Chapter 34: Nearly Buried Alive by the Cave!

However, as his gaze rested upon this rock, a hint of bewilderment quietly crept into his heart.

"Right, once I find it, what do I do?" he muttered to himself, his eyes shimmering with the light of contemplation.

He imagined plucking these two rocks—identical in shape but different in size—from the small and large caverns, then piecing them together to see if some miracle might occur. But then, a second thought struck him: was this too simple? Had he overlooked the complex mechanisms and traps that might be hidden within the cave? Or perhaps he should only remove one rock, fly it over to the other, and attempt to assemble them into a complete gourd shape?

Yun Yi’s mind was like a sky filled with scattered stars; each thought flickered with the light of possibility, only to extinguish in an instant, failing to find the perfect answer. He knew well that a single wrong choice could not only fail to reveal the secrets of the cavern but might also render all his efforts futile.

"What if my judgment is flawed? Wouldn't that destroy the original balance of this Gourd Cave, or even..." Yun Yi dared not think further. He furrowed his brows, his heart filled with conflict and struggle.

"I should at least see if there is some kind of connection between these two rocks," Yun Yi finally decided. He took a deep breath, and his wings began to flap vigorously, each stroke more urgent and powerful than the last. With the beating of his wings, weak currents of air converged around him, forming tiny whirlwinds that kicked up the dust within the cave, rendering the entire space hazy and mysterious.

Just then, an unexpected discovery made Yun Yi’s eyes light up. He noticed that as the air currents blew away the dust covering the circular rock in the small cavern, a thin, elongated fissure was revealed. This fissure seemed to extend from one rock, leading off into the unknown distance.

A surge of indescribable excitement welled up in Yun Yi’s heart; he felt as if he had finally touched the key to unlocking the cavern’s secret.

"How effortless!" Yun Yi rejoiced inwardly. He immediately adjusted his direction, continuing to flap his wings to maintain a steady airflow, and carefully flew forward along the path traced by the rock fissure. His heart was filled with anticipation and nervousness, terrified of missing even the slightest detail.

In the course of his flight, Yun Yi passed the junction between the two caverns. However, because he was fully focused on the extension of the rock fissure and the urgency of the secret he was about to uncover, he did not notice the abnormality on the ground. The air currents he created inadvertently swept away the dust on the floor, revealing a clear, gourd-shaped indentation. This shape was perfectly sized to hold the two rocks from the small and large caverns, as if custom-made for them.

Yet, Yun Yi remained oblivious to all of this. His spirit seemed to be guided by an invisible force; he was completely unaware of his surroundings, fixated solely on the extending rock, which drove him to fly swiftly toward his goal. Following the guidance of the fissure, he nimbly navigated the narrow passage and finally descended into the large cavern on the other side, his gaze instantly locking onto the circular rock there.

This rock echoed the one he had seen in the small cavern; they were tightly linked by that mysterious fissure, as if they were part of a game meticulously laid out by heaven and earth. Yun Yi circled the rocks a few times, his heart filled with doubt and curiosity. Was this truly a natural wonder, or part of some ancient mechanism?

"Could this... be a trap?" Yun Yi murmured to himself. His antennae swayed gently, as if catching signals of danger in the air.

"No, I cannot take the risk," he decided. He chose to probe with his demonic energy first rather than touching it directly. He cautiously summoned the energy within him, concentrating it at his fingertips, and prepared to slowly channel it into the rock in the large cavern. He whispered to himself, "If anything goes wrong, I will retreat immediately."

As the demonic energy slowly flowed in, Yun Yi watched the rock’s reaction tensely, hoping to discover something. Suddenly, the entire gourd-shaped cavern trembled, as if an unknown force were surging beneath the ground.

"Oh no!" Yun Yi’s heart tightened as if gripped by an invisible hand. He immediately cut off the flow of energy. His long, thin antennae trembled slightly in the air, and a look of irrepressible lingering fear appeared on his face.

He knew that in these deep, unfathomable underground caverns, any carelessness could trigger an unforeseen catastrophe, and the sudden tremor was a warning against his reckless attempt. A series of potential dire consequences flashed through his mind, and he secretly rejoiced that he had stopped in time; otherwise, the outcome would have been unthinkable.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart, and focused his gaze once more on the circular rock. He mused, "It seems that directly connecting the rocks in the two caverns with demonic energy is not the way; such an attempt is far too risky."

Having failed with one plan, Yun Yi did not lose heart. His mind, like his agile form, quickly turned in a new direction.

"What if... I press the rock?" As this thought emerged, it lit up his mind like a shooting star across the night sky. He imagined that perhaps these two rocks were the mechanisms to open a secret passage, and pressing them was the key to unlocking it.

However, a new problem stood before him: how could he press two rocks that were so far apart? "Clearly, pressing them simultaneously is impossible," Yun Yi muttered, his antennae tapping lightly against the stone wall as if searching for inspiration.

A moment later, a flash of determination crossed his eyes: "It shouldn't require them to be pressed at the same time! Perhaps there is a hidden sequence, or it requires a specific method to trigger the mechanism. I must observe more carefully."

Yun Yi circled the rock again, his antennae and compound eyes missing no detail, attempting to find clues in the texture of the rock and the layout of the cavern. Suddenly, his gaze fixed on the shape of the cavern, and a thought illuminated his mind like the brightest star in the night.

"Right, why didn't I think of the gourd shape!" His mind cleared, as if a lightning bolt had pierced the fog. A gourd—was the shape of this cave not exactly like a gourd? The opening of a gourd is small at first, then large; was this not an intuitive description of the positions of the two rocks?

"I must press the rock in the small cavern first," Yun Yi decided. His voice was soft, yet carried an unquestionable resolve.