Chapter 399: Chapter 395: Cave_1
Yingbao suddenly opened her eyes, only to see her mother and father surrounding her, faces filled with concern.

“Baobao, you’re finally awake.” Her mother hugged her tightly, eyes brimming with tears of joy. “Do you feel unwell anywhere?”

Yingbao shook her head, hugging back her mother, feeling relieved.

Thankfully it was only a dream. Thankfully, her parents were unharmed.

Seeing his daughter awake, Father Jiang sighed in relief, telling her mother, “Baobao has been asleep for two days, she must be hungry. Cook some porridge for her, but don’t let her eat too much at once, she might have difficulties in digesting it.”

Mother wiped her tears and left the room with a nod.

Father Jiang sat on a chair beside and asked, “Baobao, what happened before?”

Yingbao’s mind was still filled with scenes from the dream, unable to explain, “I don’t know, suddenly I felt extremely strong.”

Not only was she stronger, her body movements were also very fast.

Even now, she could still feel the control she had over the blade in her hand.

Unfortunately, the blade seemed to have broken during the course of her dream, and it wasn’t as sturdy or easy to wield as the one in her dream.

Seeing his daughter could not elucidate, Father Jiang sighed, stood up, and left.

The villagers were busy constructing a stone wall around the village. He had to go and oversee the work.

Though those people had left, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t come again.

Besides this, Father Jiang was worried about the Imperial Court being overthrown by the rebels. If that happened, where would they go?

And then there was Cao Can. As long as he existed, their family was in danger.

At this point, Yingbao was lost in confusion.

Her dream was too strange, it defied explanation.

But the Divine Bead those people mentioned in her dream did exist.

That Divine Bead, could it be her cave dwelling?

Or was the cave actually the Divine Bead?

It, it was the eye of the her in the dream.

Thinking about the bloody eyeball she pulled out in the dream, Yingbao couldn’t help but shudder. She quickly got down from the bed to wash up.

Mother had made a bowl of porridge, an egg, and some sweet and sour spinach for her.

Watching her daughter enjoy her meal, Mother said, “Have a little for now, I will cook more for you in two hours.”

Yingbao nodded, finished her porridge, and started cleaning up.

Walking behind her, her mother said, “Baobao, let’s go pick some fruits from the orchard to give them. The whole village is working to construct the walls, we should give them something since we can’t help.”

“Okay.” Once Yingbao was done washing the dishes, she picked up a bamboo basket and accompanied her mother to the orchard.

It was close to mid-summer; the loquats and apricots were ripe.

After enjoying a peeled loquat, Yingbao started picking them with a bamboo pole.

In a short while, two other girls, red and Nini, arrived. Seeing Yingbao, they exclaimed in surprise, “Yingbao, you’re awake?”

“Yes.” Yingbao was busy picking loquats when she suddenly remembered her cousin brother.

How was her cousin doing?

It had been two or three years. He wrote twice, but hadn’t sent any message after that.

Seeing her sister and aunt picking loquats, Nini and Red came over to help.

They quickly filled two large baskets with loquats and some apricots, lifted them, and went to the village outskirts to distribute the fruits to the working villagers.

Among these villagers, there were many teenagers who had fought valiantly in the previous defense.

When they saw Yingbao, their faces showed admiration, and they came to greet her one by one.

The sight of her single-handedly taking down hundreds of rebels was still fresh in their minds, her agile movements rivaled that of a war deity.

Men admire strength, even if it comes from a girl, it is still worthy of their respect.

“Yingbao, who did you learn your Divine Skills from?” a teenager could not help asking.

Though Zhang Meng was a strong master, he was not as powerful as Yingbao, so Yingbao must have learned the Unparalleled Divine Power from another master.

Yingbao blinked: “I learned from Zhang Meng.”

She didn’t think that she had any real martial arts skills.

The so-called martial arts are nothing more than speed, ruthlessness, and precision.

As long as these three elements are mastered to their fullest extent, almost no one can withstand their power.

The technique she employed in her dream could be regarded as the Unparalleled Divine Power.

No, it was more than the Divine Skill, the sensation was inexpressible, as if with one raise of her hand, she could split mountains and rivers, and destroy the heavens and the earth.

Ah, probably read too many story books, even her dreams are full of absurdities.

“But your Knife Skills are different from Master Zhang’s.” The young boy did not believe her.

The other boy said: “Yingbao has another master, have you guys forgotten?”

“You’re talking about Master Zhang Min? But he is an Onmyoji.”

“Because he is an Onmyoji, he’s amazing.” The young boy solemnly said: “I’ve heard that Master Zhou can summon divine spirits.”

“Ah? Really? Tell me more…”

The young boys veered away from the subject, and without realizing, Yingbao and Erni had already left.

Returning home, Yingbao went to her room and lay down, rethinking the scenes from her dream.

She quickly entered the underground chamber and stood before a stone wall, just as in her dream.

This stone wall was where the five tripod mushrooms once grew, she slowly dragged her spear along the lines of where the mushrooms used to grow.

When all the lines were traced, a strange pattern appeared on the stone wall.

This pattern seemed familiar, but Yingbao couldn’t recall what it was.

She placed her hand on it, tracing over the pattern.

She found nothing.

A sudden glint sparkled in Yingbao’s eyes. She took a sickle and cut her fingertip, tracing the pattern again with her blood.

A golden light suddenly appeared, moving along the pattern like a wandering dragon.

Yingbao’s eyes were locked on the pattern and it emitted a dazzling light that made her instinctively close her eyes.

When she opened her eyes, there was a passage in front of her.

However, it was pitch black, seemingly bottomless.

Yingbao looked back. She was still standing in front of the stone wall in her underground chamber, only now there was a dark passage, which was quite eerie.

After hesitating for a long time, Yingbao decided to venture inside.

But first, she needed to make two torches.

She found some old clothes, reluctantly tearing them into strips and soaked them in castor oil.

Then she wrapped the cloth strips and some straw around a stick and lit it with a flint stone.

Yingbao, holding a torch in her hand, stepped into the dark tunnel, with one more unlit torch. She began to move forward slowly.

The tunnel narrowed as she went further in. Just when she thought she could go no further, she came across a stone gate.

The gate was ringed by a dense growth of five tripod mushrooms. It looked a bit peculiar.

Yingbao stuck the torch in a crack of the stone wall and pulled out a knife from her waist to harvest the mushrooms.

After she had harvested the mushrooms, she placed them on her removed outer clothing.

By the time she had collected all the mushrooms, the last torch was almost out. Yingbao had no choice but to return to her chamber.

To be safe, Yingbao took a big bundle of mushrooms out of the chamber. She then went to the kitchen to find several sticks and made a few more torches.

She gathered some candles in a backpack. Just as she was about to re-enter the chamber, she heard someone shouting from outside: “Yingbao! Yingbao, come quickly, someone needs help!”

Yingbao paused, immediately dropped her backpack and ran out.