Ji Nanhong coughed for quite a while before calming down. While her gaze scanned the surroundings, she tried to stand up.
The moment she moved, she gasped sharply, her face turning deathly pale.
"My leg!" Ji Nanhong gritted her teeth against the searing pain and reached out to check her leg. Seeing her ankle swollen into a large lump, her expression grew even grimmer.
Unable to move her leg, she forced herself to endure the pain and sat down on a rock. She bent over and took off her shoes, her cheeks contorted painfully as she struggled through the intense discomfort.
After removing both shoes, Chen Guan saw that both of her feet were severely swollen. It was almost certain that the bones were fractured or cracked.
"Thank you for saving me. What’s your name?" Ji Nanhong was clearer about her condition than Chen Guan. Her assessment matched his—her foot bones were definitely cracked, and the situation was bad. Even though she had some medicine, it wouldn't heal quickly, and she would be unable to move properly for some time.
In a place , losing the ability to move was nearly a death sentence if a Mystical Spirit appeared.
"Chen Guan," he replied.
"We’re in a dangerous situation right now, so I won’t waste time on pleasantries. My foot is probably fractured, and the ankle bones are dislocated. We need to reset the bones before applying any medicine. Can you do bone-setting?" Ji Nanhong asked bluntly.
"I can. I’ll set your bones," Chen Guan said as he squatted down and gently grabbed Ji Nanhong’s swollen left foot, which looked like a fat pig’s trotters.
Just touching it made Ji Nanhong’s face turn even paler, her brows knitting together.
Chen Guan noticed she was suppressing her pain but didn’t say much. He examined the bones carefully and asked Ji Nanhong some questions to confirm the dislocations.
"What’s your name?" Chen Guan asked while feeling the bones.
"Ji... ah..." Ji Nanhong barely got out the first syllable before a sharp cry of pain escaped her. With lightning speed, Chen Guan reset the dislocated bones in her left foot. The pain only lasted a moment.
Using the same method, Chen Guan reset the dislocated bones in her other foot.
"Your bone-setting skills are quite good," Ji Nanhong complimented as she saw Chen Guan’s movements were precise and efficient. The pain in her feet had eased significantly. This smooth technique was clearly the result of hard practice.
"Not bad," Chen Guan said. "Do you have any bone-healing medicine? If not, I have some, but it’s not great. We’ll just have to make do."
"I have some here. Please help me apply it," Ji Nanhong took out the medicine and handed it to Chen Guan.
Chen Guan saw it was a well-known brand, the bottle quite valuable. Ji Nanhong’s background was probably not ordinary.
After applying the medicine, Chen Guan carefully bandaged her feet. During this time, neither of them talked much; both were watching the surroundings nervously, fearing that a Mystical Spirit might suddenly appear.
There was definitely a Mystical Spirit here—at least the Shituo King would be present.
Until Ji Nanhong’s foot injury was treated, no Mystical Spirit appeared, allowing them to breathe a temporary sigh of relief.
"What level are you now?" Ji Nanhong asked Chen Guan.
"Level six," Chen Guan answered truthfully.
Ji Nanhong sighed inwardly. Level six was indeed too low. If the Shituo King attacked, Chen Guan was not reliable; she would have to face it head-on herself.
But her feet were currently immobile. Trying to handle the Shituo King would be almost certainly fatal.
As Ji Nanhong contemplated her options, she suddenly noticed the light in front of her growing stronger and stronger, soon as bright as turning on a lamp. She quickly lifted her head to see the source.
Seeing it clearly, Ji Nanhong’s eyes widened in disbelief, with surprise overwhelming fear.
Chen Guan also looked toward the light source and discovered it was coming from a stone wall. On the stone wall were lines of ancient seal script characters, emitting a glowing light.
The light illuminated the surrounding underground abyss. Everywhere visible was clear seawater and the cave ceiling. Beyond that was still pitch black. They had no idea how vast this place was; the fissure above looked like a fine wrinkle in their eyes.
Chen Guan estimated this place was probably a thousand meters below the surface.
"This is the Epang Scripture, isn’t it?" Chen Guan said, looking at the ancient seal script on the wall and trying to memorize it. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
He had taken calligraphy classes, and ancient seal script was one of the main styles studied. He recognized the characters and quickly recorded them word by word.
Chen Guan glanced at Ji Nanhong out of the corner of his eye and saw she was intently staring at the characters, obviously memorizing as well. He thought to himself: "Ji Nanhong isn’t surprised at all that these characters appear in a place . Could she already know about the Epang Scripture? Did she know before coming here, or did she find clues on the island? Wang Lian said his elder destroyed the engraved stele, so no one else should know about it. Could there be other places on the island recording the Epang Scripture besides that stele?"
There were over four or five thousand characters on the stone wall. The two had not fully memorized them when the light from the characters suddenly dimmed.
Soon, the glow completely vanished, and darkness returned.
After adjusting for a while, their vision gradually recovered some ability to see in the dark. The colorful corals at the bottom of the water emitted faint light.
"Did you memorize those characters?" Ji Nanhong casually asked Chen Guan.
There were too many characters; she hadn’t finished memorizing them. She probably only remembered the first thousand or so. She had seen some of the rest but hadn’t completed memorizing them, and her memory was not deep.
She didn’t think Chen Guan had memorized more than her but still held onto hope.
Ji Nanhong understood clearly that this was the Epang Scripture—the more they remembered, the better.
"I only memorized part of it. These characters seem to be a secret cultivation technique. How could such a place have cultivation secrets engraved? It must have been done by someone. That means people came here before us. We have hope of survival," Chen Guan said deliberately.
Ji Nanhong shook her head with a bitter smile: "Whoever carved these characters probably left no survivors, unless we can get out ourselves."
"Do you know who left these writings?" Chen Guan asked Ji Nanhong, surprised.
Ji Nanhong didn’t answer. Instead, she repeatedly recalled what she remembered, trying to deepen her memory to avoid forgetting later.
Seeing her silence, Chen Guan also reviewed the parts he had memorized.
The portion of the Epang Scripture inscribed on the Seven-Treasure Glazed Tree was an incomplete secret technique, useless by itself.
However, the part on this mountain wall was not connected to that fragment. It was an independent secret technique, complete enough to be used alone for cultivation. This made Chen Guan doubt whether these glowing characters were truly from the Epang Scripture.