The Cage Has Closed

As the earth shook, dust and stones rained down from the ceiling of the dim cave. Zhang Tie had no time to worry about anything else. In the midst of it all, he opened the shade of the glowstone lamp he carried with him, unfurled his body, and sprinted out of the cave.

Outside the cave lay the vast underground space that encompassed the entire ruin. The tremendous tremors traveling up from below left many people bewildered and alarmed.

An earthquake? Zhang Tie did not know. But the tremors and the rumbling roar had stirred an ominous feeling in his heart.

Without hesitation, Zhang Tie hurried toward the Tribal Alliance camp.

He had run less than twenty kilometers when another tremor and rumbling boom came. This time, Zhang Tie could beat his chest and swear that it was absolutely not an earthquake. The direction from which the sound and shockwave came was different from before. The first disturbance had seemed to come from deep underground, while this one was much closer—seemingly... seemingly from somewhere along the underground passage leading to the ruins.

The sound gave Zhang Tie a faint feeling of déjà vu.

The enormous noise echoed and rebounded through the relatively enclosed underground space, so that the thunderous rumble could be heard throughout the ruins.

When the second boom sounded, Zhang Tie's expression changed. While running, he veered slightly, no longer heading toward the camp but charging instead into the passage from which the second blast had come.

"Ah, what happened?"

"Why were there two huge booms just now?"

"One of them seemed to come from over there!"

Along the way, every Prospector Zhang Tie encountered was at a loss because of the two thunderous blasts, having no idea what had happened. A few sharper ones, after judging the