In the pit, the Fuxi skeletons were dead quiet. Their heads were raised and their vacant eye sockets were staring at Zhong Yue.
They were already dead, but they seemed oblivious to that fact. They were still trying to escape, trying to fight!
Or to be precise, someone wanted them to do so, someone evil.
This evil existence knew the Fuxi died with deep resentment in their hearts. Even after death, their wills would linger in their bones and power in their skeletons would continue to fight even after death. Thus, the Fuxi skeletons were gathered together, and sealed in a pit so that their hatred and spiritual energy could be extracted.
The Fuxi Clan gods weren’t even spared from their suffering even after death, they weren’t even able to rest in peace. It was truly a tragic fate…
“I will save you all, my people. I promise you I will." Zhong Yue stood up and walked away as he mumbled, “Now that I am here, you will be able to rest in peace…”
Mother Da Zhen was not far away from Zhong Yue, she was following him while glancing around in fright. Even the sound of a gentle breeze was enough to scare her into hiding.
The strange events in the city had traumatized her. Although she knew that Zhong Yue was her enemy, she still chose to stay closer to Zhong Yue, as that gave her a sense of security.
After all, it was the unknown that struck the greatest fear in one’s soul.
The strange and peculiar experiences she been through in the city made her to lose confidence. But what she gained, however, was the knowledge of the existence of an unknown force that lingers in this damned city.
But now, even with her being a god, her dignity as one was nowhere to be found!
Zhong Yue moved past the pit and strode toward the center of the City of Nature. Along the way, he was counting softly, “One, two, three, four… there should be five and six as well. Many of the gods under the Bi Xie Celestial Emperor died along the way, but the true calamity was still in the center of the city. There, they triggered something and that was what killed them all. Then, it meant that, they must been to six…”
“I should be in one now, then the first strange occurrence should be two, then back to one, then three then one, four and one again. So, the next to come should be five.”
Mother Da Zhen was not far away, she heard him mumbling and was puzzled, “He’s really gone mad? What one, two, three, four, five and six? Why is he counting simple numbers and what is he talking about? Did the horrible deaths of his people make him lose his mind? What a sad child, if we live through this, I promise you I will treat you nicely, making you the vessel for my best insects…”
They were drawing nearer to the city square and the roads around were like a maze, it was as if they were walking inside of a giant’s intestines, or maybe they really are.
There was a series of faint drumming noises, growing louder as they walked closer. Even the surroundings were shuddering along with the noises.
“Five, it is coming!”
Zhong Yue slowed his pace and glanced around, there were many huge skeletons around them.
These skeletons were the gods under Bi Xie Celestial Emperor’s commands. They died here along the streets while running away from the city square.
Just how strong were the gods?
Despite their strength, they were still like children in the face of the unknown existence in the city. All of their cultivation was sucked dry from them, their flesh rotted away and their spiritual energy was extracted out away from the skeletons, leaving them as nothing but a pile of fragile bones.
They couldn’t even escape and died in the city, dying without a glimpse of hope.
Zhong Yue could tell just how terrified the gods were from the skeletons as their skulls were distorted from the terrified expressions on their faces before death. Some of their jaws were opened incredibly wide, these were the gods that shouted and died in despair and there were some that gritted their teeth so hard that it shattered into pieces.
Meanwhile, there was a few that sat in the lotus position, they accepted their fate and died in peace while some others tried to fight back, but their efforts were clearly in vain.
Zhong Yue glanced around and tried to find any useful hints from the skeletons. Moments later, a golden glint caught his attention — it was a book.
The book was forged from divine gold, but the spiritual energy had long disappeared. It was nothing more than just ordinary gold. However, the words in it remained, it was written in the common language between the gods, recording everything they had encountered in the City of Nature.
It was from a courier of the West Barren divine court, a historiographer that recorded everything that happened in their journey and expedition with great detail.
Zhong Yue read the book and found many useful clues from it.
The gods had indeed explored many ancient secrets buried in the passage of time.
One of these secrets was that they were under a heavenly decree to exterminate the rebels.
Here, they were faced with strong resistance from the natives of Ancestral Star and the rebels but were still able to successfully execute the order with the help of many strong figures—the rebels were exterminated and the curtain was raised for the rise of a new era, a new world.
However in the last battle, the resistance from the rebels was too great that Patriarch Nature was gravely wounded and the army of gods suffered a great loss as well.
Furthermore, the extermination of the rebels was too sensitive an issue. If the universe were to find out about it, the related faction would be pressured greatly. Thus, that great existence didn’t allow the gods to live on to tell the tale, even Patriarch Nature was no exception.
So the surviving gods were left on the Ancestral Star to bury themselves with the rebels.
As for Patriarch Nature, that great existence’s own son, he had killed and used himself as the last seal to suppress the rebels even after death.
Who is this great existence that sent Patriarch Nature? The rebels they had been referring to was no doubt the Fuxi Celestial Race, but why did they say it is not honorable to exterminate the ‘rebels’?
Zhong Yue was puzzled. Exterminating the Fuxi rebels would grant Patriarch Nature and his army with a great war contribution, but why were they not rewarded and instead, demanded to die as well?
What was even more puzzling was that all of the gods and Patriarch Nature were willing to follow the order this order to prevent the secret from leaking.
‘The honor and glory of an eternal empire is often built atop a mountain of corpses.’ The golden book summarized in the end.
The book also recorded that they fought in the battlefield, it was as if they time travelled back to the ancient Dark Age and battled in the war. Many of them were killed.
Zhong Yue was bestirred, he carefully read through the book.
Some of the gods were sent to the middle of the heated war, they fought with their lives and died from the hands of the gods; some were sent to the sides of the captivated war prisoners, they were captured and planted with the divine herbs, eventually dying in the end.
The third time, they met and clashed directly with the strong figures, more than half of the surviving gods died on the spot.
The fourth time, they boarded an underground bridge, below them was a spooky river with mysterious creatures swimming in it. They even saw the faces of their dead friends in the water.
The spooky river billowed over violently and carried them away. When they stood back on their feet and opened their eyes, they were already in a grand palace. A jury was sitting in the center of the palace and they were put to trial. Many of them were deemed guilty and sentenced to death on the spot.
After that, they suddenly return back in the city.
The surviving gods continued traipsing to the center of the city. There, they found another City of Nature.
That was where the records stopped, whatever had happened next wasn’t recorded anymore.
They found another City of Nature and died in the last strange incident…, Zhong Yue closed the book and pondered, The fifth incident recorded in the golden book was actually the sixth one. The bizarre light rays from the underground is also another strange occurrence, which they failed to notice. As for the underground bridge they are talking about, it should be at…
He raised his head and saw an underground tunnel in front of him. There were the cold breezes blowing out from the hole which was actually the mouth of an ancient statue.
The statue was a beast with a peculiar appearance. It had the body of a sheep, face of a human, and the teeth of a tiger.
Zhong Yue looked at it for a few moments, then walked into its mouth and down the stairs. Soon after, he could hear the sound of water and spotted a narrow bridge that was built across the sides of a river.
His vision was heavily obstructed in the City of Nature, the furthest he could see was only half of the river’s width,leaving him with no idea as to how wide the river was.
The same went for the bridge. Half of it was swallowed in the dark, making it to appear as if it was inexplicably hanging unsupported in mid air, resembling a direct path into the mouth of a dark beast — it was a truly eerie sight.
The only one that followed me here is Mother Da Zhen, with her still alive now, I shouldn’t be seeing any faces of the dead in the river, should I?
Zhong Yue thought and he walked onto the bridge, heading toward the other end.
Hua-la—
The spooky river started billowing harder, the water current flowed faster and the waves were higher. There were also some shadowy figures looming in the waters!
All of a sudden, Zhong Yue’s body shuddered. He saw a face slowly floating up from the water.
It was the face of an old man—the old Fuxi that told him to not be afraid in the desert!
Immediately after, the faces of the Fuxi gods followed behind. They were the Fuxi gods he had encountered in the strange incidents before!
They were struggling in the river, raising their hands up and reaching out for Zhong Yue.
The water waves surged higher and their hands could then reach closer to him. Zhong Yue was then able to to clearly see their faces when the water waves gushed higher into the air.
Abruptly, a huge wave gushed over, but Zhong Yue never tried to move at all, he stood still allowing the many hands to grab onto him as he was swallowed by the river water.
Zhong Yue was washed away from the bridge.
“Do you plead guilty?”
Before Zhong Yue opened his eyes, a solemn and sonorous voice rumbled in his ears. He opened his third eye and saw the grand palace the golden book mentioned. The ancient statue he saw before was sitting in the center as the jury and beneath it were the atmans of the Fuxi gods.
“Fuxi, I say, you are guilty!”
The human faced, sheep-bodied beast opened its hand and ate one of the Fuxi gods, chewing him like a piece of candy.
“Do you plead guilty?" The beast raised its finger and pointed at another Fuxi god, it asked.