The hole in the wall was hissing. The acid was still eating away at the granite, widening the breach with terrifying speed.
"Plug it!" Lin Qinghe shouted, pressing a rag to her mouth to filter the acrid fumes.
Ji Han grabbed a massive chunk of Black Iron Ore from their stockpile. He didn't have time to shape it. He slammed the raw boulder into the melting cavity.
"Condense!"
He poured his Qi into the stone. The Black Iron didn't melt; it expanded slightly, vibrating with the sudden influx of energy. It bit into the softening granite, sealing the hole like a cork in a bottle.
But the acid didn't stop. It bubbled around the edges.
"It's not enough," Ji Han choked out. "The seal isn't tight!"
"Don't fight the acid," Lin Qinghe coughed, her eyes watering from the gas. "Neutralize it! The Frost-Bone Centipede shells. They are Alkaline Yin. Crush them and pack the seam!"
Ji Han grabbed a handful of the blue shell fragments they had been using for fuel. He crushed them in his fist, turning the razor-sharp chitin into a coarse blue powder.
He jammed the powder into the gaps around the Black Iron boulder.
HISSS.
A violent chemical reaction erupted. White steam blasted into the tunnel, freezing instantly into snow as it hit the air. The green bubbling stopped. The acid was neutralized, turning into a harmless, inert grey sludge.
The breach was sealed.
Ji Han slumped against the wall, his lungs burning. The air in the tunnel was thick with sulfur and the metallic taste of ozone.
"You saved the wall," Lin Qinghe wheezed, sliding down to sit beside him.
"And you saved our lungs," Ji Han rasped. He looked at her. "Alkaline Yin?"
"Basic alchemy," she said, managing a weak smile. "Every poison has an antidote. Usually, it is found in the same environment. The Centipede and the Acid-Spitter share the same ecosystem; nature provides a balance."
Ji Han nodded. He closed his eyes, listening.
The scratching had stopped again.
"They failed," Ji Han whispered. "The door held. The flank failed. What's next?"
"Desperation," Lin Qinghe said darkly. "Or rage."
And then, it hit them.
It wasn't a sound. It was a pressure.
A high-pitched, resonant frequency drilled directly into the base of Ji Han's skull. It felt like an icepick driving through his eardrums.
"ARGH!"
Ji Han doubled over, clutching his head. His vision whitened. The pain was blinding, bypassing his physical defenses entirely. It wasn't a physical attack; it was a spiritual scream.
[System Notification: Mental Attack Detected.] [Source: Hive Mind (Level ?).] [Warning: Spirit Defense is Low.]
Blood trickled from Ji Han's nose. He couldn't think. He couldn't channel Qi. The scream was scrambling his neural pathways, paralyzing him. He curled into a ball, his consciousness fraying at the edges.
"Ji... Han..."
He heard a voice. It wasn't the scream. It was calm. Cold. Imperial.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was frail, trembling, but the grip was iron.
"Look at me."
Ji Han forced his eyes open. Lin Qinghe was kneeling in front of him. Her face was pale, sweat beading on her forehead, but her eyes...
Her eyes were burning with a terrifying, golden light.
She wasn't using Qi. She had none. She was using Will.
"I am the Empress of the Vermilion Sky," she whispered, her voice echoing not in the tunnel, but inside his head. "I have commanded legions. I have sentenced gods to death. Do you think a bug can scream louder than me?"
She placed her forehead against his.
"Anchor yourself to me."
Ji Han felt a sudden stillness. The chaotic screeching of the Hive Mind didn't stop, but it was suddenly walled off. A golden fortress of pure mental intent slammed down around his mind.
Lin Qinghe was acting as a lightning rod. She was taking the psychic pressure meant for him and crushing it with the sheer weight of her ego.
"Breathe," she commanded.
Ji Han gasped, air flooding his lungs. The paralysis broke.
"It's... inside my head," Ji Han stammered.
"It is a command frequency," she explained, her voice tight with strain. "The Hive Mind is trying to override your motor functions. It is trying to make you open the door yourself."
Ji Han's blood ran cold. The enemy wasn't just trying to kill him; it was trying to pilot him.
"How do we stop it?"
"We break the connection," she said. "The frequency is carried by the antennae of the relay units outside. They are close. Probably right against the door."
"I have to go out there?"
"No," she said. "You have to shout back."
She pulled back, her eyes locking onto his.
"You have the Spirit +1.0 attribute. You have never used it. You use Qi for muscles, for rocks. Now, use it for voice."
"I don't know a sonic technique!"
"You don't need a technique!" she snapped, her Empress persona fully active. "You need intent! Visualize your Qi in your throat. Visualize the scream of the Centipede. Visualize the roar of the Earth. Compress it. And bark."
Ji Han understood. He was a beast of the underground now. He needed to roar like one.
He scrambled to the door. He could feel the pulsating waves of psychic energy radiating from just behind the granite slab.
He placed his hands on the cold stone. He inhaled, pulling every scrap of Qi from his Dantian. He mixed the grey, heavy Qi of his core with the sharp, blue Qi of the Centipede meat he had eaten.
He focused it all on his vocal cords.
"SILENCE!"
BOOM.
It wasn't a word; it was a shockwave.
The sound blasted through the granite door, amplified by the confined space. It carried the weight of his cultivation—a physical hammer of sound.
Outside, there was a wet pop. Then another.
The psychic screaming cut off instantly.
Silence returned to the tunnel. Absolute, ringing silence.
Ji Han collapsed to his knees, his throat raw and smoking.
"Did... did I get them?"
"You ruptured their sensory organs," Lin Qinghe whispered, slumping back against the wall, the golden light fading from her eyes. She looked exhausted, smaller than before. "They cannot transmit the signal if they are deaf."
Ji Han looked at her. She was shivering, blood trickling from her own nose. She had tanked a mental assault that would have lobotomized him, just to buy him the seconds he needed to fire back.
"You," Ji Han rasped, "are a very useful asset, Empress."
She let out a dry, cracked laugh. "And you, Worm Lord, are a very loud dog."