The rocks along the edge of the rift were jagged, their sheared surfaces covered in a glassy luster—a trace of rock that had melted under extreme heat and then cooled and solidified.
The rift was bottomless, with thick fog constantly churning up from the depths of the earth, carrying a decaying, damp, earthy scent.
Bai Xuan squatted at the edge of the rift and leaned over to look down. The depth was beyond imagination, and the light from above could not reach the bottom at all.
Phoebe stood quietly beside him, looking down at her arm. The golden patterns on her skin glowed faintly in the dim environment, silently guiding the way.
“Is this the place?” Bai Xuan turned and asked.
Phoebe nodded to confirm without any hesitation.
The two walked slowly along the edge of the rift until they found a gentle gravel slope, steadily making their way down.
Bai Xuan led the way, with Phoebe following closely behind.
The gravel under their feet kept sliding down, making soft, rustling clatters.
The further they descended toward the bottom, the more humid and heavy the air became, and the fog grew increasingly thick.
Bai Xuan adjusted the brightness of the Simple Lighting Orb to its maximum. Floating by his side, it cast two beams of light that pierced through the heavy fog, barely illuminating the path about thirty yards ahead.
Before they had even taken a hundred steps down, a rustling sound echoed from deep within the fog.
Bai Xuan stopped immediately, quickly sweeping his mental energy forward. He detected swarms of lizard monsters swarming out from the crevices in the rock walls.
They were covered in dark gray scales, with short, thick limbs and long tails dragging on the ground. Though small in size, they were numerous, and their levels were all around Level 8.
Glaring with dark yellow, slit-pupil eyes and baring rows of sharp, dense teeth, the monsters lunged at the two in a frenzy.
Phoebe immediately stepped forward from behind Bai Xuan. With a violent sweep of her battleaxe, she instantly sliced three of the lizard monsters in half, splattering foul-smelling, dark green blood all over the rock wall.
The remaining monsters poured out in an endless stream, launching frontal assaults, flanking maneuvers, and aerial attacks from above. The dense onslaught left absolutely no blind spots.
Phoebe remained calm. She crushed the skull of a nearby monster with her axe, but another monster took the opportunity to bite down hard on the axe handle, refusing to let go.
Twisting her wrist with sudden force, she tore the monster's jaws apart, sending it flying with a savage screech.
Bai Xuan did not leave her to fight alone. Raising his staff high, the golden light gathered at its tip erupted, and the highly compressed power of the Holy Light instantly surged outward in all directions.
【Storm of Judgment】
Dazzling golden blades of light exploded from the staff, sweeping through the narrow rift like a tempest harvesting wheat, covering an incredibly vast area.
Wherever the light blades swept, swarms of lizard monsters were instantly torn to shreds by the invisible force. Scales flew and flesh splattered as their agonizing shrieks echoed continuously through the rift.
The hard rock walls on both sides of the rift were also carved with grooves of varying depths by the violent blades of light. Loose rocks kept breaking off and falling, filling the air with a continuous, rumbling roar.
Within just a few seconds, all the swarming lizard monsters were completely wiped out.
Phoebe stood in place, her battleaxe suspended in midair. She froze, then turned her head to look at Bai Xuan beside her.
“When monsters bunch up like that, it's more efficient for me to clear them with area-of-effect skills,” Bai Xuan explained flatly.
Phoebe nodded slightly, lowered her battleaxe, and continued her descent toward the depths of the rift.
As they went deeper underground, the monsters they encountered turned into undead creatures.
Skeleton Wanderers crawled out from the piles of rubble, eerie green soul flames flickering in their hollow eye sockets. Tattered fragments of armor hung precariously from their decaying skeletal frames.
In life, these undead had been ordinary people. Some were soldiers of the Glay Empire, while others were adventurers and commoners who had wandered into this place by mistake.
Just like Phoebe, they had once been Glay citizens. After death, they had been corrupted, ultimately turning into mindless walking corpses.
Phoebe took the initiative to charge. With a single strike, she shattered the skull of the foremost undead, sending bone fragments flying in all directions.
Another undead seized the opportunity to launch a sneak attack from the side. Without even turning around, she swept her axe handle backward, violently snapping its spine and causing the entire skeleton to instantly collapse into a heap of bones.
Bai Xuan followed slowly behind, occasionally raising his hand to cast Holy Light Catalyst to take care of any undead attempting to ambush them from blind spots.
Although it was a healing skill, it dealt lethal damage to these undead creatures.
Looking at the shattered bones scattered across the ground, Bai Xuan couldn't help but think of the undead on the seventh floor.
They too had once been living beings with their own names, families, and lives, only to end up as piles of cold bones drifting in this dark underground place.
The closer they got to the bottom, the fewer monsters they encountered, but the fog grew increasingly dense.
Bai Xuan's vision was heavily obscured by the thick fog, allowing him to see only a few yards ahead. He had to rely entirely on his mental energy to scan the path.
Only the golden mark on Phoebe's arm served as a steady, dark-gold beacon, guiding them through the dense fog.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, the steep gravel slope beneath their feet suddenly leveled out. Bai Xuan looked up; they had finally reached the bottom of the rift.
The space at the bottom was far wider than imagined, resembling a roofless underground palace with nothing but endless darkness overhead.
He raised his staff, spreading a golden glow, while the Simple Lighting Orb floating in the air cast a wide blanket of white light, barely illuminating a portion of the bottom.
The ground was paved with ancient stone slabs, with dry, white moss growing in the cracks. At the very front of the bottom stood a massive stone wall.
Bai Xuan stepped forward slowly and ran his hand across the wall. It felt cold and rough, its surface covered in intricate patterns.
He raised his staff to brighten the light, and only then did he see it clearly.
What stood before them was not a stone wall at all, but a giant, circular metal door.
The door was thick and solid, studded with dark gemstones, and featured a massive gear-like dial right in the center.
Looking at this door, Bai Xuan was suddenly reminded of the bank vault doors he had seen in his previous life.
It had the same heavy, circular structure, a central dial, and gemstones embedded along the edges. Even the markings on the dial were strikingly similar.
His pupils contracted slightly, and his heart couldn't help but beat faster.
This underground region had sunk into the earth thousands of years ago. Even if someone had come to this world back then, how could there have been a bank vault?
He carefully examined the ancient Glayde runes and complex magic circles on the door, confirming that this was indeed the ancient craftsmanship style of this world.
Bai Xuan shook his head gently to suppress the absurd speculation in his heart, chalking it up to a design coincidence by ancient Glay craftsmen, and refocused his attention on the metal door before him.
“This must be the door,” Bai Xuan said to confirm.
Phoebe stepped forward silently and gently pressed her palm against the cold metal door.
The golden patterns on her arm instantly lit up, and the flowing light spread from her palm onto the door.
The dormant runes on the door flashed with faint dark-gold light one after another, but they dimmed quickly after only a brief moment. It was clear that a crucial activation power was missing.
Bai Xuan bent down and noticed faint writing carved into the stone slab in front of the door.
He reached out to brush away the thick layer of accumulated dust, clearly revealing the ancient carvings.
These were not the common script of the continent, but the long-lost ancient script of the Glay Empire.
He immediately opened his status panel and aimed it at the writing to analyze and decipher it.
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