22: Desperate Corridor

"Blocked! The path is completely blocked! We're dead! We're dead!"

Ma Liu looked at the wall of despair made of giant rocks that had completely sealed their way back. His spirit broke entirely, and he clutched his head, wailing loudly in the narrow space of the cockpit.

"We'll be trapped here until we die! We'll starve! We'll be eaten by those monsters! I don't want to die!"

Slap!

A crisp slap brought the wailing to an abrupt halt.

Chen Feng withdrew his hand, his gaze even colder than the rocks outside.

"Can crying open up the rocks?" he asked.

Ma Liu clutched his stinging cheek and stared at him blankly, tears still hanging from his eyelashes.

"I..."

"I'm asking you, can crying keep you alive?" Chen Feng's voice rose slightly, carrying an unquestionable pressure.

Ma Liu shook his head desperately.

"Then shut up." Chen Feng pointed at the only glowing red crack on the tactical screen. "If you don't want to die, follow me. If you want to die, stay here. These rocks can serve as your coffin lid—quite grand, isn't it?"

Ma Liu followed his finger and saw the words "Section B Connection Passage" glowing with a blood-red light. He shuddered, and his last shred of resistance was completely crushed.

"I... I'll follow you, Brother Chen, I'll follow you!"

"Very well."

Chen Feng retook control of the robot and squeezed with difficulty into that narrow crack.

The interior of the passage was even more suffocating than the previous "Ghost Path." The rock walls weren't cold stone; instead, they were covered in countless bizarre, Dark-red Crystalline Veins that resembled a living creature's blood vessels. These veins pulsed, emitting a faint red glow that made the entire passage feel like the esophagus of some giant beast.

In the air, the high concentration of Soul Echoes had almost condensed into a physical substance, sticking to their faces like thick spiderwebs and crawling into their nostrils, causing Ma Liu to retch on the spot.

"Don't touch the walls," Chen Feng warned coldly. "If you breathe in too much of this air, you'll start seeing eighteen generations of your ancestors waiting in line for reincarnation."

Just then, an even more desperate sound rang out.

"Warning! Remaining energy at 15%. Based on the current consumption rate, estimated operating time: 27 minutes."

The cold mechanical voice sounded like a death knell.

"Damn it..." Chen Feng cursed under his breath. He felt the stabbing neural pain, which had just been suppressed by the cool aura of the tranquility grass, beginning to stir again deep in his mind.

"What happened? What does that mean? 27 minutes?" Ma Liu asked in terror.

"It means that in 27 minutes, this machine will become a pile of scrap metal, and we'll become two walking corpses until the 'things' here pick us clean," Chen Feng said, mercilessly shattering his last illusion.

He quickly issued commands: "Shut down life support, auxiliary lighting, pneumatic hammers... Shut down all non-essential systems except for geological radar and low-light vision!"

The cockpit went dark instantly, leaving only the eerie green light on the screen. The robot's energy consumption rate dropped immediately, but every step it took remained exceptionally heavy.

"Gravity anomaly..." Chen Feng stared at the fluctuating parameters on the radar. "It's pulsing... It's those crystalline veins! They're 'breathing'!"

He understood instantly: the gravity within this passage was changing periodically along with the pulsing of those crystalline veins.

"Listen for my command!" Chen Feng stared fixedly at the gravity parameter's waveform on the screen. "When I shout 'Go,' that's the moment when gravity is weakest, and the robot will sprint! Sit tight!"

"Go!"

Buzz! The robot lunged forward a considerable distance.

"Go!"

Another sprint.

In this oppressive rhythm of constant short sprints, they struggled toward the depths of the passage.

After yet another sprint, the rock wall ahead melted without warning.

Yes, it melted.

Scalding mineral liquid, glowing orange-red like lava, dripped and flowed from the walls, quickly pooling into a glowing lake of death ahead of them, completely blocking their path.

"Ah! Lava! It's lava!" Ma Liu let out a scream like a slaughtered pig.

"Shut up! It's not lava, you idiot!" Chen Feng shouted sharply. "It's Low-melting-point Minerals! The heat source... is our robot! Its energy core activated them!"

His brain worked at high speed. Forcing their way through would mean being melted instantly. Retreating was impossible due to energy constraints.

"Mechanical arm!" Chen Feng's eyes swept over the geological radar and quickly locked onto a target. "Coordinates: back-left, seven o'clock position, depth: two meters! Grab that black stone!"

Vroom—

The mining arm accurately pierced the rock wall behind them and yanked hard, pulling out a strange black ore that Chen Feng had seen in the "Ghost Path," which was capable of absorbing heat.

"Throw it over!"

The black ore was accurately tossed into the molten area.

Sizzle—

Like a hot iron dropped into ice water, a massive amount of white steam billowed up. The orange-red liquid cooled and solidified at a visible rate, turning into a fragile, dark-brown crystalline ground.

"Now! Charge!" Chen Feng pushed the energy output to its limit!

The robot let out an overburdened moan as its tracks spun frantically, charging onto the newly solidified ground!

Crack... Crack...

The crystalline ground beneath them kept cracking, but they managed to charge across after all!

The view ahead suddenly opened up as a massive cavern, larger than any they had seen before, appeared in front of them.

At the exact second they burst out of the passage—

"Warning. Energy below 3%. Emergency shutdown procedure initiated... 3... 2... 1..."

Vroom—

With a long, mournful moan, all of the robot's lights went out completely. Its massive body crashed to its knees, turning entirely into a cold steel tomb.

Rumble...

Behind them, that connection passage underwent another violent structural change as it lost the robot's heat source. The scalding molten minerals reliquefied, triggering an even larger-scale collapse.

Their final way back was completely sealed.

"Are we... are we there?" Ma Liu looked at the deathly silent darkness before them, his voice trembling.

Chen Feng pushed open the jammed cockpit door and jumped down, a cold wind instantly rushing in.

He glanced back at the passage entrance that had completely vanished, then looked at the robot before him that was now like a piece of scrap metal.

"Yeah."

He said calmly.

"We're here. But then again, who said anything about going back?"