Chapter 222: The Fearless System
After Nanling Peak finished describing the image, the dungeon fell into a dead silence for a moment.
After a long while, Bai Kai tentatively spoke up, “Master, is it possible, I mean, just possibly, that you saw it wrong? Or is it that someone later added it in? This kind of thing is just too… too outrageous.”
It’s almost like digging up a smartphone in an ancient tomb; that’s how outrageous it is.
“That’s outrageous? You haven’t heard the more outrageous part that I haven’t mentioned yet!” Nanling Peak said.
“There’s something even more outrageous?” Huaiyuan Jun asked in surprise.
Finding a modern manufactured notebook page in an iron box sealed for a thousand years is already outrageous enough, far beyond her comprehension, and what’s even more outrageous is something she didn’t dare to think about.
“Of course there is!” Nanling Peak replied. “What I just mentioned was merely about the peculiar paper used for that image; we haven’t even mentioned the content of the image, have we?”
“The content of the image…” Huaiyuan Jun said weakly.
Nanling Peak looked in the direction of Huaiyuan Jun, trying to keep his tone calm as he said, “The image is a hard pen drawing of a woman dressed in Dachunyang Palace robes, and that woman’s appearance…”
Halfway through, Nanling Peak turned to Bai Kai, “Bai Kai, you’ve seen that woman’s appearance; you’ll probably be even more surprised than your master because I’ve only seen her once, but you’ve interacted with her many times.”
Familiar? Interacted many times? Huaiyuan Jun, standing nearby, was somewhat confused, and without getting the answer she was so eager for, she couldn’t help but interject, “Old Nanling, who are you referring to? Is she someone that Bai knows?”
Can’t you just say the whole thing at once? Huaiyuan Jun thought.
“It’s Wang Meili!” Nanling Peak glanced at Huaiyuan Jun and then back at Bai Kai, speaking with certainty. “The woman in the image looks at least seventy or eighty percent similar to Wang Meili!”
“Who is Wang Meili?” Huaiyuan Jun asked in confusion. “That name sounds familiar.”
“She’s my senior brother’s unapproved wife,” Bai Kai explained. “So it wouldn’t be… could it be Luxu…”
He instinctively wanted to say, “Could it be that when Luxu infiltrated Yumen Pass, he left this behind?” However, before he could finish his sentence, he was left dumbfounded.
Lu Ming didn’t even know Qin Nanzhu when he infiltrated the God Realm Yumen.
Besides, even if Lu Ming somehow knew what his future wife’s appearance was, he couldn’t have drawn it.
What is the artistic talent of the old Lu family made of, anyway?
If it weren’t for the two father’s masterpieces scaring children and causing kindergarten teachers to almost call the police, could he have assisted Luxianbei in completing an entire kindergarten project?
Similarly, although that image might have depicted a legend-ified Luxianbei, it couldn’t possibly have been drawn by Luxianbei.
There was no way Nanling Peak could discern that the woman’s appearance in the image resembled Wang Meili by that pair of father and son’s hand-drawn image.
To put it strictly, if that image came from Luxianbei or Lu Ming’s hands, it would even be questionable if Nanling Peak could tell that it depicted a person!
But if it’s not Senior Brother Lu and Xiao Bei, then who could it be? Doubts intertwined in Bai Kai’s mind, leaving his thoughts in a mess.
Seeing Bai Kai fall silent, the equally confused Huaiyuan Jun asked, “Hey, why are you cutting off your sentence?”
d*mn! Does your Yumen Sands Sea Branch have a tradition of leaving people hanging? Huaiyuan Jun thought angrily.
Bai Kai came back to his senses and explained to Huaiyuan Jun in a serious tone, “I actually had some speculations before, but I must have guessed wrong…”
Hearing this, Huaiyuan Jun tilted her head. “So, you still don’t know where that image came from?”
“Sorry.”
Upon hearing Bai Kai’s vague sigh from the darkness, Huaiyuan Jun shrugged it off in indifference.
In fact, she didn’t care much about the origins of that image; she had never liked analyzing or investigating urban legends, as that was not her strong suit. Compared to thinking and talking, she preferred using her fists and legs. She was merely probing Bai Kai due to her curiosity.
After all.
Who doesn’t love watching a show?
A proper image of the wife of the Yunshen Machine appearing in a sealed iron box from a thousand years ago might be the most interesting thing Huaiyuan Jun had encountered in the past year.
During the short silence, Bai Kai suddenly thought of a key question and raised his lowered head to look at the silhouette of Nanling Peak in the darkness.
“By the way, Master, you said that there were a pile of miscellaneous objects in that iron box? Did you notice what they were?”
“Well…” Nanling Peak recalled slightly. “I vaguely remember seeing a rattle, agate earrings, an inkstone… in short, just some worthless trinkets.”
“Right! It’s just like that treasure box you had before, filled with all sorts of random stuff!”
“Treasure box?” Huaiyuan Jun questioned curiously.
“Yeah!” Nanling Peak looked in Huaiyuan Jun’s direction and explained, “Back then, this fellow always liked to collect trash left by tourists or research teams on the Gobi Desert as if they were treasures, religiously selecting and gathering them. I remember one time in particular, he collected someone else’s chewed gum and took it out every day…”
“Master!” Seeing his master about to expose his childhood embarrassing stories, Bai Kai couldn’t help but exclaim, “That was when I was young and didn’t know better! Can you not talk about it in front of outsiders?”
“Let’s talk seriously now! Where is that image now?”
Bai Kai thought he could find some clues from the other things in the iron box, but according to Nanling Peak’s description, the key remained with that image.
Hearing about that image from Nanling Peak alone felt uninformative; seeing it with his own eyes might reveal some important clues.
“It’s in my arms.” As Nanling Peak said that, he couldn’t help but chuckle two times in pride. “Hehe, that weird person snuck up on me while I was examining the stuff inside the iron box. It seemed like they attached great importance to what was in the box.”
“Fortunately, I was quick as a flash and grabbed that image, stuffing it into my arms just before I fainted. Otherwise, after the first time, that fellow would definitely keep a strict watch, and getting my hands on it again would not be so easy.”
Bai Kai, “…” What’s there to be proud about getting knocked out during a sneak attack!
As Bai Kai thought this, Huaiyuan Jun couldn’t wait to say, “Oh? In Old Nanling’s hands? Then hurry up and take it out…”
As she was halfway through, she suddenly felt three dumbfounded gazes directed at her, and her words abruptly halted.
Though it was dark all around, she indeed felt that those three gazes had the same sensation as when the Wordless Book teased her.
But why were there three gazes?
Could it be that girl woke up and was eavesdropping while pretending to be unconscious?
“Let me see!”
The sudden voice caused the three conscious individuals present to freeze simultaneously, their gazes following the sound’s direction and landing squarely on Gu Qiqi’s chest.
Nanling Peak, “…” What the heck just spoke?
Huaiyuan Jun, “…” That thing can talk?
Bai Kai, “…” Wow, that’s huge!
Even though the three of them meant no harm and their spirit energy flow had been suppressed, the overwhelming pressure stemming from formidable powers had not weakened at all.
Under the gaze of two Cataclysm Grades and one pseudo-Cataclysm Grade, the system felt as if it were sitting on needles, wishing it could return to ten seconds ago and slap itself hard.
Is it really the right time to talk nonsense?
In fact, in the past, the system would never have made a sound while three high-level spiritual ability users were discussing.
Simply listening quietly, piggybacking off the information from the majors, training secretly, firing a g*n without getting noticed — isn’t that the best thing ever?
However, it couldn’t hold back just now.
The three big shots had discussed for a while without figuring out the origins of that image, yet their words had stirred up a storm within the system.
In its view, they thought it was likely left behind by later comers, so they were completely puzzled, falling into a thought trap and unconsciously believing that the image could hardly be something left over from a thousand years ago.
But that was because they didn’t know that in this world, there existed unique urban legends like the Nightmare, which excelled at altering the past.
Originally, the system had speculated that at this time, the Nightmare was engulfing energy from the distant past to advance to the Cataclysm Grade, and it would descend upon the world in a mature form to destroy the world.
However, it wasn’t sure whether the Nightmare was located in the Great Pyramid of Giza or Yumen Pass; after all, in its countless experiences, both scenarios had occurred, and once in an extreme case, the Nightmare had appeared at Stonehenge.
And the image held by Nanling Peak made it sure that the Nightmare was very likely inside the Yumen Pass at this moment.
To be precise, it should be the Yumen Pass from a thousand years ago!
This meant that the Nightmare may have already begun to devour the past of Yumen Pass at its very roots.
For the system, this was a more terrifying event than the Shaman Queen reviving, absorbing the power of the Miracle Flower, breaking through the suppression of the God Realm, and returning to Earth.
How big a wave could an ancient destroyer create?
Once the Nightmare had consumed the past of Yumen Pass and successfully advanced to the Cataclysm Grade, how can the Shaman Queen and the First Generation Miracle Saint be anything but its food?
What was even more terrifying than the Nightmare consuming the past of Yumen Pass was that it drew a picture of a Calamity!
Was it a result of Calamity forcing her to draw it, or did she draw it voluntarily after overcoming Calamity?
Either scenario was lethal!
The fusion of the powers of Calamity and Nightmare, or one party becoming affiliated with the other, would only raise questions the system was afraid to delve into, yet this kind of thing seemed to be turning into reality.
How could it possibly stay composed?
Thus, under the short burst of power and the growing fear in its heart, the system steeled its resolve and advanced.
Although Nanling Peak and Huaiyuan Jun were both frightening, Bai Kai also posed a significant threat to it, there were even more terrifying threats outside: the Shaman Queen, the First Generation Miracle Saint, and even more dreadful Calamity and Nightmare!
Once it thought that way, it became fearless! The system thought.
