The tunnel widened slightly as she kept walking downwards. The walls were rough with jagged surface, and felt cool as she placed her hands on their surface. In places she could feel some protrusions....almost like something was growing on these walls.
'Why is it growing colder and colder as I am moving downwards?'
Though Little Purple couldn't help her much when she was out in this form, but the spiritual link between both remained. Without anyone to talk to she would have gone crazy, walking down this long, narrow path all on her own.!
'Hmmm.....these are Ice Stones. It seems this tunnel must have been formed when a volcano erupted a long time back. The lava flow created these tunnels. Ice Stones have very low temperature, and the closer they are to the volcano, the colder they become. They can be as cold as the lava is hot, and due to their cold nature and hard surface, it becomes very difficult for lava to break through them. It seems the lava here must have erupted suddenly, and with extreme great pressure and force, thus breaking through the weaker links of the Ice Stones. It is actually much colder here than what you are feeling because you are currently in your spiritual consciousness state.'
'Then....is there any point in going on ahead? I doubt I'll be able to come here in my physical form!'
'Never give up simply because you think it is useless. You will never know if it is useful or not till you see the end.'
Rihanna jerked her lips upwards at this sudden philosophical attack. Never mind, since she had already come till here, she might as well continue.
As she walked on downwards, and the temperature of the surrounding started going below freezing levels, she noticed lights moving ahead. Not sensing any aura, she walked forward curiously.
And as she turned a corner she felt she had stepped into a world of dreams! The tunnel suddenly widened, making large openings and diverging in different paths.
And from the roofs of these tunnels, layers upon layers, thin translucent white strings of stones, cascading down like shimmering curtains. They hung from the roof, without touching the ground, dangling in the air at all different heights, layer of curtains beyond layer of curtains, filling the tunnel till eternity.
'This looks like stalactite and stalagmite caves...in fact this curtain like hanging reminds me of the photos I saw online of Carlsbad Caves. This feels like a fairytale setting!'
'Hmph! These are not stalactites and stalagmites! Look closely....when have you seen stalactites giving off light from within?'
Rihanna frowned in surprise. Lights? She had noticed that the surroundings here seemed to be brighter than before.....but lights in the hanging stalactites?.....oh....Little Purple said that they were not stalactites and stalagmites....then what were they?!
As she bent her waist and entered into this world of glowing curtain, she felt that something was not right.
'Wait....these things can move?!.....But they are as hard as stone to the touch.....hard as stone but as flexible as rope....what in the world are they?!'
'They are roots of the Frozen Magma Flowers.'
'....?? Huh?! What is that?'
'These Ice stones have a special porous quality. Generally, wherever lava passes through, it will leave itself attached to its surrounding, and after a while, when it cools down, it will harden into lump like rocks. But did you notice how smooth the walls and floors of these caves are?'
Rihanna blinked in surprise. She had never seen solidified magma or gone to an active volcano site, so she really had not paid attention. But it indeed seem so!
'These Ice Stones have the capacity of absorbing in the magma in its surrounding, trapping it within its porous inner structure. And over thousands and thousands of years, this trapped magma slowly crystallizes and takes the shape of glass flowers inside the ice rocks. These roots are actually drops of liquid magma which managed to squeeze out through the pores of the rocks, but due to the extreme low temperature, they solidify and turn to stones as soon as they come in contact with the outer temperature.
Since they are formed drop by drop, and over very long time periods, each drop attaches to the prior already solidified drop like chain links. Thus even though they become hard, they also remain flexible like a chain.
Do you see the tiny silver light particles travelling up and down through these roots? These are the fire energy particles trapped and crystallized by the ice energy of the ice stones. That is what is giving out light.'
Rihanna passed through the curtains, her footsteps very slow and light, not wanting to disturb the translucent curtains of white in their enchanted flow of silver light.....dust like specks of light flowing through the long, drooping stone roots, hanging from the high roofs, trembling in the breezeless chambers like a spell from ancient times still lingering through the long disappeared ages.
She could almost hear the faint music in the background.....a soft, broken flute...sorrowful and endearing, as if calling out to its beloved through the unending interlude of space and time.
She didn't realize when her steps had paused, her thoughts broken, her mind having flown far, as her senses merged with the call of the wild flute. Hauntingly familiar.....something she had heard once....perhaps in a dream.
The notes of the music breathed warmly over her consciousness, caressing her senses, wanting to pull her closer and closer.....an her feet moved.....like an enchanted doll she kept moving, no longer feeling or hearing or seeing anything around her. The only thing she knew was that this music was meant for her.
Through the caverns and tunnels spreading in all directions, through the stone curtains shivering under the force of her momentum, on and on, without any heed to the voices of Little Purple and Fluffy shouting loudly within her mind.
Rihanna walked as if in a trance, her soul and all sense held by a single thread of note attached to the long bamboo flute, playing on in obscured attachment.
Till finally her feet came to a halt, and her eyelids blinked over her pale face, eyes fluttering in a haze of confusion, looking about her in startled wariness.
'Where....what happened?'
'That's what I want to ask you!! Where the hell were you going to? We both kept calling you, continuously, and there was absolutely no response from you! What was going on?!'
Rihanna blinked again, trying to recall what had happened. Though she had been in a trance, she had at all times been aware of what was going on. Which meant.....she had been in a trance because she had willingly entered that trance state?!
'I don't exactly know.....But I feel that I have heard that music before. This same piece of music, the same notes, even the same style of playing! It's like....like I am very familiar with this flute and this music...and I have some great attachment with the person behind, who is playing the flute!'
'What?! But how is that possible? I have been with you right from the moment the both of us migrated to this world. And I have never heard that music! You must be imagining it...maybe it something similar to some music piece you heard on earth!'
'.....Is it?....Why do I keep feeling that is not the truth?...I have heard it.....but not on earth. But I cannot remember where I have heard it....at all! It's....it's almost like there is something I have forgotten. Something very important, which happened to me in the past few years...but I simply can't remember what it is!'
Little Purple sighed inwardly. It's not like he could refute her words. He had not really known her during her life on earth.
'Well....we should keep going forward. I think there is a great blessing for you ahead.'
Rihanna stopped scrunching her forehead in trying to recall what she might have forgotten. Whatever it was, it wouldn't just all come to her because she willed it to. Memories needed the right nudge, and then they would just pour in like a flood. So she had to wait for the right stimulation.
'Oh?....What blessing?'
'From what I have seen till now, I am pretty sure these tunnels lead to the Ice Fire Desert, or at least pass under them. This end of the tunnel must have gotten blocked and forgotten a long time ago, or people would not have left these Frozen Magma Flowers to grow so happily. Generally when a large amount of Fire energy merges into an equally large amount of Ice energy, due to their opposing nature, at the meeting point of the two forces, a large bed of hot steam will be created - basically fire energy melting the ice and turning it to gas, and the ice energy forcefully freezing back the vapors into ice. Such a place is very rich in energy.....either ice or fire energy.....but either will be very suitable for your first step into cultivation.'
'You mean for us to take break here and focus on absorbing all the energy from the bed of hot steam and then work on how to use this energy? Hmmm.....okay. Then....should I return back to my physical body and come back again later? But....will my body be able to handle such a large drop in temperature?!'
'It will be more beneficial to return in your physical form. It will indeed be a bit uncomfortable. I will try to shield you partly....but you will have to bear with the freezing temperature. Otherwise you will not be able to accept and absorb the ice energy.'
'Hmmm.....by the way, I never actually asked this! But does my body have ice elemental affinity? What if it is unable to accept this ice energy?'
'Hmph! The lesser you talk the more intelligent you seem! As yet I have not seen a single element your body does not have an affinity to. If indeed it does not have affinity to ice energy, at least we'll both get to know your body is not a Spherular Mystic.'
'.....Spherular Mystic??!....That sounds like a really cool term!!'
'It means a person who has affinity to every single element under heaven and earth.....but also a person who is unable to cultivate due to the great demands of such a body constitution. In other words...a great sounding but trashy body constitution.'
Rihanna felt her eyelids twitch involuntarily. What a beautiful way to slap a person, completely humiliating him till he wished to crawl under the ground! Whoever gave this high-sounding name sure deserved a round of clapping!!