Open a Clinic to Cultivate Myself Chapter 222 Onlookers and the Underground City

“Roar, roar, roar…” That Shennongjia wild man which had sent Ning Tao flying with a kick, was waving its arms around, and seemed to be muttering some word. However, probably no one else in the whole world would understand what it was saying, except for themselves.

“Hahaha!”

“Hohoho!”

“Yoho… yoyo!”

There was a surge of laughter and a song-like style of yelling. It seemed like they were amused by that hero of theirs. Meanwhile, Ning Tao was disappearing into the pitch black darkness.

Everybody had probably dreamed of flying, but once you were actually flying, it definitely did not feel good.

Wind was howling by his ears. Gravity was like a huge rock tied to Ning Tao's legs, pulling him deeper into the dark abyss. At the beginning, Ning Tao was overwhelmed with fear; his mind was blank, at a loss as to what to do.

Yet, just at the peak of his fear, bordering a break down, the huge core in Ning Tao's Niwan acupoint shook. A spiritual power force field immediately expanded from within his body. In that instant, he immediately calmed down.

Any ordinary person would have died in that situation, but he was the inborn go-between of good and evil, and the owner of the Sky Clinic. How could he die that easily! Even a usual cultivation doctor would be stronger than an ordinary practitioner, especially so for a special cultivation doctor like him, who only appeared once in every 2000 years!

He charged both of his legs with spiritual power. Ning Tao's legs curled upwards, then stepped on air with all his might; then, his body instantly made an upward jerk. Even though he was still under the control of gravity, his falling speed had been reduced slightly. He stepped again, and he slowed down, then again…

Once he had reached the seventh step of the Ladder under Feet, his body was suspended in the air. Even though it was just about a second's time, it was already enough for him to open his small medicine chest.

Right after, his body continued falling at full force.

Ning Tao reached into his small medicine chest, and charged the herb-collecting rope with spiritual power. He then threw the rope out in a swift motion towards his right.

The herb-collecting rope was a magic tool of the Sky Clinic. It would be a mere ordinary rope in the hands of others, but with Ning Tao, it was a magic tool.

Whoosh!

With spiritual power activated, the herb-collecting rope was like a javelin, shooting outwards and extending continuously. Ning Tao twirled his arm quickly, and the rope was wrapped around his arm. Just when he was done, a vibration came from the other end of the rope. Even though he could not see it, he knew that the hardened end of the rope had pierced into the rocks!

A second later, his body was suddenly diverted off the falling course, and was slammed into a side of the cliff. His right arm which was tied to one end of the rope was almost dislocated due to the pulling force; the fabric of his clothes was nearly torn and the skin of his arm was abraded. A stinging sensation spread throughout his body. He endured the pain, and raised his legs. Just in that moment, both his legs landed on a side of the cliff, then his body slammed into it.

The herb-collecting rope fell off. His spiritual power was not enough for him to harden the end of the rope for a prolonged period. Anyway, it was not necessary anymore. Once the herb-collecting rope had fallen off and his body started falling again, his left hand was already holding onto the edge of a rock; he had finally stayed still on the cliff.

A piece of rock near his feet broke off and fell down. A few seconds later, he heard a dull noise.

It was near the bottom.

Ning Tao heaved a sigh of relief. He was not in a rush to go downwards when hanging off the cliff, but instead, he took a break and healed his right arm with his special spiritual power. The pain in his right arm had dissipated quickly, and he had recovered a degree of his mobility. After that, he used his right arm and mouth to make a knot with the herb-collecting rope, then tied it to the edge of the rock where his left hand was hanging onto. After that, he glided down along the herb-collecting rope.

Once his feet touched the ground, Ning Tao was completely relaxed. It was as if his body and soul had instantly left him. He immediately sat on the floor then lied down.

“If those wild men try to attack me again, I won't spare them any longer!” Ning Tao raised his head and looked up to the oval-shaped sky. Upon recalling the experience, Ning Tao was still traumatized. When he was standing on ground, he would have still been able to escape by opening the blood lock, but when he was falling, even if he were able to activate the blood lock, he would not be able to enter it. The moment he opened the blood lock, he would have already fallen further the next moment. If it weren't because he had been prepared in advance, bringing the herb-collecting rope with him, he would really have been died in that dark cave.

After taking a few minutes break, Ning Tao stood up again. He grabbed onto an end of the herb-collecting rope, charging it with spiritual power, and quickly untying it, falling back into his hands. Once more, he placed the herb-collecting rope in the small medicine chest and closed the lid.

The cave was pitch black, when he had previously looked downwards into it from the lightning tinged forest. However, that place was not as dark as he had expected. There was no longer a fog shrouding the atmosphere; faint light had reached the bottom, allowing him to hazily make up his surroundings. The few-minutes break had allowed his eyes to get adjusted to the darkness. He was able to see a bit further, and could vaguely spot a stone from three meters away.

Ning Tao saw many rocks, oval shaped ones, like eggs scattered around in the darkness. He listened, and could vaguely hear the sound of flowing water, but it was far from the waterfall which he had expected.

“Could the shape of this hole be of an urn, with a narrow mouth and wide body and base? That small waterfall which I had seen above, is actually very far away from me?” Ning Tao made guesses in his head, while approaching the oval shaped rock nearest to him.

One-third of the oval shaped rock was buried in the ground, and the remaining two-thirds above ground were about a meter in height. Ning Tao took out his phone and turned on its screen, borrowing its faint illumination as lighting. Very soon, he realized that the oval shape of the rocks was not naturally formed. There were signs of polishing. There were also indecipherable writings on it. Those were runes.

Ning Tao took a picture of the rock, then walked to the next oval shaped rock. When he observed the second rock, he found out to his surprise that the second and first rock were identical, in terms of their height, circumference and the extent they were polished, aside from differing in the carvings of the writings.

Ning Tao continued walking after taking a photo.

As he left the oval shaped rocks one by one behind him, he grew increasingly surprised and confused. Each and every oval shaped rock which he saw was of the exact same measurement and material, and even to the extent they were polished. Ma Tongtong said that the civilization of the Feminine-moon people had vanished during the Warring States era. The type of tools used by the people of that era were the fragile bronze type. They would not have been equipped with the technology to carve and polish rocks like that, and much less of such a large number of them of identical measurements.

“Could have they been mass produced from industrialization? If they were, then that's freaky. It was the Warring States period. If the Feminine-moon people had possessed such a level of productivity, then it wouldn't have been hard for them to conquer the world, would it?” Ning Tao could not help but make guesses.

He continued walking forward. The surroundings were completely silent. There were only sounds of his footsteps, but there was no echo in return. Rocks appeared before him and he walked past them yet again. He had lost interest in photographing them. At that point, he suddenly recalled something, and paused in his tracks. He opened his small medicine chest and took out the Soil-seeking Inkstone. He poured 30 millimeters of ink into it, and the ink surged towards a direction. He then turned to follow that direction.

Not too long after walking, a blurry, squarish silhouette appeared.

“A city? Could it be the Feminine moon city?” Ning Tao was excited. He hastened his pace. When he was walking, he activated his power of sight and smell, and also turned on the torchlight function in his phone.

Indeed, it was a city. Even though the light from the phone only managed to show part of it, it could still be determined based on the silhouette that the area was not large. It was about the size of a town. There were city walls built around it, but they were not high, just about five to six meters tall. It could be identified that the architecture behind the city wall were long, rectangular type of buildings, like a compact version of modern buildings.

The ripples in the Soil-seeking Inkstone continued to point towards the town.

Ning Tao walked over quickly, and reached a city gate. The gate had already collapsed, and so had some of the buildings behind the walls. Some plant which did not need sunlight were growing sparsely on the streets and the buildings. They resembled moss, but it was not the same kind which he had stepped on in the forest earlier on.

Ning Tao crossed over the ruins of the gate, and continued walking in the direction which the Soil-seeking Inkstone was leading him to.

Stone slabs were laid all over the streets. There were signs of human footprints in some areas, and also huge footprints of the Shennongjia wild men. Some doors of the buildings were open, yet the houses were completely empty without a single piece of furniture or pottery vessels. It gave the feeling that all the things in that building had suddenly vanished, having been teleported to a different time and space, leaving only the city of stone buildings behind.

All of a sudden, the torchlight on his phone had shone on a mysterious crack. It was the width of a meter and a meter-deep, extending forward by tens of meters. Its edges were fully jagged. Some of the stones were split open, some were shattered, and others even had signs of having been burned.

Ning Tao followed the crack for about ten meters. When he had reached the corner of the street, his legs could no longer take a step forward.

At the corner of the street stood a three-story stone building constructed with very durable rocks. However, such a masterful building was comparable to European castles, completely split apart by the crack. A crack of a meter in width had mercilessly struck through it.

After being stunned for a while, Ning Tao finally reacted and spoke to himself, “It must be impossible for lightning to reach this place. But if it weren't lightning, then who could have split it?”

He could not help but turn back to look at the ten meter crack running through the pavement. He was struck with awe. If anyone had split that, it had to be someone really strong!

Had it been a deity?

Chapter end