The deflated cultivator refused to give up and vowed to turn the tables.

Qin Xiangxue was not as obedient as Su Zinong had imagined. Although she hid in the bushes for a while, she quietly followed the man in black after he passed by.

When Su Zinong stood on the cliff, Qin Xiangxue watched from a distance, her heart filled with anxiety.

However, Su Zinong was then defeated, and the owl-headed man placed his hand on Su Zinong's crown, seemingly about to kill him. Qin Xiangxue turned her head away, unable to bear the sight, and silently shed tears.

When Qin Xiangxue looked back at the cliff again, Su Zinong had already disappeared.

Four men in black stood on the edge of the cliff and peered down.

It seems that Su Zinong has fallen off a cliff into the abyss.

The owl-like man in black said, "This cliff is truly ten thousand feet high. Looking down from here, we see sheer cliffs on all sides. I'm afraid no one can descend without the cultivation of a seventh-star peak cultivator. Su Zinong has exhausted all his true energy and is completely weak. Even if he doesn't die from the fall, he won't be able to climb out."

The four men in black lingered for a quarter of an hour before hurriedly leaving. Only after they had completely descended the mountain did Qin Xiangxue quietly walk to the edge of the cliff and peer down.

She reached the same conclusion as the man in black: she couldn't possibly get down to the bottom of the cliff; Su Zinong had probably already fallen to his death, and even if he hadn't, he certainly wouldn't have been able to climb out.

She stood on the edge of the cliff, tears streaming down her face. She cried for an hour before wiping away her tears. At the cliff, she wrote five large characters in rouge: "Tomb of Su Zinong." She cried for a while longer before walking down the mountain in a daze.

For several days, he sat in the carriage without eating or drinking, and only ate a bowl of porridge after the coachman persuaded him to.

Upon returning to Qin Tianzhuang, Qin Xiangxue appeared as a completely different person, utterly haggard. She wrote a letter and had it delivered to Huang Chenghe at Huanghe Villa.

The letter stated that Su Zinong was being pursued by four enemies at Shennv Mountain. He was injured and fell off a precipice with nowhere to go, and is feared to have passed away.

******

Su Zinong didn't know why he had fallen off the cliff. At that moment, his body was out of control, limp and powerless, and he didn't even have the strength to roll.

At that moment, the man in the owl mask swung his golden sword and thrust it forcefully, striking the man in the chest. However, the sword did not penetrate the chest; instead, it pushed the man off the cliff and caused him to roll down.

Falling from a great height off a cliff, occasionally blocked by overhanging trees, one would slam against the leaves, branches, and trunks, pausing for a few breaths before continuing the descent. After being stopped by the combined force of dozens of trees, one would eventually fall into a deep pool and lose consciousness.

When I woke up and opened my eyes, I found myself in the cold water near the shore, hanging from a large rock. Fortunately, the water was not deep at the edge of the rock, so I did not drown.

However, he was already weak all over, and now with multiple broken ribs, he was even more unable to move.

Fortunately, he was protected by the Heavenly Silkworm Armor. The black-headed eagle man's sword thrust, despite its immense force, failed to pierce Su Zinong's body, only slamming him off the cliff. Moreover, without the Heavenly Silkworm Armor, he would likely have been pierced by tree branches upon falling.

It took a full hour for him to painfully move himself ashore. Even so, he was already panting heavily.

After resting for a while, he struggled to sit up.

Looking around, one discovers that the bottom of the cliff is circular, hundreds of feet in circumference, yet surrounded by towering cliffs, like a giant bucket or a deep well, and it is unclear whether there is a way through.

It was already noon, and the sun was shining down from the sky, drying his clothes slightly.

He got up and found some herbs nearby, crushed them with a stone, and applied them to the broken bone. However, he had to stop and rest every ten steps before he had the strength to walk again, even less than a three-year-old child.

Su Zinong thought to himself: I wonder what Brother Chenghe and Miss Xiangxue would think if they saw me with this lifeless appearance.

I spent half the day lost in thought, and then I felt incredibly hungry.

I spotted a wild fruit on the left side of the bank, but it was too high up to reach. I remembered how, when I had cultivated my inner energy, I could easily leap over the treetop, but now even reaching out was difficult.

He picked up small stones from the ground and threw them upwards, but he couldn't hit them and didn't have much strength. After throwing for a long time, only a rotten fruit fell.

Just as he was about to give up, a gust of wind suddenly came, making the branches tremble. Su Zinong quickly used all his strength to grab the branch and pull it down, finally breaking off a large branch with more than a dozen wild fruits on it.

Su Zinong thought to himself: Where there's smoke, there's fire. What kind of omen is this? Is it good or bad? Could it be that my life is not meant to end?

The wild fruit was unbearably sour and astringent, but there was nothing else to eat, so I couldn't bear to finish it all at once. I only ate three, saving the rest for tomorrow.

After finishing the wild fruit, Su Zinong struggled to look around. Fortunately, he didn't find any dangerous wild animals, which put him at ease. However, he couldn't find a way out, which made him worry.

This place was like a deep well, with sunlight only for an hour or two at midday, so it got dark very quickly. By nightfall, Su Zinong was shivering with cold.

In the past, even in the dead of winter, I never felt cold. Now, having lost my inner energy, I am far weaker than a frail scholar.

And it was still autumn. However, this mountain area was naturally cold and damp.

Su Zinong found a sheltered spot to huddle in, and gathered a lot of long grass and branches to cover himself, but he was still shivering.

It was only after a long and difficult night that the weather slowly began to warm up. Su Zinong was able to get some sleep by then.

After waking up, I ate some wild fruit and then began to explore more carefully.

Still no exit found, but unexpectedly three more short wild fruit trees were discovered. The leaves were serrated and even shimmered, and the fruits were about the size of apples, bright red and translucent. I picked one and put it in my mouth. Mmm, much tastier than the previous bitter and sour wild fruits. It was sweet and sour, refreshing and mouthwatering. Just smelling it made my mouth water.

That day, Su Zinong took a nap in the afternoon, thinking that he couldn't sleep at night because it was too cold.

After waking up and sleeping until evening, he found a lot of long grass and branches and simply wove them into several thick pieces that looked like blankets. Su Zinong called them "grass blankets".

As night fell, although I felt cold, it was slightly better than last night.

The next morning, Su Zinong applied herbs to the injured bone and then wrapped himself in a thin piece of grass cloth.

Su Zinong couldn't help but chuckle, realizing he had truly become a complete idiot.

They wanted to start a fire, but they had nothing to start it; there wasn't even flint in the place. They tried to rub wood together to make a fire, but they were too weak and had to give up.

He sat cross-legged and tried to practice, but there was no true energy in his body, and there was no reaction when he tried to practice using the techniques he had just learned. He realized that not only had his true energy been drained, but all his meridians had also been severely injured and could not recover in the short term.

So he went to find some herbs that could relax muscles and tendons, chewed them, and swallowed them bitterly.

Three days passed in this manner.

I woke up one morning to find myself covered in a slippery, slimy substance. Opening my eyes, I was horrified to see a huge snake, as thick as an arm, coiled around me. Its hindquarters were wrapped around me, its eyes fixed on me, its red tongue flicking in and out…