The descent did not end in a sudden drop or a dramatic opening. It softened into a long chamber that curved inward like a giant ribcage made of stone. The walls leaned close, not enough to crush, but enough to press presence into every breath. The air was colder here, heavier, carrying a faint mineral taste that settled on the tongue and lingered. The grooves beneath their boots pulsed slowly, deeper than before, as if the valley itself had slowed its breathing to study them.The injured soldier hung at the center of the formation, suspended in the harness that had become both lifeline and burden. His weight felt different now. Not heavier, but more aware. Every vibration of the floor passed through the straps, into the frame, into the carriers’ arms and shoulders. Linxue sensed it immediately. The way the harness responded to movement had changed. The valley was no longer only resisting. It was learning.She adjusted her grip, fingers tightening, then easing, rotating the soldier in

The descent ended without warning. The slope leveled abruptly, forcing a sharp adjustment in posture. Knees bent deeply. Spines straightened by instinct. The injured soldier’s weight surged forward for a brief moment before Linxue corrected the balance, rotating him smoothly until the harness settled back into perfect alignment. The floor beneath them was unnervingly still. No pulse. No vibration. Just cold stone that felt empty beneath their boots.The silence here was different. It was not pressure. It was absence.Breathing sounded too loud. Heartbeats felt exposed.The corridor widened slowly, revealing a vast hollow where the ceiling vanished into darkness above. The walls were bare, stripped of grooves, stripped of texture, polished to a dull sheen that reflected movement faintly, distorting shapes and distance. The valley was no longer testing reaction. It was waiting.Each step echoed softly now, the sound traveling farther than expected, returning altered, thinner, as if filt

The corridor ahead appeared calmer, but the stillness felt deliberate, arranged. The grooves in the floor were familiar again, evenly spaced, reassuring in a way that set nerves on edge. The walls straightened, their surfaces smoother, less aggressive, as if the valley wished to appear merciful after the pressure it had already applied.No one trusted it.Steps continued at a controlled pace. Fatigue had settled deep into muscle and bone now, no longer sharp, no longer urgent, but constant. The kind of exhaustion that whispered instead of screamed. Linxue felt it in the fine tremor running through her forearms, in the way her fingers resisted opening fully after tightening the harness lines. Still, the rotation never faltered. Each movement remained precise, measured, born of discipline rather than strength.The injured soldier hung steady, his breathing shallow but consistent. Heat loss had slowed, but his body remained fragile, dependent on every adjustment made around him. The harn

The corridor did not open into the hollow so much as it surrendered to it. Stone pulled back slowly, the walls widening by small degrees until the space ahead revealed itself as a vast depression carved deep into the valley’s body. The ceiling rose higher than before, but instead of relief, the height introduced unease. Sound thinned. Distance became difficult to judge. The hollow felt unfinished, as if it rejected the idea of being crossed.The floor dipped gently at first, then more insistently, sloping inward toward a broad, uneven center. The stone underfoot was scarred and fractured, not with sharp breaks but with long, shallow seams that twisted across the surface like healed wounds. The grooves they had relied on before were faint here, barely present, as if the valley had stripped away guidance and left only resistance.Su Yu slowed the column further, almost to a crawl. The injured soldier hung at the center of the formation, his weight constant, unrelenting. Linxue maintaine

The corridor beyond the vanished pulse felt wrong from the first step. Not hostile, not resisting, but subtly misaligned, as if the stone itself had forgotten which way was level. The floor looked straight, the walls appeared vertical, yet the body sensed a quiet contradiction. Balance required correction even while standing still.Su Yu did not call a halt. Stopping here would only allow the distortion to settle deeper into muscle memory. He advanced at a controlled pace, forcing movement before doubt could root itself.The injured soldier remained suspended at the center, his weight unchanged, yet Linxue felt it differently now. Rotation no longer returned the same feedback. Where motion once flowed smoothly through the harness, it now met faint delays, tiny hesitations that did not align with gravity or momentum. She adjusted immediately, refining rotation into tighter cycles, keeping the soldier’s mass in constant motion so no false equilibrium could trap it.The carriers felt the