Chapter 497: Chapter 451: Forced Inheritance (Bonus Thanks Update 3)
Xingchou fled far away, and Jiang Yuebai’s main body appeared on the city wall, pressing her chest and coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Lu Nanzhi leaped onto the city wall, hundreds of feet high, with concern in her eyes.
"Are you okay?"
Jiang Yuebai wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and smiled bitterly, "Today I truly experienced how many people make a strong force, like ants biting an elephant to death."
These puppets individually have only Foundation Establishment Stage strength, and their bodies are very fragile due to weathering, but when gathered in hundreds or thousands, they launch a fierce bombardment that even a Golden Core cannot withstand!
After taking a healing pill, Jiang Yuebai regulated her breath and asked Lu Nanzhi, "How about you?"
"I’m fine."
"If we don’t find something good this time, it wouldn’t be worth the two mouthfuls of blood I spat out!"
Jiang Yuebai burned the blood she spat on the ground with Phoenix True Fire, to prevent future troubles, for her blood is no ordinary blood.
Scanning the surroundings, Jiang Yuebai found that the materials used to make these puppets were still dragon bones, but the grade of these dragon bones was not high.
Jiang Yuebai picked up a few relatively intact dragon bone puppets, collected them, and with Lu Nanzhi, jumped into the inner city, picking up several Flame Crossbows under the city wall.
"There are spiritual stone fragments here."
Lu Nanzhi called Jiang Yuebai over, seeing many circular totems on the city wall, all in dragon shapes containing Witch Runes, with some Top-Grade Spiritual Stones embedded.
"It must be Xingchou who activated these puppets."
Jiang Yuebai was not unconcerned about Xingchou taking the most important treasures, but compared to the treasures, her life was more important.
Xingchou clearly knew the terrain here well, even mechanisms and hidden paths, which made them inherently disadvantaged in intelligence.
If she blindly pursued Xingchou, she might fall into a trap, losing more than gaining.
It would be better to explore slowly; the way ahead might not be filled with gold and silver, perhaps with more complex mechanisms and greater dangers.
The two of them ventured into the city; the buildings inside were incredibly large, mostly stone houses, with totems of human bodies and dragon tails painted in blood color on the doors, exuding a wild, primal nature.
Judging by the height of the door frames, it seemed the inhabitants here were all over three zhang tall.
"Could it be that the residents here were Giant Barbarians?" Lu Nanzhi walked into a stone house by the road, voicing her doubts.
Jiang Yuebai followed her in, flipping through books on the shelves that crumbled at a touch.
"It’s also possible that people during Ancient Times were simply gigantic."
The books on the shelves seemed to be made from some sort of stitched leaves, similar to ashes of burnt paper, disintegrating upon touch, utterly untakable.
Jiang Yuebai discovered a few pieces of beast skin under the shelves, with remnants of red text remaining; upon opening, they found diagrams for making those dragon armor soldiers on the city walls, as well as Flame Crossbows and other heavy and light weapon diagrams.
The two of them searched other houses briefly, finding some witch rune-engraved beast skins and a large amount of similar puppet manufacturing diagrams.
Those witch rune beast skins, upon a simple glance by Jiang Yuebai, were deduced from some familiar runes to be related to the breeding and riding of the Dragon Clan.
"It seems that the totem worshipped by the people here is this human body with a dragon tail."
The two reached the center of the city and saw another statue of a human with a dragon’s tail, smaller than the one seen before.
Continuing not much further, they discovered traces of intense battle by the road and two sets of normally sized human bones.
Only fragments of clothing were left on the bones, no Storage Magic Treasures. Jiang Yuebai searched carefully and found half a Token under a collapsed stone house.
"Fulong Sect?" Jiang Yuebai picked up the Token to identify it.
Lu Nanzhi examined the bones with her hands, "Though it’s been a long time, traces of Demonic Qi can still be found on it, killed by a demon cultivator."
Jiang Yuebai stood up, "It seems this place was entered by someone unknown years ago. The Black Cauldron was taken out at that time, falling into the hands of the demon head Huntian. Perhaps he discovered clues to this place from the cauldron and came here."
The two were standing on a wide main street, which ended at a grand, ancient black stone tower, with a red stone dragon carved spiraling around it, the dragon head looking fierce, roaring toward their direction.
Warning visitors not to come closer, seemingly.
Jiang Yuebai had not many Divine Concealment Talismans and Turtle Breath Talismans left and needed to conserve them. She released her Puppet Avatar, which could be operated with Spiritual Energy through its two talismans.
The Puppet Avatar vanished from sight, scouting the way ahead, while Jiang Yuebai and Lu Nanzhi followed behind.
The stone door below the Black Tower was pushed open a crack, with the Puppet Avatar first entering, observing a hall supported by nine Coiled Dragon Pillars, each engraved with a dragon, corresponding to the Nine Dragons.
The floor of the hall remained mirror-like marble; the Puppet Avatar scrutinized the reflection, noting differences from before: subtle discrepancies between the dragons in the reflection and those on the pillars, distinguishing male from female.
"What does this mean, really?" Jiang Yuebai wondered aloud, unable to stop thinking.
A strand of Divine Thought controlled the Puppet Avatar to move forward, witnessing combat traces and a battered Dragon Armor Puppet, covered in charred marks.
This Dragon Armor Puppet was evidently more refined than those on the city walls, of higher grade.
Jiang Yuebai probed with her Puppet Avatar, finding it still warm, clearly Xingchou’s doing.
Proceeding farther, a path leading underground appeared on a circular altar.
The Puppet Avatar descended first; the staircase was only one zhang wide, darkness stretching on both sides, impenetrable by light.
One could only feel gusts of cold wind blowing from the darkness, accompanied by echoing footsteps, sending chills down one’s spine.
Having not walked far, the dim light from the previous hall disappeared, leaving no reference points front or back, only the staircase hanging over an endless abyss, descending into the depths of Jiuyou.
Following behind, Jiang Yuebai and Lu Nanzhi both tensed, sensing a massive presence in the darkness, watching them intently.
After descending for over an hour, the staircase finally ended, leading to a naturally formed gorge path, winding and turning, with faint light ahead.
The Puppet Avatar continued forward, reaching the end of the gorge, momentarily stunned.
At first glance, Jiang Yuebai thought they had returned to the place with the Nine Dragon Heads outside, only to realize upon closer inspection that, though the Dragon Heads and surrounding rocks were identical, there was now a Black Coffin at the center among the nine dragon heads.
Nine lock chains extended from the mouths of the Nine Dragons, connecting to the Black Coffin, suspending it in the center of the abyss.
Xingchou sat cross-legged on the edge of the abyss, eyes closed, brow furrowed.
Apart from Xingchou, there were also three sets of normally sized human skeletons, also in a cross-legged position.
"Those who reach this place are qualified to inherit my legacy."
An ancient, aged voice suddenly sounded in the Sea of Consciousness of Jiang Yuebai and Lu Nanzhi, and the two were immediately locked by a powerful Divine Thought.
Their hearts trembled, hurriedly retreating, only to find the staircase behind them collapsing rapidly from above, forcing them toward the direction of the Nine Dragon Heads.
As they descended from the staircase, a barrier’s light rose, sealing all exits.
"Master the cultivation technique I pass on, and you may leave at once."
The voice echoed once more, followed by a deluge of Witch Clan writings, forcibly engraving a profound and complex cultivation technique into their Sea of Consciousness.
Jiang Yuebai did not know if the cultivation technique Lu Nanzhi received was the same as hers, but what was imprinted in her mind was the "Chaos Nirvana Skill."
