There were hundreds of corpses scattered throughout the hall. They were withered but hadn’t rotted. They were simply dried corpses.
They were humanoid in form, but they had a horn on their heads similar to a rhinoceros. The immense pressure filling this hall came from those horns.
After so many years, even divine weapons would corrode. But these corpses were still intact. That was enough to show just how terrifying devil kings were. It was hard to imagine just how powerful they were when they were alive.
However, even such terrifying existences had died here. Furthermore, there wasn’t the slightest mark on any of their bodies. The way they died was very strange.
As they carefully went around the corpses, Bai Shishi led them to the throne. Behind it was a giant statue.
The statue was three hundred meters tall. It was an elder sitting lotus style and forming hand seals. His eyes were half-closed, and there seemed to be divine light moving within them.
On top of his head was a starry river. This was the only completely intact existence within this hall.
It was unknown just how many tens of thousands of years had passed here. There was dust everywhere, but only this statue remained untouched by dust. It was as if it had passed through countless years untouched. They even sensed a sharp domineering air from it.
“The Starry River Sage?” Long Chen’s heart shook. He felt a strange sense of familiarity when he looked at this statue.
However, he didn’t know if this sense of familiarity came from the Starry River of the Sky Art or the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.
“Correct. He is the Starry River Sage, the creator of the Starry River of the Sky Art. He was an illustrious figure, having left behind many Dao doctrines throughout various lands of the immortal world. Who would have thought that the Jialin Immortal Land was actually his birthplace?” Bai Shishi nodded. She herself had jumped in shock when she first saw this statue.
The Starry River Sage was an extremely famous existence, and this statue was his inheritance statue. The reason it was untouched by dust was because his Dao doctrines had yet to be lost, so faith energy was still constantly flowing here. Perhaps that was why this palace and other things related to the Starry River Sage managed to be preserved.
Bai Shishi led them behind the statue. There was a staircase that actually led into the statue here.
Within the statue was a spirit pool. However, it had already dried up. All that remained was a bead at the core of the spirit pool, and mist swirled inside of the bead. Long Chen could sense pure faith energy inside of it.
This was the core of the divine statue, and all its faith energy was condensed inside of the bead. Just at that moment, Long Chen was shocked to find a skeleton on the side of the spirit pool. Those bones sparkled like jade and were covered in runes.
However, the skeleton’s posture was a bit strange. Its hands were in front of its chest. Long Chen then looked at Bai Shishi, and she took out a bone book and handed it to him.
“This was what it was holding. I can’t read what is written here.”
Long Chen received the bone book that was extremely heavy and cold. At this moment, he felt his soul shake. He didn’t know what material this bone book was made of, but it was absolutely terrifying.
However, if the bone book wasn’t this powerful, then it probably wouldn’t have managed to last after all this time.
Long Chen looked at it and was startled. “Jiuli immortal characters?”
Jiuli immortal characters were one of the most ancient characters in the immortal world. The human race’s history was split into the current era, ancient era, archaic era, immemorial era, desolate era, and the primal chaos era. The Jiuli immortal characters were created by the Jiuli race in the desolate era.
The current era referred to the past million years, and its historical records were very clear. As for the ancient era, it referred to one million to ten million years ago, and although there were historical records about it, many versions of the records were spread all over the world. There were several different records of the same matter, making it impossible to determine the truth.
As for the archaic era, that referred to ten million to one hundred million years ago. The history of this period was even more tangled and complicated. There was no longer any way to determine the truth of many of the things that came from that period.
The immemorial era and the desolate era’s history were practically just vague concepts. They couldn’t be calculated based on years.
It was only in the immemorial era that the human race set foot on the path of cultivation. Also, the cultivation techniques and Battle Skills of that time were all primitive and embryonic. Due to how much time had passed, everything was vague.
The desolate era was said to be a lawless time. The human race was still at the bottom of the food chain. There were no written records, only some murals that showed how difficult life was for the human race back then.
As for the Jiuli race, they had their own symbols passed down from generation to generation, which eventually developed through countless years. By the immemorial era, the symbols became a written language and were called Jiuli immortal characters.
Considering their ancient history that developed from ancient symbols, sometimes a single character could represent an entire inheritance. It could even be a bloodline symbol.
Those primitive Jiuli immortal characters could not be read by people in the current era. Furthermore, after another era, when the human race entered the archaic era, the Jiuli immortal characters once more transformed.
That was the third generation of Jiuli immortal characters. As for the current immortal world’s immortal characters, they were the seventh generation. In this era, those who could read sixth generation Jiuli immortal characters were very rare, let alone the third generation. That was why Bai Shishi couldn’t recognize them.
“You can read them?” Now it was Bai Shishi’s turn to be shocked.
The immortal characters had changed, and to go back generation after generation in an attempt to learn them was extremely taxing. Even Bai Shishi, who had once focused on learning these characters, had only learned them up to the fifth generation. She truly didn’t have the time or energy to learn the fourth generation characters.
As for these Jiuli immortal characters, she could barely recognize them to be of the third generation, but she didn’t know a single one of them. She was truly shocked.
“I know a bit,” said Long Chen.
“Can you read it?” asked Bai Shishi.
“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Long Chen read through the contents before slowly saying, “Calamity has struck today. The Starry River Sect cannot escape this tribulation. The sect master died in battle, and every single one of our experts has perished. I drew our enemies to the ancestral palace, using my blood soul to activate the Starry River Grand Formation to wipe them out along with myself. The Morning Dao World will now fall within the cracks of the ten thousand worlds. Disciple is too unworthy and powerless to restore the Starry River inheritance. I feel regret, pity, and hatred. If the heavens are assisting the Starry River Sect, then someone brought here by destiny can inherit the Starry River legacy. Using my bones, open the underground gate and subdue the Heaven Merging Stone Spirit…”
The characters ended there. This person had clearly not finished writing before dying. As soon as Long Chen was done reading, the ancient bone book in his hand turned to dust that slowly dissipated until it was gone.
“Jiuli immortal characters are truly terrifying. That bone was not some powerful existence. It was the characters that preserved it,” said Long Chen, sighing.
Legend was that the most primeval Jiuli immortal characters could allow one to see through the mysteries of heaven and earth, to reach an undying realm and never age. For even third generation Jiuli immortal characters to have such power, it seemed that this legend was not completely unfounded.
“Let’s go down.”
After a moment’s shock, Bai Shishi instructed people to take that person’s skeleton. They followed the path down below the divine statue.
