2025-11-11 22:12:50
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CHAPTER 230: THE GROUND THAT LEARNS
The corridor beyond the bowl felt honest at first. The grooves beneath their boots were shallow but clear, running straight, offering reliable resistance. The walls stood firm and vertical, their texture rough enough to ground the senses. After the distortion they had endured, this stability felt almost unreal, like a kindness given too freely.No one trusted it.Su Yu maintained the same deliberate pace, neither accelerating nor easing. The injured soldier remained suspended at the heart of the column, his weight familiar again, heavy but predictable. Linxue continued rotation with disciplined calm, though fatigue now lived deep in her joints. Her wrists burned with every adjustment. Her shoulders felt packed with stone. Still, the motion remained unbroken.They advanced deeper.At first, the floor responded as expected. Weight pressed down. Stone resisted. Balance returned cleanly. Muscles relaxed just enough to move efficiently again. Breathing evened out. The column loosened by a
CHAPTER 229: THE PLACE WHERE BALANCE BREAKS
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
CHAPTER 228: THE PULSE THAT HUNTS
The corridor beyond the hollow did not tighten immediately. Instead, it stretched forward in a long, deceptive straight line, wide enough to suggest relief, tall enough to ease the bend in tired backs. The stone here was smoother, darker, polished by time or intention, and the grooves that once guided their steps were absent. The floor felt neutral underfoot, neither resisting nor yielding, and that absence of reaction set every nerve on edge.The valley was silent.No vibration. No pressure. No response.Su Yu did not slow the column, but he did not quicken it either. He maintained a steady pace, one chosen not for comfort but for control. The injured soldier remained suspended at the center, his weight constant, familiar, yet somehow more present in the stillness. Linxue continued the rotation without pause, her movements smooth and practiced, though her arms ached deeply now, fatigue embedded in bone rather than muscle.The harness felt different again.Without feedback from the fl
CHAPTER 227: THE HOLLOW THAT REFUSES
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
CHAPTER 226: THE BREATHING STONE
The narrow corridor twisted downward once more, walls pressing tight enough to scrape shoulders yet leaving just enough space for careful maneuvering. The grooves beneath their boots pulsed faintly, irregularly, like the shallow inhale and exhale of some immense creature sleeping beneath the stone. Every pulse traveled into muscles, bones, and through the harness to the injured soldier, whose rotation remained Linxue’s constant concern.The injured soldier swayed slightly with each pulse, subtle enough that only trained awareness could detect it. Linxue adjusted immediately, rotating him in micro-increments that transferred weight evenly across the carriers. Each adjustment flowed into the column seamlessly. Knees flexed, hips shifted, shoulders aligned instinctively. One misstep could have sent momentum swinging dangerously.The floor was uneven, fractured in a chaotic pattern of plates and narrow ridges. Some plates tilted when weight was applied, some sank slowly, some resisted ent
CHAPTER 225: THE WEIGHT THAT DOES NOT REST
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
