Chapter 302: The Truth of Calamity
This time it wasn’t Yuliya who pulled any strings; it was the Teleportation Array doing its typical shenanigans.
In places like this, traps are totally reasonable—someone’s gotta wade through the muck first.
And since there just so happens to be people eager to dive right in, well, that’s just peachy.
Naturally, someone had to scout ahead.
Even if there were actual treasures in there, which those folks might snag first, Yuliya wasn’t sweating it.
Just as Edward said, none of the stuff in here held any allure for her.
The Jade Emperor Kingdom had way more going for it, not to mention the Golden Kingdom’s rich heritage.
What they were fighting over was probably just junk to Yuliya.
“Teacher, could you hold on a sec before going in? The other side isn’t exactly small; I don’t know what’s lurking in there. Let them take the first leap.”
“Sure thing.”
After a while, the Teleportation Array was still as silent as a mime.
Edward glanced at Yuliya, and she nodded.
He stepped into the array.
One second later, Edward popped back out.
“Go ahead; it’s just filled with a bunch of patterns and symbols—nothing else.”
Yuliya followed him in.
As she emerged from the array, Yuliya squinted her eyes.
The space was huge but not dark.
The walls and floor emitted a soft red and white glow, lighting the room reasonably well.
As Yuliya scanned around, she noticed those two had squished themselves into a corner, grinning like goofballs.
“Uh… we got a bit too excited back there.”
“Ha ha ha! We know this place better, so naturally, we had to scout for the lady and the master first!”
Yuliya couldn’t be bothered, so she turned her attention to the ever-present patterns and symbols.
The so-called symbols Yuliya recognized were in the Senra language.
She started observing the designs in sequence, reading the text.
The more she looked, the grimmer her expression became.
Piecing things together, she began to understand what the place recorded.
This was a ritual—or rather, a sacrifice.
The victims were those huge, towering monsters up in the clouds.
There were all sorts of monsters, each depicted in different ways.
But the one thing they had in common was that the sacrificial lambs below looked tiny, puny, and there were a whole lot of them.
From the first scene to the last, the remaining number of people was less than one-tenth.
The text was a series of beautiful poems, praising human wisdom and divine mercy.
But compared to the bl**d-red images above, it was utterly absurd and twisted.
And in the very end, the poem concluded with:
“This is the peace and tranquility we fought so hard for. Peace? Tranquility? Ha ha…”
“Kid, what’s up with you?” Edward gently patted Yuliya’s shoulder.
Yuliya shook her head, “I’m just feeling a bit off.”
“Can you understand it?”
“Yep… I can.” Yuliya closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “I see their pettiness. Or should I say our pettiness.”
“They sacrificed themselves, praying for the gods’ mercy. The few who survived still had to relive the same fate.”
Edward took Yuliya’s hand, “Let’s go; this place is too depressing. I’m not feeling great either.”
Suddenly, someone shrieked, “What? This place just talks about a bunch of boring nonsense?!”
Edward frowned irritably, spotting the General scratching his head, his face twisted in rage.
He grabbed the Military Strategist, screaming incoherently, “Didn’t you say there’d definitely be treasures here?! Didn’t you say we’d break through to higher realms with this?! Look at what this is!”
The Military Strategist, equally furious, snarled back, “Idiot! Get lost! If it wasn’t for you dragging me down, I’d already be a legend! That fat pig snagged all that stuff—what a waste!”
The two were locked in an endless shouting match.
Edward’s brow furrowed, “They seem to have lost their marbles.”
“Maybe. There’s a thick atmosphere of resentment here.”
The two of them had been emotionally crashing left and right, already teetering on the edge; the only hope keeping them going was the deepest part of this underground palace.
Now that hope was dashed, and coupled with the thick resentment gnawing at them, their sanity completely crumbled.
While they argued, the two were already scrapping.
The General was punching the Military Strategist, while the Strategist had sunk his teeth into the General’s shoulder.
The General’s power was sealed, and the Strategist’s was limited, making it hard for either to gain the upper hand quickly.
“Let’s get outta here.”
Yuliya turned and left.
Before long, Yuliya, Edward, and the other guards all returned to the surface.
Suddenly, Yuliya addressed the chaotic group sitting or lounging around, “Those two are still down in the deepest part below. They’re fighting amongst themselves, gone mad. You’re all dead meat.”
“In the end, you can choose to go down and do whatever you like, or stick around here and survive a little longer.”
Yuliya didn’t have the ability to lift their curse, and even if she did, she wouldn’t bother.
Upon hearing that, many people dully raised their heads to look at Yuliya.
Before long, the first person started moving, heading underground.
Quickly, others followed suit as well.
In the end, everyone entered the underground palace.
Yuliya watched the entrance of the palace.
After a moment of silence, she raised her hand and waved.
As her hand fell, the crevice began to collapse, eventually sealing entirely.
“Teacher, I want to see the battlefield.”
“You’re going again?”
“Yep, this is the last thing I want to do here.”
“Alright, I’ll take you to watch from a distance.”
Edward instructed the others to wait at the teleportation point, then led Yuliya away.
Finding a battlefield was easy; they were everywhere here, but Edward still took Yuliya to the most brutal location.
Both sides in combat numbered in the tens of thousands.
Their shouts shook the heavens, their spirit was sky-high.
But to Yuliya, it all seemed a bit ridiculous.
This was a war between people, and in the end, the losers would still be people.
How was this any different from a sacrifice?
“Teacher, why is this place always in turmoil? Why can’t it ever rest? Just like the Jade Emperor Kingdom.”
“A lot of people have researched that question. They ultimately reached one conclusion.”
“What is it?”
“To survive.”
“To survive? Wouldn’t it be better to come together for survival? Like…”
“Like us in the Jade Emperor Kingdom? Nope, that won’t work here.”
Edward looked to the north, the geographical direction of the Jade Emperor Kingdom.
“The people of the Ember Realm are way weaker than us in the Jade Emperor Kingdom. If they tried to unite like us, it would only attract calamity.”
“So you’re saying, there’s no calamity here?”
“Correct. Calamity only occurs in powerful, unified countries like the Jade Emperor Kingdom or the Verdant Empire. Thus, the Ember Realm can’t unite; otherwise, only destruction awaits them.”
“…”
In that instant, Yuliya suddenly grasped the meaning of the murals in the deepest part of the palace.
But is this really peace and tranquility?
Without the courage to fight back, they were just dragging things out.
“Perhaps what you found in that sentence is true,” Edward suddenly spoke up.
“What sentence?”
“‘Calamity is a trial from the divine; the king returns from the ashes.’”
“…,” Yuliya fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled, “But, teacher, that’s just the first half; there’s a second half.”
“What is it?”
“‘What use do the divine hold for me? I wield my sword and laugh at the heavens.’”
“Is that… really true?”
“Who knows?” Yuliya shrugged nonchalantly, “Teacher, let’s go.”
