Floor 2: The Caverns of Echoing Silence.
The beam of the Sun Scepter cut a cone of safety through the suffocating darkness. Within that cone, dust motes danced like tiny stars.
Lin Fan stood at the edge of the light, his shadow stretching long and distorted against the cave wall. His hand hovered over the grip of the Thunder-Fire Wand (Desert Eagle), but he knew he couldn't fire it. One shot would bring the swarm back.
He had to do this the old-fashioned way.
"Junior Brother Zhang," Lin Fan said, his voice smooth, masking the predator underneath. "You are weak. Holding that treasure makes you a target. If the disciples from the Azure Sword Sect find you, they will kill you and take it."
He took a step forward.
"Give it to me. I am at the 4th Stage of Qi Condensation. I can protect us both."
Zhang Wei adjusted the straps of the wooden box on his back. His eyes, usually warm and honest, were now hard as flint.
"You speak of protection," Zhang Wei said quietly. "But your eyes speak of robbery. If I give you the light, you will run. And you will leave me and my sister to the darkness."
Lin Fan's face twitched. "You dare accuse an Outer Disciple? I am giving you a chance to serve the strong!"
"The strong protect the weak," Zhang Wei replied, shifting his stance. He held the rusty iron sword in his right hand and the metal tube in his left. "That is the Dao. You are not strong, Senior Brother. You are just hungry."
"Court death!"
Lin Fan snapped. His patience evaporated.
He lunged.
He didn't use the gun. He channeled his Qi into his legs, utilizing the Phantom Step. He was fast—a blur of grey robes aiming to snatch the flashlight from Zhang Wei's grip.
"Too slow," Lin Fan sneered, his hand inches from the metal tube.
CLICK.
Zhang Wei didn't swing his sword. He pressed the button on the Sun Scepter.
Darkness.
He turned it off.
Lin Fan's eyes, which had adjusted to the bright LED beam, were suddenly plunged into absolute, pitch-black void. His depth perception vanished instantly. He grabbed at empty air.
"What?!"
CLICK.
FLASH.
The light blasted back on, directly into Lin Fan's dilated pupils. The sudden transition from 0 to 1000 lumens was like a physical blow.
"Argh!" Lin Fan cried out, covering his eyes. He was blinded, seeing spots of white and purple.
Thump.
Something hard struck Lin Fan in the chest. It wasn't a blade; it was a boot.
Zhang Wei had kicked him.
It was a simple, unrefined kick, like kicking a stubborn log. But Lin Fan was off-balance and blinded. He stumbled back, his feet catching on the uneven rocky terrain.
"You... you trash!" Lin Fan roared, swinging his fist blindly. "Heaven-Devouring Fist!"
Black Qi erupted from his hand, smashing into a stalagmite, shattering it. The sound of crumbling rock echoed.
Hiss...
From the darkness, the clicking sounds returned. The noise was attracting the Ghouls.
"Senior Brother," Zhang Wei's voice came from a different direction than Lin Fan expected. "The Ghouls are coming. We can fight and both die, or you can walk your path and I will walk mine."
Lin Fan wiped the tears from his eyes. His vision was returning. He saw Zhang Wei standing twenty meters away, retreating carefully, the light kept low to the ground to avoid blinding himself.
Lin Fan gritted his teeth. He wanted to kill him. He wanted to tear that honest face apart. But the clicking was getting louder.
"Just you wait," Lin Fan hissed. "Once we are out of this cave..."
The Sovereign's Palace.
"Hah! The 'Strobe Strat'!" The Sovereign clapped his hands. "Classic. Disorient the enemy by messing with his exposure settings."
"The Woodcutter utilized the environment perfectly," Unit Alpha analyzed. "The System User relies too heavily on stats. He forgot that eyes are biological organs with limitations."
The Sovereign glanced at the map of Floor 2.
"The players are stalling. They are moving too slowly. At this rate, they will be crawling in the dark for days. I need to speed up the pacing."
He tapped the Jade Command Slate.
"Let's create a focal point. A 'King of the Hill' scenario."
"Manifest," the Sovereign commanded.
Floor 2. Center of the Caverns.
Deep in the bowels of the cave system, the ground began to tremble.
A massive stalactite on the ceiling, the size of a small house, began to glow with a sickly green light.
HUMMMMMM.
A pillar of green light shot down from the stalactite, piercing the darkness and illuminating a massive circular arena in the center of the caverns.
The light was visible for miles within the caves. It was a beacon.
Simultaneously, a booming voice—the Sovereign's voice, modulated to sound like an ancient, indifferent god—echoed through the minds of every cultivator on the floor.
[Trial Update.]
[The 50 Ascension Jades have spawned.]
[Location: The Central Nest.]
[Guardian: Awakened.]
[Time Limit: 1 Hour. After 1 Hour, the Jades will shatter.]
Lin Fan and Zhang Wei, separated by distance, both heard the voice.
Lin Fan looked at the distant green pillar. His greed flared instantly, overpowering his anger toward Zhang Wei.
"The exit!"
He checked his Desert Eagle. He checked his Qi reserves.
"I have to get there first. If I'm first, I can set up an ambush."
He glanced one last time in Zhang Wei's direction, then turned and sprinted toward the green light. He risked using small bursts of Qi to enhance his eyes, ignoring the clicking sounds. Speed was now more important than stealth.
Zhang Wei watched the light as well.
"The Central Nest..." he whispered. He patted the box on his back. "Hold on, sister. We are almost there."
He moved toward the light, but with caution, keeping his Sun Scepter steady.
The Central Nest.
Within thirty minutes, the first wave of cultivators arrived at the edge of the illuminated arena.
It was a gruesome sight.
The floor of the arena was covered in white bones. In the center, under the green pillar of light, hovered fifty emerald tokens—the Ascension Jades. They spun slowly in the air, tempting, beautiful.
"Jades!"
"I see them!"
A group of disciples from the Beast Taming Mountain rushed forward, their eyes red with greed.
"They're ours!"
They sprinted across the bone-covered floor.
SCREEEEEEECH!
A sound wave, visible as a distortion in the air, slammed into them from the ceiling.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The heads of the three lead disciples exploded. Not cut off—exploded. The sonic pressure liquefied their brains instantly.
The headless bodies collapsed.
"What?!" The remaining cultivators froze.
From the darkness of the ceiling, something detached itself.
It was massive. A bat-like creature with a wingspan of forty meters. Its body was covered in obsidian armor plates. It had no eyes, but its ears were enormous, twitching independently. Its mouth was a gaping maw of needle-teeth.
[Floor Boss: The Sonic Emperor Bat]
[Cultivation: Equivalent to Qi Condensation Stage 9 (Peak)]
[Ability: Sonic Rupture, Echolocation, Darkness Veil.]
The Boss landed in front of the Jades, its claws digging into the stone. It let out a low growl that vibrated in everyone's chest.
More cultivators arrived. The Iron Blood Sect, the Azure Sword Sect, the rogues. There were nearly two hundred of them now, circling the light.
Lin Fan arrived, hiding behind a large boulder. He saw the Boss.
"Stage 9..." Lin Fan swallowed. "That thing can kill me with a sneeze."
He looked at the crowd. He saw the Azure Sword Sect disciples forming a formation. He saw the Beast Tamers summoning their spirit wolves.
"Good," Lin Fan grinned. "Let them fight. Let them weaken it. I will be the fisherman."
"Attack!" shouted a senior disciple of the Azure Sword Sect. "Aim for its wings!"
Dozens of flying swords shot toward the Bat.
The battle for the Jades began.
The Edge of the Light.
Zhang Wei arrived moments later. He stayed in the shadows, watching the slaughter.
The Bat was terrifying. It swung its wings, smashing cultivators into paste. It screamed, and people bleeding from their ears fell to their knees.
But Zhang Wei noticed something.
The Bat was guarding the ground beneath the Jades. But the Jades were hovering above the ground, suspended in the green light.
And up on the ceiling... directly above the Jades... was a cluster of stalactites.
"If someone were to drop from above..." Zhang Wei calculated.
He looked at the chaotic battlefield. Everyone was attacking from the ground.
Zhang Wei looked at the walls of the cavern. He was a woodcutter. He had climbed trees taller than these walls to chop the best branches.
He tightened the straps of his sister's box.
"I will not fight the monster," Zhang Wei decided. "I will climb."
He sheathed his sword, turned off his flashlight to avoid detection, and began to scale the rock wall in the darkness, moving toward the ceiling.