40- Guilt  

[A few minutes back]  

After Orochi walked deep into the cave leaving behind Armelia alone, she started crying.  

It is true that she failed to notice the dangerous situation they were in and how Orochi saved her from all this. And instead of appreciating his help, she punched him and injured him.   

Thinking about all this made her feel more guilty. After a few minutes, she calmed down and looked around, but it was completely dark. She got panicked and started running in the direction in which Orochi went. Fear can be seen from her expression and in her eyes, maybe she is scared of dark places.  

(of course, if you can see in the dark. Only then you can see the fear on her face or eyes. [Author’s Sarcasm]).  

She stumbled a few times, and she also fell down and got hurt, due to dark she could not see the way properly, so she walked by sticking to the walls.   

(Author= ’Sticking to the walls’ in the sense does not mean that she is now a spider-man, it only means that due to lack of vision she is using walls as support to walk ahead)  

After walking for a few minutes, she felt her hands touching empty air, as walls came to an end. She looked around and saw light. When she observed clearly, she saw that Orochi was looking at a Statue and was trying to find something. But after looking at it for a while, he gave up and sat at some place to have a rest.  

Armelia still felt guilty about earlier, but suddenly an idea crossed her mind. She thought maybe Orochi was trying to find a treasure or something on the statue or something related to it but failed to get it. And gave up.   

So, what if she helped him and find whatever Orochi was looking for on the statue? After she finds it, she can give it to Orochi, and after he receives it maybe he will forgive her. Or may even thank her for the generosity she has shown.  

Thinking about all the future possibilities that may happen, Armelia’s eyes started sparkling. And she hurried towards the statue’s direction. Although, it was difficult to move in the dark, but with some difficulty, she managed to reach the statue.  

She did not have a flashlight like the one Orochi had, but she is an Evolver and when a cultivator goes through the Beginning stage and Refinement Stage, they undergo many changes and their senses also get sharp. And when a person goes further and reaches the Evolver stage or Demi-Human Stage, the senses are further improved.  

(Another Note: There are going to be explanations for all the Cultivation properly in future. And I am sure you guys will like it)   

So, Armelia had little visibility in the dark and she still could see the statue vaguely. She started searching around the statue but nothing could be found and then she started touching the statue.  

(Touching the statue without any ‘Sexual’ intention, okay? something like searching or checking. Do not make a joke out of it. - The last sentence was just a bluff you can forget about that- Author's sarcasm).  

But when she was moving around the statue, she tripped or stumbled on something. And as a reflex, she used some strength and grabbed the statue to prevent herself from falling (again). And that leads to the breaking of the statue.   

Although, Armelia used very little strength when grabbing the statue as it was a reflex, but still the statue was very old and when Armelia’s force acted on the Statue, it broke.  

When Armelia realized that she broke the statue accidentally; saw a light flashing on her and she got panicked. She realized that Orochi was using Flashlight on her. She thought that she made another mistake, and due to her panic, she subconsciously kneeled and covered her head as an act of fear or defense if by any chance ‘Orochi got angry with her'. 

But clearly, nothing happened, and after waiting for a few seconds Armelia raised her head and saw that Orochi was looking at something on the statue. And he used some strength and broke the statue.  

Seeing this, Armelia had a sigh of relief as Orochi did not get angry with her for breaking the statue. And when she saw Orochi picking up a scroll from the rubble, she got happy and curious.   

Happy because may be due to her actions, Orochi found something which might be valuable and may even thank her for that.  

Curious because she also wanted to see what was inside it. So, she moved towards Orochi.  

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I picked up the scroll. And tried opening it, but no matter how much strength I used, I could not open the scroll.  

After trying all the different methods, I could think of to open the scroll, it was still of no use. So, I gave up the idea of trying to open it for now and put the scroll aside.  

I searched through the rubble of the broken Old Man’s statue, to see if I can find anything else. And this time my luck was useful, and I found something.  

It was the book that the Old Man’s statue was holding in his hands and reading.   

The book was part of the statue and any normal person would think that the book was attached to the Old Man’s statue. And even I was fooled by the looks of it.  

But after the Old Man’s statue broke, the book had cracks on it. Or more like, the book’s ‘Stone’ look was just a Façade or fake cover to hide something. And due to damage occurring to the book, that cover broke, and cracks were formed on it. And the object hidden inside was visible through the cracks.  

I removed the Fake ‘Stone’ type cover and saw that inside of it, was still a book.  

The book was Brown in color and was about 3 inches thick.   

I opened the book, but it was all blank. There was no written or pictorial content in it. It was completely empty. I searched through the book but still, there was nothing.  

Just as I was about to close the book, I felt something when holding a page.  

It was the last page of the book.