Chapter 160: Phantasmagoria of the Ancient Era
Three days later, under the Arctic Mountain Range.
Inside every tall glacial mountain was an ancient and enormous beast that had been frozen.
Those colossal beasts seemed to be roaring furiously or tearing at something before they were frozen. Some of the beasts had completely red eyes. Even in their frozen state, they caused one’s soul to shake.
“Tap tap!”
Qin Lie walked on thick ice. He raised his head to look at the icy peaks around him and the ancient beasts inside the mountains of ice.
There was an enormous python whose body was like a wandering mountain road that was frozen in the glacier. Other than the natural python patterns on its body, there were also silvery white scales. Each scale was the size of a palm and flashed with dazzling silver light within the ice. The brightness was uncomfortable for Qin Lie to look at.
The Ice Soul Python in the Arctic Mountain Range was about seven or eight meters. It was slightly similar to this enormous python, but their bodies were exponentially different in mass.
If an Ice Soul Python appeared here, compared to this enormous python, which was covered in silvery-white scales, it would be as adorable and small as an earthworm.
“The thirty-seventh colossal beast.”
Qin Lie respectfully turned his gaze away from the enormous python and walked forward as he calculated inside.
He had entered this place dozens of times, and every time he came, he would be amazed by the ancient, colossal beasts that were sealed within the ice. Compared to these, the spirit beasts of Arctic Mountain Range were not on the same level of size.
Qin Lie did not doubt that, if any of these ancient beasts could come alive and reach the surface, they could tear apart and consume all the spirit beasts in the Arctic Mountain Range in just a brief amount of time.
Including the Purple-eyed Flame Lion King that was the present beast king of the Arctic Mountain Range!
Dark Asura Hall, Seven Fiends Valley, Dark Shadow Tower, Purple Mist Sea, Cloud Sky Mountain, and even Armament Pavilion, if the experts of these seven Black Iron forces all came together, they still might not be able to kill the ancient beast.
This was an intuition that was unable to be verbalized.
A wave of pain suddenly came from the broken bones at his chest. Qin Lie slowed his steps and reflexively touched his chest.
The chest bones that had split under Black Shadow’s attack had not managed to completely heal. This kind of bone injury would need time to slowly recover.
Due to this, he had some free time on this trip here, and he wanted to see how many ancient beasts were actually sealed here. He wanted to see if he could find some clues from the ancient beasts’ bodies.
“They should be dead because I cannot feel any vibrations of life, and it seems their souls aren’t present.” As Qin Lie walked, he assured himself, “They cannot be alive. If they were alive and were to break through the seal of ice restraining them one day, escaping from this place…”
Qin Lie didn’t dare to continue that line of thinking any further.
He was certain if something like that really happened, then it would spell calamity for the entire Scarlet Tide Continent.
“This is the last one. In total, thirty-eight ancient beasts have been sealed here. This one is… huh?” Qin Lie came to the remotest place. Looking at the last mountain of ice, he suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
In the center of the enormous ice block, that was dozens of meters tall, was an enormous, grayish-yellow skeletal beast that had been frozen. The skeletal beast was shaped like an enormous primate and stood like a human. It had no flesh, skin, or sinew on its body, only bare bones that appeared like jade. Even the bone on the pinky toe was half the length of Qin Lie’s arm.
“It is not the body of the beast, just its skeleton. Of all thirty-eight glacial peaks, this is the only one with a skeleton inside.”
Qin Lie stopped and stood underneath this enormous skeleton. He reached out to touch the ice where the beast’s skeleton had been frozen.
The ice was cold as usual when he touched it. He was able to tolerate this kind of coldness because he had been working hard to cultivate Frost Arts. If it was someone else who touched this, their fingers would be frozen solid.
“Very cold, the feeling is the same as normal ice, there does not seem to be anything special,” Qin Lie concluded inwardly.
He would reach out to touch the ice that sealed every ancient beast to see if there was anything different about the ice that formed each of the thirty-eight glacial peaks.
The result was the same.
Shaking his head, Qin Lie pulled his hand away and then looked around at this unique beast skeleton and the enormous bones that composed it.
He did not discover anything special.
Disappointed, he sighed and took out the Eye of Frost in preparation to leave.
He gathered his mind to activate the switch in the Eye of Frost. His soul consciousness moved, and the Soul Suppressing Orb inside his brow suddenly gave off a strange burst of ripples.
Inside the bead, a blinding light shot out. The light flew towards the opening of the bead and was going to come out.
An enormous pain came from between his bows. Immediately after, the Soul Suppressing Orb was like a black eyeball that came out of the flesh at his brows. A dazzling light suddenly shot at the enormous skeleton in front of him.
“Boom!”
Countless bright yellow lights suddenly came from the enormous beast skeleton. The entire glacial mountain instantly lit up.
Qin Lie’s heart shook violently as he looked at the skeleton with amazement . He looked at the yellow light coming from the skeleton—those were an extremely ancient type of characters!
The enormous skeleton was monumental and made from hundreds of bones. Each bone was inscribed with that type of character.
Those ancient characters moved like earthworms and kept on giving off bright yellow light. An ancient and primitive aura spread. These kinds of earthworm-like ancient characters seemed like the characters first created by the beings of the ancient era. It gave off a mysterious, natural, simple, and grand feeling.
Looking at the characters on the bone, he felt as though he was in the Ancient Era, walking alone through the desolate mountains and swamps.
He felt that he had never seen these characters before, but for some reason when he focused, he found he recognized them!
“Records of Geocentric Magnetism!”
He turned and looked at the skeleton’s forehead. His eyes suddenly lit up and he couldn’t help but read out loud.
He really could read it!
“This is extremely odd. For as long as I recall, I have not encountered these characters before, how can I read it?” He was shocked by himself and then looked at other parts of the skeleton. “The Great Earth has spirit, the passages of the earth’s heart will never rest, feel the beating of the great earth, control the magnetic power of the earth’s core…”
Any section of ancient characters that he could see on the beast bone, he could also read!
“I know this, I definitely know this!” Qin Lie was stunned. He channelled the Frost Arts to calm himself down. He thought hard to think through why he could read these characters.
Dozens of seconds later, his body shook slightly and he shouted, “Ten years ago!”
“I learned these ancient characters ten years ago! The characters were imprinted into the deep recesses of my memory. Even if the memories of my past were erased, the things I learned will stay with me for the rest of my life!
He now understood.
Prior to ten years ago, he had definitely learned ancient characters such as these! The memory of these ancient characters were not the same as the memory of his past experiences. If he learned it, it could not be erased from his mind and would be almost unsealable.
It was similar to a child learning how to walk. This had become instinctive. No matter how chaotic the later memories were, this kind of instinct could not be erased.
“Records of Geocentric Magnetism, Records of Geocentric Magnetism…”
He calmed down and started to walk around the enormous skeleton inside the glacier to look at the ancient characters from every angle to memorize the unique art of “Records of Geocentric Magnetism.”
Between his brows, the Soul Suppressing Orb released light that illuminated every bone.
One hour later, something else happened.
A squiggly ancient character suddenly flew off one of the bones. Like a snowflake, it landed on Qin Lie’s shoulder and entered his body.
Also at this time, Qin Lie’s body froze, and his eyes became scattered.
After pausing for a moment, he immediately started to move again. The Soul Suppressing Orb was still casting light on the skeleton. He seemed to have entered an unknown state as he circled it.
Squiggly ancient characters turned to yellow snowflakes one after the other and landed on him.
Inside the glacier, the strange, squiggly ancient characters on the enormous skeleton disappeared one after the other.
When the characters on a bone all flew away, that bone instantly rusted, as though it had endured tens of thousands of years of decay. The jade-like bones suddenly became rotten wood and lost all of their light.
Qin Lie circled around the skeleton and was forced to accept the squiggly ancient characters, taking them away from these enormous bones.
A long time later, he suddenly sat down and slowly closed his eyes. The Soul Suppressing Orb in between his brows did not release any more light and retreated back into his flesh.
At this time, the beast’s remains next to him had lost their light. Each individual bone was dark gray, and it was possible to discern faint cracks.
—It seemed to have endured the corrosion and weathering of billions of years of wind.
Qin Lie was in a muddled state. He seemed to become a ghost that had gone to the ancient era and was looking down at the ground from the sky.
On the vast and endless ground, there were countless peaks that reached into the high clouds like enormous swords piercing the heart of the sky.
There were enormous ancient trees, thousands of meters tall, and their canopies covered parts of the sky. Within the ancient and dangerous forest, many unnameable, ancient beasts roared and squealed. They were moving mountains and twisting rivers as they roamed and killed others in the forest.
There were martial practitioners who were simply dressed that wandered in space. Seeing the sky fill up with meteors, they would reach out to catch them and put the meteors into their sleeves.
In the endless ocean, islands that were as large as continents would occasionally move. If he looked closely, it was some kind of enormous beast that floated out of the water and was consuming the energies of the sun and moon.
There was one dressed in golden armor, and when they stood up straight, their heads moved among the clouds. They dragged along enormous blades, thousands of meters long, as they proudly travelled the land.
As the enormous blade slid across the earth, it created long and curving rivers. The river water was formed from pure spirit energy and never dissipated.
Scene upon scene appeared in the vast world below. Qin Lie’s mind floated in space as he looked down at the ground, completely astounded.
An unknown amount of time later, his soul suddenly felt pain, and his mind suddenly woke up from that strange world.
“Hm?”
He instantly detected a change in his dantian’s spirit sea.
Focusing his attention, he found that two new Natal Palaces had appeared in his spirit sea.
These two were formed from bright yellow light. They were thick and weighty, giving off an earthen aura!
Squiggly characters were imprinted on the earthen-yellow balls and flashed as they spun.
It was the Records of Geocentric Magnetism that had flew out from the enormous bones.