Chapter 3: The Mysterious Old Man (Part 1)

The sky had turned dark by now. As the cave was too deep underground, Yang Dingtian looked up and only managed to see a palm-sized piece of the sky through the supposedly large cave hole.

At this moment, the moon had already risen up to the sky and was passing through the sky above Yang Dingtian’s head. However, he clearly saw two moons.

There was a quote written by Su DongBo that stated “wishing you a long life, even though we are miles apart.” It was sad that even the moon that Yang Dingtian was looking at was different from the moon that his parents would be looking at. What’s more, there were even two moons here.

(TL note: Su Dongbo was a famous Chinese writer.)

Yang Dingtian was tired and upset. He looked at the old man who was seated not far away. He was still sitting in the same position, eyes closed and motionless.

In this situation, there was nothing more to fear. Yang Dingtian slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Dozens of hours later, he woke up.

Yang Dingtian had wanted to get up and continue looking for a way to escape from the cave. However, he realized that he couldn’t stand up at all. A few consecutive days of starvation had completely drained all his energy. Similarly, the heat energy that had been stored in his body for years had been completely used up to rescue the old man from the icicle.

During these few days, Yang Dingtian had only drunk a few mouthfuls of ice-melted water. He hadn’t eaten even the slightest bit of food after having also lost a lot of blood. Though he wished to get up now, he had absolutely no energy left to do so.

At the moment, the sky out there was gloomy and filled with dark clouds as the sun had already set.

Soon, it began to snow, and fist-sized snowballs fiercely rained down from the sky. After a while, the cave floor was covered with a thick layer of snow. The old man’s entire body was also gradually being buried in snow. An hour later, he had become a snowman, his entire body no longer visible.

As the snow covering Yang Dingtian gradually thickened, his fiery body was soon no longer capable of melting the snow. In order to avoid being buried, Yang Dingtian shook his head hard. However, after a while, he was covered in snow again, and he had to shake his head again.

Once, twice, thrice….

In the end, Yang Dingtian no longer had the strength to even shake his head. The last trace of heat energy in his body had been consumed, and he could only watch as the snow covered him and whittled away at his life.

Suddenly, the snow covering the old man not far away vibrated. The old man had finally moved. He reached into his sleeves and pulled out something red and threw it towards Yang Dingtian.

It was a red pill. The pill landed on a pile of snow and instantly melted all of it. In contrast to the clean white snow covering the cave floor, the red pill stood out glaring like a flame.

At this moment, Yang Dingtian’s will to survive gave him a final bit of strength. He rushed forward and opened his mouth to eat the red pill.

As to whether is it was poisonous? As to what the consequences of eating it were? Yang Dingtian no longer cared.

Though the pill had just been placed into his mouth, it felt as if a raging fire had dissolved in his mouth, flowed into his abdomen, and spread through all of the veins in his body.

Instantly, he felt as warm as someone greeted by the return of spring. Yang Dingtian’s stiff body began to recover inch by inch.

Soon, his entire body had recovered and turned back into a hot stove. He had finally restored his vitality. What’s more, there was even a powerful force rushing through his body, desperately trying to burst out. Yang Dingtian felt nothing but endless energy within him.

“What is this thing? How is it so magical?” Yang Dingtian was surprised and excited at the same time. He walked towards the old man, bowed, and said, “Thank you, mister!”

“But, your body can no longer stand the cold either. Why didn’t you take one of those pills?” Yang Dingtian asked.

The old man was still sitting in an upright position with his eyes closed. He ignored the young man and let the snow cover him, turning into a snowman once again.

Afterwards, no matter what Yang Dingtian said, he never responded.

Yang Dingtian was filled with heat energy and didn’t know what to do. The entire cave was just that big, so he simply danced in the heavy snow while waving his fists in the air. It was a complete mess.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier. In just half a day, the snow had piled up about two feet higher and constantly threatened to completely bury the old man. Since this was the case, Yang Dingtian would go over and brush the snow off the old man every half an hour.

“The snow is so heavy and piles up way too quickly. I’m afraid that after only a few years, the entire cave will be entirely filled with it,” Yang Dingtian thought.

Suddenly, he grew extremely excited, rushed to the old man, and said, “Old man, old man, I’ve found a way to get out of here. I’ve found a way to get out of here.”

However, there was still no response from the old man.

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In fact, Yang Dingtian did think of a way to get out of the cave. He thought that he could use the snow to construct steps by sticking it against the cavern walls. As the cave is roughly a few kilometers deep, he would need to build around ten thousand steps to reach the top.

Yang Dingtian started pressing the snow into snow bricks each a foot long and half a foot wide. Then, he pressed the snow bricks against one of the ice cave walls. He then used his own body to melt the snow bricks into water, which would then freeze into ice. Each snow brick would transform into a small ice brick firmly attached to the wall.

After spending exactly an hour, Yang Dingtian successfully built the first step, which rose half a meter high from the ground. Yang Dingtian climbed onto it. Just as he expected, it could bear the weight of a person without breaking.

Then, Yang Dingtian started making the second step. The second step was placed thirty centimeters higher and thirty centimeters in front of the first step. The steps would be arranged to make a slope in order to reach the top. If he built it vertically, it would be impossible to walk on it.

Ten hours later, Yang Dingtian had only managed to make 10 ice steps even though he put in a great deal of hard work. He was so exhausted that he just sat down and fell asleep. After he woke up later, he went straight back to work.

Ten days passed. Yang Dingtian had already built over 120 ice steps. The highest step only reached 40 meters above the cave floor. During these ten days, the old man had continued sitting still and keeping his eyes closed without uttering a single word. In contrast, Yang Dingtian spent every waking minute and second constructing ice steps until he was exhausted. He would then lie down on the snow, sleep, and resume once he woke up.

However, after a certain point, Yang Dingtian could no longer continue. The heavy snow had stopped falling a day after he began, and the 120 ice steps he had built thus far already used up all of the snow in the cave. If he wished to continue making steps, he would have to wait for the next snowfall.

Besides, the energy that Yang Dingtian had gotten from the pill had already been completely used up. His body began to feel the cold again as he no longer had any energy left.

Yang Dingtian looked up at the sky, praying for gloomy skies and for the snow to fall like never before. Unfortunately, it was a sunny day and there wasn’t even a single cloud in the sky.

The old man suddenly opened his eyes for the first time in the past ten days. He glanced at the steps made by Yang Dingtian and looked at him.

Yang Dingtian burst with excitement. Looking at the ice steps he built by himself, he said excitedly, “Look, old man! This is the stairs that I’ve built. We will be able to escape real soon. Don’t worry. My stairs are very solid, and I’ll carry you out by using them.”

Just as before, the old man’s face was expressionless, not to mention any sign of appreciation. He then closed his eyes once again as if he hadn’t seen anything. However, he took a pill out of his sleeves and threw it to Yang Dingtian.

It was the same fiery red pill. Yang Dingtian quickly picked it up and put it in his mouth.

Suddenly, his entire body began to feel the burning sensation again filling him with endless energy. There was a strong desire to shout out loud, but he was afraid that he might annoy the old man. Thus, he ended up simply punching with his fists to vent all the energy in his body.

The pill was just amazing. Such a magical thing was nowhere to be found on Earth. It should be extremely precious, perhaps worth over ten thousand gold pieces. With this pill, Yang Dingtian was filled with energy even without consuming food for dozens of days.

Although the pill was precious, Yang Dingtian did not even have the slightest bit of intention to steal it. After taking the pill, Yang Dingtian had so much energy in him that he couldn’t vent it all out. He was longing for more snow now. As soon as it snowed, he would be able to continue building the stairs and leave his horrifying place faster.

At last, either God seemed to hear Yang Dingtian’s prayer or it might have been just a coincidence of winter. On the fifth day after Yang Dingtian took the pill, it started snowing. Though the snowfall wasn’t as heavy as the previous one, it wasn’t small either.

Yang Dingtian began to scream out of excitement.

He started making snow bricks without even waiting for the snow to pile up.

Suddenly, the old man’s body moved a little, and the snow on his body fell off. The old man opened his eyes and waved at Yang Dingtian. He then opened his mouth and said something. Though Yang Dingtian still couldn’t understand the words, he somehow knew that they meant “just go ahead.”

Yang Dingtian rushed over and said. “Look, old man! It’s snowing again. We can leave this place in no time.”

The old man smiled a little. This was the first time in the past half month that the old man smiled.

Then, the old man wrote something on the snow with his finger. It was a word that Yang Dingtian didn’t know. Then, the old man read it out loud and pointed at himself.

Yang Dingtian couldn’t hold in his excitement and asked, “Old man, can you teach me the words and languages used in this world?”

The old man couldn’t understand what Yang Dingtian was saying. He pointed at the word on the snow and read it out loud again. Then, he pointed at himself again.

“The word you wrote should mean ‘I’ right?” Yang Dingtian asked. Then, he wrote the word for “I” on the snow, read it out loud, and pointed at himself.

“I…” The old man listened closely and surprisingly repeated the pronunciation accurately. Then, he pointed at the word written on the snow and then pointed at himself. Finally, he used his finger to write the word “I”.

Yang Dingtian was so shocked that he was speechless. This old man was way too amazing. He had only listened and looked at it once but was already able to read and write the word. Yang Dingtian’s writing was considered decent, but he didn’t expect that the word written by the old man for the first time would look even nicer than his.

After that, the old man wrote the word that he had previously written on the snow before reading it and pointing at himself.

Yang Dingtian hurriedly read the word and then wrote the same word in the snow again. This was the “I” word in this world.

Yang Dingtian’s pronunciation and writing were pretty accurate. The old man smiled and nodded. Then, he wrote another word on the snow, read it out loud, and pointed at Yang Dingtian. This time, what he wrote should be the “you” word of this world.