novelraw Chapter 715: Rising Water
Chapter 715: Rising Water
And the most important question was, what if the opening didn't lead to the surface?
Perhaps it led to another cavern, larger or smaller, but still enclosed.
Lu Li waded into the water, picked up a stone, and, standing beneath the opening, tossed it upward.
The stone traced a short arc as it flew out of the hole, vanishing into the darkness beyond the dim glow of the fluorite.
Lu Li tilted his head back, listening.
Clatter.
A few seconds later, a faint impact echoed from the opening, and then the stone rolled back out, splashing into the water near Lu Li's feet.
The stone had fallen freely, without striking the ceiling beyond the opening. That meant the space up there was higher than the cave.
The stone's fall produced no echo. The space beyond the opening might have been wider, or perhaps the sound was simply lost in the rush of the underground river.
As if testing its sturdiness, Lu Li threw several more stones into the dark hole above, confirming the absence of an echo or anything unusual.The problem remained—how to get up there.
Lu Li tried tying a stone to a vine and tossing it through the opening, but after several attempts, he gave up on the idea.
The tossed stone couldn't find a purchase; the vine slithered back down like a snake.
And that wasn't his only problem. Lu Li was starting to freeze, the warmth draining from his hands and feet.
He needed to get warm, and quickly.
Returning to the shore, Lu Li gathered damp branches, tucking them under his arms to dry them with his body heat. He unwound the bandages from his wounds and wrapped them around his palms, preparing to start a fire by rubbing sticks together.
Pain lanced through the blisters on his hands. The lower end of the rapidly spinning stick began to smoke, but even after several minutes, there was only smoke.
Not a single spark.
Starting a fire with damp wood was practically impossible.
The Beacon provided only light, not a true flame. And the real oil lamp had disappeared along with Friday, who was now trapped between reality and illusion.
If Lu Li didn't want to freeze to death in this underground cave, his only options were to warm himself with the Beacon or return to the crevice.
The first option would burn his humanity; the second meant returning to the trap.
But there was no other choice.
Lu Li unwound the bandages and re-wrapped his chest.
Tying the vine to the rock he had previously pushed into the water, Lu Li wrapped the gathered branches and his other belongings in his coat, dove into the passage, and returned to the crevice.
A minute later, Lu Li resurfaced, holding the vine. A lone campfire burned on the small island.
He tossed the branches near the fire to dry, wrung the water from his coat, and spread it out in its former spot.
Tying the vine around his ankle, Lu Li sat by the fire to warm himself. When his body began to thaw, he added a few still-damp branches to the fire to keep it going, then wrapped himself in the dry coat and fell asleep.
"Mr. Exorcist... Mr. Exorcist."
An anxious voice woke Lu Li.
Opening his eyes, he saw a portly face looking down at him, an expression of relief on it.
"Thank goodness, you're finally awake!" The man patted his chest, still shaken. "If I hadn't seen you breathing, I would have thought you were..."
He left the word "dead" unsaid.
"Where am I?" Lu Li asked, still disoriented. He should have been sleeping in an underground crevice, far from the surface, surrounded by a subterranean river, but he was in a room furnished like an office.
A seagull flew past the window, and the sounds of the street drifted in.
He hadn't seen such a peaceful scene in a long time.
"In my office," the stout man replied.
Lu Li recognized him—it was Benjamin Allen, the manager of Madam Anlei's Art Gallery.
"What happened?" Lu Li clutched his aching head and sat up on the sofa. For some reason, his past—or rather, future—memories felt like a blurred drawing, growing fainter and blending together.
Like a dream dissipating upon waking.
"Last night you agreed to perform an exorcism at the gallery, and when I arrived this morning, you were fighting the ghost downstairs..." Benjamin Allen's words made Lu Li stand up abruptly. Forgetting his usual composure, he hurried down the stairs.
"Go on," he said.
"Huh? Oh..." Benjamin Allen panted, scurrying to keep up.
"...You banished the spirit, destroyed the ghost, but then you lost consciousness."
The portrait of Dracula hung on the landing, as still as a corpse.
Ignoring it, Lu Li walked past.
"My assistant and I carried you to the office, and you woke up shortly after..."
The beautiful sculptures stood motionless, like exhibits.
Lu Li stopped in front of a painting in the center of the gallery.
It depicted a corner of an estate: paths lined with dark green and pale pink flowerbeds, a mansion in the background.
The focal point of the painting was a bench, but no one was sitting on it.
The distorted, dark, mottled colors gave the painting a lonely feel, though it shouldn't have been that way.
"Where is Anna?" Lu Li stared intently at the empty painting.
"You destroyed her," Benjamin Allen replied, his voice filled with praise.
"You're saying I killed her?" Lu Li lowered his eyes.
"Uh... yes..." Benjamin Allen sensed that something was wrong with the exorcist.
And he was right, because Lu Li's vague, jumbled memories were being erased.
The underground crevice, Anna's attack, Anna becoming an evil spirit, the Rope of Descent's ritual, the destruction of Ellen Royal City, Richard seizing the Ancient God's body, the Mother of the Swamp, meeting Anna...
The memories vanished, layer by layer. The story was starting over, from a different beginning...
Benjamin Allen was saying something, but his voice suddenly dissolved into the roar of the surf.
Lu Li woke up.
The distinct sound of rushing water crashed over him. It was louder and more powerful than before.
The small island he was on had shrunk considerably, overtaken by the rising water.
Lu Li wiped the water from his face and tossed some branches into the dying fire.
The underground river had grown turbulent; something must have been happening in the cave above.
Untying the vine from his ankle, Lu Li took the Beacon and dove back into the icy water, returning to the first cave.
He emerged from the passage and stood up. The water, which had previously only reached his shins, was now up to his knees, and the spring in the center was gushing.
A tide?
Lu Li made his way to the submerged shore—the vines on the wall began about two meters from the ground.
That meant the water would rise to that level.
But that still wasn't enough for Lu Li to reach the ceiling, unless...
Hanging the Beacon on his belt, Lu Li began to gather stones and, before the water rose too high, used them to block the passage.
Once the exit was sealed, the water level in the cave began to rise even faster.
Lu Li grabbed onto the vines on the wall, keeping the upper half of his body above the water.
Half an hour later, the ceiling was within reach, and the "stars" on it became clearly visible: they were irregularly shaped chunks of glowing fluorite.
Lu Li reached up, grabbed the edge of the opening, pulled himself up, and climbed out of the water.