Chapter 110: Collapse

The giant eye below rapidly approached, and with the chaos and the entire bronze tree shaking violently, I couldn't make out what it was using to climb. All I knew was that at this speed, we'd be fighting it within ten minutes.

Old Yang's face turned green, and he complained directly: "What the hell is in your head?!"

I cried out in injustice: "I swear to God, this is the first time I've seen this thing. If I'm lying, may lightning strike me dead."

Seeing how resolute I was, he paused: "Impossible. If not you, then who?"

At this point, there was no time to worry about that. I told him to stop bullshitting and think of something, because being stared at like this was uncomfortable too.

He said: "Don't worry too much. It's just an eye, after all. What's it going to do, kill us with its eyelids? When it comes up, I'll kick it blind."

Before he finished speaking, suddenly a huge tentacle like an octopus curled up, hitting the amber. We swung through the air like trapeze artists, crashing into the bronze wall. The amber shattered into pieces, and the corpse inside was dismembered on the spot, falling like scattered flowers along with the amber fragments.

At the last moment, we both grabbed the bronze chains tightly, barely surviving, but we were dizzy from the spinning. I shouted to Old Yang: "This joke is too big. Can't you transform? Hurry up and turn into a cannon and blast this thing!"

Old Yang cursed: "What the hell are you babbling about! Is it that easy? Run!"

Without a second word, we started climbing the bronze chains. After just a few steps, our hands suddenly slipped and we lost strength. I thought of the slippery plants on the tree roots and felt terrified. This was it. Were we going to die here?

At that moment, Old Yang raised his hand, and suddenly the slippery feeling disappeared. He climbed up like a monkey in a few moves and pulled me over. I almost lost my grip and complained: "With that ability, wouldn't it be better to just turn into a ladder?"

He cursed: "Please stop with all the opinions!"

Gritting our teeth, we climbed into the coffin chamber. The mist above had dissipated. I wanted to take the chance to look at the other reliefs, but Old Yang said, "Don't look now. What time is this?" He grabbed me and started climbing the outer coffin wall. Suddenly, that tentacle coiled up from the coffin shaft like lightning, sending the huge stone lid of the outer chamber flying into the air. The force was extremely violent, even shattering the iron-like tree roots. The entire bronze tree shook violently, filled with root tendrils, decayed bark, and dust. Large chunks of broken root branches, due to the sudden rupture, flew out like bullets, hitting the plank road and sweeping away a large section. We were clinging to a slippery root, and this threw us out of the outer chamber, crashing onto the sacrificial platform.

After the tentacle burst out of the bronze tree, it didn't want to go back in. It lashed around wildly, striking twice, deforming several bronze statues. Old Yang and I ducked repeatedly, miserable. Old Yang pointed to the plank road and said to go down quickly; staying up here was certain death. I remembered Boss Wang, whom Old Yang had knocked out outside, and thought that although he was a bastard, he wasn't utterly evil, so I couldn't just leave him. I turned to look, but couldn't see him. Could he have been carried down by the exploding roots?

The surrounding roots had been pulled up completely, only those extending under the sacrificial platform remained. Seeing me looking around, Old Yang kicked me and told me to look up. I looked up and saw the huge stone slab that had been knocked into the sky spinning down. We had to flee for our lives. Old Yang rolled over, picked up the backpack hanging on a broken branch, and we both dove like fish onto the climbing rope used as a rope bridge.

As soon as we grabbed the rope, the stone slab behind us crashed heavily onto the sacrificial platform, shattering with a deafening roar. The rope we were holding vibrated like a piano string, almost unable to bear the load.

Looking back, the tree root where our ice axes had hooked had its upper end torn away along with the banyan root mass that enveloped the coffin. Now only a pitiful bit remained, pulled by our weight. The ice axes were slowly coming loose, as if they wouldn't hold much longer.

Things were looking worse. I turned back and urged Old Yang to climb quickly, saying otherwise we'd end up like Old Tai! Old Yang, upon hearing this, suddenly slapped me hard, making my ears ring.

I cursed: "Damn it, are you addicted to hitting?!"

Old Yang shouted: "What else can I do? Control your mind! Don't think nonsense!"

I yelled: "What nonsense am I thinking?"

Before I finished speaking, there was a loud "boom." We turned around and saw the entire outer chamber suddenly bulge, splitting into several cracks. A giant black snake poked its head out. That tentacle was the snake's tail, but this one-eyed giant snake had very fine scales, looking more like a giant worm.

After the one-eyed giant snake crawled out, its huge eye immediately turned toward us. Old Yang saw the danger, quickly pulled the long hunting knife from my waist, and swung it hard, cutting the climbing rope. We swung like Tarzan in a pendulum arc, crashing into the plank road on one side. This time, I had experience and rolled with the impact, cushioning a lot. After landing, Old Yang pulled out the short rifle slung on the side of the backpack, fired at the snake's eye, and the bullet went in, making a big hole. The snake writhed in pain, curled up, and swept its tail, sending the entire row of plank roads above us flying.

Dodging the falling wood fragments, Old Yang stood up, shooting at the snake while pulling me to run down. I knew this rifle could only hold five bullets, but in Old Yang's hands, bullets streamed out without needing to reload.

Unfortunately, the caliber was still too small. The snake, having been hit once, now learned to coil up and protect its eyes with its body. All the bullets hit its tail, where the scales were like iron armor, useless.

Seeing the gun was useless, I signaled Old Yang to run. We ran to the broken end of the plank road. Just as I was about to climb the cliff wall, Old Yang grabbed me and said, "What time is this? Still climbing?" He pulled me and we jumped down, landing on the plank road below. The wooden planks couldn't withstand such an impact and cracked into dozens of pieces. We fell through the planks, breaking through another layer, and landed on the platform at the bottom of the plank road.

This fall was severe. When I got up, my mouth and nose were full of blood. Old Yang pulled me up and asked, "Looks like I was too optimistic. Are you alright?"

I felt the world spinning and didn't know what I answered. The black giant snake had already come down the bronze tree like lightning. Old Yang said, "We can't fight it, and we can't escape. Let's find a cave down below to hide."

I looked down. There were no more plank roads below, only small rocky caves like the one we had rested in, densely packed. The snake was huge. If we found a random one to enter, we could take cover temporarily and then think of a plan.

So Old Yang pulled me down. We crawled into the nearest cave, less than a meter in diameter. Before we even reached the bottom, the giant snake's eye appeared at the cave entrance, looked at us, and then rushed forward, trying to squeeze in.

Old Yang fired several shots to drive it back, but the bullets only knocked off a few scales from the snake's head, with no effect.

The black snake's head was as big as a truck. After several failed attempts to squeeze in, it suddenly slammed its head into the cave entrance, sending rocks flying everywhere. We quickly backed away to avoid being pinned by the falling stones.

Seeing us retreating deeper, the black snake grew furious. It slammed again, shaking the entire cave. The sound of rock cracking traveled from the entrance to above our heads.

The basalt here, due to the underground river channels and excessive excavation, was already unstable. With such impact, the delicate balance inside the rock was broken, causing a chain reaction of cracks. A crack suddenly appeared above our heads. Old Yang saw the danger and pulled me to the bottom of the cave. Before I could recover from the shock, I heard a series of rumbles. Dust filled the air, broken stones flew everywhere, and something collapsed.

Instinctively, I reflexively curled up to protect my head. Stones rained down from above, hitting my body and back more than a dozen times. In the chaos, Old Yang grabbed me and dragged me to the collapsed side. At the same time, a huge rock the size of a desk fell down, completely blocking the cave entrance.

Now the black snake couldn't get in or even see us. But it seemed unwilling to give up. It slammed into the entrance more than a dozen times, causing more rocks to fall and cracks to appear in the surrounding walls.

Old Yang said: "This isn't working. That thing won't stop until it kills us. A few more hits, and the mountain will collapse."

I turned and saw we had retreated to the deepest part of the cave, with no way back. If it collapsed any further, even the gods couldn't save us.

We were now at a dead end. Even if we had explosives, we couldn't use them in such a small space. Watching the cracks extend bit by bit around us, I was burning with anxiety.

Just then, a crack suddenly broke open, and a section of rock wall, unable to bear the weight, collapsed entirely. We pressed ourselves against the side, barely staying intact, and saw that behind the collapsed wall, there was actually another cave.

I was overjoyed, thinking that heaven would not let me die—it must be that the rocks between the two caves had shattered, creating a stone passage in between. I quickly turned to call out to Lao Yang, about to crawl inside.

Lao Yang, however, suddenly blocked my way and said, "You can't go in!"