Sinkhole

After a few hours, the carriage stopped when the sun went down. I alighted from the carriage and saw that we had stopped by a stream. The water was clear and cold. The Snow Frekins were lapping up the water from the stream. Seeing them act like pet dogs, I could understand why Anais used to call them puppies. 

Both the girls were combing the fluffy hairs of these 'puppies'. It seemed that Alice had become closer to these puppies along with their master, Anais.

I let them relax and talk with each other and went to roam nearby. We were travelling inside a forest on an unpaved and untrodden road. The road was wide enough only for a single carriage. Clearly, merchants and travellers didn't use this road for their journey. 

I roamed around for a few minutes, breathing in the fresh air of nature. During this leisure stroll, I found that the concentration of Stellar energy in the atmosphere was higher than in any other place I have known before. It was about the same or more concentrated than the grotto of the Highland Origin Sect. 

I felt the source of this increase in concentration and moved towards that direction. I walked for a few minutes. The forest was thinning out, and I found myself in a patch of meadow within the forest. I moved slowly and found that there was a bottomless sinkhole present in the centre of the meadow. 

The mouth of the sinkhole was at a lower elevation than the meadow surface. And thus, if one was not careful and rushed over the meadow, there was a high chance that he would slip into the depths of this sinkhole without any warning. 

The mouth of the sinkhole was big enough to be able to swallow at least hundreds of men at a single time with ease. I lay flat near the sinkhole and peered into the dark of the abyss.

There was no light present in the sinkhole. I touched the interior of the sinkhole with my hand and found that it was very slippery and smooth. It didn't leave anyone any chance to make an escape after falling into it. I could sense that the stellar energy was bubbling within the walls of the sinkhole. 

The concentration of stellar energy in the walls was less but very pure, with negligible mortal energy. After a few moments of my touch, when I was still peering into the sinkhole, an oppressive aura surged out from the depths of the sinkhole. The aura was far stronger than any I have ever felt. It rattled my bones and churned my blood. The bones in the fingers of the hand, which were still touching the sinkhole walls, broke and splintered out from the skin. I spurted out a considerable quantity of blood and was flown up in the air.

I landed heavily on the edge of the mouth of the sinkhole. My legs were dangling inside the hole, and I could only hold on to the meadow's grasses for my dear life. I could not exert any energy on my broken hand, and thus, I was left hanging with the help of one hand. 

As the shock of the aura outburst was very heavy, I didn't have any strength left in me to climb up the sinkhole. I tried to heal my hands as much as possible using my internal stellar energy. When I was halfway through the healing, I felt a change in energy concentration within the sinkhole. 

I felt an ominous hunch that another oppressive aura was going to be expelled from the bottom of the sinkhole.

I gripped the grasses nearby with both my hands and pushed the wall of the sinkhole horizontally. The aura outburst pushed me upwards, but using my hands as a fulcrum, I flipped myself out of the sinkhole. 

I was launched much higher than the previous time and, due to my interjection, quite far away from the sinkhole. The aura had damaged both of my legs brutally. The heavy landing crushed my ribs even after strengthening myself from the remaining energy in my body. 

I was now lying on the meadow on my back, with most of my bones broken and skin ruptured. Except for my face, which had a few but less insignificant injuries, my whole body was battered. 

I didn't even have the energy to crawl away from the dangerous sinkhole. I lay there and tried to absorb the stellar energy from the atmosphere. I was lying there for more than half an hour when I heard the voice of someone shouting. 

The voice was feminine, and the source of the shouts was nearing my location. I tried to scream but could wheeze heavily as my ribs had somewhat crushed my lungs. I gave up on shouting and continued to absorb the energy. 

The sound was coming closer, but when it was still quite a distance away, someone jumped from the forest at the edge of the meadow and landed near my head. I didn't detect any hostility; thus, I didn't shift my body even when the newcomer landed right near my head.

The intruder peered into me, and I looked at the face and found it to be Anais. She had the same smile from before, but her eyes were not. I sensed something else in them: pity, sadness or grief. She took out a bottle from her storage space, uncorked it and pushed its tip into my mouth. She continued to smile and said.

"What are you doing out here in the wild? See, you got yourself hurt due to your carelessness. Your sister is very concerned for your well-being, and you get yourself injured even after getting so old. You should take care of yourself. *Tut-Tut-Tut* And now you are indebted to me as I have saved your life. You have to do your best to complete my request."

After complaining about my recklessness, she suddenly changed her tone after clicking her tongue. Hearing her teasing words, I was a little shocked. She had always maintained her flirtatious but neutral expression before us. But now she was openly teasing me. My reverie was cut short as I heard Alice's shocked gasp. She sprinted to my side and started freaking out after seeing my battered state.

"Lucas! How did you get hurt? Did someone attack you?"

"It is okay, sis. Anais here has given me a health potion. It has helped me heal the major injuries. These remaining ones are just superficial wounds. After absorbing the energy and meditating, I will become completely fine. So don't worry."

I consoled my sister and looked at Anais. As soon as Alice had arrived, she changed her teasing expression back to her regular face. I didn't give much thought to her behavioural change. After consoling Alice, I told them about the sinkhole. They started to move towards the sinkhole to check it out, but I warned them not to get too close to it.

They checked the sinkhole for a few moments and returned back to me. Till then, I had healed myself sufficiently to stand up with a little effort. Both of the girls put one hand over their shoulders and helped me move to the carriage. 

On the way to the carriage, I explained about the sinkhole and how I got injured in much detail. Alice was listening to me with much curiosity, but Anais had a solemn expression. I tapped her on the shoulder and asked.

"Is there anything that's troubling you? Do you know anything else about the sinkhole and the aura outburst I felt?"

Anais hesitated for a little while and answered my question after giving some thought.

"This sinkhole was not that large when it was first discovered. It was discovered many decades ago. Its mouth was so small that it could swallow only one person, and that too with much difficulty. A few locals discovered the sinkhole when they were foraging. They discovered it when one of their lambs which they were guiding for grazing the meadows, was sucked into it. 

Afterwards, they explained the situation to the authorities in Stilpan. They didn't take this seriously at first, but after the disappearance of many locals and their livestock, a search party was organised. Many River Consolidation practitioners came and checked the sinkhole. The sinkhole had grown much bigger by then. It could swallow two men easily. They couldn't solve the mystery of its existence, nor could they destroy it. So, to prevent any further accidents, they brought a huge mountain and covered the sinkhole with it. They further sealed the region to prevent anyone else from coming close to the mountain."

"No one had entered the region for these many decades, and most of us had forgotten about this sinkhole. Even I had only read about this sinkhole in the historical texts of the city of Stilpan. And this is the very first time I have encountered it. 

The sinkhole might have eaten the whole mountain and increased its size over the years to reach its current size. Alas, we couldn't do anything else regarding the sinkhole except inform the Duke of the North. The jurisdiction of Stlpan and its surrounding regions is under the northern Duke. Also, he might have sufficient strength and treasures to solve the problem regarding the sinkhole."

By the time we finished talking about the sinkhole, we had reached our carriage. The beasts that were stomping their claws in impatience relaxed themselves after seeing Anais. Anais rubbed their fur to calm them down. Then, both she and Alice helped me to climb up into the carriage. 

I sat cross-legged after entering the carriage and started absorbing the stellar energy nearby to heal my body completely. After scolding me a little more due to the earlier incident, Alice went outside the carriage and sat with Anais to spend time with her.

I cultivated for a few hours till all my injuries were completely healed. I looked outside the carriage and found that it was about midnight. The carriage had stopped by another stream, and the beasts were resting by lapping up water from the stream. Alice and Anias were near the beast and rubbing their fur to soothe the beasts as well as themselves. 

This time, I didn't stroll around but rather lay on the ground and looked at the night sky. The sky was clear without any presence of clouds. The stars were twinkling; I could make out many constellations from the clusters of stars. 

These constellations were beautiful. Even though there are innumerable constellations in the sky. Every one of them had a different meaning. Each constellation was adorned by many beautiful stars. The uniqueness of the stars gives the constellation its own distinctiveness. 

It was very similar to cultivation. In every significant step of cultivation, one could form his own stars in his body. These stars increase in number and create new constellations. These constellations define the corresponding path of the cultivator. The first significant step in the formation of a star is the breakthrough into the Nucleus Formation stage from the River Consolidation Stage. 

That is the first time a cultivator is able to coagulate his own stellar energy and give birth to a star in his dantian. This star becomes the very first star and core of his constellation. After further breakthroughs, more and more stars are given birth to, and new constellations are generated.

I was still far away from breaking through into the Nucleus Formation stage, so there was still time to think about my core star. I lay there in my thoughts till the beasts had rested well. I switched my seats with Alice to give her rest and get familiar with the Snow Rekins with the help of Anais. Anais was happy to familiarise me with her 'puppies'.

I spent time with her understanding the behaviour of many beasts and was now quite familiar with the Snow Rekins, too. After getting acquainted with the beasts, we three switched up with each other to rest or drive the carriage. We spent about a week travelling and making good acquaintances with each other till we reached the snowy stretches of the north of the Vangan empire.