Sinners of the Lower Stairway

Clack clack clack~

Yi Chen walked alone down the stairs. Unlike before, there were no monks behind him, nor the noisy screams from the prison or the sound of sliding chains.

The stairs he passed over crumbled away on their own. Just as Asimov had said, there was no exit here.

As he stepped onto the final stair, the staircase behind him vanished completely.

Before him stretched a massive area paved with gray tiles measuring 10×10 meters. Every hundred meters stood an iron pillar that reached straight into the sky, supporting this space.

He could not see the end in any direction.

"So this is the upper half of the Lower Stairway—'Void'? What is that...?"

Yi Chen quickly noticed a dead Sick One kneeling beneath one of the pillars.

Its death was strange.

The entire body knelt on the ground.

Its limp hands touched the floor, while a spiral metal column seemed to be inserted into the back of its head.

Yi Chen cautiously approached, constantly spinning the dagger in his right hand. If the corpse showed any sign of movement, he would behead it immediately.

Only after drawing closer did he discover that the back of the corpse's head had actually blossomed.

The column inserted into its skull had bloomed from within, forcing the entire back of its head open. Layer upon layer of petal-like metal spread across the brain, like a bizarre work of art.

The "blossomed" skull looked less like a flower and more like a technological device from Yi Chen's world that transmitted and received signals—"radar."

"Could it be...?"

Yi Chen had already sensed a hidden danger. Instead of using his eyes, he used the Breathing Technique to gather information... Hiss!

A mouthful of Purple Qi escaped him. As it captured the environmental factors around him,