Chapter 32

Chapter 32

He probably didn't realize Lin Fan could see.

Once he stabilized the blade, he gripped the hilt with both hands and, panting, asked, "Are you hurt?"

Lin Fan shifted his focus away from the broadsword, deciding not to mention what he had seen, and responded, "No." He retracted his dislocated hand and rested it on his Tang blade, scanning the surroundings.

It was clear that the tunnel had been excavated by some external force, and over the years, its walls had solidified, gradually resembling a natural formation.

The winding walls were dotted with protruding rocks, which could be used for leverage.

However, the persistent damp and musty smell in the air kept Lin Fu on high alert.

If odors were permeating, then the insect-like creatures couldn’t be too far away from them.

At this moment, the system notified him: [Host, the energy value acquired just now is quite abundant. After landing, the optimization will be initiated, and it's expected that a portion of this energy can be used to heal your wounds, so there's no need to worry.]

This notification was a blessing in the midst of adversity.

He immediately commanded, “Initiate the optimization.”

System: [???]

System: [Host, optimized pain will severely hinder your mobility. A fall from here would mean certain death.]

Lin Fu was never one to act recklessly without necessity.

But in the current situation, both of his arms were dislocated, making it impossible to support prolonged movement.

Once he died, Yan Yan, blinded without his vision, would find it hard to survive.

He had no choice but to take a gamble.

“Start it. As long as it’s not an energy optimization on the level of Cheng Jiu, I can withstand it. Can you perform a separate repair?”

Two seconds later, the system replied: [I can try. I’ve never attempted such a thing, and my skills may not be very refined.] As soon as the voice faded, a sudden, intense pain assaulted the arm Lin Fu wasn’t using to support himself.

Caught off guard, he couldn’t help but grunt softly, eliciting Yan Yan’s questioning: “Lin Fu, are you injured?”

The tone was skeptical, clearly doubting his earlier explanation.

Clenching his teeth, Lin Fu wedged the back of the knife under his armpit to support his body, half-truthfully and half-falsely responding, “My wrist just got dislocated. I’m setting it back in place.”

Yan Yan’s wrist was also dislocated; under such impact, it would be impossible not to be.

Believing Lin Fu’s words, Yan Yan quickly set his own arm back in place, caressed the wall, and shared his analysis, “This place has been dug out by humans... no, by insect-like creatures. We fell for too long just now; we must be very far from the ground. The ground has collapsed and blocked the exit; we need to try going downward.”

Lin Fu didn’t respond.

He was in so much pain that cold sweat covered his forehead, and all the major joints from his arm to his wrist were dislocated, snapping back into place in an instant.

The residual pain on his nerves lingered even after the wounds had healed.

In pain, he couldn't help but curse: "Can you actually do it or not, damn it?"

The system responded with chagrin: [As I said, I'm not skilled enough... I used too much force. With experience, I'll definitely control it better next time.]

Lin Fu suppressed his temper, allowing the system to repair his other arm.

As the system itself had said, the pain was significantly less this time.

The remaining energy...

"First, optimize the mental strength."

System: [Alright.]

Yan Yanchi couldn't hear Lin Fu's echo, only able to capture the rhythm of another breath besides his own in the silent space, confirming his condition.

It was somewhat chaotic, rapid, and unstable.

But not abnormal, not far from his own current state.

About half a minute later, Lin Fu finally said: "My arm is fixed, senior. There are many protrusions in this passage that can be used as footholds. I'll go down first to explore, follow my command."

Yan Yanchi stopped him: "No need, I'll have the psychic entity... explore."

His tone changed: "You can't release the psychic entity?"

Lin Fu didn't have a psychic entity and couldn't perceive this anomaly; he could only attribute it temporarily to the environment.

He was increasingly certain that they needed to leave this place as soon as possible.

It was hard to say what kind of impact staying too long might have on mental strength.

It was probably the first time the system had discovered this method, mastering the way to disperse energy, experimenting in Lin Fu's mind.

The pain would intensify for a while, then ease; over time, he had actually become accustomed to it, even using the moments when the instability eased as a chance to catch his breath.

Not far below the vantage point was a protruding ledge, jumping to it was risky but worth the attempt.

He drew out his Tang sword, turning to Yan Yanchi, "Senior, I need to borrow your □□."

Without hesitation, Yan Yanchi took out the □□, tossing it towards the direction of Lin Fu's voice.

Caught by Lin Fu, the □□'s tail vibrated in the air with a deep hum. He then threw it firmly between himself and Yan Yanchi, leaping downwards while calling out, "Senior!"

Yan Yanchi drew his broadsword and leaped towards Lin Fu without a second thought, grabbing the □□, extracting it, and then plummeting a great distance straight down, landing on the point Lin Fu had used for leverage.

Their coordination was flawless.

Lin Fu's head ached; echoes of their movements reverberated in the cave, accompanied by the mournful whistling of air currents, sounding almost like crying.

A moist, rank smell lingered at the tip of his nose, refusing to dissipate.

— Even so, Lin Fu's blood couldn't help but surge with excitement over their seamless cooperation.

His blood boiled, emitting steam, and churned in his veins.

Yan Yanchi was an excellent comrade-in-arms.

Maintaining this pace, with the system's guidance, they calculated each move to maximize their reach, using gravity to reduce the number of movements needed, making vertical progress of at least five meters each time.

Gradually, faint light penetrated the cave, reflecting off the walls.

Lin Fu paused his descent, the increasingly intense and nauseating smell filling his nostrils, and asked, "Senior, do you smell that?"

Yan Yanchi was taken aback by his sudden question, "What?"

How could he not have noticed?

Such a strong smell.

They had descended at least two to three hundred meters, and if the intensity wasn't enough for Yan Yanchi to notice, then one of them was undoubtedly experiencing olfactory issues.

Lin Fu brushed aside his earlier question, "I can see a hint of blue scattered light, it must be the energy mine, we're nearing the landing zone."

He added, "Watch out for the insect race."

Yan Yanchi: "Okay."

As they approached the bottom of the cave, the blue light grew increasingly vivid.

In his mind's eye, Lin Fu extended his view downward, reaching an "L"-shaped turn.

Tracing the cave wall, Lin Fu skipped a midway foothold and plunged straight down.

Yan Yanchi, now able to discern the cave's interior, was startled by Lin Fu's sudden action. He soon saw him halt his descent and even stand upright.

Beneath Lin Fu's feet lay a crystal-clear mineral that Yan Yanchi mistook for a light source.

He beheld a sea of luminous blue.

The intense subterranean glow was as bright as daylight.

The land was overrun with energy minerals, their lustrous blue brilliance stark against the swarming insect race. Their ugly, frightening forms contrasted sharply with the beautiful minerals.

They tainted the azure purity with their filth.

Yan Yanchi landed beside him and turned to encounter the same awe-inspiring vista, rendered speechless by its magnificence.

Lin Fu seated himself cross-legged atop a mineral for a brief respite.

In the light, Yan Yanchi could discern Lin Fu's haggard expression. He stood silently at the cave's entrance, vigilant against the possibility of the insect race suddenly detecting them and swarming in.

His gaze fixed on the creatures toiling with the minerals, he noted down the types of insects he could identify, his expression growing increasingly grim.

Ascending was a dead-end; descending seemed even more so.

The difference lay only in which route led to a more miserable end.

*

Those below had reached a dead end; those above fared little better.

Emotions at the Artemis Military Academy frayed, the students unable to accept their friends' sudden departures in such a manner.

Albert was particularly distraught, almost excavating half a mountain with his mech.

Those left behind to cremate the bodies of the academy students noticed the commotion. They approached with the collected ashes, only to witness Albert's frenzy.

Tang Qian joined him in his frenzy.

Others, still rational, had red-rimmed eyes, as if they were on the verge of tears.

Scanning the crowd, they quickly noticed the absence of two key individuals and, realizing why, felt a shared sorrow.

But this was the desolate planet, near the fringes of the warfront, a place fraught with danger.

There was no room for the luxury of venting anger and grief.

The commotion caught the attention of the insect race.

The remaining members of a burrowing beetle family, which had dwelled in the caves, finally emerged.

The vast and complex network of caves housed not a simple nuclear family but extended kin spanning three generations.

Two had perished, but seven remained, crawling out of the rubble disturbed by Albert, their rumbling akin to a landslide.

Albert, at the forefront, was the first to be toppled by the creatures. Tang Qian, pulling him back, was bitten on the right leg by a second burrowing beetle, its sharp mandibles leaving deep gouges in the mech's paintwork.

Pain slowed Tang Qian's movements, and he was overwhelmed by the beetle. The massive bulk pressed onto the humanoid mech, transmitting the force to the pilot inside. His face turned ashen, then flushed, and despite his A-class sentinel physique, he vomited blood under the pressure.

The sudden calamity was unforeseen by those immersed in their grief.

Jolted to reality, they witnessed the two men pinned and torn by several burrowing beetles and promptly deployed their mechs.

Zhong Si charged in, first dragging the two from the clutches of the beetles. The others cooperated, overturning the beetles and rolling them into the rubble.

Albert, kneeling on the ground, was haunted by visions of his brother's and father's corpses. Gradually, another body appeared among them, bearing Lin Fu's face, lying with his kin. Their ashen faces, ravaged by the insect race, revealed mutilated, disemboweled bodies, limbs scattered, incomplete even if pieced together.

His eyes bloodshot, Albert rose from the ground. The twin blades in his mech's weapon bay sprang forth, gripped in his hands and plunged into the beetle mound.

Not caring where he struck, he withdrew and struck again, dark green blood splattering, staining the golden mech a tragic green.

The burrowing beetle, twisting to escape his mad assault, thrust its psychic energy into the mech, only to be met with even more ferocious retaliation from Albert.

He unleashed his psychic energy recklessly, entwining with the beetle's mental assault, tearing and pulling it apart into strands of psychic filaments, even consuming it into his own psychic force.

Perhaps the beetle had never encountered such a crazed human, one who would devour the psychic energy of the insect race. Understanding fear, it transmitted pleas for mercy incessantly.

It was futile, only fueling Albert's deeper killing intent!

Why beg for mercy?

How could the insect race be worthy of begging before him!?

Twin blades pierced through the tough carapace, severing the insectoid's life force.

His frenzied outbreak startled those around him, but it also won them a chance to catch their breath.

Tang Qian had lost the ability to move and was dragged away by Chong Si along with the mecha, swiftly departing with the personnel from the ordinary military academy.

After severely wounding three crawling armors again, the remaining students from the Artemis Military Academy held back the fiercely struggling Albert, shouting at him: "Go!! If you don't leave now, you'll die here!!"

Hearing the word "die," Albert's nerve was abruptly struck, he ceased his struggle, collapsed weakly to the ground, retracted his mecha, and lay in the palm of his companion's mecha, his head heavy and dizzy, unable to hold on, losing consciousness.

Another family member had died, three were seriously injured, and the other three, abandoning their chase, wriggled around their kin, placing energy ores beside their mandibles for easy consumption and recovery.

The group fled a great distance, only slowing their pace when they were certain the crawling armors had given up the pursuit.

The students from the ordinary military academy and Chong Si Tang Qian joined them not far away.

Looking at the also unconscious Albert, Chong Si set Tang Qian down beside him, his usually lively and innocent demeanor unusually solemn.

Why did it have to be Lin Fu who met with trouble?

And Senior Yan Yan as well.

The senior colleagues around them were disheartened, the loss of Yan Yan dealt them no small blow.

These two were almost the core of the team.

Especially for Albert and Tang Qian.

They guarded Lin Fu as if he were the apple of their eye.

Chong Si had never felt such complex emotions as he did today.

But even without the core of the team, they had to keep moving. The Wild Star Race had only just begun.

*

Lin Fu touched his tail ring, allowing the coolness of the metal to sharpen his clarity.

The optimization of his psychic energy was complete, but residual pain lingered.

As he rose, Yan Yan immediately turned back, "Did you rest well?"

"Yes," he replied, approaching Yan Yan and overlooking the dense swarm of insects, he inquired, "How many types are there?"

Yan Yan shook his head, "I can only recognize seventy-eight types, and there are more than twenty that I'm unfamiliar with."

Lin Fu, eyeing the swiftly moving insects and confirming most were below level four, boldly suggested, "Let's jump down and follow their movement on their backs. Perhaps the people from Hui Lion Academy have also fallen into this hole."

Hearing his suggestion, Yan Yan asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"Senior, do you know how to use a whip?"

Yan Yan, taken aback by the abrupt question, fell silent for a few seconds before answering, "A little."

Unsurprised, Lin Fu began calculating their optimal landing point while retrieving a whip from his storage device.

Yan Yan eyed his tail ring with astonishment, "Your storage device still works? Mine stopped opening after reaching the bottom of the hole."

Lin Fu frowned, "Before coming here, the teacher warned about magnetic field interference. Didn't senior replace his button with an anti-interference device?"

Yan Yan unscrewed his button, opened the casing, revealing the device within—undoubtedly an anti-interference instrument.

Could it be because this belonged to Cheng Jiu?

Did they have special anti-interference materials within the military?

No, that couldn't be. Although Bazhel currently held little real power in the military, if there were special materials, he wouldn't compromise the students' safety with inferior items, not to mention there was also the highly protective former commander of the Fifth Legion, Carl. It was impossible for such an oversight to occur during something as crucial as the Wild Star Race.

Unless, these materials were not commonly held by the military.

Perhaps even known by few, only accessible at the higher echelons of the Ninth Legion, to people at Cheng Jiu's level.

This hypothesis seemed the most plausible.

Unsure whether he could disclose this information, Lin Fu had to remain deliberately vague.

Fortunately, Yan Yan did not press further.

He took the long whip from Lin Fu’s hands, entrusting his own □□ to Lin Fu for safekeeping.

The broadsword had been securely stowed by Yan Yan when they neared the faintly lit bottom.

Seeing his demeanor, Lin Fu grew increasingly certain that he should act as if he hadn’t noticed anything.

Near the exit, the air currents were stronger, the wind howling and brushing against their faces.

After Lin Fu shared his plan with Yan Yan, they sprang into action immediately.

Yan Yan leaped from the mouth of the cave first, instantly enveloped by Lin Fu's psychic energy.

Such a gentle application of psychic energy was an intimate act, causing Yan Yan to resist slightly. In a moment of brief stiffness, he flicked the whip around a large chunk of ore dangling from the cave ceiling. As Lin Fu jumped, Yan Yan caught him, cushioning the momentum before tossing him among the insect horde below.

Instinctively holding his breath, he watched Lin Fu land steadily on the back of an insect, unattacked by the swarm. Surprised yet relieved, he released the whip from the ore, leaping onto the back of an insect not far from Lin Fu.

The sticky, mushy sensation underfoot disgusted Lin Fu, as if stepping into a pile of mucus. Frowning, he leaped aside, landing on the back of a beetle. A brief disturbance in psychic energy attracted the insects' attention. A tentacle shot out from below, piercing the spot Lin Fu had just vacated, injuring a squirming worm and causing a ripple of turmoil.

A minor commotion ensued.

Soon, the worm was killed by its kin, leaving its large corpse behind, soon obscured by the teeming insect tide.

Lin Fu's gaze followed the departing corpse, exchanging a glance with Yan Yan.

They surveyed their surroundings.

This place, unlike the unnatural tunnel above, was a naturally formed cavern, home to these pure energy ores.

Lin Fu noticed many ores of near-top purity passing by on both sides. Rich in energy and remarkably free of impurities, they could be used directly after rough extraction.

A single larger piece could likely match all the ores found in the cave on the surface.

After about ten minutes of trekking through the endless swarm, Lin Fu felt the prickling of psychic exhaustion.

Fortunately, the sight he had been hoping for emerged.

On the edge of the insect tide, a hole appeared abruptly, two persons tall and wide, bathed in blue light, pristine and untouched by any insect.

The pair swiftly departed from the insects’ backs and stepped into the cave, cautiously advancing further.

Lin Fu gripped the Tang sword tightly, instructing the system to extend its detection range to the maximum, bracing for any sudden ambushes.

Yan Yan had not yet switched back to his whip; in such confined spaces, its improper use would be not only ineffective but a hindrance.

Distancing themselves from the insect swarm would mask their presence.

Lin Fu dropped the psychic shield, grasping two energy ores he had pulled off. He tossed one into his storage space and held the other as a makeshift torch.

They moved forward in the dim light.

The sound of their footsteps filled their ears, neither speaking; in this space, every noise was amplified.

Lin Fu heard a faint, fragmented sound.

It seemed as if someone was crying in utter suppression.

Others were murmuring curses under their breath.

Many voices mingled together, faint as if they were illusions.

Lin Fu didn’t ask Yan Yan if he could hear them; instead, he urged the system to continue its detection, quickening their pace slightly.

The voices gradually became clearer.

System: [Host, life signs detected ten meters to your right, behind a wall approximately three meters thick.]

At this moment, Yan Yan also spoke up: “Lin Fu, do you hear those voices?”

Lin Fu nodded, stowing the energy stone he was holding into his storage space and continued forward.

Breaking through the wall was irrational; it was three meters thick, possible only with powered armor.

There must be an accessible passage.

The system suddenly suggested: [Host, you possess psychic power. Beyond forming shields, you can also extend it outward for detection. It's not exclusive to psychic entities. Just control it, let it disperse, and feel what your psychic tendrils touch.]

It might not be as precise and clear as his monitoring, but it would definitely cover a larger range, especially in terms of directional control.

Heeding the advice, Lin Fu quickly found a way to control it, winding along the wall. At the top of the passage, they found another opening.

However, the opening was akin to a ventilation shaft, ascending vertically for a distance before extending horizontally, with those faint sounds emanating from within.

Lin Fu also noticed an unexpected phenomenon.

This horizontal vent-like passage, eerily reminiscent of one carved by unnatural means, was actually a remnant of natural formation.

Advancing a bit further, the mental filaments conveyed the captured sounds to Lin Fu.

"If Senior Su doesn't wake up soon, we'll either be devoured by the insect race or starve to death here!"

"We've used up all the usable medicine in the supply pack, but the injuries are too severe; all we can do is wait."

……

Lin Fu's eyes lit up: "I've found the people from Hui Lion Academy."

Yan Yan was even more excited than him, asking with immense joy, "Where?!"

They quickly covered the distance and saw the entrance at the end.

The space inside was cramped, forcing them to crawl on their bellies after entering; after crawling for more than ten minutes, their sudden leap from the exit startled the others, who drew their weapons, nearly hacking them to death in confusion.

Upon recognizing that the newcomers were Yan Yan and Lin Fu, the people from Hui Lion Academy asked in astonishment, "How did you get here?!"

"We followed your trail here; it's a long story. How's Milton doing now?" Yan Yan's gentle eyes tightened with concern as he caught sight of Milton Su lying in the corner, his face pale and blood oozing from the corners of his mouth.

The vivid sharpness faded from her, replaced by the decadent beauty of illness. Her eyes were tightly shut, her brows still furrowed as if she was still issuing commands before losing consciousness.

It was indeed in line with her character.

Her abdomen was nearly pierced through, and the fabric on her upper left arm was torn, revealing a deep, bone-exposing scratch.

Thick bandages were wrapped around her, unable to stem the constant flow of fresh blood.

Her whip was wrapped around her hand.

Lin Fu took out his supply pack and quickly approached Milton, applying the medicine to her in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

But the hole in her abdomen was too large, and without the healing of skin and blood vessels, the blood continued to flow unabated.

If it weren't for the strong constitution of a sentinel barely keeping her alive, she would have died sooner or later.

A member of the Hui Lion Academy explained in a low voice, "We encountered a group of crawler armors; Milton killed one, two were held back, but another two couldn't be stopped, and many military academy students were dragged away. Milton led us in pursuit, but we never expected to end up being dragged underground."

They sat down dejectedly: "There's no way out; it's all insect race territory, swarming everywhere. With just us, there's no hope of getting out."