground. He was injured from the fall, but he did not dare relax. He quickly turned over and jumped up.

Rody looked around and he was shocked.

He was clearly in an empty space, surrounded by mountains. The space had a perimeter of at least a few ten meters. It was as if he was in a bucket.

He looked up and saw that the walls became narrower towards the sky. As it got closer to the top, Rody could see the sky outside of the cave. The tunnel that Rody had just escaped from was about eight meters up on the walls of the mountain.

The ground was full of potholes and stones. However, the stones on the walls looked odd. The stones were a little bit transparent and seemed to glow. The light lit up the cave and made the surroundings clear.

The only way out was the huge pitch-dark hole on Rody’s left. The wind started to blow as Rody composed himself. He then made a wry smile and commented, “This place is really scary.”

Andy warned Rody in his mind, “Boy, you must be careful. I sense something strange here.”

“What is strange?”

Andy’s voice sounded uneasy. “Think about it. The channel in Wuya’s room was so strange. He must have a big secret here. However, don’t you think it was too easy for us to come in here? The boulder may have blocked the way but that boulder could only block an average person. Wuya’s cave is so secretive which means there is obviously something important in here. How could people break in so easily? If it were me, I would have placed more defensive spells here. Besides that, there are only two ordinary warriors outside the house, guarding. From the channel up to here, have you encountered any guards obstructing the way?”

Rody nodded and agreed. “That makes sense.” Rody looked back at the black hole on the left and he heard the sound a faint blowing wind from inside...

In the middle of the night, the wind that came out of the cave made a ghastly sound. Those that heard the sound could not help but tremble. It seemed like the wind was crying.

Rody subconsciously took out the dagger given to him by the blacksmith and held it firmly in his hand. After that, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw hard into the cave.

“What are you doing?” Andy yelled.

“You don’t understand this?” Rody laughed. “There is a saying in Dandong’s ‘Sunflower Treasure’ that says ‘toss a stone to find out what’s ahead’.1 This is to test whether there is anything dangerous inside that cave or not.”

There was a clanking sound made by the stone thrown by Rody. The stone tumbled around and the sound slowly became softer.

Behind that cave was obviously a steep slope. When Rody heard the sound, he was dumbstruck, and the back of his neck felt cold. After hesitating for a moment, Rody picked up a handful of broken stones from the ground and held them in his hands. He walked in big strides toward the cave.

“Why do you pick up these stones?” Andy asked, “What is the purpose of such small stones?”

Rody laughed and replied, “I heard that there are many snakes in the caves of the mountains. If I were to encounter any snakes, I will throw these stones at them. Although the stones are small, but with my wrist strength, it is enough to crush their heads.”

Just when Rody was a few steps away from the entrance of the cave, he suddenly heard an earth-shaking roar from the cave. Rody was frightened and immediately turned around and ran back, even before Andy could shout “Quickly retreat!” Rody ran out to the side of the cave and vigilantly looked back at the cave.

He then heard crashing sounds coming from the entrance of the cave. It was as if something was causing the stones of the mountains to fall in succession. After that, there was a hissing roar and suddenly, a triangular head appeared. A long red tongue came out and slammed into where Rody was hiding. Rody cried out and immediately jumped away. When Rody landed, he frantically rolled away, ignoring the pain he felt from rolling on the uneven rocks on the ground, scrambling and crawling until he reached the rock wall.

He was in time to see the large triangular head retreat.

“Just now... what kind of monster is that!” Rody could not help but exclaimed.

Andy’s voice was no longer smooth, “I did not see clearly...but...like...it was like...snake...”

There was another hissing roar as the whole cave start to tremble. A monster then came out from the cave.

Its body was as broad as the giant tree that Rody saw that needed several mountain people to hug it. It was covered in thick scales. The scales were all over the place. The stones on the mountain walls came crashing down. It was a giant snake.

That huge snake came out of the cave. It coiled the lower half of its body into a circle. The upper half of the snake’s body stood upright and its ten pairs of eyes emitted a green light as it looked at Rody.

Wait a minute... Ten pairs... Ten pairs of eyes?

Rody looked up at the snake and almost sat down on the ground.

That giant snake’s upper body was like a normal snake’s body. However, at the front, it separated into ten heads. Each head was triangular in shape and covered in thick crimson scales. Each head opened its mouth and its long tongue flicked about endlessly. Its hissing sound would chill one to the bones.

Rody could not retreat any further as he had already reached the edge of the mountain wall. He raised his head to look at the large, strange snake with many heads, in front of him. Rody’s mouth was also wide open...

“This... what the hell is this monster!?” Rody could not help but shout. The hand holding the stones that were intended to ‘smash the snake’s head’ had loosened and the stones had dropped to the floor...

It was ridiculous to use those small stones to fight that huge guy in front... that big ‘snake’.

Translator’s Footnote:

1 toss a stone to find out what’s ahead, 投石问路 ( tóushíwènlù), is a literal translation for a Chinese proverb. It means ‘test the waters’.