Zhang Wang's fingers were folded over the edge of the path and sent his spiritual light down the steep descent. He was thoughtfully frowning down at it, wondering if he was supposed to dive downward because there was seriously no way of turning around in that narrow little space and doing down feet first. He had no idea how Ariunbayar managed it, but surely it would be even more impossible for Yu Yanlin's stockier body to pull off such a feat.
"What's wrong?" Yu Yanlin asked from his rear.
Zhang Wang had to strain his neck to reply, "There's a drop. I can't even turn around." He grumbled and faced the long stretch of darkness below. "Se Mayang!" He yelled, catching the Princess's attention.
"Yeah?" The way her voice resounded seemed to come from a bigger open space. It gave Zhang Wang a sense of hope, "What's taking you so long?"
"Any idea on how to go down this drop?" Zhang Wang shouted in response. His hands shuffled a little, causing a pebble to fall into the abyss. It clattered on the sides of stone walls, echoing as it went. Zhang Wang gulped at the distance, waiting for the final plop far down below.
"Just crawl down!" Ariunbayar shouted as if it was the most simple thing in the world.
"Don't worry, I have a hold of you," Yu Yanlin's encourage voice was behind him, reminding him of the rope.
Zhang Wang sighed. Having no real choice, he put on a brave face and began his descent, head first in those narrow tunnels. It was a tight squeeze, and perhaps that was the only reason he didn't just tumble downward. The Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms was crawling down like an awkward overgrown crab with teeth grit, and his arms were already straining from this weird handstand, crawling motion.
Zhang Wang whined and focused on his movements, taking in sharp breaths in hopes that this will all be over soon.
But time always slowed when was one was suffering, even more so in a dark, cramped tunnel where he could hear the echoing of his own heartbeat in his ear, and the walls scraping along the sides of his body.
Calm down.
But sweat was beading at his brow, curse words on the tip of his tongue.
Just a little further. Just a little more.
He chanted that in his mind, feeling hopelessness creep in as only darkness greeted him up ahead.
"You'll be fine," the voice was Yu Yanlin's, that hovered overhead. "You can do it. Just a bit more."
'Easy for you to say!' Zhang Wang cursed in his mind, vicious and irate. But he still kept the encouraging words in his mind. He gripped onto them as though his life might depend on it. In truth, Zhang Wang had put himself in much worse situations, including strolling around in the demon court in disguise. Risking his life on the front lines. Charging ahead against hailing arrows or being piss drunk in a high-end brothel. All life-threatening situations. But there was just something about claustrophobic tunnels that stretched out into nothing that seriously grated his nerves in the wrong way and sparked the flame of panic.
He was so focused on staving away his fear away that he didn't even realize when he reached his arm out and grabbed onto…nothing. "Huh?" And just like that he slipped and fell out into an open cavern. And if it weren't for the helpful little tug on the rope that flipped him around, he would have definitely crashed into the ground head first and broken his neck.
A loud thud. Bits of rubble followed him, trickling down from above. "Ow, ow, ow…" He groaned, holding the side of his hip he landed on.
"What took you so long?" A haughty young voice huffed at him. When he peeled open his eyes, he saw the little Princess with her hands on her hips and his nose upturned. "I thought you had died or something."
He sighed, "Give me a break…" Slowly, the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms pulled himself up to his feet and looked around. They were in a damp underground cavern. Unlike the dry heat that permeated outside, there was the sound of trickling water, droplets that fell from stalactite. The cavern room they were in was spacious, but different tunnels spiraled off into multiple directions. Few of them appeared to be formed naturally, and many were carved by a burrowing creature. Clearly, this was part of their lair.
Just as he was looking around, most stones tumbled down from above along with little shreds of dust. Zhang Wang stepped aside, and the demon king popped out of the hole and flipped around to land on his feet like it all took no effort at all.
Zhang Wang didn't know if he should be impressed or annoyed, so he went with a combination of both and sighed.
Yu Yanlin dusted himself off from the fall and perked up. Zhang Wang didn't understand at first and tilted his head in question when the demon king approached him. But embarrassment was upon his face when Yanlin simply came over to dust him off as well. Luckily it was dark, which masked the color flush on Zhang Wang's face. "Thanks, man," he muttered.
"Hm? There's no need to thank me."
Ariunbayar rolled her eyes and stomped her feet again, "Will you two lovebirds focus on the task at hand for more than two seconds? Can't you tell there's some serious work to be done?"
"..." Zhang Wang's frown was deep. He could see a least half a dozen different tunnels that trailed off from the main cavern room. If Ariunbayar was intent on exploring each nook and cranny aimlessly then count him out of it! He narrowed his eyes at her and folded his arms. With a huff, he asked, "Please tell me you have some sort of plan."
But Ariunbayar was shameless and rolled her eyes at him, "What? How could I have some sort of plan? Of course not!"
Zhang Wang slapped his face with his palm, exasperated beyond belief. "I can't believe you. Don't tell me you just plan on picking one of these tunnels at random and aimlessly wandering around in hopes that you'll find something!?"
"What's wrong with that?" She blinked at him innocently.
Zhang Wang narrowed his eyes further, "Just what part isn't wrong with it!?" He bellowed, voice echoing through the underground caves. Rocks tumbled a little in response. He gritted his teeth and forcefully drew back his voice, missing the way that Yu Yanlin snapped his head toward one of the tunnels.
"Don't be such a pansy." The little girl complained, "In fact let's go explore that one right now!" She pointed to a tunnel at random, "My luck stat is at least decent, so there's a good 64% chance that we come across something rather than nothing."
"What!?" Zhang Wang exclaimed, flabbergasted. He couldn't even tell what he was more shocked by; the fact that Ariunbayar had a luck stat or think that 36% of failure was acceptable. "No! We should at least look around, see if there are any clues before rushing forward like a bunch of idiots!"
"And what kind of clue do you reckon we'd find?"
"Well--"
"No need." Yu Yanlin finally cut in, catching the two's attention. "We should go through this one," he pointed to a tunnel on his left. "I can hear sounds coming from its depths. Surely we will run into something."
The Princess blinked, "Wow, you're so much more useful than this guy."
"Hey!" Zhang Wang exclaimed.
Yu Yanlin chuckled, "Only sometimes."
But Ariunbayar already lost interest in them and began strolling off, leaving Zhang Wang there to grumble and pout. Yu Yanlin thought he was a little cute and stole a little peck on the lips when walking by.