Published at 12th of March 2026 7:21 am

Chapter 2634: Void Stairway

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This time the vine gave a clearer answer than before.

——Hanging Jail Stairway.

But this answer... is useless! He knows the Wood Spirit is in the Hanging Jail Stairway, but where exactly?

Faced with Angel’s further inquiry, the giant vine was like a confused snake, tilting its head in puzzlement. The emotional fluctuation conveyed, after Angel’s interpretation, roughly meant: Why don’t you know?

Angel found it somewhat amusing: Why should I know?

"I was dizzy and came to ask you, thinking you hadn’t been to the Hanging Jail Stairway, how would you know where the Wood Spirit is precisely?" Angel sighed inwardly and bid farewell to the vine, continuing to walk towards the depths of the door.

After walking about twenty meters, Angel instinctively looked back. He saw not far away, the vine still maintained its "confused head-tilt" posture, appearing as if it hadn’t yet figured it out.

Angel chuckled, thinking: Demon Plant is Demon Plant, completely different from the Wood Spirit. Even if this Demon Plant has lived for a thousand, ten thousand years, the awakening of Spirit Intelligence still hasn’t made great progress. While spirit life forms, even if just a stone with Spirit birth, its initial intelligence far surpasses ordinary magical creatures.

Just like that Wood Spirit, even though it just gained intelligence, it learned a wise but foolish skill—pretending to be dead.

If the Demon Plant were in the Wood Spirit’s situation, it wouldn’t consider the power difference, encountering approaching creatures, it would come attacking tooth and claw regardless.

That’s the difference.

Thinking this, Angel continued walking forward.

The road behind the door was finely tuned, and with the defense of Demon Plants, there were virtually no signs of damage inside. The walls on both sides even had exquisitely carved candlesticks, though the candlestick no longer had lamp oil.

After walking nearly a hundred meters, Angel finally encountered the first geographical change after entering.

An upward staircase appeared before Angel.

The staircase wasn’t very long, Angel could see the end of it at a glance: another door.

Fortunately, this door wasn’t guarded.

Before stepping on the staircase, Angel took one last look back at the distant vine, which still maintained its puzzled expression.

Seeing its "tilted head" posture, Angel seemed to hear someone whispering beside his ear: "Why don’t you know?"

Angel shook his head, deciding not to think further, and slowly stepped onto the staircase,

But inexplicably, the more Angel tried not to think, the more his thoughts veered there.

"Why don’t I know? Why should I know?"

Angel pondered as he walked upwards.

Suddenly, Angel paused, a thought flashed through his mind, he looked up abruptly: "Yeah, why wouldn’t I know?"

He began to realize why the vine had such a query.

Angel had placed himself in the human position from start to finish, but forgot that from the vine’s perspective, Angel was a "Wood Spirit." And Wood Spirit perceiving its kind should be very easy, right? So why don’t you know?

Thinking of this, Angel couldn’t help but mock himself: "So, in the end, the clown turns out to be myself?"

Previously, he stood on the high ground of superiority, comparing the intelligence gap between the vine and the Wood Spirit from above, only now realizing that while he was looking down on others, they were questioning his ignorance.

After coming to this understanding, besides self-mockery, Angel’s heart also felt incredibly embarrassed.

Fortunately, everyone else was in the Exile Space, only he outside, otherwise, he’d be even more embarrassed.

Angel was now too embarrassed to look back at the vine, quickened his pace, and arrived at the door at the end of the staircase in a few steps.

The door was pulled outward, not locked.

After confirming there were no mechanisms or traps on the door, Angel eagerly opened it.

Upon opening the door, Angel saw a layer of black curtain. Literally, a layer of black dark curtain.

Faint spatial fluctuations swirled on the black curtain.

Angel hesitated for a moment, summoned a Hand of Magic Power, and gently reached forward.

The Hand of Magic Power smoothly passed through the black curtain, at the same time, from the feedback returned to Angel from the Hand of Magic Power, Angel could confirm the inside and outside of the door were two different spaces.

Which means, inside the door is an Other-dimensional Space.

The Hand of Magic Power could smoothly return, indicating the Other-dimensional Space wasn’t one-way. This somewhat eased Angel’s mind, if it were a one-way space, he’d need to think seriously before stepping inside.

With the Hand of Magic Power’s probing, Angel confidently stepped into the black curtain.

Angel’s figure merged into the black curtain, like passing through a water membrane. When Angel’s figure appeared again, he was already on a platform illuminated by Fluorite.

The platform wasn’t large, the illumination from the Fluorite was sufficient to cover it, beyond the platform, was a vast expanse, no walls to shield, leaving the platform would plunge into a chaos space resembling the Void.

The only road on the platform was a mystical staircase leading to an unknown destination in the Void.

The staircase standing out among nothingness, along with being in an Other-dimensional Space, gave Angel an illusion, as if he had returned to the Hanging Jail Stairway in the Nightmare Realm.

Indeed, this place was too similar to the Hanging Jail Stairway.

Angel even suspected this might already be the Hanging Jail Stairway? Could it be another entrance to the Hanging Jail Stairway?

Angel couldn’t figure it out for a moment, but didn’t delve deeply, whether this is the Hanging Jail Stairway or not, he’ll find out after exploring. More importantly now, is to release everyone from the Exile Space.

Before outside the door, Angel worried the vine would sense what’s happening, so he didn’t release anyone. But now being in the Other-dimensional Space, it’s not a problem anymore. The vine’s perception is strong, but without medium simultaneously present in both spaces, it can’t sense the Other-dimensional Space.

With the ancient Exile Space door reopening, everyone filed out.

Two apprentices came out, exhaled longingly. Dox and the Black Earl were unaffected—of course, excluding the Black Earl’s stuffed-up nose.

The Black Earl finally took a deep breath after confirming there’s no stench around.

"It’s only been a minute or two, but why does it feel like the outside world has changed?" Dox also noticed the changes around him, somewhat puzzled, he asked Angel: "Is this no longer a stinky sewer?"

"I suppose so, this is an Other-dimensional Space."

After that, Angel briefly explained the situation just now, though he kept quiet about the embarrassing parts.

"So behind the vines is a Door, and at the end, an Other-dimensional Space... I see." After understanding the current situation, Dox, assured of no worries, resumed his usual banter: "I thought you found a place to trap and kill us."

"If you wish so, next time I can try to trap and kill you," Angel replied lightly, then ignored Dox’s chatter and focused on discussing with the Black Earl.

"This place looks very much like the Hanging Jail Stairway as described in the records, but the information I got said the entrance to the Hanging Jail Stairway is below the statue, not like this." Angel looked at the Black Earl: "Sir, can you sense anything?"

Now free from the constraint of the stench, the Black Earl’s nose could finally perform to some extent.

The Black Earl sniffed around, then shook the stone slab: "I don’t smell any danger."

Angel wasn’t sure how the Black Earl discerned danger from safety. Could he really sniff out a Magical Energy Array trap?

Though puzzled, Angel trusted the Black Earl’s judgment; after all, he was a big shot from a previous generation.

"Since there’s no danger, why don’t we ascend the stairway and see if it leads to any cells, like in the Hanging Jail Stairway?"

Nobody refused, after all, they couldn’t just stay on the platform forever.

For safety, Angel reset the Moving Mirage, with fewer layers of the Purifying Field this time, so as not to impede the Black Earl’s sense of smell.

The Hanging Stairway looked dangerous, but once they stepped onto it, it didn’t feel like much.

It was not only wider than imagined, but underfoot, it didn’t feel spongy, quite like stepping on solid ground.

The direction of the stairs was initially upwards, but soon after, the stairway began behaving "like a crazed artist."

Sometimes upward, sometimes downward, sometimes coiled, sometimes winding... there was even a stretch of stairway that was upside down.

It was here that Angel sensed the difference from the Hanging Jail Stairway.

The stairway of the Hanging Jail was generally upward; whereas this Other-dimensional Space’s stairway felt more like an artist showing off skills.

Besides the dizzying sights, they didn’t really encounter any danger.

After experiencing a myriad of staircases, they finally arrived at a new platform.

The overall size was similar to the previous platform, illuminated by fluorite, but with the addition of an old humanoid Alchemy Golem.

This Alchemy Golem stood by the stairs, motionless, holding a box in its hands. The box was exquisitely crafted, bright, and somewhat resembled a circus joker’s surprise box.

The sudden appearance of the Alchemy Golem made everyone pause and simultaneously look towards Angel.

After all, among them, Angel, as a member of the Research and Development Institute, had the most authority on Alchemy.

Though Angel hadn’t refined a similar Alchemy Golem himself, during his teaching stint at Ashliea Comprehensive College, he had interacted with many Alchemists, thus he knew quite a bit about Alchemy Golems. The one who helped him the most was the Institute’s "Divine Spirit," Antonio.

Although Antonio didn’t practice Alchemy, as a Spirit of the Institute, he had absorbed much knowledge, giving him a deep understanding and a wide grasp over most Alchemy projects.

Antonio’s expertise was especially rich in the area of Alchemy Golems.

Because Antonio had a particularly unreliable superior— the "Mediocre" Muse.

Muse was the kind of research genius who would shut himself away with any flash of inspiration, refusing to deal with events even if the world outside were in chaos.

Fortunately, the Sky Mechanical City had another responsible City Lord, the "Mechanical Beast Emperor" Rosen.

However responsible Rosen was, he sometimes couldn’t manage all affairs. The issues involving Ashiliya Academy and the Research Institute gave him the most headaches.

In these situations, Rosen had to ask the on-duty Institute members for help, but many of them hated hassle, often dodging such responsibilities with excuses.

Thus, they had to send Antonio.

Being a Spirit, Antonio was already stretched thin managing the Institute and the Fantasy Mechanical City. With no other choice, Antonio prepared many Alchemy Golems as his avatars.

Therefore, at the City Lord’s meetings in the Sky Mechanical City, there would often be an Alchemy Golem representing the City Lord, undoubtedly Antonio.

As a result, Antonio’s understanding of Alchemy Golems was remarkably deep.

Antonio was committed to the development of the Institute, so he gave his utmost support to the members. Naturally, he didn’t refuse when Angel wanted to learn about Alchemy Golems, essentially teaching him everything he knew.

Consequently, Angel wasn’t unfamiliar with Alchemy Golems.

Though much of the knowledge about Alchemy Golems was like the space knowledge in his head, theoretical, lacking practice; conducting a comprehensive assessment of an old puppet wasn’t difficult.

After all, the knowledge involved in Alchemy Golems typically pertained to Mechanical Alchemy, which isn’t reliant on outdated knowledge. With the passage of time, Mechanical Alchemy continuously updated, leading Alchemists to scoff at old ruins rather than eagerly pursue them.

"Well-crafted, whoever refined this golem was probably a master of the time. But it’s not so impressive now." Angel: "The design is outdated, the functionality is single, lacking materials from the Quest World, thus unable to infuse Spirit. Also, no logical core panel, so it can’t provide real-time feedback."

"The materials used aren’t bad, but they show signs of corrosion. Although they can still be scavenged, cheaper alternatives are available, so essentially... it’s not worth much."

After Angel’s comments, everyone lost interest in chasing ancient relics and regained normalcy towards the seemingly old and serene Alchemy Golem.

Dox: "So you’re saying this golem is useless?"

Angel observed again, shook his head: "Not entirely useless, at least, this golem is still functioning. Without it, our path forward would end here."

"What do you mean?" Dox asked with furrowed brows.

"Literally, this golem is the critical key to unlocking the next stairway," Angel explained, noticing the lingering confusion among the group.

He thought for a moment and added: "To put it simply, this golem is a... ticket seller?"

"A ticket seller?"

Angel nodded, pointing at the box in the golem’s hands: "See that, it’s the ticket box."

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