The ninth cavern was like a series of hellish scenes, constantly shifting and swapping, giving one an overwhelming sense of terror.
One moment it was a vast expanse of yellow sand; the next, it had transformed into a bottomless mire. And within that mire, strange abyssal creatures lurked, stirring restlessly.
Jiang Chen treaded as cautiously as one walking on thin ice.
He knew full well that in a place like this, the slightest misstep could bring about catastrophic consequences.
Fortunately, the seal within his sea of consciousness grew more active precisely when danger was greatest. Whenever this seal stirred, Jiang Chen was able to perceive sources of danger almost instantly.
At times like these, Jiang Chen's all-around versatility truly shone. On several occasions, he became trapped in the abyssal mire, but the heaven-defying vines of the Ice Fire Demon Lotus always managed to pull him back from the brink, time and time again.
The mire was certainly terrifying, but the endlessly growing vines of the Ice Fire Demon Lotus were equally tenacious. In the end, Jiang Chen simply used the Demon Lotus's vines as bridges.
With the Ice Fire Demon Lotus forming bridges, crossing the abyssal mire became far easier for Jiang Chen.
With that, he pressed onward without encountering any further problems.
Occasionally, abyssal creatures emerged to stir up trouble, but Jiang Chen dispatched them all with ease.
The mire could not hold Jiang Chen, and he pushed steadily forward before long.
Before he knew it, Jiang Chen had burst out of the abyssal mire and arrived at a stretch of grassland. The grassy plain extended only a few li before giving way to a field of scattered boulders ahead.
The rocks stood in chaotic formations, each one uniquely shaped, creating a veritable stone forest that sprawled across Jiang Chen's path.
Jiang Chen's mind stirred, and he was just pondering his next move when the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled. Countless boulders shot skyward as though they had sprouted wings, hurtling back down like cannonballs in an impossibly dense barrage, raining straight toward him.
The momentum carried by these falling boulders was nothing like the simple physical force one would expect from mere rock. Instead, they wielded a terrifying power of void-locking.
The innumerable boulders plummeted like meteors, interlocking to form a bizarre spatial barrier that sealed off Jiang Chen's escape routes in every direction, constructing a cage of void.
Jiang Chen reacted swiftly, activating the Earth Essence Origin Pearl once more. The pearl immediately generated a protective zone around him, ensuring that the descending boulders could never reach his body.
"Damn it. This ninth cavern truly is a heart-stopping ordeal at every turn," Jiang Chen muttered, breaking into a cold sweat after his repeated close calls.
Several times, he had narrowly avoided being struck.
"If a less versatile young man were to attempt the ninth cavern, he'd surely suffer terribly."
Jiang Chen exercised extreme caution.
This field of boulders stretched endlessly. Countless rocks soared through the air — though none could actually strike Jiang Chen, they piled up all around him, completely blocking every path forward.
Jiang Chen gazed at the sky filled with flying boulders, packed so densely they made his scalp tingle. Could this be the collapse of a hundred thousand mountains? How could there be so many rocks hurtling through the air?
The rain of boulders, blotting out the sky, grew fiercer and fiercer. Though the Earth Essence Origin Pearl's barrier protected Jiang Chen and kept the space around him safe for several zhang in every direction, the seemingly endless avalanche of rock simply would not stop.
In the end, the accumulated boulders piled up and filled every inch of the area surrounding him.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the rocks had piled up into a mountain range stretching dozens of li. And Jiang Chen was thoroughly buried beneath it all, trapped at the very bottom.
At this point, Jiang Chen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He finally understood — the flying boulders had never been intended as weapons against him in the first place.
These rocks were clearly a formation, a powerful suppression formation.
The formation would ultimately take the shape of a mountain, crushing any creature that dared set foot here.
By the time Jiang Chen realized this, it was already somewhat too late.
In theory, a mountain formed from loosely piled boulders, without the compacting of ages, should not have been particularly sturdy.
Yet with Jiang Chen's physical strength alone, demolishing such a towering mountain was clearly impossible.
Most critically, this mountain of boulders was unmistakably backed by a formation, which bestowed upon it an additional layer of power. It was this formation-enhanced strength that proved the most difficult to overcome.
Jiang Chen, pinned beneath the mountain, attempted several times to break free but failed each time. He knew that brute physical force alone would never suffice.
He considered burrowing underground, but the formation's enhancement had clearly accounted for that as well — the ground was sealed just as imperviously.
Jiang Chen tried a great many methods, yet none allowed him to free himself by even a fraction.
He was caught between laughter and tears.
"Who would have thought — after tearing through everything so decisively, I'd stumble right here in this mountain of boulders. My life isn't in danger, but being stuck at the ninth cavern... I refuse to accept that!"
Jiang Chen was genuinely unwilling to give up.
He had entered the ninth cavern for the sole purpose of conquering it. If he couldn't master this trial, he would never rest easy.
According to the ninth cavern's rules, if Jiang Chen failed to leave within one day, his attempt would be counted as a failure.
Though there was still plenty of time before the day was up, being suppressed like this, he might as well have been trapped for ten days or a hundred — he would never break free.
Under the crushing pressure of this boulder mountain, even a Heavenly Domain powerhouse would likely be at a loss.
"Could it be that the ninth cavern is truly insurmountable?" Jiang Chen's heart burned with unwillingness, but his mind remained clear, and he forced himself to stay calm.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
That's right!
An idea struck Jiang Chen like lightning, and he recalled the Gold-Munching Mouse clan. At the thought, a grin spread across his face.
"I've been such a fool, sitting on such a perfect force without even thinking to use it!"
The Gold-Munching Mouse clan was said to be able to gnaw through anything under the heavens — there was no fortress in all the world they could not chew through. This mountain of boulders was formidable, but not so much that the Gold-Munching Mice couldn't devour it.
More importantly, the army of Gold-Munching Mice at Jiang Chen's disposal was staggeringly vast, reaching a terrifying scale.
At the mere thought, Jiang Chen immediately summoned the Gold-Munching Mouse King. "Old Gold, I'm trapped inside a mountain of boulders, and it's reinforced by a formation. My physical strength alone can't break it apart. Do you have any way to gnaw it hollow?"
The Gold-Munching Mouse King let out a raspy laugh. "Chen Shao, isn't this exactly what our Gold-Munching Mouse clan does best? You should have come to me long ago."
"Children, come on out!"
Under the Gold-Munching Mouse King's call, the Gold-Munching Mouse clan streamed out of the Wanhao Stone Nest in an endless torrent. Like floodwaters pouring through an opened dam, countless mice poured forth and immediately began gnawing in every direction.
The Gold-Munching Mice's power of consumption truly left even Jiang Chen dumbstruck with admiration.
In less than half an hour, the mice had gnawed out a long, clear tunnel.
Jiang Chen took stock of the situation and sensed that the tunnel was already quite close to the outside.
"Old Gold, that should be enough. Have your children head back to the nest. I don't want to expose you all!" Inside the mountain, Jiang Chen had no fear of the Gold-Munching Mouse clan being discovered. But if they completely hollowed out the mountain and were left exposed in the open, the outside world would certainly be able to observe them.