sinovels Chapter 996 The Terrifying Exit
Chapter 996 The Terrifying Exit
He raised his hand, looking at his calloused palms marked with runes, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes: "As for that thing saying I'm not the real Mr. Xun... saying I'm just a substitute stuffed into this body by the Bone Tower—"
He remained silent for a long time, then slowly shook his head: "I don't know. I really don't know."
Mo Yuan's gaze remained unchanged, devoid of sympathy or suspicion, only a cold and calculating scrutiny.
"You are the chief array master of the Oversight Council, and your loyalty and ability have never been questioned. For me, that's enough."
Mr. Xun's body trembled slightly. He raised his head to look at Mo Yuan, his lips moved, and in the end he only managed to squeeze out a very soft "Thank you."
Lin Qiye glanced at Mo Yuan. He knew that Mo Yuan's words might not necessarily reflect complete trust in Mr. Xun—someone who could sit in a high-ranking position in the Overwatch Council wouldn't lower their guard just because of a few words of loyalty. But in this desperate situation, the team's division meant death. Mo Yuan chose to use trust to maintain the team's cohesion, regardless of whether this trust was genuine or not; at least it temporarily stabilized Mr. Xun.
As for what the monster said—Lin Qiye didn't believe it all, but he didn't completely disbelieve it either.
The existence of the Bone Tower and that ancient behemoth is beyond everyone's comprehension. In the face of these two things, it is not surprising that anything strange happens.
"Now is not the time to dwell on the past." Mo Yuan stood up, walked to the entrance of the crevice, and peered out through the gaps between the rubble. His voice was low. "Our biggest problem now is—the exit is blocked, communication is cut off, and there's a giant claw outside that could strike at any moment. Even if that claw doesn't strike, that awakening ancient beast will eventually notice us, this 'ant' hiding on its body. We must find a way out of this area before it fully awakens."
"The way to leave..." Ah Jiu chewed on her dry rations, her brows furrowed. Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, her eyes lit up. "No—we have another way."
"What road?"
"underground."
Mo Yuan's brow twitched slightly: "Tell me in detail."
Ah Jiu stuffed the last mouthful of dry rations into his mouth, chewing as he quickly said, "When we came up from the Rock Bone Pass, I noticed a crack on the west side of the ridge leading into the mountain, which looked like a naturally formed cave passage. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that I think about it—the direction of that crack is consistent with the distribution of those fluorescent blue crystal clusters on the rock wall, and those crystal clusters are products of radiation and penetration from the core area of the Bone Tower. In other words, if we go down along that crack, it is very likely connected to a deeper space."
She paused, lowering her voice slightly, "And... I noticed it too when that monster was swallowed by the rock wall. It sank downwards, not dissolved by the rock wall, but dragged deeper into the mountain by some force. This means that the interior of the mountain we're standing on isn't solid; it has a complete system of passageways, possibly connecting different areas of the mountain."
"You mean, go through the inside of the mountain?" Mo Yuan pondered.
"Yes. The paths on the surface are blocked, and that giant claw could strike again at any moment. But inside the mountain—no matter how big that ancient beast is, it can't seal every single gap between its bones and shell; there will always be a way through. And from another perspective, that ancient beast is moving upwards from underground. It's turning the ground upside down, but precisely because its attention is focused on the surface, the underground passages might actually be the safest."
Mo Yuan remained silent for a few moments, then turned to Lin Qiye: "What do you think?"
Lin Qiye thought for a moment and nodded: "We can give it a try. But there's a problem—the higher the concentration of those fluorescent blue crystal clusters, the stronger the harmonic pollution, and the more severe the erosion of our source gas. If that underground passage leads directly to the vicinity of the Bone Tower's core area, we might be rendered unable to move by the harmonic pollution halfway there."
"I can solve part of this problem," Mr. Xun suddenly said. He took out a stack of specially made talismans from his robes, thicker and with more complex runes than the purification talismans distributed before. His voice was weak but had regained some of its coherence. "These are source energy isolation talismans that I refined myself. They are more than three times more effective than ordinary purification talismans, but there are only six of them. Each one lasts for three hours. At the rate at which the four of us consume them, that should be enough to last until we find the exit."
"Three hours." Mo Yuan mentally calculated the time, then nodded. "That's enough. If we can't find a way out within three hours, then no amount of talismans will be of any use."
Without further delay, the four took emergency pills to restore their condition to its best. After Ajiu treated her wounds, Mr. Xun distributed talismans, placing two on each person's chest—one ordinary purification talisman as an outer filter, and one specially made source energy isolation talisman as an inner protection. This double protection could minimize the erosion of meridians by harmonic pollution.
Mo Yuan walked to the entrance of the crevice, inserted his narrow blade into the gap between the rubble, and channeled his Origin Qi into the blade. A cyan blade light silently spread across the surface of the rubble. After a few breaths, the piled-up rubble was cut open from the inside, wide enough for a person to pass through sideways. He didn't make the opening too large, because although the giant claw outside had retracted, who knew if it was still nearby?
The four filed out, with Ajiu leading the way, Lin Qiye and Mr. Xun in the middle, and Mo Yuan bringing up the rear. They moved quickly along the edge of the ridge, keeping their bodies low and using every protrusion of the rock face and bone spikes for cover. The gray-black vortex cloud overhead continued to swirl slowly, and the fluorescent blue mist spewed from the bone tower illuminated the entire sky with a bizarre and surreal light. Meanwhile, the dark golden light emanating from the crack in the center of the basin in the distance grew increasingly intense, and the part of the ancient behemoth exposed above the ground was slowly expanding—it was still rising, and although the speed was slow, its unwavering momentum only intensified the sense of despair.
Ajiu quickly found the fissure she had discovered earlier. The fissure was located on a nearly vertical black rock face on the western side of the ridge. The entrance was an irregular triangle, about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) wide at its widest point. The edges of the fissure were covered with dense clusters of fluorescent blue crystals, making the entrance appear like a giant maw leading to another world. The air blowing from the depths of the fissure carried a stale, sweet-smelling odor, and upon closer inspection, an extremely faint sound of wind could be heard—indicating that the fissure was not a dead end, and that there was at least some air circulation somewhere underground.
Ajiu was the first to crawl inside.
The other three followed closely behind. The space inside the crevice was much wider than it appeared from the outside. Initially, it was a narrow, downward-sloping passage, but after walking less than a hundred feet, it suddenly opened up—a huge underground cavern appeared before them. The cavern was at least several tens of feet high, with countless stalactite-like bone spikes of varying thickness hanging from the ceiling, and similarly shaped bone stalagmites growing upside down on the ground, resembling the inside of the mouth of some giant creature. The cave walls were inlaid with clusters of fluorescent blue crystals, illuminating the entire cavern as if it were daytime, but this light was not dazzling; instead, it carried a chilling aura that involuntarily raised goosebumps on their skin.