A Hero's Heart - Chapter 5

Knowing when to retreat was one of life’s great principles.

I covered my nose and mouth and hurriedly turned around, trying to find the way out of the forest.

Before I had taken more than a few steps, a sinister voice came from behind me.

“Little girl, you’ve wandered into my territory. Do you really think you can leave?”

The man’s voice came from somewhere nearby. Before I could turn around, the ground beneath my feet collapsed.

I reached for the nearest tree but was too late. I fell straight into a deep, lightless pit.

The fall left me dizzy. When I finally looked up, I saw a man crouching at the edge.

He wore a fine dark brocade robe patterned with subtle designs. A frightening metal mask covered his face.

He grinned down at me. “Little girl, don’t be afraid. Wait until the poison has run its course, then I’ll come save you.”

With that, he stood and walked away. Something was slowly pushed across the mouth of the pit.

“Who are you?”

“Hey! You bastard!”

“Ugly monster! Let me out!”

No matter how I shouted, no one answered.

Once the opening had been completely sealed, the pit went black.

It was also deathly quiet. There was not even the sound of insects. If I stayed here for a few days, I would either be frightened to death or starve to death.

Fortunately, I had brought a fire starter.

When I lit it, the darkness of the pit receded at once.

The pit was not especially deep. If the mouth had not been blocked, anyone with decent martial skill should have been able to climb out.

My lightness skill, inherited from my brother and my master, was more than enough for such a height.

I gathered my qi and tried to leap upward, thinking I could reach the edge in a single bound. Instead, I found my body moving as slowly as if I were carrying a great weight.

It had to be the fog.

Unwilling to believe it, I tried several more times. None of them worked. Sweat poured down my back, and I finally sat weakly on the ground.

As I looked around the pit again, I noticed something else that was extremely strange.

There were no bones here.

The people of Yong’an Town had said that many women had disappeared in this forest.

The fact that there were no bodies here could mean only one of two things.

Either the women were still alive,

or they had died somewhere else.

In either case, the monster must have blocked the pit’s exit. Yet when I fell in, I had noticed that the walls were smooth and offered no handholds.

It was impossible for anyone above to pull a person up.

If no one entered from above, there had to be another way out of the pit.

I lit the fire starter and began searching the walls.

Apart from a few scratches that looked as if they had been made by fingernails and a small amount of blood, I found nothing unusual.

Could there be a tunnel beneath the ground?

Thinking this, I jumped up and down in every corner of the pit.

By the time I finished, I was panting and collapsed onto the floor.

I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the flickering firelight. My thoughts drifted to Seventeen.

I wondered whether it was dark outside yet.

There was no way to know if he had left.

He was so heartless that he might have run off with the money the moment I entered.

Then I thought of my brother.

What if he had also fallen into some place like this while searching for me? What if he had been trapped in a pit where no one could hear him, no matter how loudly he called?

No, no. My brother would never be so unlucky.

I rested my head against the wall and stared at the fire starter. Suddenly, my eyes widened.

Why was the flame still moving?

When I had searched the pit, I had been so focused on the walls that I had completely forgotten to pay attention to the air.

I lit the fire starter again and slowly walked around the wall.

When I reached one spot, a faint breeze stirred the flame in my hand.

The passage was here.