The moment Shen Ying fell into the hole, she had expected some sort of tunnel that she would slide down into another world. This was an expectation she had after learning about traditional stories in this world.
Si Xiu had taught her about a girl who had tumbled into a tunnel, and had met certain magical characters that were mysterious and weird. However, all her hopes were dashed, as she had instead immediately teleported onto a rune covered stone pillar.
There were many people in tattered clothes surrounding her. They were all looking at her curiously, as if they had never seen a person like her before. Shen Ying observed them in return, and concluded that these people had clearly never seen the light of day before, as their skin was quite pale, and the lights surrounding them were dim as well.
"Gruh...Iop..." The cave people seemed to be speaking some sort of language, which Shen Ying could not understand. They had not adopted the language of other people, and seemed to have developed a language for themselves.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" Unlike the other people, a man that wore golden robes emerged from the common crowd, questioning Shen Ying's purposes.
"You can understand my words?" Shen Ying was greatly surprised by this fact. There was no way these bunch of people could ever understand the language she was speaking, right?
"I can understand your words. Fellow Daoist, which sect are you from?" The golden robed man bowed to Shen Ying to greet her.
"Uhhh... Holy Heart Sect?" Shen Ying also bowed to him to show her courtesy. It was better to form good bonds with the man in front of her. He must be at the rank of Astral Projection already.
"Ah! So you're from the same sect that I'm from! Can I see your identification token?" The man jovially responded to Shen Ying, as he had not been expecting to see another fellow sect member here. He had been down here for 6 months, scouting potential spies from Yang Emperor Sect among the cave people.
"I'm a... new arrival. My master is Si Xiu. Have you seen her?" Shen Ying realised that she was in an awkward situation. She had forgotten that she was not really one of the Holy Heart Sect members yet!
"Are you a spy sent by the Yang Emperor Sect?" The man suddenly took a defensive posture against Shen Ying. He had caught a few spies before, and they behaved exactly like the girl in his sights. All of them either had a false token or did not have one at all.
"It's really not like that! I'm really a new arrival! Contact your Sect Leader and ask!" Shen Ying rapidly denied the allegations made against her.
"The Sect Leader is still in closed-door cultivation! A liar like you must be a spy! Die! Blade Vortex!" The man immediately called out the swords that he stored in his Spatial Pouch, which started turning into a vortex that moved speedily towards Shen Ying.
"Bloody hell! What is it with you people and your aggressive tactics!" Shen Ying yelled out as she hurriedly retreated the blade vortex. All of the swords radiates pure Sword Will, which could cut through Shen Ying's defences like paper.
Her only option now was to use that artifact in her hand! Breathing in deeply and calming herself down, she infused her spirituality inside the artifact, which immediately began to glow with an intense white light.
Nobody could observe the white light, so no one knew that there were strings being unwound from the light, and winding around the surrounding Earth Qi. This special effect had happened due to the artifact having the mark of influence of the God of Fate.
"To think that Yang Emperor Sect really invested in their spy this time round..." The man could feel an intense pressure from the artifact that Shen Ying was holding, making him very worried. This presence was close to a True Soul cultivator he had seen before.
The cave people were not scared of the man's blade vortexes, as they had seen him use it many times. However, they could feel a deity's spirit inside the girl, leading them to prostrate themselves in front of Shen Ying. They also started to become aggressive towards the man.
Shen Ying could feel her power level rising with the artifact's glow. This artifact was simply miraculous! Although, she could feel her body slowly corroding away from the pressure of the forced Qi boost. She decided to check her system to see her cultivation level now.
[Name: Shen Ying
Cultivation Level: 6-tier Astral Projection(Temporary)
Cultivation Path: Unshaking Cultivation Low Skill(11/100)
Skills:Dawn of the Living Dead Mid Skill(11/10000)
Redemption Shop
Missions
System Rewards]
Shen Ying's eyes bulged out from her eyeholes. This was simply too outrageous! An artifact that could allow a weakling like her to wield this sort of power was overpowered, overpowered, overpowered!
At the same time, the light receded to show a mighty stone sword that was at least 10m in width. In short, Shen Ying was holding a sword that was probably five times the size of her.
"******** your whole family!" The man could not help but shout out a few vulgarities. This was outrageous! Outrageous! What hope does he have for beating this spy at this point? Also, why was he speaking asterisks?
With the sword, Shen Ying channeled her Earth Qi, swiping away the blade vortexes with ease. The swords immediately smashed into the Earth, cracks forming on them. Some parts of the swords even flew underground, returning to Nature.
"Astral Roaming!" The man used his escape skill without hesitation. He was only at the bottom rank of Astral Projection stage, and could not beat Shen Ying who had powered up to an insane level.
The soul of the man separated from his body, and strings with a blue glow connected his soul and body. Following that, the body was manipulated to move at an extremely high speed by the soul.
Shen Ying heaved a sigh of relief as she saw the man escaping. Since the man was a Holy Heart Sect member, she did not chase him further. She collapsed onto the ground, extremely exhausted after the burst of energy she had used.
Now, she just needed to call Li Tang out to carry her... wait, she jumped out to here in first place to reclaim him. She felt like slapping herself. All that time fighting someone to forget her original purpose...
The cave people, seeing that Shen Ying appeared to be in distress, kept talking among themselves, eventually coming to an agreement. All of them made guttural sounds, in order to attract Shen Ying's attention.
This method worked, as Shen Ying stared at the people around her closing in. She suddenly felt a chill down her spine. They would not try anything funny with her, right?