The labyrinth's walls closed like a stone fist, sealing Li Tian and Xia in the serpent's chamber. Dust rained from the ceiling as the others' shouts faded behind tons of shifting rock.
"We have to go back!" Xia clawed at the rubble, her healing qi sparking uselessly against the mountain's will.
Li Tian gripped her shoulder. "The labyrinth wants us separated. The others will find their own path."
A grinding noise echoed ahead. The chamber's far wall split, revealing three passages:
1. **Left** – A narrow tunnel glistening with bioluminescent fungi, the air sweet with decay.
2. **Center** – A stairwell descending into perfect darkness, its steps humming with trapped qi.
3. **Right** – A jagged crevice exhaling sulfurous heat, the walls throbbing like arteries.
Xia's fingers brushed the Codex corruption creeping up Li Tian's neck. "Your choice."
He unsheathed his blade. "The right. Heat means movement. Movement means exit."
"Or a forge," Xia muttered, following him into the inferno's breath.
---
**The Splintered Party**
On the other side of the collapse, Jin spat blood and curses. "Of course the martyr takes the spicy path. Leftovers get the scenic route."
Old Guo's staff illuminated a vaulted corridor strung with cocoons of calcified silk. "Beware the Weaver's brood."
Daiyu nocked her last arrow. "You've been here before."
"In dreams," the elder said. "The Magic Emperor's nightmares built this place."
Renshu hefted his hammer. "Let's smash some nightmares."
Bo's qi-sight flickered over the cocoons. "They're… breathing."
The first cocoon split.
---
**Li Tian's Trial by Fire**
The crevice opened into a cavern where rivers of magma coiled around obsidian islands. Li Tian leapt between them, Xia's vines lashing around his waist whenever the Codex's corruption stalled his reflexes.
"Slow down!" she shouted. "Your meridians are shredding!"
A geyser erupted, hurling molten rock. Li Tian deflected it with a qi-infused slash, the corruption flaring to absorb the backlash. "No time. The key's pulse is fading."
The crystalline key from the serpent guardian glowed in his palm, its light dimming with each step away from the labyrinth's heart.
They reached a stone bridge spanning the magma sea. Halfway across, the Hollow Star's voice oozed from the fumes:
*"You could save them. Let me in, and I'll part the mountain."*
Li Tian's blade shook. "Never."
*"Even the girl?"*
The vision struck—Xia consumed by magma, her scream swallowed by fire. Li Tian recoiled, slipping. Xia's vines snapped as she hauled him back.
"I'm real," she panted. "Focus on *me*."
The bridge collapsed.
---
**The Weaver's Feast**
Jin's daggers blurred, severing chitinous legs as spider-like guardians swarmed. Each slain beast birthed two more from its carcass.
"They're herding us!" Daiyu loosed her final arrow, impaling a Weaver mid-leap.
Old Guo chanted, his staff igniting with purifying fire. "To the archway!"
Renshu cleared a path, his hammer strikes echoing through the hive. Bo's qi-sight spotted the broodmother—a bloated horror spinning a throne of corpses.
"There!"
Daiyu's knife found the broodmother's eye. The hive shuddered, its guardians crumbling to dust.
Jin wiped gore from his blades. "Anyone miss the tiger yet?"
---
**The Price of Ascent**
Li Tian and Xia emerged in a vertical shaft, its walls studded with protruding swords. Above, moonlight filtered through a circular exit.
"Climb carefully," Xia warned. "The blades are—"
"Traps. Obviously." Li Tian grabbed a hilt. The sword retracted, nearly impaling him.
Xia's vines anchored them to safer holds. "Arrogance kills faster than corruption."
They ascended slowly, the Hollow Star's whispers gnawing at Li Tian's resolve.
*"She'll betray you. They all do, in the end."*
A sword snapped. Xia fell.
Li Tian caught her wrist, the Codex's corruption surging. Black veins engulfed his arm as he hauled her up.
"Your eye…" Xia whispered.
Li Tian's left iris had turned obsidian.
---
**Convergence**
The shaft opened into a colossal chamber where the others waited, battered but alive. At the room's center stood a stone golem, its body etched with Magic Emperor runes. The crystalline key pulsed in Li Tian's hand.
"Took your time," Jin smirked, bloodied but breathing.
Old Guo studied the golem. "Primal energy. It's been waiting."
The golem's eyes ignited with Hollow Star fire.
Li Tian stepped forward. "Stay back. This one's mine."
Xia gripped his corrupted arm. "We fight together."
The golem roared, its fists cracking the floor.
---