Chapter 265 - 161: The Lair in the Earth’s Core! The White Bone Tomb Beneath the Abyss! The Bloodthirsty Vine King Appears

Chapter 265: Chapter 161: The Lair in the Earth’s Core! The White Bone Tomb Beneath the Abyss! The Bloodthirsty Vine King Appears

To Chen Chong, ever since he’d crossed over to this world, everyone around him had become a precious companion, and the Tiger Striped Dog was no exception.

In his heart, the little guy had long since ceased to be a simple hound; he was family, just as trustworthy as Xu Jun and the others.

Having fallen into the abyss with it, being able to protect the Tiger Striped Dog was a silver lining in this misfortune.

But when he thought back on the fall, Chen Chong still felt a pang of lingering fear...

In mid-air, he’d luckily landed on a rock that jutted out the farthest, allowing him to wrench himself and the Tiger Striped Dog he was clutching into a different trajectory.

They then slammed into several more outcroppings from the cliff face, which cushioned their fall...

Even though the impacts were excruciatingly painful, he had used his Rock Body Transformation and Jump Enhancement abilities to hastily reposition himself.

Ultimately, during the thirty-second fall, he managed to negate nearly two-thirds of the impact force.

For the final third of the descent, however, there were no more rocks to break their fall, and the man and dog plummeted straight down.

But Chen Chong kept the Tiger Striped Dog shielded in his arms the entire time, pushing his Rock Body Transformation to its absolute limit and absorbing the final impact himself.

The Tiger Striped Dog was completely unharmed, at worst a little shaken from the Vibration.

As for him, if he hadn’t managed to cushion the fall on the way down, he doubted even Rock Body Transformation would have been enough to save him.

Having recovered, the Tiger Striped Dog began circling Chen Chong nonstop.

Knowing full well that its master had saved its life, it wagged its tail furiously and nudged its head against Chen Chong’s leg.

It even stuck out its tongue to lick his cheek, expressing its gratitude in its own clumsy way.

Chen Chong checked the Tiger Striped Dog over twice from head to tail. Only after confirming it was completely unscathed did he finally relax.

He then gave a relieved smile and ruffled the fur on its head.

Chen Chong got to his feet, using the light from the Lighting Stone to survey his surroundings.

This underground realm wasn’t the network of caves and karst formations he had imagined. Instead, it was a vast, open expanse, like a barren wasteland in the dead of night.

Except this wasteland had no soil or weeds—only a cold stone floor littered with gravel and scree.

"So it really is an underground kingdom..."

Chen Chong murmured to himself. If he hadn’t experienced it firsthand, he never would have believed such a vast space could be hidden beneath the earth.

The path from the cave entrance to the top of the abyss had been a steady, gentle descent, extending deep underground.

Otherwise, a mountain that small could never have contained a cave system of this scale.

Although the journey had taken a while, Chen Chong estimated that the distance from the surface to the lip of the abyss wasn’t that great—a thousand meters at most. ℯℯ𝑙.

But this abyss was a different story. Even with hitting all those rocks on the way down, he had fallen for a full thirty seconds.

The distance from the top of the abyss to the bottom alone was likely several thousand meters.

In other words, his current position was at least three thousand meters below the surface.

’At this depth, even the subterranean rivers are probably above my head...’

After a moment of silent contemplation, Chen Chong started moving again.

Back at the top of the abyss, he had been hesitating whether or not to come down and investigate.

Well, now he was already down here. Rather than go through the trouble of climbing back up, he might as well explore the area.

After all, his instincts hadn’t screamed at him so far.

This meant that even if he was approaching the Bloodthirsty Vine King and the Stone Claw Eagle, he was still a safe distance away and not in immediate mortal danger.

"Hu Zi, stay close to me. Don’t run off."

After giving the Tiger Striped Dog a command, Chen Chong raised his Lighting Stone and began to cautiously make his way forward through the vast underground expanse.

Even though endless darkness stretched out before him, he wanted to first get a sense of just how big this place truly was...

The farther he walked, the more profound Chen Chong’s astonishment became.

The Lighting Stone wasn’t as bright as a modern high-powered lightbulb, but it was still several times stronger than an ordinary torch.

Yet even within the range of its light, he couldn’t see the cavern’s boundaries.

The scale of this subterranean space was truly beyond his imagination.

Chen Chong couldn’t help but regret not bringing the Assassin Insect.

After all, the Assassin Insect originated in the abyss; this dark, gloomy environment was its home turf.

If he had brought it along, this exploration would be much easier.

It was a shame, but no one could have predicted that an abyss this deep was hidden at the end of the cave.

’If there’s a next time, I’m definitely bringing the Assassin Insect...’

As he thought this, Chen Chong’s feet never stopped moving, and he continued to feel his way forward.

After walking for what felt like an eternity, he finally reached one of the rock walls at the bottom of the abyss.

It was completely different from what he had seen from above.

From the lip of the abyss, the opposite wall had seemed to be only a few hundred meters away. But now at the bottom, he realized the distance between the two walls was over a thousand meters.

Clearly, the abyss didn’t drop straight down; it widened as it descended, creating this vast space at the bottom.

And that was just the width.

As for its length, Chen Chong felt a sense of resignation as he gazed at the passage stretching forward and backward into endless darkness.

’How long will I have to walk to get my bearings?’

More importantly, in a place so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, it would be extremely easy to get lost with only a single Lighting Stone.

’If I do get lost, I probably won’t even be able to find my way back.’

But even so, he had already come this far. There was no sense in backing down now.

’If I don’t even dare to explore an environment with no obvious threats, how can I even think about slaying the Bloodthirsty Vine King and the Stone Claw Eagle?’

’Might as well just go home and go to bed...’

Chen Chong squatted down again and ruffled the Tiger Striped Dog’s head.

"Hu Zi, remember the scent of this place. If I tell you to lead the way later, follow this scent back."