“No wonder so many Mu Ya Crystals appeared beneath Mist Island. Ancient ruins really are the fastest path to wealth. Hong discovered several ruins, and that made him the richest person on Earth. He was even able to build his own intelligent fighter aircraft.”
At once, the black membrane covering Luo Feng’s body flowed over him, enveloping him completely.
This ruin was enormous.
He would have to enter it personally if he wanted to explore every part.
“You can’t catch a wolf without risking the bait.”
With a thought, the Soaring Shuttle instantly transformed into the Mountain Shield, while the blade fragment floated nearby.
Narrowing his eyes, Luo Feng quietly stepped towards the hatch.
Beyond it was a passage around twelve metres wide and eight metres high. At the end of the passage was a broad corridor extending both left and right.
“Mu Ya Crystals.”
Luo Feng looked down.
Scattered across the floor at the entrance lay clusters of crystals emitting faint white halos.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
There were so many that they formed a dense pile. The rich fragrance of rice filled the air the moment Luo Feng stepped through the hatch, almost taking his breath away.
Squatting down, he quickly gathered the floating cluster of Mu Ya Crystals one by one and placed them into the black backpack on his back.
As he picked them up, he counted them.
“Two hundred and eighty nine.”
Placing the final Mu Ya Crystal into his backpack, Luo Feng could still feel his heart pounding like a heavy hammer striking a drum.
“Over the past three days, all the forces on Earth have publicly found only forty two Mu Ya Crystals combined. Even counting those that weren’t announced, the total is probably only around sixty.”
He estimated the number.
Every single Mu Ya Crystal represented an enormous fortune to humanity.
Hong had probably obtained around ten of them and had already been overjoyed. He had even offered Luo Feng and the others a price of twenty stars for each crystal.
And now…
Luo Feng had picked up two hundred and eighty nine of them just outside the hatch.
Far more than everyone else on Earth combined.
“This must be where the Mu Ya Crystals were stored. Naturally there wouldn’t be many scattered outside.”
“There are already two hundred and eighty nine at the entrance. I wonder what lies further inside.”
He was filled with anticipation.
An ancient civilisation ruin could not possibly contain only Mu Ya Crystals.
However, the sheer number lying at the entrance proved one thing.
This ancient civilisation ruin had once possessed extraordinary wealth, far greater than most of the ruins previously discovered on Earth.
Following the entrance passage, Luo Feng carefully moved forwards.
The floor was already covered with a thick layer of dust.
At the end of the entrance passage was the wide corridor stretching left and right.
The moment Luo Feng stepped into the intersection and looked left and right, he froze.
“Th… that’s…”
In the corridor to his left, the walls were made from a strange metal.
Yet nine enormous fist shaped dents had been punched deeply into them.
Resting against one side of the corridor lay the huge body of a giant creature.
“Auxiliary processor, analyse.”
Luo Feng immediately aimed his auxiliary processor at the corpse.
“Target shows no signs of life. Confirmed deceased.”
The words appeared on the display.
It really was a corpse.
Holding his breath, Luo Feng examined it carefully.
Its skin was pitch black, its arms enormously thick, and it wore a suit of armour covered with intricate patterns.
Those patterns were incomparably more complicated than those on the Soaring Shuttle.
It also wore a pair of special gauntlets over its fists.
Its crimson eyes remained wide open.
“My God.”
The instant Luo Feng’s gaze met those eyes, his heart trembled uncontrollably.
It felt like an ant standing before a dragon.
No.
More accurately, it was like an ordinary mortal standing before Pangu, the legendary creator of heaven and earth.
Even though it had long since died, even though its eyes no longer possessed their former brilliance, and even though countless years had passed…
The tiny remnant of its aura still made Luo Feng’s heart shudder.
Cold sweat instantly covered his forehead and back.
“Just what level of powerhouse was this? It’s terrifying.”
Luo Feng inhaled sharply.
“Stay calm.”
“Stay calm.”
He discovered that he simply could not meet the corpse’s eyes.
The moment he did, no matter how much he tried to steady himself, uncontrollable fear overwhelmed him.
It was fear born from the difference in the very level of life itself.
No amount of willpower could overcome it.
“Don’t look into its eyes.”
Gradually calming himself, Luo Feng shifted his gaze away from the eyes and continued observing.
“It’s probably around eight metres tall. At first glance it resembles a giant gorilla, but its skin is completely smooth, without a single hair.”
“Judging by the surroundings, it must have died countless years ago.”
“But its skin and hair haven’t rotted or dried up at all. It still looks alive.”
Had the corpse not been covered in dust, Luo Feng might have believed it had only recently died.
“There don’t seem to be any wounds on it. So how did it die?”
After observing it for a long time, Luo Feng could only shake his head.
He simply could not figure it out.
“I’ll continue further inside first.”
Rather than examining the corpse immediately, Luo Feng walked past it and continued along the broad corridor.
Several side passages branched off along the way, but he remained on the widest path.
After walking roughly three hundred metres, the corridor curved before opening onto a massive doorway.
The door was over ten metres wide and more than ten metres high.
It too stood half open.
“This is…”
Making as little noise as possible, Luo Feng stepped through the doorway.
“Heavens.”
He could not help taking a deep breath.
Before him stood a magnificent semi circular hall, dozens of metres high and nearly two hundred metres in both length and width.
What shocked him most was that there were five bizarre corpses lying inside.
No.
To be precise, there were six.
Using the auxiliary processor, Luo Feng confirmed that none of them showed any signs of life.
Five of the bodies were perfectly preserved, showing no trace of decay whatsoever.
Only the sixth had decomposed, leaving behind nothing but golden bones, while its flesh and hair had long since turned to dust.
“These six corpses…”
Luo Feng examined each carefully.
One of them closely resembled the corpse near the entrance, though slightly smaller.
It stood around six metres tall and resembled an enormous gorilla.
It knelt halfway on the ground.
Its armour was badly damaged, and its body was covered with terrifying wounds.
Yet none of the wounds had decayed.
The second corpse resembled a human.
It was about four metres tall, covered in black scales, with a single horn growing from its forehead.
It also possessed a long scaled tail.
The third corpse also had a humanoid shape, but stood around six metres tall.
Its entire body resembled a tortoise shell.
It reminded Luo Feng of the Thing from the old American film Fantastic Four, except this being looked far more imposing.
The shell like plates gleamed with an oily sheen, fitting together as though forming an incredibly sophisticated suit of armour.
The fourth corpse looked exactly like a human from Earth.
Yellow skin.
Black hair.
A scar across its face.
It sat peacefully in a cross legged meditation posture, covered in dust.
“An Earthling? A Chinese person?”
Luo Feng stared at the fourth corpse, feeling both curiosity and regret.
He could sense that although the person had been dead for an unimaginably long time, the faint aura still lingering around the body was enough to make one’s heart tremble.
This had been a truly peerless powerhouse.
Far stronger than Hong or Thunder God.
Far stronger than Luo Feng himself.
And because the man looked almost identical to someone from China, Luo Feng felt all the more regret that he was already dead.
“And this fifth corpse?”
Luo Feng frowned.
Although the other four bodies all bore injuries, none appeared fatal.
The fifth corpse stood around five metres tall.
Its entire body was bronze purple, as though cast from solid metal.
A huge hole pierced straight through the centre of its chest, as though a hand had torn through it.
Strangely enough, inside the hole there were no internal organs.
Only the same bronze purple material.
“Is this even a living creature?”
Luo Feng shook his head.
“The sixth corpse seems the most normal.”
It stood around two metres tall.
Only the skeleton remained, its bones gleaming with a golden colour.
Most distinctive of all was the slightly curved horn growing from its skull, marking it as different from humans on Earth.
Six corpses here.
Together with the one at the entrance, there were seven in total.
Only one had decayed into golden bones.
The other six remained perfectly preserved, as though they had only recently died.
“If they all died at the same time, then the one reduced to golden bones has obviously been dead for an incredibly long time. So why haven’t the others decayed at all?”
Luo Feng was deeply puzzled.
Time was the greatest force of all.
How could any corpse remain untouched after so many years?
He looked around the hall.
It was completely empty.
Only occasional dents in the floor and ceiling hinted that a fierce battle had once taken place here.
Beep.
A sudden sound rang out.
“Hm?”
Luo Feng jumped in surprise.
The dim hall suddenly lit up.
Brilliant lights shone down from above, illuminating the entire chamber.
At the centre of the hall, strange beams converged and gradually formed a black holographic figure.
It was a child no more than one and a half metres tall.
Two horns protruded from its forehead.
Its eyes were crimson.
It wore a black robe.
“Luo Feng, you’ve finally arrived.”
The black robed child looked directly at him, a trace of joy visible in its crimson eyes.
“You are?”
Luo Feng watched the child cautiously.
The being was speaking Earth’s language.
Chinese.
And it even knew Luo Feng’s name.
“I’ve been waiting for you for fifty thousand years.”
The black robed child shook its head.
“The humans of your Earth possess truly poor aptitude. It took fifty thousand years before someone suitable finally appeared.”
“Fifty thousand years?”
Luo Feng was startled.
“You mean this ruin has been here for fifty thousand years? Then these people have all been dead for fifty thousand years as well?”
He pointed towards the six strange corpses around the hall.
“Yes.”
“They have been dead for fifty thousand years.”
The black robed child glanced at the corpses and sighed.
“They were all extraordinary figures among the endless universe, all immortal beings. Time itself paled before them. Even in death, their bodies remain forever incorruptible.”
“But once my master died, they too had to accompany him in death.”
The black robed child looked at Luo Feng.
“Luo Feng, come with me and pay your respects to my master.”