[Vol. 1] Chapter 29 - Only Source of Light
Groaning, Xiaolan opened her eyes. The fall had certainly broken her back... or at least, it felt that way.
Next to her, Xiashi whimpered softly, a fragile sound in the vast darkness. She hugged her injured arm close to her chest, her usual graceful composure shattered into raw, unguarded fear.
Lin Feiyu breathed heavily beside them. "The stupid ground was too fragile," she grumbled, trying to mask her pain.
As Xiaolan's eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw Lin Feiyu's muscular arms dripping with blood from the forced qi use. "Have you figured out how to get back up yet, since the poison wore off already?" she asked.
Lin Feiyu stiffened. "... I used my family technique to cancel it out, but I'll be weakened after..." Her face flushed red with embarrassment.
Xiaolan wanted to cry. So it didn't make a difference either way?! I can't carry these two and climb out! And there's still a chance those bandits are waiting up there.
She wrapped a supportive arm around Xiashi's waist and held her other hand out to Lin Feiyu.
"Let's find another way out. Need a hand?"
"Huh?" Lin Feiyu clicked her tongue in suspicion. "Are you trying to put your hands on me again? I'm not letting you take advantage of—"
"Did you two hear that?" Xiashi interrupted, her voice tense.
A new sound reached them, the skittering of tiny legs, thousands upon thousands of them, screeching faintly. It was the sound of countless tiny feet crawling over stone, like a horde of hungry insects.
A blood-curdling scream tore through the cavern, sharp and high like the screech of rusted iron grating against stone.
"Xiashi!! It's alright, I'm h—" Xiaolan began, turning to comfort her, only to realize the one screaming was Lin Feiyu.
Lin Feiyu feared no bandits or cultivators, but the thought of disgusting, vile bugs crawling on her turned her legs to jelly. She stood utterly petrified.
Without a second thought, Xiaolan wrapped her arms around both Lin Feiyu and Xiashi, hauling them onto her poor, overworked arms yet again.
Lin Feiyu panicked, her fear overriding her pride. "Run faster, they're gaining on us!"
"You try running with two people on your back!" Xiaolan shot back, glaring at her even as her legs pumped furiously. She ran so fast she could have qualified for the Olympics.
Xiashi's face paled as a sheet. She recognized the threat. Bone-eater spiders, a creature that attacks humans and animals in swarms.
After what felt like an eternity of running, Xiaolan huffed and rounded a corner into another section of the vast cave system. They had temporarily escaped, finally losing the relentless swarm of bone-eater spiders.
Xiaolan was drenched in sweat. Lin Feiyu looked like she wanted to pee herself. Xiashi trembled so violently she seemed ready to cross the River Styx.
"Did we... lose them?" Xiaolan asked, half-afraid she was jinxing them by asking.
"Don't think so," Lin Feiyu gasped, her lungs burning and her throat dry. "My qi is still weakened."
Feeling nauseous, Xiashi offered a sliver of hope. "Bone-eater spiders spend most of their time underground... Maybe light could help? It might repel them."
Lin Feiyu crossed her arms. "But there's nothing to burn down here..." She trailed off, noticing the two of them eyeing her up and down. "What?"
She then heard a faint humming sound and yelped in fear, thinking the bone-eater spiders had returned. She calmed down when she saw it was just a cluster of roots.
"Tree roots? Here? Ah, leyline roots! But they're hard to use as torches, and the fire needs fuel too—" She stopped again, growing increasingly unnerved. "Why do the two of you keep staring at me?"
"Since you're wearing so many layers," Xiaolan suggested with infuriating logic, "surely we can use that as fuel?"
Lin Feiyu was dumbfounded. "Are you kidding me?!" It was true—she had deliberately worn more layers to sweat more and show off her sculpted physique.
"We fell down here because of you. Are you expecting us ladies to strip and burn our clothes?" Xiaolan scoffed.
"..." If there was a favorability panel, it would surely show Lin Feiyu's favorability toward her at -1000000 and her health depleted.
It took three full heartbeats for her to respond. "My robes are designed with Tianlan silk! They're waterproof and non-flammable! They can't possibly be used for fuel...!"
The material was specifically made for cultivators like her, a fact she now clung to desperately.
"If the robes won't work," Xiaolan pressed on with deadpan seriousness, "then what about your pants?"
"..."
Lin Feiyu turned into a statue, then audibly cracked.
"Pfft." Xiashi desperately bit her bottom lip until it bled. She had never expected that Xiaolan could be this shameless.
What was worse, Xiaolan's face was so utterly serious that she couldn't even form a proper refute.
Feiyu thought it over. Among the three of them, she was the only Alpha. Xiaolan was a Beta. Xiashi was an Omega. The weight of that realization settled in her chest.
And so, in the dark and mysterious underground paths, within that boundless darkness, the young alpha's pants became their only source of light.
Swoosh! The swarm of bone-eater spiders had finally found them.
"They're here again!" Xiaolan yelled, swinging the flaming leyline root like a torch and forcing the creatures to skitter back.
"It's working! They stopped!" Lin Feiyu cheered, the flickering light a fragile symbol of hope.
"Let's keep moving! Once Miss Feiyu's... garment burns up, we'll be in danger again!" Xiashi urged, her brows furrowed in determination.
"Ok!" Xiaolan agreed, waving the torch at the swarms as they ran. "Xiashi, does your foot still hurt?"
Xiashi glanced over her shoulder. "I'm alright, but..." She pointed behind them, where Lin Feiyu was briskly following with comically small, baby steps. "The actual danger's over there..."
"We're about to die and you're worried about your dignity? Do you want to get eaten in a nicer pose?!" Xiaolan barked at her.
"Shut up!! This is your fault!" Lin Feiyu growled back.
Watching them bicker, Xiashi could only think of them as two squabbling dogs. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Look! There's a light ahead!"
Upon arrival, they were met with a miracle. Before them stood a tree with a massive trunk, its leaves a luminous, pale white. It was absurd... a majestic tree growing deep underground.
Lin Feiyu's eyes widened in recognition. "A leyline tree!"
Whoosh. The fire on their torch blew out, plunging them back into panic. Xiaolan cried, "Ahh! The fire went out! Lin Feiyu, do you have anything else to burn?!"
"Your fire, your problem!" Lin Feiyu yelled, desperately holding onto what little dignity she had left.
"They're coming!! Take it off, Lin Feiyu!" Xiaolan shrieked, grabbing and shaking her.
"I'd rather die!" Lin Feiyu frothed, clutching her clothes.
"Both of you, calm down! Look!" Xiashi interjected, dragging the two toward the leyline tree. It hummed with a strange power, its pale light pulsing outward and causing the swarm to recoil and back away.
"Phew... looks like you get to keep your underwear after all!" Xiaolan chuckled, wiping her brow.
"I was never going to give it to you!" Lin Feiyu retorted, her brows furrowed in utter exasperation.
The three of them were helpless. Trapped deep underground with a swarming horde of bone-eater spiders, they might as well strike a pose. At least they would die beautifully.
"Look at that!" Xiashi gasped, staring at the top of the leyline tree. The other two looked up.
There, at the very top of the huge trunk, was a fruit among the white leaves. It looked completely alien. To Xiaolan, it looked like a dragonfruit with muted colors.
"It looks rare!" Xiashi whispered, a flicker of recognition in her eyes as she stared at the fruit. "But we need to get out of here first!"
Lin Feiyu agreed. "I will climb the tree and..." She stopped. A cold breeze reminded her she was not wearing pants.
Absolutely not! She turned to Xiaolan. "Xiaolan. You climb the tree and get the fruit. We will fight the swarms."
"Huh? But that was your idea?" Xiaolan blinked but started climbing anyway. No problem for her. She had been called a monkey in her past life!
As she climbed, the tree's light began to dim. The spiders surged forward. Lin Feiyu blasted them with her qi, but her power was still weak. Have I not recovered yet?! She looked up at Xiaolan. "Hurry up!"
The ground spun below. If she fell from here, she'd be paste. No respawns. No second chances.
Another handhold. Another branch. Pull. Push. Her arms screamed. Her fingers went numb. Sweat made everything slippery.
Xiaolan yanked the 'dragonfruit' from its branch. It was clearly rare, but knowing this otome game, it was unusable for her in early stages.
"I got it!" she yelled, and threw it down to Lin Feiyu. Her aim was perfect. Unfortunately, it was a perfect headshot, smacking Feiyu squarely in the head.
Xiashi watched the whole thing, her gaze fixed on the fruit, her face filled with grievance and loss.
Lin Feiyu's face darkened with fury. In her entire life, she had never been so humiliated. But with the spiders closing in, she grit her teeth, grabbed the fruit, and ate it. Instantly, pure energy surged through her.
The poison vanished from her body and her full qi erupted, blasting the nearest swarms to dust.
The fruit was effective. With more time to cultivate its full potential, she could have ascended in her cultivation.
BOOM.
The force of Lin Feiyu's unleashed power shook the very foundations of the cave. Stalactites rained down from the ceiling above, and one found its mark, striking Xiaolan squarely on the head.
Is this woman petty?!
Her vision flickered, then faded into darkness. The screeching of the spiders and the roar of the blast faded into an eerie, distant quiet.