Zhou Wen summoned the White Shadow of Poison, getting it to fly higher and cling towards the sapphire sky. He hoped to avoid the nine-headed dragon and successfully pass through the underground sea.
Zhou Wen kept staring at the surface of the sea but didn’t discover the terrifying shadow. Suddenly, a blue light flashed on the screen and the screen turned black. The blood-colored avatar died mysteriously.
What was that? Zhou Wen frowned as he looked at his phone. He only knew that the item wasn’t from the nine-headed dragon but from the sapphire sky.
Thankfully, we came on the strange vehicle. Otherwise, crossing the underground sea would have been extremely difficult. Just as Zhou Wen was about to restart the game, he heard Lu Yunxian, who was in charge of observing upfront, shout, “Land ahoy!”
Zhou Wen and Lu Ning stood up and saw that in the direction the strange vehicle was heading, a silver beach had indeed appeared. The sand there was whiter than any sand that Zhou Wen had seen before, like snow.
The strange vehicle touched shore and the wheels left two deep tracks on the beach as it continued forward.
As soon as they crossed the sea, a white desert appeared in front of him. It was as white as snow.
Zhou Wen originally imagined that the strange vehicle would continue on for a little while-at least an hour or two-just like how it was in the underground sea.
However, just as Zhou Wen sat down and was about to take out his phone to continue challenging the instance dungeons, he heard Lu Yunxian’s voice. “Young Master Wen, what do you think is that?”
Zhou Wen, who hadn’t even gotten comfortable, had no choice but to get up again. He looked deep into the desert and saw a flag-like object sticking out from the sand in the distance.
The reason it only looked like a flag was that the flag shaft was bent. It looked like a snake that had not lifted its body up straight. There was a piece of animal hide hanging on the top, black and tattered. Its shape resembled enlarged pants, ones that hadn’t been washed for centuries.
Zhou Wen focused his gaze and vaguely saw a symbol on the thing that looked like a pair of pants. However, without Truth Listener, his vision was clearly inferior to Lu Yunxian’s and Lu Ning’s.
Lu Ning’s expression changed slightly as she said in a strange voice, “I think I’ve seen the symbol on the flag before when Lord Alcohol took me into that stone temple.”
“What kind of symbol is it? Are you sure it’s the same?” Zhou Wen asked.
Lu Ning looked at it for a while longer, and when the vehicle got closer, she said, “There’s no mistake about that. It’s that symbol. It’s a triangular anchor. There’s also a long-haired woman’s side profile drawn on it. As the symbol looks very weird, I took a few more glances back then. It left quite a deep impression on me.”
A ship anchor with a woman’s side profile? Alarmed, Zhou Wen never expected to see it in such a place, having seen them before.
“Yes, although I don’t know who invented ship anchors or who the inventor is, according to history, it can’t have appeared recently. There must be large ships built before an anchor is needed. In Zhuolu myth, there are no stories with huge shops. So to have an anchor appear there naturally left a deep impression on me,” Lu Ning added.
“Could it have been carved after someone went in?” Lu Yunxian pondered.
“I had such thoughts too, but the pattern was specially engraved on a stone monument. Furthermore, the stone looked like it has been ravaged by thousands of years of history. It was rather indiscernible, so I doubt it was newly carved onto it. On second thought, it hasn’t been a century since the dimensional storms happened. The Zhuolu battlefield only appeared in recent years, so who could have entered the stone monument so early? Besides, it has to share the same architectural style as the stone temple. Even the materials and dating have to be uniform. That’s quite impossible,” Lu Ning said.
“It’s really quite impossible.” Zhou Wen nodded slightly, but his eyes remained fixed on the fluttering ragged pants. At that moment, he could tell that it was a piece of very tattered animal skin, but the anchor symbol was rather complete. Other than the difference in size, the anchor and the woman with the side profile were identical.
What’s the meaning of this woman anchor symbol? If this pattern existed in ancient times, then who’s its owner? The woman on the anchor? Zhou Wen guessed inwardly, but he had no answers.
The bent flag shaft was not a snake but a black ancient vine that looked curled.
“What’s that under the flag?” Lu Yunxian said while staring at the bottom of the vine flag.
Zhou Wen could only see a blob of grayish-black shadows, as though it was someone sitting there with a cloak draped over him.
When the strange vehicle got closer to the flag, Zhou Wen realized that it wasn’t a cloak. It was just a strange robe made of animal hide. It looked like a cloak due to the covering of the head.
As for the creature in the beast-hide robes, it was unknown what it was. All that was left were bones. The bones were crystalline and had a clear and flawless look. It formed a stark contrast to the crude hide.
Creak!
When they were less than ten meters away from the flag, the strange vehicle screeched to a halt. The puppet turned around and turned its face at the skeleton in the animal hide. It bent its back slightly as if it was giving a bow.
Why did it stop just like that? Zhou Wen looked around in puzzlement. There was a white desert around him. He didn’t see any stone temple, nor was there a fault cliff or Blood Threadworms. It didn’t look like the place Lu Ning had mentioned.
Lu Ning was also confused. The three of them waited for a while. When they realized that the vehicle had no intention of continuing and the puppet had stopped moving, they jumped out from the back of the vehicle. They approached the skeleton and looked at it and the vine flag.
There were no words on the ragged vine flag. The only thing there was the anchor symbol. There was nothing special about it.
“This is the Zhuolu battlefield. Do you think this vine flag is the flag of a particular race during the war?” Lu Yunxian asked.
Lu Ning shook her head slightly. “Although there are many different versions of the myth, some say that the Yellow Emperor race’s totem is that of a bear or dragon. The Chiyou race was said to be insects, bulls, or birds. Regardless of the version of the myth you subscribe to, their totems shared something in common. They were basically living beings, nothing dead, much less an anchor.”
“What you said makes sense. At that time, it should have been a period of nature worship. There shouldn’t be any artificial totems like anchors.” Lu Yunxian found his thoughts ridiculous.
As they were studying the area, the skeleton, that was motionless like an inanimate object, suddenly stood up. It gave the three of them a fright as they quickly retreated to summon their Companion Beasts and warily stared at it.
