Stone Chamber Guardians

The passageway turns ahead.

Mo Chen charged forward headlong, the components of his Soul Tool clanging and rattling. The light shimmered erratically, and his shadow seemed to lash out at the stone wall. Lu Yuan followed closely behind, his footsteps mingling with the rustling waves behind him, growing ever closer.

After rounding the bend, there was an upward-sloping road. Mo Chen stumbled slightly.

"Throw it away!" Lu Yuan shouted in a low voice.

"What?" Mo Chen gasped for breath.

"That thing you're holding!"

Mo Chen glanced down at the metal parts in his arms, his lips moved, but he didn't throw them away.

Lu Yuan stopped trying to persuade him. He suddenly turned around, facing the corner of the way he had come. Seven or eight thumb-thick Blue Silver Grass vines stretched along the ground and wall, forming a sparse barrier behind the corner.

Almost simultaneously, the first wave of Stone Scorpion surged around the corner.

With dark brown carapaces and six pairs of segmented limbs, they clung to the rock wall at an alarming speed. The first few collided with vines, momentarily halting their charge. The rest climbed over, stepping on their companions.

Lu Yuan flipped his left hand, revealing a few withered thorn vine seeds between his fingers.

He's waiting.

As the swarm of Stone Scorpion approached, the front row raised their stingers, their eerie blue light piercing the dim light. Soul Power condensed at the tips of their stingers, emitting a hissing sound.

Right now!

With a flick of his wrist, the seeds scattered on the ground half a foot in front of the grass vines.

"Burst."

A touch of Soul Power.

With a few muffled thuds, a cloud of grayish-white smoke, mixed with fine, sharp spikes, instantly filled the air. The Stone Scorpion at the forefront were enveloped in the smoke and their movements became chaotic. Those surging behind them collided in a chaotic mass.

But it only lasted two or three seconds.

The smoke dissipated, and the swarm of Stone Scorpion was momentarily thrown into disarray, but quickly recovered. The spikes didn't seem to have caused much damage—their carapaces were too hard.

It's over.

Mo Chen's face turned pale. He held the component in one hand and took out the strange metal wrench with the other, the crystal on the handle glowing slightly.

"Get out of the way!" he roared, pointing the wrench forward and channeling his Soul Power into it.

Buzz--

The crystal suddenly lit up, and a pale yellow energy beam, about the thickness of a fist, shot out, slamming into the nearest Stone Scorpion. Their carapaces shattered, and fluids splattered. The Stone Scorpion tumbled and crashed into the rock wall, then lay motionless.

Efficient!

However, Mo Chen himself was pushed back half a step by the recoil, his old injury in his left hand twitched violently, and a flash of pain crossed his face. The wrench crystal's light quickly dimmed.

"Recharging... it takes time!" he gritted his teeth.

Because of this delay, more Stone Scorpion bypassed their fallen companions and pounced on him. The closest one was less than a meter from Lu Yuan's toes, and with a flick of its stinger, it pierced his ankle.

Thin strands of Blue Silver Grass shot out from Lu Yuan's sleeve, deftly wrapping around the middle joint of the scorpion's tail, and then suddenly pulled to the side.

The scorpion's stinger veered off course and embedded itself in the nearby stone wall, sending sparks flying.

Lu Yuan used his other hand, fingers clenched like a knife, and concentrated his Soul Power at his fingertips, making a cut in the gap where the Stone Scorpion's head and breastplate connected.

laugh.

The shell wasn't broken, but Soul Power seeped in and stirred it.

The Stone Scorpion froze abruptly, then went limp.

The weaknesses are in the joints and seams.

But it was no use—there were too many. In the time it took to deal with one, seven or eight Stone Scorpion had already crawled close from the left and right stone walls and above, their stingers raised at the same time.

There was no way to retreat.

"Back to back!" Lu Yuan whispered.

Mo Chen immediately turned around and leaned against his back. The two were forced into a recessed area on the side of the slope. Mo Chen swung his wrench and unleashed an even weaker energy beam, forcing back the two in front. Lu Yuan used both hands simultaneously, and the fine threads of Blue Silver Grass moved like living creatures, targeting joints, eye sockets, and the base of the tail thorns.

Stone Scorpion are incredibly adaptable.

After several attacks, the surface of their carapace shimmered with Soul Power, and they began to actively adjust their attributes, developing resistance to the vines. Lu Yuan clearly felt his Soul Power consumption increase and his control precision decrease.

The chaotic Soul Power environment within these ruins was inherently more suitable for these mutated Soul Beast. His Blue Silver Grass seemed to be Shackles here.

Puff!

With a soft thud, Mo Chen groaned. His left sleeve had been grazed by the scorpion's tail, tearing the fabric and leaving a shallow bloodstain on his skin. The area around the wound quickly turned bluish-gray and began to go numb.

"Poison!" Mo Chen's voice tightened.

Lu Yuan glanced at it out of the corner of his eye. It was a paralyzing toxin, not extremely poisonous, but if left untreated, the entire arm would soon lose sensation.

We cannot linger in battle.

He made a decisive decision.

"Withdraw!"

Before he finished speaking, Lu Yuan slapped the ground with his right hand, scattering a handful of thorny vine seeds. At the same time, the Blue Silver Grass in his left hand surged, instantly wrapping around Mo Chen's waist and pulling him backward.

"Walk!"

Mo Chen was pulled backward and instinctively hugged the component in his arms tightly. The two of them ran wildly up the slope.

Behind them, seeds exploded, creating chaos once more with smoke and spikes. The hissing of the Stone Scorpion intensified, briefly halting their charge.

Just a few seconds of space.

Lu Yuan dragged Mo Chen along, pushing his Soul Power to its limit, desperately rushing upwards along the path they had come from. His lungs felt like they were on fire. Mo Chen's left arm was hanging completely down, his face was pale, and he was being dragged along entirely by Lu Yuan.

A faint light appeared ahead—the entrance!

The moment the two rushed out of the ruins, Lu Yuan didn't look back. He pressed his hand against the stone wall at the edge of the entrance. The Blue Silver Grass in his palm frantically burrowed into the cracks in the stone, pouring his Soul Power into it as if it were free.

Growth! Entanglement! Blockage!

The sparse vines and weeds at the entrance seemed to have been injected with life, growing wildly, thickening, and intertwining at a speed visible to the naked eye, forming a thick layer of green-brown barrier in the blink of an eye.

Thump!

The first Stone Scorpion crashed into the barrier with a dull thud. The barrier bulged inward, but didn't break. More Stone Scorpion crashed into it, their hissing becoming muffled and isolated.

Lu Yuan slumped to the ground, panting heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat. His Soul Power was almost depleted.

Mo Chen lay down directly, his chest heaving violently, still clutching the component tightly in his arms. His left arm, from shoulder to fingertips, was bluish-gray, and his skin felt cold and hard to the touch.

"Damn it..." Mo Chen squeezed out the word through gritted teeth, "What the hell... unlucky..."

Lu Yuan didn't reply. He took a couple of breaths, immediately got up, took out a small leather bag from his pocket, poured out a few dark green leaves, and then took out a water pouch.

"Tear the sleeve open."

Mo Chen barely managed to tear open the tattered sleeve of his left arm with his right hand. The wound wasn't deep, but the bluish-gray color had already spread to half of his arm. Lu Yuan stuffed a leaf into his mouth, chewed it quickly, mixed it with water, and applied it to the wound.

The herbs made a sizzling sound when they touched his skin. Mo Chen gasped in pain, but the rate at which the bluish-gray color spread visibly slowed down.

Lu Yuan quickly and efficiently bandaged the wound.

"This medicine can suppress the paralyzing poison, but it will take two or three days to completely neutralize it," he said simply. "Don't use your Soul Power recklessly."

Mo Chen lay on the ground, looking at the sky above him, which was cut into pieces by the stone forest, and smiled bitterly.

"Damn it... such a bad start." He glanced at the dusty parts in his arms, then at his bandaged arm. "I almost lost my life, and all I got was this junk."

Lu Yuan didn't look at him. He stared at the sealed entrance to the ruins. The vine barrier was still trembling slightly, and the scratching and hissing of the Stone Scorpion could be faintly heard from behind.

But those voices are gradually subsiding.

It's not giving up. It's more like... retreating into the depths.

Lu Yuan recalled the hexagonal recessed stone platform in the front hall, the scattered bones around it, and the organized swarm of Stone Scorpion that emerged.

He touched the Lin Clan keepsake in his pocket. Even through his clothes, he could still feel its slight, persistent warmth.

"It's not junk," Lu Yuan suddenly said.

Mo Chen turned his face away.

"Those Stone Scorpion," Lu Yuan stared at the entrance, "They didn't chase after us. Not because they couldn't, but because they didn't want to."

"What's the meaning?"

"They seem to be guarding something," Lu Yuan said slowly, "Guarding that stone platform... or something inside the stone platform. They only come out when we approach the stone platform. They retreat when we leave the area of the ruins."

He paused, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the outline of the keepsake.

There must be something inside. Something worth guarding like this.

Mo Chen remained silent for a long time. He raised his still-movable right hand and touched the cold metal parts in his arms, the ancient energy circuits digging into his palm.

"So," he said hoarsely, "We still have to go in?"

Lu Yuan remained silent.

Sunlight filtered through the cracks in the stone forest, falling on his profile, creating a striking contrast of light and shadow. In the distance, deep within the Thousand Needle Stone Forest, the wind howled as always.

But some things are different now.