Qing Shan walked back into Rising Sun City, his head held high. Today was going to be the day he finally began his descent to the second layer. Qing Shan decided that he would quickly wish Senior Teng farewell, and ask him to pass on a message to Yuan Long and Su Yuesha. He did not want to be delayed any longer.
Qing Shan quickly said his goodbye to Senior Teng, who had thought that he had already left. Thinking about it, Qing Shan realized that he had silently left this City two months ago to go see his Master. Maybe he should have told someone about that…
After saying goodbye to Senior Teng, and listening to some of his final advice on living in the lower layers, Qing Shan headed north. Although he had never seen it before, the way to the third layer was apparently that way.
To go the quickest way possible, Qing Shan decided to go through the North District of the Rising Sun City. Maybe someone from the clan would help him out.
As he was walking through the Northern District, Qing Shan herd some exclamations of surprise. It was only then that Qing Shan realized that he had not been here for over a year.
Just as Qing Shan was thinking this, he heard a gruff voice.
"Qing Shan?"
Qing Shan whirled around, and sure enough, the voice had come from none other than Xuri Qiang!
Qing Shan nodded to the man, actually somewhat respectfully. Qing Shan had faced this man countless times and had never once beaten him, and those losses were carved into his mind.
Just as Qing Shan was about to ask a random question, Xuri Qiang spoke.
"Why don't you show me what a year and a half of training has done for you!"
"I was just thinking the same thing…"
Suddenly completely sidetracked, Qing Shan walked behind Xuri Qiang to that courtyard where they had sparred last time Qing Shan was here. While he knew that he had other things that he was supposed to do, Qing Shan could not help but want to see just how far he had come. This would be the first time he was fighting an actual human after his training, so he could not restrain his curiosity.
When the two arrived in the courtyard, Qing Shan was surprised to see that Xuri Qiang began the fight immediately.
The man darted forward, his body twisting into a strange posture as he pulled back his fist.
Qing Shan stepped back, raising his hands in the air.
"On second thought, I do not need to fight you. I seem to have grown much more than I had imagined."
While this sounded like an excuse to Xuri Qiang, and any possible spectators, this was actually the truth. Qing Shan could already tell based on the man's posture what his next four moves would be, and Qing Shan knew that he would have absolutely no problem slipping between those attacks and could even deal a fatal blow, if he so desired.
"No. I will only back down if I am absolutely certain that your strength eclipses mine. The battle shall continue."
*sigh*
Qing Shan began moving fluently, like the wind. He whipped around so fast that spectator's eyes would not have been able to follow. Qing Shan quickly went around his opponent, and placed Xuri Qiang in a headlock with his iron grip.
"…I admit…defeat."
Now that the fight was over, Qing Shan quickly let Xuri Qiang go, and helped the man stand.
"Do you know anyone who can guide me to the entrance to the third layer?"
Xuri Qiang's eyes shot up in surprise. Then, the glum expression on his face slowly melted into a small smile.
'Ah, so that's how it is. I was absolutely no match in the first place. All it took was him reaching the same cultivation level as me for him to be able to easily overpower me…'
"Actually, if you need a guide, I would be happy to do it myself. However, if you don't mind, I would also like to give you a small parting gift. You have dome me the favor of sparring with me all this time, so it is the least that I can do."
For a second Qing Shan thought that Xuri Qiang was suddenly sucking up to him, but that thought immediately left his mind. Xuri Qiang was an honorable man, and his eyes were certainly filled with sincerity.
"That would be great."
Qing Shan followed Xuri Qiang as he left the courtyard. To his surprise, the man was walking toward the large building that Qing Shan knew was the home of the Clan Master. The pair kept walking, and Qing Shan was surprised that they walked past the entrance to the building. Xuri Qian rounded a corner, bringing Qing Shan behind him.
Xuri Qing placed his hand on the wall, and a brick was pushed in, causing the wall to open up.
He turned to Qing Shan.
"Wait here."
Qing Shan waited, curious about what Xuri Qiang might be doing. More importantly, as someone who had helped repair the Rising Sun Clan, how did Qing Shan not know about this hidden room?
A few minutes later, Xuri Qiang came out of the hidden room, a blank expression on his face.
"I will now show you the way to the entrance to the third layer."
Qing Shan kept his mouth shut, despite the questions running through his mind. If Xuri Qiang had not yet said anything, than this was not something that should be talked about with the clan.
The pair exited the city and headed north. Eight kilometers later, Xuri Qiang finally stopped and pointed forward.
"That is the entrance to the third layer."
Qing Shan looked forward, and saw what looked like a cliff, with only the sky beyond it. The view looked like it did when Qing Shan was approaching the edge of the silent plains.
"I assume I am on my own from here?"
"Yes. But I do have a small parting gift for you. From what I have been able to tell, you are quite short on funds. Please take this with you. I hope it will be of some use."
Qing Shan looked at Xuri Qiang's hand, and his eyes bulged.
'MONEY!'
Qing Shan was now the richest he had ever been, with about one Lesser Qi Orb to his name.
"Thank you Brother you have no clue how much I needed this. Goodbye."
As he watched Qing Shan walk toward the third layer, one thought was present in Xuri Qiang's mind.
'Did I just buy a brother?'
Qing Shan walked toward the third layer, which he could just barely see on the horizon. After about a kilometer, Qing Shan reached the edge of the second layer. Looking down, Qing Shan saw a large cliff. Although he knew logically that the entrance was somewhat circular, Qing Shan could have sworn that this hole was just a straight cliff. He felt the exact same way he had thought when he was descending to the second layer.
Looking down, Qing Shan saw a hole of darkness. Wherever the third layer was, it must be deep enough that he was unable to see it from his current location. This was surprising, because Qing Shan knew that the first layer was only about three kilometers above the second layer.
Luckily, there was a way down. Well, actually, there were multiple. Qing Shan could see stairs going one way, handholds and footholds, and even little platforms jutting out from the cliff. He could tell with a glance that all of these were not natural, and had been made with the help of multiple experts with the earth attribute.
Luckily for Qing Shan, Senior Teng had given him something that would help with this situation. It was a runic torch, which would light up after it was struck on the ground, and would not go out until a few runes were touched in order on it. Best of all, it had multiple uses! Qing Shan had wondered why Senior Teng had given him an expensive object like this, but now he knew why.
Qing Shan hit the ground with his torch, and watched as it lit up.
'Now, which way to go…'
Seeing as Qing Shan had recently had a bad experience with stairs in a deep hole, he decided to take the next best option. He jumped onto one of the platforms jutting out from the side of the wall, and began his descent into the humungous black pit.
Qing Shan hopped from platform to platform for hours on end, and he only took short breaks to rejuvenate his stamina in the Spring of Time. Qing Shan had been keeping count of how many platforms he had stepped on, but he stopped after he passed ten thousand. Each of the platforms were roughly two meters below each other, so this was definitely a deep hole.
After he passed ten thousand platforms, it was not long before Qing Shan reached the bottom of the pit. From above, Qing Shan saw that a large, fire-lit city came into view. The city was made entirely from stone, and a dense fire Qi filled the air. It was about the same level of heat as the two meter mark when approaching the Primal Fire, which meant that the heat was negligible to Qing Shan.
As Qing Shan continued getting closer and closer to the floor, he noticed that the fire-lit city was not from candles and the like. There was literally an artificial sun in the ceiling! It was so close that it looked to be about ten feet wide, even though Qing Shan could distinctly tell that it was actually many kilometers above the city. Qing Shan noticed that he had first seen the city when he was about three or four kilometers above it, so the city and area around it really had no reachable ceiling.
Looking around now that there was light again, Qing Shan really could not tell how this had been a circular hole. There had just been darkness in front of him, and even if the darkness had been removed, Qing Shan would not have been able to see the other side of this hole. As someone who had walked along the side of the 2nd Layer wall and had not realized it was circular until he was told, this should not have been so surprising.
Qing Shan also wondered how that artificial sun's light had been covered up by the darkness, even though it was probably closer to the top of the hole than the bottom.
In actuality, Qing Shan could not really consider this a hole. While he could not see the bottom when he jumped in, it was exactly like entering the second layer, which he had not referred to as a hole. In actuality, this level looked just like a normal landscape, minus a blue sky. As the 'sky' in this case was just a huge ball of fire, it lit the rest of the area perfectly fine. There were still grass fields, and the city looked pretty nice. While it would take some getting used to live in a hot environment with no sky, Qing Shan did not foresee any difficulties due to the environment. As long as Qing Shan thought of this layer as a different place entirely compared to the second and first layers, he would eventually grow accustomed.
Qing Shan continued to marvel at how the world stretched on, as though they were not underground.
'Well, technically there is no ground above me, so am I really underground?'
Anyways, Qing Shan looked out on this world that was definitely not small and thought about what he had planned for this level. He knew that there were multiple cities and towns on this floor, and he had been advised to visit most, if not all of them. There was also three sects on this layer, and they all had a large collection of higher-level cultivators.
Most of all, Qing Shan was looking forward to exploring this new world that had just opened up to him.