Chapter 53 Second Layer... World?
The setting sun had ignited the clouds, painting them all crimson.
Ye Da had considered that this road might lead to the second layer of the underground, or perhaps to the mountain’s summit, but he had never imagined—
This was a path to another world!
On the other side of the Graystone Mountains lay an enormous sinkhole, so vast its edges faded into the horizon, encircled on all sides by the towering, cloud-piercing peaks of the Graystone range.
If Ye Da’s guess was correct, this deep pit was surrounded tightly by mountains, much like the Sichuan Basin.
Within the sinkhole, scattered across its floor, were villages and towns of varying sizes, resembling stones tossed haphazardly onto a grassy field.
And amidst the sinkhole’s forests, colossal monsters roamed.
Some of these creatures looked like blood-red giants stripped of skin, while others had pale, unnaturally elongated limbs and several horns sprouting from their heads.
They hardly appeared to be real living beings!
No matter their form, their size was unfathomable—half their bodies stood as tall as the villages, and the largest among them dwarfed even the imposing walls of the towns!
But that was not all…
These bizarre creatures seemed to attack the villages and towns nestled within the forest.
Each time a place was beset, countless tiny black dots would stream out to counterattack the monsters; sometimes they drove them back, sometimes their homes were destroyed.
Then, the small black dots scattered, vanishing again into the forest.
Could those dots be… humans?
Ye Da gazed down upon the world below, overwhelmed by shock!
Was this the true face of the Mist World, and had he merely lived in a small, secluded corner, untouched thus far by these giant monsters?
In that moment…
Ye Da’s astonishment defied description; he knew not to whom he could confide what his eyes now beheld.
It was too strange, too unbelievable!
What was this sinkhole, and what manner of monsters dwelled within it?
“Woof woof!”
“Woof woof woof!”
Just as Ye Da prepared to study this world more closely, Xiao Bai began barking and dashed down the mountain after a fluffy white creature.
Only then did Ye Da notice a narrow, winding path descending from the cliff where he stood, connecting to the floor of the sinkhole below.
“Xiao Bai! Don’t chase it!”
Ye Da shouted, but it was already too late.
Xiao Bai, the little rascal, always went mad at the sight of prey. And because of Xiao Bai’s wild dash, Xiao Hui chased after him as well.
Ye Da had previously told Xiao Hui to keep an eye on Xiao Bai. Now that Xiao Bai had run off, Xiao Hui felt responsible and hurried after him.
Just like that…
Both wolf cubs had run down, and Ye Da had no choice but to follow.
“You little troublemaker!”
Ye Da finally caught up with Xiao Bai, grabbing him by the scruff.
The cub had a large, white-haired rabbit clamped in its jaws, wearing a proud expression as if to say, “I caught it!”
Smack!
Ye Da slapped Xiao Bai’s head. “So proud, aren’t you!”
“For this wretched rabbit, were you planning to get us all killed?”
“You fool, do you even know what kind of place this is?!”
“Whimper…”
The wolf cub shrank its head, whining in grievance.
It seemed not to understand why it was punished for simply hunting, but whatever the master said was law.
“All right, let’s go back.”
Ye Da lifted the cub and prepared to return.
This sinkhole reeked of danger; he had no intention of lingering here, lest trouble find him.
“Run!”
“Run, quickly!”
But—
Just as Ye Da was about to climb back up with Xiao Bai, he suddenly heard urgent shouts behind him.
Turning, he saw a red-haired youth clad in mismatched gear dashing towards him.
As he ran, the youth called out, “Graystone Spiders are coming! Run!”
“Graystone… what?”
Ye Da didn’t quite catch it, for the youth was yelling as he ran, his voice mixing with the wind, making it hard to understand.
Before the youth could explain, Ye Da heard the whimpering of Xiao Bai and Xiao Hui, as well as a distant, rapid clattering sound.
It was like the pounding of a road drill, the vibration of a drill bit hammering into earth—only much faster, reminiscent of a gamer’s fingers rattling a mechanical keyboard: rapid, urgent, rhythmic.
“Still not running!”
The youth, seeing Ye Da frozen in place, grabbed his hand and dragged him forward, shouting, “You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“You don’t even know about Graystone Spiders—they spit acid rain!”
“If you don’t run, do you want to be dissolved?”
Ye Da was pulled along for several steps, just about to resist, when he saw a shadow emerge from the thin mist behind them—about the size of a truck.
Most terrifying of all, this shadow had countless long legs, pounding the ground in a blur, skittering forward at astonishing speed, like a giant spider.
The deafening drilling sound he’d just heard was the creature’s legs striking the earth!
“Damn!”
The instant Ye Da saw the monster, his pupils contracted from wide to pinprick.
What on earth is this thing?!
Was this the Graystone Spider the youth had warned him about?
In that moment, Ye Da no longer resisted. He let the youth drag him, fleeing madly ahead.
The two wolf cubs seemed to sense the horror behind them, running even faster than Ye Da and the youth!
“Whoosh!”
Ye Da had barely taken a few steps before hearing behind him a series of sputtering sounds, like the first jets of a fountain spraying, the water pressure colliding with the air.
He hadn’t yet processed what was happening when the youth yelled, “Faster, hurry up! That damn spider’s spraying poison, move!”
“That’s the sound of it spraying venom?”
Ye Da inhaled sharply, immediately noticing the air thick with a sharp chemical odor, like pepper spray, so pungent he sneezed several times in succession.
Clearly, the venom was fiercely irritating!
And this was just the scent released into the air after evaporation.
Ye Da dared not imagine what horrors would befall if the stuff actually touched his skin!
“Achoo!”
“Achoo-choo!”
Xiao Bai and Xiao Hui, too, couldn’t bear the irritation, sneezing several times.
Xiao Bai, who had been holding his prey in his mouth, dropped it as he sneezed.