Divine Beast Creator-Chapter 2161 - 2162: Another Path
"This is..."
Involuntarily raising the lantern in his hand, Feng Yuan completely forgot that its illumination was limited, primarily strong for revealing hidden Netherworld objects.
"Feng Yuan, what’s wrong?"
In the back, Qi Chen, seeing the group stopped and puzzled, lowered his voice to inquire, due to the narrow passage, it was difficult for them to bypass the people ahead and continue forward.
Looking down at the platform underfoot, Feng Yuan hurriedly stepped out of the stone arch to make room and said,
"Be careful, watch your step."
Confused, and following behind the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Qi Chen didn’t know what Feng Yuan had seen, as Feng Yuan was holding the lantern and stepped aside, Qi Chen could only see darkness through the gap above the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound.
Outside is a hall?
Just as Qi Chen was thinking this, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound suddenly yelped as its left foreleg stepped into nothingness. Fortunately, Feng Yuan had been paying attention to it. Throwing the lantern, Feng Yuan hurriedly reached out his left hand to grab the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, pulling it back by its fur when it froze in place in terror.
"Hurry up and move."
Seeing the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound startled in place, Feng Yuan urged speechlessly, tightly tucking its tail, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound cautiously moved toward Feng Yuan’s standing position.
With Feng Yuan throwing the floating lantern in the air, Qi Chen could barely guess what was ahead, perhaps a cliff?
Yet, haven’t they walked downward for quite a while already? At such depth, could it be a huge underground space?
Because of the earlier frightful howl from the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Qi Chen didn’t rashly step out of the passage but kept an eye on his feet until the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound moved aside did he realize why Feng Yuan had reminded them so.
The platform at the end of the last step barely allowed the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound to stretch its body and stand with its four legs, a slight step forward would lead to stepping into nothingness.
Remembering something, Qi Chen turned to remind Dou Yanlan behind them, primarily because her Star White Lion, Xing Bo, was much larger than the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, thus should be even more cautious when coming down.
"This platform isn’t big enough."
Floating beside Feng Yuan, Veronia couldn’t help saying, seeing so many people and Spirit Beasts squeezed into such a small platform. Feng Yuan frowned, gesturing as a ghostly blue flame flew out from the lantern forming a squared platform at the edge.
In moments, the flames gradually extinguished, revealing a primitive floating stone platform engraved with a Netherworld scene depicted on it.
Gently tapping the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound’s head, Feng Yuan gestured it to follow.
Even though Feng Yuan had pulled his Spirit Beast off the platform, the narrow space could still barely accommodate two people excluding Feng Yuan.
Dou Yanlan thought a bit and had Xing Bo retreat into the passage ready to jump out anytime, although the Star White Lion couldn’t fly, a brief hover was possible.
Though this platform could barely fit Xing Bo, Dou Yanlan knew clearly that since this place was designed this way, it couldn’t be without danger. If Xing Bo also squeezed in, they wouldn’t even have space to turn, which would cause endless trouble. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
"Ready?" Then I’ll try to illuminate this space."
Standing on the floating stone platform, Feng Yuan turned towards Dou Yanlan to ask. The two didn’t immediately respond but checked around first and exchanged a glance before Qi Chen said,
"Be careful."
Mainly because they were unsure if illuminating would trigger mechanisms, otherwise, Xing Bo had several ultimate moves to light up this void.
Indeed, aside from the platform underfoot, given the echoes and other factors, they deduced this could be a rather large underground space, yet the exact structure was unclear.
Taking a deep breath, Feng Yuan fiercely waved the sickle in his hand as pure flames surged from the blade, sweeping the entire space madly.
With the brightness brought by flames, everyone could finally see their surroundings, the earlier invisible square columns now clearly appeared before them.
Suddenly, a torch hanging on a column lit up on its own, as the first torch ignited, the entire underground space seemed to awaken from sleep, with torches lighting up one after another, illuminating stone columns of various sizes.
Regarding these stone columns, Feng Yuan didn’t feel particularly surprised, having already sensed their presence through Divine Sense.
What truly surprised him was the massive metal gears below. Those gears were beyond the range of Divine Sense due to distance, however, near them, torches seemed to signal to visitors of the danger below.
Just judging the sheer size of those gears, Feng Yuan could speculate on the immense force driving them, and if one accidentally fell, who knows what might happen.
Of course, whether it’s humans in trouble or the gears, it’s uncertain.
"This place, no path?"
Though the somewhat spacious underground cavern was illuminated by torches, no visible route for advancement was seen.
Could this be a dead end?
"No, there should be a way across."
Looking at the various stone columns, Feng Yuan pondered aloud, observing carefully, he discovered on those columns there seemed to be something resembling a suspended path, but each column only had a segment of it.
Could it be they are meant to fly across?
Considering the existence of Spirit Beasts, Feng Yuan immediately thought of this possibility, but, could this place truly be that simple?
Hesitating a bit, Feng Yuan said,
"Don’t move, I’ll try."
Though Cotton’s Nether Cross supported flying with passengers, Feng Yuan doubted if this place would have particular reactions to these ultimate moves.
Of course, his means are hard to define as well.
The long-handled sickle he held tapped the stone board at its end, raising his right hand to point the top of the sickle towards the nearest stone pillar.
The flames erupted from the lantern, blazing across the platform Qi Chen and others stood on, extending toward the path edge of that stone pillar.
Just then, an abrupt change occurred as an ash-gray airflow appeared out of nowhere, swiftly extinguishing the burning flame.
Though this partly was because Feng Yuan hadn’t exerted full force, if he truly went all out, this Nether Wind might not have been able to subdue the flames.
"Indeed, even bridge building is prohibited?"
Frowning, Feng Yuan gazed afar without taking further action, not wishing for unexpected changes from attempting forceful breakthroughs.
Taking a deep breath, Feng Yuan sought to relax himself.
Neither Agunas nor Veronia spoke, feeling Feng Yuan was being overly tense this moment, though this place likely related to those people, yet since they hadn’t shown themselves, perhaps...
"There are no mechanisms around here, how do we proceed?"
Qi Chen questioned Feng Yuan, after pondering for a moment, Dou Yanlan said,
"Perhaps, we have to go below."
"Below?!"
Qi Chen and Feng Yuan looked at Dou Yanlan in surprise, not understanding why she gave such a response.
Moving to the platform edge, Dou Yanlan leaned out pointing downward
"Though not very clear, it can be confirmed there should be a pathway below, just that, due to obscured visibility, I can’t be sure it’s absolutely safe."
Following Dou Yanlan’s gesture, faintly they could see a steep rock face suddenly missing a segment below, with vague sight of a platform existing below.
But, how to descend?
Feng Yuan rubbed his chin, uncertain if vertical flight would provoke the Nether Wind.
Without hesitation, Feng Yuan fetched a bundle of rope from Veronia. Watching Feng Yuan hold that thumb-thick climbing rope, Qi Chen surprisedly asked,
"Where do you intend to anchor this thing?"
"Of course, I’ll create something to anchor it."
With that, Feng Yuan gestured as a stone column erupted from the ground, anchoring the rope and pulling it to ensure it could hold before Feng Yuan directly slid down using it.
Ignoring the faintly visible metal gears below, Feng Yuan focused entirely on the rock face, sliding down for a while when an indent passage in the mountain appeared in his sight.
Gesturing upwards, Feng Yuan kicked hard with both feet, releasing then grabbing the rope to swing into the passage.
This passage was relatively spacious, similar in width to the above platform, stretching along the mountain wall endlessly, its destination unclear.
Releasing the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Feng Yuan looked at the descending Xiao Ji, seeing it safe and sound, he let out a breath of relief, his concern was if Xiao Ji would be disturbed by the Nether Wind while flying, but judging by the situation, it seemed as long as not straying from the rock face, triggering the Nether Wind could be avoided.
