Chapter 144: The Tripartite Balance of Power

"Rumble." The purple heavenly thunder rolled across the sky, sounding like the horn of war, and a ferocious battle broke out instantly.

The snake, raising the front half of its body, coiled tighter and tighter like a compressed spring, its forked tongue darting in and out of its mouth at an increasing frequency.

Bai Wan'er stood rooted to the spot, watching the suddenly changing world. Her eyes held no fear, but rather a trace of bewilderment.

The snake's tail, wrapped tightly around the tree branch, grew straight and rigid, occasionally scraping against the bark. Its body was arched terrifyingly. Its tongue flicked out one final time to pinpoint the gecko's exact location.

The gecko's front paws lifted off the branch, splaying outward in a pigeon-toed stance. The curved claws were dripping with sharpness, and its wide-open mouth made no sound, yet reeked of killing intent.

Because its torso was reared up, the gecko's entire weight fell upon its hind paws, tearing the epidermis of the freshly sprouted branch and leaving jagged cracks.

"Boom."

A bolt of purple lightning shot down from the churning dark clouds, piercing heaven and earth, and instantly reduced a massive tree at the edge of the jungle to ashes.

The snake's tail straightened; the gecko leaped. Each abandoned the branch it had been clinging to. The clash between the gaping, bloody maw and the razor-sharp claws finally commenced after their initial exchange of pressure ended in a stalemate.

Countless energies seemed to be brewing within the churning dark clouds as flashes of lightning of varying thickness flickered ceaselessly. The originally dim sky glowed with a purple hue. Deep within the jungle, a three-legged deer, a tailless rabbit, and countless birds began to flee in panic.

Both the snake's tail and the gecko's tail whipped through the air incessantly, each attempting to change its trajectory. This was a struggle for survival, a battle of life and death; each wanted to send the other to oblivion, yet neither wished to die.

The snake's fangs, though less than a centimeter long, and the gecko's sharp, outward-curving claws—if they were to collide directly like this, both creatures would perish.

A flash of purple light illuminated Bai Wan'er's fair cheeks. Amidst the howling wind, a severed claw and a strip of torn snakeskin fell into the folds of her clothes.

"Huh?"

It rolled down from her sleeve and slid into her palm. "What is this?"

At the same time, falling from the air into the tall grass, the two beasts tumbled and wrestled together like a rolling sphere, thrashing through the undergrowth.

Bai Wan'er stood motionless, looking up at the lightning constantly erupting from the rolling dark clouds. Though she could not see the entirety of this realm, she could sense that everything around her was collapsing into ruin.

An arm-thick bolt of purple lightning struck down from the sky, landing seemingly very close to where she stood.

Bai Wan'er did not lower her head, nor did she close her eyes; not a single ripple of expression crossed her face. A bolt of purple lightning fell from the skies, and a reflection of it fell within her eyes.

Just as the purple lightning was about to engulf the entire area, the dark-clouded sky crackled and tore open. A gigantic arm of white jade descended from the high heavens, instantly shattering the lightning into nothingness.

When Bai Wan'er opened her eyes once more, she found herself back inside the cavern, with Tian Xin standing beside her, wearing an expression of deep anguish.

"Do you have any idea that you were almost killed just now?" Tian Xin roared at Bai Wan'er, his heart aching with regret and fury.

"Mhm." Under the dim red glow, Bai Wan'er noticed small, charred holes appearing on the cavern wall.

"Mhm!?" Bai Wan'er's casual response completely set Tian Xin off. Suddenly, he felt an even deeper pang of heartache for the life-saving artifact his father had left him.

That was an item containing a wisp of a sovereign's power! It wasn't something to be squandered on stray dogs and cats, disappearing into thin air at a whim. His father had repeatedly warned him never to use it unless facing imminent peril, yet today he had used it twice. He felt like crying tears of blood.

***

"What kind of expression is that?" Bai Wan'er pushed what she had just witnessed to the back of her mind, looking somewhat strangely at Tian Xin's shifting facial expressions.

"Was it you who saved me just now? Thanks. By the way, where is Li Feng?" Bai Wan'er looked around in a circle, but could not find Li Feng anywhere.

"You finally remember me! Why didn't you run away just now? If I hadn't arrived in time, you'd be dead." Hearing Bai Wan'er thank him, Tian Xin finally felt a little better inside.

"Oh, and that Li-whatever you mentioned? He's dead."

"Dead?" Bai Wan'er could not quite describe the feeling in her heart; she only felt a mild sense of regret.

"Run? Where on earth was I supposed to run to? You didn't see what it was like back then—there was nowhere to run."

Xiao Ou had once told her that there were many bizarre places in this world where one could become trapped without warning, and in such moments, staying put was the only safe option.

"Alright, let's not dwell on it. Let's keep moving. I checked earlier, we're almost out of this cave." Seeing that Bai Wan'er was unwilling to speak further, Tian Xin pressed no more and walked ahead.

***

"Cough, cough."

Two muddy figures lay prone on the ground. Only a few corners revealed the original color of their garments; everywhere else was caked in blood-red mud.

Lying on the earth, their original features were unrecognizable. Suddenly, one of them took a deep breath, followed by a violent fit of coughing. With each cough, a mouthful of red muddy sludge spewed from his mouth.

"Ah." The person who woke up slowly crawled upward, eyeballs rolling frantically beneath his eyelids, yet unable to pry them open. It wasn't until the dried red mud encrusted on his lids flaked off that a pair of bloodshot eyes finally snapped open.

"Liu Yun, Liu Yun, how are you?"

The man's vision was still blurred upon opening his eyes, but he could vaguely make out a figure beside him that resembled Liu Yun.

"Ugh." The unconscious Liu Yun on the ground finally stirred, emitting a muffled groaning sound. Seeing this, the man thrust his fingers into Liu Yun's mouth and scooped out a massive chunk of red silt.

"Xiao Ming, how did you end up like this? What happened?" Liu Yun felt his brain buzzing incessantly. He closed his eyes again, wanting to calm down, but the moment he did, memories rushed into his mind like a tidal wave.

A rain of blood, a black abyss, a ground that devoured everything, and four people struggling desperately upon it.

"Where are the others?" Liu Yun forced his eyes open again to survey his surroundings. Everything was tinged with a dark red hue, suggesting they were inside some sort of structure. The ground was littered with chunks of red clay, likely carried out by themselves.

He only remembered Xiao Ming telling them to head toward the black abyss. Whether they had reached it or not, he had no idea; when he woke up, he was here.

"How much attribute power do you have left?" Xiao Ming, leaning his back against Liu Yun, blinked rapidly until his vision slowly cleared.

Liu Yun clenched his right hand, feeling no unusual response, and smiled bitterly. "I can't feel any at all. And you?"

"Less than ten percent left. As for the others, I estimate they've already..."

Xiao Ming did not finish his sentence. Among the five of them, only he and Liu Yun were at the Foundation stage; the rest were still at the Initiation stage. Judging by the rate at which his own attribute power had drained, the other two had probably been completely devoured of their attribute power by the red soil and were already dead.

"What do we do now?"

Without attribute power, coupled with the massive exhaustion of physical strength during their passage across the red soil, Liu Yun now felt that even speaking required an immense effort.

"First, recover some attribute power so we have a shred of self-preservation. We don't know where this place is, so don't act rashly."

Xiao Ming looked up, finding that the ceiling of the structure was out of sight. Yet beneath the dark red illumination, the space felt vast to him, spanning more than just a single floor.

***

"Wuwuwu." Inside a passageway parallel to Xiao Ming's, the two sides could not see each other. Perhaps they were very close, yet neither could perceive the other's presence.

In the corridor, a young girl was weeping bitterly, tears streaming down her cheeks before being wiped away by her index finger.

"Stop crying! Ever since we came out of that place, you haven't stopped crying. If you're not annoyed, I am! Yes, they're dead, but what can we do? You must know they entrusted their hopes of survival to us! Do you expect them to see you looking like this pathetic ghost right now?! Ah!"

The young man walking in front seemed completely broken down by the girl's emotional state. He stomped fiercely on the ground, whipped around, and roared at her. It was impossible to tell whether his eyes held rage or sorrow; his face was horribly contorted, as if he wanted to devour the girl standing before him.

The girl froze, stumbling back a few steps until her back hit the wall. Her eyes were filled with sheer disbelief.

"Lang Xin, what... what's wrong with you?" The girl was none other than Hui Xin. Only the two of them remained in this passageway now. The original five had survived the giant python's maw and journeyed safely until they entered the ancient castle. Three of them—three of them would never walk out again.

"Me? Sigh! What a mess this is." Lang Xin turned away again, clenching his hands into tight fists and slamming them against the wall.

The five of them had grown up together. Aside from Tian Xin, he was essentially the elder brother figure to the other three. Yet at this critical juncture, not only had he failed to save them, but they had ended up saving him instead.

"Alright. Hui Xin, I know you're hurting inside, but now is not the time for grief. We're still inside the castle, and danger lurks everywhere. Pull yourself together; I don't want to lose you, too."

***

"Hey, Ye Bai, the road ahead seems to be cut off, but there's some kind of circular disk over there. What now?"

Dao's special physique truly seemed different from others. When they emerged from the maze, he had clearly consumed far more energy than Ye Bai, yet now, after walking for less than half an hour, Ye Bai could distinctly sense that Dao had fully recovered to his peak condition.

"A disk?" Ye Bai walked up from behind, gazing at the floating circular platform within the castle.

"Is this... an elevator?" Visually, the castle appeared massive enough to occupy an entire realm, yet in reality, after walking for less than half an hour, they had already reached the center.

In Ye Bai's view, the platform beneath his feet was a circular disk, and corresponding to it in three other directions were three identical disks. At the very center lay what looked like a dark abyss piercing straight through the entire castle.

"What's that?" While Ye Bai was still observing his surroundings, he suddenly spotted two figures emerging from an opposite passageway.

"Dao, that looks like Bai Wan'er. Look over there."

Dao stepped onto the disk as well, and the moment he did, he saw two figures stepping out from the exit opposite them—Bai Wan'er and Tian Xin.

"It is Bai Wan'er. But why is she with Tian Xin?"

No sooner had Dao spoken than four more figures emerged from the other two exits. From one exit came Lang Xin and Hui Xin, while the people emerging from the final exit were so unrecognizable that Dao almost failed to identify them.

The two looked as though they had just crawled out of a mire, their original faces completely obscured. Had it not been for the red crystal longsword Liu Yun carried, Dao would have had no clue who they were.