The cavern's whispers, once a lullaby of ancestral power for Lin Feng and a feast for Glob, were desecrated by a far more mundane and threatening sound: the echo of footsteps and angry voices rebounding from the tunnel entrance. Glob tensed instantly, its body flattening against the rocky ground, the faint purple light within it flickering with a silent alarm that Lin Feng felt like a jolt down his own spine.
"Damn it, that trash couldn't have gone far!" Zhang Fu's harsh, venom-filled voice was unmistakable. "This wound on my hand… I swear by the heavens I'll make him pay threefold!"
Lin Feng leaped to his feet, the momentary relief from the chaotic energy Glob had absorbed vanishing before the stark reality of his situation. He was trapped. The cavern, his sanctuary, was now a deathtrap. He looked around frantically; the only visible exit was the tunnel they had entered.
"Li Wei, are you sure your 'keen senses' led us to the right place?" Chen Hao's hissing voice joined the chorus. "This place reeks of… I don't know, old and rotten."
"I saw something anomalous near this ravine yesterday," Li Wei replied, his tone tinged with a mix of cunning and nervousness. "A disturbance in the energy, dead grass where it shouldn't be. If that scum Lin Feng has some secret, some treasure that allowed him to survive and even… affect you, Zhang-shixiong, it might be here. Besides, the energy in this place is… strange. There might be something valuable."
Greed. It was greed that had guided them, as always. Lin Feng clenched his fists. Glob slid to his leg, rubbing against it, a vibration of loyalty and surprising ferocity emanating from its small form.
"Don't worry, Little One," Lin Feng whispered, more to give himself courage. "They won't catch us easily."
The footsteps grew closer. He knew he couldn't face them directly. Zhang Fu alone was already too much for him in his current state, and with Li Wei and Chen Hao, his chances were nil. But this cavern, with its chaotic energy and strange formations, was his terrain, at least for now.
"Glob," he thought urgently, transmitting the idea through their bond. "Distraction. Noise. Confusion."
The slime seemed to understand. It slid quickly towards a pile of dark, loose crystals near a side wall of the cavern. Lin Feng, meanwhile, hid behind a sinister-looking stalagmite, his heart pounding.
Zhang Fu was the first to enter the main cavern, followed closely by his two lackeys. Their eyes took a moment to adjust to the dimness illuminated by the purple and crimson glow.
"What the hell is this place!" Chen Hao exclaimed, staring in awe and apprehension at the pool of bubbling black liquid.
"Silence, idiot," Zhang Fu snapped, his eyes scanning every shadow. "Lin Feng, I know you're in here, you slippery rat! Come out and face your destiny! Perhaps if you hand over whatever gave you that unnatural confidence, I'll grant you a quick death."
At that moment, from the other side of the cavern, a dark crystal rolled noisily down a slope, followed by another. Glob, using its body to push them, was creating a diversion.
"What was that?" Li Wei turned sharply, his hand on the hilt of his cheap sword.
"Probably just a cave rat," Zhang Fu said, though his attention was also diverted. "Spread out a bit. Search every corner."
It was the opportunity Lin Feng had been waiting for, however slim. While the three thugs were momentarily distracted, Lin Feng tried to channel a strand of his chaotic energy. The pain was immediate, but he endured it. He wanted to try something he had glimpsed in his experiments: not a direct attack, but a subtle manipulation of the chaotic environment.
He concentrated the energy in the palm of his hand and gently "blew" it towards a section of the ground near where Li Wei was about to step. It was an area where the ground seemed slightly unstable, with small fissures from which a faint dark vapor emanated. His chaotic energy, interacting with the energy already present, seemed to intensify that instability for a split second.
When Li Wei stepped, the ground yielded slightly under his foot with a creak. It didn't collapse, but it was enough for him to lose his balance and let out a stifled cry of surprise, grabbing onto a wall to keep from falling.
"Careful!" shouted Chen Hao.
"Damn it, this place is a deathtrap!" roared Zhang Fu, turning towards the noise.
While they were distracted, Glob, with surprising agility, slithered up the wall and, from above, spat a small portion of itself – a globule of dark, sticky slime – that landed squarely on Chen Hao's face.
"Aaargh! What is this gunk!" Chen Hao howled, swatting to remove the slime, which wasn't harmful but was incredibly annoying and obstructed his vision.
Lin Feng seized that instant. He knew it wouldn't last. He darted out from behind the stalagmite and ran, not towards the exit, but deeper into the cavern, towards a narrower passage he had glimpsed earlier, hoping it was too tight for the three of them to follow easily. Glob detached from the wall and followed him like a liquid shadow.
"There he is! After him!" shouted Zhang Fu, his face red with rage upon seeing Lin Feng. Li Wei, recovered, and Chen Hao, still wiping his face, followed.
The passage narrowed and twisted, the light from the chaotic crystals growing dimmer. Lin Feng ran blindly, the pain from his injuries screaming in protest. He could hear the curses and footsteps of his pursuers behind him.
Suddenly, the passage opened into another chamber, smaller and darker than the last. And it wasn't empty.
In the center, a slender figure dressed in the deep blue, almost black, robes of an inner disciple stood with her back to him, observing a barely visible mural on the far wall. An aura of cold power and intense concentration surrounded her. At her side, a thin, elegant sword, sheathed, hung from her belt.
Even before she turned, Lin Feng knew who it was. He had seen her training from a distance. Xiao Lan.
But he had no time to process it. Zhang Fu and the others burst into the chamber behind him.
"You have nowhere to run, trash!" roared Zhang Fu.
Xiao Lan turned at the noise, her movement fluid and quick as a cat's. Her face was beautiful, but cold as ice, her eyes, the color of purest jade, fell first on the thugs, then on Lin Feng, and finally on Glob, which had slithered to Lin Feng's ankle, emitting a warning vibration. A faint frown of surprise and disgust appeared on her forehead at the sight of the slime.
"Outer disciples causing trouble in the depths of the Umbral Range," she said, her voice clear and melodious, but with an icy edge. "Pathetic."
Before anyone could respond, a deafening roar shook the cavern, far more powerful than any beast they had encountered before. The ground trembled. Dust and small crystals fell from the ceiling. From the back of the chamber, where Xiao Lan had been observing the mural, a section of the wall collapsed, revealing an even larger tunnel from which a nightmarish creature emerged.
It was a Cave Basilisk, at least fifteen feet long, its body covered in crystalline scales of obsidian black that seemed to absorb the light. Its multiple eyes, arranged in an unnatural pattern along its triangular head, glowed with a hungry red light. A stench of sulfur and rotten flesh filled the air. This beast was clearly of a much higher level than a Shadow Wolf.
Zhang Fu, Li Wei, and Chen Hao visibly paled. Even Xiao Lan adopted a defensive stance, her hand instinctively going to the hilt of her sword.
"A Multi-Eyed Basilisk... advanced Spiritual Foundation Realm," Xiao Lan murmured, more to herself, but Lin Feng heard her. It was far beyond his capabilities, and even hers alone.
The Basilisk fixed its gaze on the closest group: Zhang Fu and his lackeys. With a terrifying hiss, it lunged.
Chen Hao, the slowest and least intelligent, had no time to react. One of the Basilisk's front claws, sharp as a razor, pierced him cleanly, silencing his scream midway. Li Wei shrieked in terror and tried to flee but stumbled and fell. Zhang Fu, though terrified, managed to dodge the first attack and drew his sword, but he was visibly trembling.
"We have to get out of here!" Zhang Fu yelled at Xiao Lan, expecting the inner disciple to take charge.
Xiao Lan was already in motion, her now-unsheathed sword glowing with a pure orange light. "Useless!" she spat. She launched herself at the Basilisk, her Purifying Fire erupting around her blade.
Lin Feng knew this was the perfect chaos to escape. But the Basilisk blocked the only apparent exit they had entered through. And something in the way Xiao Lan fought, alone against such a formidable beast, ignited a strange spark in him. It was the same determination he had felt.
Glob tugged at his pants, urging him to flee towards a dark gap. But Lin Feng watched the battle. Xiao Lan was incredibly skilled, her fire pure and potent, but the Basilisk was resilient, its scales deflecting many of her attacks, and its multiple eyes seemed to give it almost 360-degree vision. At one point, one of the Basilisk's tentacle-like appendages, tipped with a poisonous barb, shot towards Xiao Lan's unprotected side as she dodged a bite.
Without thinking, he acted.
"Look out!" he yelled. At the same time, he focused all his will, pushing a burst of his chaotic energy towards that tentacle. He didn't expect to damage it, only to deflect it, to create a disturbance. Glob, sensing his intent, also emitted a sharp vibration and launched a small globule of itself towards the same target.
Lin Feng's chaotic energy, unstable and raw, and Glob's projectile, impacted the tentacle almost at the same time as Xiao Lan's Purifying Fire, which she had managed to partially redirect.
What happened next was unexpected for everyone.
The chaotic energy didn't seem to directly harm the tentacle, but when it came into contact with Xiao Lan's Purifying Fire still lingering in the air around the Basilisk's appendage, a strange reaction occurred. Xiao Lan's pure flames, normally a brilliant orange, were instantly tinged with a dark purple hue, and their intensity multiplied several times over. The modified fire not only burned but seemed to corrode the Basilisk's crystalline scales at an alarming rate, and the tentacle writhed in evident pain, deflecting from its deadly trajectory towards Xiao Lan.
The Basilisk let out a shrill shriek of pure agony and surprise, taking a step back, its attention now divided.
Xiao Lan glanced for a split second in Lin Feng's direction, her jade eyes wide with surprise. There was no trace of gratitude, only profound confusion and a new, calculating re-evaluation. What had that been?
Lin Feng felt the backlash of his own power, a stabbing pain in his chest, but also a strange resonance, as if his and Xiao Lan's energy had briefly sung the same impossible song.
"Now's our chance, Little One," Lin Feng thought, grabbing Glob. While the Basilisk was momentarily distracted and pained, and with Zhang Fu and Li Wei trying to scramble for the main entrance (Li Wei succeeding, Zhang Fu being slammed by the Basilisk's tail and sent flying against a wall with a horrific crunch), Lin Feng spotted another small side tunnel, barely visible behind some broken crystals.
Crawling and scrambling, with Glob stuck to him, he slipped through that new tunnel just as Xiao Lan resumed her fierce attack on the Basilisk, her fire now burning with renewed intensity and a hint of uncertainty in her eyes as she looked at the flames she herself produced.
The tunnel was dark and descended abruptly. Lin Feng didn't know where it led, but anywhere was better than the death chamber they were leaving behind. He had survived his bullies. He had witnessed the power of a true inner disciple. And, somehow, he and his strange chaotic companion had influenced a battle that was far above their level.
He didn't understand what had happened with Xiao Lan's fire, but the sensation of that brief, potent synergy still vibrated in his meridians. It was a discovery, an achievement born of desperation, that gave him a new kind of hope, far more tangible than before.
As he delved deeper into the darkness, he heard one last roar of frustration from the Basilisk and the metallic clang of Xiao Lan's sword. Then, only the echo of his own footsteps and Glob's soft pulsation against his skin. They were alone again, but the world, somehow, felt a little more full of possibilities. And the Spirit Beast Trial, Lin Feng realized with a shiver, was far from over.