Only silence responded

Whatever the arrow hit, it had broken and shattered. A barrier, protecting something else. Zhang Wang cursed, knowing that his shot did not penetrate all the way through, but he didn't have the time to pinpoint whatever it was behind the barrier.

The explosion started the servant, hissing erratic and panicked, it thrashed against the cavern walls hard enough to shake the entire structure. A giant slab of rock came apart from the ceiling above and Ariunbayar cursed as she jumped back to above it. More debris fell, separating the Princess of the Steppes from Yu Yanlin.

But the Demon King had little interest in the girl and instead turned around in alarm, noticing now the ceiling above the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms was coming down.

"Zhang Wang!"

That was all the warning he needed.

Zhang Wang didn't have to look up to sense the ceiling above him coming down.

He rolled backward, narrowly avoiding the wave of debris that barraged him. But the collapsing rocks were relentless and Zhang Wang was not given any rest. The rocks seemed to chase him and the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms was forced to retreat into one of the narrow passageways.

He wanted to tear his hair out in frustration! So close to accomplishing something awesome but then this had to happen. If Ariunbayar's luck stat was 64% then his had to be a measly 4% or something!

Maybe if he had more focus or something, he would have found some sort of way to rejoin his comrades and found Yu Yanlin's side at the very least and not ended up by his damned lonesome!

Alas, he hid within one of the tunnels, waiting for everything to settle. But instead everything continued to rumble and more rocks came free from above. Soon the entire entrance was sealed.

He was completely enveloped in darkness.

Just great. Zhang Wang was going to scream at his luck!

Frustration bubbled in his chest as the reality of his situation sunk in. He really wanted to punch something! And since no one was around him watching and judging, he did exactly that. His fist met hard stone, a loud scream of irritation left his throat.

"Dammit!"

It did nothing but crack his knuckles and tear the skin, leaving his fist both bruised and bloodied.

The pain was delayed and his labored breath echoed in the narrow tunnel. There was only darkness as his company and Zhang Wang's heart shuddered a little. He forced his eyes closed. A part of his mind was in the midst of chaos, cursing and blaming everything and anyone.

He cursed the dumb snake for causing the cavern walls to collapse.

He cursed Ariunbayar for bringing them down there in the first place.

He cursed Chu Changying for stealing the damned debugger from Ariunbayar.

And he blamed Yu Yanlin for turning his entire life upside down.

Most of all, he blamed himself for being weak.

This part of his mind swirled and gripped his heart.

Alas, Zhang Wang wasn't a person who managed to spend twenty years in this chaotic world by allowing himself to be easily consumed by his feelings.

First, he drew in a long breath.

One, two, three, four, five…all the way to ten.

And hold. Every tension in his body, from the top of his scalp to the tips of his extremities stood, suspended.

One, two, three… again, to ten.

Slowly, he allowed each tension to unwind, starting from his twitching fingers to the heavy throb behind the eyelid. One, two, three, four, five, a slow exhale to expel the anger and the gnawing itch of impatient irritation.

Zhang Wang opened his eyes.

Taking a deep breath didn't solve all his problems, but it allowed him to relax enough to get his bearings. All the awful thoughts that tempted him into despair became more distant, mere shadows of the beasts that haunted him.

Like this, he could ignore those things and ignore his own flaws.

Perhaps he was only doing it to ignore any self improvement, but Zhang Wang liked to think of it as managing the detrimental points of his personality in order to survive.

Otherwise he probably would have just stupidly wasted his energy and died, buried underneath the North Blue Summits, his body never to be found.

Now that he was calmer he could have a better look around. Or perhaps, a better feel around first.

What he noticed was that he was no longer surrounded by that weird darkness that devoured all forms of life. To say that it was completely extinguished would be incorrect but it should be far away now that he could summon a spirit light with little consequence.

So he did just that.

Not that it changed much.

The tunnel was still narrow, and it was still dark. When he looked down the path, it looked as unending as always and now he was alone.

With a deep sigh, Zhang Wang ignored the creeping fear and panic in his gut and turned to face the collapsed entrance, examining it with his hands. When he gave the formation a push, there were bits of rubble that creaked and tumbled free from cracks. But the entrance did not budge past that.

Zhang Wang wondered if Yu Yanlin would be able to punch through the rubble in an easy anticlimactic way. But Zhang Wang did not possess that kind of absurd superhuman strength. And his spells were not great in terms of outright raw power.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to exhaust his options. So he tried yelling at the newly-created wall to see if he might win some sort of response. "Hello! Can you guys hear me?"

Only silence responded.

At least it seemed the collapse and battle had settled.

But that also meant he had no idea where that giant evil serpent went…

Speaking of which, it was still really damned strange that there was a serpent in the first place! Zhang Wang hadn't had the chance to ponder it earlier but…

Why was there a snake? For a moment he almost thought his memories of the Man-Eating Worm were somehow wrong but no. There was no way. The reality of the matter was the fact that somehow they managed to run into a giant venom-spitting serpent instead!

How in the world did that happen?

Did that mean the Man-Eating Worm was still out there somewhere?

Two evil beasts were unlikely to harmoniously share territory. Did the snake kill the worm? And if so, did that meant their entire endeavor had been useless from the start?

The thought was really making Zhang Wang dizzy and he had to take another lumbering breath to remain calm and reasonable.

There was still that strange dark energy and the barrier that he broke but didn't manage to get to whatever that hid behind it.

With a deep sigh, Zhang Wang tried again, "Look guys, if this some kind of prank you can stop it now…"

"..."

"..."

The feeling of hopelessness grew but Zhang Wang ignored it. He crumbled down into a squat and hung his head between his knees. Just gathering strength, Zhang Wang reasoned.

But he also needed to make a very important decision. Should he wait on the spot or leave in search of an exit on his own? Staying meant that Yanlin… and Ariunbayar had a better chance of finding him. With Yu Yanlin's OP power, surely he'd be able to get Zhang Wang out right? However if he just remained in one spot, there was also the danger of just staying there and waiting for madness and waste to come claim him without even trying to escape.

Zhang Wang grumbled and decided that he didn't need to come to a conclusion right away and that wallowing in annoyance was a valid option when one of those options was just staying put.

…

What went on in Yu Yanlin's perspective was a bit more complicated and convoluted.

When he felt danger approaching Zhang Wang he had snapped around almost immediately…only to realize that the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms was more than capable of taking care of himself.

But it seemed that the Princess of the Steppes was not as lucky. A sharp screech came from behind him as the serpent suddenly snapped from its aimless thrashing motions into a pointed strike at the girl.

She would have been able to react to it just fine…if she hadn't been busy trying to weave out the debris that was falling from the ceiling. The Princess who had her bow and arrow pointed upward was suddenly alerted to the beast coming her way with open jaws.

It sprayed a line of venom her way that she had meant to dodge…

But she stumbled instead.

Inwardly the Princess wanted to cry. It felt as though she had just failed every single luck roll imaginable! What's up with that? Wasn't her luck supposed to be 64%!? Was that not good enough!?

Apparently not.

Yu Yanlin was seriously thinking of leaving her to her death.

What did he have to gain from saving her anyway?

But a thought passed his mind.

Zhang Wang's favor. Wouldn't he gain Zhang Wang's favor by saving her?

And it was with that single thought that the demon king turned on his heel and rushed forward with frightening speed. With power that he'd been holding back, he smashed through falling rocks with his fist and grabbed the serpent by the tail before hurling it off into a corner that was far away from both them and also Zhang Wang.

His exaggerated power and actions triggered more rocks to tumble and collapse down on them.

Yu Yanlin wasted no time. He grabbed the confused Princess and rushed into one of those narrow tunnels for cover.