The metallic clang of blades colliding reverberated through the air, punctuated by feral growls and snarls.
Song Jia's movements were a blur of precision. She once again danced, her maple-colored hair fluttering with her white flowing martial robes whipping around her as she parried and struck at the onyx-furred Dark Wolves circling her.
Rivulets of sweat rolled down her furrowed brow as she gasped for breath. Qi began to gather around her feet before she intended to jump, yet it failed to unleash the Rising Gale...
Far from the chaos, Ji Wuye crouched in the shadows, his crimson eyes scanning the eerie stillness around him. 'Goblins,' he thought.
The stench of decay hung thick, and he wrinkled his nose as he inspected the contorted goblin corpse before him. Withered flesh clung to twisted bones, deep lacerations marring the creature's grotesque features.
Half-kneeling, Ji Wuye ran his fingers along the jagged wounds, his sharp gaze trailing the scattered trail of mutilated bodies strewn across the dungeon floor.
As he rose, his robes rustled like fallen leaves underfoot. With Song Jia fighting the Dark Wolves instead of goblins, and now these corpses, it meant this Dungeon... 'A Dual Dungeon. How surprising,' he thought.
But then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the massive, ink-black shape of a Dark Wolf the size of a carriage silently circling him, blending with the surrounding shadows as if it predicted Ji Wuye, without vision, could not see its massive body.
Yet, Ji Wuye's lips pressed into a teasing line.
A Dual Dungeon was one where two Dungeons overlapped. Having two Dungeons meant monsters with different attributes would clash.
"GRRR!" As Ji Wuye pondered, the gigantic Wolf finally lunged at him from behind. Transparent screens flashed before Ji Wuye.
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/xzhnv7X/Notif-1.webp]
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/44Z9K1K/Notif-3.webp]
The metallic rasp of a blade clearing its scabbard cut through the stillness. Ji Wuye pivoted with preternatural grace, his jian extending in a blur of gleaming steel to brace against the gaping maw of the Dark Wolf as it lunged.
His white shoes scraped against the stone as he anchored his stance, both hands gripped around the hilt as he strained against the behemoth's gnashing jaws. Rank saliva dripped from its cavernous maw, sizzling where it struck the ground.
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"You sure love to sneak around," Ji Wuye murmured, his deep voice laced with thinly veiled mockery.
With a resounding crash, he twisted the jian, channeling his devastating might.
SPROUT-!
The Dark Wolf's flesh parted in a torrent of blood as Ji Wuye's blade cleaved its body asunder from skull to tail. Viscous ichor splattered across his robes as the hulking carcass collapsed in two halves with a thunderous quake.
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/FhShq7s/Notif-2.webp]
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/QfCqV7s/Notif-1.webp]
Ji Wuye's eyebrows narrowed as he studied the fading notification. 'Just how long will it take...'
With a deft movement, Ji Wuye raked his fingers through his tousled white locks, pulling the strands back into a neat ponytail.
A few stubborn strands clung to the sweat along his brow as he turned his attention to his bloodied robes.
He looked at the crimson marring the pristine white fabric before summoning his jian from the inventory.
SWOOSH-!
A flick of his wrist sent an arc of crimson droplets sluicing off the gleaming blade.
Though his white attire was mottled with dried crimson stains and his hair reeked of metallic rust, Ji Wuye's mouth curved into a humorless smirk. "This should suffice as camouflage."
His gaze flickered over to where Song Jia still fought against the relentless onslaught of Dark Wolves.
Seeing she was fine on her own, Ji Wuye pivoted on his heel. With his back to her, he strode forward.
...
The stench of death and decay grew thicker with every step. Goblin corpses littered the path, their sightless eyes frozen in rictus snarls. Viscous emerald pools of congealed blood resembled grotesque footprints leading deeper into the shadows. The air was choked with the reek of copper and the sour tang of goblin sweat.
The tunnel opened into a vast grotto, the curved walls swallowed by towering trunks twisting up from the ground like cyclopean serpents. Their gnarled branches wove an intricate lattice overhead, forcing Ji Wuye to duck and weave between the thick wooden coils.
His brow furrowed as his piercing gaze raked over the mutilated remains - not just goblins now, but grotesque insectoid monstrosities as large as mastiffs. Tattered wings protruded from shredded abdomens, barbed stingers snapped like brittle twigs.
'No monsters, and no traps...' Ji Wuye mused, gradually piecing together the information and the scene he remembered so far. 'It's no wonder the goblins risked raids on the village...'
'They fear the Dark Wolves,' Ji Wuye concluded as, after walking for a while, he finally emerged into a vast chamber dominated by a colossal tree trunk easily spanning three men's embrace. A circular maw about chest-height opened into an ominous darkness within. The rest of the cyclopean bole disappeared into the shadowed reaches of the vaulted ceiling high above.
However, the main focus was - hulking behemoths as large as the Dark Wolves themselves lay in mangled, eviscerated heaps. Some missing entire limbs, others quite literally disemboweled, their fibrous viscera spilling forth in tangled knots.
The unmistakable signs of the Dark Wolf's savage brutality.
However...
Ji Wuye's lips curved into a thin, satisfied smile as his crimson gaze landed on a faint glimmer within the shadowed maw of the gargantuan tree trunk. There, nestled deep inside the hollow bole and pulsing with a soft emerald radiance, sat a mango-sized orb - the Dungeon Core.
"Lucky they're oblivious," he murmured.
The Dungeon Core was Ji Wuye's other aim. It was said that without it, monsters couldn't be magically spawned and the Dungeon couldn't function properly.
This concept was alien to the Jianghu, not just the idea of creatures spawning from nowhere, but also how a Dungeon of this size could suddenly be built and repair itself.
His brow furrowed slightly as he studied the carnage surrounding the tree's base. Despite the hordes of guardians clearly slain by the encroaching Dark Wolves, no new defenders had emerged to reinforce the lair's defenses. The Core sat unprotected, vulnerable.
"Perhaps the presence of that other Dungeon is disrupting the spawning," Ji Wuye mused under his breath.
Another possibility was that newly spawned creatures were immediately detected and killed by the Dark Wolves. But that didn't matter to Ji Wuye as he raised his jian and then...
Without hesitation, he lunged forward, burying the razor-sharp steel deep into the Core's radiant heart.
STAB!
The orb shuddered, ethereal ichor the color of sunshine bleeding from the grievous wound, revealing an orange pith glimmering with emerald light.
Just then, after Ji Wuye stored the orange pith-like object in his inventory, the entire Dungeon seemed to shudder and groan.
The serpentine trunks lining the walls twisted and thrashed as if awoken from some ancient slumber. Larger branches cracked like bullwhips, shedding showers of bark and loam as they unfurled.