Chapter 128: Night Exploration of He Rui Peak (II)

Goblin raises a drum hammer, and just as the hammer is about to strike the wooden drum, a strange sound comes from behind, as if something rolled onto the ground; he stops, turns back, sees a blackish lump on the stone road, wrinkles his nose at the smell of meat—a piece of roasted Hornless beef. The Goblin instantly bares his teeth, looks delighted, glances at his companion, sees it hasn't noticed, and while it turns its head the opposite way, he quietly picks up the meat, backs his companion, leans against a tree and sits, lowers his head to gnaw the meat, completely forgetting to sound the alarm.

Behind the big stone, the Young Marshal whispers, "What do we do? Continuing like this won't work. Even if we leap over the fortress gate, there are still many sentries behind. If we keep dragging this out, daylight will break soon."

"It seems entering from the front is impossible; let's search along the foot of the mountain for a place we can climb up."

So they have no choice; the group abandons the main path, quietly moves through the blind spot at the mountain foot, planning to find an easy climbing spot.

The mountain trail winds upward; the nearer to the junction, the easier to climb, but the easier spots are more heavily guarded. Therefore Li Bucai specifically looks for the place with the greatest vertical distance from the upper road, but as they walk, they reach the opposite side of the junction, where the cliff wall is sheer as if cut by a knife, impossible to scale. Finally they find a rugged spot ahead, where a spring runs, split from the mountain top into several waterfalls, flowing down more than a mile to the foot, merging with other valley streams, and downstream becomes a large river.

Because of long‑term erosion by the waterfall, a stone channel over a meter wide has formed on this cliff; by bracing both sides with limbs and alternating upward, one can easily climb, but climbing against the waterfall requires great stamina; each section is over a hundred meters high, and a slip would shatter you.

"You all stay here; after I get up, I'll lower a rope and pull you up," Li Bucai says, then darts into the waterfall, preparing to climb. As soon as his hands press against the stone walls, he feels an unidentified object swinging in the torrent, occasionally hitting his helmet.

Li Bucai feels it—a vine. He pulls it a few times; it's sturdy. It's odd that a vine appears here; normally, after long immersion, it would be slippery, and even the stone walls are slick as if oiled, yet this is a fresh vine. Did the Goblins hang it here to lure us? Or did someone else use this route? Could it be a Dark Night Elf?

Li Bucai thinks of this, says nothing. He worries it might be a Dark Night Elf or Goblin bait; climbing together would be too risky, so he grabs the vine and starts climbing.

The vine is fresh and easy to climb; Li Bucai exerts little effort and reaches the edge of the mountain path, peeks out, looks both ways; the Goblin sentries are no longer visible. By the water stands a luminous tree, the vine is tied to its roots, and under the tree lie several weapons, clearly Goblin sentry spears, with a few short arrows nearby.

Li Bucai knows Goblins turn into a green puddle after death; he flips onto it, examines closely; the water marks on the short arrows haven't fully dried; the arrows are only 20 li long, seeming shot from a short Crossbow, because even the smallest bow, when fully drawn, cannot launch such short arrows.

It can be confirmed that the Goblins originally guarding here died from being hit by those short arrows.

"It must be the Dark Night Elf!" Li Bucai mutters, eager to meet these Dark Night Elves. After confirming the Goblins on both sides won't come, he takes a rope from his pack, tosses it down; the Young Marshal first ties the rope to his waist, gets pulled up by Li Bucai; after three or four people are up, Li Bucai hands the rope to the others, continues climbing the second cliff, where another vine lets him ascend smoothly, and the nearby Goblins are cleared as before.

In this way, in the blink of an eye they reach the fifth section; above is the summit of He Rui Peak. Li Bucai sticks his head out to look inside; the summit is a platform about the size of three football fields, surrounded by the platform. Here 36 lamp trees, larger than the luminous trees below, are planted, lighting the whole platform. There are no buildings, only a huge black hole in the center; beside the black hole are twelve-eyed springs, one of whose streams flows toward Li Bucai's position, the other eleven each flow a tiny creek in different directions, which later join a small ditch along the mountain path, converge into a waterfall, cascading in four tiers down the mountain.

The platform is empty; from the scattered weapons one can see that previously a few hundred Goblins guarded here. Killing so many Goblins without alerting the sentries below shows the strength of this night raid team.

After the earlier experience, these vines are very sturdy, even surpassing ropes; Li Bucai no longer needs to lay rope to pull them up; they each swiftly reach him from behind.

"The Life Spring is inside that deep hole." These twelve-eyed springs are no different from ordinary springs. Li Bucai asks Yin Ji, "How far inside is it roughly?"

Yin Ji nods, "Our ancestors once all lived here; the Wangyueku is filled with many small caves; you have to go down five hundred meters to find the holy spring. Since the Goblins have occupied it for so long, there might still be Tree Elves inside, so it's certainly dangerous. It's almost dawn now."

Li Bucai looks at the sky; the east already shows a faint fish‑belly white; in less than half an hour the sun will rise. At the platform's entrance stands a very sturdy stone gate, sealing off the Goblins outside; it's hard to notice from here. When daylight comes, Goblins will enter the gate, see the guards gone, and alarm all Goblins. Having come this far, Li Bucai will not give up lightly.

"You mean there are still many small caves inside?"

"Yes, they were originally the clan's sleeping caves, interconnected and labyrinthine; outsiders easily get lost."

"How well do you know the interior terrain?"

"I lived there for a while, so I know a bit."

"Alright, let's go in and see."

Li Bucai immediately leads the group from the platform into Wangyueku. The waterfall still bears foreign vines; once the Goblins discover them, they will reinforce Wangyueku. Just hide in a sleeping cave, and they will first look for the Dark Night Elf. Great literature