Above The Sky
Chapter 232 - 232 220 Beneath the Legend 13

232: Chapter 220: Beneath the Legend (1/3) 232: Chapter 220: Beneath the Legend (1/3) A gust of cold wind whooshed through the sky, carrying rainwater from the distant top down onto the reef, where the droplets streamed down the slanted stone surface like a waterfall, converging into a surging underground rock river.

Lying on the ground, the young man with white hair twitched his eyelashes and opened his eyes.

A clear, water-like sheen lit up, followed by the glimmer of silver stars, and the two intertwined into a glint of silver-green fluorescence that flowed through his pupils.

Ian quickly awakened from his momentary daze, stood up, and silently surveyed his surroundings.

The air was filled with water vapor, and a dense fog completely enveloped the area, making it feel as if one were in the clouds.

But the young man knew very well that he was under the ground.

Deep, deep underground, even beneath the abyss of the sea.

Humm…

A bright, pale blue arc of electricity lit up above his head, illuminating everything around.

Ian looked up to see a dense Spirit Energy Field, like Sigh Cliff, where even the slightest friction of the small clouds could cause an electrical discharge, and thus the lightning within the fog.

The light from this lightning confirmed that he was in the midst of a vast underwater cave cluster.

He could vaguely see a damp cave wall…

and at a distant fork, several branching entrances were barely visible, their depths unfathomable, their destinations unknown.

“Looks like I’ve been separated from the group.”

Examining carefully and collecting information from his surroundings with the Silver Chip, Ian wasn’t worried.

Instead, he smiled, “No problem, I am already within the ruins.”

He remembered clearly, not too long ago in the Southern Sea, an anomaly had caused the Vast Sea and the land to split open, creating a massive cavity entrance on the Earth’s crust.

It swallowed half the ocean, and the immense air pressure and airflow changes drew everything nearby into it.

If he had not been injured, Master Gossay might have withstood this airflow change, but aside from that uncertainty, the injured old man had no choice but to follow the air currents directly into the crustal cavity.

What happened after was simple.

In the frenzied whirlwind, Master Gossay simply couldn’t hold on and fell unconscious.

At that moment, it was Yisen Gard who stepped up, attempting to take the baton and continue maintaining the wind that dragged everyone along.

“…Still, it was not quite enough.”

Ian touched his head and nodded thoughtfully, “Although it indeed slowed us down, it couldn’t counter the turbulence—I got separated from Shasha, as well as Gossay and Yisen Gard.”

“I was swept into the converging tide by the turbulence, carried by the strong current for a considerable length of time…

During this process, I also lapsed into daze for a while due to the exhaustion from the battle against the Crocodragon.

By the time I came to, I was here, awakening.”

“This is at least several kilometers deep, isn’t it?” As he recalled, the young man looked up at the cave ceiling, estimating his current location and the time that had passed: “As for how long I’ve been in a daze…

a total of four hours and twenty-three minutes.”

Truthfully, the constant washing and battering of the sea tide in the caves wouldn’t normally cause a Sand Armor Apprentice cultivator to fall into a daze.

Ian felt that he had actually been knocked out by a very powerful disturbance in the Natural Spiritual Energy Field, ‘sleeping’ through it all.

In other words, he had been stunned by the natural changes caused by the Labyrinth anomaly.

If it weren’t for the Core Chip keeping time, he might not have even known how long it had been since he entered this place.

“Hmm, the Brain Marrow Crystal is still here.”

The young man checked his side, where the well-protected Brain Marrow Crystal still radiated a terra-cotta glow through his white robe, resembling an old-fashioned oil lamp.

Besides these, the Heavy Abyss Iron Sword and the High-Pressure Water Gun were also neatly packed, one hanging securely at his waist, locked with Magical Beasts’ hide, and the other placed in the medicine bag, together with some alchemical potions.

Among the alchemical potions, some in glass containers had shattered, their contents completely drained in previous turmoil, but others, more important ones, were stored in steel crystals, thus were well-preserved.

“Primordial Replenishment, Giant’s Strength, Short-Term Fury, Perception Enhancement…

and a small vial of Regeneration Potion given by Master Gossay.

The Silent Voice Ring is also intact.”

Ian counted them and felt even more reassured, “Good, all the key items are here.”

Through the luminescence emitted by the Brain Marrow Crystal, the young man could clearly see the rocky reefs beneath his feet, while beside him was a rushing subterranean river, its roaring filling his ears.

Ian didn’t linger for too long at this place.

He surveyed the complex and varied mysterious caves branching in all directions, then commanded the Silver Chip, “Record the map.”

He was confident in his memory, but there was no need to bet his life on it—a good memory is not as reliable as a bad pen, and moreover, the map recorded by the chip was far better than a bad pen could ever be.

Without the slightest hesitation, fear, or even anxiety, the white-haired youth walked with a smile, even joy, through this entirely unknown, potentially risky cave system.

He moved forward, eager for sights unseen, longing for experiences unlike those of past days, thirsting for an extraordinary unfolding.

And so was filled with joy.

The white mist filled the cavern, and the subterranean river flowed through a rocky passage over twenty meters wide.

The underground, which should have been pitch black and impossible to see through, was faintly glowing due to the extremely high-intensity Spirit Energy Field.

A mere wave of the hand could bring forth specks of electric arcs.

The subterranean river shimmered with glittering waves due to the electric currents, and as the youth continued forward, the initially expansive cave passage gradually became narrower with numerous branches…

Soon, as the underground river flowed faster, layers of calcified deposits formed structures resembling steps, the glowing mineral stairs made particularly prominent by the electric arcs in the air.

The cave led to deeper places.

Ian walked unflinchingly, sensing the wind blowing—even though he was situated deep underground, the moist sea wind from above was still pouring into the depths.

This meant either the air pressure of the deeper underground space was extremely low, almost vacuum-like, or it indicated that the air exchange system of the Pre-Era Civilization Ruins Cluster underground was still operational.

He believed the latter.

The narrowing cave became dim and profound, with only the crystal at his waist and the young man’s eyes emanating a soft glow.

He walked through a cave that seemed to lead to the underworld, yet without a trace of fear.

Even so, he had the mindset to analyze.

—Judging from the structure of the entire cave, it should be a classic fluvial pattern, but some of the caverns resembled structures formed by cooling volcanic lava.

Considering the cause of the great storm, it is possible that the overheating of the ruins’ cooling system indeed caused the melting of the surrounding geological structures.

Analysis without sufficient evidence leads nowhere, but at such times, Ian would happily start imagining.

He looked around at the flowing water and the rock walls, imagining the ancient past of this profound cave, located at least a kilometer underground.

He imagined that thousands of years ago, a vast subterranean river flowed here, endless amounts of seawater following the terrain downward, eroding away the weaker sections of the rock layers, gradually forming the embryonic shape of the cave.

The pre-Era civilization took interest in this natural, immense subterranean cave structure and chose to build their massive underground base here…

a magnificent structure that, although it started from deep underground, ultimately aimed to reach Above the Sky!

A tower…

and an accelerator track leading to the top of the sky.