Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

"Glug."

A clear swallowing sound came from Shia's throat.

She stood on that narrow natural stone bridge, barely wide enough for a few people to walk side by side.

Looking down into the bottomless darkness.

Even with her extraordinary eyesight, she couldn't see the end of the abyss.

There was only a void that devoured everything.

Lin Gui gently tugged at her from behind.

"Don't look, you might fall."

Xia quickly looked away and nodded with lingering fear.

She pushed Lin Gui and Eve toward the train.

"You all go back to the carriage quickly."

"The road below is too narrow; it's not safe."

Aside from the warriors carrying the train, and Poseidon and Freya maintaining the bubbles.

And the scouts, assassins, and goblin leaders who were exploring ahead.

Everyone else boarded the train as instructed.

Before Lin Gui entered the carriage, he couldn't help but ask the scholar again:

"Just how deep is this abyss?"

Scholar Eli paused for a moment before slowly speaking:

"You...don't want to know the answer."

Lin Gui remained silent.

He understood that this depth was an absolutely terrifying number, beyond imagination.

The group slowly stepped onto the narrow underwater ridge that spanned the silent abyss.

The lively conversation that had been going on all the way came to an abrupt end.

Inside and outside the train, all was deathly silent.

The atmosphere was terribly oppressive.

Only the heavy footsteps of the soldiers could be heard.

And a faint friction sound echoed.

Lin Gui, Shia, and Eve returned to their crowded carriage.

All three of them felt somewhat heavy-hearted.

The thought of the train traveling above a bottomless abyss is unbearable.

Any accident could lead to their utter ruin.

Shea sat on the wooden box, hugging her knees, unusually quiet.

Eve closed her eyes, her fingertips unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.

Lin Gui leaned against the carriage wall, his gaze fixed on the blurry darkness outside through the cracks.

"The North Wind Caravan...it's really not easy."

Shea sighed softly.

"We have to cross such a terrible place every time we need to transport goods."

She looked up at Lin Gui:

"Why didn't they choose other, safer routes?"

Lin Gui withdrew his gaze and explained:

"There is indeed more than one way from the capital to the city of Jiandun."

"I remember seeing another transport caravan led by a dwarf legend when I was in the Transport Guild."

"They took a completely different route."

"That road requires going north through the entire Twilight Fortress and circling around Giant's Canyon."

"But the journey is long, and it will take about three months to get there."

He paused.

"And Captain Freya and the others, according to the estimated arrival time displayed by the guild..."

"It's been a month and a half."

"In terms of time, it has been reduced by half."

Lin Gui looked out at the boundless darkness and said in a low voice.

"With delivery efficiency doubled, the pay for taking orders is naturally higher."

Shia's expression was strange:

"Captain Kofreya is a legendary mage."

"Does she still need money?"

Lin Gui hesitated for a moment, then sighed helplessly:

"She's probably the one who's most in need of money."

Shea was even more puzzled.

Eve chuckled softly and explained:

"The mage is the most resource-intensive profession."

"Unlike those warriors and rangers who primarily hone their physical strength."

"The types and applications of magic are too broad."

"The magical knowledge system of each mage..."

"Most of them require consuming a lot of magical materials to get started and become proficient."

"And these materials... mostly come from the wild, such as body parts of high-ranking demons, enchanted minerals, magical plants, and so on..."

Eve paused.

"In today's dark ages, collecting in the wild is extremely risky."

"This caused prices to skyrocket to unbelievable levels."

"Therefore, most mages have to spend far more money and resources than other classes of the same level in order to improve their strength."

"And the legendary mage..."

Eve smiled and said, "That's something even a city-state might not be able to afford."

Shia suddenly realized:

"No wonder I always got some strange commissions when I was an adventurer."

"For example, specifying a certain demon's horn, or a specific enchanted plant."

"So they were all posted by mages."

The carriage swayed slightly with the footsteps of the soldiers below.

Discussing such realistic topics atop a bottomless abyss.

This actually eased the tense atmosphere a little.

Lin Gui nodded silently.

He recalled the difficulties he had faced when learning magic.

The construction of each spell model.

Every precise manipulation of magic.

Behind all of this is the accumulation of countless resources.

If not for the system directly granting magic and proficiency.

He's probably still struggling to make ends meet by completing quests in the Adventurers' Guild, earning money for materials.

Just as Lin Gui was feeling sentimental.

Suddenly, an unnatural wriggling sensation came from the inner pocket of his monk's robe.

Before he could react...

The broken glass bead somehow managed to jump out of the pocket and hover in mid-air.

The surface of the bead flashed with a dazzling red light.

It rampaged wildly in the cramped carriage.

Sometimes it felt like being slapped on the roof by an invisible hand, and sometimes it slammed violently against the side walls.

It made muffled "bang" sounds, and its trajectory was unpredictable.

He looked just like a shrimp thrown into boiling water, filled with the fear and madness of impending death.

Lin Gui instinctively got up to grab it.

However, as a mage, he was not agile enough.

The swaying carriage made things even more chaotic.

He missed several times in a row, his movements quite clumsy.

The beads traced chaotic arcs in the air.

Seeing this, Eve also got up to help block them.

As a result, she bumped into Lin Gui in the narrow space.

The two of them cried out "Ouch!" and tripped and fell into a heap.

The bead seemed to have found a way out and suddenly changed direction.

It transformed into a streak of red light, shooting straight towards the tightly closed car window!

A fair hand shot out like lightning and closed precisely in mid-air.

Shia pinched the bead that was still trembling violently and burning hot in her palm.

His face was full of surprise and doubt:

"What the hell is this thing? It can fly by itself?"

Lin Gui hurriedly scrambled up from beside Eve and staggered over her.

He snatched the bead back from Shea's hand.

A gray light suddenly appeared in his eyes, and the Netherworld Eyes were activated instantly.

He didn't even have a chance to ask a question.

The mermaid's soul's face, distorted by extreme fear, filled the entire field of vision.

"Run! Run!!"

Its scream pierced directly into Lin Gui's mind, accompanied by a heart-wrenching tremor.

The illusory finger pointed madly into the endless dark abyss beneath its feet.

"It! It's down there! It's awake! It's awake!"

The edges of the soul body were fluctuating violently, as if it would collapse at any moment.

"I don't want to sink into this abyss forever... I don't want to be nailed to this eternal abyss..."

"Run! Run! Immediately! Right now! Don't look back!"

Lin Gui suddenly turned his head to look out the window.

The vision of the Eye of the Underworld pierced through the obstruction of the car window.

In that instant, it felt as if all the blood in his body had frozen.

Outside the window, it was no longer pure darkness that swallowed all light.

The entire sea of ​​the silent abyss...

They all "came back to life".

It was an indescribable, viscous "red".

It is neither the crimson of blood nor the fiery red of flames.

It is a deeper, more ancient, and more soul-chilling dark red.

It was as if countless venomous eyes had opened simultaneously at the bottom of the abyss.

It also resembles some kind of enormous, unimaginably large creature.

It is slowly stretching out its blood-streaked body on the seabed.

The eerie red light did not come from a light source.

It permeated every drop of seawater, spreading throughout the boundless abyss.

The originally pitch-black stillness was transformed into a pot of boiling blood porridge.

The original clear outline of the stone bridge and rocks.

It becomes blurred and distorted in this ubiquitous dark red.

It was as if the entire abyss was undulating slightly under some kind of force.

Lin Gui can even "see".

The red light contained countless tiny, nerve-like threads.

They writhed slowly, emanating a nauseating malice.

And an ancient, cold hunger.

"See that?...See that?"

The mermaid's soul shrieked in his mind, its voice shattered.

"It's awake...it's watching us..."

"Every...soul that...steps into its realm..."