C7 Abyss

"Kid, you better show yourself, or I'll enforce military discipline on you so harshly, you'll be washing socks for the entire camp for a year!"

A fierce wind whipped up, swirling sand that obscured Lin Yan and his group from view. As the dust settled, they had vanished from sight.

"Quite the tough one, aren't you? Step into that cave, and you might not even leave with your bones intact."

From a distance, Shen Zhong gazed at the cave with unease. Something within seemed to unsettle him deeply, sending a shiver of panic through his heart just by looking at it.

The cave was a labyrinth of bizarre, jutting stone spikes, walking through it felt like entering the belly of a Giant Beast, sending a wave of cold dread over anyone who dared to enter.

Drip, drip, drip...

A droplet of water fell from the rock, landing on the back of the monkey's neck. The sudden chill startled the monkey into a loud cry that reverberated through the cavernous space, traveling deep into the cave.

"It's just a drop of water, monkey. What's gotten into you?"

Lin Yan reprimanded the monkey. They had ventured a couple hundred meters without incident, but a single shriek in these parts could spell doom if any hostile creatures lurked nearby.

Realizing his overreaction, the monkey quickly apologized to his fellow companions.

"Yang represents Qian, Yin represents Kun. With the Nine Stars aligned, open the Illusionary Spirit!"

Lao Ma, compass in hand, moved strategically throughout the cave.

He soon came to an abrupt halt.

"What's this..."

The compass needle spun wildly, and a look of terror crossed Lao Ma's face.

"What's happening?"

Lin Yan, Monkey, and the others crowded around Lao Ma, eager for answers. Lao Ma had picked up considerable knowledge about star alignments from an old soldier, and his findings were always taken seriously.

"This place is cursed with great peril!"

Lao Ma gasped for air, his forehead beaded with sweat.

"What do you mean by 'great peril'?"

A new recruit, only a few months in, was confused. He could accept the idea of a barren wasteland – the scarcity of rabbits was proof enough – but dangerous? Aside from last night's incident, the area had been quiet for years.

"The Qian and Kun are inverted, the five elements are absent, Yin and Yang are muddled, and the four symbols are in disarray. The Yin energy has overwhelmed the Yang!"

"Yin overpowering Yang?"

Lin Yan's eyes narrowed with skepticism. Old soldiers had said that battlefields often harbored lingering Yin energy from numerous restless spirits, leading to all manner of eerie occurrences. Could this cave have been a battlefield once?

"Regardless, I need to find out if Doggie is still alive."

With that, Lin Yan pressed on deeper into the cave. Fear began to grip Monkey and Lao Ma, but their bond of brotherhood was stronger than their trepidation, and they followed closely behind.

"We should move on as well."

The rest of the soldiers proceeded with caution, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings.

The deeper they went, the more vast the cave became, until at five hundred meters, it was as large as their encampment.

Clang!

The sharp sound of metal echoed as if someone had kicked an iron object. All eyes immediately turned in that direction.

The soldier trailing at the rear was now clutching his toes, in so much agony that he couldn't utter a single word.

"Weapons! There are actually weapons here!"

Lao Ma quickly went over to inspect and confirmed it was indeed a weapon component. But it seemed to have weathered too many years, with many parts missing, rendering it completely unusable. The soldier's kick had just broken off a small piece.

"Judging by the quality of the material, this is no ordinary weapon. It's likely one used by a warrior. It's a mystery why it's here."

After examining a shard, Lin Yan tossed it aside. The relic had lost its value, and there was no point in taking it with them.

"This is no simple artifact; it's at least a thousand years old."

Lao Ma brushed away the soil to reveal ancient inscriptions, but they were too faded to decipher.

Monkey moved to one side, then suddenly called out to Lin Yan and Lao Ma.

"Someone has dug here!"

Lin Yan and Lao Ma hurried over to where Monkey stood by a shallow hole, about a foot across, that looked as though it had once held something, now taken.

"Could it be that Doggie and his group were here?"

Lao Ma stroked his chin, squinting at the pit in the dim light.

"If it were outsiders, they wouldn't leave such marks. It looks like Doggie and his team did come here."

After a moment's thought, Lao Ma turned to Lin Yan and Doggie.

"That means Doggie might have found some treasure and ventured even deeper."

"That's a possibility."

As Monkey and Lao Ma speculated, Lin Yan stepped into the hole. He couldn't explain why, but he felt a mysterious pull, urging him to go deeper.

"Lin Yan? Lin Yan?"

Monkey called out several times before Lin Yan snapped out of his trance.

"Lin Yan, were you bewitched or something?"

Monkey teased, while Lin Yan just scratched his head, unable to articulate his earlier sensation, and chose to remain silent.

The depth of the cavern was a mystery, possibly burrowing deep within the Stone Mountain range. After about ten minutes of exploration, they stumbled upon more weapons, even more damaged than the previous finds, some shattered into fragments.

"Could this have been a battlefield?"

The group gazed around the cavern, now several times larger than their camp, large enough to have hosted a skirmish.

Hualala...

The sound of a massive iron chain being dragged echoed through the cavern, at times distant, at times alarmingly close.

At the sound, Lin Yan tensed.

"There's a strange noise!"

He hurled his torch deeper into the cave, where the flickering light revealed changes in the cavern ahead.

"It's an abyss!"

As the torchlight descended, Lin Yan and the others approached the cliff's edge. Illuminated by the dying light, they saw an unfathomable chasm, thousands of feet across, with a stone platform suspended at its heart. The platform, a hundred meters wide, supported a stone pillar entwined with iron chains, as if it held some captive entity.

Due to the dim lighting and the vast distance, visibility was severely impaired.

"Doggie, did you guys by chance tumble into this abyss?"