Chapter 134: Collapse
"No need." Aside from that one elder with the Four Symbols Sword Formation who had trained his spiritual sense *[A quick reminder: The "elder with the Four Symbols Sword Formation" first appeared in Chapter 99—the bandit who ambushed Leo after the auction. That fight left an impression, mostly because controlling four swords at once was no ordinary feat for a Qi Refining cultivator.]*, Leo had never met a Qi Refining cultivator who could control three weapons at once. Monty had left an opening when he released the bear—a brief one, but enough. Leo's face was calm. He threw out a dozen Iron Thorn Vine seeds. Three Shadowless Needles flew with them.
Demon bears were known for their thick hides and brute strength. The bear roared, thrashing against the vines—stronger than Wood, who had been screaming under fewer. But before Frost could even reach it, before it could tear itself free, the needles found its eyes, its open mouth. The bear's massive body went rigid, then collapsed.
Frost stopped cold. She had braced herself for a real fight. But before she could even get there, a third-grade bear was dead—just like that. Leo hadn't even broken a sweat. She thought of how she had mocked him before. She wanted the ground to swallow her.
"Bastard!" Monty's voice cracked. That bear had taken years to raise. His trump card, meant to turn the tide—dead before it could do anything. If he had known how dangerous Leo was, he would have teamed up with Wood from the start. But that chance was gone. He had outmaneuvered Lowell, Quincy, Vera—three core disciples—and still, somehow, this nobody was the one who had undone him.
Leo ignored the screaming. The rest of the Palace disciples, led by Quiver, were cutting down the remaining Ice Profound cultivators. The tide was turning.
The cave was chaos. Blade auras and sword energy slashed through the air, raw spiritual power thick and wild. The walls groaned, shedding stone in great chunks. No one noticed the yellow button buried beneath the rock. No one saw the stray sword strike catch it. Then the ground lurched. The ceiling came down.
Everyone scrambled. Earth Escape was useless here.
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Rocks rained down. The walls cracked. The ground split beneath their feet.
Monty's scream cut through the chaos. With Leo busy, he turned and fled, his ice spike knocking aside falling rocks as he made for the pond. It was his only way out. Stay, and he would be buried with the rest.
Leo was furious. He had just pulled off the perfect wolf-in-sheep's-clothing act—killed Wood, had Monty on the ropes. Then this. A hidden mechanism in the cave. Of all the rotten luck. He should have just used both artifacts from the start, killed Monty fast, grabbed the Ginseng, and left. Now he was trapped. No time to go back. The pond side was his only chance.
He sprinted past Quincy and Vera. They looked up at him, pale, desperate. He didn't stop. He couldn't save anyone if he was dead.
"You think you're getting out?" Monty hurled a pink pellet. It burst into pink mist.
Leo's heart stopped. He scrambled back, desperate to stay clear of the pink mist. He had seen what it did to Quincy and Vera. One breath, and his spiritual power would be gone. Helpless. In a cave about to bury them all. Dead.
The ceiling groaned. A chunk of rock the size of a cart slammed down between them. The path was gone.
Leo stood there, staring at the rubble. He had been here before—facing the black-robed old man's soul, with no way out. This was the second time he had nothing. No escape. No hope. *[A quick reminder: this refers back to Chapter 33, when Leo was trapped inside the Green Fruit boundary with the black-robed old man's soul—another moment where escape seemed impossible.]*
A soft groan. Quincy and Vera were pinned, blood at their lips. Leo sighed. At least he wouldn't die alone. He stretched his shield to cover them both. Rocks rained down. His shield flickered, dimmed, held. Flickered again. He lost track of time. The weight grew. His power ebbed. The world went dark.
So this is what dying feels like.
Leo was already unconscious, but the destruction didn't stop. The collapse spread. For miles around the cave, the ground buckled, swallowing teams whole. Dozens of places, the same scene—cultivators running, stone falling, darkness closing in.
Deep beneath the surface lay a vast underground hall, dim and sprawling, its far end swallowed by shadow. A narrow stream wound through it, banks lined with clusters of spirit herbs. Where countless passages converged, a stone statue stood—layer after layer of it crumbling away, revealing a skeleton wrapped in green armor, a green battle skirt still clinging to its frame.
The skeleton rolled its neck. In the hollow sockets where eyes should have been, two violet flames flickered to life, lending the bones a ghostly semblance of vitality.
"At last. Fresh blood in this cursed place." Its laugh scraped like rusted iron. "The heavens haven't abandoned me after all."
"Come out, my little darlings. Bloodshadow Lizards."
A bone spear materialized in its hand. It raised its arms, muttering words thick with shadow. Mist coiled through the air. From the tall grass beyond, a creature emerged—half a man's height, its body armored in dark blue scales, thick hind legs bearing its weight, smaller forelimbs tipped with wicked claws. A crimson tongue, serpent-quick, flickered from its jaws.
Behind it, dozens more crawled from the shadows, some larger, some smaller, all following the first.