Chapter 143: Misfortunes Never Come Singly

"To exhaust the world, just for a beauty's smile. To drift through a thousand dreams of eternity, my whole life dances only for you!" A fairy in white fluttered and danced, her singing ethereal. As her song drifted, she flew higher and higher, gradually fading into the distance.

"Fairy sister, don't leave! Save me... save... me..." Li Sanjian reached his hands toward the sky, trying to catch the fairy who was steadily receding.

Yet the fairy in white merely turned her head, smiled, and completely ignored Li Sanjian.

"You... you... Since the fairy sister is so heartless, don't blame me for being unrighteous! Take this!" Infuriated and embarrassed, Li Sanjian put his all into executing the "Rainbow Pierces the Heavens" technique. Two bolts of white light surged from his palms, shooting straight toward the fairy.

"Ouch!" Like a flash of lightning accompanied by rolling thunder, the two white lights struck the fairy with pinpoint accuracy. The fairy let out a cry of surprise and plummeted from the sky.

Oh, haha? Seeing this, Li Sanjian instantly swelled with immense pride. He looked at his own palms—when had his kung fu become so formidable? He was actually capable of striking down an immortal!

Things decline when they reach their peak, and extreme joy begets sorrow; such is often the way of the world. Before Li Sanjian could relish his triumph for even a moment, the fairy plummeted straight down from mid-air, landing squarely on top of Li Sanjian and crashing directly into his arms.

"Ouch!" This time it was Li Sanjian's turn to cry out in pain. Letting out a loud howl, he jolted awake from his dream, his hands instinctively tightening around the immortal in his embrace...

It was yet another dream of Nanke! Upon waking with a start, Li Sanjian finally understood what had happened: he had fallen into a cave, knocked himself out in the fall, and dreamed the whole thing while unconscious.

Yet Li Sanjian suddenly felt that he was indeed holding something in his arms—it felt soft and tender, and moreover, the object in his arms was gently wriggling! At the same time, a fragrance resembling jasmine drifted straight into his nostrils.

With a soft moan, the entity in Li Sanjian's arms emitted a delicate sigh. The person who had fallen into his arms was truly a woman, shifting slightly against him.

Could an immortal really have been struck down by him? At this moment, Li Sanjian could no longer distinguish between dream and reality.

"Miss Cai? Is that you?" Li Sanjian quickly collected his wits. It must have been Cai Rongxue who also entered the cave and happened to fall right on top of him, leaving him dizzy and aching all over.

However, the person in his arms merely kept shifting, offering no response whatsoever.

"Miss Cai? What's wrong? Are you injured?" Li Sanjian asked anxiously, holding Cai Rongxue tightly as he reached out toward her neck to feel her pulse.

"It's me... Ah... Li... Master Li, you're not dead? I... I... Please let go of me right now." Unable to hold out any longer, Cai Rongxue struggled in Li Sanjian's arms as she spoke.

After entering the cave, Cai Rongxue had also fallen, but she landed precisely upon Li Sanjian, leaving her uninjured and conscious. However, believing Li Sanjian to be dead at the time, she had poured out her innermost feelings and performed a song and dance for him.

Now that Li Sanjian had returned from the dead and was completely unharmed, everything she had done must have been witnessed by him. Overwhelmed by mortification, Cai Rongxue felt she had no face left to show him, and had simply chosen to feign unconsciousness.

Cai Rongxue was ticklish by nature; when Li Sanjian's unruly hand reached for her neck, how could she possibly keep up the act?

"Oh, apologies, apologies. Circumstances were sudden, and I had no other choice," Li Sanjian said hurriedly upon hearing this, immediately releasing her.

In the pitch-black darkness, Cai Rongxue silently adjusted her garments, saying not a word.

Fortunately, it was pitch dark all around; otherwise, he surely would have seen her face burning red with embarrassment, she thought shyly.

"It's over, it's over. We can't get back up." Unaware of Cai Rongxue's slight abnormality, Li Sanjian simply stood up, ran his hand along the smooth cave wall, and said so.

The cave wall was far too smooth to climb. Looking up at the faint light filtering in from the entrance, he estimated the distance to be around two zhang; thus, returning to the opening was utterly out of the question.

Yet, of all misfortunes, this was the greatest fortune: the soil inside the cave was relatively soft, so when Li Sanjian fell in, he had escaped injury and merely been knocked unconscious.

"Miss Cai, are you unhurt?" Li Sanjian then turned to ask Cai Rongxue.

"No... no, this concubine is quite well," Cai Rongxue replied with lowered head.

Upon reflection, a wave of lingering worry washed over her. Having fallen squarely onto Li Sanjian, she herself was naturally unhurt, but whether she had only added to his injuries remained a mystery.

"That's good." Li Sanjian drew out his fire-striker and flints, striking them as he spoke, "In that case, let us press on."

"Mm," Cai Rongxue responded softly, keeping her head down. "Li... Master Li, what I said... outside... the cave... did you hear it?"

Her voice grew softer and softer, as faint as a mosquito's buzz, until it was nearly imperceptible.

"What did you say?" The air inside the cave was rather damp, and after failing to ignite the striker several times, Li Sanjian stopped altogether, asking with a hint of puzzlement.

"No... nothing." Cai Rongxue lowered her head, tightly smoothing the hem of her long dress, and asked in a low voice once more, "Did you... truly not hear?"

Hearing this, Cai Rongxue felt a slight sense of relief, yet mingled with it was a faint trace of disappointment.

"No, what did you say?" Li Sanjian continued striking the flint half-mindedly. "After I was knocked out, I merely had a dream. I dreamed of a fairy in white, and she seemed to sing a song called 'Dancing Only for You'..."

"What?" Hearing this, Cai Rongxue looked up in astonishment at Li Sanjian in the darkness, asking with a trembling voice, "A fairy in white? 'Dancing Only for You'?"

"Mm." Li Sanjian continued his rhythmic *ta-ta-ta* strikes against the flint, nodding as he spoke. "To drift through a thousand dreams of eternity, my whole life dances only for you! I can't remember the part before that. I wonder what this dream signifies? I've never been fond of singing and dancing; I haven't the foggiest which big fool was dancing for me in my dream... Still, it's quite amusing, hehehe..."

You're the big fool, Cai Rongxue muttered inwardly, spitting metaphorically at him. A dream? What on earth did his dream actually mean? She wondered, quietly trying to guess.

"Let's go." Putting forth all his effort, Li Sanjian finally coaxed a spark from the striker, waving the glowing wick before him as he spoke.

The light emitted by the striker was extremely faint, yet it was barely enough to make out the path ahead.

"Stay close to me, and watch your step," Li Sanjian turned to glance at Cai Rongxue and instructed.

In the dim light, Li Sanjian seemed to notice traces of tears on Cai Rongxue's face. Perhaps she was frightened? he thought to himself, giving it little further thought as he took the lead and walked forward.

Cai Rongxue followed closely behind him.

The cave was exceedingly narrow and damp; both Li Sanjian and Cai Rongxue felt an unusual chill permeating their bodies. Nevertheless, they gritted their teeth, picking their way unsteadily deeper into the cavern.

"Miss Cai, would you care to explain why you were carrying a concealed blade? Surely a young lady of a good family like yourself shouldn't be going about with lethal weapons?" Li Sanjian kept up a stream of chatter to distract himself and alleviate the tense atmosphere for both of them.

"I... ah..." Cai Rongxue was about to reply when she suddenly let out a piercing scream, startling Li Sanjian so badly he nearly dropped the striker.

He quickly followed her gaze. To the left side of the cave lay a relatively spacious chamber, and leaning diagonally against the wall within it was a skeleton—a bleached, white skeleton whose bone joints were unusually thick, instantly revealing that the person had been of tall stature during their lifetime.

"What the hell!" Even with Li Sanjian's stout heart, he was given a severe fright, nearly falling backward onto the ground.

"I... I... you... you... you." Cowering behind Li Sanjian, Cai Rongxue dared not look another glance, trembling so violently she couldn't even form a complete sentence.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. It's just a pile of bones, what's to be scared of?" Li Sanjian comforted Cai Rongxue, though it sounded as much like he was reassuring himself.

Stepping forward with the striker raised, he saw the skeleton leaning against the cave wall with a skewed jaw, its upper and lower white teeth bared wide as if it had suffered extreme terror or agonizing pain before death. Fragments of dust-covered, unrotted garments still clung to the bones.

*Pui!* Bad luck, Li Sanjian cursed inwardly, turning to leave. Suddenly remembering something, he turned back, walked right up to the skeleton, and bowed respectfully. "Senior, this junior is newly arrived and has offended you. Please bear no grudge, no grudge! That said, this junior has a favor to ask, and implores Senior to grant it."

His playful antics instantly dispelled much of Cai Rongxue's terror. Timidly, she stepped to his side, watching him with curious eyes, entirely unsure of what he intended to do.

"This junior asks for only a single item, and hopes Senior will bestow it." With that, Li Sanjian reached out and snapped off the skeleton's left arm bone.

"Ah??!!!" Cai Rongxue let out yet another shriek.

"Haha!" Li Sanjian cast a grinning glance at Cai Rongxue, shook the striker to ignite a scrap of fabric, and then used it to set the skeleton's arm bone on fire.

Bones contain phosphorus elements—was this not the finest kind of tinder? It could be fashioned into a makeshift torch to illuminate the path and perhaps even help them escape this perilous trap.

"You... this... you can do that? How is it that you know a bit of everything?" Cai Rongxue had intended to scold him for showing disrespect to the deceased, but upon seeing the flaming torch, curiosity got the better of her.

The longer she stayed in Li Sanjian's company, the more extraordinary traits she discovered in him, fueling her burning curiosity about what kind of person he truly was.

"Naturally," Li Sanjian said smugly. "Your brother here understands plenty of things; you'll come to learn that in time. I'm telling you, our escape from this dangerous predicament depends entirely on this very object."

Was Li Sanjian truly going to escape danger just by finding tinder? That was rather wishful thinking on his part...

Thereafter, carrying their "bone torch," Li Sanjian and Cai Rongxue pressed on, yet after wandering in circles through the cave four or five times, they found no exit whatsoever.

Until Li Sanjian had snapped off and burned away all of "Senior's" arms and legs, an exit remained nowhere in sight!