Chapter 440 - 209: Shadowy Black Nightmare, A Grand Dream
Chapter 440: Chapter 209: Shadowy Black Nightmare, A Grand Dream
"Next, go here."
Hu Dahai glanced at the map. The location’s designation was Z-256, and its danger rating was the lowest, green, which was basically a safe passage.
According to their theory, the real entrance should be hidden in one of the red zones where the gravitational distortion was most intense.
But out of his trust in Lin Ye, he still immediately arranged for a new team.
This time, the exploration went unbelievably smoothly.
After the pathfinder passed through a thin, illusory wall, his cry of disbelief came through the communicator.
"Oh my god! What am I seeing...?"
"Send back the video feed!"
Hu Dahai grew impatient.
The next second, the image on the main screen switched.
Everyone gasped.
It was a magnificent sight that words could not describe.
An unimaginably enormous vertical shaft appeared on the screen.
The shaft’s diameter was likely over a kilometer, and it was so deep it seemed bottomless—like an abyssal passage straight to hell.
The walls of the shaft were smooth as a mirror, yet covered in some kind of regular, complex patterns resembling mechanical circuitry, exuding an ancient and desolate aura.
Lin Ye closed his eyes, and his Gravity Perception instantly enveloped the area.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, a sense of grounding certainty in his voice.
"The gravity is pulling straight down. No distortions or deviations."
"This should be... the place."
After a brief, dead silence, the entire cavern erupted in a deafening cheer!
They had finally found it!
Everyone’s face showed the ecstatic joy of having survived an ordeal.
Lin Ye paid no mind to the crowd’s excitement. He was the first to move, leading the remaining thirty-two members of Xinhuo to the edge of the enormous shaft.
He looked down into the profound darkness, but another thought surfaced in his mind.
The circuit-like markings on the walls of this massive shaft couldn’t help but remind him of the mission the system had issued to unlock Phase P4.
[Mission Objective: Seize the Sigma Ruins.]
’Could what’s down there be the so-called Sigma Ruins?’
Without further hesitation, Lin Ye leaped, transforming into a streak of black light as he became the first to plummet into the endless abyss.
Seeing this, the other Xinhuo members followed suit one after another.
With the aid of Lin Ye’s Gravity Field, they weren’t afraid of falling to their deaths, no matter how deep the shaft was.
The descent was long and tedious.
When they finally passed through the bottom of the shaft and arrived on a new platform, the sight before them doused their newly kindled hopes with a bucket of cold water.
This was an underground space a hundred times larger than any cavern on the first level.
Vast and deathly silent.
And in the center of the entire space was a massive lake formed from a vast amount of Rot Eye Race bodily fluids.
The lake’s water was a nauseating dark green. Its surface was viscous and calm, but at its very center, a huge, slow-moving whirlpool spun silently, like a giant maw waiting to devour someone.
They hadn’t reached a deeper level.
This was a buffer zone between the first and second levels.
And the true entrance to the next level was, without a doubt, beneath the terrifying lake of acid!
This was the most blatant of schemes. It was as if the maze’s designer was silently mocking everyone: ’So what if you managed to find this place? Want to go down? Go ahead, jump into this lake that can dissolve anything.’
Just as everyone was looking at each other, at a complete loss, the clear sound of footsteps echoed from the passageway they had just come through.
Instantly, all the Xinhuo members went on alert and looked back.
Just in time to see seven or eight people in Kunlun Martial Hall uniforms slowly descending from the air!
The man in the lead had an imposing stature and a handsome face—it was none other than the leader of the Kunlun Martial Hall’s expedition, Zhang Daoming!
Zhang Daoming’s gaze swept over the surroundings. When he saw the thirty-plus people from Xinhuo and the massive lake of acid, a knowing smile appeared on his face.
"I was wondering why there was such a strong concentration of energy signals nearby. So it was our friends from Xinhuo, finding the entrance to the next level for us."
"For that, I really must thank you all."
A thought struck Lin Ye. ’Telekinesis really does have an advantage that gravity can’t make up for: Spiritual Power scanning. The information you can get from that kind of scan is far more detailed than what my own Gravity Perception can offer. To think that after all our hard work, Zhang Daoming caught up to us with a single scan!’
Zhang Daoming’s words instantly ignited the anger of a hot-tempered Xinhuo member.
"Thank us? Bullshit!"
"We lost more than a dozen of our brothers to find this path! You people from Kunlun think you can just reap the rewards? No fucking way!"
"Yeah! What gives you the right to go down!"
"If you want to pass, you’ll have to get through our blades first!"
The Xinhuo members were enraged, drawing their weapons one by one and blocking the passageway completely.
The people from Kunlun were no pushovers either and immediately squared off against them.
"What? So you found the path, big deal? If you’re so tough, why don’t you go down first!"
For a moment, the two sides were at a standoff, the air thick with the smell of gunpowder. A massive fight seemed imminent.
However, amidst the chaos, something completely unexpected happened.
Zhang Daoming, the focus of everyone’s attention, didn’t even glance back at his teammates.
He merely cast an interested glance at the acid lake below. Then, under everyone’s horrified gazes, he strode to the edge of the platform and, without the slightest pause, leaped straight down!