~~~

Flames illuminate the insides of the All-Devouring Worm.

Despite where they are, neither flesh nor bodily fluids surround them. There is only rock. Sharp rock. Smooth rock. Grainy rock. Of all shapes. All textures. And all colors. It is the ultimate result of the worm’s eating habits. The numerous rocks smashed and pressed into each other have become a vast system of caves.

Five cultivators stand side by side, pouring fire into the rocks. Though the caves are far-reaching and numerous, they do not always lead to where they need to go, making it necessary for them to make their own way. Some disciples step in to crack the rocks with brute force. Others follow that up with flames hot enough to melt stone. It is a process they have repeated several times already, yet they seem no closer to their goal than when they began. Such is the enormity of the caves within the All-Devouring Worm.

“Why is it taking you so long to melt it?”

Some are handling this with more grace than others.

“You ask me that despite the bruises on your hands?” Yuan Yi shoots back without taking his focus off his flames. The disciple he spoke to immediately hides his hands behind his back. “You should have realized this already. This isn’t normal rock. These minerals have been hardened by the pressure down here. They’re too durable. Even for people like us.”

“Even so! You’re not making your flames as strong as they could be!” The disciple counters.

Liu Jin closes his eyes.

Part of him wants to step in to stop the argument before it escalates. However, that would not help. Not truly. The disciple is merely voicing what the others are thinking. Yuan Yi is not using his full power. Undoubtedly, many believe he is conserving his strength so that he can attack them once they get back to the surface. Telling the disciple to shut up would only allow this line of thinking to fester. Best to get it all out in the open now when things are not yet critical.

“I am not the only one holding back his flames,” Yuan Yi counters.” If we make our flames too strong, we could risk melting the rocks too fast, and that could cause a cave-in. Do you really want to die buried here?”

“He’s right,” Fan Binbing says, for once speaking in Yuan Yi’s favor. “No matter how eager we are to escape, we cannot rush this.”

The disciple stays silent after that, and so does everyone else. Even if they are not willing to trust Yuan Yi, they are willing to let the matter drop.

For now, at least.

Liu Jin keeps staring at the fire. His arms are crossed, and there is a deep frown on his face. Yuan Yi is correct in that they cannot rush this. Had any of the disciples been too eager in their efforts to dig through the cave, Liu Jin would have reprimanded them already.

And yet, being too slow may very well be worse.

The pressure down here would have already killed most people, but they are disciples of the Eternal Flame Clan. Even the weakest among their number are in the Ninth Level of the Nascent Realm. Their journey to Eternity has progressed to the point where they can spend days and weeks without food and water.

Oxygen, however, is far more challenging to go without.

Already the fire has used what little oxygen they had down here. It is only the Qi flowing through their bodies that keeps them alive. However, that will not be the case forever. The weaker disciples will be the first to feel it.

Perhaps, they already are.

Liu Jin does not turn around, yet he focuses his senses on the disciple who tried to hurry Yuan Yi. His aura moves erratically, flaring out in jagged edges. A clear sign of his struggle to control himself.

Liu Jin’s Qi snakes flow out.

“You, you, and you. Come stand here. The rest, continue as you were.”

Liu Jin points to his side. The addressed disciples flinch back, caught off-guard by the snakes that suddenly intrude on their personal space. One shivers as a forked tongue slithers out.

“B-Brother Qing?”

The snakes look at them with glowing eyes.

“Do I need to repeat myself?”

The three disciples move so fast to the spot Liu Jin is pointing at that one could be forgiven for thinking they used movement techniques. Liu Jin walks behind one of the three disciples and places his hands over his back.

“Br-brother Qing?” The disciple’s voice is little more than a squeak. It is a mark of the respect and fear Liu Jin commands in him that he doesn’t move as he feels Liu Jin’s Qi at work.

“Stay still,” Liu Jin says. “I am stimulating the flow of your Qi, so you can better handle this environment. It is not a permanent solution, but it should give us an extra day or two.”

The disciple freezes from the shock. There is no room for him to doubt Liu Jin’s words. Even before Liu Jin has finished explaining, the results of his work start becoming apparent to the disciple. The pain in his lungs ceases, and his aura stabilizes.

“I… thank you, Brother Qing!” The disciple’s voice is thick with emotion.

“Stay still,” Liu Jin repeats. “This is a delicate process.” Liu Jin’s snakes turn to look at the others. “You two, stay where you are. I will get to you once I am done with him.”

Of the two disciples, one looks to the other.

“Even him?” He asks Liu Jin, pointing to his fellow. “Brother Qing! He is a follower of Lord Feng Shang!”

The snakes hiss.

“Where are we right now?” Liu Jin asks. The disciple blinks.

“In the stomach of a worm?”

“Can you fight your way out of it on your own?”

“… no?” The disciple says in the tone of someone who knows he is being set up but cannot do anything about it.

“Then why are you so quick to cast aside potential help?” Liu Jin sighs. “Not a single one here can escape on their own. That is the only truth that matters right now. Do not be so quick to discard each other.”

Especially not when the worst part is yet to come.

~~~

Hours pass. They have traveled so long in the darkness that things such as left and right have lost meaning. They are guided by their ability to sense Qi and little else.

No longer is it just dry rock around them. The slimy insides of the worm have begun to filter through. Soon, they shall be walking among its organs. However, it is not the worm’s skin they seek to break through. Even if they got out of the worm’s body that way, there are several miles of earth above them. They would most likely die trying to reach the surface.

They need to force the worm up.

The All-Devouring Worm only goes to the surface for air. Since this particular specimen is in the Earth Realm, the occurrence must be quite rare. Most likely, the worm hadn’t even noticed it had swallowed them. That is how small they are in comparison to it. It is no different than a whale accidentally eating a fish as it travels through the ocean with its mouth open.

That they ran into it so suddenly is simply bad luck.

At least, that is what Liu Jin chooses to believe. That idea that Patriarch Feng Zhang knew the exact moment when the worm would come out is too outlandish for him to contemplate.

“Disgusting.”

As the final wall is broken, Yuan Yi says what everyone else is thinking. The worm’s slimy, wiggling insides lie ahead of them. A disciple pinches his nose to protect himself from the smell.

“We move on,” Liu Jin says, taking the first step into the worm’s insides. The others follow.

The next few minutes are… grueling.

They climb. They swim. They trip several times as the worm’s muscles contract to crush the massive rocks inside it.

Yet, they have no choice but to push on.

“I feel something,” Fan Bingbing says after a while. She is the first to feel it, but not the last. One by one, all the disciples come to a stop.

Three. Fifteen. Forty-nine. Seventy.

The closer they get, the easier it becomes to make out their number.

“No lights. Form a circle,” Liu Jin orders. “Wait until they’re close to attack.”

Enemies and allies stand side by side in the darkness. Sweat drips down their brows. Though their Qi has fully substituted their sight, their eyes keep darting around as they hear them coming.

Crawling. Writhing. Chittering.

Hundreds if not thousands of tiny legs moving closer and closer to them.

A disciple to Liu Jin’s left breaks first. He lashes out with a powerful fireball. The flame brings light to the darkness, revealing the shape of their foes. Colorless and ugly with dozens of legs and thick carapace. They have no eyes, noses, or ears. Their mouths have large tusks and countless teeth.

These are the creatures that help the All-Devouring Worm’s digestion.

“Attack!”

The bugs screech as they are bombarded by countless attacks. Fireballs rain down on them by the hundreds. Lighting roars and blades sing.

Even so, they still come.

Liu Jin’s snakes lash out as multiple bugs come at them from above. The poison tears through their bodies and melts them as the snakes swallow them whole. One bug tries to strike Liu Jin’s back, but Yuan Yi shoves a fist full of lava through it and slams it into the ground. A second fist soon joins it. Yuan Yi pours more lava into the worm’s flesh and lets it spread to the incoming bugs like a wave. One bug screeches as it leaps down at Yuan Yi from the ceiling. Liu Jin’s spear slices it in half before it can reach him.

A single nod is exchanged between the two before they’re in motion once more.

Wave after wave of the creatures come for them. Some disciples fire ranged attacks, trusting their fellows to protect them from the bugs that manage to get near them. Fan Bingbing hits one gently, yet it explodes as if someone had filled it with air until it burst. Liu Jin’s snakes slither in between his allies as if he were threading a needle.

Liu Jin does not know how much time passes in the heat of the battle. No one does.

All they know is that it ends.

Most disciples are left wounded. A few of them, the weaker ones, quite seriously. Their auras have grown erratic once more. Even if he treats them, their bodies will start failing in a matter of hours.

In a matter of hours, more of the bugs may come for them.

“We cannot wait,” Liu Jin says. He takes in their state and makes a decision. “Sister Fan, you and the others take care of the wounded. Yuan Yi, come with me!”

“Just the two of us?”

“Another wave like that will kill most of us,” Liu Jin tells him, his tone leaving no room for arguments. “We need to reach the core now!”

The core.

The All-Devouring Worm does not have lungs, but it does have a core. Every Spirit Beast does. No matter how big. No matter how great. If the core is destroyed, the Spirit Beast will lose its power. If they destroy the All-Devouring Worm’s core, it will follow its natural instincts and seek oxygen.

Liu Jin and Yuan Yi take off running. They are close enough they have no problems sensing the core. Their path is a straight line. Any obstacle is swiftly destroyed. Either through magma or through poison.

“You were wrong earlier,” Yuan Yi tells him as they run. “You said not a single one of us could escape on their own, and that is why we all needed to work together.”

“You say that now?” Liu Jin asks, exasperated. “Will you deny what happened? Will you claim you needed no help?”

To Liu Jin’s surprise, Yuan Yi shakes his head.

“No. The first part was true enough. Not a single one of us could have done this on our own,” Yuan Yi says as he pulls up Liu Jin over some bulbous tissue. “However, that does not mean everyone was needed. Only five of us were needed for this. The rest were baggage. If you had not tried to keep everyone alive, we’d have allies at our side right now.”

“You assume we’d be in the same shape without the others to help us fight the bugs,” Liu Jin points out.

“I know we would have,” Yuan Yi replies. “We might all be disciples of the Eternal Flame Clan, but some of us are superior to others. You, of all people, should know this.”

Liu Jin frowns but doesn’t get the opportunity to reply.

They have reached the core.

It is a small thing surrounded by flesh. Despite the worm’s massive size, it is no bigger than Liu Jin’s fist.

A wave of magma and poison swallow it. The mighty creature’s Qi begins leaking from its core as their combined assault cracks it.

The All-Devouring Worm screeches.

Liu Jin and Yuan Yi are thrown back as the worm’s entire body lurches violently. However, they do not stop their attack.

The worm goes up

~~~

The worm dies within minutes of reaching the surface. Its gigantic body could never function without Qi.

Liu Jin and the others cut their way out before that.

The All-Devouring Worm’s corpse stretches across the Rusted Plains, and the disciples are laid out on top of it. They are dirty, bloody, and sweaty, lacking even the energy to look for shelter. It should be fine for now. Liu Jin doubts the bugs will leave the worm’s body anytime soon.

That is not their nature.

“We did it,” Liu Jin says once he has fully verified none of them are in mortal danger. His lips pull back in a wide smile, and he drops to his knees, exhausted. “We did it.”

Yuan Yi strikes.

His target is Liu Jin’s unprotected back. His fist burns red hot. All his power is focused on this one attack.

The snake’s jaws snap shut.

The fire in Yuan Yi’s fist fizzles out. His body is frozen mid-leap, caught by the mouth of the massive Qi snake Liu Jin has materialized around his body. Its two fangs have pierced through Yuan Yi’s shoulder and torso. His blood drips down to the worm’s body. Not that it matters.

The poisonous Qi is already inside him.

“Why?” Liu Jin asks. He does not turn back. “Some are superior to others. Those are your own words.”

Yuan Yi coughs weakly. His face spasms and twitches as the poison does its work.

“By your own logic, you shouldn’t have challenged me.”

“I knew… I knew, but… I was... ordered…”

Yuan Yi’s assassination attempt has restarted hostilities between the two factions. The disciples who fought side by side mere moments ago now turn on each other. The outnumbered Lord Feng Shang supporters die in a matter of seconds to the frenzied attacks of their fellows. The disciples stab the bodies of their dead foes with wild abandon. They survived the insides of the All-Devouring Worm. They will not fall to treachery.

However, Yuan Yi sees none of that.

Yuan Yi dies seeing Liu Jin’s back.

~~~