The ground had disappeared beneath them.
Ziyun's body dropped into the darkness.
"Ahhh—!"
Nie Li reacted instantly.
He lunged forward and caught her wrist mid-fall.
Their bodies slammed against the rough stone wall of the shaft as they continued descending.
"Hua—!"
Loose rocks tumbled past them into the abyss below.
"Hold on to me tightly!" Nie Li gritted out.
With his free hand, he summoned his weapon.
Clang!
The blade embedded into the stone wall, sparks flying as it bit into rock.
The friction slowed their descent, stone scraping loudly against metal.
Ka—ka—ka—
They slid down the vertical shaft, grinding against the wall.
Nie Li strained.
"Wah! You're too heavy—!"
Ziyun's eyes twitched.
"What did you say?"
"Uh… nothing."
The sword lost grip suddenly—
Shuv!
They dropped again.
Ziyun blinked.
"Uh… Icy Snow Spider web!"
"Hold it!"
They grabbed onto it.
The strand swayed violently but held firm.
The webbing glistened faintly in the darkness, anchored deep into the walls.
They hung suspended in the abyss.
Nie Li exhaled slowly.
"Climbing back up seems impossible."
He glanced down.
"Luckily, the spider web is long enough. We can only go down."
Ziyun looked around nervously.
"Nie Li… where is this place?"
He shook his head.
"I don't know either."
They began carefully lowering themselves down the web.
The shaft was narrow.
Too narrow.
Their bodies pressed close due to the limited space.
Ziyun suddenly realized how near they were.
Her face flushed bright red.
"Too… too close!"
Nie Li blinked. "?"
"Don't suddenly move!" she snapped.
"I will go down first!"
"Ah—ah! Don't panic!" Nie Li protested.
The web shifted violently.
"Watch out!"
Nie Li tightened his grip on the icy spider thread.
"Let's go down slowly," he said, steadying his breathing.
Above them—
A familiar voice echoed down the shaft.
"NIE LI! ZIYUN! ARE YOU DOWN THERE?! ARE YOU GUYS OK?!"
Both of them froze.
Ziyun's eyes instantly lit up.
"Karma!" she beamed, relief flooding her face. "Great! Karma came to save us!"
Nie Li exhaled. "That's great…"
From above, Karma's silhouette appeared at the edge of the broken pit.
"Don't move! Wait there! Let me get a rope!"
Ziyun smiled brightly.
Nie Li allowed himself a small breath of relief.
And then—
"—WOAH!"
CRACK.
A loud slipping sound echoed.
Nie Li's expression changed instantly.
From relief.
To horror.
A familiar red blur tumbled downward.
"KARMA—!" Ziyun shouted. "YOU IDIOT!"
Karma plummeted straight toward them.
"HUh?… Aahhh"
WHAM.
He collided into both of them mid-air and instinctively grabbed them—one in each hand.
The icy spider thread strained violently.
CRRRAAACK.
It snapped.
For a single heartbeat—
All three of them were falling freely into darkness.
Wind roared past their ears.
Ziyun squeezed her eyes shut.
Nie Li gritted his teeth.
"Karma, you absolute—!"
Karma tightened his grip on both of them.
"Okay okay okay— this is bad."
The ground rushed upward.
Ten meters.
Five.
Three.
One.
And then—
Everything stopped.
They froze mid-air.
Just slightly above the stone floor.
Dust hovered around them, suspended.
Time itself seemed to hesitate.
Ziyun slowly opened one eye.
"…What happened?"
Gravity felt… wrong.
Then—
The force released.
They dropped the remaining short distance.
THUD.
All three landed in a heap on the stone floor.
Silence.
Dust drifted lazily down.
Karma groaned first.
"…We somehow survived that."
Nie Li slowly pushed himself up.
He stared at Karma with a flat, deeply annoyed expression.
Ziyun stood up next.
Her face twitched.
Without warning—
BONK.
She smacked Karma on the head.
"OW—!"
"You idiot!" she yelled. "Who told you to fall down like that?!"
Karma clutched his head dramatically, crouching.
Anime-style tears welled in his eyes.
"I'm sorry! I tripped! The rock betrayed me!"
Nie Li sighed, rubbing his temples.
"…You froze us mid-air."
Karma blinked.
"Oh. Yeah. That."
Ziyun crossed her arms, still glaring.
"You almost killed us."
Karma sniffed exaggeratedly.
"But I didn't! See? Hero entrance. Slightly miscalculated landing."
Ziyun raised her hand again.
"I SAID I'M SORRY!" he squeaked quickly, shielding his head.
For a moment—
The tension broke.
Despite the danger.
Despite the darkness around them.
They were still them.
Alive.
Together.
And very deep underground.
Nie Li pulled a small glowing orb from his sleeve.
Snap.
It ignited softly in his palm.
"It's deep…" he muttered, lifting a torch moments later to cast warm light across the underground chamber.
The stone walls were ancient.
Moist. Cold. Unfamiliar.
Ziyun huffed, still slightly flustered.
Nie Li scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Uh…"
He looked at her under the torchlight.
"You are really pretty, hehe."
Ziyun froze.
Her expression went blank.
"…Let's hurry up and find an exit," she said flatly, turning away.
Nie Li coughed awkwardly and followed.
"Else we might not be able to leave this place."
"Alright."
The underground chamber opened into a vast stone corridor.
The chamber stretched into a massive underground hall.
Nie Li's eyes scanned the walls carefully.
"We seem to have fallen into an underground palace," he said slowly. "There are a lot of pathways here."
The walls were carved with ancient characters glowing faintly under torchlight.
Karma tilted his head. "Huh… fancy."
Nie Li stepped closer to a vertical inscription.
"Kong Ming's soul rests here."
Ziyun blinked. "Kong Ming?"
Nie Li nodded. "This is the Palace of the Sacred Empire… Emperor Kong Ming's tomb."
Ziyun's expression turned serious. "Emperor Kong Ming? The most mysterious emperor of the Sacred Empire?"
Nie Li explained calmly as they walked. "He left behind the legend that he had cultivated to an extremely high realm… maybe even beyond Legend Rank."
Ziyun hesitated. "Are there really people who have cultivated to immortality?"
Nie Li chuckled lightly. "Of course not. That's just a legend. Even if you surpass Legend Rank, you can live two or three hundred years at most."
He lifted the torch slightly. "Unable to escape the natural law of reincarnation."
Karma walked with his hands behind his head, whistling softly. "Two or three hundred years? That's still pretty long. Imagine all the snacks you could eat in that time."
Ziyun gave him a look. "…Is that what you'd do?"
"Priorities," Karma replied seriously.
They continued forward.
The passage soon split into multiple corridors.
"This should be a maze," Nie Li said. "There will be traps. Step only where I step."
Karma leaned closer and whispered loudly, "Hear that? If you step wrong, we get turned into porcupines."
Ziyun ignored him and focused on Nie Li. "But there are so many paths. Which one should we choose?"
Nie Li smiled slightly. "Very simple. According to the Sacred Empire's feng shui principles, Emperor Kong Ming's tomb should be north-facing. So it should be at the north of the maze."
Ziyun frowned. "But we're underground. How do we tell direction?"
Nie Li pointed toward carvings on the wall. "The Saint Ancestral Mountain is from north to south. From the rock patterns, we can determine our position."
Karma blinked. "…You're reading rocks now?"
Nie Li shot him a look. "Pay attention."
Karma raised both hands. "Hey, hey, I'm impressed. Don't look at me like that."
Ziyun quietly observed Nie Li, slightly amazed.
They moved carefully through the corridor.
Creak.
Nie Li suddenly stopped.
"Stop."
Karma instantly froze mid-step. "Trap?"
Nie Li picked up a small stone and threw it forward.
Tap.
For half a second, nothing happened.
Then—
Shuuuuuuuu!
Dozens of arrows shot from hidden holes in the walls, slicing through the air in deadly arcs.
Ziyun gasped. "Ah!"
The arrows embedded themselves into the opposite wall in a violent burst.
Nie Li crossed his arms calmly. "This level of trap has basically zero difficulty."
Karma stared at the wall filled with arrows. "…Zero difficulty, he says."
He slowly leaned closer to Ziyun. "If that's zero, I don't want to see one hundred."
Ziyun tried not to smile.
After the mechanism settled, Nie Li nodded. "Okay, we can go now."
Karma exaggeratedly wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead. "Lead the way, genius. I'll provide emotional support."
They continued deeper into the underground palace, torchlight flickering against ancient stone—three figures walking into history, with danger quietly waiting ahead.