Treasure-hunting: Into the Unknown

Zachary went ahead quietly, further into the Netherworld Island. Soon after, he immediately noticed that the steady stream of passersby around him were no longer Imperial Level martial beasts, but instead Sage Level ones. After all, they were anything but muted, sometimes strutting as if they owned the road and marching with footsteps loud enough to startle a grown man.

Fortunately, the Ghost Lamp enabled Zachary to have an unimpeded passage as he moved along.

After trudging another hill, Zachary came across a seemingly distant collection of architectural remains. He looked at them for a few moments and then continued on a stone path that extended straight ahead. He continued walking wordlessly, and before he knew it, a massive circular gully about three hundred meters away came into view. Zachary squinted, surveying his surroundings carefully. The remains stood on the opposite side, and one obvious path was a collapsed stone bridge at the end of the road.

"Let me just fly there," Zachary mumbled to himself as he saw the bridge's condition. As soon as he stomped his feet, which were equipped with the Flying Boots, he quickly started flying over.

For a short while, the whole thing felt like a breeze. That was until he felt a forceful downward pull from below, causing him to sway and lose his balance.

"Oh no!" Zachary blacked out for a moment, overwhelmed with the thought of crashing down.

He quickly snapped out of it as he felt an enormous shadow creep up from the gully. Quickly rising above was a tentacle, thick as a pillar, covered completely with eyeballs, the sight of which could make anyone shudder with disgust.

Almost instantaneously, the tentacle lashed violently at Zachary.

With no time to hesitate, he stretched out his hand and shot the Heavenly Silk Thread towards the stone bridge. It had been a while since he last used it, but the thread worked well enough, bounding the bridge tightly and pulling him back, safe from the tentacle.

He crashed against the bridge, which normally would have hurt. Instead, he sprawled across the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now I know why it's called the Netherworld Island. There is likely going to be more gears, traps and other unknown dangers everywhere! Ente

ly rushed to the edge of the bridge. The path he had used started to crumble, collapsing into the gully. The tentacle, although enraged, slowly retreated.

Upon reaching the supposed remains, Zachary looked over and found there stood a single enormous castle. In the middle of one of its unusually grand stone walls was an unlatched gate that was as high as several floors of a common building.

"I wonder whose idea it was to build a castle on such an island," Zachary sighed exasperatedly.

After passing through the gate, he observed the castle's entirety. He stood still on a wide cross road flanked by towering buildings, all of which seemed unsuitable for humans. Then, at the end of the road were stone steps leading to an outrageously large palace. The structure, he determined, was built like a kingdom for giants.

Zachary lifted the Ghost Lamp, illuminating the surroundings. A red path extended straight along the wide road and up the stone steps, as if pointing to the palace. If he guessed correctly, Anne's cultivation site should be in there.

If his recent encounter taught him anything, it was that he wanted to avoid another unimaginable danger and leave the Netherworld Island as soon as possible. Using Shadow Pace, he quickly bolted to the stairs. However, when he got close enough, he immediately halted, slack-jawed. Each of the stone steps' levels was nearly half a meter high. And if he estimated correctly, there were about a hundred steps, which added up to dozens of meters!