Nightmare Shuttle

Before Chu Yi could think about the previous events, he looked into the distance and let out a sneer. It seemed that Ruan Quixi would not give up until he got what he wanted. He pulled his attention away from the distance and turned back to the cave. It didn't take long for him to reach its depth.

Standing here, this platform was more like a cliff, because it was such a huge dive, one couldn't see the bottom, and even the other edge of the hole was visible in the boundless darkness. Chu Yi had relied on Ankiron's innate ability, an animal that could sniff out vital clues and locations and teleport its owner there. When Chu Yi first learned of this ability, he was initially estactic but his enthusiasm was quickly doused with cold water when he learned of its restriction. Although it could find vital clues, Chu Yi would suffer from extremely bad luck for at least two days. That means to say if he wasn't careful, Chu Yi could stumble into a dangerous situation at any moment. He didn't know what prompted him to take that risk now, but Chu Yi inherently felt that this would be a turning point for him. 

Chu Yi turned on the strong-light flashlight, and the harsh light beam tore through the darkness as if it was a substance. The strong flashlight provided by the tower is of excellent quality, with a strong focus and an effective range of more than 300 meters, but even then it still couldn't illuminate the opposite side.

That is to say, the diameter of the giant hole is upwards of 400 meters, and may even touch a kilometer. Such a terrifying underground cave can even be said to hollow out an entire mountain with no trace of human excavation at all.

There seemed to be no one way of getting down and vaguely Chu Yi seemed to sense a rapidly approaching presence. The gloomy and cold wind whistled, bringing a stale and sweet stench.

Chu Yi seemed to have opened the door to the new world, the corners of his mouth slightly curved, and the next moment he suddenly flexed his neck without warning.

Chu Yi is standing on the edge of the cliff, there was no place to hide on both sides, as long as he takes a step back, he would fall into the bottomless pit, but the person he had left high and dry was rapidly nearing, faintly carrying a murderous intention, facing both sides, it seemed Chu Yi was in a dilemma.

At this moment, Chu Yi put away the bright flashlight, and the dark cave instantly became pitch black.

In his hands, a dark red whip appeared. He squatted on the edge of the cliff and observed the cave wall. The dark hole that had been washed by dripping water for thousands of years was smooth as if it had been polished, and there were no protrusions or stone crevices to be used as a foothold. He would not be able to climb down such a vertical smooth wall. Most people would give up here, but at the end of the day, he never intended to climb.

Chu Yi quickly picked up a stone the size of a large golf ball and patiently wound it around the dark whip. Then he swung the rock-bound whip like a cowboy lasso, satisfied with the weight.

In front of him was a bottomless abyss, and the whirring cold wind rushed from the cave, a biting and malicious chill. Even if one is not afraid of heights it would still take great courage to stand here.

But Chu Yi only thought that since there was wind, it could prove that the bottom of this giant hole was not closed and that there might be a side channel. Although it still could not obscure the height of the hole, Chu Yi was even more excited. His red eyes seemed to be glowing, he couldn't stop smiling, even his breathing was a little short. The man had always had endless desire to explore the sky above their heads and the deep-sea caves beneath their feet. Chu Yi was thinking... how happy it would be if he jumped down from this hole. The man had turned his back, his feet were half off the cliff, and he slowly leaned back. 

"No, it's not exciting enough."

Halfway down, Chu Yi straightened his waist and stood up. He thought that he might rarely have the opportunity to jump the giant hole in his life, which must be a precious experience that he will keep reminiscing about in the future. Therefore, Chu Yi was very solemn, looked for multiple angles, and finally decided to face the abyss and jump down.

But it still wasn't exciting enough. Suddenly he stopped and an evil smile suddenly crossed his lips.

He had a brilliant idea!

Chu Yi slowly waited, his heart beating faster and faster the closer he got!

Closer, closer. Ten meters, five meters, three meters—

The minute the tall man crossed into the dark cave, the golden eyes only caught sight of red lips rise into an arrogant and wicked smile before in his dilated pupils, 

Chu Yi jumped!

In the cold silence, the man watched his dearest disappear in his sight, helpless to do anything as if he had been transported back to that day once again.

Ruan Quixi's eyes rapidly turned stormy, a wicked sneer pulling at the corner of his lips. With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared.

*

When he jumped into the abyss without any protective measures, Chu Yi felt boundless joy and freedom. He was falling rapidly, a sharp whistling as the wind passed his ears. The hole swallowed all the light and drowned his entire being in boundless darkness.

Chu Yi didn't feel suffocation or horror.

There was only pure happiness and satisfaction in his eyes. Freedom, the only thing that brought him is excitement and stimulation, and even peace. In this kind of weightlessness, he seemed to be in a different dimension, a dark paradise that is not disturbed or noisy and belongs to Chu Yi alone.

At this moment, he doesn't have to hide it anymore, he doesn't have to hide the arrogance and madness on his bones at all. A wanton and sharp light pulled at his heartstrings and Chu Yi wanted to laugh.

He was a monster.

A monster hidden in the crowd, covered in a layer of human skin, and incompatible with a peaceful and quiet life. Therefore even if he kills all the other monsters, he still couldn't find a place in the world.

Chu Yi didn't laugh like a madman, he just smiled quietly. His eyes were filled with a shallow layer of light, and there seemed to be endless arrogance in his eyes.

But when he estimated that he was close to the ground and it was time to stop, Chu Yi calmly and rationally pulled out the rose whip. The whip was swung several times and rebounded onto the edge of the cliff, like a rope tied to a person during bungee jumping, and finally took Chu Yi to the rock wall with great force.

However his speed was very fast, and there is no sponge cushion on the rock wall, and normal people will probably become a puddle of meat when they crashed at such high speed. But Chu Yi deftly let go when he was about to approach the rock wall, and his posture was less like a well-trained special forces soldier, and more like a wild animal.

With the strength of the whip, he fell into a cave safely without any danger.

"Boom--"

The landing Chu Yi didn't get up right away. He squatted on the ground and reminisced about the lingering emotions in his heart for more than ten seconds before he recovered from the excitement.

This sense of being out of control, facing the madness of his heart, and feeling the weightlessness coldly, as if everything was under his control, was one of the most fascinating and intoxicating experiences. He looked back up, the person he was expecting to see was gone but Chu Yi didn't entangle himself with it, and without hesitation, he walked out of the dark channel.

Initially, Chu Yi thought that he would be transported to another deep and dark cavern but when he looked around he found that he was now in a small but relatively spacious tomb vault. Even if one described it as spacious, it could not be considered as such. There was only an open coffin inside, and the remaining space surrounding the coffin was only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Where Chu Yi happened to be, he was standing right beside the coffin.

No matter how much he looked around, he could not see anything out of the ordinary, and in the end, his eyes landed on the coffin. There was nothing inside the dusty and grey stone tomb, the open black hole seemed to suck away all the light. Beside it, a short stone lever stood, blatantly tempting him to pull it. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to act. The moment he pulled the lever down, there was a strange rumbling and cracking sound from the wall, the dislodged rocks fell to the floor before the wall gave way. Almost immediately, a hidden room came into sight, and inside it revealed a winding flight of stairs leading into darkness.

Chu Yi's dubious eyes revealed his doubts at how easy this was. When was it so simple for clues to be found–unless there were even more terrifying things to come. Regardless, he didn't delay any longer and followed the path of the stairs down into darkness. Only the sounds of his footsteps echoed in the empty vacuum and Chu Yi didn't know it was an illusion but the farther down he walked, the colder the temperature became. There was even a faint crashing that reminded him of water gushing.

However when he finally reached the ends of his steps, what was revealed to him was not a flowing river as he imagined but yet another space. Unlike the one above this space was huge, with the same cold layout as the tomb above. Inside, there were a few tall platforms with short stairs suspended in the air and inexplicably it reminded him of the battle arenas used in the fight to the death of warriors of ancient Rome.

There was only one huge tree in the middle of the room.

It was a very huge tree, large enough that even dozens of people together would not be able to encircle its huge trunk. Its branches and leaves extended up so high that they were unable to see their end. There were many hanging, twisted tree roots, and these roots and vines were spread over almost the entirety of the room. It could be said that this huge tomb vault was densely packed with all the big and small roots and vines! 

However, each leaf on the branch was not a brilliant green as one would see on a healthy tree but they all carried a wilted and black luster that reminded him of the leaves on the guardian tree aboveground. This tree was like a mini replica of the one in the elf tribe but this tree seemed to be in the late stages of death as if foretelling the future of the guardian tree.

In fact, the moment he arrived at this tomb, the flashlight in his hand became useless. Because in this room there was another source of light. On the tree's snagged roots, strange pink fibers emitted light. If one carefully observed them, one would find that these roots twisted from time to time. The light they emitted was not a lot, but with the presence of so many roots and root fibers, together, they had the capacity to illuminate the entire space.

When Chu Yi stepped over the roots and moved closer to the strange tree, he couldn't help but wrinkle his nose. It wasn't to say that there was a disgusting smell in the room but somehow Chu Yi felt somewhat nauseous. It was the same uncomfortable feeling he got the last time when Ling Zheng had touched him. As if two incompatible elements had collided together.

Since the ground inside the large tomb vault was covered with tree roots, there was no space for him to step on, so he could only step onto the roots. However, the further he moved in, the more uncomfortable he felt until he was forced to stop a distance away from the tree. These tree roots were like living things. Whenever he moved, they would shift slowly, as if opening a path for him. Moreover, when he stepped on these roots, it was as if he could clearly feel under the soles of his feet, a kind of warmth that only living creatures possessed, and as if it had a pulse, he could even vaguely feel the dong, dong, dong of its heartbeat. However, this heartbeat was strenuous and low as if struggling to survive.

"Interesting." Chu Yi raised his eyes. Walking on these roots gave him the feeling that he was crawling on some giant creature, and when the roots, vines, and other parts twisted and moved, it felt as if they were tentacles or something similar. However, why would such a big tree appear in the place in the first place?

Chu Yi stood a few meters away from the tree, in his narrowed vision, he seemed to see a strange thing lodged inside the tree. Although it was very bright in the tomb, only the roots were emitting light, and somehow, the closer he got to the center, the fewer roots there were. Without the natural lighting, it seemed darker. It could be said that the surrounding area was very bright, but the center of the tomb was very dark. Just like the staircase before, as if something was preventing the light from illuminating here.

"The fallen god, whose power can still light up the people around him but cannot save himself." Chu Yi suddenly uttered this sentence in the darkness, his voice that carried traces of cold amusement seemed to bounce off the dome-like walls. There was no one to answer him however and humming slightly, Chu Yi pressed down the uneasy feeling in his stomach and moved closer.

The vault above had an open coffin, regardless of where the contents of the coffin were, Chu Yi faintly wondered if there would also be a tomb here. The huge and withered tree seemed to carry with a sense of destruction. The roots and vines spread around the entire tomb vault, covering every corner. The brighter the exterior, the darker one's heart would be.

When Chu Yi came to stand in front of the tree, he found out his previous conjecture wasn't too far-fetched because there was no need for a coffin itself...the tree was the coffin!

There was a woman ingrown in the huge tree trunk!

It may not have been particularly appropriate to call her 'ingrown,' but Chu Yi could not find any other words to describe it because half of this person's body was trapped in the trunk, as if she had grown together with this tree. Her hands and feet were sealed in the bark, and only her head and chest were exposed.

On her body, this woman wore a red wedding dress!