The dragon-like monster spread its arms wide, laughing arrogantly again as if to punish Song Que, this lowly crawler, for his blasphemy, speaking vengefully,
"I will kill everyone, Song Que, you will not beco a hero! I want you to rember even in death that these insects could have lived longer, but now, they all must die because of you!"
The terrifying verdict reached everyone's ears.
A massive pressure amassed above the head of the cave dragon.
Once that destructive energy was unleashed, it would be enough to annihilate everyone, along with the tunnels they had painstakingly constructed over decades.
The dragon-like monster gazed down upon those about to die, wanting to savor their pain, desperation, fear, and even resentnt at the mont of death.
Song Que could no longer move, as if all was lost.
But at this mont, Xi Yu stood up.
She raised her head, looking calmly into the sky.
So of the children who had looked up were back on their hands and knees, but like Xi Yu, so kept their heads raised.
As Xi Yu stood up, so did the children.
Voices began to rise from within the crowd.
"Raise your heads!" Xi Yu was the first to shout.
But not many responded.
Only when threads of sunlight, like rain, fell upon the fingertips of so did they begin to slowly raise their heads.
The expressions of fear on their faces also started to disappear, slowly being replaced by anger and unwillingness.
"Raise your heads!"
Xi Yu's expression was calm, but she cried out with sobs and anger.
The sound echoed against the cliffs, like a stray spark of fire.
The extinguished lamps seed to gradually light up again, even though they were on the verge of going out.
"Raise your heads!" the girl's cries were t with an increasing number of responses.
Like those before them, they lifted their heads, looking at the wisps of sunlight in the darkness, slowly showing facial expressions of unwillingness.
This group, so sitting, so standing, and so with disabilities who couldn't move easily, poked their heads out from the caves, dragging their bodies as far as they could manage.
They leaned their bodies out toward the tunnel's edge, all to catch a little more sunlight.
Xi Yu had arrived.
Threads of sunlight, like lines of rain, pierced the darkness. Gently, they fell into people's view.
More and more people stopped crawling. The crowd atop the stone pathway began to gradually lift their heads.
Until, with Xi Yu's angry, mournful cries coming repeatedly, finally, no one was on their hands and knees any longer.
Everyone watched Xi Yu with expressions of unwillingness, looking at the sunlight that was as fragile as their lives.
Could it be that the people trembling and crawling only monts ago had, upon seeing that light, mustered the courage to face life and death?
The cave dragon watched this scene, puzzled.
It prided itself on its understanding of humans, these contemptible creatures.
They were about to die, crushed under its pressure, perhaps even their corpses would not be left intact, and no one would ever know of their deaths.
So why, within the expressions of this group, was there longing and unwillingness, regret and anger, but a distinct absence of fear?
Thousands lifted their heads, committing to mory the appearance of light, rembering this last Xi Yu in their lives. They didn't even glance at the cave dragon.
The cave dragon indeed did not understand—
What they truly feared was not death itself. Having lived in such a place for thirty years, one cos to understand that death is not the most desperate mont one can experience in life.
What they feared was not being able to stand at the top of the sinkhole one day during their lifetis—
To let the gentlest sunlight wash over their lives that had been shrouded in darkness for thirty years.
They had lived here for thirty years. During this ti, there had also been so hope, so of which still remained. So hopes had turned into the nourishnt for darkness over the years.
Yet every single one of them was trying their best to live.
They lived because they believed that one day they could leave this darkest place in the world.
For that goal, tens of thousands of people died in the putrid depths with anger and unwillingness, their nas and surnas forgotten. And in the future, no one would know what those who decayed under the sinkhole had endured.
For that goal, countless children only twelve years old spent innurable days and nights wielding mining picks. They lacked a beautiful childhood and youth, simply chiseling away from death while approaching it.
For that goal, they crawled like reptiles under the feet of the beastly masters, humiliatingly living without dignity.
For that goal, the chosen one called Song Que burned all his talents, forsook all divine gifts, transforming from the most gifted into a cripple.
For that goal, everyone's thought was to live as best they could, no matter how ager or ugly, whether facing disease or loneliness.
Everyone endured the pain and loss in order to leave, enduring tens of thousands of partings and deaths over thirty years, just to glimpse a chance to leave this place—the darkest place under the heavens.
Yet, despite it all, they still couldn't escape, and everything seed like an empty dream. Their so-called efforts were nothing but a mockery by the beasts.
In such despair, they had no strength left to fear!
Just like Xi Yu's exhausted cries, all the humiliations of thirty years exploded in that mont—
They were not willing!
Today's Xi Yu was unusually long and exceptionally silent. Normally at this ti, there would be children's laughter and whispers here and there.
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