You Can Come Along, but You Can't Make Me Pay

Time rewound to the moment the darkness began to shake.

Yu Xing stood on the second floor, feeling the shadows around him tremble more and more violently. Though darkness was something untouchable, it was starting to form fine, dense cracks, like a solid barrier.

It was as if something outside was pressing inward with tremendous force, leaving the second-floor space of Never Forget Dwelling on the verge of collapse.

"Crack..."

A grating sound of breaking came from the floor. Yu Xing looked down and saw a deep, branching crack stretching from the corner of the wall toward him. It wasn't the only one; cracks like a spiderweb were spreading in every direction, and the shadows churned.

"What's going on?!" Gu Xing shouted from behind him. Yu Xing looked over and saw that the door to the private room Gu Xing had been in was already cracked from the shaking.

The rule-bound door, which should have been extremely sturdy and controlled entry and exit, was no match for the tremors coming from outside!

Yan Li appeared the next second, a short blade in his hand. He gripped it in his right hand while the left was wrapped in intangible formation threads. Several faint circular arrays surrounded him, firmly warding off any darkness that might drift their way.

"This place is going to break apart."

The sudden turn of events had caught them completely off guard, but Yan Li remained composed. In the corner of his eye, he saw Bugui run out of the cracked private room as well, and asked, "Did one of you trigger something?"

"No, I'd just entered that private room. I hadn't even had time to touch anything!" Bugui hurriedly waved his hands to prove his innocence.

"I was just investigating normally." Gu Xing's legs shook in time