Darkness. Tight and absolute. The enraged roars of the Alpha Stone-Lizard echoed from the cave behind him, but the sound was muffled, the creature's path blocked by tons of solid rock. Lin Ke's heart hammered against his ribs, adrenaline singing in his veins. He was alive. He was safe, for the moment.
He leaned against the cold, damp wall of the fissure, taking deep, shuddering breaths. The corrupted egg in his arms felt like a lead weight, a trophy from a victory that felt dangerously incomplete. The Rock Vole, pressed close to his side in the narrow space, let out a low, worried chirp.
"I'm okay, little guy," Lin Ke whispered, his voice hoarse. "We're okay."
He activated his flashlight, its beam cutting a sharp, lonely cone into the oppressive dark. The passage was just as he'd hoped: too narrow for the Alpha to pursue. The only way out was forward—or rather, downward. The fissure was not a horizontal crack, but a natural tunnel that sloped steeply into the depths of the mountain. There was no going back.
"Let's see where this goes," he said, a grim determination replacing his fear.
He secured the precious egg in his pack, careful to cushion it as much as possible. With the Rock Vole leading the way, its small, agile body perfect for navigating the treacherous path, they began their descent. The journey was slow and arduous. The tunnel twisted and turned, sometimes opening into small pockets, other times narrowing so much that Lin Ke had to squeeze through sideways.
After what felt like an hour of claustrophobic descent, he began to notice a change. The air, which had been stale and musty, now carried a fresh, clean scent, like damp earth after a rainstorm. The Gene Editor, which had been dormant, flickered to life with a new reading.
[Environmental Scan: Ambient Abyssal Corruption levels are decreasing rapidly.] [New Energy Signature Detected: A faint, pure, Earth-attribute energy is present. Signature shows a 92% match with the 'Earth Gene Essence' previously analyzed.]
Lin Ke's eyes widened in the darkness. Earth Gene Essence? The very material he had used to perform the Rock Vole's first, miraculous gene repair? What was a concentration of it doing deep inside this mountain? His curiosity surged, pushing back the exhaustion. He urged the Rock Vole onward, his pace quickening.
The downward slope eventually leveled out, and the narrow tunnel opened abruptly into a vast, hidden space. Lin Ke stepped out of the fissure and stopped dead, his flashlight beam revealing a scene of breathtaking, subterranean beauty.
He was in a massive, circular grotto. The ceiling was a hundred feet high, adorned with glittering, crystal-like stalactites. The air was cool and pure. But the source of wonder was in the center of the grotto. A small, serene pool of crystal-clear water was fed by a tiny waterfall trickling down the far wall. The entire cavern was lit by a soft, ethereal green glow, emanating from clusters of phosphorescent moss growing around the pool's edge.
And growing among the moss, jutting out from the earth like perfectly formed sculptures, were several dozen glowing, amber-colored crystals. They pulsed with a gentle, steady light, radiating the pure, earthy energy his Gene Editor had detected.
He didn't need to guess. The Gene Editor's interface was already displaying the analysis in brilliant, golden text.
[Target Identified: Earthheart Crystal] [Description: A rare, naturally formed concentration of pure Earth-attribute genetic energy. A Grade-B material used in the formulation of high-level gene repair solutions and as a primary catalyst for the evolution of elite Rock-type battle pets.]
Lin Ke let out a long, slow breath of pure astonishment. He had escaped a monster's lair only to stumble into a treasure trove. He had come to the Blackstone Wilderness seeking the essence of corruption to awaken one pet, and had instead found the key to the future evolution of another. This single, hidden grotto held more value than all the prize money he had won in the championship. The perilous journey had yielded a reward beyond his wildest dreams.