Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 388 - More Tragedy?

It was then that Long Di approached that which caused his brow to stage a full-scale assault on his hairline's territory.

It was a large cave with a gaping mouth that spoke of nothing but darkness. With zero hesitation, Long Di stepped inside to claim what he considered to already be his.

****

Long Di made his way through the cave and found that he couldn’t see anything. It was a world of darkness and complete quiet. It didn’t change even when he used his heavenly gaze.

When he stood at the entrance earlier, though the cave mouth was massive, it wasn’t to the point that he couldn’t feel or sense if he wished to. Now, however, it felt like it was an entire world away.

In a place like this, most cultivators would be terrified. Cultivators are rarely placed in a position that edges them infinitely close to the struggles of a mortal. This is why, when it happens, they are terrified beyond belief.

But for Long Di, this wasn’t the case. He didn’t panic in the least. Long Di’s mindset was a bit of a mystery in many ways.

As evident by his outer demeanour, Long Di wasn’t an emotionally charged person. His apathetic mien was both a byproduct and physical attestation of his past trauma.

Despite everything and anything, the damage to his mind wrought by his past life at his uncle’s hand never disappeared.

More than a decade with his parents lessened his trauma a great deal, but it never truly healed. In addition, what he got was the love that he was starved of before, which allowed him to open up to others, no matter how small it was. But other emotions like surprise, fear, and happiness were complex in how they presented themselves and how much of them he could manifest.

As of now, the fear that would stop many cultivators from going any further found no footing to take hold of within Long Di.

He was the vessel of an objective at the moment. Ergo, he continued down this path till he got what he came for.

Eventually, after walking for more than double the time it took to reach this cave, Long Di’s sight caught hold of something.

The light of two torches slowly came into view. They were affixed to and illuminated the end of the cave.

Between them was a flat, rectangular slab of unknown material. It was hard to discern what colour it truly was under the orange glow of the torches’ flames. Then again, these torches were the only reason he was able to see it to begin with so maybe he should be thankful for this much.

Engraved on its surface was a scene that Long Di could only describe as brow-raising.

It depicted a supreme expert and a woman at that. She wore ancient alchemy robes, not that Long Di would know this.

She stood above a massive army and even through this mural of sorts, Long Di could feel a heroic air about her.

Her long hair and robes flapped furiously in the wind and her expression was severe, nigh draconian in bearing. It was hard to make out her face, but Long Di was sure that she was the type of woman people would call beautiful.

This slab of unknown material was old and so many scenes were blurred. Nevertheless, many things could still be made out.

Below her feet was a blazing inferno with a spiritual artefact floating overhead. Looking closely, Long Di saw that this spiritual artefact was a cauldron.

Not the manifestation of a cauldron that represented one’s cultivation base, but an alchemist’s cauldron. These were the ones whose inception was owed to the early cultivation base’s manifestation.

The army she led appeared to be fighting, holding something back. However, Long Di couldn’t see what it was, he couldn’t even see who she was defending.

‘Is this woman Peach Blossom Venerate’s follower?’

[Duan Meilin…]

“So you know her…” Long Di didn’t expect to hear her name from Steely.

As far as he knew, everything that Steely knew, was off-limits. That’s why he didn’t even bother asking it about Shen Ling’s true identity and/or origin back when it recovered from the exciting and stress-free life of a divine gold digger.

[She was an incredible alchemist back in her time. It was through her support that Peach Blossom Venerate grew as strong and as fast as he did.]

“What is she fighting against?”

[…]

“Lemme guess, you can’t tell me because of the karma involved? You do know that the Peach Blossom Sage’s Spiritual Intent gave me a mission, right? It told me to find the last vestiges of the Peach Blossom in this world. Apparently, there is something there that will help not just me, but everyone else. I have never heard of a vaguer mission in my life. Now, I finally have a clue as to what he might be referring to through the Relic of his follower, and you still don’t wanna tell me? Don’t you think I was already infected with whatever karma this probably comes with when I accepted the mission?”

The Destiny Scale thought about what he said for a moment before it chose to break its silence.

[A long time ago, long before my master reached the peak, a rift opened up in our world.]

Long Di’s heart shook. “You mean like when Mina–”

[Yes, just like when that friend of yours opened up a tear in the world barrier that gave you access to the Deathdrink Ghost Chrysanthemum. It still baffles me that she was able to do that. Out of everyone else, she is the most mysterious in your group.]

“Why didn’t you say anything?” asked Long Di. If what was being shown in the mural is connected to opening up the barriers between worlds, then Steely shouldn’t have stepped back and allowed it to happen.

[I didn’t know she had such abilities under her belt.] Steely told him. [Back to the mural, back then an incident had taken place that opened up the worldly barrier.]

“The worldly barrier?” Twice now, Steely used that phrase so that meant that it was important, right?

Was it the same as going to a higher realm? Somehow, it didn’t sound the same. There were differences here somehow, but he couldn’t tell exactly.

Hearing Long Di’s confusion about the worldly barrier, Steely continued. [The worldly barrier is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the barrier between worlds. There are other worlds apart from ours and at one point, that barrier broke down.]

“What caused it?”

[I’m not sure, but at the time that it did, it nearly caused the destruction of the continent.]

“Ah yes, this is some juicy lore you’re dropping my way. Please go on.”

[Foreigners from other worlds came to our world,] said Steely, ignoring Long Di. [At first, they were harmless, but once they became accustomed to our world, they suddenly turned on us. They were able to somehow keep the rift open and before long, they brought their armies and waged war against us. We don’t know what caused them to turn, but it doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is that Duan Meilin, also known as the Plum Flame Alchemist was involved in the war back then. She and the other generals along with Peach Blossom Venerate are part of a tragedy.]

“What sort of tragedy?” Long Di could tell he was closing in on some big secrets.

[…]

“You’re going cold on me again?” It wasn’t easy to annoy Long Di but even he was growing tired with all of this.

[…]

Long Di waited but the Destiny Scale refused to say anything more.

“Damn you,” Long Di cursed the Destiny Scale in a rare show of being fed up.

Seeing as how Steely refused to budge, Long Di turned his focus back to the mural.

‘What’s the point of putting this here, then? Just to tell a story? Are there more of these in the other doorways? How do I get the treasure? Wait a second, Pebbles and Mina were able to get the key, so if these places are similar then doesn’t that mean…’

Krrrsh!

Suddenly, Long Di’s hand was wreathed in white lightning and without hesitation, he punched the mural!

Bam!

The mural exploded, exposing a back room.

“That was simple.”

Long Di was surprised that actually worked. Then again, he shouldn’t be.

He saw Mina and Pebbles fighting when they exited the doorway earlier. Once the two of them get going, they wouldn’t care about anything around them.

Since that was the case, it wouldn’t make sense that they employed some profound method to find the key. Since they didn’t do it, then why should he?

In that state, the only thing Mina and Pebbles were able to do was hit each other harder. That included anything and anyone foolish enough to get in their way.

“I hope that Jiancheng Shu isn’t dead.”

After saying that, Long Di made his way into this room and his eyes caught the only thing inside.

It was a short pedestal, only one-third of a Long Di tall and upon it was an old wooden box that experienced the buffering of the ages and…

“The golden key… neat!”