Forty millenniums of cul.., p.978
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 978
"Your Cultivation, resolution, strategies, and responses to changes should be more or less enough for you to discuss the plans to save the Ancient Sages Sector with the two of us now!
"Now, clean up the great mess outside and ask everybody to stop attacking each other. Set up a camp at the center of the warship and settle everyone down first.
"Then, we will take you to a place where we will explain what happened to us in the past hundred years and how dark and terrifying the real world out there is!"
Chapter 1506: The Divine Palace Below the Divine Palace! |
"Big Bear, everyone else."
Observing everybody's face, Meng Chixin could easily tell that they were not fully convinced by what the two of them had just said. He said frankly, "If you are suspecting that we are up to something else, you can stop wasting your time. If we truly had ill intentions, we wouldn't have left the Cloud Qin Gold Statue! It is extremely dangerous to have shown up in front of you unprotected in our current appearance!"
That was rather true.
The Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators could transform their soul and will into spiritual energy, thereby travelling in the world without the boundary of their body temporarily. Their soul boasted basic resistance against the radiation and interference of the outside world, too.
However, the body was the best container for the soul of a human being after all. Even a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator could not survive for long when they left their body.
When their body was damaged and they turned into spectral Cultivators, their level would certainly plunge, and their combat ability was very likely to sink to the Nascent Soul Stage.
Their only solution was to practice Cultivation arts for the ghosts, like Wan Mingzhu, the mother of all ghosts.
But such arts were often in conflict with the unparalleled techniques that they had trained with while they were alive. Without the stabilization of a body, the odds of their mental derangement would significantly increase. It was an action whose returns were disproportionate to its risks.
All in all, despite the high level of the two spectral Cultivators in the Divinity Transformation Stage, their combat ability was not necessarily much higher than the combat ability of the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
Should three to five of the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators attack them together, it would be practically impossible for them to defend themselves.
Since they had proved themselves capable of maneuvering a Cloud Qin Gold Statue perfectly, they could have crushed their way through. There did not seem to be any need for them to crawl out of the Cloud Qin Gold Statue and resort to tricks.
Since they had chosen to face everybody in their weakest form, it was indicative enough of their sincerity.
Everybody whispered among themselves and discussed the situation.
Li Yao observed coldly and thought hard.
If everything that they had said was a trap, it was such a fine and delicate one that he had no choice but to fall into.
Also, with the two intimidating Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators there, and the other super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators keeping each other in check, it was not like that he could just expose his identity and admit that he was an 'alien', right?
'Deity Raincloud', the other alien, was still tied up so tightly that she looked like a mummy!
Li Yao did not think that the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector would bother to check the difference between the two 'aliens'.
It appeared that he could only wing it now and see what the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators were trying to sell.
Meng Chixin was Han Baling's master after all, and Wu Suiyun seemed to have some kind of relationship with Qi Zhongdao.
Led by the two of them, the rest of the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators soon accepted the proposal of the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators.
Now that the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators and the ten super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had made the call, the remaining Cultivators on the spot naturally had nothing to say except to obediently listen to their orders.
It took them four hours before they finally cleaned up the mess outside.
Under the suppression of the unparalleled experts, the Cultivators outside who were part of the simulation of the small dark forest finally could not cause any more fuss.
The two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators were quite familiar with the internal structure of the Nuwa warship. They pointed out a few rather spacious cabins for the Cultivators to rest in. Those cabins were designed for the use of the ten-meter-tall giants. So, after the Cultivators who belonged to different forces entered the cabins, they were able to claim different corners and stay away from each other, keeping the temporary truce.
"The ten of you, come with us. We will tell you everything."
Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin slowly drifted toward the depths of the Nuwa warship. Li Yao and the other super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators hurried to follow them.
The Nuwa warship had been stabbed into the ground upside-down like a spear. So, the deeper they went, the closer they were to the head of the warship.
The two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators floated through the zigzagging, complicated tunnels, like two apparitions that were leading the ten super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators into the depths of hell. The air was both solemn and creepy.
"A hundred years ago," Wu Suiyun said slowly, "to settle the grudge between us and the contradiction between the Great Qian Dynasty and the prairies, Meng Chixin and I had a life-and-death battle in the depths of the Land of Eternal Night.
"There's no need to elaborate on how magnificent the battle was. All in all, our surging spiritual energy caused a bottomless crack to form in the seemingly indestructible ice layer, just like the one that made you fall down to this place, except that it was not as huge.
"With our Cultivation, we certainly did not fall into the canyon easily, but we sensed the weird, monolithic existence that was deeply embedded in the ice at the same time. It felt like an enormous, flawless building. That turned out to be a warship in the ice.
"Oh, you call it the Divine Palace? Right. We thought that it was a relic or a residence left by deities from the primeval era at first, too!
"Meng Chixin's Cultivation was on par with mine. Neither of us was able to defeat each other after a fierce battle. If we wanted the battle to have an outcome, we would have to continue fighting for another three days and three nights.
"Also, our personal grudge wasn't that deep at that time. My late husband, Shi Zongyue, did not die because of him in general. It was more about the fate and the future of the Great Qian Dynasty and the Dark Cloud Prairies!
"The contradiction between us wasn't enough to deprive us of our sanity. We were both surprised at the appearance of the Divine Palace in the ice. We thought about how many benefits the force that we belonged to would gain from it if the relic was controlled by us!
"Naturally, we did not want each other to monopolize the Divine Palace, but we were not relieved to call a truce and return home to summon reinforcements, because who knew that the other guy wouldn't invade the unguarded Divine Palace first and move all the ultimate treasures away while we were traveling back home?
"At an impasse, we weighed the pros and cons for a long time and finally decided to explore the Divine Palace together and figure out what it is exactly.
"Of course, we can't deny that we might have been thinking of luring each other into the Divine Palace and setting up traps against each other.
"Everything inside the Divine Palace, including the corpses of the primeval deities and the dozens of the Cloud Qin Gold Statues, as you have seen with your own eyes just now, was a great eye-opener for us at that time. We were amazed.
"However, what astonished us most is that this isn't the only Divine Palace in the ice. In fact, there are two overlapping Divine Palaces, one on top and the other below!"
"What!"
Even Li Yao had been unaware of the shocking information before. He exclaimed together with the other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
"What we are walking on right now is in fact not a Divine Palace but a warship of the deities' realm similar to a flying boat boosted by spiritual energy." Meng Chixin continued the explanation. "Of course, its size is thousands of times larger and more advanced than a regular flying boat. But if we get to the bottom of it, this isn't an underground building that was buried in the depths of the tundra below the ice in the first place but a mobile fortress that should be flying in the sky. It dived down into the ground, perhaps even intentionally. That is why it is now deeply embedded below the earth!
"Deep below the earth, there is another Divine Palace that is even more enormous. That place is perhaps more qualified to be called the real Divine Palace!
"You have seen the remains of the fierce battles of primeval creatures just now, I presume. Did you notice that the primeval creatures can be classified into two camps? The styles of the stripes on their armors are entirely different, like two unique marks.
"The stripes on the armor of some primeval creatures are rigid and straight, without the slightest arcs or curves. Let's call those primeval creatures the devils.
"The stripes on the armor of some other primeval creatures meander like rivers and roads. They radiate to the surroundings in a somewhat chaotic way. Let's call them the deities for now!"
Li Yao was secretly impressed by the computational and deduction abilities of the Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators. Despite the lack of modern education, the two 'ancient Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators' were still able to tell the difference between the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan just based on the minor traces.
Under their keen eyes, he and Long Yangjun could not have been more careful.
However, since they had addressed the Pangu Clan as 'the devils', did it mean that they were more in favor of the Nuwa Clan?
"It was almost twenty years later when we finally figured out the whole thing," Wu Suiyun said. "The palace of the devils was deeply hidden below the earth until it was discovered by the warship of the deities for some reason. The deities' warship did not seem to boast better methods to attack the underground palace. Therefore, it simply crashed into the earth at the speed of a shooting star, using itself as a weapon. It pierced through the ice and tundra, penetrating into the palace of the devils.
"Then, the warriors on the deities' warship would be able to march into the palace of the devils without any trouble from the point of impact!
"However, by the time Meng Chixin and I discovered it, the channel leading to the palace of the devils had been fully sealed and covered in dust. It was obvious that nobody had set foot into it for tens of thousands of years.
"After Meng Chixin and I finished the preliminary exploration on the deities' warship, naturally, we grew curious about the mysterious barrier that was covered in dust.
"Meng Chixin and I were both in the Divinity Transformation Stage. We were not interested in most things in the mortal world, but the mysterious relic that was obviously related to the primeval era and the deities' realm caught both our attention.
"The more obscure and difficult opening the barrier was, and the harsher and more terrifying the runes written in a complicated language next to it were, the more interested we grew and the more determined we were to open it!
"After struggling for an entire month, Meng Chixin and I finally unlocked the barrier and opened the mysterious pathway to the devils' palace!
"At that time, the two of us thought that we were the strongest beings in the Ancient Sages Sector. Never did we expect that such dangers would be awaiting us in the palace of the devils and kill us in a way that we couldn't fathom!"
Horror and regret were written all over Wu Suiyun's face.
All the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators could not help but feel that their head was dizzy. They could not imagine what could possibly make a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator ill at ease after a hundred years!
Chapter 1507: Bloating! |
Seeing that Wu Suiyun had been caught in staggering memories, Meng Chixin spoke up. "The 'Divine Palace below the Divine Palace', according to our later analysis, should be a secret residence of the devils where they ran the most sordid and brutal experiments.
"But at that time, in our ignorance and overconfidence in the strength of the Divinity Transformation Stage, we did not think that the primeval creatures were to be feared even if there were any. So, we barged into the palace of the devils together.
"The scale of the palace of the devils is hundreds of times larger than the deities' warship that we are in right now. It is extremely sophisticated, with secret chambers, pathways, and warehouses everywhere!
"This warship crashed into a corner on the topmost layer of the palace. A lot of warriors of the deities flooded in and had a fierce battle with the devils. It was also a gory, messy battlefield.
"The fierce battle must've taken place around two hundred thousand years ago. Ninety percent of the area in the palace of the devils was completely destroyed by the deities. It then collapsed and perished in the passage of time before it was filled with rocks and became worthless ruins.
"But the few floors at the bottommost area seemed to be unharmed from the deities' attacks.
"Wu Suiyun and I discovered many items there that were beyond our imagination or the description of any words.
"There were several hundred enormous glass tanks in which bizarre-looking corpses were soaked. Some of them looked like human beings, some looked like hybrids of human beings and animals, and some others were hideous existences with queer limbs and sometimes internal organs exposed to the air!
"Some of the objects were in the shape of human beings but had sharp sabers and swords as the limbs. There were even human heads that were connected to weapons and magical equipment!
"Think about. At the center of a broad flying sword that was blinking coldly, a crystal vesicle like a giant pearl was embedded, and a human head was accommodated inside the vesicle. Two huge eyeballs that had been dry since a long time ago were connected to the head, and they were staring at me!
"Such a creepy scene made even us feel chilly and dizzy even though we were in the Divinity Transformation Stage!"
Meng Chixin's voice was hoarse and deep, full of persuasiveness. As he elaborated, all ten Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators pictured the same vivid and horrible scenes in their minds.
When they thought of the weird techniques to integrate a human brain with a piece of magical equipment, the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators all felt their hearts grow cold, as if somebody had pinched them with a cold claw!
Li Yao, however, knew exactly what it was.
The underground palace that the Nuwa warship had crashed was probably a secret laboratory of the Pangu Clan.
Li Yao had seen the biotechnology to combine flesh and blood with magical equipment in both the Mausoleum of Chaos and Kunlun. It was indeed a typical method of the Pangu Clan.
Then, it was obvious that the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators were not lying. If they had not seen it with their own eyes, it was impossible for the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector to imagine such a scene based on nothing.
"That place was even more dreadful than hell, if hell does exist." Wu Suiyun sighed gloomily. "Meng Chixin and I both winced, but everything around seemed to have been sealed and destroyed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Despite the appalling scenes, we did not really run into any danger. Also, he and I were not best friends. Neither of us was willing to propose to retreat, fearing that we would each be mocked by the other. In the end, we made a deal to explore the last floor before we exited the devils' palace.
"On the last floor in the devils' palace, we discovered a… graveyard of an enormous scale!
"Although I'm describing it as a 'graveyard', the place looked extremely weird. There was indeed a circle of about a hundred translucent coffins at the periphery. Bizarre-looking corpses of the devils were loaded inside the coffins.
"But for some reason, the coffins all looked particularly lackluster, and the corpses inside had either withered or crumbled into piles of dust."
Li Yao thought of something and realized that it was certainly the hibernation capsules of the Pangu Clan.
The members of the Pangu Clan had hoped to survive for hundreds of thousands of years by way of 'hibernation' at the bottom level of the secret laboratory.
However, according to Wu Suiyun's description, a certain accident had taken place inside the secret laboratory, which caused the malfunction of the hibernation capsules and the abrupt deaths of all the members of the Pangu Clan.
Perhaps it was because of the disruption of the energy supply caused by tectonic movements. Perhaps it was because the Nuwa Clan destroyed the core of the secret laboratory during their assault. Perhaps a certain uncanny virus went on a rampage… Anything could happen during a hibernation of hundreds of thousands of years, and the odds of success were particularly low in the first place.
"Those crystal coffins were just placed around the periphery of the graveyard. They were stabbed into the dense holes on the wall, connected to some thick crystal tubes like those providing energy for the Cloud Qin Gold Statues.
"At the enormous space in the center of the graveyard, there was an area of black soil that looked like a swamp. Black ceramic tanks filled the soil. They looked like bug eggs that were emitting metallic colors and wine tanks that had been buried underground for decades. Rings of extremely small, dense runes covered them. Even the air reeked of a sweet, stinky smell.
"I'll never forget the smell for the rest of my life.
"Almost a hundred tiny holes were opened on the top of the black tanks, from which thick, bright green air was spurting out, forming a mist that would never disperse on the dome.
"It was like an eccentric monster was lurking inside every tank!"
