Chapter 692 427: Saber Aura

Duan Rong had prepared everything he needed and proceeded down the wooden staircase on the east side of the pavilion, descending the steps until he reached the door on the first floor.

This door was located in a dim corner some distance away from the staircase entrance. Its color was dark, and if Fan Hongjiao hadn't led him through it once before, Duan Rong might not have noticed the door at all.

He came to the door and pushed it open with a creak. Behind it lay a darkness so thick it felt impenetrable, with dim steps stretching downward, gradually swallowed by the dark.

Duan Rong took out a prepared torch and lit it with his flint.

He stood at the doorway holding the torch, the wind blowing past, causing the flames to dance and lick at his ears.

With a step, Duan Rong crossed into the darkness. Behind him, the door creaked shut on its own.

The sound of the wind ceased abruptly, and the flames of the torch flared up, the sound of its burning starkly loud in the silent space.

The dark staircase descending was once traversed with Fan Hongjiao and the others; now, only Duan Rong remained alone.

In the deathly silence of the darkness, he walked alone with the torch, whose light illuminated about ten feet of stairs, beyond which lay endless darkness, stretching to infinity...

Duan Rong kept walking, not knowing how long he'd been moving. He repeated a stiff motion, alternating his feet downwards, enveloped by a heavy darkness both front and back.

The sound of the torch burning, listened to long enough, seemed to become part of the dead silent environment… echoing continuously on Duan Rong's eardrums.

A thought suddenly emerged in his mind: if this staircase were long enough, anyone continuing to walk down it like this would certainly go completely mad at some point.

Duan Rong continued walking in solitude until his mind, from being wooden, began to become lively, like boiling water bubbling up. Various random thoughts intermingled, uncontrollable… After a while, he saw a faint light at the end of the darkness.

He was finally nearing the underground crevice.

Duan Rong quickened his pace downward, finally pausing briefly in a dim light.

He exhaled deeply, a tinge of fear flickering in his eyes.

From the open stone gate ahead, a dim beam of light shone, illuminating his feet. Duan Rong stood there, gazing at the endless darkness behind him.

This road of deathly silence was indeed somewhat eerie.

He looked at the nearly burnt-out torch in his hand, tossed it aside, and stepped into the dimly lit stone gate.

In the corner of the stone chamber still sat the elder in silent meditation.

Duan Rong stood there, bowed respectfully with clasped hands, and called out, "Mr. Yi!"

The elder gave Duan Rong a peculiar look, silently.

Duan Rong said nothing further, walking to the stone wall carved with beast patterns, drew out a key, and inserted it into a beast head's mouth. As he turned the key, the stone door opened, and without pause, Duan Rong slipped inside.

As the stone door closed, the elder muttered something indistinctly and continued to meditate with closed eyes.

Inside the corridor, Duan Rong took a deep breath. He did not worry the elder would stop him, as Lu Geng had mentioned that both he and Wang Yue had come down as well. The Dark Forest was open for entry to Inner Sect Disciples. The elder might be curious why a newly-entered Inner Sect Disciple ventured alone into the Dark Forest, but he seemed the type of person who kept to himself and wasn't nosy, hence Duan Rong simply greeted and quickly entered the corridor.

Despite the corridor being short, Duan Rong lit another torch as he walked forward.

Turning the corridor's end, he arrived at the narrow stone chamber's entrance to the underground fissure. Duan Rong reached the edge of the crevice, grabbed an iron chain, extinguished his torch, tossed it by his feet, and plunged into the crevice holding the chain.

Duan Rong had slid down the iron chain before, instantly getting into the motion upon jumping.

A figure suddenly leaped from a cliff at the clearing illuminated by faintly glowing Clear Light Grass at the edge of the Dark Forest.

As soon as Duan Rong stabilized, he unleashed his Divine Sense, instantly enveloping a large area around the clearing.

This was why Duan Rong dared to explore the Dark Forest alone, his Fetal Concealment Scripture having reached the Eleventh Layer, with a range of Divine Sense Investigation surpassing Fan Hongjiao. Moreover, he wasn't planning to delve further, just to hunt Low-Tier Primordial Beasts at the edges.

Duan Rong occasionally traversed the darkness, suddenly flashing his blade in the dark, severing the small snake lunging at him from the shadows into two. As his cloth bag spread open, the small snake's body dropped inside.

Duan Rong avoided moving through the dense forest, recalling Fan Hongjiao's warning: In the Dark Forest, sometimes plants are scarier than Primordial Beasts!

Duan Rong's figure flickered in the dark, suddenly crouching before a shrub and squatting down, just as several Inner Sect Disciples were teaming up to attack a fully-grown Arrow Boar at the edge of his Divine Sense Investigation area.

The mature Arrow Boar had its skin turned keratinized, hard for Primordial Qi to penetrate. The Inner Sect Disciples were sweating profusely, continually striking the Arrow Boar's neck, where the keratin layer had been chopped into a shallow pit, but it would take some time to penetrate completely.