139: Chapter 139 The Honeycomb Water Prison

The spiral staircase wound upward into the darkness.

Lin Ye walked in the lead.

In his right hand, he held Hans's bone blade with an underhand grip, and in his left, he carried the battered Fire Axe.

Zhao Mengmeng followed three steps behind him.

The roar of the Gear Abyss on the first floor was left behind.

That sound crawled up the tower walls, dull and bone-deep.

Zhao Mengmeng's throat was dry from panting.

"This tower is really well-designed. First floor gives us a meat grinder; the second won't boil us in a pot, will it?"

Lin Ye didn't stop walking.

"Even if it's a pot, we have to check if the bottom is poisonous first."

"You even bring an autopsy procedure to a feast."

The two turned the final corner.

There was no door at the end of the stairs.

A black cavity stretched out before them.

Extreme cold, wrapped in a pungent, sour stench, hit their faces directly.

Zhao Mengmeng took half a step out, then pulled her tactical boot back.

"It's water below."

Lin Ye raised the half-torch he had brought up from the first floor.

He scraped the bone blade against the flint.

Sparks flew into the remaining bear fat.

A dark red flame flared up.

The scene of the second floor gradually ground into their sight along with the firelight.

Countless hexagonal stone pillars shot straight out of the black water.

They were staggered in height, dense and crowded, stretching into the boundless depth of darkness.

Some pillar tops were dry and white.

Others were wet and glistening with a slick, black sheen.

Further down, the freezing black water moved slowly, occasionally churning up a string of tiny bubbles.

The pungent, sour stench was coming from the water.

"It really is a maze," Zhao Mengmeng cursed under her breath.

Lin Ye crouched down and pushed the torch outward.

The nearest stone pillar was two meters away from the stair exit.

Further out, the heights of the stone pillars became extremely chaotic.

Some pillar tops were only a palm's width left.

Some were wide enough for three people to stand side by side.

The screen of the Great Xia Live Stream lit up.

[What kind of honeycomb hell is this?]

[That black water below looks wrong; if you fall in, you'll be pickled instantly!]

[First floor is a meat grinder, second floor is a boil—the Giant Tower's designer is a real genius.]

[Brother Eye, stay steady. Don't rush to jump, let those foreigners behind go first!]

Dull footsteps came from below the stairs.

Ivan was the first to crawl onto the platform.

Half of his tactical suit was torn by gears, and a corner of the bone pick in his hand was chipped.

He glanced at Lin Ye, then dragged his pick to the edge of the other exit.

A dozen seconds later.

Pierre crawled up, dragging his injured leg.

The Gaul had dried blood crusts on his lips, ropes tied tightly around his waist, and his short blade never left his hand.

The two from the United Kingdom also arrived, supporting each other.

Finally.

Heavy, raspy breathing surged up from below the stairs.

Blake stepped onto the platform.

Both of his palms were wrapped in thick, bloody bundles of animal tendons.

The tear on his right shoulder had burst open, and dark red blood was seeping through the animal skin.

But he stood very steadily.

Zhao Mengmeng leveled her crossbow: "This white-skinned bear really has a tough life."

Lin Ye scanned the soles of Blake's boots.

"To be able to crawl out of the meat grinder, he deserves to live this long."

Blake's facial muscles twitched stiffly.

His palms were ruined.

He could only clamp the bone spear with his left arm.

He stared fixedly at the bulging supply pack on Lin Ye's back.

The USA's national destiny was plummeting; he had to get the items on the second floor.

If he couldn't get them, he would have to fill this black water with the blood of the Great Xia people.

Lin Ye didn't even look at him again.

He fished a piece of broken scrap metal from the outer pocket of his backpack.

It was a fragment of a gear that had collapsed on the first floor, with sharp edges.

Lin Ye flicked his wrist.

The scrap metal traced a parabola in the air.

Clang.

It smashed into the center of a hexagonal stone pillar three meters away.

The stone pillar sank half an inch.

The black water licked up the side of the pillar in a circle, then slowly receded.

Two seconds later, the stone pillar returned to its position.

Lin Ye picked up a stone chip and threw it at the low, wet pillar next to it.

The stone chip fell, and the wet pillar sank rapidly.

The two adjacent stone pillars were affected and also sank a significant distance.

Black water surged onto the tops of the pillars, leaving a reflective water mark.

Zhao Mengmeng's face darkened.

"They're connected?"

"There's a linkage mechanism."

Lin Ye threw a third piece of iron scrap, smashing it onto the outermost edge of a tall, thick pillar.

The stone pillar didn't sink.

But the moment the scrap metal landed on the edge, the entire pillar tilted sharply toward the water surface.

Black water submerged the downward-tilting edge.

Lin Ye lowered his body, his gaze locked on the rebound speed.

"Load-bearing isn't just about weight; it's about dryness, wetness, and the point of force."

Zhao Mengmeng looked at her tactical boots.

"If I step in the wrong place, do I just go down and take a bath in the black water?"

"After washing, you might not even have any bones left."

Blake leaned against the wall and cursed in the USA language.

There was a class representative in the Great Xia Live Stream translating.

[He's cursing the Great Xia people for stalling.]

[He's anxious, he's anxious! If you're so capable, jump yourself!]

[His hands are broken and he's still yapping. Let's be the first to send him into the water later.]

The Challenger from the United Kingdom, Martin, suddenly moved.

He had served in the Royal Mountain Rescue Team.

He was last on the first floor and almost got crushed into meat paste by a metal beam.

Following behind Lin Ye meant only eating leftovers, and the outcome would only be uglier.

Furthermore, if there were high-tier resources on the second floor, he had to take the lead.

Martin set his sights on a patch of stone pillars on the right.

They were arranged in a diagonal line, with wide tops and moderate distances.

Lin Ye had just put down the scrap metal in his hand.

Martin had already leaped out of the stair exit.

"Don't step on the wet edges!" Lin Ye's voice was thrown out, cutting through the wind.

It was half a beat too late.

Martin's tactical boots slammed heavily onto a stone pillar with water stains on its edge.

Without any hesitation.

The pillar surface suddenly plummeted.

It wasn't just this one; three surrounding stone pillars simultaneously smashed toward the black water like a collapse.

Pungent, black water splashed up.

Martin completely lost his balance and fell straight toward the water surface.

He twisted his waist in mid-air.

He pulled out his short blade with a backhand grip and stabbed it into the sidewall of an un-sunk stone pillar nearby.

The blade edge drew a trail of sparks on the stone surface.

It didn't hold.

Most of his body had already fallen above the black water.

His left lower leg was forcibly clamped by two stone pillars crushing against each other, and his bones made a harsh, grating sound.

Martin roared wildly.

He stabbed with a second backhand strike.

This time.

The blade didn't stab into the stone pillar.

Instead, it pierced directly through the outside of his own right thigh.

Forcing his flesh and the gap in the stone pillar to be nailed together.

Fresh blood sprayed into the black water.

He was hanging on.

The churning black water rolled past the soles of his boots, and the sour, rotten stench made him vomit repeatedly.

His companion from the United Kingdom rushed to the edge of the platform.

"Martin!"

The veins on Martin's neck bulged, and he gritted his teeth, not letting go of the knife handle.

"Rope! Throw the rope!"

The entire second-floor entrance was so quiet that only the sound of water remained.

Even Blake stopped moving.

This was a ruthless man.

A ruthless man who could nail himself to a wall with a single blade.

The barrage of the Great Xia Live Stream paused for a second, then exploded.

[Holy crap! He just hacked himself?]

[If he had hesitated for even half a second just now, he would have gone down!]

[The pillars on this second floor are a collective punishment mechanism; step wrong once and the whole family goes to heaven!]

Zhao Mengmeng watched, her scalp tingling.

"How painful must that be..."

Lin Ye stood up, his gaze moving away from Martin's bleeding leg.

Wet pillars linked to collapse.

Low pillars had delayed rebound.

High pillars were extremely prone to tipping over when force was applied to the edges.

The supporting structure beneath this stone pillar forest was connected to a vast and precise water pressure death trap.

He didn't activate his Left Eye.

The load-bearing bottom line for the first ten meters had already been fully figured out.

Lin Ye raised his hand.

Pointing to the front left.

"That highest pillar, you must step exactly in the center."

Zhao Mengmeng tightened the backpack strap.

"Go?"

"Go."

"What about these people behind us?"

"If they want to copy our homework, let them follow."

Lin Ye pulled out the secondary line of the Dark Weaver and clicked it into the hook on the belt at Zhao Mengmeng's waist.

A two-meter soft connection distance was left between the two.

This wasn't a line for pulling.

It was for load-bearing buffering.

As long as one person's landing was too heavy, this line could distribute the impact force of the fall.

Zhao Mengmeng flexed her ankles, and the crossbow was firmly pressed back behind her.

"Brother Lin, I'm putting my life in your hands."

Lin Ye stared at the stone formation ahead.

"Don't put it in my hands; put it in the muscles of your legs."

Before the words had finished falling.

Lin Ye jumped.

His tactical boots cut through the dull air, landing precisely in the center of the first high, dry pillar.

The pillar sank less than a finger's width.

Zhao Mengmeng followed closely, taking to the air.

She didn't step in Lin Ye's overlapping footprints but landed at the central axis half a foot away.

The Dark Weaver's secondary line tightened slightly in mid-air.

The dead weight of the backpack falling was relieved by the silk line.

Lin Ye didn't pause for even a fraction, his finger pointing toward the one-third mark on the left side of the second thick pillar.

Zhao Mengmeng immediately understood.

The two, one after the other, stepped to the dangerous rhythm of consecutive jumps, pushing forward into the depths of the black water.

On the platform behind.

Ivan swung the bone pick in his hand, revealing his yellow teeth.

"The Polar Bear doesn't eat leftovers."

Pierre swung out his rope, hooking it tightly onto the edge of a high pillar on the other side.

Blake stared fixedly at Lin Ye's afterimage, swallowing a mouthful of blood in his throat.

The death trap of the second floor had only just begun.