Chapter 77

After a moment of hesitation, Luosen still decided to go take a look.

Because the goddess described by Yigenini was not aggressive, and the probing he had sensed earlier was not malicious.

In the end, what came was a puppet, not the true body.

Following the map's indications, Luosen hurried over.

Soon he arrived at the spot, which was higher than the previous cave entrance, almost the mountaintop, and the location was even more concealed, having been buried under thick snow.

Without the map's indication, it would basically be impossible to know that this place hid a huge underground cavern.

After digging away the thick snow, Luosen saw an expanse of very thick black rock.

Looking at it, it was no different from the surrounding rock and blended perfectly with the mountain.

But upon touching it, he faintly felt the temperature was slightly higher than the surrounding snow, not much, possibly less than one percent of a degree.

Without Laifu's help analyzing, he could not possibly perceive this subtle difference.

"This should be a magically constructed object, permanently inscribed with a 'High-circle Steel Technique' of strength five circles."

"This Saibadis has used five-circle power multiple times; he must be a Sage."

Also precisely because it is five-circle strength, it has remained effective after five hundred years, and judging by the rate of magical power loss, it should still hold for another two hundred years.

Since he knew the type and strength of the spell, and also learned much knowledge about Steel Technique from the stone slab, he could easily dispel it.

Luosen probed bit by bit, and about ten minutes later he heard a 'Crack!' as the hard rock suddenly softened, turning into a pile of black stone powder, revealing an ancient and exquisite stone corridor behind it.

Obviously, this was the entrance to the Ancestral Temple.

He took a deep breath, guided Levin inside, and simultaneously activated the 'Enhanced Cat Eye Technique', granting Levin dark vision.

With the magical aid, Levin's vision showed a black-and-white underground corridor.

The air was filled with a damp, earthy mildew smell, and the stone walls on both sides of the corridor were carved with various figures and animals, seemingly recording fragments of ancient history hidden by the sands of time.

Luosen walked and observed.

The corridor gradually widened, eventually becoming an underground palace seven to eight meters high, covering hundreds of square meters, filled with many massive stone pillars.

Then, in the center of the temple, Luosen saw a magnificent stone carving of a giant beast poised to spread its wings and soar.

No, this is not a giant beast, but a giant dragon.

Because the stone sculpture's skin bore fine scales, its wings were membranous, its front and hind claws grew very sharp talons, and it had a massive, ferocious head with sharp double horns.

"Is there a giant dragon sculpture hidden inside the Sleeping Dragon Snow Peak?"

Could it be that Saibadis's ancestors were dragons?

Is the blood of steel, dragon blood?

Luosen felt somewhat strange; he walked up to the sculpture and observed it more and more carefully.

Soon he saw an inscription beneath the sculpture, written in an ancient script older than the Seth script, yet clearly a continuation of the same lineage:

"Mountain Range Tyrant, Perfect Form of the Steel-Blood Dragon"

The first part was easy to explain, but the latter added the three words 'perfect form', which felt weird.

It just feels like this thing is not a living creature but some kind of artificial object, like the Earth's Type 59 and Type 99 tank models.

Could it be that this is not a living creature, but an ancient battle puppet?

This is very possible.

Luosen became increasingly interested, immediately circling the sculpture to examine its details closely.

The more he looked, the more certain he became that the sculpture's prototype was an artificial object, and that it should have been formed by first shaping clay, then solidifying it with steel magic into a battle puppet.

Because many of its details do not conform to biological evolution, it rather looks like a product of unnecessary embellishment.

For example, the two pairs of wings on its back look cool, but they do not conform to aerodynamics; even if it could fly, they would consume a large amount of magical power.

"It is estimated that most of the time it is used for gliding, or during a sprint to provide auxiliary acceleration and balance the body."

Moreover, what is before us is merely a pure stone carving, not the battle puppet itself.

Soon, Luosen lost interest in this crude artificial object.

He began to examine the epic murals around the temple.

The murals here are far more exquisite and detailed than those in the previous corridor, and the stories they depict are much smoother.

As Luosen looked along, he roughly sorted out the situation of the ancient epic.

"In ancient times, roughly 3500 years ago, on Weilan Giant Island there was a very wise being who received the Creator's enlightenment, gained tremendous power, he created the Steel-Blood Dragon and used it to conquer Weilan Giant Island."

"At the same time, this strongman fathered many children. These children were quite promising, proliferating on Weilan Giant Island and establishing a powerful ancient kingdom."

"But after several generations, the offspring became unpromising, waging war against each other, so the kingdom fragmented, the great families gradually declined, and the noble bloodline gradually died out."

As he watched, Luosen's heart suddenly stirred, and he recalled something.

"Laifu, immediately look up the keyword 'Steel-Blood Dragon' in the 'Natural Epic' ancient god-war chapter!"

A few seconds later, Laifu replied: Volume Three of the Ancient God-War chapter of the Natural Epic, 'Steel-Blood Dragon, Mountain Range Tyrant – the Downfall of Yisitalubu'.

Upon hearing this, Luosen exclaimed: 'Wow, I actually matched it!'

He immediately read it carefully.

"The book says that in ancient times, Yisitalubu was a legendary dragon that rampaged across the human world, and was finally slain by the grandfather of Mother Nature, the Heavenly Father of Divine Might, 'Aotaergangse', on White Sturgeon Island, giving the Sleeping Dragon Snow Peak its name."

Luosen immediately felt it was wonderful, yet also a little frightening.

Because the beings in ancient myths actually turned out to be a true historical record.

He immediately began to browse through the entire ancient myth chapter of the Natural Epic, reading it carefully.

As a result, he discovered that the information he had previously taken as mere stories actually concealed many historical secrets. The more he read, the more astonished he became, unable to stop thinking:

"If the mountain-range dragon truly exists, then the nature gods, and even the present-day Mother Nature, must also be real, right?"

No sooner had this thought arisen than Luosen felt a chill on his neck.

But soon, he regained his composure.

Even if Mother Nature truly exists, it's not a big deal.

Because history tells Luosen, in mythology, whether good or evil, the strong are essentially powerful cultivators.

Luosen can use Laifu to let his mana break through to the Ten Rings, and there are always people who, due to other opportunities and coincidences, break through to high rings and become high-ring mages.

In ancient times, when the populace's wisdom was generally undeveloped, suddenly appearing such an awesome cultivator, people naturally revered him as a deity.

If placed in the present, where high-level professionals walk everywhere, Masters run all over the place, and there are all kinds of magical devices assisting, then even high-ring powerhouses can only live cautiously.

The reason is simple: the world's version has been updated, and the good times when a single hero dominated the era are over.

Of course, if it's a one-on-one duel, these ancient high-ring powerhouses and their descendants are still very formidable, so one must still act discreetly.

Luosen calmed his mind, then carefully compared the details of the 'Natural History Epic' and the mural descriptions, and made a rough guess.

Yīnsītǎlǔbù should be the last king of the ancient Weilan Kingdom, probably a 7-ring mage.

Àotǎ'ěrgāngsè should be a battle mage who has comprehended the power of the 9-ring.

Through the details of the 'Natural History Epic', careful analysis reveals that the 7-ring is not called the 7-ring, but 'Legend'.

The 8-ring is called 'Demigod', and the 9-ring is called 'True God'.

As for the 10-ring and 11-ring, the 'Natural History Epic' contains no corresponding entities.

The names sure sound flashy, but that's all there is to it.

Their essence is simply powerful cultivators, after becoming rulers, bragging and showing off, just like the same old pattern on Earth, aiming to intimidate people's hearts to facilitate rule.

As a lord, if you want to achieve something, the first step is to see through the 'conceptual obstacle', and only look at the essential difference in power.

If you fail to see through it, you will be mercilessly played by those who have.

After finishing the book, Luosen walked around the Temple again, carefully examining every detail, hoping to find something good.

But this history is estimated to be from 3500 years ago, and it has been thoroughly searched by the later descendants Sāibādīsī, so finding anything good would be strange.

Indeed, apart from the severely eroded murals, almost nothing has been left behind.

Unwilling.

He climbed up and down, even flipping over the ceiling, but aside from some fallen mural fragments, he still came up empty-handed.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, another idea suddenly popped up.

Thus, he finally came before the dragon sculpture and shouted at its head.

"Méi'ěrqǐlìnà~~Méi'ěrqǐlìnà~~"

At first he shouted with his voice, got no response, so he switched to shouting with Spiritual Whisper.

Still no response.

Luosen then took out the previous 'Dominion Dagger', activated the Philosopher's Stone inside the Sage, poured pure magical power into the dagger, and then infused the transformed metallic power into the sculpture's body.

He was just trying it out, success or failure didn't matter.

As a result, when the dull metallic power was poured into the stone carving, the stone carving emitted a 'crack~crack-ba' cracking sound, then with a 'boom' collapsed.

Only a damaged square base remained.

Luosen felt a bit strange: 'Is there some mechanism?'

Upon careful inspection, he found no mechanism; it was simply because the stone carving could not withstand the erosion of time and had become very fragile.

After his tossing about, it naturally collapsed.

'Alright, I was overthinking it.'

Feeling somewhat disappointed in his heart, he planned to turn and leave.

But just as he turned, the corner of his eye noticed that the square base seemed off.

Several cracks had opened on the base, and inside the cracks it seemed empty.

Since he's already started, he might as well go all the way.

Luosen immediately returned and dismantled the base as well.

As soon as the base opened, a very exquisite coffin appeared inside!

The black-and-white vision from the Cat's Eye Technique wasn't very clear; thinking that since he'd already gone this far, he simply cast a Light spell.

When the bright light shone onto the coffin, the reflected light instantly blinded Luosen's eyes.

"Holy crap, a gold coffin! Such a huge gold coffin!"

He immediately stepped forward to examine it.

He quickly determined that the coffin's main body was gold, with a large amount of deep-blue aurum runes painted on the outside.

He hefted it, feeling the total weight probably exceeded two tons! Even without the aurum, just two tons of gold would be worth over 200,000 ogres.

Of course, we won't talk about that money for now.

Upon seeing the gold coffin, thinking of selling it for money is immoral.

Now the question is, who lies inside this coffin? (End of chapter)