Chapter 211: Coming Across A Nest
Han Yu dropped to sit on a low rock, sighing heavily. The echoes of his breath sounded too loud in the cavern.
His last bit of rations—some jerky he had crammed into a side pouch—had long since dried out into something resembling salty bark. He chewed it now anyway, more for morale than nourishment. He swallowed it down with a grimace, then reached into his pouch again.
Empty.
"Great. Starvation in a labyrinth of dead stone. Just what every great cultivator dreams of."
He had scouted for anything remotely edible—fungus, moss, even mineral veins that could hold spiritual energy—but there was nothing. Not a single patch of mold or even a hint of condensation. The walls pulsed with dying energy, the veins of what was possibly fire-elemental rock having long since exhausted whatever heat they once had. It was a tomb, not a tunnel.
Han Yu dragged a hand down his face. If he didn’t find a way up soon, he’d be forced to backtrack and try to locate one of the older passages—assuming they weren’t collapsed completely.
"Why couldn’t this place just have a nice Fireborn Beast or two," he grumbled. "Big flaming chicken-lizard I can stab, get some ashes, maybe roast a leg. Nope. Gotta be a cursed maze of death."
He forced himself to stand. His limbs ached from the constant climbing, squeezing, crawling. His shoulders were sore from using his glaive as a climbing tool. He had slept little, just brief hours in tucked-away corners while keeping one eye open and his glaive close.
He couldn’t afford to waste any more time. He needed to get out. Fast.
"Alright. If I were an ancient, half-collapsed escape tunnel... where would I be hiding?"
He picked the next tunnel to the left, using his intuition—and, truthfully, a coin flip—and pressed on. The oppressive silence surrounded him again, save for the whispering scrape of his footsteps.