283: Chapter 283 Shocking Change in the Passage

The entrance to Emergency Passage-7 swallowed the last traces of warmth from the "Geocentric Furnace," plunging both of them into a darkness that was cold, dead, and subtly permeated with an ominous, mechanical quality.

The air was stifling, thick with dust, metallic rust, and a strange, faint, yet unsettling odor—a mix of ozone, like ionized air, and the scent of decaying energy.

The soft, orange-red glow emitted by the "interface" on their wrists and the calm, pale golden shimmer of "the key" mark on Ling Ye's chest were the only sources of light in the dark passage, illuminating the space a few feet ahead.

The walls and floor of the passage were still that dark, smooth metal, but they were covered in thick dust and riddled with fine cracks and rust.

Many of the wall panels that should have been glowing or displaying information were long since dimmed and damaged.

"The map shows this passage is about eighty kilometers long, winding upward, with the final exit located on a hidden ridge on the northeast side of the canyon, outside the periphery of the 'Star Gate' buffer zone."

Ling Ye's voice rang out in the silence, calm and clear. He held the metal map plate, its crude 3D projection outlined by the light of "the key," tracing the long path they were about to embark upon.

"But it marks many 'Maintenance Nodes,' 'Energy Gates,' and 'Environmental Stability Zones,' most of which are likely defunct. Stay alert."

Old Shi nodded, following one step behind Ling Ye—the distance that allowed the "Dual Keys" resonance to maintain optimal sensing and support.

It held a length of "Energy Traction Cable" in its left hand, while its right hand rested lightly on the tool pliers at its waist, fully focused on perceiving the surrounding environment.

Beyond providing illumination, the "interface" on its wrist was continuously, albeit faintly, resonating with the thin, residual "Order" energy field deep within the passage, providing it with a vague "intuition" regarding the energy flow and structural stability ahead.

The first few kilometers were unusually quiet.

There was only the sound of footsteps echoing in the empty passage and that omnipresent, stifling dead silence.

The passage led straight downward (perhaps to a deeper backup node?), with a gentle slope. But soon, the situation began to change.

First, a heavy, dark silver metal gate, its surface covered in complex energy patterns, blocked the center of the passage.

The gate was tightly shut, and the control panel in the center was dark and lifeless, clearly having lost all power.

"Energy Gate-3A. Requires low-level maintenance authorization or physical unlocking."

Ling Ye looked at the markings on the map, then at the door.

He reached out and attempted to inject energy from "the key" mark into the interface on the control panel.

The patterns on the panel flickered to life for a moment, then quickly extinguished, leaving only a line of fragmented, rapidly flashing error codes: "Insufficient energy, main locking mechanism offline. Backup mechanical deadbolt activated."

Mechanical deadbolt. This meant that standard energy authorization could not open it.

Ling Ye and Old Shi exchanged a look.

Old Shi stepped forward, carefully inspecting the edge of the gate.

Beneath the thick dust, it found a highly concealed manual emergency release lever, but the lever was severely rusted and seemed jammed.

"Try using this."

Ling Ye took the tool pliers from his backpack, wedged them onto the lever, and signaled for Old Shi to help.

Working together, the metal of the pliers made a teeth-gritting grinding sound against the rusted lever.

Just as their strength was about to fail, a flash of golden light appeared in Ling Ye's eyes, and a wisp of pure "Order" energy flowed through the pliers into the rusted interior of the lever.

"Click!"

A dull, ancient-sounding snapping noise rang out, and the lever suddenly turned a small half-circle!

Immediately after, a series of heavy, stiff mechanical transmission sounds came from inside the gate.

Under their tense gazes, the heavy gate slowly and with great difficulty slid open to the side, creating a gap just wide enough for one person to pass, while dust fell in sheets.

Behind the door, the passage became even more dilapidated.

Small metal fragments and unknown black stains were scattered on the floor.

Cracks in the walls had multiplied, and in some places, one could even see exposed, fractured energy conduits behind them, sparking with dangerous electrical arcs.

The scent of decaying energy in the air was even more intense.

"Watch your step, avoid those broken conduits," Ling Ye whispered, turning sideways to squeeze through the gap in the gate first.

After advancing another few hundred meters, a continuous, low, and heart-wrenching "creaking" sound came from ahead, like some giant machine twisting under stress without power.

Then, they saw the "ceiling" of the passage—no, it was the originally flat top of the passage that had suffered a massive, irregular distortion and collapse!

Several thick metal beams, likely meant for load-bearing or energy transmission, had snapped, bent, and hung down from the top, almost completely blocking more than half of the passage.

Where they had broken, the exposed metal glowed with an ominous dark red light, emitting high heat and weak radiation.

It was a structural collapse, and it seemed to have been caused by internal energy overload or external impact.

"We can't go around. We have to clear it or crawl underneath."

Ling Ye observed the collapsed structure.

The broken beams looked heavy, but due to their age and distortion, they didn't seem very stable.

However, touching them rashly could trigger a secondary collapse.

"Use the traction cable to try and pull the end of that most dangerous, lowest-hanging beam. When we pass through quickly, you hold it to keep it from shaking or falling," Ling Ye quickly decided.

Old Shi nodded, immediately tying a length of "Energy Traction Cable" to its "interface" wrist, then using the tool pliers to fashion a simple grappling hook on the other end, aiming at a relatively stable root of the hanging beam and throwing it with force.

With the weak enhancement of "Order" energy, the grappling hook accurately snagged the beam.

"Go!"

Ling Ye gave a low shout, immediately lowering his body and moving like a leopard, swiftly and silently passing through the narrow, dangerous space beneath the beam.

Old Shi followed closely behind, while exerting force with its wrist to stabilize the beam via the traction cable.

Just as Old Shi was about to pass through, a loose metal plate beneath its feet suddenly collapsed!

"Careful!"

Ling Ye reacted extremely quickly, turning back to grab Old Shi's arm and pulling it forward with a violent jerk!

At the same time, the beam held by the traction cable let out an even more piercing "creak" due to the sudden change in force and the vibration from the collapse below.

Several loose metal fragments fell from above, brushing against their bodies and slamming into the ground with a loud crash!

Both were covered in a cold sweat, quickly escaping the danger zone.

Looking back, the collapsed area seemed even more unstable.

"Keep moving, get out of here."

Ling Ye let go, saying nothing more.

But Old Shi could feel that the strength and timing of that grab had been terrifyingly precise, showing that Ling Ye had not only greatly increased in strength, but his reaction time and control had also reached a new height.

For the rest of the journey, similar dangerous situations followed one after another.

There were intermittent bursts of energy turbulence caused by energy chaos, filled with ionization and weak mental interference, forcing them to find cover or use the "Order" energy field to withstand it.

There were fracture zones that suddenly appeared in the passage floor, bottomless and swallowed by darkness, as if the structure below had completely collapsed, requiring them to use the traction cable and agile maneuvers to swing across.

There was also an area where the passage's lighting and life support Systems seemed to experience a strange "final flash," suddenly lighting up with blinding red light and emitting sharp alarm sounds, repeatedly playing broken, ancient warning audio: "...Contamination leak... Isolation failure... Evacuate immediately..."

It lasted for a full minute before coming to an abrupt halt, giving them both a cold sweat as they thought they had triggered some defensive mechanism, when it was just an erroneous echo from the System.

The most dangerous instance occurred while passing through a relatively spacious node hall marked "Environmental Stability Zone-5."

In the center of the hall hovered several complex energy regulation devices that had long since stopped functioning.

As they cautiously crossed the hall and were about to reach the exit on the other side, the "the key" mark on Ling Ye's chest suddenly, without warning, vibrated and heated up violently, carrying a sense of warning!

"Back!"

Ling Ye's pupils shrank, and without a second thought, he retreated rapidly, simultaneously yanking Old Shi, who was beside him, backward!

The very moment they retreated, the core, long-dimmed transparent crystal pillars of those seemingly dormant energy regulation devices in the center of the hall suddenly burst forth with blinding, unstable, purple-black energy flashes, filled with an aura of chaos and erosion!

Several twisted, life-like purple-black energy arcs shot out from the devices like vipers, fiercely lashing and annihilating the spot where they had just been standing, melting charred holes into the solid metal floor and emitting a sickening "hissing" sound of energy and matter violently annihilating each other!

They were residual devices that had been contaminated and eroded by the "abyssal eye," causing them to mutate!

When Ling Ye's pure, high-Order "Order" beacon energy (the key) passed by, they had instinctively, crazily, and hostilely "activated"!

"Go! Don't stop!"

Ling Ye growled, not even looking at the devices that were still crazily but irregularly releasing contaminated arcs.

He took Old Shi and rushed out of the hall exit at top speed, continuing to sprint forward without looking back until he had left that dangerous node far behind.

These repeated "Passage Startling Changes" had turned the emergency passage, which was originally expected to be relatively "safe," into a death trap fraught with crises.

It also made them deeply realize that the path to the "Star Gate" no longer purely belonged to "Order."

The contamination of the "abyssal eye," its tentacles, perhaps had long since permeated these forgotten corners along with the wreckage of the energy network and the rifts in space.

However, the danger did not slow their pace; instead, it made their nerves tougher, their coordination more seamless, and their use of the "Dual Keys" power and intuition for crisis, honed through life-and-death tests, rapidly improved.

It took them far longer than expected to traverse the eighty-kilometer passage, having experienced countless thrilling skirmishes with damaged facilities, structural crises, energy turbulence, and sporadic contamination tentacles.

Finally, after trekking for an unknown number of hours, the passage ahead was no longer a downward slope but began to tilt upward, clearly and continuously.

The stifling, decaying scent in the air seemed to be replaced by something more expansive, more "wild," filled with smoke, ozone, and a suffocatingly rich, pungent, and destructive aftertaste of energy left over from the intense conflict between chaos and Order.

At the end of the passage, there was no longer endless darkness, but a faint, dismal, lead-gray, constantly twisting and changing, unnatural "daylight" seeping through.