Chương 316: Nest of the Earth dwellers

Long Feng remained unconscious for a long time. He couldn't tell how long it was exactly, but he did know that it must've been a while. When he opened his eyes, a splitting headache threatened to make him faint again. He groaned and shook his head slightly to clear his foggy mind. His entire body was numb, not because the severe injuries within and without his body weren't hurting. In fact, it was the exact opposite. The pain had caused him to become numb. But the extent of his injuries were really great.

He was almost assured to leave some hidden injuries in his body after this. After blankly staring at the rocks around him for a minute or two, he began to recall what had happened. His pupils shrank as he immediately sent his consciousness into his Dantian. What he found caused him to let out a bitter sigh. His spirit cyclone had stopped rotating. It wasn't moving at all, and the energy within it was extremely turbulent. But this was already better than the best case scenario he had imagined.

If his new spirit cyclone has shattered under the power of essence, then he really wouldn't have enough tears to shed.

"This is already the best case. The cyclone isn't harmed. I don't really understand how that is possible but it's good. It'll take a while for me to be able to use my cultivation again though. And I don't know… would this impact my cultivation? Perhaps my cultivation would be higher when it recovers." He smiled in relief. He wouldn't be able to use his energy at all, meaning he would be similar to a mortal for a while. But as long as his cultivation was intact, he didn't care about that.

Besides, with the current state of his body, he was really hanging by a thread. If he rashly tried to release his energy into his body, then his body that was barely hanging on would instantly be destroyed. It was now that Long Feng could calm down and check his surroundings. He was only just realizing that he was standing on the ground, no longer falling. The fall must've worsened his injuries to this extent. He tried to move but a few of his bones cracked, then his entire body protested.

In the end, he could only lay there weakly. He slowly took out some of the healing pills he had received from the Overlord continents. They weren't exactly top tier, but they were still good. He hoped they would be enough to heal some of his injuries in a short time. After consuming the pills, he had nothing to do as he waited for them to work, so he began to reason everything that had occured. A realization slowly hit him.

"I was far from the earth dwellers' tunnel, even behind the other disciples. How did I end up falling in?" He frowned at the rocks above. Far above him, he could see the pitch black tunnel which he probably fell from. He didn't even know where exactly he was. Even turning his neck around was proving to be a real challenge so he gave up on it.

"Even if some earth dwellers really got into my body, they shouldn't have been able to move me at all." The earth dwellers were mostly foggy. They were very light. It was impossible for even a thousand of them to move Long Feng across the cave to their tunnel. That had never happened before. But if so, then how exactly did he fall into the tunnel?

"Everything points to a single fact." A chill passed through his eyes.

"Someone pushed me in." He closed his eyes and began to play different scenes in his mind.

"The imperial energy in my body must've drawn the earth dwellers to me. That'll explain the hundreds of them inside my body. After that, someone must've thrown me in to get rid of the earth dwellers temporarily. It's the perfect way to win without risk." He opened his eyes and revealed calmness. He wasn't awake when everything happened, but he was eighty percent sure that what he imagined was what had happened, or at least similar to that.

For someone to throw him into such a dangerous place with hundreds of earth dwellers inside him, this wasn't a grudge he could forget. He would definitely find out who did it and make them regret it. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"That's something for when I leave this place. Hopefully, it won't be long." He sighed and ceased all thoughts. He couldn't tell the passage of time, as the place he was seemed to be eternally dim. There was no way to calculate how many hours had passed. He could only make some guesses based on how long he felt it had been. After a few hours, some feeling returned to his numb body. He began to feel slight pain across his entire body which slowly increased untill he could barely withstand it. But this was good.

It meant the pills were beginning to take effects and his numbness was gone. As time passed, his injuries began to itch, causing him to feel irritated. Some of the minor injuries slowly dried and formed a layer of dry skin which peeled off, revealing a new skin underneath. Inside his body, the injuries were much more severe than outside. The meridians were torn apart in many places, his bones were cracked from the long fall and his inner organs were lacerated or shaken.

It would take more than just a few hours to heal from these, and days for him to recover fully. Having no other choice, he closed his eyes and began to comprehend whatever he could while keeping his soul power spread out to watch out for danger. Using his shabby calculations, he predicted that a day had passed. His meridians were now slowly beginning to heal, but this would take a while. And during the process, it was imperative that he didn't use his energy at all.

The good news was that his body had recovered enough for him to move. He slowly sat upright and looked around for the first time. He was in a truly massive underground cave. He didn't even know if this was really a cave. It's size was something he had never imagined. He couldn't see any of the ends of the cave at all. Also, the rocky ceiling of this vast cave were hundreds of pitch black tunnels that led to the surface… or so he thought. His own tunnel was right above him, so he could recognize it.

He didn't know where the others led to. It could be other mines in the Supreme Heaven Sect or even somewhere else entirely; either way, he definitely didn't want to find out. He slowly rose to his feet and after some thought, decided to leave several deep marks here to help him recognize his tunnel. It would be funny if he lost his tunnel and found himself somewhere else when he leaves. Once he was done, he began to roam around, sticking to the surrounding thousand meters so as not to get lost.

There was really nothing noteworthy. All he could see were endless rocks, more rocks, even more rocks, some sand and more rocks.

"Is this where the earth dwellers come from? Why can't I find any of them? Gui Wu's guess must be wrong. Could this boring place also be considered a nest?" He thought after getting tired of seeing plain rocks. He didn't even know why he wanted to see the same earth dwellers that nearly drove him to despair just hours ago. If he really met them, then what would he do? He walked around for a bit and returned to his spot where he left marks. Looking up, he found his tunnel.

"There's nothing here. Once I recover enough and can use my energy, I'll leave." Right now, flight was impossible. He was more or less stranded here for a few days. He sat down and began to comprehend the heaven firmament skill as well as the nine firmament steps. About an hour later, his cultivation was interrupted by some noises. He opened his eyes and listened with a frown. After a while, his face turned yellow.

"Earth dwellers!?" He looked around. The noises were extremely dense. Just from listening, he could imagine that they had far surpassed a few hundred. A chill rushed up his spine. He couldn't tell where exactly the noises were coming from, so he quickly constructed a powerful concealment formation around him. His figure seemed to turn into a normal rock to the eyes and he observed everywhere with his breathing slowed.

After a few minutes, the cave seemed to shake as the hundreds of tunnels in the ceiling spat out pillars of extremely dense smoke. It was quite a scene, like hundreds of pillars were falling to the ground. Only, they never reached the ground. Long Feng's eyes widened as he gasped.

"So many!" These were not some dense smoke. They were all earth dwellers! His scalp turned numb as he watched literally tens of thousands of earth dwellers surge out of each tunnel, including the one he fell through. Then they covered the sky and let out extremely loud shrieks for a long time until each tunnel had vomited at least dozens of earth dwellers before they all flew in a single direction uniformly.

They formed what appeared to be an extremely dense and long pillar of smoke that headed towards a place only they knew. None of them had sensed Long Feng's presence. He watched them leave with an intrigued gaze until they were very far away.

"Interesting. Gui Wu was right. This could be their nest. They all left at the same time to feed or whatever and are returning now. Where are they heading to? Their real nest?" He muttered. Watching them slowly disappear into the distance, he felt increasingly curious. The earth dwellers were a strange race, only able to survive on energy and nothing else. Their actual strength weren't much. Any Imperial could take care of many. Their advantage was their great numbers that could overwhelm even a deity if enough.

"I can't take risks. In my current state, even a Yin realm warrior will be a threat. Once I've recovered, I'll decide whether I should find out more about them." He decided then continued his comprehension without removing his concealment. Time passed. About two days later, he heard the loud shrieks of the earth dwellers and they slowly returned from wherever they went to. Long Feng quickly noticed something strange.

"Weird. They're all much weaker than when they left…" Even just among the earth dwellers in his tunnel, they were all extremely terrifying after absorbing several Imperial crystals and an essence stone. Even he would feel apprehensive about facing them. There were thousands of extremely large and scary earth dwellers before. But now after returning, they were all weak once more. That would explain why the earth dwellers that attacked their cave always came weak and left strong.

After devouring some miners or disciples and left, they would return extremely weak once again.

"It looks like heading to their hideous is a must. But it'll have to wait till I am confident in protecting myself." He decided. He watched as the earth dwellers formed a vast dark cloud in the sky of the cave then flew through random tunnels towards the surface. After several minutes, the cane returned to it's unsettling silence. Long Feng closed his eyes and continued his comprehension while his injuries recovered greatly as time went by. Like this, he slowly formed a routine.

Every two or three days, the earth dwellers would leave the cave through the tunnels and return half a day to a full day later, after which they would head to their secret hideous and return two or three days later. None of these bothered him. His injuries slowly recovered while his comprehension of both the heaven firmament skill and the Nine Firmament Steps deepened. A full ten days after he fell in here, he finally recovered enough to circulate his energy again.