Chapter 18 Collapse
Moments before…
The hemp rope was tightly held in Zhao Lingfeng's palms. Every subtle vibration traveled through the rope into his hands, telling a story his eyes couldn't quite see through the thick spiritual mist. He felt each of Lin Tian's movements, the rope becoming an extension of his awareness in this caustic haze.
Then came the moment that made his heart stop—a sudden, violent tension that pulled the rope taut as a bowstring. In that fraction of a second, Zhao Lingfeng's mind processed a dozen possibilities, none of them good. But before he could fully grasp what was happening, the rope went frighteningly slack.
Pure instinct took over.
His body moved before his mind could catch up, hands yanking the rope toward him with desperate strength. If Lin Tian was falling, controlling his descent was better than letting him plummet freely even if it meant accelerating the descent which could make the fall more dangerous.
The spiritual mist swirled around him as he pulled.
"Brother Tian!"
The call tore from his throat, but the mist seemed to swallow his voice.
Strangely, within those decisive seconds, he never saw Lin Tian's figure.
Through the haze, he caught only the briefest blur of movement. Perhaps a shadow passing through corrosive mist?
But something felt wrong.
The movement he'd glimpsed wasn't where it should have been, its trajectory all wrong for someone attached to his rope. His mind started to piece together what that might mean, but before he could complete the thought—
*RUMBLE*
The sound came from behind him, deep and ominous. Zhao Lingfeng turned, the rope still clutched in his hands, and felt his blood run cold.
The chamber wall.
The one that had seemed so solid just moments ago was beginning to collapse.
The wall is collapsing?!
Zhao Lingfeng was shocked.
As the first stones began to fall, something caught his eye. In the brief moments before chaos fully erupted, he noticed something off about the wall's surface.
Unfortunately, he had no time to dwell on this observation.
"Run!" The command burst from his lips as he turned to the spirit beasts around him. "All of you, get away from here! Now!"
The Thunder Scale Drakes, their scales crackling with nervous energy, exchanged glances with the Spirit Wind Leopards who had been helping anchor the rope. For a precious moment, they hesitated, torn between their instinct for survival and their newfound loyalty.
"GO!" Zhao Lingfeng shouted again as larger chunks of stone began to fall.
Fear crept up his spine like cold fingers as he stood there, the rope still gripped tightly in his hands. Every survival instinct screamed at him to drop it, to run, to save himself. His mind presented crystal-clear logic: Lin Tian was a protagonist, something like dying from a collapsing chamber wouldn't happen.
Yet his fingers wouldn't release their grip.
Why? he questioned himself as stones crashed down around him. Why am I still holding on? Let go, you fool! LET GO!
Then, through a momentary parting in the mist, he saw him. In the distance, Lin Tian's figure stood perched high above, safe and secure, illuminated by the golden patterns of the Earth Lotus Root. Their eyes met across the distance, and in that brief instant of clarity, understanding struck Zhao Lingfeng like lightning.
The rope in his hands had been severed long ago.
He'd been holding onto nothing but empty hope and his own stubborn compassion.
Bitter laughter bubbled up in his throat as the full weight of his foolishness hit him. The same compassion that had sent him running after a little girl on a rainy night in his past life. The same idiotic instinct that had ended with a truck's headlights being the last thing he'd seen before waking up in this world.
The avalanche of stone was seconds away from burying him alive. His grip on the useless rope finally loosened as rage and despair flooded him.
"Again?" he whispered through clenched teeth. "This fucking joke again?"
All that scrubbing, all that grinding, all those years of enduring humiliation. Flashes of his daily life in the Liuyun Sect blazed through Zhao Lingfeng's mind. The countless hours spent trying to cultivate with his limited talent, studying the world's histories by candlelight, practicing the most basic sword forms until his arms felt like lead.
All of it culminating in this moment, where he would once again throw away his life because he couldn't ignore someone in danger in front of his eyes.
Ah, Zhao Lingfeng, you absolute fool. His eyes squeezed shut as the rumbling grew deafening, and waves of rocks were moments from crushing him.
He wasn't sure if the amulet could protect him from this landslide of rocks. Even if it could protect him, it was unable to prevent him from being buried alive.
The scale of this disaster would only mean he would soon suffocate to death.
You really let things end like this again. Throwing away the opportunity when it's right in the moment of your hand. At least last time you saved someone. This time, you couldn't even do that much in this worthless life.
The wall of stone bore down on him like an angry god's fist. In those final moments, his mind conjured an image of his family, then the gaming setup from his past life, the familiar whir of computer fans, the click of mechanical keyboards, his friends' laughter echoing.
Game Over. Again.
BOOM!
The impact came.
He felt a crushing weight press on him.
Pain.
But… something was wrong.
The weight on him felt warm and rough, accompanied by labored breathing that wasn't his own.
His eyes flew open.
Two massive forms towered above him. Stone Claw Bears, their rocky hides straining under the impact of falling stone. Their enormous bodies had formed a protective dome around him, taking the full brunt of the avalanche. Each impact against their backs drew pained grunts that sounded like grinding stones, yet they held firm.
"What are you—" Zhao Lingfeng's voice cracked. "No! Get out of here, you idiots!"
The bears only pressed closer, their massive forms trembling with each fresh impact. Through gaps in their protective stance, Zhao Lingfeng caught glimpses of the other spirit beasts' desperate efforts.
Hiss!
Hiss!
Hiss!
The Black Earth Python's commanding hiss cut through the chaos like a blade, directing the rescue effort with an intelligence that spoke of centuries of existence. Under its guidance, the Jade-Spine Serpents wove intricate patterns through the falling debris, their jade scales leaving trails of light as they deflected stones away from critical points. Each movement was carried calculation, their bodies forming living shields against the cascade.
Spirit Wind Leopards darted through the chaos like living gusts, their wind-infused movements creating temporary pockets of calm in the storm of stone. Their fur rippled with spiritual energy as they used their inherent powers to disrupt the fall of larger rocks, buying precious seconds for their companions.
The Thunder Scale Drakes proved their worth as well, their scales crackling with contained lightning. Each time a boulder threatened to crush their allies, they would release controlled bursts of energy, shattering the stones into harmless fragments. The air filled with a sharp scent and pulverized rock.
But even these creatures had their limits.
A sickening crack echoed through the chamber as a massive stone struck a Thunder Scale Drake's wing. The proud beast had thrown itself into the path of the boulder to protect a wounded Spirit Wind Leopard.
Both disappeared under the next wave of debris, their forms lost in the chaos.
Two Jade-Spine Serpents, their scales still gleaming with otherworldly light, managed to brace a collapsing section of ceiling long enough for others to escape. But the strain proved too much, their jade-like bodies shattered under the pressure, the light in their eyes dimming like snuffed candles.
Through it all, the Black Earth Python continued to direct the survivors, its ancient wisdom focused entirely on preserving what lives it could. Zhao Lingfeng caught a final glimpse of its massive form as it used its body to redirect a deadly cascade of stone. Its eyes, filled with millennia of accumulated knowledge, met his for just a moment. In that gaze, Zhao Lingfeng saw neither regret nor hesitation: only acceptance, and perhaps a glimmer of hope for the future.
Then the python's final hiss was cut short as the avalanche separated them.
When the dust finally began to settle...
only seven of his spirit beast companions remained.
But of those seven, only one stood directly by his side. It was the clumsiest, most earnest Stone Claw Bear, the same one who had so proudly presented him with that mangled spirit herb earlier.
The bear's usually pristine stone hide now bore a jagged scar where a falling rock had struck true, a dark line that ran from shoulder to flank. It stared at the wall of rubble separating them from its fallen companions, making low grinding sounds.
Woo…
Woo…
Woo…
The cries of the beast echoed the ache in Zhao Lingfeng's own chest. Each whimper carried notes of loss that transcended the barrier between human and beast.
As Zhao Lingfeng watched the bear's grief, his mind began piecing together the sequence of events that had led to this disaster. The collapse hadn't been random. It had come seemingly immediately after Lin Tian secured the Earth Lotus Root.
The timing was too perfect to be coincidence.
The system did warn me, he thought grimly, recalling the SSS-rank quest notification. This entire realm is supposed to be a trap.
The theory made a certain kind of sense.
If the treasures themselves were bait, then trying to claim them would naturally trigger the trap.
Yet something about this logic felt incomplete.
If the realm's purpose was to consume cultivators, as the quest had warned, then why try to crush them outright?
A dead cultivator couldn't be consumed. Well maybe it could be considering it was an ancient spirit, but wouldn't it be a pain to dig deep into all of that rubble?
Maybe...
His eyes narrowed as he studied the rubble around them. In the chaos of the collapse, he had glimpsed strange on the walls. Now that an entire wall had collapsed, he could see something.
On some of these rocks, he could see something etched: patterns and symbols.
But his cultivation level was far too low to decipher their meaning. In fact, he could not recognize them at all. If he had to point something out, they resembled something that would probably be found in ancient texts. At least that was just a guess founded on instinct.
Unfortunately, as a trash menial disciple, he wasn't granted access to such texts.
The bear pressed its massive head against his chest, drawing him from his thoughts. Its small eyes, despite their stony nature, held a depth of emotion that made Zhao Lingfeng's throat tighten.
Even though it was not a human, this was a living being that had chosen to follow him, to protect him, even at the cost of watching its companions fall.
"I'm sorry," Zhao Lingfeng whispered, resting a hand on the bear's wounded flank. The stone was warm beneath his palm, thrumming with a life force beneath its rocky exterior. "I'm so sorry. If it weren't for me… they would've lived."
The bear made another grinding sound. It pulled back slightly, then gestured with its massive head toward the only path remaining to them. The collapse had sealed off their retreat completely. The only way forward now was deeper into the realm's depths.
Deeper into the trap, Zhao Lingfeng thought.
But what choice did they have?
Looking at his remaining companion, at the fresh scar and the system logs that would forever mark their sacrifice, Zhao Lingfeng felt something crystallize in his heart.
[Your Allies [LV9 Jade-Spine Serpent] x2 have fallen.]
[Your Allies [LV10 Stone Claw Bear] x3 have fallen.]
[Your Ally [LV10 Spirit Wind Leopard] has fallen.]
[Your Ally [LV11 Thunder Scale Drake] has fallen.]
This wasn't just about survival anymore.
This wasn't even about getting stronger or changing his fate.