Chapter 67
Chapter 68: Origins of the Spirit Burying Terrace (Part 4)
When nightfall arrived, Su Chen felt the Smoke Snake Imprint’s familiar feeling, and he knew that Gu Qingluo had come to find him.
For Gu Qingluo to know that he had returned so quickly meant that she had been monitoring his movements the entire time.
Su Chen left his room and walked to the back mountain.
Upon pa.s.sing through the small forest, he arrived once again at the familiar pool of water. He saw Gu Qingluo shaking her delicate legs in the pool of water.
Upon hearing a noise, she turned her head around to look at Su Chen. A smile blossomed on her face as she said, "You’ve had enough fun playing outside, yet you still know how to return?"
Su Chen laughed, "How come your words don’t sound quite right? You sound like a married woman whose kids all left the house."
Gu Qingluo’s face reddened. "Good, you actually dare take advantage of me."
As she spoke, she picked up some leaves and shot them towards Su Chen.
Su Chen’s figure flowed like the wind. He didn’t even bother looking as his body gently swayed dodging a large portion of the leaves.
Gu Qingluo’s eyes lit up. "Hm? Your Snaking Mist Steps has greatly improved. Why does it seem like there are traces of Origin Energy?"
While speaking, she shot even more leaves at him.
Su Chen took repeated steps, his figure moving. At the moment, his eyes were closed; his ability to hear movements via wind that he had obtained when he was blind had not deteriorated. His body suddenly exploded to its full potential. He suddenly flipped his hand out and stabbed out with his hand, forming a blade. Although he had seeming to merely slash out through the air with his hand, there was a thunderous rumble, and a blade of air suddenly rushed towards Gu Qingluo.
Gu Qingluo was extremely shocked. She, too, activated her Snaking Mist Steps, and the blade of air flew past her, striking a nearby tree. The tree shook violently.
"You’re an Origin Qi Scholar?" Gu Qingluo blurted out.
Last time he had returned, Su Chen had seen Gu Qingluo a few times. However, he never revealed the fact that he was now an Origin Qi Scholar. Now that three more months had gone by, he could admit that he was an Origin Qi Scholar. Although his speed was faster than normal, it was not much different and could be acceptable.
"No wonder your Snaking Mist Steps improved so much. Now you have discovered the uncommon aspects of the Snaking Mist Steps, right?" Gu Qingluo said with her hands behind her back, extremely pleased with herself.
"Miss Gu’s Snaking Mist Steps definitely are uncommon. I would know this even if I wasn’t an Origin Qi Scholar," Su Chen laughed.
"Hmph." Gu Qingluo rolled her eyes at him.
The two of them sat and chatted idly for awhile before Gu Qingluo said, "I came to find you because I’ve found some information about the Spirit Burying Terrace."
"Don’t tell me, let me guess. First, this Spirit Burying Terrace is the name of a certain location, right?" Su Chen said.
"Correct."
"In addition, it should be somewhere in Northface City, right?"
"Hey, how did you know that?" Gu Qingluo asked with curiosity.
Su Chen replied, "Because Old Sang was trying to use Lin Xie. Lin Xie is n.o.body important. Trying to specifically talk to him about this matter means that he must be useful in some way. After all, he is only part of the Lin Clan, a strength confined only to Northface City. Thus, I estimate that the Spirit Burying Terrace is very likely somewhere in Northface City."
"Clever," Gu Qingluo laughed as she clapped her hands. "Continue."
"Thirdly, it should be an ancient ruin."
"How did you know that?"
"Because in the current seven human kingdoms, there is no Spirit Burying Terrace."
After his vision had returned, Su Chen had thumbed through ancient records, searching through all the different kingdoms. However, he never found a place known as a Spirit Burying Terrace. Upon discovering that the organization was the Immortal Temple, Su Chen realized that this could be an old name for it; however, he had no way of
Most importantly, Su Chen knew that they were an Arcana Organization.
All Arcana Organizations had one thing in common, which was that they dreamed of restoring former glories, while overturning the current regimes.
They wanted the Arcana Kingdom’s glory to reappear. However, they did not use their own efforts and the Arcana Race’s previous experiments to recreate their inventions. Rather, they used various methods to uncover old Arcana artifacts and ruins, using them to find treasure stores.
Simply put, they were quite literally "reappearing" – they would dig up things hidden in the earth for tens of thousands of years, hoping that they would prove useful.
Thus, as soon as Su Chen knew their ident.i.ties, he also knew what they would do. Guessing their target was not hard at all.
Gu Qingluo didn’t know this piece of information. Perhaps even if she had, she might not have been able to guess it. Thus, her gaze towards Su Chen was filled with respect and even a little admiration, although Miss Gu would not admit it herself.
"You’re pretty good. You were actually able to guess it."
"This is only the big picture. Tell me a little bit about the details," Su Chen replied.
"I found it in a history book. The Spirit Burying terrace was created during the Prosperous Emperor’s time."
In the year 16700 of the New Star Era, the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty’s emperor died. His twenty-four sons began battling for the throne. The twelfth son, Gu Hongjin, obtained the throne with the support of General Lin Zhonghui. He was known as the Prosperous Emperor.
Immediately afterwards, the Prosperous Emperor killed all of his brothers, then promoted Lin Zhonghui to Grand Marshal.
The Prosperous Emperor strove to achieve many great deeds.
In the year 17200 of the New Star Era, the Prosperous Emperor broke the "Western Mountain Peace Treaty", going to war with the Feathered Race. Lin Zhonghui slaughtered five hundred thousand Feathered Race soldiers.
In the year 18400 of the New Star Era, the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty entered the Eastern Seas, making the Ocean Race extremely unhappy.
In the year 19000 of the Chaos Era, the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty sent soldiers to their northern borders to do battle against the Ferocious Race. Lin Zhonghui wiped the floor with the Ferocious Race’s troops using their military prowess. When the large army reached the Carnage Springs, the Ferocious Race were down to their last troops. In the Carnage Spring Battle, the Ferocious Race’s General Cleo Blackfox traversed the Ten Thousand Flat Mountains with the help of the Feathered Race and attacked the human race from behind. The human race suffered a great defeat. Lin Zhonghui died not long after returning to the dynasty.
The defeat at Carnage Springs severely decreased the strength of the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty, causing it to enter a period of weakness. They lost control of their southern and central territories, reducing their number of territories from forty eight to forty two.
In the year 19200 of the New Star Era, the Prosperous Emperor died. His son, Gu Yangsheng, ascended to the throne, and was known as the Peaceful Emperor.
The Peaceful Emperor had no ability and no heart for controlling the government. He relied on ten powerful ministers to run the country for him.
Chancellor Luo Yucheng pretended to act on imperial orders and killed famous general Li Ze, shaking the nation. The Peaceful Emperor executed all ten of his ministers.
Afterwards, Giant Beasts raided the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty, who had no one to left to defend themselves. Under the havoc caused by the Giant Beasts, they lost another three territories.
The Ferocious Race took advantage of the situation and struck. Humankind was no longer their opponent, and they surrendered another four territories to placate their enemies. The Ferocious Race then returned to the west, back to the Harvey Plains.
In the year 21000 of the New Star Era, the Successor Emperor ascended to the throne. This person loved to flatter himself, and gave himself many different names during his rule. In the meantime, Chancellor Chen Liuma began to gain power.
Not long afterwards, the Spirit Race made a move to take away the Light Shelter Source.
The Ocean Race took back the two territories in the Western Seas. The Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty was losing kingdom treasures and soil consecutively, resulting in many uprisings and revolts. Now, there were only thirty one territories remaining.
The Successor Emperor could not handle the burden and died an early death.
In the year 22400 of the New Star Era, the Glorious Emperor ascended to the throne. He was the final great emperor of the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty. His temperament was extremely ruthless, and he was an incomparably bloodthirsty person.
In the year 23000 of the New Star Era, the Glorious Emperor killed the Cheng Clan Patriarch, inciting public outrage. This resulted in a "Change in Imperial Support". The Glorious Emperor was stabbed, and the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty ceased to exist.
The Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty had a total of ten emperors before ceasing to exist. The last four emperors were known as the "Dynasty Downfall Four Emperors: Prosperous, Peaceful, Successor, Glorious".
The Prosperous Emperor was the first of the Dynasty Downfall Four Emperors.
Unlike the other three emperors, he had taken control of the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty at its peak. However, because of his ambition and militant att.i.tude, he was the prime catalyst for the decline of the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty. Simply put, he was the first culprit in the downfall of the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty.
Countless people after him would spurn his actions. Because of this, even in the history textbooks of the Seven Kingdoms, the Prosperous Emperor’s acts were criticized, attempting as much as possible to restore the truth about the life of this first Dynasty Downfall Emperor.
Upon hearing that the Spirit Burying Terrace was created by the Prosperous Emperor, Su Chen was slightly stunned. "So it’s not an Arcana ruin?"
"Hm? Why do you think it’s an Arcana ruin?" Gu Qingluo asked, her eyes wide.
"Oh…… I just felt that the more ancient it was the better," Su Chen carelessly replied.
Su Chen learned from Gu Qingluo that during the Prosperous Emperor’s reign, there had been turmoil that exploded in this region. Because it was so sudden, many people from the Ill.u.s.trious Divine Dynasty died. Later, a general personally quashed the chaos. In order to appease the families of those who had died, he had built the Spirit Burying Terrace as a tomb for their spirits.
In plain words, the Spirit Burying Terrace was a large tomb.
"Do you know where the chaos originated from?" Su Chen asked.
Gu Qingluo tilted her head and thought for a moment before responding, "I think it was because some shady organization’s head was caught. Thus, members of that organization organized a jailbreak. I am not too clear about the exact circ.u.mstances."