Chapter 142- Relief

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The avalanche continued for a few minutes.

It finally reached its peak when the ceiling had completely broken apart and the millions of metric tons of minerals and rocks crashed into the tunnel, bringing it down to the lower level, creating a terrifyingly destructive chain reaction that could destroy dozens of tunnels in this section part of the underground!

After around a few minutes, the avalanche finally stopped as the rocks, earth, and minerals completely buried everything in the area where they were previously at.

As soon as it stopped, the ground suddenly began to rumble again, though it wasn't like the previous earthquake as it only occurred at a certain spot on the ground.

The rumble became much stronger as the ground suddenly erupted, creating a shower of rocks, gravel, and dirt in the air and a hole opened in the ground as Liu Guanyi jumped out of the hole and softly landed on the now, ravaged and ruined underground tunnel.

His reddish skin began to turn back to normal as he canceled his martial technique and let out a sigh of relief. Then, he helped the others to come out of the hole as well.

The others were relatively safe and only looked a bit roughened up as they were gasping for breath, greedily inhaling the shinsu in the air, especially Theo, as he was the one with the weakest physique among them.

If they were just a little bit late to hide inside the wall, they would also be reduced to a pulp like the tunnel itself which now, was merely a big hollow space. And if the avalanche had continued a bit longer, they would eventually run out of breath and suffocate to death.

Liu Guanyi could definitely hold his breath for much longer but the others couldn't, even Adori.

Without the flow of shinsu in the enclosed hole, there was nothing for them to breathe. That was just how important shinsu was to every living being in the tower.

The others were relatively fine but Liu Guanyi had the worst condition. His robe was tattered in many places and there were many bloody gashes on his body and blisters on his skin, especially his hands as some of his fingers were dislocated.

This happened since Liu Guanyi had to exert himself to hold up the earth from collapsing into the hole when they were under the ground during the avalanche and then quickly dig up before all of them exhausted their breath.

Sensing this, Adori said with a hint of concern. "Liu, are you alright? Let me look at your injury and see whether I can help it or not." She had seen him being injured many times but this was the worst.

Liu Guanyi smiled and politely declined as he waved off his hand. "No need, your highness, these are merely trivial injuries."

Indeed, just a few seconds later, the gashes had started to close up and the blisters began to subside. Even his swollen dislocated fingers began to look better as Liu Guanyi calmly forcefully corrected his fingers manually.

Liu Guanyi smiled as he folded and unfolded his fingers. "Look, now it's fine, isn't it, Xin?"

"As expected of you Mr. Liu, you are so tough and cool!" Xin spoke out in amazement as he witnessed what happened.

"Thank goodness that your body is as tough as always." Adori let out a sigh of relief.

"Now, since the situation has calmed down. Can you explain yourself?" Adori turned toward the hired scout as she spoke with a stern voice.

"F-forgive me, your highness! I really don't know anything! I was only instructed to lead you to the designated place, I didn't know that something like this would happen at all." Theo quickly answered as he desperately defended himself.

As Adori continued to look at him intensely, Theo could only motionlessly prostrate himself to beg for her mercy as best as he could. "Really, your highness, I truly don't know anything about this! You can check everything on me if you want to!"

Seeing that he really seemed to be clueless about the disaster, Adori didn't continue to hold him any longer and asked him with a neutral voice. "Then, quickly hand over your pocket and I will see whether you are truly honest or not."

Without holding any longer, Theo quickly handed over his pocket.

He knew that if he made her wait any longer, she would really kill him for real.

After checking all the footage and record in his pocket, Adori did indeed not find any evidence of the scout's cooperation with the Rankers, except for a receipt of a recent transaction that stated that more than five million credits had gone into his account from an unknown sender.

However, there wasn't any voice record or note explaining the detail of the plan to him other than a message from an unknown source that instructed him to guide her to use the route that they had marked and prepared, it seemed that he was indeed truthful.

"I didn't expect that they would be so reckless and flippant to destroy and collapse so many underground tunnels just to try to bury us under this desert. It seems I have underestimated how determined they are to kill a harmless regular and how casual those nobles are in ruling the tower." Adori said as she let out a long sigh.

"And I imagine they would easily get away with it, isn't that true, your highness?" Liu Guanyi asked with a wry smile.

"Unfortunately, that's indeed true." Adori responded with an exasperated tone.

"Now, since the route is already destroyed, we have to find another path to continue our exploration and search for those death worms. I will spare you since you are still useful. Liu, you will go with him so you can use him as you see fit."

"We will separate into two groups since the situation has developed to this." Said Adori as Liu Guanyi nodded and dragged the scout.

As they were about to separate and go on their own ways, the ground suddenly trembled once again, prompting them to stop in their tracks and observe the surroundings with wariness.

A shrill squeak sounded and echoed in the area as suddenly, the ground burst out in succession!