The warning left by Liyun Tian hung heavy over the cavern, casting a suffocating weight on everyone.
Even the distribution of the supplies no longer brought any relief—only a numbed, cautious meticulousness.
The clean water and dried rations were divided as evenly as possible among everyone, while Margaret personally kept the small box of healing pills for emergencies.
Everyone ate in silence, the bland food tasting like sawdust.
In a corner, the two most severely injured guards leaned against the rock wall, their faces ashen.
One had been wounded by the fog-shrouded attack; though his chest was bandaged, a creeping deathly pallor still emanated from the wound. His breathing was shallow and rapid, clearly at the very edge of endurance.
The other had lost an arm. Though the bleeding was stopped, the overwhelming pain and blood loss left him barely conscious, occasionally letting out involuntary moans.
Their suffering was like needles piercing the eyes and nerves of the remaining survivors, whose own nerves were already stretched thin.
“Ah Wu… probably won’t make it through the night.”
A scarred guard whispered to a leaner man nearby.
The lean man, Hou San, was the scout of the team—usually alert and careful, and most protective of his own life. He swallowed a mouthful of dry biscuit, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. His voice was barely audible, like a mosquito:
“If he doesn’t make it, fine—one less mouth to feed. Zhao, look at the situation—front is obviously a death trap. Even Liyun Tian didn’t make it… we…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but the meaning in his eyes was clear.
Zhao Tie’s gaze flickered. His hand tightened on the water pouch:
“The princess’s heart is for her father. We’re sworn to protect her. But… this clearly leads to death. I still have a family at home…”
“Exactly!” another guard with half a missing ear chimed in. “If we’d known this place was so cursed, we’d never have accepted this mission! Now the exit’s blocked, the path ahead is a grave, and these scraps won’t last—how many days can we survive?”
Grumbling spread like a contagion among those whose wills were already weak.
Their eyes no longer held certainty, only hesitation and despair.
When their gaze occasionally swept past Margaret and Dustin, the respect they had once shown was tinged with subtle resentment.
Margaret was not blind to the undercurrent of dissent. She knelt beside the dying Ah Wu, carefully feeding him a few sips of her water.
Ah Wu struggled to swallow, his cloudy eyes showing a flicker of gratitude—but more than that, a longing for release from his pain.
“Hang on, Ah Wu. We’ll find a way out,” she whispered, but even she felt the words fall hollow in the oppressive silence.
Ah Wu tried to speak, but only managed a harsh, rasping gasp before his head slumped. He was gone.
One more life extinguished before their eyes.
A frozen silence enveloped the cavern—death’s silence.
The other guard, with the severed arm, shook violently at the sight of his companion’s passing and suddenly let out a hoarse, desperate wail:
“He’s dead! Everyone’s going to die! We’re all going to die here! Waaah!”
His mental state had collapsed completely. The cry was a fuse that ignited the long-suppressed fear and despair in the rest.
Wang Kui jumped up, eyes bloodshot, screaming:
“What are you crying for?! I don’t want to die! I want to get out!”
He turned toward Margaret, still keeping a semblance of courtesy, but his tone had turned hostile:
“Princess! We’ve followed you this far, not because we’re greedy or cowardly, but because the path ahead is clearly a death trap. Liyun Tian didn’t make it—how can we? Dustin may be strong, but he can’t protect us all! Ah Wu’s dead! Zhang is crippled! Who’s next? You? Me?”
“Wang Kui! How dare you!” the guard captain, Ah Long, barked.
Yet even his face betrayed his weakness; the rebuke carried no real force.
Margaret stood, her expression frost-cold. Though her heart was heavy with sorrow and pressure, she knew she must not falter.
“At this critical moment, only by working together can we survive. If we scatter, our chances of living drop even further.”
“Princess, don’t blame me if I speak bluntly. Following you has only put us in danger. We’ve already lost so many searching for your so-called elixir. Continuing means everyone dies!”
“That’s right! I have a mother to care for, a wife and children! I don’t want to die in this cursed place!”
“Princess! Do us a favor—just let us go!”
Wang Kui and the others spoke in unison, abandoning any remaining spirit to resist.
The cavern now thrummed with tension.
Led by Zhao Tie, Hou San, Wang Kui, and a few others, five or six guards had formed an unspoken coalition.
Better to seek their own path and try to survive, rather than blindly follow the princess into certain death.
Margaret’s heart sank as she looked at these once-loyal men, now faces twisted with desperation.
Even Dustin remained silent, sensing the fragility of morale and the danger this internal strife posed.
The group stood at the precipice of disaster—not from the outside, but from within themselves.
The first seeds of rebellion had sprouted. - Marinien
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