Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

Dead silence.

Only heavy, suppressed breathing remained in the sealed room. The air was thick with the stench of burning, blood, and an indescribable, acrid smell, as if the soul had been scorched.

After the chilling echo of the fall faded completely from the dark abyss outside the door, a deeper, all-encompassing silence returned. Only the eerie blue glow emanating from the bronze pillar flickered erratically, illuminating the two silent figures standing at the entrance and the terrified, disoriented people inside the secret chamber.

Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling" stood with their backs to the crowd, still facing the abyss outside the door. Their clothes were torn in many places and stained with a dark red, almost black, highly corrosive, viscous liquid, with wisps of smoke rising from some spots. The lines of their shoulders and backs were taut, and their hands holding the swords were as steady as rocks, but upon closer inspection, their fingertips were trembling slightly, and blood from the cuts on their hands dripped slowly down the hilts of their swords.

They remained motionless in that position, like two wounded but still unyielding guardians, until they were certain there was no further movement below the abyss. Only then did the deadly threat that had gripped their hearts completely dissipate, and their tense bodies relaxed almost imperceptibly.

"Cough...cough cough..." Wu Xie was the first to recover from the aftershocks of the mental shock. He wiped the liquid from his face—a mixture of cold sweat and blood—and stood up, leaning against the wall, his glasses askew. "Little...Little Brother, you guys..."

Zhang Qiling turned around first. His face was frighteningly pale, his lips tightly pressed together, but his eyes remained sharp. He glanced at Zhang Qiling, their eyes met, and they silently confirmed something. Zhang Qiling shook his head almost imperceptibly at Wu Xie, indicating that he was alright, then walked to the side, took out clean water and a clean cloth from his backpack, and began to silently clean the stains on his hands and body. He tore open the corroded and tattered sleeve, revealing several deep, bone-revealing wounds on his arm, with flesh rolled back and ominous dark red edges. He simply rinsed them, sprinkled on some special wound medicine, and hastily wrapped them with bandages, without even frowning.

Zhang Qiling slowly turned around. He looked slightly better than "Zhang Qiling," but a large patch of clothing on his left shoulder and chest was completely corroded, the skin underneath was red, swollen, and ulcerated, oozing dark yellow tissue fluid. His right hand was the worst affected; his entire palm and forearm were covered in a strange, charred black color, as if burned by intense heat, and his fingertips were a bloody mess, with bone faintly visible. This was the result of the backlash from the violent energy within when he finally pierced the Void Core Guardian's chest vortex and stirred its core.

Instead of immediately tending to his wounds, he looked up at the corner of the secret chamber's ceiling. There, the levitating live-streaming sphere hovered silently, its surface covered in cracks and scorch marks, with tiny sparks still emanating from several spots. The camera was completely shattered, and the indicator lights were extinguished, clearly indicating that it had been utterly destroyed in the energy shock of the battle and the roaring vibrations of the Ruins Core Guardian.

The live stream was interrupted.

Zhang Qiling glanced at the wrecked broadcast ball, his face expressionless, as if he had merely confirmed a trivial matter. Then he lowered his head and began tending to his gruesome wounds. His movements remained steady, as if he felt no pain.

The last image transmitted by the floating livestream ball froze on the moment the two men turned around, their bodies covered in wounds yet standing as straight as pine trees, followed by the complete blackout of the screen. The livestream didn't shut down immediately, but the image was frozen, with only the frantically scrolling comments proving how thrilling what had just happened, and how excited and terrified the viewers were.

Prophet: My God! We won?! We really won?!

To silence the so-called experts: What the hell is that monster?! Is that a black hole in its chest?!

The fan club president: Husband!! Your hand!! (bursts into tears)

Did Qi Ling get hurt today? He's badly injured... (heartbroken)

The other one was also seriously injured: both were injured... but they were both standing! So cool! So painful!

Where did Sunglasses Man go?: Blackie and Sister Ning also joined the fight! Their teamwork was amazing!

Fatty, hold on! The fat guy actually didn't back down! He even helped!

The Rise of the Evil Emperor: Wu Xie held on too! Well done, everyone!

Archaeology Suffocation Team: This level of combat... it's no longer archaeology, is it?

Special effects team deserve a bonus: That final combined sword and slash attack was absolutely explosive!

Brothers united: The Zhang brothers combined! Invincible! (Brotherhood! Pure and true!)

What's behind the door: If the core of the vortex is punctured, will the door be affected?

The ball exploded: The live stream ball is gone... Will we never be able to watch it again? No way!

Server crashed: Slow down the barrage of comments! It's lagging!

A massive ship launchs: Gifts flood in! Let's treat the guys' injuries!

Stay safe! What do we do next? Get out of here quickly!

The people inside the secret room were unaware of the uproar on the internet. They were busy tending to their own and their companions' injuries, checking their equipment, and... processing the shock of the brief but extremely dangerous battle they had just fought.

"My goodness..." Fatty Wang slumped to the ground, leaning against the wall, his face deathly pale, his lips trembling. "That thing just now... was it this pillar's... inner demon? Or an ancestor? I almost thought I was going to return to my original form..."

"It's a concrete defense mechanism for the accumulation of pollution," Xie Yuchen's voice was hoarse. He too had suffered serious internal injuries, and there was still blood at the corner of his mouth, but he forced himself to check on Huo Xiuxiu's condition. Huo Xiuxiu had mainly fainted due to the mental shock. After he revived her by pinching her philtrum, she was still weak and leaned against the wall, panting. "The jade tablet records mentioned that when the core of the pillar is polluted to a certain extent, it will spontaneously condense into... a 'guardian,' eliminating anything that might threaten the stability of the 'core' or attempt to contact the 'gap.' We took the jade box and fought here, completely activating it."

"Fortunately... it's over." A-Ning quickly bandaged a deep, bone-revealing claw mark on her arm, injured by the energy emanating from the Void Core Guardian. She glanced at the two silently tending to their wounds by the door, her eyes filled with complex emotions. In the battle just now, she, Jiang Xun Gu, and Hei Xiazi had all given their all to disrupt the fight, but what truly decided the outcome was the two's desperate, life-or-death strike that went straight for the core. That kind of decisiveness and tacit understanding even shocked her, someone who was used to working alone.

Jiang Xun Gu was the least injured, suffering only superficial wounds and a mild concussion. He helped bandage the wound on Hei Xia Zi's ribs that had been torn open by the claw wind. Hei Xia Zi grimaced in pain, but still kept talking: "Ouch... be gentle! I'm telling you, Zhang Men, next time you encounter a tough opponent like this, give us a heads-up beforehand so we can plan our formation or something. Don't just blindly charge in... it looks painful."

Zhang Qiling, having finished treating his own wound, walked over to Zhang Qiling and silently handed him a new roll of bandage and medicine powder. Zhang Qiling took it, whispered his thanks, and continued treating his charred arm. Zhang Qiling stood beside him, watching his movements, occasionally helping to secure the bandage when Zhang Qiling needed to use one hand. There were still few words exchanged between them, but the unspoken concern and support were palpable to everyone present.

Wu Xie had recovered and took out his first-aid kit to help, but looking at the charred and festering wound on Zhang Qiling's hand, his hand trembled slightly, unsure of where to begin. Zhang Qiling glanced at him, shook his head, and indicated that he could do it.

"Fatty, stop pretending to be dead," Wu Xie turned to Fatty Wang and kicked him. "Check your equipment and see how much you still have. We can't stay here any longer, we need to get out of here."

"Go? Where to?" the fat man cried, his face contorted with despair. "Up? Who knows what else is out there. Down? That big guy just fell down; he might not be quite dead yet..."

"Down." Zhang Qiling suddenly spoke, picking up the bronze compass that had been placed on the ground earlier. The compass had fallen to the ground during the earlier tremor, but it didn't seem to be broken. At this moment, one of the two black pointers in the center was trembling slightly, pointing straight down into the abyss, while the other was pointing diagonally in the direction they had come from, but at a more defined angle than before.

"Below?" Xie Yuchen frowned. "The Void Core Guardians came up from below. Below should be the most contaminated area of ​​the 'Pillar Core,' possibly even close to the projection of the 'Gap.' Wouldn't going down there be like walking into a trap?"

"The guard is dead," Zhang Qiling said slowly, looking at the compass. "The activity level of the 'core' is decreasing. The compass is pointing...a change. Below, there might be...another path. Or, an exit."

Zhang Qiling had also treated his arm and wrapped it in thick bandages. He walked to "Zhang Qiling" and glanced at the compass, then sensed the surrounding atmosphere and the extremely subtle, almost imperceptible pulse of the bronze pillar beneath his feet.

"The vibration has stopped," he said.

Everyone was taken aback, then carefully sensed it. Indeed, after the core guardian was destroyed, the continuous, unsettling slight tremors of the entire bronze pillar seemed to have completely stopped. Even the eerie blue glow had become much more stable and gentle, no longer flickering.

"Could it be... that killing that guard actually made this pillar... 'calm' down?" Black Bear pondered.

"Perhaps the pollution and ferocity of 'nuclear' energy need a 'concrete form' to contain and release," Xie Yuchen pondered. "By eliminating that 'concrete form,' we've essentially temporarily dispersed the outermost layer of pollution aggregates, causing the 'nuclear' energy itself to fall into a state of low activity? It's like when a person has a high fever and sweats profusely, their body temperature actually drops a little?"

"Does that mean..." Wu Xie's eyes lit up, "Now is actually a relatively safe time? We can go down and explore? With the compass pointing the way, maybe there really is a way out below, instead of an even deeper abyss?"

"The risks remain significant," Zhang Qiling cautioned. "The 'nuclear' situation is only temporarily calm; the contamination continues. The situation below is unknown."

Zhang Qiling remained silent for a few seconds, his gaze sweeping over the wounded and exhausted people in the secret room, and then looking at the dark abyss below the door that seemed to have calmed down.

"Take a break. Ten minutes," he decided. "Then, continue."