Chapter 599 Going into the Abyss
When compared to the past neglect, the cliff of the Great Abyss had undergone significant changes.
Because of the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect’s interference, the cliff was full of cables and iron baskets of different sizes. There were some rest points and monitoring spots, such as stone rooms, every few hundred meters. When seen from a distance, the stone rooms were like beehives.
Ding Hao released his Divine Senses to find the mysterious cave.
He didn’t go there with the disciples selected by Guan Feidu because he wanted to see if he could find the mysterious cave that changed his fate after time-travelling. The cave cliff had changed tremendously due to the large-scale exploitation. Ding Hao didn’t know if the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect had found the cave or not. He could only hope for the best.
After a short while…
“Huh? Looks like I found it…” Ding Hao’s eyes fell on a well-hidden crack in the mountain and found the entrance to the mysterious cave.
Judging from the outside, there was no trace of exploration. It was unlikely that the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect had discovered it before he returned.
This was good news.
Ding Hao flashed and disappeared into the entrance of the cave.
The familiar stone path once again appeared in front of Ding Hao’s eyes. After walking a few hundreds of meters along the path, he reached the empty stone room…
The square stone pit, which used to be filled with milky white liquid, was still there, but all the liquid had been taken away by Ding Hao. Its smooth face was like a mirror. It had obviously been excavated by man.
Ding Hao’s strength had improved by leaps and bounds since then, and he was no longer a simple-minded lad, but he still felt amazed when he observed the mysterious cave for the second time.
He was certain that the whole cave had been excavated with a supernatural power, rather than being a natural formation. After decades of erosion, it changed into the current state and looked as if it were the creation of nature.
Unfortunately, just like before, except for the chessboard patterns on the stone table, Ding Hao didn’t find anything else inside the cave.
At the moment, Ding Hao’s Mind Essential had reached the level of the Heaven and Earth of the Will of the G.o.d. His Divine Senses were so strong that many experts in the Martial Emperor realm were inferior in comparison. However, he still felt dizzy after slowly lowering his head to look at the grid on the chessboard, although he was able to hold on for a moment longer when compared to his first experience.
Ding Hao stared at the chessboard lines for about four or five minutes before he could no longer stand the dizziness. He had to look away, lest the pain crushed his soul into pieces.
He sat cross-legged and ran his Qi. After a full fifteen minutes, the feeling of dizziness slowly disappeared.
But this time, Ding Hao finally found some clues.
“The patterns on the chessboard seem to be some kind of inscription formation. There’s no question about it. As for the distorted look… Well, it seems to be some kind of spatial transmission formation. Because of its compelling spatial distortion power, even one glance would make people feel as if their metabolic rates had gone through the roof!”
Ding Hao thought for a minute.
He had been overwhelmed and intrigued by the discovery.
Just where exactly was this chessboard formation leading to?
Its power was far more terrifying than the long-distance transmission formation he had seen before in Snow Province. The aura it emitted was like that of a supreme being. Ding Hao was sure that it would lead to a much farther place. Would it connect other regions?
No matter who had left such a transmission formation, he certainly had reached the peak in strength.
Ding Hao was a seventh-level inscriptionist at the moment, and his Divine Senses were extremely powerful because he had reached the peak of the Mind Essential. However, he could only watch the lines on the chessboard for a brief moment. If it was an ordinary expert in the Martial Emperor or the Demon Royal realm, he would not be able to hold on for even a minute.
Ding Hao took the time to observe the pattern on the chessboard again.
However, he could only hold on for about ten minutes at most before he was unable to tolerate the dizziness. He would vomit like a drunkard who was about to die from intoxication.
Of course, no pain, no gain.
Ding Hao was finally sure that the inscription patterns on the chessboard were not what he knew.
The inscription was extremely ancient but very befitting. It had some kind of intelligence that had stayed strong after tens of thousands of years, which was a sign of its power. To some extent, this inscription was closer to the Fake G.o.d’s characters he had seen in the Fake G.o.d City. Because, according to the system described by the Saber Master and the Sword Master, it shouldn’t exist.
Ding Hao tried to summon the Saber Master and the Sword Master in his mind.
Unfortunately, just like in previous times, the two old monsters would keep silent, unwilling to show up as long as he was inside this mysterious cave.
In the end, Ding Hao gave up and stopped observing.
The chessboard pattern was different from the inscription system he had mastered. Ding Hao could not even figure out how to move the pattern on the chessboard, nor could he activate the transmission channel inside it. Even if he could activate it, Ding Hao would not dare to try and enter it.
He wasn’t that curious.
No one knew what kind of world existed on the other side of the chessboard transmission formation.
Ding Hao decided to leave after observing in the mysterious cave for a while and finding nothing else.
Ding Hao suddenly remembered something when he reached the cave entrance. He carefully hid it so that it wouldn’t be discovered; no one would notice its existence, even while standing within one or two meters from it. He left with confidence after casting that concealment.
Ding Hao had always felt that this mysterious cave was not simple.
There might be a shocking mystery hidden within.
After leaving the cave, Ding Hao didn’t return to the ground just yet.
Instead, he continued to follow the path down the abyss.
He wanted to go deep into the abyss and explore as deep as he could. This place had once been regarded as a forbidden area by the ancestors of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect. He went there to find out what kind of secret there was, why purple dragon Qi had burst out for no reason, and why it stored such a large amount of mysterious crystal ore.
Ding Hao had an intuition.
The things in the abyss were definitely not simple. In addition to a large number of mysterious crystals and minerals, there were other secrets hidden. The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect surely knew something. Those mysterious crystals and minerals could not be the only reason why they had sent masters to Snow Province from thousands of miles away. Their main reason to go there had to be related to the secrets hidden behind the purple Dragon Qi pillar.
A sharp astral wind whistled in his ears.
The further down he went, the more intense the demonic Qi and the astral wind became.
Ding Hao’s vision was blocked. He exerted all his power of sight. The Heaven Fire burst out of his eyes, like a golden sword, breaking through the astral wind and allowing him to see a hundred meters ahead of him.
Time pa.s.sed slowly.
Ding Hao roughly calculated that he had descended to a point beyond 1,000 meters below the cliff.
He had never been in this depth before.
Considered a forbidden area, the bottom of the Great Abyss was filled with dangers and mysteries. With Ding Hao’s previous strength, it would have been risky to enter such a place, and there had been no need to take such a risk.
But things were different at the moment.
His body was enveloped in a golden light s.h.i.+eld as he slowly descended.
Suddenly, all kinds of brilliance flashed in front of him. An extremely dense Spiritual Qi overwhelmed him.
Ding Hao stopped at this point.
Bursts of brilliance were flas.h.i.+ng on the cliff of the abyss in front of him, which were magnificent and bright. As far as the eye could see, the stone walls had turned into glistening mysterious crystals. With abundant power of the five elements, the mysterious crystals of all properties formed a ma.s.sive rock. It was as if he had walked into a fantasy world full of strange colors.
Even though Ding Hao had been mentally prepared, he was still astonished.
It was the consensus in the Land of Infinity that the mysterious crystal mines were similar to the metal mines, such as jade and gold. The mysterious crystals were usually found in small numbers. It required labor to extract them from the ma.s.sive rocks and refine the stones to get the crystals of different sizes. Moreover, based on the appearance and the amount of Qi contained, it would be divided into four grades, namely low, medium, high, and top-grade.
But the mysterious crystal mine in front of him simply dismantled the definition of mining.
It wasn’t a primitive mine at all.
Instead, it was a large number of mysterious crystals in their purest form, which did not need to be refined or carved.
The explorer only needed to break the five-color rock wall and transport the pieces one by one. That was all it would take to acquire the top-grade crystals.
That would not count as exploiting; it would simply be the harvesting of mysterious crystals.
Ding Hao saw that the thick cable ropes hanging down the crystal stone wall with their tails swaying in the wind, like the dragons and pythons struggling to avoid being nailed. If some parts had not been fixed on the wall, those cables would have been torn by the astral wind.
This was the place where the disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had been forced to work over the past month.
The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect commanded countless disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect to exploit the area. Although some protective measures had been taken, it was still quite primitive and dangerous. Many disciples had lost their lives while mining in the past month. Some of them had lost their footing, falling into the bottomless abyss. Some had been engulfed by the killing intent, while others were victims of the astral wind.
After the recovery of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect, the extremely dangerous excavation had been immediately stopped.
There was no one there at the moment.
With great strength, Ding Hao floated in the void, unaffected by the astral wind. He began to observe this mysterious crystal wall.
He had some doubts in his heart.
Such a huge mysterious crystal was enough to release a significant amount of Spiritual Qi. Even if the astral wind and the demonic Qi in the abyss cliff could block the Qi, it must have leaked out some of it after such a long time. Why wasn’t this detected by the masters of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect, including himself?