Underachievement

On the high stone ceiling of the hall, four thick black iron chains hung down. These chains extended from the four corners of the room and were cast together in the center of the ceiling. At the intersection of the chains was a sinister metal structure that resembled the claw of some ghastly creature. These claw-like twisted metals formed a cage, firmly grasping a black crystal that appeared to be over a meter long.

As Vivian described: a length of half to one meter, slender and irregular in shape, with a black texture resembling smoked glass. At one end of the crystal, a faint red light could be seen.

When the three of them rushed in, they didn't even have time to care about what was hanging from the ceiling of the hall. Muyun did glance up, but the werewolf girl didn't recognize this thing, thinking it was just a common decoration. However, now she and Lin Feng both knew what it was: the Demon Stone.

Lin Feng felt his data terminal vibrate, and then a flat, emotionless voice sounded in his mind: "This machine is truly sorrowful..." "Haha, shut up."

"This can't be so unlucky..." Muyun suddenly sat on the ground, thought for a moment, and said, "I'm just a little wolf cub, I haven't even dated anyone yet..."

"Don't be silly." Lin Feng reached out and tapped Muyun's head, "It's still just a stone for now! It might not release the demon..."

Vivian's voice came in from the side, indifferent, "Why do you think the palace's defenses suddenly activated? Why did all the armors wake up?" 

Lin Feng suddenly sweated on his forehead: Isn't it obvious? Clearly, there was movement with the Demon Stone!

"Do you think my mission is facing an enormous crisis beyond human capability?" Lin Feng finally remembered he had a backup plan and called out to his data terminal in his mind, "Can I request support at this time?"

"It's not time yet. Requesting support before even seeing the true enemy? Don't you feel embarrassed."

Lin Feng jumped and cursed, "Do I have to wait until I'm nearly beaten to death to request support?!"

"Most of us at the Temporal-Spatial Management Bureau request support only when we're nearly beaten to death."

Lin Feng almost choked on his breath and passed out, but what happened next made him realize he couldn't pass out, because something even more intense was just beginning: a deep rumbling sound faintly came from above, and then he felt the entire underground hall start to shake!

Countless dust and rubble fell like rain from the long-neglected rock ceiling. Before the rumbling ended, the hall began to ring with the terrifying sounds of rocks cracking and grinding against each other. Everything around them began to shake, and the four huge iron chains hanging from the ceiling began to sway and rattle, and the black iron claws that were supposed to be sturdy and were holding the Demon Stone began to... loosen under the pull of the four heavy chains! Can you believe it?!

When the underground hall began to shake, Lin Feng had the urge to run out, at least find a corner to stay in to possibly survive. But when he saw the movement of the iron chains on the ceiling, he forgot to run. Including Vivian and Muyun, all three of them were fixed on the Demon Stone hanging above their heads. The small stone seemed to be directly tied to everyone's hearts. Every movement of it made their hearts tremble. However, even Vivian didn't dare to fly over and catch the thing. They could only watch as the black iron claws holding the Demon Stone slowly loosened under the visible pull of the four heavy chains, and then the first iron chain finally couldn't bear the accumulated weight and weathering of centuries, and with a crash, it broke off at the intersection of the four chains...

The heavy iron chain silently slid through the air in an arc, as if in slow motion, and slammed into the corner of the hall with a deafening bang: clang!

Under the final straw, the black iron claws holding the Demon Stone also crumbled. With all the chains collapsing, the meter-long black crystal finally fell and emitted a dazzling red light upon touching the ground.

Lin Feng had a thousand words in his heart that boiled down to one sentence: Why bother with Gothic aesthetics when making such a critical thing! They used it to fix the Demon Stone. Couldn't they have just made a stupid, robust iron cage? Who's the idiot designer who came up with those hanging black claws?!

"Run!" Muyun's fur on her ears and tail exploded at the moment the Demon Stone fell to the ground. Then, with a cry, she rushed towards the nearest passage. However, just as she was about to take off, a red halo spread out from the Demon Stone in all directions. In the blink of an eye, it swept across the entire hall. Lin Feng saw countless Leta runes suddenly appearing on the walls of the hall, but in just a moment, these ancient runes dimmed one by one, and cracking sounds like glass breaking came from all directions.

The seal of the Demon Chamber had actually only lasted a few seconds before completely failing!

And when these Leta runes shattered and dissipated one by one, Lin Feng heard that familiar sound again: whoosh, whoosh...

Except for the passage that had already collapsed and was blocked, there were still three exits in the hall. Now, the sound of armor rubbing and colliding came from those exits. Muyun only managed to run a few meters before abruptly stopping: countless pairs of blood-red eyes emerged from the darkness, and the number of undead armored warriors rushing into the hall from three directions was even more frightening. 

When the seal of the Demon Chamber failed, these guardian undead could also enter the chamber. 

Moreover, the undead armor that appeared this time was obviously different from before: they were enveloped in layers of faint gray mist, and the red light behind the helmet faceplate that served as eyes was even brighter. Obviously, the power of the Demon Stone had affected the guardians in the palace—as Vivian had said, these armored spirits, known as the sacred guardians, were essentially driven by obsession and were still spirits of resentment. The techniques used to forge them were intricately linked to demons. When the palace seal was intact, there would be no problem, but now that the Demon Stone was completely out of control, these guardians had become another disaster in the blink of an eye.

"Those damn demon hunters," Vivian cursed angrily, but before she could take action, there was a louder rumbling sound from above the hall!

More rocks and rubble fell from the four corners of the hall, and even a huge slab of stone broke away from the ceiling, heading straight for Muyun. The werewolf girl didn't even have time to lift her head and look, and with a movement like a dog dodging a kick, she barely avoided this fatal blow—though the slab still grazed her tail, and Lin Feng only heard a scream as if a dog's tail had been stepped on echoing around him.

"What's happening up there?" Lin Feng felt that this series of rumbling sounds was completely unlike a normal collapse of the palace. It sounded more like an explosion. "Why does it sound like a bomb?"

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard a cracking sound from the center of the hall's

 roof, followed by a large pile of stone and soil collapsing. After a cloud of dust flew up, bright moonlight appeared in front of the three of them: a large hole had been opened in the center of the hall.

This earth-shattering commotion seemed to have even frightened the nearby tin cans, or it could have been the sudden moonlight that plunged these guardians into chaos. In any case, all the hollow armored warriors stopped in their tracks for a short time, and Lin Feng, Muyun, and Vivian all looked at the large hole in the center of the hall at the same time: What was the sudden appearance of this hole? And it directly led to the ground?

"Can we go up this time?" Muyun grinned and bounced next to Lin Feng, her tail trembling. She looked at the hole above the hall, her golden eyes full of curiosity.

"Wait a minute, things are strange." Vivian waved away the dust in front of her eyes with a strong wind, gesturing for Muyun not to act rashly. At the same time, Lin Feng saw a rope suddenly hanging down from the hole.

What happened next made him really want to curse.

The "demon hunter" Nangong slid down the rope...