Everyone exchanged glances, but they couldn't see any hint of joking on Chen Bugu's face.
"Watch your step; don't slip."
Chen Bugu didn't explain, holding a torch and walking down along the thickest tree root in front of him. The others, seeing this, could only follow suit.
All the tree roots now plunged headlong into the dozens-of-meters-wide abyss before them.
Beneath the Soaring Sky Tree, sunlight was already absent, making visibility extremely low. However, the darkness emanating from this giant abyss was even deeper, almost swallowing all light.
The torch made by Wang Bin using 【Ignite】 emitted a strong flame, bright enough to illuminate even the Soaring Sky Tree dozens of meters away, yet it couldn't illuminate the abyss beneath their feet at all.
Under the torchlight, all they could see was the small area beneath their feet; further down, the light was completely enveloped by darkness.
Initially, the tree roots beneath their feet were covered in moss. The moment they stepped on it, the sensation of their shoe soles compressing the moss and the tiny water droplets that appeared made everyone extra cautious. If they slipped, no one knew if they, like the torchlight, would be swallowed by the abyss before them.
Although they moved slowly, after descending dozens of steps, everyone could still clearly feel the change in the sensation underfoot.
The original moss receded, and the tree roots revealed their true color. The dark brown roots beneath their feet, illuminated by the torchlight, appeared the color of soil.
In the darkness, Chen Bugu led the way, with Bai Ting bringing up the rear, the group slowly descending with torches held high.
Ten minutes passed, and as they descended further, the incline of the winding tree roots gradually became gentler, from an initial fifty degrees to now only about twenty degrees.
It would be a lie to say they weren't nervous. In such low visibility and strange surroundings, even an attack from a casual Black Iron mid-level monster could bring disaster to the entire team.
However, Chen Bugu, on the other hand, seemed unexpectedly relaxed. As the path beneath his feet gradually leveled out, his speed also increased significantly.
After walking for about half an hour, Han Badou's voice rang out from the middle of the team.
"Chen Dage, are we at the bottom of that big tree now?"
Han Badou had been calculating the distance. Even if they started slowly, with no change in direction, after half an hour, they should have certainly crossed the dozens-of-meters-wide abyss by now.
But the reality was that there was always a path before and beneath them, stretching straight ahead, leading to who knew where.
This strange spatial change and structure left Han Badou completely perplexed.
"I don't know either, but I'm sure we still need to keep going forward."
Chen Bugu truly didn't know. He had pondered this question in his previous life, but no one could answer it for him.
At that time, he followed a large team and it took them a full two months to reach this deep pit at the edge of the Soaring Sky Tree.
The leader of the team then was a middle-aged man named Liang Hong, who had a buzz cut. He stood at the edge of the "cliff," facing the dozens-of-meters-wide abyss before him, unsure what to do.
Liang Hong was only Black Iron Five-Star at the time, but because he constantly absorbed survivors in the forest, his team was very large. Chen Bugu also joined them in the forest.
Although there were casualties along the way, nearly 30 people were still in the team when they arrived at this place.
Among these 30 people, Chen Bugu happened to be among the weakest. With his Black Iron Three Stars strength at the time and no offensive abilities, he was practically at the bottom of that team.
Liang Hong was a typical battle maniac, always eager to fight powerful monsters; otherwise, he didn't care much about anything. That's why weak people like Chen Bugu could always serve as logistical support in this team.
His combat opponents were always the weakest Goblins, but even so, he was grateful.
Being able to break through to Black Iron Three Stars just by killing weak Goblins, Chen Bugu, who at that time only wanted to survive, was already very satisfied.
However, when facing this bottomless abyss, someone in the team suddenly suggested: send one person down to scout the way…
Heh, the pitch-black abyss, the mysterious tree roots—all seemed like pronouncements of death. Who would dare to go?
Naturally, no one volunteered.
Finally, everyone's gaze fell on Chen Bugu.
Chen Bugu was stunned, then panicked. He looked at Liang Hong, trying to force a smile, but it looked worse than crying.
In the end, that vine was still tied to him.
That's right, a weak and useless person was most suitable for undertaking such an unknown and risky mission.
Even if he truly died, it wouldn't cause much loss to the team.
Moreover, everyone knew at the time that this useless Chen Bugu also had a 【Revival】 ability.
He would explore downwards with this vine tied to him, and if anything unexpected happened, Liang Hong promised to pull him up immediately.
Of course, including Chen Bugu, everyone knew that if something truly unexpected happened, even if Chen Bugu could "Revival" once, what would be pulled back would most likely only be a corpse, and it couldn't even be guaranteed to be a complete corpse.
Finally, Chen Bugu still went down.
He was disappointed, he was angry, he was sad, but he had no choice.
Morality and laws had long collapsed; now it was a world where strength spoke. If he didn't go down, others would throw him down.
At first, he could feel his calves trembling. The pitch-black and eerily silent surroundings seemed to hide some man-eating beasts. He would look back every few steps, hoping Liang Hong would call him back.
Unfortunately, he never received any signal to retreat, even until he looked back and could no longer see Liang Hong and the others.
Chen Bugu didn't know how long he walked then, but he was very sure that the horizontal distance he had covered had long exceeded dozens of meters, yet he still hadn't seen the trunk of that large tree.
As he recalled, the surroundings were dark and silent, without wind or light.
There was no sound, no smell, and no other life.
He just kept walking forward, and then at some point, he saw a large door.
That door was three or four meters wide and three or four meters high, just standing open, but he couldn't see the world inside. Instead, there was a huge white light curtain.
When he was about 50 meters from the door, he saw Lin Ye. Lin Ye was alone then, accompanied by three monsters.
One of them, a goat-like monster with crescent-shaped horns, seemed to sense something. It turned its head and glanced at Chen Bugu.
In that instant, Chen Bugu's intuition told him that monster was definitely stronger than him.
Seeing Lin Ye about to walk into that light door, Chen Bugu quickly ran forward, shouting, hoping Lin Ye would notice him.
Unfortunately, his voice seemed to be swallowed by the surrounding darkness. Lin Ye heard nothing and simply disappeared into the light curtain.
By the time Chen Bugu ran forward, Lin Ye had already vanished.
He stood before the door, agonizing for a long time, and ultimately didn't dare to untie the vine and walk in alone.
He was merely a Black Iron Three Stars; if not for this team, he wouldn't have even survived to this point.
Chen Bugu stood before the light curtain. He retreated. He slowly turned around and began to walk back, returning to be the most inconspicuous minor character in that team.
...
Even now, recalling these events, Chen Bugu still felt a hint of melancholy.
As he walked, he turned his head, looked at Lin Ye, and then at Black Iron Three Stars Ba Dou.
"Ba Dou, look, we're almost there."
Following the direction Chen Bugu pointed, everyone saw a point of light piercing through the darkness.