Chapter 129: Senra and the Golden Kingdom
Yuliya was a bit puzzled by the words she had encountered, so she awkwardly placed the statue back where it belonged.
Aside from that, there really wasn’t much else to capture her attention in the living room.
She opened the bedroom door.
The bedroom had also been kept tidy, but inside the wardrobe, she found a bunch of corroded powdery remains.
By comparing it with چیزهای دیگه, she identified it as fabric.
In other words, they had kept some clothes or bedsheets in the wardrobe.
This indicated that the owners hadn’t actually moved away; they might just have gone on a trip, planning to come back later.
But the reality was they never returned.
Yuliya left the wooden house and headed to the next one.
She was met with a similar sight.
The entire village seemed deserted, everyone had left and then vanished into thin air.
She skipped over a few wooden houses and walked toward the innermost part of the village, where there stood the only stone house.
As she approached, she reached out to touch the wall of the stone house.
It was still solid.
In Yuliya’s mind, this place should have seen many years, but judging by the building’s condition, it might have only been a few hundred years.
That was just plain irrational.
She couldn’t help but wonder where Sister Tong had sent their group of misfits.
Once she confirmed it was safe, Yuliya stepped right inside the house.
The arrangement inside was simpler, just some tables and chairs, plus a massive wooden carving directly in front that was too rotten to recognize.
This setup looked more like a shrine or a temple. From a Western perspective, maybe it was something akin to a church.
In short, it wasn’t a place for humans to live.
And places like this usually housed some different kind of information.
Yuliya’s eyes sparkled with golden light as she meticulously scanned every inch of the room.
“What’s this… a book?”
She dashed forward, ready to open a drawer.
But then she immediately pulled her hand back.
While the house looked sturdy, the decor had decayed for so long that even a light touch could turn it to dust.
This happened frequently in the wooden houses she’d just explored.
After pondering for a moment, she extended her right hand, causing ripples in the air around her.
Then… she simply yanked the drawer out with everything inside.
Once she did that, the rest of the furniture crumbled into pieces in an instant. Yet that specific section remained firmly intact, not a single shake.
“What a hassle, and now it’s going to get messier.”
Because the books had rotted so much from being left for such a long time, touching them would surely be a disaster.
She had to rely on her old trick, tearing the book into individual pages and examining them one at a time.
Just from the first glance at the first page, Yuliya’s eyes widened.
The first line read:
“The first village chief of the Golden Era, Prisen, led dozens of people to settle here.”
Golden Era! That was what Aslan had referred to as well!
This place was from the same time as the Golden Kingdom!!!
Earlier, Yuliya had looked through the materials collected by Elia regarding the Golden Kingdom.
The information was severely lacking, much of it mere speculation and legend.
Stuff about the lost Golden City, the eternal barrier of Golden Village, the sealed Golden Vault, etc.
So much so that these records were less detailed and accurate than what she heard from Aslan.
However, one particular theory was worth noting.
Historians speculated that the Golden Kingdom likely vanished within the 5000 years before the founding of the Jade Emperor Kingdom, estimating the duration of the Golden Kingdom’s existence to be about 10,000 to 20,000 years.
And the Jade Emperor Kingdom had been around for nearly 10,000 years now.
If this place was from the same era as the Golden Kingdom, that would mean it dated back at least several thousand years.
But it was in such perfect preservation, totally unlike something that had endured for such an eon.
“Time discrepancy…”
Yuliya continued flipping the pages, skipping over the little village details, and went straight to the end.
“The 25th village chief of the Golden Era, Hold, took the entire village’s men, women, and children to attend a birth celebration in the city.”
And then, nothing more followed.
Staring at that timeline, Yuliya found herself deep in thought again.
Aslan had mentioned that in his memory, the last timeframe was during the Golden Era, close to when the villagers of the Deadwood Village went missing.
Could there be some connection?
Yuliya kept pulling out the subsequent pages. They all were blank.
Except for the last one, the back cover of the book, which had some text.
“Senra…”
Wait! This Senra was different from the Senra she had seen carved on the wooden statue!
These were two entirely different writings!
At that moment, she realized the words on the pages in her hand weren’t the Huaxia characters at all, yet she could understand them.
Meanwhile, the writing on the statue was the familiar Huaxia script.
The Golden Kingdom used Huaxia characters, as evident from the skill book of the Golden military formation.
“So, this Senra is a place name? And it should either belong to or be a vassal of the Golden Kingdom.”
With that thought, Yuliya’s mind started to clarify a bit.
The sudden destruction of the Golden Kingdom must have spelled disaster for this place too.
Suddenly, she sensed something and turned to look outside the door.
“Looks like we’ve got some monster-spawning going on.”
In her line of sight, the little village was now swarmed by circles of zombies—roughly a hundred of them at a glance.
Yuliya casually tossed the pages away, allowing them to disintegrate into dust.
She slowly walked out of the house and into the open space.
The zombies were already inside the village, making their way toward her.
“Sigh.”
She let out a heavy sigh.
This place belonged to the Golden Kingdom, and she was a princess of that kingdom, so these people were technically her subjects.
But now, they had all turned into undead monsters.
While she didn’t feel too much of the typical responsibilities of a princess, she could still muster some pity for her unfortunate subjects.
“There’s not much I can do, so I can only hope you find rest quickly.”
Yuliya muttered to herself and picked up a twig from the ground.
“You love trees and revere nature. I hope this strike will let you feel the fragrance of your homeland once more.”
“Golden will, all things can be a sword. Slash!”
With her right hand, Yuliya swung the twig down silently.
This strike seemed to sever time itself, freezing the scene at that moment.
The next instant, there was a “crack,” and countless zombies were split in two, sliding apart.
But one larger zombie remained standing, although its arms that shielded its body were now chopped off.
“An elite monster, huh? Sorry, but I’m in a hurry today.”
Yuliya stood firm, raising the twig high: “Golden Nine Styles, Beheading!”
Clang!
A flash of cold light later, the final zombie’s head tumbled down.
Before long, all the corpses on the ground began to decay, then turned to dust.
Finally, over the dust, a few ghostly flowers began to bloom.
