Chapter 1331: "The Tomb That Disappeared (1)"
The highly tormenting difficulties faced every step of the way did not stop the group of people from continuing their way forward. Jun Wu Xie and her companions had traversed through the entire Heaven's End Cliff and had finally reached their destination.
They were looking over an endless sea of flowers that stretched beyond the horizon, as the violet blooms filled the entire land as far as the eye could see, swaying mesmerizingly under the breeze, beautiful as a painting, a striking contrast that did not fit against all the endless dangers they had encountered on the way here.
"Where is the Dark Emperor's tomb?" Fan Zhuo asked as he stared at the unending sea of blooms, his gaze however, blank and unseeing. According to the location marked upon the map, they should already be standing right before the Dark Emperor's tomb. But before their eyes, besides the mesmerizing sea of flowers, they could not find even the shadow of anything else.
After having just undergone countless rounds of unimaginable torment, Jun Wu Xie and her companions weren't really in the mood to admire flowers. The sea of violet blooms was made brighter by the green underneath when a gust of wind blew and a wave swept over the sea of flowers, rising and falling as a flowery fragrance wafted over the group. It was such a truly beautiful sight, but the group just felt despair wash over them.
Upon the map, it was clearly indicated that the location of the Dark Emperor's tomb was several hundred metres ahead of them but within a thousand metre radius, there was only that sea of flowers bending in the wind. Without the fog, the entire area around them was highly visible and above their heads, it was covered by clouds but sunlight was streaming down which lit up the entire scene before them.
Besides the violet flowers, there was nothing else they could see.
The Dark Emperor's tomb seemed like it had never existed before, as not a trace of it could be seen.
"How can this be..... how can this be....." Qiao Chu lamented, his eyes wide and incredulous, unable to believe that after they had spent every single effort they could, this was the result they got.
Nothing at all.....
Nothing at all.....
The beautiful scenery before their eyes, had taken the entire group of people there, and kicked them down to fall into the deep pits of despair.
Jun Wu Xie stared at the endless sea of blooms as the wind blew past, kicking up a scattering of falling petals. The purple coloured flower petals swirled around her, bringing to her a nice pleasant fragrance, but she could not find herself feeling any delight.
Jun Wu Xie pulled her map out once more and checked their location once again. Everything was in order but for the exception that their final target had completely disappeared.
What could have caused this to happen? Jun Wu Xie's brows creased together. Everything that had been marked out upon the map had been unerringly accurate and that told her that the maps were genuine. Just how much had the parents of Qiao Chu and her other companions sacrificed at that time to complete this map?
They had seen countless piles of human bones along the way in here and all these years, the number of people who had lost their lives to the Heaven's End Cliff were already too numerous to count. That number could no longer be measured with just tens of thousands, it should be in the millions..... or even reaching in the tens of millions where the Heaven's End Cliff had become their final resting place. A map that had been made with such an unbelievably number of lives behind it, could it possibly be wrong?
Impossible.....
Jun Wu Xie completely rejected that line of thought. The parents of Fan Zhuo and the others had already passed away and it would not be possible for them to verify whether they had truly found the Dark Emperor's tomb at that time.
And Wen Yu had indeed entered into the Dark Emperor's tomb before. Although he did not remember how he managed to go in there, or how he managed to get out, Wen Yu had definitely entered the Dark Emperor's tomb through the Heaven's End Cliff. That was enough to ascertain that the Dark Emperor's tomb was indeed here and that could not be wrong.
But.....
But what was happening here with the situation before their eyes?
Jun Wu Xie did not understand it. The Dark Emperor's tomb was definitely at the Heaven's End Cliff and she believed that the parents of Fan Zhuo and her other companions had truly found the Dark Emperor's tomb at that time before they returned to the Middle Realm with the map after completing their mission. With the kind of loyalty they held towards the Twelve Palaces at that time, it was not possible that they would falsely report their findings.
Chapter 1332: "The Tomb That Disappeared (2)"
The map was genuine, and the Dark Emperor's tomb could not be fake. So why were they not able to find it?
There was something really wrong there.
"Don't get too anxious yet. Everyone take a breather and slowly think it through." Upon seeing all the negativity shrouding her companions, Rong Ruo immediately spoke up. They had been thoroughly exhausted making it through the entire way here and their minds and bodies are not severely wearied, hence, all of them would not be able to maintain a completely logical state of mind at that moment. But, they must not get themselves overly frustrated.
"Let's all have some rest then. Dumb Qiao, pass me your water skin, I emptied mine earlier and I'm almost dying of thirst." Fei Yan parroted, plopping his rear upon the sea of flowers and stretching his hand out to catch the water skin Qiao Chu tossed over before lifting his back to pour the water down his throat.
The cooling water flowed down his throat, taking away a little bit of the weariness he felt, and at the same time easing the agitation within his heart.
Everyone sat themselves down among the sea of violet blooms. They had already come to such a stage that they were not able to look back. Instead of getting angry and frustrated about it, why not give themselves a little rest and cool their heads where they would be able to let their wearied bodies recover a little as well.
With this rare opportunity to properly rest themselves, everyone grabbed at the time they had and tried to recover their strength. They drank up, and nibbled on food to fill their tummies. Most of the dried rations they had with them were meat with a dry and hard texture, and when they chewed upon them, they were miserably bland and dry. Moreover, they had been eating the same things for the past one month and their tastebuds had more or less become numb towards the same thing.
What Qiao Chu wished for the most at that moment was when they left the Heaven's End Cliff and returned to the Qi Kingdom in the future, was just to have a good meal. It could be anything, he wouldn't even mind if it was just plain porridge with some small dishes. As long as he did not have to continue to chew on these damnable dried meat!
"When we go back, I want to feast continuously for an entire month, and stuff myself till I vomit!" Qiao Chu exclaimed as he chewed upon the dry and tough meat, lying back upon the sea of flowers with his arms extended. Unlike the previous freezing chill and scorching heat, the temperature in this place was comfortably warm enough like spring, and coupled with the fragrant flowers and beautiful scenery, he would have thought that this was a rather nice place if they were not there in that location.
Unfortunately, he really did not feel like admiring it at all at that moment.
"Please give me a nice spring pool and let me soak in it properly." Fei Yan said as he laid himself back. He was so filthy that he almost could not stand it himself as there weren't really that many water sources in the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff. Even if there were, they either hid a monster within or were filled with lethal poison, none that he could use.
He only wanted to have a good bath at that moment and wash himself free of all the dirt and grime upon him completely.
Maybe Qiao Chu and Fei Yan's grumblings made him think about it as well and Fan Zhuo who was sitting among the flowers as well opened his mouth to asked the usually silent Hua Yao, a man of few words.
"When we go back, what do you want to do?"
Hua Yao turned to look at Fan Zhuo and after thinking about it a moment, he said: "I only want to have a good sleep."
He could not remember the last time he had been able to enjoy a peaceful and proper good sleep. The times they had to rest at the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff were all very short and they were always surrounded by all kinds of hidden dangers. Even if they were able to fall into slumber, they could never allow themselves to fall into it too deep.
Fan Zhuo gave a light laugh and rested his chin upon a upraised palm and said: "I would really like to go back to the Zephyr Academy to have a look around." He wondered how his one tracked mind brother was doing as the Headmaster and he was thinking whether his little abode in the bamboo grove is still there.
Blissful thoughts allowed the agitated and frustrated hearts of the youths to gradually calm and the corners of everyone's mouth curled up faintly with a smile. At the age where they were brimming with the exuberance of youth, their hot and boiling blood would not allow them to be so easily defeated.
"Actually, I am always been curious about something." Qiao Chu said, suddenly sitting up.
"What?" Hua Yao asked as he looked at him.
"Tell me, when the Twelve Palaces sent so many countless people out back in those years then, but only our parents managed to locate the Dark Emperor's tomb. Don't you think that it's all too much of a coincidence?" Qiao Chu asked as he scratched his head.
Chapter 1333: "The Tomb That Disappeared (3)"
Within the Twelve Palaces, they never had a lack of capable people. Although the parents of Qiao Chu and his companions were strong enough in their own right, they were not considered to be elite in the Twelve Palaces. Besides the parents of the five of them, there were two others from other palaces who had also managed to find the Dark Emperor's tomb. What was strange about it was that the times these people reached the Dark Emperor's tomb had all happened within one day among them and congregated together within the Dark Emperor's tomb.
If it was said after immense hardship and they had been the one among a million who managed to find the Dark Emperor's tomb, that wouldn't be hard to explain.
But what was strange was that so many people had managed to go into the Dark Emperor's tomb on the very same day and besides that, regardless how many more people the Twelve Palaces sent out after that, not a single one had been able to find the place again.
It must be known, that their parents did not have any map in their hands then and although the maps was split up after that, the Twelve Palaces would at least have some clues but in the years more than a decade after that, no one had managed to find it once more.
That had really puzzled people quite a bit.
"On that point, I had thought about that before." Hua Yao said as he narrowed his eyes. On that one day, where several people from different and separate groups had somehow managed to find the Dark Emperor's tomb, and after so many years after the Dark Emperor had fallen, they remained the only ones to have achieved it. That had somehow seemed to be rather illogical.
"I remember that my father had left for the Middle Realm first to report back and my mother remained here in Lower Realm alone with me. At that time, I saw the map on my mother's back and as I was still too young, I did not know the meaning behind that map and innocently asked her why would she want to make a map of a place she had already visited before. But my mother had told me that she didn't remember anything anymore then." Fan Zhuo said with his eyes slightly narrowed. He was the only one among them all who still had the chance to interact with his family after they found the Dark Emperor's tomb.
In the case of the parents of Qiao Chu and the others, they had been captured immediately upon their return.
In the beginning, they had only felt that the Twelve Palaces had been highly vicious where they would even kill people who were completely loyal to them.
But thinking back on it now, there was something rather strange about it.
"If the Twelve Palaces were worried that the people from the Dark Regions would find out that they had found the Dark Emperor's tomb, they could have easily hidden the people who found the tomb away, why would there be a need to kill them so quickly? Moreover at that time, the maps their men held were not complete and hence, rather than keeping an incomplete map that was sorely lacking, why would they not rather keep the very person who found the Dark Emperor's tomb with them?" Fan Zhuo's mind had been suddenly dragged into the endless abyss where the hatred he kept deep within had risen and filled his heart quickly at that moment, rendering him incapable of thinking deeper into the reason that caused his parents to be killed.
But calming himself to think about it carefully, it suddenly seemed that there were many inconsistencies with the way he had thought before.
"If what your mother said is true, then the reason why the Twelve Palaces would kill them is now very clear." Jun Wu Xie said suddenly.
"The Twelve Palaces had been searching for the Dark Emperor's tomb secretly, afraid that the people from the Dark Regions will find out. Hence, they would naturally not leave behind anything that would let anyone have a hold over them. If your parents could still remember the precise location of the Dark Emperor's tomb, they might have been kept alive, but if it was as what Fan Zhuo's mother had said that they have forgotten, then the value of keeping them alive would be far less than those incomplete pieces of the map. People of no value to them would have no need to be kept alive, and the people from the Dark Regions would then have nothing to hold against them." Jun Wu Xie explained. She had considered this before, but had not been able to come to a conclusion. However, Fan Zhuo's words today had cleared up all her doubts and provided a logical explanation for the places she had not been able to reconcile.
Chapter 1334: "The Tomb That Disappeared (4)"
The parents of Fan Zhuo and the others could have by some exceptional stroke of luck, managed to enter the Dark Emperor's tomb and that moment's luck had coincidentally happened on the same day and hence, only people who came close to the Dark Emperor's tomb on that one day had been able to locate the real target.
And after entering the Dark Emperor's tomb, they had then discovered each other. In order to restrict each other from the various different palaces, they had come up with the maps. Although that was what they said, everyone had known it clearly that the maps were just a superficial solution to their predicament because as long as they remembered everything that happened here, then the maps would not be of any use at all.
But after that, it was not known what they had all encountered. When they left the Dark Emperor's tomb, they had suddenly forgotten everything.....
Her guess made her recalled what Wen Yu told her before. Wen Yu had been severely injured and thought he did not have long to live. But when he fainted within the Dark Emperor's tomb, someone had brought him out of the Heaven's End Cliff.
Besides that, he did not remember anything else, where all his memories within the Dark Emperor's tomb became a forgotten blank.
In regards to that point, Jun Wu Xie had initially thought that it was because Wen Yu had been too severely injured which had caused him to forget those things, But thinking back upon that now, it was wondered whether he could not remember, or could it be..... his memory was quietly erased away?
Jun Wu Xie stared at the endless sea of blooms and repression came into her eyes.
The map could not be wrong, and the Dark Emperor's tomb was right there.
But they could not see it, nor touch it, like it had disappeared from there.
For so many years, just how many of the most elite pugilists had the Twelve Palaces sent to infiltrate into the Heaven's End Cliff? Even if Jun Wu Xie was not able to determine their numbers, she knew that all those people definitely held stronger power than they did.
They could very well have found their way up to here like they did, but seeing this endless sea of flowers had stripped them of all hope.
Were they unable to find it, or have they found it but were not aware of it?
If not for the map she had in her hand, Jun Wu Xie wouldn't be able to be so certain that they were standing right before the Dark Emperor's tomb.
Where had the Dark Emperor's tomb actually disappeared to?
Jun Wu Xie suddenly stood up and walked further into the sea of flowers.
Suddenly, a tiny figure appeared right before her.
A flower garland ring made from the violet flowers appeared before her eyes. Little Jue's rosy little face was lifted up and filled with anticipation as he looked at Jun Wu Xie, both his hands stretched out to present the flower garland before Jun Wu Xie.
"Little Big Brother, gift..... gift for..... you....." Little Jue's voice said bashfully, tinged with a trace of nervousness.
Jun Wu Xie was surprised and she raised a hand to ruffle Little Jue's fiery red hair. The child was really acting like he had come here for a leisure trip, not showing the slightest bit of anxiety or frustration. That was a good thing as well, to live without worries was at least better than living in perpetual melancholy and gloominess.
Jun Wu Xie squatted down and looked up at Little Jue.
"Help me put it on."
Little Jue blinked his eyes blankly and with his little hands trembling, his slowly raised the flower garland that wasn't really beautifully done and put it over Jun Wu Xie's head.
"Nice." After Little Jue put it on Jun Wu Xie, he took steps backwards shyly with his tiny hands held behind his back, his body twisting up feeling slightly embarassed.
A faint smile curled at the corners of Jun Wu Xie's lips as her gaze moved carelessly over Little Jue's shoulder. In the instant her gaze swept past, she froze slightly, a look of surprise rising within her eyes. She stood up slowly and stared into the endless sea of blooms stretching beyond the horizon.
Chapter 1335: "The Tomb That Disappeared (5)"
Jun Wu Xie's gaze was highly intense and it attracted the attention of Qiao Chu and the others.
"Little Xie, what are you looking at?" Qiao Chu asked as he sat up in curiosity, with a lot of flower petals struck to his body.
"You wouldn't be able to guess a young girl's heart." Fei Yan whispered as he peeked at the roughly made flower garland on Jun Wu Xie's head, and then stole a quick glance at Rong Ruo before he silently reached his hand out and grabbed at a bunch, deflowering quite a number blooms from their stalks. He then sat quietly within the sea of flowers and his two hands flew speedily as he weaved.
"Oh, so anything about a young girl's heart, I'll really not know as much as you do, Little Yan....." Qiao Chu said meaningfully, dragging out the last syllable.
Fei Yan then graced him with a roll of his eyes and continued with what he was busy with.
He didn't have time to bother with that dumb block!
"What did you see?" Rong Ruo asked as she walked over to Jun Wu Xie. From what she knew of Jun Wu Xie, the sea of flowers before their eyes would not arouse such strong interest in Jun Wu Xie and she had been acting normally all this while so what had suddenly caused her to stare so intensely in front of her?
Jun Wu Xie did not say anything but just took the flower garland off her head and held it within her hand, her gaze not wavering an inch.
Little Jue's head lowered in grief as he thought that "Little Big Brother" did not like it.
"Look at this." Jun Wu Xie suddenly raised up a hand and pointed in the direction that her gaze was fixed upon.
Above the sea of flowers, another flower garland suddenly hung suspended in midair. That flower garland was not very well crafted, and was rather loosely woven together, an exact replica of the one held in Jun Wu Xie's hand.
"What is going on? !" Rong Ruo said in surprise, slightly taken aback by the scene before her.
The flower garland suspended in midair looked too strange and when Jun Wu Xie moved the flower garland in her hand slightly, the other flower garland on the far side actually moved in tandem!
"It's a mirror mirage!" Fan Zhuo exclaimed as he shot to his feet, leaping over to come beside Jun Wu Xie in just two steps.
"Mirror mirage?" Jun Wu Xie asked inquiringly.
"It's isn't entirely clear to me but I heard my mother mentioned something about it before, though I can't remember it clearly." Fan Zhuo seemed to have grasped at something, but could not accurately explain it. He then immediately turned his head and looked at Jun Wu Yao at the side.
"Big Brother Wu Yao, do you know what's happening here?"
Jun Wu Yao came beside Jun Wu Xie and stared at the strange phenomenon, but there was any question in his eyes as he took the flower garland from Jun Wu Xie's hand. Under Little Jue's nervous gaze, Jun Wu Yao suddenly tossed the flower garland high up in the air.
After the violet flower garland was tossed up into the air, it broke apart and flower petals fell slowly in a wide scatter, like snowflakes falling down through the air.
And on the far side, the exact scene was replicated.
Exactly the same!
"Moon Water's Mirror." The corners of Jun Wu Yao's mouth lifted in a smile as he said, lowering his head to look at Jun Wu Xie.
"This is a kind of barrier, rather much like those we've seen before. But this one is a little more complex as according to different barriers, they can be made to reflect different things, and this barrier here, should only be able to reflect plants."
It was the exact same image, but only the reflection of the flower garland showed and not of Jun Wu Xie and the others, as if there was a force that screened them out.
Jun Wu Xie's heart jumped suddenly and she shot herself forward.
About a hundred meters out, she could suddenly feel a strange kind of pressure, that was stopping her from moving further forward!
It was like an invisible wall, that prevented her from passing.
Jun Wu Xie's heart then started pounding hard. She raised up her hand and placed her hand upon that seemingly formless wall. Under her palm, she could feel the cold touch of hard and unyielding stone!
The Dark Emperor's tomb!
Chapter 1336: "The Tomb That Disappeared (6)"
Jun Wu Xie's heart then started pounding hard. She raised up her hand and placed her hand upon that seemingly formless wall. Under her palm, she could feel the cold touch of hard and unyielding stone!
The Dark Emperor's tomb!
Jun Wu Xie felt around the wall that she could not see. She lowered her head to look down at the flowers around her tiny feet. Before her feet, the flowers looked disjointed, like they were cut off suddenly at certain parts.
It was a distortion of space!
Jun Wu Xie drew in a deep breath.
She finally understood why even after so many powerful pugilists had reached deep into the Heaven's End Cliff, and after so long a period of time, they had all still not managed to find the location of the Dark Emperor's tomb. It was all because.....
The real Dark Emperor's tomb was something that they all could not see at all!
Just as what Jun Wu Yao had said, the boundary barrier named "Moon Water's Mirror" had been placed outside the Dark Emperor's tomb which created a mirage of a mirror's image. Within that image, only plants were reflected and when seen from a distance, the entire place looked just like an endless sea of flowers that stretched to the horizon, which would then drive despair into people. But who could have guessed that the real Dark Emperor's tomb lay hidden within that sea of flowers?
Even if those people managed to find their way to this place, they would be confused by this illusionary mirage where the end of the sea of flowers was a precipitous edge of a cliff. No one would have ever expected that the biggest secret lay right in the middle of that sea of violet blooms.
After trudging through the endless torturous and tormenting obstacles, when those people came to this place, they had not managed to discover the profound mystery hidden behind the "Moon Water's Mirror".
The flowers which all looked exactly the same throughout, had not looked to be unusual in anyway when the companions had seen it from a distance, and if not for Little Jue's childlike innocence where he had tried to weave a flower garland for Jun Wu Xie that was reflected in the "Moon Water's Mirror", they might never have discovered this secret as well.
That the Dark Emperor's tomb was actually right before their eyes!
They had finally found it!
"It's the Dark Emperor's tomb. We've found it." Jun Wu Xie's voice suddenly rang clearly, bringing the delightful news to her companions behind her.
Qiao Chu and the others immediately leapt to their feet from among the flowers and their excited emotions made their eyes light up seemingly with a fire within. All the torment and exhaustion they had suffered throughout the journey seemed to immediately disappear without a trace, as the blood within their bodies began to boil!
After so many years, they had finally found it!
"We found it..... We found it....." Qiao Chu's voice was beginning to shake and his eyes suddenly became red around the rims. After silently enduring it all for so many years, they have finally found the Dark Emperor's tomb, and the emotions they had held in helpless suppression for too long exploded in their chest at that moment!
"ARRRGH! ! !"
A roar that spilled out right from within their hearts gave vent to the emotions that ran impossibly high within them at that moment.
"Big Brother Wu Yao, for the "Moon Water's Mirror", is there a way to unravel it?" Hua Yao fought to hold down the excitement raging within as he asked in a calm voice.
Finding the Dark Emperor's tomb, meant that they had already succeeded by half. Although the Dark Emperor's tomb was right there before them, they could only feel it but not see it and they would not be able to enter the place by just touching it.
They had absolutely no clue on how big the Dark Emperor's tomb really was and if they were to rely only on their hands to feel it inch by inch, only the Heavens would know in which year and month it would be before they would find the real entrance.
"For such barriers, you will only need to find its root and just smash it and it will do." Jun Wu Yao said with a smile. Seeing Jun Wu Xie's eyes light up with its sparkle of delight, his mood seemed to have followed suit and soared.
Towards Jun Wu Yao's soaring good mood, Ye Sha and Ye Mei had by now been able to remain calm and composed about the whole thing.
Having their Lord Jue so proactively escorting the Young Miss to come dig up his own tomb was nothing much anymore. He was now even helping them to breach his very own tomb's defences!
In order to make the Young Miss smile, their Lord Jue was truly giving it his best!
Chapter 1337: "The Tomb That Disappeared (7)"
Everyone immediately began to search around the edge of the barrier for anything suspicious. With the Dark Emperor's tomb right before them, and Jun Wu Yao had said it clearly that the thing maintaining the boundary barrier should be several crystals. All they had to do was to smash them and the barrier would be broken.
It was easier said than done as it wasn't that easy to find them. They were unable to see just how big the Dark Emperor's tomb was, but as the companions walked following the edge, every single step they took measured for them a certain distance and even after walking for a long while, they still had not found any turning points, all of them still standing on just the first side of the Dark Emperor's tomb.
Fei Yan and Rong Ruo walked one way and although his eyes were on Rong Ruo's back, Fei Yan had a hand feeling around in search. But his other hand was kept behind his back as he soundlessly increased the pace of his steps and walked up right behind Rong Ruo's back.
Rong Ruo was single mindedly focused upon locating the crystals that held the boundary barrier when she felt something fell upon her head. She reached her hand up to touch it in puzzlement and only got her hand filled with the fragrance of flowers.
Rong Ruo turned herself around to see Fei Yan standing right behind her who had that familiar brilliant smile upon his face.
"It looks very nice on you." Fei Yan said smilingly.
Rong Ruo looked into the reflection of the garland in the barrier. The flower garland upon her head when compared to the one Little Jue weaved was more well made, the violet blooms intricately woven together with the green leaves, and it was rather beautiful.
But Rong Ruo's lips stiffened up slightly, as she looked at Fei Yan in helplessness.
Fei Yan's face was still wearing that brilliant smile but as he noticed the grave expression on Rong Ruo's face, the smile upon his lips began to wane.
It wasn't that he could not feel it. After the day that accident between the two of them happened, Rong Ruo had been intentionally distancing herself from him. The two who were inseparable before, were now awkwardly silent with each other, and Rong Ruo intentional or unintentional avoidance of him, had always caused Fei Yan's heart to wince in sorrow.
The feeling was something Fei Yan had never experienced before. It was agonizing, unspeakably agonizing.
"You..... don't like it?" Fei Yan's voice was sounding a little raw.
Rong Ruo stared at Fei Yan's face and her brows creased up in a furrow. She removed the flower garland off her head and put it into Fei Yan's hands.
"I thought you knew it clearly already. It is impossible between us." Rong Ruo said rather perplexedly. She had always been very close to Fei Yan, but she only treated Fei Yan as the best comrade she had, like a real brother of hers.
And that was it.
"Why?" Fei Yan asked softly.
Why was it impossible?
Rong Ruo sighed, and her chest began to stifle up.
"I am not what you think I am like. Actually, I....."
Just as Rong Ruo was about to say something, a huge resounding crash suddenly rumbled within their ears!
The two of them immediately forgot what they were talking about as they quickly turned their heads towards the sound!
Jun Wu Xie had been searching for the crystals that would unravel the boundary barrier and after searching for a stretch, she suddenly felt something tiny protruding out beneath her feet. She had immediately squatted down and swept away the soil around the tiny protrusion under the flowers.
A light purple crystal gleaming with luster suddenly appeared within the soil. She summoned up her spirit powers and pushed it to a flare before she delivered a mighty smash onto the crystal!
In the instant that her fist landed upon the crystal, the beautiful purple crystal was suddenly covered in broken cracks. At the same moment the crystal broke, a resounding crash rang out and before Jun Wu Xie could react, she suddenly felt the ground beneath her feet cave in and sink down!
A powerful force then sucked her in entirely, dragging her down together with the sudden cave in!
Chapter 1338: "The Tomb That Disappeared (8)"
Everything happened too quickly and Jun Wu Xie was not able to react in any way before her tiny little figure was instantly swallowed up by darkness!
In the split second just before she was dragged into darkness, she saw Jun Wu Yao's figure speeding towards her and upon that highly familiar looking face, she saw for the first time an expression of panic.
It was just an instant, and then all she saw was darkness.
It was not known what she was falling into and in the darkness, Jun Wu Xie seemed to be falling down a steep slope. The space was narrow and confined as she continued to slide down together with the rubble of rocks and stones.
Within the darkness, she could only hear the tumbling of the rubble.
After sliding down for a rather long while, Jun Wu Xie's feet finally landed upon flat ground. The darkness was slowly dissipating as dim firelight brightened the scene before her eyes.
Jun Wu Xie had fallen into a place that looked like an underground palace!
The surrounding walls were filled with lifelike carvings upon the stone. She turned around to look at the place she had just slid down from and at the moment she turned around to check it, a stone door suddenly slid down from the top, completely sealing off the entrance she had just come in from!
Jun Wu Xie tried to smash the huge slab of stone but the stone was incredibly hard and even when she elevated her spirit power to the Purple level, she was not able to even make a chip upon the stone!
With the exit blocked and unbreakable, Jun Wu Xie had no choice but to give up on it. She then raised her head to look around at her surroundings. The place that she was at, seemed to be a wide corridor and upon the surrounding walls there were stone lamps that were carved in the shape of beasts, each holding a warm burning flame. The distance between each interval of the beasts lamps were the exact same length and the lit lamps were not very bright which filled the entire place only rather dimly.
"This is the Dark Emperor's tomb?" The little black cat said, sitting upon Jun Wu Xie's shoulders as it shook off the dirt stuck upon its body. When Jun Wu Xie fell, it had been on Jun Wu Xie's shoulder as usual and it had fallen down here together with her.
"It should be." Jun Wu Xie answered as she gathered her thoughts. They had all been searching high and low for the entrance into the Dark Emperor's tomb and in the end, she had not thought that she would end up "entering" in here unknowingly which she didn't know whether to laugh or cry about.
The Dark Emperor's tomb which had caused the people in the Middle Realm to spill blood and almost spitting out their hearts in search had finally had its secretive veil lifted before Jun Wu Xie but unfortunately, she had been the only one to come into the Dark Emperor's tomb. She wondered how her companions outside were doing?
In Jun Wu Xie's mind, the image of the last expression Jun Wu Yao had shown on his face rose involuntarily.
Anxious and in panic. That was the first time she had seen such an unbecoming expression upon his face.
Although it did not suit him well, it still made her feel like laughing. Outside there now, he must surely be mad with panic.
"There is no poison in the air here." Little Black said as it sniffed with its nose, its sense of smell was more sensitive than machines.
"It's really strange though. This Dark Emperor's tomb is afterall a grave, so how come there isn't the tiniest stench of rot in here? There isn't any other strange smells in the air and those lamps, why are they still burning? The Dark Emperor has already been dead for so many years so who lit these lamps? It couldn't be a ghost could it....." The little black cat said with a shiver. It was afraid of nothing throughout the Heavens and on Earth with the lone exception of ghosts.....
Jun Wu Xie swung her gaze in helplessness towards the little black cat wanting to remind it that ghosts as they were called, was just another name for spirit bodies, And strictly speaking from certain perspectives, wouldn't the little black cat itself be a "ghost"?
But what the little black cat said was not completely without reason. Jun Wu Xie had noticed it as well. Those were indeed flames that burned upon those beast shaped lamps and those flames should have a finite period that they could remain burning. The Dark Emperor had fallen since so many long years ago but these flames still had not gone out, which was indeed a rather strange fact.
Chapter 1339: "The Dark Emperor's Treasure (1)"
Lifelike murals were carved on the stones walls all around, the exquisite and heavenly techniques making the characters depicted seemingly come alive. Jun Wu Xie peered to see what was depicted upon the stone walls under the dim light. The entire stretch of the wall from the beginning to the end were covered with the murals and instead of saying they were murals, it might be said that they were more like they were a record of certain past events that occurred.
On the wall that was right in front of Jun Wu Xie, a man wearing a mask was carved upon it. The man's mask was extraordinarily magnificent and he was standing at the pinnacle of everyone, straight and tall with his hands behind his back, facing straight towards a humongous ferocious beast. The immense beast was half submerged within water, its tentacles waving malevolently, looking like it would jump out from the mural at any moment.
"This is the Dark Emperor." Jun Wu Xie said as she stared at the man wearing the mask. From the position he was standing at, in the scene where he was crowded around by everyone, it was easier to deduce the man's identity.
As well as the fact that as she was currently within the Dark Emperor's tomb, she could not imagine who else would be depicted in the things within.
As for that humongous monster, it was not one that was unfamiliar to Jun Wu Xie. That was the gigantic "octopus" that they had encountered in a lake along their journey here.
On this mural, it should be presenting the time when the Dark Emperor subjugated the "octopus". Following the mural on this wall, every carving further down the line seemed to tell a story and if there was nothing unexpected, all the carvings upon all the murals should be a eternal eulogy of the glorious life the Dark Emperor lived.
But what Jun Wu Xie was looking at was not the beginning, nor was it the end.
Upon the mural, the mysterious man wearing the mask was undoubtedly the Dark Emperor and in every single carving, he always stood alone above everyone else. It was not known whether the people from the Dark Regions had intentionally glorified it but within those murals, it seemed the Dark Emperor was omnipotent.
Subjugating monsters, defeating entire armies, holding reign over the Middle Realm.
Just by looking a few of the murals, every single one exemplified the might of the Dark Emperor and he looked to be completely peerless.
"This is the Dark Emperor? Why did he need to wear a mask?" The little black cat asked as it swished its tail lazily, feeling rather puzzled. When Qiao Chu and the others had mentioned the Dark Emperor from before, they had not said anything about the Dark Emperor wearing a mask.
"Is it because he's too ugly?" The little black cat thought nastily.
Jun Wu Xie shook her head as she walked to stand before another mural, to stare at the exquisite mask worn upon the Dark Emperor's face.
"The design on the mask is special and I have seen it before. Do you still remember when we experimented with spells through the runes? They are some that I still could not be certain of their meaning and upon that mask, are carved some of those very runes that I do not understand." Jun Wu Xie said as she ran her hand carefully over the rune spell hidden within the mural.
She did not feel that a man who was powerful enough to make the entire Middle Realm submit to him would wear a mask because of his looks. In fact, the mask looked like it had actually been added on by the Dark Region's craftsman after the Dark Emperor passed on.
With the peerless might of the Dark Emperor and with his vaunted position in the Dark Regions, the people in the Dark Region wouldn't dare to depict the Dark Emperor's face and countenance accurately and this was the only alternative they could take with the carvings as they did not dare to profane the Dark Emperor in their depictions. Hence, they had added in the mask and the runes carved upon that mask should hold some special meaning.
Jun Wu Xie continued to look at the murals and if all the stories they told were true, that the man who had once reigned over the entire Middle Realm would have held might that transcended beyond anything they ever knew.
In that dim firelight, the murals filled every single wall and as Jun Wu Xie proceeded forward through the corridor to find an exit, she also stared at all the stone carvings upon the walls.
Chapter 1340: "The Dark Emperor's Treasure (2)"
Looking at those murals, Jun Wu Xie understood better the kind of status the Dark Emperor enjoyed in the hearts of the people in the Dark Regions. He was not just one who ruled over them, but in the hearts of the people in the Dark Regions, he was more like a deity. They held him in awe, worshipped him, revered him, and in their eyes, the Dark Emperor was an omnipotent god.
Within the stone carvings, besides the fact that the Dark Emperor always stood out from large numbers of people, all the other people looked humbled and highly devoted to him.
Thoughts of cult members who were too frighteningly devout from her past life inadvertently came into Jun Wu Xie's mind. Those people would sacrifice everything for the god they revered in their minds. But as Jun Wu Xie never believed in any kinds of religion, she did not feel thst strongly against it.
Although she did not believed in them, she respected the faith of others.
The Dark Emperor's tomb was immense and only when she was within it did she really feel just how big it was. Jun Wu Xie walked for an entire half hour and she had just reached the end of one corridor before she found herself looking down another endless pathway. Under that dim firelight, the pathway looked as if it stretched to no end, pillars and beams at regular intervals. It was impossible to know where she must go before she could find the exit. Jun Wu Xie then noticed that on both sides of the corridor against the walls, claw shaped bases holding up purples orbs were neatly placed. Those orbs were beautiful to look at and everyone was only about the size of a table tennis ball. They were laid within the claw shaped sockets and the dim firelight reflected off their smooth surface faintly.
It was not a pearl, nor was it a gem. It can't really be ascertained.
The two neat rows stuck tightly against the walls, every single purple orb the same size. Along just one corridor, there were at least several thousands of them and regardless what material those orbs were made from, just the level of opulence shown with those orbs, was already nothing to sniff at.
The Dark Emperor had once plundered all of the Middle Realm's treasures and after he passed on, his people had buried every single one of those treasures with the tomb, without leaving a single one out. At first glance, the interior of the Dark Emperor's tomb did not look to be exceptionally lavish, but when one looked closer, they would realize that in any corner in this place, one would be able to find all sorts of precious and priceless treasures tucked away.
Gold and silver in this place would no longer be deemed as precious as the more highly prized Black Gold and Black Silver could be seen everywhere, used to decorate the interior. Fan Zhuo had once said, that the price of Black Silver against gold, was already several times higher.
That piece of rock that Jun Wu Xie had won at the auction with several hundred thousand taels, had yielded merely a little bit of Black Silver but here in the Dark Emperor's tomb, even the claw shaped bases at the edges along the walls were forged from Black Silver. Just the price of a single one of those bases, would surely not be less than a million taels each.
And within the entire Dark Emperor's tomb it looked as if these bases crafted with Black Silver numbered in the tens of thousands of them, or even hundreds of thousands.
The wealth the Dark Emperor held, was not something an average person could even begin to imagine.
According to her calculations, Jun Wu Xie estimated that her current position should still be in the outer fringe of the Dark Emperor's tomb and was furthest out. But even so, what she saw at this place already surprised her greatly.
"It's little wonder the people from the Middle Realm revered the Dark Emperor with such strong fervour." Jun Wu Xie commented as she looked at everything she was passing. The value of the things in a square inch in here, would be enough enough to feed a family for life without needing to worry about food and clothing.
To reign dominance over any place, power was an aspect that one could not lack, but similarly, riches was a factor that would be just as important.
Without even mentioning how many magical artifacts that people coveted for were in the Dark Emperor's tomb, just the riches alone would already cause one to become hopelessly nervous and unsettled.