Chapter 167: Chapter 167: The Sound of a Pin Dropping
The plaza below was paved with neat flagstones.
The plaza was surrounded by hollowed-out foundations, but other than that, it was terrifyingly empty.
Aside from the statue and the bronze tripod, there was nothing else to be seen.
Looking up, she could only see a dark ceiling.
She didn’t know where the light was coming from. There were no visible light sources, and though it was dim, it was enough for Mu Qiu to make things out.
After waiting for a long time, there was still no movement.
’Where did that giant beast I saw earlier come from?’
With a body that large, there was no way it could hide in this plaza.
Opposite the bronze tripod was the entrance to the plaza—an equally massive, wide staircase leading ever downward, seemingly connecting to some abyss. The bottom was shrouded in darkness.
But on the far side of the stairs, there stood another bronze gate.
"What a mysterious place..."
Mu Qiu murmured, "System, can’t you record this?"
System: "I’ll try."
After a moment, it spoke in a strange tone, "I can’t."
It could crack the energy source, but Song Jiulai’s current Energy Pool couldn’t afford the cost of cracking it.
This proved that the power in this place was incredibly strong.
Even the video feed was blocked, preventing the system from transmitting it.
It couldn’t even take a few pictures for Song Jiulai.
This was unlike the pocket dimension back at Shuitan, where it worked just fine.
Evidently, different pocket dimensions had different specifications. Mu Qiu had likely stumbled upon a major one.
Mu Qiu wasn’t disappointed when the system said it couldn’t; she was simply awestruck by the scene before her.
In an instant, a thousand thoughts raced through her mind. ’This is just a game world, but could a game world possibly conceive of and create a civilization like this?’
Once her excitement had calmed a little and there was still no sign of the giant beast, Mu Qiu cautiously flew down from the eye of the bronze statue.
Her Spiritual Energy wasn’t restricted here.
She flew to the ground, landed on the stone slabs, and took a closer look.
The stone slabs had naturally formed patterns and had been cut and arranged into their current form—an easy enough task for someone who practiced Cultivation.
Wary, she moved slowly and cautiously with each step as Feixue flew around her.
She didn’t rashly head toward the staircase, instead making her way toward the Bronze Giant Tripod.
The tripod was so massive she couldn’t see the whole thing even when looking up.
She flew up to the top of the Bronze Giant Tripod and saw that the inside was completely empty.
Mu Qiu asked, "Where could the Treasure Bead that the Spiritual Body mentioned be?"
System: "Want me to take a wild guess for you?"
Mu Qiu: "..."
She wasn’t really asking the system, just muttering to herself out of habit, knowing there was something that could reply.
The system’s presence helped ease her tension.
Then Mu Qiu saw what was behind the Bronze Giant Tripod.
Behind it was a tall, solid wall.
But in a very inconspicuous corner at the very bottom, Mu Qiu spotted a person-sized passageway.
It was just that compared to the enormous scale of the room, it seemed too insignificant. It was also blocked by the calf-like leg of the giant tripod. Only after landing on the ground did Mu Qiu confirm that it was a tunnel a person could pass through.
’Compared to the overall environment, this passage seems a bit out of place. Was it for transporting something?’
Mu Qiu raised her fingertips, peering into the passage with the help of the dim light, but could only see a pitch-black end.
"A Bronze Giant Tripod is usually related to sacrificial rituals. Could this have been a sacrificial plaza? So huge... what exactly did they sacrifice to? If what that Spiritual Body said is true, and this is a Demon Cultivator city, would Demon Cultivators even do this sort of thing?"
Sacrificial activities seemed like something only humans would do.
Demon Cultivators were, in essence, still demons.
They only had a humanoid appearance.
The history of how the first Demon Cultivators appeared is lost to time, but there is a legend on the Yunzhou Continent that the original Demon Cultivators were the offspring of unions between Cultivators and demon beasts.
Because this violated the Heavenly Dao, most Demon Cultivators have violent and cruel natures—an influence from their bloodline.
They also enjoyed eating humans, which made them seem very much unlike the descendants of Cultivators.
The players all considered this to be an apocryphal tale about Demon Cultivators.
If Demon Cultivators really were the product of demon beasts and Cultivators, then considering the grotesque appearance of demon beasts, what kind of depraved Cultivator would have been able to stomach that...
The Yunzhou Continent is currently divided into roughly three factions.
The first is the native Yunzhou Continent, completely controlled by Cultivators—that is, humans.
Second are those from outside the Yunzhou Continent. This has been confirmed. It’s home to the legendary true spiritual beasts, also known as Holy Beasts. It was previously said that Demon Cultivators actually carried the bloodline of Holy Beasts.
But their violent nature didn’t match that of Holy Beasts at all, which gave rise to the apocryphal tale about them being born from demon beasts...
The spiritual beasts currently raised by humans are descendants of Holy Beasts introduced from outside the Yunzhou Continent. Through generations of breeding, their bloodline has gradually thinned. They basically have no connection to the truly powerful Holy Beasts anymore and can only be called spiritual beasts.
These Holy Beasts are essentially what Blue Star players would commonly recognize as Divine Beasts.
Unlike demon beasts, Holy Beasts are pure beasts with gentle temperaments. Favored by heaven and earth, they are born with powerful cultivation that humans cannot match.
However, while they are favored by the Heavenly Dao, they also have extreme difficulty reproducing. Furthermore, they are coveted by demon beasts, Demon Cultivators, and even some human Cultivators. As a result, spiritual beasts rarely appear on the Yunzhou Continent and are basically the stuff of legend.
The third faction is the demon beasts, which includes Demon Cultivators. They not only live on the Yunzhou Continent, but even stronger ones exist beyond it.
The existence of demon beasts is also quite strange. They are true beasts, yet unlike Holy Beasts, they are the mortal enemies of both spiritual beasts and humans.
From a human standpoint, Demon Cultivators are nothing but pure troublemakers.
They help neither demon beasts nor humans; their whole philosophy is that everyone else must die.
To the players, all this history was just part of the game’s background lore. Some of it was true, some false, and the players, who still lacked much information, couldn’t tell the difference.
Having already chosen the reckless path of descending from the eye of the bronze statue, Mu Qiu saw no reason to stop here.
Behind the plaza, besides this door, there was only the abyss at the bottom of the external staircase. Mu Qiu wasn’t brave enough to go look into the abyss.
She hesitated for only a second before stepping into the passageway.
The light inside the passage was dim, but it was spotless. Unlike other ruins, there were no traces of writing, pictures, or carvings left behind besides the statue.
There weren’t even any clues for Mu Qiu to deduce where she was.
"How bizarre..."
Mu Qiu ran her fingers along the cold corridor walls. The structure was made of stone, but the seams were perfect. To the touch, there was an unusually fine, dusty texture.
She walked forward step by step. Because she was alone, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
’—Wait.’
Mu Qiu’s pupils contracted. "Where is that sound of a pin dropping coming from?!"
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