Darkness surrounded him on all sides. Yang Kai could only feel his body plummeting downward, as though there were no end to the fall. He craned his neck upward, but not a sliver of light could be seen.
Yang Kai's brow furrowed slightly. Though the situation was unexpected, he was far from panicked.
What had happened in the stone chamber before had led him to realize something.
Those stone cauldrons must have been the triggers for the mechanisms, which was why he'd been unable to detect anything with his spiritual sense — the traps only activated the moment one actually touched them.
Thinking about it that way, the warriors of the Hall of Blazing Fire must have fallen into similar traps, which explained why the stone chamber above had been completely empty.
The only question was whether Kang Siran had followed him down, and whether any Hall of Blazing Fire warriors awaited below.
He didn't dare let his guard down. He quietly circulated his power, ready to erupt into a killing spree the moment something felt wrong.
Before long, a faint glow appeared beneath him. Yang Kai immediately swept his divine sense downward. After a moment, his expression turned peculiar.
Below was another stone chamber, though not quite what he'd imagined. There were no Hall of Blazing Fire warriors inside — it was empty once more.
A moment later, Yang Kai landed in the chamber. He looked around. The room was completely bare; this time, there wasn't even a stone cauldron in sight.
Before he could examine his surroundings more carefully, an unusual surge of energy rippled through the chamber. Then, right at its center, something resembling a stone platform slowly rose into view.
The platform ascended with a deep, rumbling sound. Yang Kai watched warily, remaining on guard until the platform had fully settled — but no danger materialized.
He frowned, then walked slowly toward the platform.
Reaching its base, he climbed the steps and soon arrived at the top.
"A formation?" Yang Kai's eyebrows shot up as he gazed in surprise at the intricate pattern that had appeared on the platform's flat surface. From within that pattern, he could faintly sense fluctuations of spatial energy.
"A teleportation formation?" Yang Kai was quite startled. Still, this confirmed that once the formation on the platform was activated, it would transport him to another location.
However, this teleportation formation was vastly different from the ones he knew, so he didn't dare act rashly. Instead, he studied it carefully, hoping to glean some clues.
Upon closer inspection, Yang Kai noticed a line of small characters beneath the formation, obscured by a layer of dust.
He carefully brushed the dust away, and the line of text immediately came into view.
"Infuse fire-attributed energy into the formation to activate it!" Yang Kai murmured aloud, his brow furrowing.
This was clearly a teleportation formation, but why did it require fire-attributed energy? That baffled him. And what was the purpose of placing such a peculiar formation in this stone chamber?
After pondering for a while without reaching a conclusion, he decided to stop overthinking it.
He did possess fire-attributed energy — both his spiritual fire and his flame sword qi fell into that category. But rather than activating the formation immediately, he stood where he was and waited quietly.
He wanted to wait for Kang Siran. When the man made his way down, they could proceed together.
Yet Yang Kai's patience was rewarded with nothing. After waiting on the spot for half an hour, there was still no sign of Kang Siran.
Kang Siran had certainly witnessed the moment Yang Kai triggered the cauldron mechanism and fell through. Given Kang Siran's temperament, he wouldn't simply abandon Yang Kai. So Yang Kai was certain that he too would have touched one of the stone cauldrons.
But since Kang Siran had yet to appear, there was only one explanation — he must have fallen into a different stone chamber.
There had to be more than one chamber down here. Otherwise, Yang Kai would have spotted at least some Hall of Blazing Fire disciples when he fell.
Perhaps everyone who fell was separated, unable to team up at all.
Of course, this was merely Yang Kai's speculation based on the situation at hand. He had no way to verify it.
Since Kang Siran wasn't coming, Yang Kai would have to act alone. Without further hesitation, he extended his hand toward the formation and channeled his internal fire-attributed energy into it.
A scorching aura erupted outward, and the entire chamber shuddered. The lines etched into the stone platform's formation blazed to life.
Seeing this, Yang Kai knew he'd been right — the formation truly required fire-attributed energy to activate. He intensified the flow of his power even further.
Rumble... After a succession of sounds, the formation on the platform erupted with dazzling radiance that enveloped Yang Kai completely. When the light faded, he had vanished.
"Where...?" Yang Kai looked around and realized he was still inside a stone chamber. If not for the sensation of teleportation he'd just experienced, he might have thought he'd never moved at all.