The Goddess Statue

"This! This will kill us!" Rocky was the fastest among them and then was Su Xin Yu. But she was being slow on purpose so that she could keep an eye on both Chen Chen and Li Ming Hao.

Now, Li Ming Hao was still faster but it seemed like this running was going to kill Chen Chen if not falling down that bottomless pit.

"Come on brother, it's no time to scream. Just focus on running," Su Xin Yu spoke through her huffing. Given that most of the excursion had been done by her and Li Ming Hao, they were exhausted. But if they slowed down even for a second, they would lose their lives.

Finally, end of the stairs was visible. Li Ming Hao and Su Xin Yu raced ahead but Chen Chen was starting to fall behind. He swore in his heart that if he got out of here alive, he had to lose weight and increase his stamina. He was too old for this shit.

The boy and the girl jumped up. Even before they took a breath, they looked behind. The falling rocks had almost matched Chen Chen's pace. He was still three steps away when the earth beneath him vanished.

"Waaaa~~~" He stretched his hand in the air but just missed the platform. In a desperate attempt he closed his eyes for he had just lost the gamble of life. Would he never be able to see the gold again? Would he never be able to eat good food?

His whole life flashed in front of his eyes. All the bad deeds he had done to his naïve sister. How he had always prioritized Dean Li's orders than her safety during the missions. He did not regret anything for it was a question of survival for him too. But he was definitely sorry towards his cousin.

After going through all his past memories, he was very sure that he had fallen into abyss and was probably lying in the blood of pool. But the pain never came so he opened his eyes to check and found himself dangling from the platform.

"Open your eyes Chen Chen! You are slipping!" Li Ming Hao was shouting. Chen Chen blinked his eyes innocently and looked down. All the falling rocks had formed a cloud of dust beneath him but it was so far away the fear of falling was renewed in his heart.

"F*ck," he cursed and immediately started helping the two, who were pulling each of his arm. He placed his foot against the wall to get some footing and was able to climb up.

"Hah!" the two people plopped down on the ground, sweat pouring out their whole body. Finally they could breathe a bit. Their panting was the only thing being heard in the area. It was too quiet. But none of it mattered. They had avoided a very dangerous situation just now.

Chen Chen, trembling, looked down the platform and immediately recoiled. That kind of height made him dizzy with fear once again. To think he was about to lose his life some twenty floors down there.

"Li Ming Hao, pass me some water please," Su Xin Yu was still panting but she tried getting up. Her bones were aching at this moment. She had not run this much in so long. But suddenly this much exercise made her feel like puking. Her face was pale and her lips parched.

Li Ming Hao's heart ached at the face full of dirt. There were black marks from here and there. He should not have asked her to take such a daunting journey. At least she had warmed up to him a bit. He took out the bottle from his bag and tossed it to her.

She opened the bottle and carefully checked the quantity. The bottle still had about a liter of water left. She took in two sips and gave it away.

"Have some more. We will find water somewhere," Li Ming Hao urged.

"We have no idea where we are or where we will find water next. It's okay, let's continue on the journey after some break," she replied. Her instinct was telling that they were close to getting out.

Looking around, it was a weird statue guarding another gate. There was a lady with eight arms and holding different kind of weapons in her hands. A sword, a trident, a chalice, and a head? And then she was standing on another figure with one leg. Perhaps she was crushing the other creature beneath her. There was intricate design of jewelry on her and her clothes were quite different from what she had seen in her life.

The statue had worn two piece set, with only covering essential parts on her body. The expression on the face of the statue was scary, the tongue of the lady was out. What did this symbolize now?

Could she not have a few answers? Why did no one mentor her like they did Li Ming Hao?

She gathered some strength and got up to look around the statue.

"Did you find anything?" she heard a whisper in her ears which made her jump.

"Careful," Li Ming Hao caught her from her waist. The skinship at this moment felt so natural that none of them minded how close they were right now.

"Ah! Thanks." Su Xin Yu took the support of Li Ming Hao's shoulder and stabilized her once again. Their hearts were definitely racing but they could not tell if it was because of their close proximity or the panic situation they had just avoided.

"I am not sure what this means. I do remember seeing something similar when I was reading about the neighboring kingdom of Juandu but what would their goddess be doing here?" she kept her finger on her chin, thinking about how, for the first time, she had found symbolism from both the kingdom of Shu and Juandu.

From her past journeys, there had never been any significant discoveries related to other kingdoms around them. Moreover, these two kingdoms were full of mysteries. While their country had advanced much technologically, these two countries were still considered barbaric nations. Not much was known about them.

However, Su Xin Yu was very interested in their culture, thus she had devoured books about them. Also because, those countries were the ones that bordered this whole area. Although their own N country had claimed to the world that the territory belonged to them, there was no way to guard the borders because of difficult terrain and the borders always covered with fog.

A number of operations had been undertaken to map out that area but every single person that reached the border through air or land never came back. Even their electronic devices were rendered useless. This was one of the mysteries of their earth that had never been resolved. And it had been so for centuries.

But finding the sea serpent and a Juandu goddess here, it meant that at some point of time in history, there was a free flow of people of different countries in these areas. Su Xin Yu was suddenly questioning all the history she knew.

"But what does her placement here mean?" Li Ming Hao had heard about Juandu kingdom too, but given that there was less and less knowledge about them out there, he had never delved into them.

"Originally, this goddess of theirs is destroyer of evil. I wonder if this really points to the exit. Does it mean that we have defeated all the evils? I cannot be too sure. Ah! Li Ming Hao, if we do make out of here in one piece, let's decipher those notebooks of yours first," she whispered into his ear.

"What notebooks?" Chen Chen appeared behind them suddenly.