Ye Wen forced himself to slowly adjust to the darkness. Once he had, he began carefully examining his surroundings. That was when he discovered faint light sources on the walls, like little stones that could glow.
Ye Wen leaned closer and took a look. Each of these Glowing Stones seemed to be about the size of a pigeon egg. Are these Night Luminous Stones? But that didn't seem right either. How could there be Night Luminous Stones that glowed continuously for ten thousand years?
The stone emitted a cold white light. Although it wasn't very bright, this amount of light was more than enough for a Martial Artist. Ye Wen looked at the place where he had fallen. Above it was a large opening. Looking up through the opening, he saw only a smooth stone staircase. Ye Wen had just slid down that staircase.
This was an enclosed space. It wasn't very large, at most a few dozen square meters, and was surrounded entirely by walls. The walls were made of hard rock. He didn't know what material it was—or whether there was something strange about this place.
With Ye Wen's current physical strength, he was actually unable to leave even the slightest mark on the walls. He had no idea how powerful his physical strength had become by now. Smashing concrete with one punch was as easy as lifting a finger. Yet here, he couldn't even leave behind the slightest trace.
Ye Wen discovered that the only connection to this space was the stone staircase he had just slid down. There was also another hole in the floor, with another stone staircase leading downward. That must be the passage to the lower levels. Ye Wen ignored the staircase in the hole below and wanted to see whether he could climb out through the place he had entered.
Ye Wen then began climbing the stone staircase he had slid down. Judging by how long he had spent sliding down, it had only been a few seconds, so the staircase shouldn't be very long. He would climb up first and see whether he could still open the entrance.
Ye Wen acted immediately. He sprawled on the stone staircase, using all four limbs, and began climbing. Several times, he failed to find a foothold, and halfway up, he slid back down, once again landing flat on his face. Ye Wen spat out the dirt that had gotten into his mouth and sighed.
"This is way harder than the 'Charge, Charge, Charge' water-sports segment they used to show on summer TV back on Earth. That show was one of my favorites. You got to see plenty of pretty girls, and whenever they fell into the water in their swimsuits, the footage would replay the moment in slow motion."
Ye Wen suddenly stood up and slapped himself. What am I thinking?
"In an environment this dangerous, I'm actually thinking about girls in swimsuits falling into the water!"
After sliding down several times, Ye Wen gained some experience and began climbing upward again.
"This time, my luck is great. I haven't fallen for so long, so I should be nearly at the top, right? Just a few more steps. I'm almost there!"
But several more minutes passed. Ye Wen felt that he had climbed at least another twenty meters. Why hadn't he reached the top yet? Unable to resist, he looked down. Suddenly, he let out an incredulous cry.
"W-What? How is that possible? I've been climbing for ages, and I've only gone a few meters?"
Ye Wen couldn't make sense of it. He had been climbing for at least ten minutes. By his estimate, he should have climbed over a hundred meters by now. Yet when he looked back, he found that he was less than four meters from the ground below.
Shaken, Ye Wen failed to notice that he had slid down again. Why was this happening? Ye Wen stared blankly at the stone staircase. I don't believe it!
Only then did he remember the relics Old Uncle Zong had left him. Ever since arriving in Demon Suppressing City, Ye Wen had kept the three items hidden close to his body.
He took out the dagger and tried driving it into the stone staircase. The dagger sank in with incredible ease. As expected of something that had once belonged to the City Lord—it was unbelievably sharp. Let's see whether I can climb back up this time!
Ye Wen's stubborn streak flared up. It's clearly no more than a dozen meters high. I refuse to believe I can't climb up. Now that he had the dagger, he could drive it into the stone staircase and use it as a foothold, so climbing became much easier. After climbing for more than ten minutes again, he lowered his head and looked down.
"Fuck! I'm still here? Did I just climb for nothing?"
Sure enough, Ye Wen discovered that this time he had only climbed a little over four meters. His unyielding nature drove him to climb upward again. Half an hour later, he was still in the same place. After an hour of climbing, he was still in the same place.
Ye Wen slid down the stone staircase and decided to stop climbing. He suddenly gave a self-mocking laugh.
"With Demon Suppressing City's history of over ten thousand years, there's never been any record of a suppressed member of the Demon Race escaping. Yet I actually thought I could get out easily."
As he inadvertently raised his head, he saw that the holes made by the dagger had already been restored. Thinking he had merely been seeing things, Ye Wen stabbed several more holes into the stone staircase. Before long, every one of them had returned to its original state.
"Hiss!"
Ye Wen couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. It could actually repair itself? What kind of place was this? He had been planning to rely on the dagger's sharpness to dig a hole through the wall and escape, but it seemed that was no longer possible.
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