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Chapter 7 - Chapter 7: The Corpse Cavern of Qinling

The dust over the "Sea of Death" had barely settled, the world still reeling from the impossible image of Chu Xuan catching a hypersonic missile with his bare, stone-cursed hand. While global networks exploded with disbelief, terror, and nascent fanaticism, the deepest medical bay within the Kunlun Base was a tomb of oppressive silence. Chu Xuan floated in a specialized nutrient bath, a grotesque sculpture of flesh and stone, encased in a web of life-sustaining tubes. The rhythmic beep of monitors was the only sound, a stark counterpoint to the war raging inside him.

The price for defiance was etched onto his body. The temporary stone armor forged from nuclear decay and earth's fury had shattered, leaving his right arm encased in cold, dead grey stone from shoulder to fingertips, a mirror to his petrified left. The curse, enraged by the forced consumption of the missile's apocalyptic energies, had surged forward like a tidal wave. Petrification spread from both arms like converging glaciers, meeting over his heart in a stark, grey-white 'V', jagged teeth biting towards his core. His chest felt leaden, the creeping numbness a constant reminder of oblivion.

[System Scan Updated:]

[Petrification Curse: Left Arm - 100%... Right Arm - 85% (Traces of sensation linger at shoulder)... Chest Petrification - Encroaching on sternum, superficial erosion of cardiac muscle...]

[Spread Velocity: Accelerated by dual large-scale consumptions (Missile/Earth Fury) & forced Stone Armor activation. Estimated Full Petrification: 6 months 18 days!]

[Meridian Status: Earth/Petrification damage - 51% blockage... Qi flow efficiency -25%... Forced circulation accelerates spread!]

[Organ Damage: Lung petrification zone expanded to 25%... Cardiac function impaired (Petrification/Energy backlash)... Liver/Kidney failure risk elevated...]

[Combat Assessment: <5% peak capacity... Forced engagement risks irreversible deterioration or fatal collapse!]

The cost was staggering, a physical ledger of desperation.

"Chief Engineer Chu..." Chief Medic Qin's voice cracked, thick with grief as he watched the half-stone figure in the glowing fluid. The nutrient bath and bio-stimulation offered scant comfort, a feeble barrier against the stone tide creeping towards brain and heart. Against the curse itself, they were powerless.

"Not dead yet." Chu Xuan's voice rasped through the breather, flat, stripped of inflection, a chilling counterpoint to the agony and encroaching numbness. His functioning neck turned stiffly, obsidian eyes fixing on the large screen beyond the pod.

Multiple feeds flickered:

Kunlun Ark-1: Massive machines roared within the "Dragon Spine" valley. Spirit-Infused Concrete, laced with trace spirit crystals and etched with foundational runes, flowed into colossal subterranean frames. Faint, warm currents of golden-brown Dragon Vein energy, guided by newly laid arrays, seeped into the structure. Progress: 3%.

Other Ark Sites: Exploration and groundwork proceeded, no major energy surges reported. Yet.

Global Toxin Pits (Devourer Targets): Advance teams established perimeters and sensors over humanity's self-inflicted wounds.

Antarctic Abyss: Satellite imagery showed the deep-blue ice zone slightly expanded, the core white beacon pulsing faster, radiating malign anticipation.

Capital Ripple Point: The spatial disturbance in the city's heart had intensified, ripples now crashing against unseen shores, frying electronics within its invisible radius.

[WARNING!]

[Antarctic Beacon/Capital Ripple Resonance Activity: 245%... Rising!]

[Global Spatial Stability Declining... Temporary Dungeon Spawn Probability/Intensity Forecast: +150%... Countdown Accelerating...]

The system's crimson warnings were a funeral dirge. Chu Xuan's defiant act had bought a sliver of time at the cost of hurling the world faster towards the abyss.

"Report!" Zhao Qiming's voice sliced through the comms, tight with controlled dread. "Qinling Mountains! 'Dragon Fang' recon team... lost contact! Last coordinates... near your predicted 'Corpse Cavern' locus! Signal lost amid intense interference... and... non-human roars!"

A jolt of ice shot through Chu Xuan's core. His obsidian pupils constricted.

Too soon! The Qinling Corpse Cavern! The first true Temporary Dungeon from his past life, a grinder of early heroes and birthplace of dreaded Corpse-Demon Kings. The missile's spatial backlash had yanked its emergence forward!

"Status..." His voice was sandpaper on metal.

Zhao switched feeds instantly. High-altitude drone view: A secluded valley deep within the mist-wreathed Qinling peaks. Thick, unnatural grey-green fog, viscous as swamp gas, boiled upwards, swallowing satellite and drone signals. At its heart, a jagged maw yawned in the mountainside – the cavern entrance. Sickly green corrosion stained the rock around it. Nearby vegetation withered black, reeking of decay. And at the fog's edge, lurching figures: Tattered clothes caked in filth, skin corpse-grey and pustulent, eyes milky voids fixed with mindless hunger. They moved with unnatural heaviness.

[Target Confirmed: Corpse-Walkers (Low-Tier)]

[Energy Level: Minimal (Planetary Suppression Field Active)]

[Traits: Physical Strength ≈ 3x Adult Male... Minor Physical Resistance... Pain Immunity... Weaknesses: Head (Brain Destruction Required)/Fire/Lightning/Intense Light...]

[Threat Level: Low (Solo)... High (Swarm + Corpse Toxin)...]

[Environment: Fog contains high-density 'Corpse Miasma' (Necrotic Variant)... Potent hallucinogen, paralytic, life-force eroder...]

Corpse-Walkers! The dungeon's foot soldiers. They were here!

"Lost team... last position... less than five hundred meters... from the mouth..." Zhao's voice was leaden. Contact lost here meant death, or worse.

"Send... rescue... No!" Chu Xuan choked out, trying to rise. Agony, sharp and deep, lanced through petrified zones and ruined meridians. Black spots danced. Cold sweat slicked his skin beneath the fluid. "Regular troops... cannon fodder! Miasma... Toxin... gas masks... useless!"

He dragged in a breath, fighting vertigo and tearing pain, gaze locking onto Zhao. "Send... 'Dragon Fang' reserves! Equip... latest Rune-Infused Body Armor... and... 'Lightning Talisman Rounds'! Commander... Lei Zhan!"

"Lei Zhan?" Zhao blinked. Lei Zhan – "Blade" of the Southwest Special Forces, a living legend, one of the first seeds Chu Xuan had nurtured with the Basic Body Tempering Art. His physique already brushed the threshold of Mortal Refinement. But send him into that hellmouth?

"Only he... can withstand... miasma... buy time!" Chu Xuan's voice brooked no argument. He knew Lei Zhan's iron will and tempered flesh. "Prepare... 'Cleansing Talismans'... three per man! Core placement!"

Zhao swiftly pulled up the data. Cleansing Talismans – lab prototypes based on Chu Xuan's Basic Talisman Primer, combining spirit-crystal dust, purifying compounds, and Qi-infused cinnabar. Designed to create a small purified zone. Untested in combat.

"No time... for tests! Do it!" Chu Xuan closed his eyes, forcing his fractured consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness. Agony ripped through his meridians as he dredged up a wisp of Devourer Qi, mingled it with spirit sense, and blasted it through encrypted channels – to the Qinling forward command, and directly into Lei Zhan's tactical HUD.

A crude, vital 3D map of the cavern entrance zone flooded their displays – sketched from fractured memories and passive system scans. Hazards blazed: Corpse-Walker clusters, miasma density gradients, corrosive sinkholes, venom-spore pods.

[Spirit Link Established... Data Transferring...]

[WARNING! Spirit Overdraft! Meridian Damage Accelerating! Petrification Curse Activity Rising... Chest Numbness Expanding...]

"Ugh..." Chu Xuan convulsed, blood trickling from his mouth beneath the mask.

"Chief Engineer!" Qin and the medics lunged forward.

"Execute!" The command, ragged but absolute, cut through their panic.

Qinling Mountains – Corpse Cavern Perimeter

The air at the makeshift camp tasted of rot and disinfectant, thick enough to choke. Floodlights speared into the churning grey-green fog, illuminating only a pitiful radius. Beyond lay an abyss of swirling darkness and unseen horrors.

Lei Zhan stood at the camp's edge like a statue carved from war. Clad in black combat gear overlaid with a vest shimmering with faint silver runes – the prototype Rune-Infused Armor. His frame radiate compact power, muscles like braided steel cables beneath skin kissed with a bronze sheen from the Body Tempering Art. His face was granite, eyes hawk-sharp, locked on the fog-shrouded cavern mouth and the shambling silhouettes within.

Behind him, twelve Dragon Fang reserves stood ready. Elite among elites, clad in rune-armor, wielding modified rifles slung with grenade launchers for Lightning Talisman Rounds. Their faces were grim, eyes burning with resolve and the desperate need to retrieve their brothers.

"Boss, the map from Chief Engineer Chu..." One handed Lei Zhan a tactical tablet. The crude map was a lifeline in the dark.

Lei Zhan scanned it, gaze lingering on the crimson zones marked 'High Miasma' and 'Possible Corpse-Walker Nest'. "Memorize it! Stick to the 'safe' path! Cleansing Talismans on your chests! Feel dizzy, activate it! Walkers? Headshots! Lightning rounds to clear a path! We find our brothers, we pull them out! This isn't a cleansing op! Understood?!"

"UNDERSTOOD!" The shout momentarily pushed back the fog.

"Move out!" Lei Zhan chopped his hand forward and plunged into the grey-green wall. His team vanished behind him.

The miasma hit like a physical blow. Air turned thick, icy, reeking of sweet decay. Filter masks hissed warnings. The Cleansing Talismans on their chests warmed, emitting a feeble white glow, pushing the encroaching fog barely half a meter back. It felt like wading through tar, minds fogging.

"Stay sharp! Close up!" Lei Zhan's voice cut through the comms, steady as bedrock. His tempered body resisted best, bronze skin glowing faintly in the talisman light. He navigated treacherous, root-tangled slopes, avoiding bubbling green sinkholes marked on the map.

Scrape... Gurgle... Ghastly sounds echoed closer.

"Left! Three o'clock! Contact!" Lei Zhan barked, rifle snapping up.

Fog parted. Three Corpse-Walkers lurched out! Faster than the drones showed! Rags flapped, grey skin sloughing, milky eyes fixed. Claws dripped black ichor.

"FIRE!"

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Armor-piercing rounds tore into rotten flesh. Black gore sprayed. Futile! Bullets thudded like hitting rotten leather. Unless the head exploded, they kept coming! One lunged, half its shoulder blown off, bone gleaming.

"DOWN!" Lei Zhan roared. He moved like a battering ram. Steel flashed. His alloy combat blade, etched with faint anti-evil runes, whistled through the air, aimed at the Walker's temple. Simultaneously, his right fist, fueled by tempered blood and qi, cannoned into the second Walker's chest.

THUD! CRUNCH!

The blade bit deep, clanging on unnaturally hard bone, lodging halfway. His fist slammed into the second Walker's chest – a muffled thump on tough hide. It didn't flinch. Rotten claws scraped his rune-armored forearm!

ZZZZT!

Silver runes flared brightly, deflecting the blow. The force numbed Lei Zhan's arm. Five times the strength!

"HEADS! FOCUS FIRE!" Lei Zhan bellowed. His men, suppressing horror, pressed muzzles close.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Point-blank headshots. Skulls erupted. Black gore sprayed. The Walkers shrieked, collapsing.

The brief, brutal fight left them shaken. Lei Zhan breathed hard, grief a stone in his throat as he looked at the mangled remains of his comrades and the monsters they'd become. Five men. Gone. "Tags... and gear..." he rasped. A soldier fought down bile, collecting dog tags and salvageable tech.

"Boss! Look!" The rear guard yelled, pointing.

Lei Zhan spun. Deep in the rocky alcove, half-buried in rubble and rusted mining tools – a pickaxe, a decayed basket – lay a palm-sized, irregular chunk of dark-red metal.

Heavily rusted, pitted, edges jagged – it looked like worthless scrap. Yet... the air around it felt marginally cleaner? The miasma seemed to shy away.

Lei Zhan remembered Chu Xuan's cryptic order: "...Watch for... rusted metal token... in the deep cavern... Bring it back..."

This?

He moved, brushing aside debris. His fingers touched the cold, corroded metal.

ZING!

A pulse – ancient, vast, carrying a whisper of impossible ascension – flickered against his senses and vanished.

[Target Scanned: Rusted Ascension Token (Fragment)]

[Material: Starry Sea Celestial Realm - Fallen Dao Divine Iron (Severely Corroded/Dao Patterns Damaged)]

[Status: Energy Dormant (Requires Activation Key)... Internal Dao Pattern Integrity: 1%...]

[Traits: Faint Evil Warding (Passive)... Faint Spatial Anchor (Inert)...]

[Association: ??? (System Database Corrupted - Match Failed)...]

Chu Xuan, watching through Lei Zhan's bodycam feed in his med-pod, felt the System message like a thunderclap. Ascension Token! A fragment! Ruined, barely functional, but it was real! A key to transcendence, perhaps even the Heavenly Golden Rankings! In his past life, swallowed by a Corpse-Demon King, lost until too late... Now, here!

"Bring... it! Any cost!" The command, fueled by desperate will, slammed into Lei Zhan's mind.

Lei Zhan didn't hesitate. He scooped up the cold, unassuming shard and secured it against his skin.

ROOOOOOAR!

The mountain shook. Not just the cavern – the very bedrock beneath them groaned.

WOOOOO—!

The mournful horn blast returned, deafeningly close, vibrating bones. Thick, oily black-green miasma vomited from the cavern depths, flooding the crevice!

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

An earth-shattering roar of pure, ravenous malice exploded from the cavern's heart! Heavy, crunching footsteps pounded closer. A wave of soul-freezing terror, thick as the miasma, washed over them.

The Corpse-Demon King! Awakened! Enraged! Drawn by the Token... and the scent of living blood!

"FALL BACK! NOW!" Lei Zhan roared, grabbing the tags and gear, shoving his men back into the suffocating, terror-filled fog tunnel. Outside, the support team on the ledge fired their remaining Lightning Rounds into the churning mouth, a desperate bid to slow the nightmare descending upon them.

A frantic, blood-soaked race against death erupted amidst the churning poison and the King's world-shaking fury!

Simultaneously, within Kunlun's Global Strategy Hub, another screen painted a scene of utter despair.

Magnified satellite imagery of the Antarctic Abyss. The deep-blue ice was now fractured by massive crevasses – eyes of ice opening onto hell. Through them, high-res lenses showed the colossal silver prism of the Space Beacon. On its surface, countless tiny blue ice crystals skittered like living things, converging. Around its base, the previously detected "Frostfiend Spawn" glowed with intense azure light, channeling energy into the Beacon in a sinister ritual.

Worse. Beside the Beacon, in the area frozen with ancient Frostfiend corpses and the bronze sword shard... the ice was melting rapidly. One relatively intact corpse, the one impaled by the sword, encased in thick azure ice... its clawed, armored finger... TWITCHED.

[WARNING! Antarctic Space Beacon Activity CRITICAL!]

[Frostfiend Spawn executing Awakening/Strengthening Ritual!]

[Detecting High-Vitality 'Frostfiend' Life Signal! Target: Sealed Ancient Frostfiend Warrior (Status: Near-Death Revival/Extreme Weakness)!]

[Projection: Target will achieve preliminary awakening within 24-72 hours! Cryokinetic energy release during awakening will accelerate Beacon activation and tear larger spatial rifts! Frostfiend incursion timeline... DRAMATICALLY ADVANCED! Threat Level: EXTINCTION!]

Calamity upon calamity! Before the Qinling Corpse-Demon King was even contained, the ancient Frostfiend warrior, sealed for millennia by Starry Sea weaponry beneath the Antarctic ice, was stirring back to unholy life!

Chu Xuan floated in his nutrient bath, the Antarctic horror on the screen, the frantic terror from Lei Zhan's mind-link, the cold, creeping stone past his collarbone...

A glacial despair, colder than the deepest Antarctic trench, froze his heart solid.

Time... was bleeding out. Fast.

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