214: Chapter 214 I...remembered some things

The white light lasted only a fleeting moment.

The sensation didn't feel like space travel; it felt more like being forcibly dragged out of a frozen nightmare by an invisible, massive hand.

A sense of weightlessness, tearing, and inversion... all senses were plunged into complete chaos.

When solid ground was felt beneath his feet again, Lin Tianyi was the first to open his eyes.

Then, he froze.

He smelled something... long-lost, moist air carrying the fragrance of soil and grass.

From his ears came the sound of babbling water, and... crisp birdsong?

Birdsong?!

How could there be birdsong in this damned, isolated underground world?!

He jerked his head up and looked around.

Then, he saw... the sky.

A gray, overcast sky shrouded by thick clouds, but it was undoubtedly the sky!

And... light!

Not the light of a flashlight, not the light of fluorescent fungi, nor the eerie blue light of torches, but soft, natural... daylight filtering down from behind the thick clouds!

"We... made it out?"

Lin Tianyi's voice trembled with a disbelief even he couldn't process.

His voice awakened the others.

Wang Shan, Wang Xianzhi, Song Yiqing, and the Fatty carrying Zhang Qilin all opened their eyes one after another.

Then, everyone was completely stunned by the scene before them.

They were no longer in any cave or underground space.

They stood on an ancient, moss-covered stone path. On both sides of the path were lush, strange ferns whose names they didn't know.

A clear stream babbled not far away.

Towering trees, like giant umbrellas, blocked most of the daylight, forming a vast, boundless primeval jungle.

The air was filled with high concentrations of negative oxygen ions; every breath felt like it was cleansing their lungs, slowly purging the blood and stench inhaled earlier.

This... is an entirely new world.

A vibrant world, the exact opposite of that previous dead, desolate wasteland.

"Holy shit..." The Fatty gently set down the Zhang Qilin on his back, leaning him against a large tree, then pinched himself hard. "Hiss—! Ouch! This isn't a dream! We actually made it out, goddammit!"

He was incoherent with excitement, his eyes instantly turning red.

From the moment they stepped into that eerie ancient tomb, surviving near-death experiences, charging through a sea of spiders, escaping a living maze, and witnessing the South Heaven Gate... every one of them had hovered on the edge of death multiple times.

At this moment, bathed in natural daylight again and breathing fresh air, the feeling of being reborn was strong enough to break down even the toughest psychological defenses.

Wang Shan could no longer hold it back; she squatted on the ground, covering her face, and let out suppressed sobs.

Although Wang Xianzhi did not cry, her hand, which had always tightly gripped her longsword, finally relaxed. The coldness and vigilance in her eyes were replaced by a rare touch of softness.

Lin Tianyi dropped his combat knife, sat down on the ground, tilted his head back, and greedily breathed in the air of this jungle.

Only Song Yiqing, after a brief moment of excitement, quickly calmed down.

Leaning on his extinguished bone staff, he looked up at the gray sky, his brows knitting tightly together once again.

"Something's wrong," he muttered.

"What's wrong again? Lord Song?" the Fatty asked, wiping away his tears. "This time it should be right, right? There's sky, land, trees, and grass—we finally escaped alive!"

"No," Song Yiqing shook his head, his eyes exceptionally grave. "We... might still be 'below'."

"What?!" The joy on the Fatty's face instantly froze.

"Look at the sky," Song Yiqing pointed overhead.

Everyone looked up in the direction of his finger.

"What's wrong with the sky? Although it's a bit overcast, it's still the sky," Lin Tianyi said, puzzled.

"There is no sun, and there is no moon," Song Yiqing's voice was like a block of ice. "Besides, don't you think... this sky is too 'low'?"

Once reminded, everyone realized the weirdness of the situation.

The daylight here was uniform and scattered; there was no discernible light source. Moreover, the thick clouds felt within reach, so oppressive that it made one feel anxious. It didn't look like a natural sky; it looked more like a... gigantic, glowing "ceiling"!

A terrifying thought rose in everyone's mind.

They perhaps had not returned to the surface.

They had simply moved from one "underground world" to another... a much wider, much larger "underground world"!

A... hollow earth world that possessed an independent ecosystem and even simulated a "sky"!

This deduction was even more desperate and shocking than encountering any monster before.

If this was true, it meant they were still an impossibly long distance away from truly "going home".

"Don't think too much about it for now."

Lin Tianyi forced himself to calm down. He checked on Zhang Qilin, who was still unconscious, and found his breathing steady, though his face remained pale; it seemed he had just fallen into a deep, self-protective sleep.

"Regardless of whether this is the surface or the center of the earth, it's safe for now. We are severely lacking water and food, and everyone's stamina has reached its limit. The priority is to find a safe place to rest and recover. Especially Xiaoge and Song Yiqing, you two must rest."

His proposal received everyone's agreement.

After experiencing long-term, high-intensity mental tension and physical exertion, they were like rubber bands stretched to their limit, desperately in need of relaxation and replenishment.

The Fatty took some water from the stream, tested it, and after confirming it wasn't poisonous, distributed some to everyone. The clear, cold stream water moistened their cracked lips and throats, bringing a glimmer of vitality.

Wang Xianzhi, relying on her keen intuition and jungle experience, found some edible, tuber-like plants nearby. Although they didn't taste very good, they could at least replenish some much-needed starch and energy.

They found a relatively open, easily defensible spot under a cliff by the stream to serve as a temporary campsite.

After simple replenishment, exhaustion surged over them like a tide.

Except for Lin Tianyi and Wang Xianzhi, who were responsible for keeping watch, everyone else fell into a deep sleep.

They slept incredibly deeply, as if trying to make up for all the sleep they had missed over the past few days.

[In the Livestream]

When the live feed switched from the white light to this vast primeval jungle, the entire livestream room, after a brief moment of dead silence, completely exploded!

[They're out!!! They're out!!! Oh my god!!!]

[I'm crying, I'm actually crying, this was so hard! I thought they were dead for sure!]

[Where is this place? It looks like the Amazon Rainforest? No, that's not right, the plants are so strange, I've never seen them before!]

[Wait! Look at the data in the top right corner! Altitude: -12,548 meters! Negative twelve thousand meters?!]

[Holy shit?! Is this for real?! They're still over ten thousand meters underground?!]

[So... this isn't the surface? This is an underground... new world?!]

This discovery instantly replaced the joy of all the viewers with an even stronger sense of curiosity and shock!

For the first time, humanity witnessed with their own eyes a real, existing... hollow earth world with a complete ecosystem!

This had even more epoch-making significance than discovering any ancient tomb!

The golden bullet comment from [Kyushu Ancient History Research Institute - Professor Li] appeared again. This time, his text carried uncontrollable excitement and trembling:

[A miracle! This is a true miracle! This confirms that the 'Hollow Earth Theory' was not entirely baseless! They... they may have found the entrance to 'Shambhala' or 'Agartha'! Legend has it that the hollow earth world is the sanctuary of the civilization from the previous epoch! This explains all the supernatural phenomena in the ancient tomb earlier! They are no longer tomb raiders; they are... the Columbus of the new world!]

...

I don't know how much time had passed.

Lin Tianyi was gently nudged awake by Wang Xianzhi to take over the second half of the night watch.

The entire jungle, in the night (though the sky remained gray, the light was just much dimmer), appeared even more tranquil and mysterious. Various unknown insect chirps replaced the birdsong of the day, composing a nocturne belonging to the hollow earth world.

Lin Tianyi leaned against the cliff wall, watching his companions sleeping beside him. The Fatty was snoring slightly, Song Yiqing's breathing had also stabilized significantly, and Zhang Qilin remained like a quiet child, sleeping soundly as if everything in the outside world had nothing to do with him.

The relief of surviving disaster and the confusion of an uncertain path ahead were intertwined in his heart.

He didn't know where this road would eventually lead.

But he knew that as long as this team was still here, as long as everyone was still together, there was always hope.

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound.

It wasn't the sound of insects, nor was it the wind.

It was a sound... of metal rubbing against metal.

The sound came from the direction of Zhang Qilin.

Lin Tianyi's heart tightened, and he looked over vigilantly.

He saw that under the dim light, Zhang Qilin, who had been sleeping quietly, had sat up at some point.

He didn't look at anyone, just lowered his head and extended his right hand.

Then, with the fingers of his left hand, he gently, inch by inch, "pulled" something out... from the base of the ring finger on his right hand!

That thing was as thin as a needle, pitch black, with a metallic luster.

As the object was slowly pulled out, Zhang Qilin's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, as if he were enduring immense pain.

Finally, the thing was pulled out completely.

It was a black metal needle, about ten centimeters long, like an embroidery needle!

It had been deeply buried within Zhang Qilin's flesh and bone all along!

Lin Tianyi watched this scene in shock, not daring to even breathe.

He remembered Zhang Qilin's finger in the ancient tomb, which had looked like a dried corpse. Could it be... because of this needle?

Zhang Qilin looked at the black needle in his hand, and in his eyes, which had returned to a pitch-black color, a flash of extremely complex emotions appeared: disgust, determination, and a trace of... relief.

Then, without hesitation, he slammed that black needle into the rock beside him!

Crack!

The hard rock, like tofu, was easily pierced halfway through by the long needle!

After doing all this, it was as if he had shed a heavy shackle he had carried for thousands of years, and his entire presence shifted.

Although still weak, that sense of alienation—deeply hidden in his bones and incompatible with the whole world—seemed to... fade a little.

He slowly raised his head and looked at the dumbstruck Lin Tianyi, and at Wang Xianzhi, who had also woken up at some point and was watching him in shock.

Then, in a voice that was hoarse yet exceptionally clear, he said something that instantly made Lin Tianyi and Wang Xianzhi's scalps tingle.

"I... remembered some things."