Leaving behind the stunned Ji Wuye, a black object with a color akin to a moonless night glistened under the black water before dropping with a heavy splash. Ripples fanned outward as the water sloshed against Ji Wuye's shins, drenching his white martial robe again and untying the secured tail of his white ponytail.
"Dungeon Heart..." he murmured, voice laced with a mixture of disappointment and bone-deep fatigue. Under his crimson eyes, shadowed by furrowed brows, the Dungeon Heart - obsidian and fist-sized - was about to vanish into the depths before Ji Wuye's hand shot out, easily scooping it up.
It should have been a triumphant moment, obtaining such a coveted prize without excessive toil. Yet Ji Wuye felt no swell of accomplishment, his shoulders slumped and muscles still tightly coiled from the anticipated battle that never came to fruition. He wasn't even physically depleted; the aching weariness ran deeper, pervading his very spirit.
But in exchange...
'I'm mentally exhausted,' he sighed, deftly stowing the captured Dungeon Heart into his inventory.
Back then, when Xiangliu appeared, a tiny flicker of pride burned low in his core. For he was a martial artist of Jianghu, and he had a chance to fight such a fabled creature. Only the spark flared, then dimmed just as quickly as the anticipatory tension fled his body, leaving him adrift in an empty lassitude.
How did one's body, coiled taut as an overwound steel mechanism, react when that calculated momentum was stripped away? Ji Wuye shook his head, white strands slapping his clammy nape as the disappointment soured into a churlish sulk.
RUMBLE!
But then, the Dungeon groaned in protest once more, the entire structure seeming to list drunkenly as fissures fractured the rock walls.
'Again?' A familiar omen that furrowed Ji Wuye's brow further into a deepening scowl, the corner of his mouth twitching as his gaze snapped towards the ground before him - a broken ascending staircase and crumbled entrance passage blocked by debris.
SWOOSH!
With nary a pause, Ji Wuye glided forward, the splash of his drenched footfalls parting the dark waters which then swirled closed in his wake, temporarily stained white before reverting to their natural inky hue.
Loose rocks and billowing clouds of dust rained down from the trembling ceiling, only to be repelled by the shimmering shroud of Ji Wuye's Qi as he jumped!
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Ji Wuye's body seemed to defy gravity itself as he launched forward in an arcing leap, torso twisting fluidly to the left as his waist pivoted with coiled power. The great wooden sword, gripped in a white-knuckle double-handed grip, thrummed with lingering vibrations, the very air around the blade's edge shimmering in an ephemeral afterimage.
In the span of a breath, that gathered potential erupted in an explosive release of kinetic force. Air pressures built and swirled as Ji Wuye's entire body corkscrewed like a wheel unleashed, whipping him into a blurred, cyclonic spin high above the ground.
image [https://i.ibb.co.com/G9snkfT/Notif-3.webp]
The sword's slashing arc sent shockwaves rippling outward, parting the mustered clouds of choking dust and debris like curtains drawn asunder. As the whirling dervish of steel and sinew bore down upon the blocked entrance...
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
...the entire Dungeon seemed to shudder and quake against the onslaught, straining foundations groaning as if the entire structure teetered on the brink of cataclysmic collapse. The very stones and boulders obstructing the passage were methodically pounded and ground into insensate submission by that unyielding cyclone of blade and will.
The percussive thunder of shattering rock matched tempo with Ji Wuye's revolutions, dust and shrapnel dispersing in ever-widening eddies until -
BOOM!
- the final shattered remnants of that stony barricade surrendered in an eruption of rubble, reduced to a scattering of impotent pebbles as the way ahead yawned open once more. At that same moment, Ji Wuye's controlled whirlwind bled off its momentum, his white shoes planting firmly on the newly cleared ground as the final dregs of dust motes settled around him.
"Brother Ji?" A painfully familiar voice reached his ears, soft and strained.
Lifting his gaze, Ji Wuye found a disheveled figure awaiting him at the threshold - Song Jia, wavering torch in trembling hand, white martial robe tattered and streaked with dried blood, clumps of dirt and who knew what other unspeakable filth. Her face was haggard, eyes ringed by the tolls of weariness.
"Finall-" Just as he watched, those failing orbs rolled upward in their sockets as her knees buckled, the torch clattering from limp fingers as her whole body surrendered to unconsciousness.
With quick reflexes , Ji Wuye caught Song Jia's collapsing form before it could crumple fully to the ground.
Cradling her against his chest, he cast an appraising look over her battered condition - ragged pulse, the barest whisper of faint breaths, insensate and Qi reserves depleted to an alarming ebb.
"It's troublesome..." Ji Wuye muttered through a pronounced frown.
It was little wonder, after all - Song Jia had been engaged in near-constant battle, fighting for her life not once but twice over without a moment's respite. To then muster the determination to seek him out in her drained state...
He shook his head, unbound strands whipping across his cheek. "Well, let's just get out of here." Shifting her unconscious form, Ji Wuye settled Song Jia's body against his broad back, arms hooked securely under her knees.
All around them, the Dungeon's death throes intensified - the tremors growing more violent as debris rained down in stinging fusillade, no longer just clouds of dust but a deluge of gravel and fist-sized chunks sluicing down like a rockslide.
This place could not maintain its integrity much longer.
Wasting no time, Ji Wuye pushed off into a loping stride and...
SWOOSH!
...
Several harrowing moments passed in that blur of motion, the cacophony of the crumbling Dungeon collapse echoing all around them.
Where once the Dungeon's cyclopean bulk stood, only a scattered expanse of rubble remained - shattered edifices and gouged earth like a wound torn into the landscape.
BOOM!
Yet amidst that ruination, a flickering blue aura shimmered defiantly, revealing Ji Wuye at its radiant core, his entire body haloed in a rippling mantle of Qi that had shielded both him and his defenseless Song Jia.
As the veil of protective energy dissipated, brilliant golden sunshine lanced down from an azure sky, starkly illuminating the duo for the gawking audience of villagers gathering to witness this unfolding spectacle.
But then...
"Look at how these naughty juniors break the sect rules."
The reproachful declaration cut through the murmurs like a whip-crack, its source a stern, narrow-eyed figure that stepped forward to blot out the very sun itself, fixing them both with a disapproving glare.