Chapter 424: Beneath the Abyss

When Wu Shidao walked back into the room again, he was seen holding a brocade pouch in his hand. He walked to a desk, opened the pouch, took out a stack of what appeared to be some kind of very thin animal hide, and spread the yellowish, soft animal hide out on the desk.

Fan Hongjiao, Lu Geng, and the others had also gathered around the desk.

Duan Rong also walked over. He stood behind Wang Yue and looked toward the desk. Wang Yue was short and stocky, reaching only to about Duan Rong's chest; standing there, he did not affect his view at all.

That spread-out, soft, yellowish animal hide took up almost half the desk, and it was covered in dense, crisscrossing lines and annotations.

Wu Shidao pointed to several places on the map and mused, "The cycles for these frequently visited places are all not quite right."

In fact, this was also the reason why Wu Shidao did not immediately agree when Fan Hongjiao first brought it up.

Fan Hongjiao looked at the topographical map, her light brows slightly furrowed, and said, "Since that is the case, we have no choice but to go to this stream and lie in wait."

Lu Geng said, "Lying in wait depends on luck. If your luck is bad, you might not even encounter it after waiting two or three days."

Fan Hongjiao said, "If you are afraid of waiting, you don't have to go."

Lu Geng was choked by Fan Hongjiao and could not speak for a long time.

Wu Shidao, however, turned his head to glance at Duan Rong. Lying in wait was clearly not a good choice, but Fan Hongjiao seemed to be willing to lie in wait by the stream just to take Duan Rong down sooner.

Fan Hongjiao being this way was not entirely because she wanted to look after Duan Rong; in fact, when Zhu He left, he had instructed Fan Hongjiao to take Duan Rong to the Dark Forest to gain some experience sooner.

She was merely following her master's orders!

Fan Hongjiao was, after all, the Senior Sister of the group, so since she had already made up her mind, Lu Geng, Wang Yue, and the others had no choice but to obey.

After discussing the direction for sneaking into the Dark Forest, the group prepared themselves and set off. Duan Rong asked Wang Yue what he needed to prepare, and Wang Yue told him that he didn't need to prepare anything; he just had to follow them when the time came.

About an incense stick's time later, the group met up again at the entrance of the Council Hall. Once everyone had arrived, Fan Hongjiao led them along the veranda and turned down from the pavilion.

Walking to the first floor of the pavilion, Duan Rong originally thought they would leave the building, but he saw Fan Hongjiao suddenly push open a rather hidden door.

Behind that door, there were actually stairs continuing to extend downward.

They were already on the first floor of the pavilion; if they were to go any further down, wouldn't they be entering the interior of the mountain?

Duan Rong's brows furrowed slightly, but he saw that the rest of the group all had calm expressions.

He followed them across that door and stepped down the stairs.

The stairs led downward into a pitch-black darkness, as if leading to the endless netherworld.

Lu Geng, who was walking at the very back, had already taken out a Fire Folder and lit a torch that had been prepared in advance.

At the beginning, the stairs were still wooden like those in the pavilion, but as he walked, Duan Rong discovered that at some point, what he was stepping on had turned into hard stone steps.

The walls on both sides were also stone walls covered in moss.

Not one of them spoke, and their footsteps echoed in the hollow space. They just kept walking like this, as if time had stopped.

Apart from the deep stone steps, there were no reference points, and it was impossible to tell how far they had actually walked in these dark stone steps.

Just as he was walking like this, and just as Duan Rong was starting to feel a bit panicked, there was suddenly a ball of light ahead.

At this moment, Duan Rong heard several sighs of relief from those around him. It turned out that he wasn't the only one feeling panicked; the others, who likely weren't walking this path for the first time, were still feeling panicked as well.

This was likely a physiological reaction; walking continuously in such an unchanging tunnel, one would slowly develop the illusion that they would walk like this forever...

They followed the stone steps into the ball of light ahead.

It was a small stone chamber. The four stone walls were carved with dense beast patterns, and several beast heads had ferocious expressions, looking quite terrifying under the reflection of the firelight.

An old man with a withered appearance was seen sitting cross-legged on a prayer mat in the corner of the wall.

As they walked into the stone chamber, Fan Hongjiao looked at the old man and smiled, "Master Yi, are you guarding this gate these few days?"

The old man lifted his eyelids, and his turbid eyeballs swept coldly over the group. That gaze made Duan Rong feel a chill in his heart.

The old man locked his gaze on Duan Rong and asked, "Who is that brat? I don't recognize him!"

Fan Hongjiao said, "He is a newly accepted personal disciple from Yunfu Peak." As Fan Hongjiao spoke, she turned her head and said, "Duan Rong! Take out your Sect Cloud Token and let the senior inspect it."

"No need!" the old man sighed, "It's not like it's a good place anyway. Go."

Although the old man said this, Duan Rong had clearly felt a powerful Divine Sense instantly penetrate his dantian just a moment ago. The old man had clearly inspected his cultivation level after all.

Fan Hongjiao cupped her fists respectfully and said, "Thank you, Master Yi!"

The old man let out a faint hum, as soft as a mosquito, and closed his eyes to continue meditating.

Fan Hongjiao led the group to a stone wall beside the old man. She suddenly pulled a key with a rather strange design from her waist and inserted it into a certain spot.

Duan Rong clearly saw Fan Hongjiao insert the key into the mouth of a ferocious beast head on the stone wall, and then with a turn, the stone door in front of them opened with a boom.

Fan Hongjiao pulled out the key and slipped into the stone door, while the others followed closely behind, with Lu Geng holding the torch and walking at the very back.

Inside the stone door was a long, dark corridor.

Duan Rong walked between Wang Yue and Lu Geng, staring forward. He saw that the end of the corridor was pitch black, as if it were endless.

Duan Rong sighed softly, thinking they would have to walk for a long time this time as well.

But this time, after walking only a few hundred meters, they had already reached the end of the corridor.

They turned into a certain place at the end of the corridor.

This stone chamber space was actually quite large, and the ceiling was very high. The entire stone chamber was long and narrow, and as soon as one walked in, it gave one a sense of sudden openness.

What was most astonishing was that there was a whistling wind in this space, blowing the torch in Lu Geng's hand until it crackled.

Duan Rong's gaze tightened. How could there be wind in this enclosed space?

He soon discovered the clue; he saw that on the floor of this long, narrow stone chamber, there was a pitch-black gap, and the whistling wind was blowing in from that gap.

In this long, narrow, high-ceilinged space, thick black iron rings were fixed at equal intervals on the stone walls, and iron chains as thick as a child's arm were tied to each of the iron rings.

Those iron chains were fixed to the stone walls, but they extended into that pitch-black gap from which the wind was blowing.

At this time, the rest of the group had already each stood in front of an iron chain, but Duan Rong remained stunned at the entrance of the stone chamber, digesting the astonishing and eerie scene before him.

Fan Hongjiao shook the iron chain in her hand and said, "Junior Disciple, come over and grab an iron chain. Sliding down this chain will take you to the Dark Forest."

Upon hearing this, Duan Rong walked over, stood beside Fan Hongjiao, and reached out to grab a cold iron chain.

Fan Hongjiao instructed him, "Keep sliding down until your feet touch the ground."

After Fan Hongjiao finished speaking, she jumped abruptly into the pitch-black gap and was instantly swallowed by the darkness.

Following this, Wu Shidao and Wang Yue also plunged into the pitch-black fissure almost simultaneously.

Lu Geng glanced at Duan Rong without a word, flicked the torch in his hand, threw it to Duan Rong's feet, and then grabbed the Iron Chain and jumped into the pitch-black fissure as well.

The torch fell beside Duan Rong's feet, buffeted by the strong wind blowing from the fissure, making a whistling sound.

At this moment, he was the only one left in this space.

Duan Rong grabbed the Iron Chain and took a look at the fissure at his feet; the fissure was like the giant mouth of a beast, slightly agape, yet bottomless inside.

Duan Rong took a breath, still holding the Iron Chain, and jumped down.

The Iron Chain in his hands was smooth and cold; Duan Rong slid down slowly along the chain. He could feel that Fan Hongjiao and the others were already no longer in the vicinity; they had clearly slid down at a much faster speed.

Duan Rong's vision gradually adapted to the darkness, and in this ink-black environment, he could vaguely discern objects.

He could see the Iron Chain not far from his side shaking violently; Duan Rong knew this was caused by Fan Hongjiao sliding down rapidly.

And before and behind him were pitch-black stone walls; he seemed to be in a fissure deep underground.

After adapting to the environment for a while, Duan Rong's state of mind finally stabilized somewhat. With a thought, his Divine Sense suddenly expanded; he discovered that this fissure did not seem short, as its length already exceeded the range of his Divine Sense Envelopment.

Under his Divine Sense Envelopment, Duan Rong clearly perceived that the other few Iron Chains nearby were all shaking violently.

Clearly, the few of them were all sliding down rapidly!

Duan Rong's gaze tightened, and he also began to slide down rapidly. His hand suddenly loosened, and his body immediately plummeted with a whistling sound. After several zhang, the speed already made it somewhat difficult for Duan Rong to breathe, and he then grabbed the Iron Chain abruptly; at this moment, the Iron Chain in his hands could be seen shaking violently as well.

With a sudden kick of his body, Duan Rong caught his breath, then let go again, and his body plummeted downward with a whistling sound once more.

After an unknown amount of time passed like this, Duan Rong steadied his figure again; under the violent shaking of the Iron Chain in his hands, his body swayed like a willow in a gale.

He narrowed his eyes and looked downward, only to see bottomless darkness beneath his feet, and that violently shaking Iron Chain seemed as if it led into the Nine Netherworlds.

Fan Hongjiao, Wu Shidao, Lu Geng, and Wang Yue had already landed on a patch of grass emitting a faint glow, and on the black stone wall behind them, several Iron Chains as thick as a child's arm hung down from high above.

Wang Yue clapped his hands and said, "How long do you think the little Disciple will take to get down?"

Fan Hongjiao snorted and said, "Definitely better than you! When you came for the first time, the three of us waited here for you for a full three hours!"

Wang Yue said with dissatisfaction, "Senior Sister, why do you remember my embarrassing moments so clearly, bringing them up to lecture me every time? Don't look at the little Disciple as looking vigorous and sturdy; he might not necessarily be better than me. Let's find a place to rest for a while. We might have to wait a long time!?"

"I don't think that's necessary," Wu Shidao said. "Look at how violently that Iron Chain is shaking; I estimate that it won't be long before the little Disciple is down."

Wang Yue turned his head to look, and sure enough, the one next to the Iron Chain used by Fan Hongjiao was shaking violently.

Although Wang Yue was the least experienced of the four, he had been coming to Yunfu Peak for several years, and he had lost count of how many times he had come down into this Dark Forest. He knew all too well what such shaking of the Iron Chain meant.

That degree of shaking indicated that Duan Rong was plummeting at a speed approaching his limit.

Fan Hongjiao looked at the Iron Chain and laughed, "How about that? What did I say? Don't deny it, Wang Yue, you're just a coward! How could the little Disciple be like you?"

Wang Yue's face turned beet red, but he could not find words to refute her.

As Duan Rong plummeted, he suddenly felt that the wind blowing across his cheeks seemed to be slightly damp, already somewhat different from the dry, strong wind along the way.

Duan Rong's heart stirred; there was a change—was he almost there?

He still remembered that when Fan Hongjiao jumped down, she had instructed him to keep sliding down until his feet touched the ground.

Duan Rong held onto the Iron Chain, dangling himself, and looked down at his feet; in the distant, endless darkness, he seemed to see a faint, dim light.

A flicker of joy immediately welled up in his heart.

Although that dim light seemed still very far away, he had already faintly seen it.

Duan Rong's body was suddenly filled with a sense of excitement; he loosened both hands and let his body plummet downward...

After repeating this for a long time, Duan Rong felt that the wind blowing across his cheeks was already full of moisture; it was no longer dry, but had a touch of gentleness as it blew on his face, and there was already a certain scent in the wind.

That scent was very unique; he couldn't say whether it was pleasant or unpleasant, but it was a strange scent he had never smelled before.

Duan Rong looked again at the distant dim light beneath his feet.

That dim light seemed to be closer now; at the end of the darkness, it was like a shimmering galaxy.

Duan Rong suddenly let go, and his body plummeted downward again. But this time, as his body fell faster and faster and breathing began to become difficult, Duan Rong did not steady his figure; instead, he suddenly began to circulate his cultivation technique, holding his breath without exhaling, and let his body continue to plummet.

The speed became faster and faster, and his sleeves and cuffs flapped with a *pa-pa* sound as if they were about to be torn apart. That originally gentle, damp wind felt like a knife, scraping his face until it stung.

But Duan Rong still held his breath and let his body continue to plummet.

Seeing that the galaxy of dim light was only a few hundred meters beneath his feet, Duan Rong's body was now a blur as it plummeted; the sound of the wind passing his ears made a startling, loud noise.

Duan Rong just like that, flashed down like a meteorite crashing into the ground, plummeting into that galaxy of dim light.

Seeing that he was about to land, Duan Rong's figure suddenly sprang; he bent his knees and hugged his head in mid-air, his whole person like a sphere, and the Heaven and Earth Qi within his dantian surged instantly, wrapping a layer around his body like a thin membrane.

"Boom!"

With a loud noise, a black ball was seen crashing into the ground beside the stone wall, sending grass clippings and dust flying everywhere.

Fan Hongjiao, Wu Shidao, Lu Geng, and Wang Yue, who were waiting there, were all greatly shocked!

Amidst the flying grass clippings and dust, a figure jumped out; it was none other than Duan Rong, who had arrived last.

Duan Rong looked at them with a smile; the grass clippings and dust around him had already dispersed, but there was a not-so-small pit in the ground, clearly smashed out by him just now.

The four of them stared blankly at Duan Rong, but Duan Rong cupped his hands and laughed, "Senior Sister Fan, three Senior Brothers! Sorry for the long wait! Duan Rong is late!"

(End of chapter)