Sudden Change

The people of Jinxia stood in the middle of the line.

The moment he stepped out of the Skywell corridor and onto the lift platform, Xia Fan felt as though even his breathing had grown scorching. Unlike walking through the stairways of the Skywell, the currents of heat here were clearly discernible. Thick white mist billowed upward, making the platform beneath their feet creak and groan.

But he knew it was only an illusion. Their protective suits blocked out all the searing air, keeping their bodies at a normal temperature. Without these suits, their situation would have been little different from meat buns in a steamer.

"Release!" Gurcha swung down the flag in his hand.

Amid the rasp of iron chains, the two platforms began to descend slowly.

By then, most of the Zhen Lamp's light was blocked by the mist, forming a broad halo of scattered light within the shaft. Its illuminating range had been compressed to less than three zhang, allowing them to see only the people on the opposite platform.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, even Huntian and the others above had vanished into the white mist.

At that point, apart from the stone wall pressed close against one side of the lift, everything around them was a boundless expanse of white.

"The qi here... is so intense." Luo Qingqing murmured. "This is the first time I've seen a mass of qi so tangible..."

"What does it look like?" Li asked instinctively.

"If you think of it as water, then we're now submerged in a truly deep well." A rare trace of unease entered her voice. "How many people would have to die to form such a dense mass of qi? A hundred thousand... or a million?"

"A million?" Li sucked in a breath.