Chapter 178: The Disappearance of the Ceremonial Tomb
A few minutes ago, within Yumen Pass, near the sleeping temple of Hong Bian.
The ground shook, and a dazzling strong light erupted from deep within the temple, a brilliant gold, pure and magnificent like high-purity gold.
Following that, accompanied by the rumbling noise of the quaking earth, the golden light gradually transformed into a sacred, bright white, shooting straight up, piercing through the darkness, gathering into a terrifying beam, as if it intended to pierce the sky, breaking through the gloom in the heavens.
In an instant, shockwaves swept through, debris flew, and a deafening roar tore through the air like a recurring echo within the shattered ruins. A large number of Miracle Cult members were swept into the shockwave, flying away like kites with broken strings.
“d*mn! What on earth are these guys from the Miracle Cult doing?” Bai Kai, hiding behind a crumbling high wall, couldn’t help but curse as he saw the scene beyond the wall. “How are we supposed to find the relics of the Nanling County King like this?”
Indeed, with the half-urban legend tribe releasing the Shaman Queen and the Miracle Cult awakening the Hong Bian Monk, Yumen Pass had turned into a complete mess, and if those two ancient cataclysmic beings clashed, it would be chaos.
At that point, all the spiritual ability users and the urban legends within Yumen Pass would be like young children watching their parents argue, barely able to protect themselves, let alone do anything else. Don’t even think about it!
“If it comes to worst, we’ll have to take the risk.” The General said solemnly. “That ceremonial tomb has mysteriously vanished, and this is the last place we can find the relics of the Nanling County King.”
“Then you can take the risk!” Bai Kai rolled his eyes. “Xiao Bei and Xiao Hua haven’t been found yet! What will they do if I perish here?”
“……” The General opened his mouth but fell silent.
At that moment, a majestic figure, as if forged from gold, seemed to emerge from within the ruins of the stone temple, curling its body, slowly rising and opening its eyes, gazing at the land.
Then, it spoke softly, “Speak your wish…”
As soon as the words fell, an aura of majesty solidified the air, its voice rushing forth like a torrent, filling every corner of Yumen Pass.
That voice flowed into Bai Kai’s ears, and he felt compelled as a thought silently rose in his mind—why not directly make a wish for it to hand over the control of Yumen Pass to me?
Half a day ago, when he discovered that the ceremonial tomb mentioned by the General had vanished, he had already contemplated such a wish.
Now, the opportunity was right in front of him; why not seize it? Bai Kai pondered dully.
—
Half a day ago, almost at the same moment when Lu Yi Bei asked Shen Baiwei for her name for the seventeenth time.
Two figures, accompanied by the explosive sound of breaking the sound barrier, rapidly approached the southernmost wall of Yumen Pass.
Under a somber sky tinged with a hint of yellow, the land lay in ruins.
Compared to the interior of Yumen City Pass, the areas corrupted by the flesh and spiritual energy of urban legends had already accumulated for countless years, proving even more dilapidated and desolate.
Nameless skeletons and rusted, twisted metal lay scattered around, with a cold, dark red mist in the air swirling like a sticky tide, blurring visibility and gradually devouring all warmth.
Behind the thin mist, the lofty city walls, cloaked in deep colors, reached as far as the eye could see. Even using spiritual senses to probe, it was difficult to reach their boundaries, as if they were a massive mountain built from basalt.
Unseen battles had left countless cracks on this ancient, sturdy wall, some deep, some shallow, new and old, resembling the claw marks of numerous ferocious beasts, battered and scarred.
And those weapons, arrows that had broken and merged into the wall, were like the shattered fangs of wild beasts.
One could even see that surrounding the scars, after the bl**d had dried and the corpses decayed, there remained a dark brown substance, trailing like tear stains, and the intense stench emanating from layers upon layers of life.
Amidst the intertwined “injuries,” irregular metal pieces exceeding twenty square meters in area appeared inconspicuous against the backdrop of the grand city wall, like neatly arranged door nails on a gate.
Those irregular metals, encrusted with several feet thick of dark green patina, were likely records of defensive spell formulas.
Over a thousand years ago, the development and application of spell formulas by spiritual ability users were nowhere near as refined as today. To solidify a powerful defensive spell, it required the use of such oversized metal castings to have a reasonable chance of success.
Standing on the ruins, gazing at the city wall ahead, Bai Kai pulled back the hood of his cloak, his gaze slightly focused.
Although he knew that the things seen within the God Realm could not be judged by common sense, seeing such a magnificent building still prompted an exclamation from him.
“Impressive, the scale is almost comparable to Shanhaiguan! How did people over a thousand years ago build walls of this scale?”
The General looked ahead, sidestepping Bai Kai’s elbow poking at his ribs, and frowned, “Legend has it that complete dragon skeletons were used when building Yumen Pass…”
“I guess they must have utilized the powers of the dragon to first construct a stone wall, then remodeled it with a large amount of alchemical materials, theoretically, the entire wall of Yumen Pass is one piece.”
Bai Kai glanced sideways at the General and smirked, “How do you know so much?”
The General raised his chin slightly and provided an answer that Bai Kai found entirely expected, “Family heritage!”
“Ugh!” Bai Kai rolled his eyes, “I knew that was what you were going to say, I shouldn’t have asked! You can’t say anything else, can you?”
Family heritage is impressive?
If only the old man had thought of me as the next head to train; otherwise, the knowledge of my Yumen Sands Sea Branch would definitely be more colorful than what’s recorded in your family’s useless books! Bai Kai thought.
“Just being practical.” The General crossed his arms, glancing at Bai Kai, and changed the topic, “Moreover, this is not the wall that was built over a thousand years ago; the original wall was destroyed long ago when the Shaman Queen’s Army breached the city.”
“The wall you see now is basically a restoration from the time of the Lamp Bearers. As a member of Yumen Sands Sea Branch, you really don’t know this?”
Bai Kai, “…”
The so-called Lamp Bearers referred simply to the individuals who silently held the light to dispel darkness; they were the predecessors of the Solar Eclipse Society and the Siye Society.
Such an organization, formed spontaneously by a group of talented individuals, was inherently loosely structured and complex in membership. To prevent the spread of urban legend, the Lamp Bearers have always acted relatively secretly, and there is not much written information available.
At the time of the split between the Solar Eclipse Society and the Siye Society, both sides had battled many times, leading to the only existing records concerning the Lamp Bearers being lost or destroyed.
Now, the only information related to the Lamp Bearers that could be found in the archives of the Siye Society was a single line—”No distinction between day and night, unafraid of demons and evil, do not worship spirits, carry the lamp and walk forth, tread through fire and water, never look back.”
To know more about the Lantern Bearers, one could only glean from some o*al tales or private collections similar to what the General possessed.
In Bai Kai’s view, it was absolutely normal for him, a halfway in member of the Siye Society, not to know the past deeds of the Lantern Bearers.
“What do I know about these trivial matters? The old man never told me.”
“Furthermore, if it was remodeled during the time of the Lamp Bearers, it can date back to five or six hundred years ago. Even my master might not know,” Bai Kai retorted.
“No, the senior of Nanling must know, and Lu Ming definitely knows,” the General said lightly.
“Tch!” Bai Kai clicked his tongue, walking forward while steering the topic back on track, “By the way, it’s your first time in this cursed place, isn’t it?”
He was well aware that since Lu Ming had overwhelmingly defeated the General in his youth, the General, who had always prided himself as Z Country’s number one genius spiritual ability user, had become somewhat of a twisted “Yunshen Machine fanatic.”
It could be said that they loved to hate each other.
Entangling with such a guy over topics related to Lu Ming would yield no good results.
It was like quarreling with many women in Huacheng about who the top male host of an underworld entertainment venue was; it simply made no sense.
“Are you sure that the ceremonial tomb of the Nanling County King is around here?”
The ceremonial tomb of the Nanling County King was their destination for this trip.
Legend has it that the lord of God Realm Yumen—the Nanling County King—had gone missing during the battle with the Shaman Queen and his corpse was difficult to find. Currently, the only thing closely linked to the Nanling County King was this ceremonial tomb.
Through the items within the tomb, any spiritual ability user proficient in summoning spells could summon the lingering soul of the Nanling County King.
As long as the soul could be summoned, Bai Kai could gain recognition from the Nanling County King through the lingering spirit and his identity as a descendant of the Yumen Sands Sea Branch, obtaining a part of the control over God Realm Yumen. Even if it was just a small portion, it would be enough to relieve or even lift the curse that had troubled the Yumen Sands Sea Branch for many long years.
The General’s desires were even simpler; apart from helping Bai Kai, he sought to draw out the spiritual energy contained in the lingering soul to depict spirit patterns, completing the Hundred Generals Diagram.
“Absolutely!” The General nodded earnestly, “Three hundred and fifty years ago, there was a similar situation where the daylight became shorter and urban legends increased. To avoid a large number of urban legends crossing the ruined Yumen Pass, my family’s ancestor, as one of the ten Lamp Bearer leaders, participated in the restoration of Yumen Pass.”
Upon hearing this, Bai Kai nodded thoughtfully. Although he didn’t know about the restoration of Yumen Pass by the Lamp Bearers, he had vaguely heard about the surge of urban legends over three hundred years ago.
Speaking of those Lantern Bearers, they had it tough as well; they had put in great effort to restore the unclaimed God Realm Yumen, only to have urban legends invade the land of Z Country from Shanhaiguan again, ultimately proving fruitless.
Seeing Bai Kai not engaging in any nonsense, the General nodded in satisfaction and continued, “That ceremonial tomb was discovered during their restoration of the walls. Although it was just a lonely grave without even a gravestone, it was very special, and they saw its extraordinary nature at a glance.”
“According to the manuscript left by my ancestor, the level of corruption in this area when they were restoring the walls was several times higher than it is now. In modern terms, the level of Night Corruption had risen to the extent that it could generate distorted urban legends out of thin air…”
“And in the conditions where urban legends were rampant, that ceremonial tomb had surprisingly fertile soil and lush greenery, with blooming flowers, seemingly unaffected, and there were even a few flying insects living among the grass. When everyone saw such a sight, they assumed they had found a treasure and rushed in…”
“And then, they dug up the Nanling County King’s grave?” Bai Kai interrupted suddenly.
The General shot a cold glance at Bai Kai, falling into silence.
He wanted to refute, but based on the facts, his ancestor did indeed dig up someone’s grave, making it utterly impossible to argue.
It would be absurd to beautify it as an archaeological dig, right? The things dug up must be submitted to the state!
Fortunately, when it came to playing dumb, among all the guardians, the General could be considered on par with the Black Emperor.
If he couldn’t refute it, then just pretend he didn’t hear it and skip over it!
“After they opened that lonely grave and unveiled the coffin inside, they discovered a nearly new set of black armor, adorned with golden patterns resembling scales, interwoven with several forbidden level solidified spell formulas. From the craftsmanship of the armor, it appeared similar to the Mingguang Armor…”
“Faced with such a finely crafted high-grade spiritual energy item, all the Lamp Bearer leaders and the accompanying Lamp Bearers couldn’t help but be envious. However, after a round of discussions, they ultimately decided to return the armor to the coffin, restore the ceremonial tomb, and set up sealing spell formulas to prevent future vandalism.”
“Wait!” Upon hearing this, Bai Kai suddenly seemed to think of something and interrupted, “How can you determine that it is indeed the ceremonial tomb of the Nanling County King just based on a piece of armor?”
“Because alongside the armor, there was a eulogy written on silk by a woman named Xia Lianqing, clearly stating that this was her established ceremonial tomb for the Nanling County King,” the General explained.
“Alright!” Bai Kai shrugged, “How far is that ceremonial tomb from here?”
“Not far ahead,” the General replied, quickening his pace, and soon crossed a ruin that was unrecognizable as to what it once was, arriving at a cleared area at the base of the city wall. After searching for a moment, his pupils suddenly trembled.
On the empty ground lay a black mud made from the flesh of urban legends that had attempted to escape Yumen Pass but ultimately perished here, with a foul dark red mist swirling among the pale, twisted, withered tree trunks… This place seemed indistinguishable from other areas south of Yumen Pass.
And that ceremonial tomb mentioned in the manuscript had vanished just like that!
It didn’t seem to be destroyed by anyone.
The sealing spell set by several Lamp Bearer leaders and a dozen Lamp Bearers would not have been easily destroyed even after several hundred years.
It was as if it had disappeared into thin air.
Not a trace was left, as if it had never existed at all.
