Chapter 3658: Subterranean Grotto-Heaven

Ye Chen leapt into the ice cave, which was over a thousand meters deep, only to discover with surprise that the ice was frozen so straight and smooth, as if it were a vertical shaft precisely measured and constructed.

It was clear that Wu Bolin had been extremely meticulous when excavating this ice cave.

During the free fall all the way down, he had to continuously use his spiritual energy to slow his descent, so that he could land steadily at the moment of impact.

As he had sensed with his spiritual energy earlier, the space here, opened up by Wu Bolin, was larger, resembling a yurt in shape, with ice layers all around the sides and top, black rock below, and a completely pitch-black cave mouth that seemed capable of swallowing all light.

In the extremely faint light, Ye Chen saw that black cave mouth, and he felt a little apprehensive, since even Wu Bolin could not enter this place, and he did not know what use his coming down here could be.

But still, the four-character maxim applied: having come, he might as well see it through.

Moreover, he had come here at the cost of nearly losing half his life, so at the very least, he ought to give it a try.

Still, Ye Chen could not quite understand why such a place would be called the Gate of Ascension—ascension should involve going upward, after all. This place lay beneath a thousand-meter-thick ice cap, and even below the rock; calling it the Cave of Ascension would perhaps be more fitting.

Ye Chen stepped forward to the black cave mouth, with a mindset of giving it a try, crouched down, and extended his hand into the darkness.

Originally, he had expected an invisible barrier to block him, after all, Wu Bolin could not even enter the slightest bit.

But he did not expect that when his hand touched the endless darkness, it would feel like plunging into a pool of warm water—smooth and effortless, and the sensation was extremely pleasant, just like when his hand had been frozen cold and then dipped into warm water.

Immediately afterward, he suddenly sensed that an extremely rich spiritual energy was being directly absorbed through his skin into his body—or rather, it could not even be said to be absorbed, for the spiritual energy here was so abundant that as soon as his hand entered, it seemed to seep directly into his body through the skin.

Such a concentration of spiritual energy he had never experienced since his awakening to the Dao, not even when taking elixirs.

Ye Chen could not help but murmur to himself: "What exactly is this place, that it could possess such abundant spiritual energy?"

As he spoke his doubts, a large amount of spiritual energy had already begun to seep into his body, raising his internal spiritual energy from fifty percent to eighty percent.

This speed was practically comparable to taking elixirs!

Moreover, this was only through the skin of his hand; if his entire body were to enter, the speed would likely be so fast as to be unimaginable.

Thinking this, Ye Chen steeled himself and leapt straight into the cave mouth; the barrier that Wu Bolin had encountered seemed to vanish completely before him, he felt no obstruction at all, and his body smoothly plunged inward.

Ye Chen had thought that this black rock cave would certainly have no light, but to his surprise, once his body was fully inside, everything suddenly brightened with a whoosh, and he then realized that although the cave mouth he entered was narrow, the moment he stepped inside, the mouth seemed to expand dozens of times over—originally just wide enough for one person, but now even dozens of people could stand side by side with ease.

And the surrounding stone walls were actually polished to extreme smoothness, the black rock carved with numerous runes that Ye Chen could not decipher, and these runes glowed like light strips, emitting a warm yellow light that illuminated the surroundings.

Within his field of vision, this passage was at least three to five hundred meters deep; here, the extreme cold of Antarctica was completely gone, replaced by a very warm and comfortable bodily sensation, like the constant temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels maintained year-round in those climate-controlled residential complexes, around 26 degrees Celsius.

What amazed Ye Chen even more was that the gravity here seemed different from the outside; although he was still falling, the sensation was completely different from when he had jumped into the ice cave—then, he had to continuously use spiritual energy to slow his descent, otherwise the acceleration from a fall of over a thousand meters would produce an impact force that even he was not confident he could withstand.

But here it was different: although it was also several hundred meters deep, during the fall he needed no control over his speed at all—the descent here was uniform and gentle, like free diving in water.

Ye Chen drifted down like a falling leaf, gently landing on the stone cave floor; only then did the world below reveal itself as a true blessed land, for before him appeared a wide tunnel at least ten meters high and twenty meters in diameter.

The tunnel, like the vertical stone wall, was polished to extreme smoothness, similarly bearing many runes that emitted light; Ye Chen approached the tunnel wall, reached out to touch the luminous rune carvings, and was astonished to discover that within this light, there was actually an extremely high concentration of spiritual energy, as if all the abundant spiritual energy here emanated from these rune carvings in the form of light.

Ye Chen was utterly shocked in his heart.

If this was indeed built by cultivators before the End of the Dharma Age, then it must be at least over a thousand years old—what power source drives these runes, allowing them to continuously release such dense spiritual energy over a millennium?

Before he could work out an answer, he saw that at the end of this tunnel, there seemed to be an even broader space, and the light there was much brighter than in the tunnel.

So he quickened his pace, passed through this hundred-meter-long tunnel, and the moment he stepped out of it, the sight before him was simply unbelievable.

Before him lay a cubic space at least a hundred zhang wide and a hundred and ten zhang high; in the tunnel, only one face of this space was visible, so its true size could not be judged, but only by standing at the tunnel's exit could he see that below the exit was a square plaza at least a hundred zhang wide, paved entirely with ancient, moist, large rectangular blue stones, more like a product of Huaxia than of Antarctica.

What shocked him even more was that in the center of this hundred-zhang-wide square plaza stood a square-shaped treasure tower building, estimated to be at least fifty zhang high, with carved beams and painted pillars, majestic and imposing; those wooden structures, having endured who knows how many years, appeared as fresh as if newly made, all lacquer surfaces round and smooth, showing not a trace of mottling, not even a single crack visible.

Ye Chen suddenly felt that this thing looked somewhat familiar, as if it resembled the original Giant Wild Goose Pagoda he had seen during his spiritual wandering through the prosperous Tang Dynasty Chang'an City, and also resembled the square treasure pagoda he had obtained from the Rothschild family.

His heart filled with alarm—could it be that this place has some connection with that square treasure pagoda?!

And if, before the End of the Dharma Age, cultivators here had built a square treasure tower just like the original Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, then what is the chronological relationship between it and the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda—which came first, which came later?