...
The gallery's depths, in fact, lead away from it, reaching the outer wall of the Art Building.
Yet, Kuai Hongji didn't take this path; instead, he plunged into an area darker than darkness itself.
It was a place where even the glow of an old kerosene lamp was suppressed, its light extending only as far as an outstretched hand. Here, pitch blackness and chilling cold seemed to be the eternal themes, and anyone entering would be lost endlessly.
But Kuai Hongji wouldn't.
He seemed to fumble upon something in the dark, then, as if passing through a swath of cotton, Traversed through some barrier.
When his footsteps landed, beneath him were huge green stone bricks, and around him was an enclosed, suffocating cylindrical space— a staircase conforming to the Fibonacci sequence.
This was the stairwell below the Bell Tower.
Kuai Hongji "took a shortcut" to get here.
