Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 69

Chapter 69: CAVE ENTRANCE

Dawn had barely begun to paint the sky when Li Hua emerged from her room, dressed in her plain training clothes. The coarse linen looked ordinary enough, but she could feel the subtle spiritual threads her mother had carefully woven through the fabric during her weekly mending sessions.

It was their parents’ clever compromise—clothes that looked appropriately humble while still offering their children extra protection. These enhanced training clothes had saved them from more than a few scrapes during their daily forest excursions beneath Great White Mountain.

She found her brothers already in the courtyard, stifling yawns as they adjusted their own similarly enhanced training clothes. Li Wei was particularly careful with his, having learned the hard way that their mother’s protective weaving could only handle so many close encounters with cranky spirit beasts. With the festival not until evening, they had their entire rest day free for exploring the forest’s mysteries.

The sight of their mother in the kitchen was expected—she always rose before dawn on their rest days, knowing her children’s habit of vanishing into the forest until sunset. Steam rose from several bamboo containers, carrying the familiar scent of her signature pork buns mixed with something else—was that spirit-ginseng she’d woven into the filling? The siblings could recognize the unique aroma anywhere; after all, they’d watched their mother tend those ordinary roots in her personal hidden garden for three months, carefully feeding each one droplets of her own spiritual essence at dawn until they’d transformed into something extraordinary.

“Breakfast now, lunch for later,” their mother said with practiced efficiency, handing each child two carefully wrapped packages. She’d long since learned to prepare extra portions, knowing how training in the forest worked up their appetites. “The spirit-ginseng will help maintain your energy through both the forest expedition and tonight’s festival.”

Their father stood by the door in his training clothes, his usual farmer’s clothing abandoned in favor of comfortable training wear that had clearly seen better days. He made an exaggerated show of stretching his muscles, as if preparing to join their forest expedition. “You know,” he said with a playful grin, “I could come along. These old bones still have some fight left in them, and the forest beneath Great White Mountain holds so many excellent teaching opportunities.”

“Bàba!” the siblings chorused in mock horror, well aware of their father’s tendency to turn any forest expedition into an impromptu lecture about proper cultivation techniques, complete with detailed analyses of every spirit beast they encountered.

He clutched his chest in theatrical pain. “Ah, rejected by my own children! Such cruelty!” But his eyes sparkled with mischief as he added, “Fine, fine. Just be careful up there. And Little Poppy?” His expression softened as he glanced at her celestial diamond earrings, “Try not to drag your brothers to chase after a fire skunk. Though I must say, watching Li Wei try to maintain his dignified ‘eldest brother’ face while smelling like the wrong end of a spirit beast was the highlight of my month. And Li Hao! That boy tried to convince everyone it was a new type of ‘stealth training.’ The only thing stealthy about it was how quickly people snuck away when they saw him coming.”

The siblings tried and failed to suppress their giggles, remembering the incident he referred to. Even as they laughed, though, Li Hua noticed how his gaze lingered on her earrings with that same mixture of pride and concern he’d worn since the day her mother had given it to her.

After a few more words from their parents—including their mother’s gentle reminder to actually eat their lunch instead of “saving them for later” like last time—the siblings set out just as the first rays of sunlight crested the horizon. Their steps were light and sure as they ascended the familiar path up Great White Mountain, the morning mist parting before them like a silk curtain.

The siblings spent the morning in their usual fashion, turning their spirit herb gathering into a friendly competition. Li Wei used streams of water to sweep through the underbrush, collecting herbs with careful precision. Not to be outdone, Li Hao employed both his essences—using fire to illuminate dark corners and water to draw out moisture-loving plants. Li Hua darted between them, her wind essence allowing her to reach higher spots on the cliff faces where the rarest herbs often grew.

“That’s seven spirit grass bundles for me,” Li Wei announced proudly, his water essence forming a floating sphere to display his collected herbs.

“Eight,” Li Hao countered with a grin, holding up his finds while a small flame danced between his fingers, drying the morning dew from his specimens. “And three of them are the red-stemmed variety.”

Li Hua’s voice drifted down from above, where she balanced on a wind current. “Five bundles, three azure heart flowers and I found a nest of sleeping thunder sparrows!” Her wind essence curled protectively around her, keeping her steady as she observed the rare spirit beasts.

Their competition shifted then to stealth, each trying to spot spirit beast nests without disturbing their inhabitants. Li Wei formed thin sheets of water that gleamed like mirrors, using their reflective surface to peek around corners, while Li Hao’s dual essences let him sense both warm-blooded and aquatic creatures. Li Hua, naturally, had the advantage in reaching the highest nests, though her brothers insisted this made her wins questionable. Their playful bickering echoed through the forest, accompanied by the occasional splash of water or gentle gust of wind as they continued their games.

It wasn’t until after they’d finished their lunch that Li Hua spotted something unusual. Between two ancient spirit oaks, partially hidden by luminescent moss, gaped the entrance to a cave. Cave openings weren’t uncommon on Great White Mountain, but this one bore distinct markings around its rim—a sealing formation, its lines faded but still humming with residual power.

“Look at these characters,” Li Wei murmured, pushing aside some vines to reveal more of the ancient script. “This isn’t the common script we use for basic formations. These are old. Really old.”

Li Hao traced one of the symbols with his finger, careful not to disturb its energy. “The style reminds me of those old scrolls Māmā keeps wrapped in oiled cloth beneath the floorboards. The ones she says were passed down from her master, too precious and advanced for us to handle yet.”

The siblings settled before the entrance of the cave, their training forgotten as they worked to decipher the formation. As they studied the ancient characters, little firefly voice called out to Li Hua. “Master, there’s something calling to me from within that cave,” Little Firefly’s voice was usually playful, but it was now serious. “It’s familiar somehow.”

Li Hua’s attention sharpened at her companion’s words. Little Firefly had never reacted this way to anything they’d discovered in their forest expeditions before. After what felt like hours of debate and careful analysis, they managed to identify the key nodes of the formation. Working together, they carefully dismantled it, watching as the ancient characters flickered and faded.