Chapter 128: Earthquake-2

"Nonsense!"

"Of course we know it wasn't you!"

Xia Youyou retracted the iron spikes scattered around her, looking around with a hint of fear. "The tremors are so strong. Could this be an earthquake?"

"An earthquake?"

Bai Yuxi paused, then suddenly exchanged a glance with Jason beside him. Almost simultaneously, they both looked up toward the ceiling of the cavern!

*Crack!*

A stalactite located directly above them emitted a faint, sharp sound, and a fissure appeared on its thick body!

"Damn it! Run!"

Bai Yuxi shouted, leaping down from the mushroom-shaped platform first.

That thing was over a foot thick and several meters long; there was no telling how heavy it was. If that thing slammed into someone’s head, Bai Yuxi figured that even with his hyper-vitality barrier, he would be a goner!

The tremors in the cavern did not cease; vibrations of varying intensity continued to ripple through. While perhaps not quite reaching the magnitude of an earthquake, for the members of the Seventh Squad, trapped in a cavern dome bristling with sharp stalactites, this shaking was undeniably despair-inducing.

The cavern had descended into chaos, with everyone scrambling in a panic, clutching their heads.

It was a literal "scramble," as they weren't the only ones running around the cave to avoid the falling stalactites. The giant mutant rats were also caught in the panic, though both sides, who had been fighting to the death just moments ago, were now far too preoccupied to bother attacking one another.

Bai Yuxi flew into action, kicking away a giant mutant rat that had charged at him in the confusion. Abruptly dodging a stalactite that plummeted straight down, he raised his hand and punched upward above the heads of Su Xiaoke and Willy amidst the falling debris. After deflecting the falling stone, he released a "99 Shield" to block the spray of rock fragments for the group.

"Man!"

"We can't hold out!"

"Boss! Where are we running to?"

Jason and Jituo held their shields high above their heads. While their defensive capabilities weren't as strong as Bai Yuxi's 99 Shield, they at least provided some cover for their companions against the shrapnel flying in from all directions.

"Follow the mutant rats!"

Caught off guard by this unexpected situation, Luo Fei, who had never experienced anything like this, was somewhat at a loss. It was Su Xiaoke, who had been protected by Willy the whole way, who remained relatively calm, shouting to remind the others while shielding her head.

When it came to familiarity with this underground hollow, they, as outsiders, were naturally no match for these mutant rats. After the initial panic, the rat swarm quickly vanished down an exceptionally large tunnel. Following Su Xiaoke's reminder, the team scrambled blindly into the same path, running frantically until they finally escaped the cavern dome filled with stalactites.

They say two legs aren't as fast as four, and it was true—the hundreds of massive mutant rats disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving only the rattled members of the Seventh Squad behind. Once they confirmed that the structure of this tunnel was relatively stable and unlikely to collapse and bury them alive during the tremors, the group hesitated, unsure whether they should continue venturing deeper.

"Keep moving!"

"We don't know if the tremors will return, but that cavern was too dangerous; we definitely can't go back!"

"And have you forgotten the small path we took to get here? That was a fissure formed by geological shifting and rock displacement!" Su Xiaoke said decisively. "We don't know if it has sealed up or collapsed due to the tremors, but if we try to go back that way and run into another quake, how much of a chance do you think we have of digging our way back to the surface with our bare hands?"

The group fell silent. Although Mount Hualan wasn't particularly high, it still stood several hundred meters tall. They were in the middle layer of the underground hollow, at least a hundred meters from the exit above and buried under dozens of meters of mountain rock. Digging their way out? They weren't exactly trained professionals for that!

Since they couldn't go back the way they came, continuing deeper was their only option.

"If I'm not mistaken, the tremors just now weren't an earthquake, but man-made explosions! It's likely that the high-level Transcendent Warriors inside are using them to track the mutant rats deeper into the mountain!"

Seeing her companions were worried, Su Xiaoke reassured them, "Whether we catch up to them to continue clearing out the mutant rats or find the entrance they used to get in, it's safer than just wandering around blindly here!"

After the war of attrition with the giant mutant rats, the members of the Seventh Squad were exhausted. By their estimation, they had spent quite a bit of time inside the mountain through the rat tunnels, and it was likely already dawn outside. Judging by the scale of the mutant rats in Mount Hualan, this joint mission clearly wouldn't be over in a day or two. Therefore, the most logical course of action was to retreat to the camp to recuperate and recover their strength before fighting again.

Everyone agreed with Su Xiaoke's suggestion and carefully groped their way in the direction from which the tremors originated. They soon moved from the "Middle Layer Second Ring" into the "Middle Layer First Ring." Along the way, they didn't encounter any large-scale swarms of mutant rats. However, the closer they got to the core of the underground hollow, the higher the danger rating of the mutant rats became, with many reaching F4 and even F5 levels.

This put immense pressure on the team, whose members also only possessed F4 and F5 level combat power. They had to stay on high alert, carefully handling the battles that could break out at any moment. Fortunately, the higher the danger level, the fewer the rats, and the sporadic few didn't pose a threat to the increasingly cohesive Seventh Squad. With Bai Yuxi, a high-level combatant, holding the line, they managed to avoid any injuries despite the constant perils.

When they finally worked together to take down an F5 mutant rat, Luo Fei, whose physical stamina had reached its limit, had to order a pause to rest.

"Heh! This mission has been worth it!" Willy, panting and drenched in sweat, lay on the ground and laughed. "I feel like I'm about to rank up again!"

"Me too!"

"It really is fastest to level up when you've got a 'golden thigh' leading the way!" Maya laughed as she licked her parched lips, taking a small sip of the "carbon-based supplement liquid" handed to her by Bai Yuxi before passing it to Xia Youyou. "It’s been less than half a month since the last upgrade, and we're already close to another! If we had to grind on our own, who knows when we'd ever improve!"