After shaking off the Bone-Eating Insects, Lin Yu and his two companions hurried onward along the increasingly deep gorge. The surrounding mist felt like a tangible haze, pressing heavily upon their hearts with pitifully low visibility that allowed them to barely distinguish the ground a few feet ahead. They had no choice but to grope their way forward, relying on vague memories of the map and a general sense of direction.
Just as they were wholly focused on searching for the path, a wide and deep chasm abruptly blocked their way forward. The ravine was like a hideous gash torn across the earth, bottomless and dark, from which low, rumbling roars echoed from time to time. The sound seemed to come from the nethermost depths of hell, laden with endless gloom and terror that made one's hair stand on end, as if some extremely evil existence were lurking within, watching them with a predatory gaze.
Across the chasm, only a few rusted, wobbling iron chains served as a bridge. Corroded by time and weathered by wind and rain, the chains were in utter disrepair; some of the links were even broken, emitting creaking groans in the howling cold wind like the death rattle of an aging elder, as if they might snap completely at any second and ruthlessly plunge anyone who stepped upon them into the abyss.
Chapter 96