Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong’s figure moved, immediately triggering a series of attacks by the purple flames.

But as he spun with the secret door behind him, it only caused the flames to crash into the rotating stone gate’s pivot. Fang Hong felt a massive quake behind him, losing his balance and falling into the pitch-black darkness ahead where he couldn’t see his hand in front of him.

There were a few steps behind the door, causing him to miss a step and fall heavily forward. Fortunately, the stairs weren’t too high, only causing him minor bruises.

That thing was still outside pounding on the door, making the ground in the darkness shake, with the sound of dust falling from above, as Fang Hong felt sand constantly getting into his neck and collar.

He coughed heavily twice, got up from the ground, disregarded the dust all over him, and hurriedly took a crystal from his chest and tightly gripped its lower end.

The faint glow of the Magic Guided Reactor lit up the surroundings which appeared to be quite confined. Then, the crystal in his hand emitted a bright, gentle light, which he directed behind him to illuminate the stone door in that direction.

Every strike from outside made the heavy stone door tremble violently, and a layer of gray fog rose on the surrounding walls. However, with the door nearly two meters thick, it remained completely unharmed under the impacts.

Fang Hong raised the crystal, looking closely at the four corners of the stone door, to see that the black bugs under the gaps were not seeping inside, finally allowing him to relax completely.

But he dared not linger, turned around, and extended the light of the crystal towards the depths of the darkness—using the Light Crystal required the infusion of Magic Power, risking detection by Detection Magic, but so deep underground, these concerns were set aside.

Ahead seemed to be a corridor, with space just tall enough for him, requiring him to stoop slightly to avoid bumping his head, and only about the width of three people.

He couldn’t tell which direction this corridor led to.

Behind the secret door was a hidden path, which was not beyond his expectation, but Fang Hong suddenly remembered:

That previous hall was already beneath stairs, a layer deeper than the passages above. The log did not mark the height difference, so if the secret door above was at this level, does it mean there’s an even deeper layer beneath Idus?

That thing outside still hadn’t left, the vibrations carried from behind, though after moving for a while, the sense of vibration had gradually weakened. Fang Hong’s previously tense mood slowly calmed, only then remembering something, he hurriedly took out his Communication Crystal—only to find it wouldn’t light up, being either broken from the earlier impact or blocked by some magical interference underground.

Fang Hong was momentarily stunned, quickly opening the Summoners System, a page emitting a faint fluorescent glow appeared as expected in his vision, displaying his physical signs, which were still stable, only having suffered minor injuries.

The system was still usable, but the community couldn’t be accessed.

”What’s going on, Miss Tata?”

”The crystal isn’t damaged, just the communication seems to be interfered with, Mr. Knight.” Tata emerged on his shoulder, looking drowsily uninterested, her green eyes flashing pages briefly as she spoke.

Her tone was as plain as boiling water.

Fang Hong couldn’t help but complain, ”This Otherworld Communication is so inconvenient and expensive.”

”Papa.”

After some fuss, Nini woke up, reaching out wanting him to hold her.

But Fang Hong was in no mood to deal with the little girl, only brushed her off with a couple of words, making her seem very aggrieved.

The corridor ahead seemed endless, making Fang Hong a bit uneasy, he summoned an Energy Angel to stand guard in front. Tata, still on his shoulder, checked the communication status without speaking, leaving the two in an unusual silence.

Nini probably sensed that her ’sister’ and ’papa’ had serious matters to attend to, she kept her head down, fiddling with her hem alone, obedient and quiet.

No one knew how long they walked, when Tata’s long eyelashes blinked softly, and she suddenly spoke: ”Okay.”

She meant that communication was restored, but only to the extent that the community could be opened, still unable to connect with Hilveld and Atira, and even then, it was intermittent.

The feeling was that the communication interference had weakened slightly, but still existed.

Fang Hong was holding up the log, comparing it to the map in the crystal’s glow, the corridor on the map also extended forward, aligned with the route they had originally taken, which meant he might be directly beneath the path they traveled.

If Hilveld and the others had escaped, they might even be right above him now.

Nonetheless, Fang Hong had no intention of shouting upwards, not even knowing if his voice could penetrate the thick rock ceiling, and who knew what might be drawn out from the darkness ahead.

After the previous encounter, he dared not underestimate this place, what the ’Nightmare’ was, why it was here. What the ’Ashes’ were, and why they were with that mass of purple flames?

Who knows what exactly lies beneath Idus.

Just then, the always obedient and quiet Nini suddenly looked up and said in her young voice: ”Papa, sing.”

Fang Hong was slightly taken aback.

”Papa, sing a song.” Nini repeated.

Only then did Fang Hong hear clearly, smiling wryly, he really wasn’t in the mood to sing right now. But he suddenly realized, Nini has never heard him sing, only Tianlan’s singing, why would she suddenly ask him to sing?