172: Chapter 172 Death Battle Under the Light Net

The moment the highest rib snapped, the entire skeletal remains collapsed downward under the weight of the Sand Spider swarm.

Lin Ye and Zhao Mengmeng plummeted straight into the wind and sand along with the broken bones.

Beneath them were nothing but gaping venomous fangs and wildly flailing black arthropod limbs.

Zhao Mengmeng leveled her crossbow in midair.

Loaded in the empty slot was the last temporarily cobbled-together black bamboo arrow.

"It's all mouths down there, Brother Lin!"

Lin Ye suddenly whipped his right arm outward.

The Dark Weaver's secondary line shot out, tightly wrapping around the tip of a half-broken rib that hadn't completely fallen yet.

The traction crystal core turned scalding hot and red, and the mechanical gears let out an ear-piercing cracking sound.

The trajectory of their fall was forcefully yanked half a zhang off course.

They slid past, brushing against the carapace of a dark brown giant spider at high speed.

The horizontal saber left its sheath.

The blade sliced through the venom sac bulge on the giant spider's back, splashing black liquid over half of Lin Ye's arm.

The giant spider thrashed in pain, crushing three ordinary Sand Spiders beneath it.

Zhao Mengmeng kicked off the giant spider's carapace with the soles of her boots, using the momentum to flip toward the edge of the sinkhole.

Lin Ye released the secondary line, his left hand accurately catching her belt.

One after the other, they rolled onto the gravel slope on the outer edge of the sinkhole.

Behind them, the second star rock light net lit up completely.

In the deep pit where the black sand dune had collapsed, cold white beams of light crisscrossed frantically.

The Sand Spiders that fell into it were sliced to pieces in rows.

Broken armor, severed legs, and black fluid exploded under the beams of light.

The shrill screeches completely drowned out the roaring of the storm.

Zhao Mengmeng lay prone on the gravel slope, her chest heaving violently.

She stared intently at the thrashing flesh and blood at the bottom of the pit.

"This godforsaken place... the monsters are actually slicing themselves up."

Lin Ye stood up.

His Left Eye snapped open silently.

Inside the sinkhole, the star rock light net was originally airtight.

But as the Sand Spider corpses piled thicker, several beams of light at the bottom were jammed by a large amount of broken armor and thick mucus, causing an extremely brief lag.

The deadly red light was still wandering frantically.

But at the very core of the pile of corpses at the bottom...

...a dense green light void was flashing.

It wasn't a crack.

It was the gate of life.

Lin Ye closed his Left Eye. A sharp, piercing pain surged through his optic nerve, sending a throbbing ache straight to his brain.

Zhao Mengmeng turned her head to look at him.

"What are you staring at that pile of rotting meat for?"

"The entrance is at the very bottom," Lin Ye said.

Zhao Mengmeng glanced at the shredding light net, her throat bobbing.

"The door is hidden under that light net?"

Lin Ye raised his hand and pointed at the core of the corpse pile at the bottom of the pit.

"The light net is blocked by the thick armor of the corpses. There's a window."

"How short is the window?"

"Only enough for us to fall in."

The bullet screen of the Great Xia Live Stream went wild.

[Am I blind? Brother Eye is going to jump into that pit where hundreds of Sand Spiders were shredded?]

[Down there, even the insect carapaces are ground to powder! Will there be any whole corpses left if a human goes down?]

[Don't panic! Brother Eye must have seen a path! Every time he goes crazy, he does it for a good reason!]

The overseas livestream rooms, which had just been silenced by the environmental kill, piped up again.

[The Great Xia players are truly insane.]

[There is no path down there at all; it's entirely energy cutting lines.]

[Jumping down is certain death!]

Lin Ye didn't waste any words.

He pulled the two largest dark brown carapaces directly from the Sand Spider corpses near the slope.

The carapace plates were extremely thick, their edges still bearing the clean cuts sliced by the light net.

Zhao Mengmeng understood his intention in an instant.

"To block the light?"

"Blocking it for a moment is enough."

Lin Ye used his horizontal saber to shave off the bone spurs on the edges of the broken armor and carved out two inner bone handles for gripping.

His Left Eye opened again for a brief moment.

The light at the bottom of the pit wandered, the red trajectories cutting back and forth through the pile of corpses.

Around the green light void, only three stray red lines remained.

Two had fixed patterns.

The last one was severely hindered by the corpses, moving fast one moment and slow the next.

Lin Ye tossed one of the broken carapaces to Zhao Mengmeng.

"Slide to the bottom with me. Don't stop, and don't look up."

ZhaoMengmeng slung her crossbow tightly over her back and gripped the bone handle of the broken carapace with both hands.

"If you dare to stop, I'll step over your corpse to get down."

"Keep up."

The two rushed straight down the gravel slope toward the bottom of the pit.

Stimulated by the black liquid covering the ground, the surviving Sand Spiders on the periphery went completely mad, with several lunging directly at the two.

Zhao Mengmeng raised her crossbow.

*Twang!*

The last black bamboo arrow pierced through the mouthparts of the foremost Sand Spider.

The Sand Spider rolled and tumbled into the light net, instantly sliced into over a dozen pieces of shredded meat.

Lin Ye spotted the blind spot during the half-breath interval when the light beams parted.

The grappling hook on his right arm shot out, biting into a protruding black rock on the lower pit wall.

"Go down!"

The two leaped down into the deep pit.

The grappling hook retracted, pulling them tight against the pit wall as they slid down at high speed.

The soles of their boots dragged long scorch marks through the black liquid and broken armor.

The first cold white beam of light swept across from overhead.

Zhao Mengmeng raised the carapace to block it head-on.

*Sizzle!*

The beam of light sliced through the edge of the carapace plate, easily shearing off a hand-width of the thick armor.

A scorched stench exploded instantly.

Zhao Mengmeng's arms shook until they went numb.

"Heads down," Lin Ye barked.

The second beam of light slashed down diagonally.

Lin Ye pressed the broken carapace tightly against his shoulder, keeping his entire body flush against the sliding pile of corpses.

The light beam scraped across the surface of the broken carapace.

Chunks of the carapace shattered and sprayed in all directions.

Several bone fragments bounced off the side of Lin Ye's face, immediately slicing open two bleeding gashes.

He didn't even blink.

At this moment, the third stray red line suddenly sped up.

The pile of corpses collapsed, and the blockage loosened.

The red line directly broke its original pattern!

Lin Ye's Left Eye snapped wide open.

Sharp pain blacked out the edges of his vision.

The green light void was exactly seven meters directly below!

He threw out the grappling hook in the opposite direction with his right hand.

The hook tightly bit into the back spine of a giant spider corpse in midair.

He slammed the retraction button all the way down!

The gears spun wildly, and the two swung violently toward the side and downward.

That wild beam of light swept past, almost brushing against the soles of Zhao Mengmeng's boots.

*Ssh.*

Half of the thick-soled military boot heel was cleanly sliced off.

"My shoe broke!"

"I'll buy you a new pair."

The two crashed heavily into the thickest core area of the pile of corpses.

Beneath their feet was nothing but semi-crushed viscous mucus, internal organs, and severed legs; their boots sank deep with every step.

A foul stench and a sweet, metallic smell of blood rose into the air.

The viewers in the Great Xia Live Stream felt their scalps tingle.

[That was too close! Just an inch more and Mengmeng's foot would be gone!]

[This is literally counting down seconds with their lives!]

The overseas viewers all fell silent.

Correcting their trajectory on the fly during such a high-speed fall was simply impossible to explain by luck.

Lin Ye stepped through the mangled flesh, rapidly closing in on the green light void.

He cleared a path with his horizontal saber, flicking away the severed limbs blocking their way.

Many Sand Spiders had just been sliced open, their nerves not yet dead, and their severed limbs twitched frantically beneath their feet.

Zhao Mengmeng held her empty crossbow, guarding their backs.

"Left—"

Before Lin Ye could finish his sentence, the pile of corpses on the left suddenly bulged.

A dark brown giant spider, with half of its abdomen hollowed out, erupted from the black liquid.

Supporting its body with its remaining three legs, its pale mouthparts snapped down directly toward Lin Ye's waist.

It had been lurking under the pile of corpses, playing dead.

Zhao Mengmeng raised her crossbow and smashed it down.

The hard body of the crossbow slammed heavily against the giant spider's lower jaw, directly knocking its skull askew.

The giant spider lunged forward frantically.

Lin Ye reversed his horizontal saber, pressing the spine of the blade against its broken armor, and exerted force from his waist to shove it hard to the right.

The half-dead giant spider was forcefully shoved out of the safe zone.

It crashed directly into the edge of the light net.

Countless cold white beams of light instantly pierced through its body.

Its mangled carcass shattered into a flurry of fragments.

Foul-smelling black liquid splashed all over Zhao Mengmeng's face.

She didn't have time to wipe her face.

"I'm out of arrows! Next time I'll have to use my teeth!"

"That's enough."

Lin Ye used his horizontal saber to flick away the last piece of rotting armor at the edge of the entrance.

The green void was fully revealed.

It was a metal tunnel sloping downward.

Dark copper rings were tightly fastened around the edge of the entrance, and there was no light whatsoever in the depths.

Overhead.

The light net let out a dull, humming sound as it rebooted.

The vaporized pile of corpses completely melted away, and several stalled, deadly beams of light were about to resume their sweep.

Lin Ye grabbed Zhao Mengmeng's backpack strap.

"Jump!"

The two plunged into the void.

Almost at the exact same instant, the cold white light net above suddenly closed.

Completely pureeing the outer layer of the corpse pile.

Viscous black liquid covered the entrance.

Their retreat was completely cut off.

The two slid down the smooth metal tunnel at high speed.

There was nothing to grab onto on any side.

Zhao Mengmeng's back repeatedly slammed against the ice-cold metal walls, but she clenched her teeth and didn't make a sound.

Lin Ye reversed his grip and stabbed his horizontal saber downward with force.

The blade tip scraped against the metal wall, sending sparks flying, barely slowing their violent descent.

In the darkness, a translucent light screen lit up before his right eye.

[Star Skeletal Dungeon]

The end of the tunnel suddenly opened up.

The two were flung into the air and crashed heavily below.

Lin Ye rolled on the ground, supporting himself steadily on one knee.

Zhao Mengmeng rolled twice and quickly raised her arrowless crossbow, warily scanning her surroundings.

There was no sound whatsoever.

The sensation beneath their feet was bone-chillingly cold.

It was neither soil nor stone slabs.

It was a single, vast metal floor stretching as far as the eye could see, divided into countless squares.

Countless square metal tiles covered the ground.

The edges of each square were interlocked with extremely narrow gaps.

The faint light casting down from the vaulted ceiling reflected a cold, cyan death-light off the metal floor.

Deep in the center, several giant black pillars stood indistinctly.

Zhao Mengmeng slowly stood up, the sole of her boot just brushing over the gap between the tiles.

A faint sound of mechanical friction echoed from beneath her feet.

*Click.*

Three zhang ahead.

A row of metal tiles suddenly shot up a forest of bronze ground spikes.

The tips of the spikes gleamed with a deadly black light.

Pausing for less than a second, the ground spikes silently retracted back underground.

Immediately after.

A poison spike array erupted without warning from over a dozen squares on the right.

The hearts of the Great Xia Live Stream viewers, which had just settled, hung in suspense once more.

[They just dodged the light net, and now they've stepped on a trap?]

[These poison spikes don't play by the rules at all!]

Lin Ye stood in place, his Left Eye snapping wide open.

True Vision filled his retina.

Metal tiles began to layer.

Densely packed red lights crisscrossed and wandered underground, marking the positions of the dead tiles.

And directly in front of him...

...only a few specific metal tiles glowed with an extremely brief green light.

The duration of the light was three seconds.

Lin Ye closed his eyes, firmly engraving that momentary path of survival into his mind.

"Step exactly where I step."

He took the first step.

The second step.

The third step.

Zhao Mengmeng followed closely behind.

The moment the heel of her boot left the previous metal tile...

...that square suddenly shot up three thick bronze poison spikes!

The tips of the spikes pierced through the air, almost brushing against her trouser legs, and the poisonous wind they carried made her calves sting.

Zhao Mengmeng clenched her back teeth.

"Not even a single step can be wrong?"

Lin Ye moved forward with his saber, his footsteps never stopping.

"Make one wrong step, and you'll stay here to be their next meal."