Divine Tang Era

Walking onto the beach, I picked up a large tree branch that was slightly longer than my arm; it was quite heavy.

I don't know where this thing came from, or how long it's been in the cave. It has transformed into ebony, and it's quite heavy.

Using a stick, he shoveled through the pile of debris. It was a jumble of things: sticks, stones, a few leaves, an animal bone as thick as an adult's thigh. At the bottom, a skull rolled out, nearly scaring Xu Dan to death. Calming himself slightly, he continued shoveling through the debris, finally finding a clod of earth half-buried in the sand.

He smashed the clod of earth with brute force, chipping off a corner and revealing a rusty patina.

Is it iron?

Xu Dan's eyes lit up. He dug the clod of earth out of the sand and tapped it hard with a twig. Finally, he sat down on the ground, threw away the big twig, grabbed a small, pointed twig, and began to shovel, whittle, and scrub the clod of earth.

A moment later, the dirt and rust on the clod of earth were removed, revealing a short sword.

The short sword was one foot and five inches long, painted red, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with a round hilt and a golden gourd inlaid with a sky-blue gem the size of a longan seed. It was unclear how long it had been hidden in the clod of earth, but even after being revealed, the short sword still gleamed with a sharp edge.

He raised his sword and chopped at the tree branch, cutting it cleanly in one stroke.

Then they shave off the stalactites, as if cutting tofu, gliding over them in one stroke.

Unexpectedly, the thing he picked up at random turned out to be a sword that could cut through iron like mud. Xu Dan was overjoyed, but he quickly calmed down. What use was a sword, anyway? He couldn't get out of there; he would die inside sooner or later, his bones rotting away and buried in a pile of junk. Thinking of this, his good mood about finding the treasure vanished.

The cave was dark, and Xu Dan wanted to light a fire to find some sense of security.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a single thing to ignite inside the cave, and their burning enthusiasm instantly turned to cold.

Forget about starting a fire.

Next, he took the debris piled up on the beach to the edge of the Earth Milk Cave, and dug a hole in the sand to bury the skull and some other debris that looked like human bones, so that they wouldn't be an eyesore. He also considered it a good deed.

However, he was a rather sensitive person, and even after burying the bones, he still felt uneasy, as if the skull was watching him from the other side of the beach.

There was no other way but to sit cross-legged on the ground and recite the Heart Sutra:

"When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajnaparamita, he perceived that the five aggregates are all empty, and thus transcended all suffering and distress. Shariputra! Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness are also like this. Shariputra! All dharmas are empty in nature. They are neither produced nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing. Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception, volition, or consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; no eye-consciousness, and so forth, up to no mind-consciousness..."

Each verse of scripture flowed from his mouth, echoing and resounding throughout the cave.

Xu Dan's panicked, fearful, and anxious heart gradually calmed down after arriving in a foreign place.

In the past, when he watched horror movies or adult films, he would always feel uneasy and constantly worry about bloody incidents and other events.

He didn't want things to be this way, so he found some classics from various schools of thought, such as Taoism, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, Buddhism, military strategy, medicine, history, and miscellaneous novels, to read in the hope of dispelling the unease in his heart.

He recited countless scriptures, classics, and mantras; some were too long and tiring to recite, others had no effect. Finally, when he recited the Heart Sutra, he felt all the distracting thoughts in his mind disappear, and his soul seemed to be elevated. From then on, whenever he encountered something that troubled him, he would silently recite the Heart Sutra, and it always worked. It was strange that reciting other scriptures and mantras did not have the same effect.

Of course, this only applies to the Heart Sutra translated by Xuanzang; reciting sutras translated directly from Sanskrit would not have the same effect.

Here, I would also like to thank Xuanzang for his classic translation.

After reciting the sutra, Xu Dan felt relieved. Looking at the burial site of the skull, he felt no more uneasy. He even boldly walked to the burial site and whispered, "Friend, go in peace!" But in his heart, he couldn't help but think, "Please don't come back, and please don't come to thank me in my dreams at night."

Although he firmly believed that there were no ghosts in the world, who isn't afraid?

After chanting the sutras for so long, Xu Dan felt a bit hungry, so he went to the water cave and drank a bellyful of milk.

I don't know if it was the effect of the earth's milk, but after drinking it I felt a little sleepy, so I lay down and fell asleep. When I woke up, Xu Dan found that he could see the pitch-black cave as if it were daytime.

Although I could see things before, it was as if there was a thin film in the way, and the vision was a bit blurry. Now that film has completely disappeared.

He noticed that he seemed to have become stronger and taller, so the earth's milk really was a treasure. But whether it was a treasure or not, life had to go on.

I don't know how long I'll be staying in this underground cave. I need to find a place to sleep. I can't just lie by the water cave every day!

You know, you're completely naked, not even wearing underwear. If some bug or something crawls out and gets into your butt, you'll be in real trouble.

So he looked for a place to sleep inside the cave.

After wandering around for a while, I discovered that the vast cave was actually the size of a football field, with small holes connecting it to other places.

Xu Dan didn't dare go inside, fearing he wouldn't be able to come back. If he couldn't, wouldn't it be a complete waste of such a rare and precious natural treasure as the Earth Milk? After circling around, he found a recessed spot in the stalactite wall not far from the Earth Milk and used his short sword to carve out a room the size of a bedroom. He even made sure to include a bed and bedside table; the head of the bed was against the stalactite wall, and at the foot of the bed was a round window with several thick window frames.

There is a door next to the window, and in front of the window is a stalactite table, next to which is a stone chair with a back made of stalactite.

Xu Dan's family lives in the countryside and has watched wilderness survival videos, so doing these things is not difficult for him.

Most people, unless they're completely stupid, could do it. But it's easier said than done.

He didn't know if it was because he had become a baby, but he also became sleepy and ate like a child. He would get hungry, eat, and then sleep. Every time he woke up, he felt stronger, taller, and more robust.

Not only that, he also discovered that he could jump very high and touch the top of the cave with a single leap.

If this were to participate in a competition, winning the championship wouldn't be difficult. Unfortunately, it's currently trapped in a cave somewhere unknown, and it's unclear when it will be able to get out.

Perhaps because his young body needed plenty of energy, Xu Dan drank more and more as he grew taller. So much so that after digging his room, he drank all the milk from the water cave.

"This is it, are we going to have to survive on water?" Xu Dan frowned as he looked at the empty water cave. After a moment's thought, he suddenly looked up at the stalactite pillar hanging straight down, where a drop of stalactite was slowly condensing at the base of the pillar's tip.

If stone pillars can condense earth milk, does that mean they themselves contain earth milk?

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.