After walking for about half an hour, the space ahead suddenly opened up.
This was an enormous mining pit, roughly a hundred zhang across and ten zhang deep.
The bottom of the pit was filled with water, black as ink and giving off a pungent stench. Many things floated on the surface—ore, tools, and several long-rotted corpses.
Lu Chen stood at the edge of the pit, his gaze sweeping over those bodies.
The corpses had decayed beyond recognition, but their clothes showed that they had all been miners. They had died here, soaking in the water, with no one to lay them to rest.
But this was not what he was looking for.
His gaze settled on the water's surface.
The water was calm, yet faintly, something could be seen deep beneath it.
He leapt down into the water.
The pool water was icy to the bone, its deathly aura so dense it was almost suffocating.
Light flowed around Lu Chen's body, shutting the deathly aura outside as he dived straight down.
The deeper he went, the blacker the water became.
After diving about thirty zhang, his feet suddenly found solid ground—he had reached the bottom.
This was an underground space even deeper than the mining pit above, only a dozen-odd zhang across and about three zhang high. Rock walls surrounded it on all sides, with no exit.
But on one side of the rock wall was an opening.
The opening was small, only half a person tall, and its interior was pitch-black.
Lu Chen crawled inside.
The passage was narrow, forcing him to crawl on his belly. After crawling for roughly a hundred zhang, the way ahead suddenly opened up.
It was another cavern.
Smaller than any he had seen before, only several zhang across. Yet this tiny cavern