Chapter 43: Completely Defeated

  It was unknown how long had passed when Lin Fan slowly came to, his eyes still closed, and he felt as if his whole body was in pain, like it had been torn apart. Although the pain was unbearable, Lin Fan's heart was filled with joy because being able to feel the pain meant that he wasn't dead yet, and he had managed to save his own life.

  Slowly opening his eyes, Lin Fan was taken aback. At this moment, he found himself in a closed and humid cave, with a height of about five or six meters, but the two sides were only four feet wide, very narrow. The surrounding area was all cold and hard stone, and when he stretched out his right hand to touch it, it felt like a chill that pierced to the bone.

  The entire cave was shining with a faint light, all caused by the reflection of some stones. After carefully examining the cave, Lin Fan found that this was actually another passage. Behind him was a pile of rubble, and at the other end, although there was a passage, he couldn't see what was inside. Outside the cave was a vast expanse of sea, with no end in sight.

  Lin Fan's eyes widened, and he was about to get up, but as soon as his body moved slightly, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his waist, causing his entire body to ache. Even with Lin Fan's strong willpower, he couldn't help but let out a loud cry.

  A cold hum, suddenly came from the other end of the mountain cave, Lin Fan was somewhat puzzled, wondering who else could be in this nameless mountain cave. He turned his head to look, and saw a figure wearing light purple clothes, with an absolutely beautiful face, as if she was a fallen fish or a lotus flower that had closed its petals. At first glance, it wasn't the light purple-clad girl he had pulled down to use as a human shield, so who could it be?

  Just as they were at the top of the precipice, the black-clad woman suddenly kicked out at Lin Fan. In his haste, Lin Fan didn't care about anything else and directly grabbed the pale purple girl's right hand, pulling her down along with him.

  Who would have known that the pale purple girl did not immediately take action, her expression looked rather strange, but her voice was still icy to the extreme and said: "Not having smashed you to death is really letting you off easy".

  Shaking his head, Lin Fan heard the pale purple girl's words and felt extremely helpless in his heart. He said, "I've already explained it to you, I didn't intentionally intrude on your bath, it's all because of Little Meatball."

  Thinking of Little Meatball, Lin Fan immediately opened his own shirt and found that Little Meatball was staring at him with its two small eyes. Only then did Lin Fan let out a long sigh of relief, thinking that Little Meatball's life was really big, and it didn't die even after such a fall.

  He picked up the little ball of meat, and before Lin Fan could react, the lower half of the little ball suddenly shot out a small stream of water. The stream came quickly and went just as fast, but Lin Fan was completely stunned, because he knew what the little ball was doing - it had been holding it in until now, and only let go when he picked it up.

  The pale purple girl looked at the boy in front of her with a dull expression, and couldn't help but burst out laughing, the tense atmosphere suddenly eased a bit. After the laughter stopped, the pale purple girl's face turned cold again, and she glared at the boy fiercely.

  Men are all about face, and being ridiculed by a light purple girl made Lin Fan's face seem somewhat unyielding. He raised an eyebrow and said, "What's so funny?"

  "What can you do about it?"

  Seeing the pale purple girl being so unreasonable, Lin Fan suddenly laughed. Hearing his laughter, the pale purple girl's face seemed to grow even more stern, and she asked: "What are you laughing at?"

  A faintly meaningful expression flowed across his face, and he suddenly sighed: "The two of us are at the bottom of the abyss of death, our lives and deaths uncertain, most likely we won't live for long. Are you and I a pair of mandarin ducks with the same fate?"

  Upon hearing the young man's words, the pale purple girl spat and cursed: "Who is a pair of mandarin ducks with you, how shameless".

  As for the girl's words, Lin Fan didn't care at all. He looked around the cave and said: "It's really our two lives that are big, we were actually washed into the mountain cave, otherwise we would have been drowned to death."

  She looked around the cave and saw that outside the entrance was a vast ocean, the pale purple girl let out a soft sigh, as if she didn't even have the energy to speak, and slowly closed her eyes to meditate.

  After looking around the cave for a while, Lin Fanqiang endured the pain on his back and slowly got up, walking towards the girl. He looked at her deeply and said: "Get up, since we can't get out from the front, let's see what's going on behind the passage."

  Without lifting her head or opening her eyes, the pale purple-haired girl said with a hint of mockery: "This is the bottom of the Death Abyss, desolate and uninhabited. Where would there be an exit? Who knows if the passage behind leads to a dead end? Rather than walking all the way for nothing, it's better to sit here and wait for rescue."

  Waiting for rescue? Upon hearing the girl's words, Lin Fan was thoroughly defeated. The vast ocean had another level 9 ancient ferocious beast, the Death Python, under its control. Even if the people of the Jiu You tribe wanted to come down and provide aid, they would probably be powerless to do so.

  "Rather than waiting here, why don't you come with me to see what's behind the passage? Who knows, there might be an exit and we can get out of here."

  She let out a soft hum, and then she too understood her situation. The girl slowly got up and followed Lin Fan towards the only passageway in the cave. The entire corridor was quite bright and wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The ground was smooth and hard, and the girl, who was barefoot, couldn't help but show a hint of pain on her face as soon as she stepped on it.

  He thought he must have just dropped his shoes into the sea and lost them, so he had no choice. After all, he was a man, Lin Fan immediately took off the shoes under his feet and threw them to the girl, saying: "Put it on".

  She took a deep look at the young man beside her, seemingly unable to bear the pain brought by his feet. The pale purple girl still put on the shoes that Lin Fan had thrown over, although they were a bit big, but no longer as painful as before.

  His feet were bare, and he had just taken a step when Lin Fan's face suddenly changed. He gritted his teeth and pursed his lips, although he didn't cry out in pain, but still couldn't help but hum a low sound. Seeing the youth like this, the pale purple girl burst into laughter again, as if remembering that she was still wearing the youth's shoes on her feet, the girl barely managed to hold back her smile.

  He glanced at the girl beside him, and Lin Fan led the way forward. After walking for a while, they had already reached the end of the passageway. Ahead was a bend, from which the sound of water faintly came.

  At this moment, the pale purple girl walking beside Lin Fan suddenly turned her head and asked: "What's your name?"

  "Lin Fan, how about you?"

  "Considering you're still somewhat of a man, I'll reluctantly tell you my name. My name is Ling Meng'er." The girl seemed to have stopped bothering Lin Fan and casually asked: "There's the sound of water at the corner."

  "I know," Lin Fan thought to himself, I'm not deaf after all. The two of them turned a corner and continued walking forward. After a while, the sound of water grew louder, and soon they reached the end of the passageway again. At the end of the passage, a waterfall cascaded down from the top of the cave, with splashing waves and sparkling water droplets. The end of the passage was a small pool, crystal clear to the bottom. What surprised people most was that there were also several emerald green fish swimming back and forth in the small pool.

  From a distance, the end of the passage seemed to be like the Water Curtain Cave in Journey to the West. However, Lin Fan was not interested in appreciating it at all. He came to the front of the water curtain and observed for a while. In an instant, his heart sank to the bottom of the valley because behind the water curtain was a dead end, a hard stone wall that told the two people that there was no road here anymore.

  Lin Fan turned around, just meeting Ling Meng'er's eyes. The four eyes met, and both of them fell silent, suddenly falling into a dead silence. The entire cave could only hear the sound of dripping water. After glancing at the girl, Lin Fan suddenly asked: "Hungry?" She nodded lightly, as if she had already forgotten all the previous grievances. At this moment, Ling Meng'er seemed exceptionally obedient.

  "You go find a place to sit for a while, I'll roast fish for you," after saying that, Lin Fan didn't care whether Ling Meng'er was willing to eat fish or not, and went alone to the front of the small pond, rolled up his pants legs, just entering the small pond, a warm current rushed straight to his head, Lin Fan did not expect that the water in the small pond was actually hot.

  Ling Meng'er sat down quietly, staring blankly at the young man who was catching fish in the small pond. She thought to herself: This person may not be a pervert after all, maybe I wronged him. Just now, the young man would rather suffer himself and gave her his shoes, which explains everything. Thinking of this, Ling Meng'er couldn't help but ask: "Are you really from Longteng Academy?"

  Without lifting his head, Lin Fan remained focused on catching the fish in the small pond, but still replied: "Yes, I am a student of Longteng College, but I haven't registered yet. After leaving here, I will rush to Emperor Capital College for class."

  Lin Fan had already caught seven or eight fish, gutted and scaled them, then lit a bonfire. Before long, the aroma of grilled fish wafted through the air, and even Ling Meng'er, who was sitting on a rock, couldn't help but take a few deep breaths.

  When the fire was almost done, Lin Fan took out a fish and handed it to Ling Meng'er. He also took one for himself, and without caring about anything, they started devouring their food like wolves and tigers. Even if he really died later, he would die with a full stomach.

  The fish meat was delicious, and Ling Meng'er was a lady who wouldn't eat like Lin Fan did, wolfing it down. Instead, she took small bites, chewing slowly. As Lin Fan watched her eating the small fish, he couldn't help but ask: "You're also eating fish, so why did you say I was cruel when I caught and ate fish before?"

  Just thinking about how the girl scolded him back then, Lin Fan felt a wave of speechlessness. He was catching fish back then and he's still catching fish now, yet the girl was eating them with relish. But back then, she said he was cruel beyond measure, that even catching was cruel, so what about eating?

  She glared at Lin Fan and said with a hint of anger, "Now we really have no choice, so we catch fish to eat. But you, back in the Mystic Mountain Range, clearly had other options yet still chose to catch them. Tell me, aren't you being very cruel?"

  Upon hearing the girl's explanation, Lin Fan was thoroughly defeated. He had seen unreasonable people before, but he had never seen anyone as unreasonable as this. Such an explanation was probably unprecedented in the world. He didn't ask any more questions because Lin Fan knew clearly that when dealing with such a person, being reasonable would eventually become unreasonable. Rather than wasting his energy, it was better to conserve it for eating fish. Seeing that the young man had stopped talking, Ling Meng'er also fell silent. For a while, the only sound in the entire cave was the crunching of fish being eaten.

  Yesterday, I went to the supermarket with Xiao Du. It was the first time in his life that he picked up a 10-yuan bill. He was thrilled and when it came time to pay, the cashier found an extra 0.3 yuan. Xiao Du magnanimously said, "No need to return it, consider it a tip!" Wow!