Wang Yao saw that the railway tracks beneath his feet formed a ring, spiraling downwards along the edge of a huge tunnel carved out of the ground, until they reached the dark depths of the tunnel, beyond the reach of his eyes.
This downward tunnel was enormous. Standing at the edge of the tunnel, one could only vaguely see the other side. Even with Wang Yaoxian's keen eyesight, he couldn't make out what was on the other side.
Along the edge of the tunnel and beside the tracks, there are many huge indicator lights. There are also some bungalows around, and through the glass you can see some computers on the tables inside that are still running, with their screens flashing.
This place looked like it was where the tracks were managed and maintained, but now it was completely empty, not a soul in sight. A piece of paper was blown by the wind and rolled past Wang Yao's feet. Wang Yao picked it up and saw a line of writing on it.
"Urgent Notice: All ghost staff working in Falling Moon Valley will depart from the 18th floor on March 18th, 9369 of the Underworld Era, at 19:00, along with the ghost staff remaining at the Equal King's Palace and some of the palace's property. Security level: Special, Priority level: Special."
"All ghosts, please make preparations for the evacuation and turn off all water, electricity, and gas..." Wang Yao glanced at the paper and then casually threw it away. The ghosts left behind at the Pingdeng Wangfu mentioned on it were obviously the same group of ghosts they had encountered at the Biancheng Wang Hunting Ground.
The 112th Underworld Express was supposed to take them away, but whether it was because the corpse energy came too suddenly or because they were delayed in cleaning up the palace, they missed the train and had to go to King Biancheng's hunting grounds to escape the corpse energy.
Wang Yao could tell that the staff at the train station had left in a great hurry. They said they were turning off the water, electricity, and gas, but obviously the electricity wasn't turned off; the computer screen was still flickering.
"Huh? There should be immortals here, but where are they?" the fairy asked, looking around blankly.
"Do you think we can reach the seventeenth floor by following this tunnel?" Wang Yao asked the fairy, gazing into the dark depths of the tunnel.
"It probably won't work. These tunnels and trains are for the exclusive use of the Netherworld Ghosts; beings from other realms can't use them." The fairy shook her head.
"I heard from the immortals in the Heavenly Court's Engineering Department that this Underworld Building, though called a building, is not like a typical skyscraper. The upper and lower sections are not neatly stacked together," the fairy said.
"In fact, most interfaces are irregular in shape, especially the human world. Due to the conflict with the ocean world, the edges of the entire interface are jagged, which also makes the underworld interface extremely irregular. Therefore, when building a building, you can't start from the foundation and build up layer by layer."
"Instead, the entire interface space is divided into thirty-seven pieces. The best piece among these thirty-seven pieces is naturally the upper eighteenth floor, and the worst piece is the lower eighteenth floor. However, the order of these pieces is not that the lower eighteenth floor is the seventeenth floor."
"Perhaps what we're below is the eighteenth floor. Back then, some immortals from the Heavenly Court's engineering department participated in the construction of this building, saying that this Underworld Building is more like a bunch of boxes stacked haphazardly in an irregularly shaped room."
“The movement between the boxes isn’t a simple up-and-down relationship, but rather a journey through time,” the fairy murmured.
"Time travel?" Upon hearing this word, Wang Yao felt a sudden sense of familiarity for no apparent reason.
"During the construction of the building, the Heavenly Court actually suggested that the Underworld introduce the Heavenly Court's elevator technology so that all beings in the six realms could travel normally between different floors in the Underworld."
"But the underworld insists on using elevator technology that only allows ghosts to pass through, saying that they are afraid that if there is an elevator, the ghosts downstairs will be difficult to manage. But what is there to be difficult to manage? It's just that they are afraid that the Heavenly Court will interfere too much in the affairs of the underworld."
"The ascent and descent passages in this underworld can only accommodate ghosts and other dead things. Creatures from the five realms cannot use them. Otherwise, do you think King Biancheng would be willing to abandon all the animals in the Hundred Beasts Garden? Just think about it, how much effort must a ghost have put into collecting so many rare and exotic beasts?"
"So, you think this tunnel leads to the seventeenth floor, but you don't actually know where it leads. However, there's definitely a crossing point below that ensures the underworld's elevator, or rather, this kind of train, can reach the corresponding location on the seventeenth floor," the fairy said.
After hearing what the fairy said, Wang Yao felt even more confused, as if his impression of the Underworld Building had been overturned.
He pondered for a long time, thinking about the pile of boxes the fairy had mentioned, and recalling the construction of the Zero Floor Office. He thought to himself that it seemed that many of his concepts about the underworld were wrong from the beginning, and many seemingly simple things were not as simple as he had imagined.
Fairy Maiden and Wang Yao wandered around the empty station for a long time, but they didn't see a single immortal or even a corpse puppet. Wang Yao looked up at the cloud-riding beast in the sky, then turned to look at Fairy Maiden.
"Could it be that the Cloud-Ascending Beast is just making a noise for fun, and not actually because it has discovered an immortal?" Wang Yao asked.
"Probably not? The Underworld Queen's area on this floor is nearby, and the corpse energy comes from there. When I came last time, all the immortals were gathered on this island. Let's go to the Underworld Queen's area first and see what happens," the fairy said to Wang Yao.
"The Queen of the Underworld?" Wang Yao looked around in astonishment. This was an island, and although it was not small, it was far less spacious than the Queen of the Underworld on the zero floor. There was also such a large Underworld station here. Based on his understanding of the Underworld, how could the Queen of the Underworld on the eighteenth floor be too small?
"Come with me!" the fairy called to Wang Yao, placing a hand on his shoulder. In the blink of an eye, the two appeared in a large square.
Seeing several long runways under construction and a few streamlined passenger planes parked there, Wang Yao nodded slightly. The fairy had brought him to the island's airport.
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