The violet spear formed from all of Xie Zhaolin's strength tore straight into the mouth of the deep pit.
A violent burst of energy exploded at once, blasting apart the roots that had been trying to close the entrance.
With a flash of purple light, she dove headfirst into the bottomless darkness.
Almost at the exact moment she entered the pit, her wrist snapped sharply. The end of the Jingxiao Ribbon that had been coiling around her body shot backward like lightning.
It wasn't an attack. It wrapped flawlessly around the ankle of Elder Chou, who had just detonated the lotus shadow and was trying to flee in the opposite direction.
Elder Chou's footing vanished. She felt her ankle tighten, then a colossal force yanked her off course.
"You?!" Elder Chou's furious shock had barely left her mouth when her entire body was dragged along. Xie Zhaolin slammed both of them toward the abyssal entrance.
Her voice carried through the roaring wind, cold and absolute. "Trying to run alone? Not happening."
Saving Elder Chou earlier might have been to share pressure, but dragging her down now was to stop her from slipping away while she drew the monster's attention. If Elder Chou escaped alone and even snagged some hidden fortune while she faced unknown danger below, that would be the worst outcome.
If they lived, they lived together. If they died, they died together.
She refused to let Elder Chou walk away untouched.
Crack.
Boom.
Several roots lashed where Elder Chou's fading afterimage had been, smashing deep pits into the ground. Elder Chou, forcibly dragged along, wasn't half as lucky. Her protective glow scraped hard against the remaining roots, producing a grating sound that set teeth on edge.
She grunted, clearly taking a small hit, but she was dragged inside all the same.
"Raaaah!"
The root giant let out a thunderous roar of pure rage. Both of its prey had jumped into the very tunnel it carved out. It was humiliation beyond compare.
Its massive body lunged toward the entrance. Countless roots speared inside, trying to drag out the two tiny ants and grind them apart.
But the tunnel it created earlier when rising from the earth wasn't stable. It was narrow, cramped, and twisted.
Its massive roots couldn't get inside. They slammed against the edges, stirring the ground above so violently that the earth quaked.
Inside the pit, darkness swallowed everything.
The moment Xie Zhaolin rushed in, she felt an overwhelming downward pull and crushing pressure squeezing from every direction.
Elder Chou tried to break free from the Jingxiao Ribbon, but Xie Zhaolin had wrapped it tight. If she tried to force out of it now, both of them would lose balance and smash into the root tunnel walls.
"Elder Mo! What do you think you're doing!" Elder Chou shouted in shock and fury, her voice echoing through the cramped passage. She never imagined Xie Zhaolin would pull something like this at the last moment.
While directing the Jingxiao Ribbon with all her strength to maneuver through the twisting tunnel and avoid collisions, Xie Zhaolin replied coldly with a hint of mockery. "Elder Chou is so capable and insightful. Who knows what might be hidden underground. How could I enjoy the benefits alone? We should share them equally."
She stressed the words share them equally with deliberate force.
Elder Chou choked on her anger, unable to retort.
She was trapped, in danger, and had no choice but to swallow her fury. From the moment she was dragged inside, she understood that their fates were tied together. Whatever schemes they had before, survival now came first.
Above them, the sickening rustle grew louder. Smaller roots were forcing their way inside, relentlessly chasing them.
"This won't work! They'll catch up sooner or later!" Elder Chou sent an urgent voice transmission. "Where does this tunnel even lead?"
"I don't know!" Xie Zhaolin said, her voice still icy. "But staying up there meant certain death. Going down might give us a chance."
Her heart was just as tense. The pit was so deep she couldn't sense its bottom. Her spiritual power was draining fast. If the end turned out to be a dead end, or if something even worse was waiting, then they were truly walking straight into their graves.
Just when both of them were stretched to the breaking point, Xie Zhaolin suddenly felt a wave of energy that didn't belong to the roots. At the same time, the downward tunnel widened.
"Something's down there. Be careful!"
The warning left her mouth right before the ground vanished beneath their feet.
The root tunnel around them collapsed away.
They shot out of the narrow passage and dropped into an enormous underground chamber.
Thud. Thud.
They landed hard on a surprisingly soft surface and steadied themselves with effort.
The moment they touched down, both instantly jumped several meters apart, back to back. The Jingxiao Ribbon and protective glow lit up as they scanned the unknown darkness with full vigilance.
The space was huge, about several dozen meters tall. Faint blue moss covered the stone walls, casting a dim ghostly light.
At the center of the cavern stood something far more unnerving than the root giant outside.
A colossal, entirely withered, mutated plant carcass.
It was dark purple, its main trunk as thick as a hill, but shriveled and cracked. Countless twisted tendrils and roots extended from it, petrified or half petrified, spearing deep into the walls and floor. They formed the very skeleton of this underground chamber.
The ground beneath their feet was nothing more than a mesh of these dead roots, interwoven and lifeless.
Up close, it resembled the living root giant above with chilling similarity.
The entire space felt dead. Only the cold blue moss flickered in the shadows of the twisted remains, eerie and silent. Compared to the raging vitality of the monster outside, this place was ancient, quiet, and filled with decay.
"This isn't its core." Elder Chou spoke first, her voice thick with confusion. "These look like its shed husk, or maybe... the remains of something it swallowed and assimilated?"
She could feel the same origin as the creature outside, but the energy here was utterly dead.
Xie Zhaolin didn't answer. Her divine sense swept through the cavern.
There were no signs of life at all, only a dense, ancient concentration of wood spiritual energy that had stagnated for who knew how many millennia, along with a faint resentment or unwillingness that lingered like a shadow.
Far above, the root giant's furious roars and the scrabbling of roots came through muffled and distant, as if they were behind an invisible barrier.
The roots that had been chasing them now stopped at the edge of the cavern's entrance, refusing to come in.
"They don't dare enter," Xie Zhaolin whispered, her voice rasping. Her eyes swept across the dead space with razor sharp focus. "For them, this place might be a tomb, a shackle... or a past it wants to escape."