Chapter 1137: Chapter 86: The Death of Goris_4
Ah Dai walked to the crevice and looked down, only to see a dim yellow glow beneath him, seemingly a deep passage. The spot that had just cracked open was actually a steel plate three feet thick. Below the steel plate, on both sides, were densely packed small holes. Familiar with Goris, Ah Dai knew that without correctly finding the way to activate the mechanism, even if one were to force their way in, they would likely suffer heavy losses. Moreover, they would gain nothing, for the mechanisms set by Teacher Goris were always so strict.
Ah Dai’s trust in Goris made him proceed without any hesitation or fear, quickly descending with the letter in hand. As he went down ten steps, the rustling sound occurred again. Ah Dai looked up and saw that the crack had closed seamlessly again. He looked at his feet, knowing that the mechanism to close the door must be on this tenth step.
Although the crack above had closed, the light in the passage wasn’t dim. The faint yellow glow, though not strong, allowed Ah Dai to clearly see everything around him. Much to his surprise, it seemed the yellow light was seeping out from the walls.
Ah Dai quickly continued down the staircase and kept going down for over ten meters before he reached the bottom. It just appeared to be an empty, barely three square meter area. At first glance, it seemed there was nothing special. Ah Dai frowned, looked around, and still found nothing unusual. He knocked on the wall, and it conveyed to him that all sides were solid iron walls. Suddenly, he noticed something in the corner of the ground wall. Rushing over to examine it closely, illuminated by the white light of his own energy, Ah Dai saw clearly that there was a line of small characters etched in the corner: "A word to my disciple Ah Dai, after you arrive here, immediately kneel in the center of the space, bow three times towards these words, and then loudly proclaim your identity from when you were in Nino Small Town."
After reading these words, Ah Dai was stunned for a moment. Proclaim my identity? Wasn’t my identity just a thief? Since Teacher Goris asked me to bow, then I shall. With that thought, Ah Dai knelt on the ground, knocked his head three times loudly, and shouted, "I am a thief." He found that after shouting these four words, his heart was filled with pain. At that moment, he clearly felt how humble his origins were.
Affected by the vibration of the sound, the thick walls around him trembled slightly. Suddenly, without any warning, Ah Dai felt the ground beneath him give way, and his body suddenly plummeted. He couldn’t help but cry out as what felt like only a few seconds passed before something elastic blocked him, tilting his body and sliding him out in an arc, causing him to fall to the ground. Protected by his energy, the pain was naturally negligible. He straightened up and stood, and unlike the light above, the surroundings were pitch black, with nothing visible. Just as he was about to use his energy for light, he noticed that suddenly there was a light above his head. A soft white halo brought light again, and he was shocked to find that the source of the white halo was a fist-sized Luminous Pearl sliding down from a tiny crack in the ceiling, hanging by a thin silver thread. The ingenuity of the mechanism left Ah Dai in awe. He had lived in the wooden house for a whole year and had never realized that beneath it was such a massive construction. This was a spacious stone chamber, very dry and though deep underground, it felt not the least bit stuffy. The stone chamber was open and clear to view at a glance. The place he had landed had a tilted large net, which was the one filled with elasticity that had bounced him to this spot. Not far from him was a stone table about one meter in diameter, seemingly made of stone and the only item in the entire chamber. On the stone table was a plain black wooden box without any decoration.
Ah Dai stood up, walked to the stone table, picked up the wooden box, which was light and unlocked. He gently opened it; inside were a few pages of paper that hadn’t yellowed like the one in the wooden house due to being sealed all this time. Ah Dai picked up the papers, unfolded them, and found they were a long letter left for him by Goris.
"Ah Dai, Teacher truly hoped you would come back here and see this letter. By the time you read this letter, Teacher will have already gone to another world. Although I have died, Teacher has no regrets. Being over eighty years old, my death isn’t really premature, especially since, with my death, I have finally fulfilled a decades-long wish of crafting a Divine Artifact for myself." Just reading a few lines, Ah Dai couldn’t continue as he was completely overwhelmed. Teacher Goris had died, Teacher was actually dead.
"No—, Ah—" Ah Dai cried out in pain. ?>><? At that moment, it seemed as if everything in the world had stopped, except for Ah Dai’s voice echoing continuously in the chamber. He felt he had plunged into endless darkness. In the darkness, he was like a small boat, constantly struggling and trembling amidst the tumultuous waves of pain, his heart broken, his soul extinguished.
A reunion hoped for seven years had turned out to be a separation between heaven and earth, forever apart.
In the darkness, the small boat continuously tossed, the immense pain gradually causing the boat to collapse, the heart-wrenching agony unrelentingly tormenting the boat. And just as the boat was about to be completely destroyed by the suffering, the dark waves suddenly disappeared, and two dazzling beams of gold and silver brought light back to the boat.
Ah Dai stood quietly in place, regaining his senses, tears of blood streaming down his cheeks, staining his clothes red. Moments earlier, just when he was about to be completely destroyed by agony, the second Golden Body in his chest and the Silver Body in his Dantian timely released a gentle energy, reviving the will to live that he was about to relinquish, pulling him back from the brink of death.
Uncle Owen had died, died from freezing, and Teacher Goris, too, had died. Why, why had all these people, who were more important to me than Steamed Bun, died? All of you have died, what meaning is there for me to keep living? Ah Dai collapsed to his knees, the intense pain causing him to curl up, convulsing non-stop. It had been seven years, seven years since he had left, only to receive the news of his teacher’s death.
Ah Dai’s hands clutched a wrinkled piece of white paper as he curled up on the ground, gradually falling into a deep slumber. Perhaps losing consciousness was the best way for him to escape the pain.
...
Standing in a desolate and dark open space, Ah Dai looked around blankly.
"Child, you’ve returned. I’m so glad!"
Ah! It was the voice of Teacher Goris. Ah Dai trembled, shouting, "Teacher, teacher, where are you?"
"Child, I’m right here, right in front of you," said a flash of light as Goris, cloaked in black and emanating a faint white glow, appeared before Ah Dai. His usually cold and stiff face now bore a hint of a kind smile.
"Teacher, I’ve missed you so much!" Ah Dai lunged toward Goris but passed straight through his body, stumbling almost to the ground.
"Ah Dai, you’ve grown so much, yet you’re still so reckless! Look, what’s this?" Goris suddenly produced a basket of steamed buns, from which steam rose enticingly. Ah Dai exclaimed excitedly, "Steamed buns, my favorite!"
Goris handed the steamed buns to Ah Dai, gently stroking his head, "Child, eat them, eat more. Teacher loves watching you eat steamed buns. I bought them especially for you, do you like them?"
"I love them, teacher, I really do."
A sorrowful expression crossed Goris’s eyes, "Ah Dai, I have to leave you now. No matter where I am, I will always think of you, take care, my child." As his voice faded, Goris’s body seemed to drift away into the distance.
"No, teacher, don’t go!" Ah Dai, holding the basket of steamed buns, chased frantically. But no matter how fast he ran, he could never catch up to Goris’s disappearing figure. Finally, darkness returned, and Goris’s figure had vanished completely.
