177: Chapter 177 The Dead End on the Rocky Ridge

The exit at the back of the grotto was extremely narrow.

Gale winds poured in from outside, swirling against the cave walls, instantly drying the blood foam of the Blind Wind Bat on the ground.

Zhao Mengmeng stood behind Lin Ye, poking her head out halfway.

She quickly pulled her body back.

Outside the cave was a suspended rocky ridge.

The rocky ridge extended from the back of the grotto, winding and clinging to the black canyon walls.

Its widest point could barely accommodate a single boot sole.

At its narrowest, only a stone ridge remained.

The outer side of the rocky ridge was completely empty.

Below lay a bottomless abyss filled with black winds.

Above, wind blades swept across, accompanied by chaotic rocks colliding and shattering.

Every time a wind blade swept by, a layer of white dust was scraped off the surface of the rocky ridge.

This path was weathering and thinning.

The number of comments in the Great Xia Live Stream plummeted.

"This is even more hopeless than before; the grappling hook can't even find a stress point."

"The rocky ridge is still shedding dust; if this drags on, the path will be sliced away completely."

Lin Ye took off his backpack and examined the cuts on the outer layer torn open by the residual wind.

The shock-absorbing layer had a three-inch-deep gash.

The dragon bone nails, dormant valley seeds, and shards of the frost-patterned stone box deep inside remained intact.

The load was immense.

But not a single piece could be discarded.

Every item taken back to Blue Star was key to saving the nation's destiny.

Zhao Mengmeng tightened her backpack shoulder straps.

"Things we risked our lives to get—losing them is worse than dying."

Lin Ye fastened his backpack securely again.

"We won't lose them."

"Stick to the wall, move with three-point stabilization."

He tapped the rock wall outside the cave entrance with the pommel of his horizontal saber.

The rock layer was hard, its surface covered in wind-eroded pores.

His Left Eye opened and closed in an instant.

Feedback interwoven with dark red and pale green appeared.

Green dots marked anchor points capable of withstanding tension.

Red lines indicated fragile rock layers hollowed out by the wind.

The Dark Weaver's secondary line could be used, but it couldn't support a long-distance crossing.

The Wind-Chasing Claw was in good condition, but the rocky ridge was winding, making it impossible to lock onto the same anchor point for the entire journey.

Lin Ye pulled out the ear bone of the Blind Wind Bat he had just peeled.

His horizontal saber flashed.

The soft, translucent cartilage was quickly cut into three thin slices.

He threaded them with a short beast-hide rope and tied them to the side ring of his backpack, his right wrist, and the scabbard of his horizontal saber, respectively.

The Blind Wind Bat relied on this structure to discern wind and sound, its perception of airflow changes far exceeding human skin.

Lin Ye pulled out the Sand Spider tendon bundle.

His fingers moved rapidly, tying a dead knot to tightly bind their belts together.

The distance between them was one and a half arm lengths.

Zhao Mengmeng fastened the Wind-Chasing Claw to her wrist, her five fingers gripping the edge of the cave entrance tightly.

"I'll take the rear, using the hook on the wall as a safety."

Lin Ye stepped out of the cave entrance.

When his military boots stepped onto the rocky ridge, fine stone powder slid down along the edge of his shoes into the abyss.

He held his horizontal saber in a reverse grip with his right hand, the tip slanted and inserted into a green crack on the rock wall.

His left palm pressed tightly against the rough rock surface.

His body was completely flattened, pressed tight against the canyon wall.

A gale lashed out from behind.

The bone slice on his wrist emitted a rapid, subtle vibration.

Lin Ye stood firm.

The next breath.

A wind blade, barely visible to the naked eye, swept horizontally past the outer side of the rocky ridge.

A smooth new cut appeared instantly on the rock surface half a foot away.

"Keep up."

Zhao Mengmeng stepped out of the cave.

She shifted her center of gravity to the limit, her boot soles stepping firmly into the footprints Lin Ye left behind.

The Wind-Chasing Claw fired at a short distance, its three-pronged hook biting into a hole in the rock wall.

The two of them hugged the sheer cliff, moving horizontally at a slow pace.

Their steps had to be placed on the solid line in the very center; the slightest deviation would cause the weathered rock at the edge to collapse instantly.

The wind-whistle slice trembled violently.

Lin Ye twisted his wrist, jamming his horizontal saber into the rock crevice, and lowered his entire body to the limit.

Zhao Mengmeng crouched in synchronization.

A massive rock was pushed and rolled by the gale, scraping past their heads and crashing into the sheer cliff.

Bang!

Gravel exploded outward.

Large rock shards smashed onto the rocky ridge.

A sharp stone point scraped open the beast-hide armor on the outside of Zhao Mengmeng's calf, leaving a bloody gash.

Her feet remained nailed to the spot, without a half-inch of deviation.

"Don't look back."

Lin Ye's voice came through the wind pressure.

The rocky ridge ahead broke off abruptly.

A half-zhang-wide gap cut off their path.

If they were on flat ground, they could cross it in one step.

But on a sheer cliff no wider than the back of a saber, there was nowhere to gain leverage for a running start.

Lin Ye opened his Left Eye.

Several meters above the break, a huge dark rock was suspended.

The bottom of the rock glowed with green light.

Two wind blade trajectories crisscrossed around it, pinning it in mid-air, pausing for a moment every four breaths.

"I'll go first, then pull you."

Lin Ye stared intently at the whistle slice on his wrist.

The vibration stopped.

His right arm fired the grappling hook diagonally.

The nano-secondary line wrapped around a protrusion at the bottom of the suspended rock above.

He didn't retract it with full force, only using the traction to pull himself upward.

His toes kicked hard against the edge of the break.

His body leaped into the air.

In mid-air, a newly formed wind blade swept past rapidly from below.

His military boots stepped onto the bottom of the suspended rock, exerting force to pivot again.

He landed steadily on the rocky ridge on the other side.

The tip of his horizontal saber immediately stabbed into the new rock wall.

Zhao Mengmeng timed the rhythm, and the Wind-Chasing Claw shot toward a rock crevice beside Lin Ye.

Just as she was about to jump.

The whistle slice on Lin Ye's wrist suddenly erupted in a high-frequency vibration.

The suspended rock above was forcibly pushed askew by the turbulent currents.

The foothold shifted, and the wind path was thrown into chaos.

"Don't step on it, jump straight!"

Zhao Mengmeng leaped across the gap.

The moment her body was suspended in the air, a crosswind swept across.

The Sand Spider tendon bundle at her waist was instantly pulled taut.

Lin Ye twisted the tendon bundle with one arm, his horizontal saber bending in the rock crevice.

Zhao Mengmeng was yanked and slammed heavily against the sheer cliff.

Her left hand gripped the remaining corner of the rocky ridge, and her right hand fired the Wind-Chasing Claw at close range into the rock wall.

The two exerted their strength together, dragging her onto the cliff edge.

Zhao Mengmeng lay on the stone ridge, cold sweat soaking through her inner armor.

Lin Ye reached out and pulled her up.

The two continued to push forward, stepping on an even thinner rocky ridge.

Ahead lay a ghastly white suspended stone bridge.

The bridge connected to a black stone platform protruding outward in the distance.

In Lin Ye's Left Eye vision, the entire white bridge was completely covered by a dense red surface.

The outer shell remained, but the inside had long been eroded away.

It would collapse at the slightest touch.

The platform was twenty-eight meters away.

It was extremely difficult to cross directly using only the grappling hook.

Above the white bridge hung three intersecting, wildly dancing broken bronze cables.

One of the broken cables would swing over the platform every three breaths.

The cable surface was covered in sharp cuts and definitely couldn't support the weight of two people.

"Split into two paths."

"I'll swing on the middle cable to the platform. You take the high line and throw your claw; I'll catch you with the traction once I land."

Zhao Mengmeng glanced at the broken cables, which were leaving afterimages in the gale.

"Understood."

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

Three.

Two.

One.

The middle cable swung back to the nearest point.

The grappling hook broke through the wind, firmly wrapping around the iron ring of the broken cable.

Traction erupted, and Lin Ye swung horizontally across the air above the white bridge.

Beneath him, the stone bridge shed stone powder in the wind pressure.

A large piece of gravel from the side smashed toward his head.

His horizontal saber surged up, its back hacking fiercely at the falling rock.

The recoil pushed him half a foot away in mid-air, and the gravel scraped past his backpack, carving off a piece.

He released the first broken cable and went to grab the second.

The Dark Weaver's gears suddenly jammed.

The secondary line lagged by half a beat.

Lin Ye plummeted suddenly.

"Catch!"

Zhao Mengmeng's three-pronged hook crossed over the bridge surface, biting into the second iron cable a step earlier.

The spare rope at her waist was thrown out at the same time.

Lin Ye reached out in mid-air, gripping the rope tightly, using the momentum to swing and land directly on the black stone platform.

His boot soles touched the outer edge of the stone platform, and his entire body slid downward.

His horizontal saber stabbed desperately into the ground.

Sparks sprayed wildly.

He knelt on one knee, turning his body to lock his chassis.

"Go!"

Zhao Mengmeng detached from the rocky ridge, and the Wind-Chasing Claw shot toward the third broken cable at the highest point.

The moment her body swept directly over the white bridge, the bridge structure disintegrated.

The entire white stone bridge turned into gravel filling the sky, falling into the black abyss.

The exploding recoil airflow directly knocked Zhao Mengmeng's trajectory off course.

She slid out of control toward a large area of red wind blades.

Lin Ye's Left Eye widened violently.

The grappling hook fired from the flat ground, hooking onto the tendon bundle at her waist.

The traction crystal core was squeezed to full power.

"Retract your legs!"

Zhao Mengmeng pulled her knees up sharply.

A brutal wind blade sliced right past the soles of her boots.

The special soles were sliced flat by more than half.

Under the massive pulling force, she fell onto the edge of the platform and rolled along the ground into the inner side.

Behind them, the only remaining rocky ridge shattered completely into the lightless deep valley.

The retreat was cut off.

The wind sound in front of the platform eased slightly.

Lin Ye stood up, his Left Eye looking through the dark wind toward the end of the platform.

A narrow path leading upward headed into the void.

At the end of the narrow path hung a massive black stone gate suspended by giant iron chains.

There was no foothold beneath the gate.

Only seven thick iron chains swung back and forth in the gale.

On each iron chain.

A large number of wind-dried skeletons hung densely.

The skeletons wore tattered backpacks and damaged military equipment.

Several dilapidated, translucent light screens flickered on and off amidst the pile of bones.

Nationality information was obscured by wind, sand, and flesh.

They were all Challengers.

All died before the gate.

Lin Ye lowered his horizontal saber with a backhand grip.

The wind-whistle slice on his wrist returned to stillness.

From the dead-black abyss beneath the platform came a huge, sluggish sound of chains rubbing together.

Lin Ye's Left Eye widened into a circle.

Boundless red light was rising rapidly from the bottom of the abyss.

The iron chains covered in the dry bones of Challengers were closing in on the platform, pushed by the strange winds.

Incomplete hand bones and rusted, dull grappling claws intersected eerily in mid-air.

The trajectory of every broken cable.

Sealed off the only exit of the platform.