58. Approaching the Truth
“What about the rest of the records?”
Gong Yiling, eager to know what happened next, couldn’t help but ask.
After all, Murong Yun had only translated about half of the ancient characters.
However, as she continued to read, her body suddenly trembled, and she stumbled, almost fainting.
Fortunately, Old Mr. Mu, who was also interested in these ancient texts, caught her in time.
“Chuyue.”
Almost as soon as Gong Yiling spoke, Yan Chuyue had already stepped forward and taken Murong Yun’s pulse.
However, her pulse was not normal. Yan Chuyue, after a careful examination, didn’t find any major abnormalities.
“No good.” Yan Chuyue turned and shook her head at Gong Yiling. “The princess’s condition is too complicated. I can’t find anything with ordinary methods.”
“Then let’s leave it at that.” Miss Gong said, “The first floor probably won’t tell the whole story. And with this beginning, the subsequent murals should be easier to understand.”
She had said this after looking at the murals. Based on the flamboyant patterns and Murong Yun’s earlier explanation, she could roughly see…
This Heavenly Evil, after infecting a large number of people with its evil thoughts, had caused a terrible slaughter in this world.
Countless people died at the hands of their own friends and family, and every day, tragedies like patricide and filicide occurred. In just a few months, nearly a third of the continent’s population had died.
The murals on this floor ended here.
In the final mural, black clouds covered the sky, and a shapeless thing faced a towering pagoda. Before the pagoda stood a man in a crown and dragon robes, holding a golden longsword.
Between the two powers, a decisive battle was inevitable, a battle that would determine the fate of this continent.
“Of course,” as they walked up the wooden staircase, Gong Yiling shared her guess, “the final victor must have been that emperor.”
Xuan Lingling muttered, “How do you know? Did you guess?”
“Do I even need to guess?” Gong Yiling rubbed her forehead. “If that Heavenly Evil had won, this continent would probably no longer exist.”
“It’s just… what did that emperor do to win that duel?”
This question made both Yan Chuyue and Gong Yiling ponder, and even the silly Xuan Lingling puffed out her cheeks seriously.
Among them, only Murong Jing was not like this.
Because just now, while Gong Yiling was looking at the murals, Murong Jing had suddenly heard a voice.
When he heard this voice, he looked up at the others with some confusion. After confirming that only he could hear it, he began to pay attention to what it was saying.
Although the language used was one he could understand, the tone was extremely ethereal, and the voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz. He couldn’t understand it without concentrating fully.
And after listening carefully, he understood a few words.
—”Come to the seventh floor, and you will get everything you want.”
This sounded like a temptation. With Murong Jing’s experience, it wasn’t so easy to lure him.
However, he didn’t seem to have to pay anything. Whether the so-called “what he wanted” was what he really wanted or not, he had to go and see what it was.
As for the secrets of the ancient kingdom and the process of its fall, who would be interested in such useless things? He certainly wasn’t.
With their own thoughts, they walked up to the second floor. The appearance here was not much different from the first floor.
It was just as empty. Besides the central area, the circular staircase, and the murals and some written records on the walls, there was nothing else.
Of course, Miss Gong’s mind was not on anything else now. Even if she were given a full supply of materials, she wouldn’t even glance at them.
What she wanted to know was the content of these murals.
With the interpretation of the first floor, the murals on this second floor were also understandable.
At the beginning, the mural depicted a magnificent scene.
A golden dragon split the black mist, and a dazzling light rose from the earth, as if to pierce through the evil beast formed by the human heart.
However, the evil beast, which had not been defeated even with the full force of the entire country, how could it be defeated by one person?
Therefore, even though this emperor used a huge weapon specifically designed to deal with this evil beast, the battle quickly turned one-sided.
The vast capital was almost completely destroyed, with corpses everywhere. At the final moment, the princess who had previously fought the Heavenly Evil stood up again.
She and that emperor, using some unknown method, finally made all the power of that Heavenly Evil ghost enter her body, which allowed the sky and the earth to return to their original state.
And then, the content of the mural ended.
“It seems…” Gong Yiling frowned in thought. “They seem to have used some kind of sealing technique to seal that thing in the princess’s body.”
“But… after so much effort, they solved it with this method?” Yan Chuyue asked, “And the sealing technique shouldn’t be able to eradicate this thing. Where did this thing go later?”
Yes, that was all in the past, more than ten thousand years ago. The method they used should only be a temporary solution. Once that princess died, then this thing should reappear in this world, unless…
Unless—wait?
Just then, Gong Yiling suddenly thought of a possibility.
However, to turn this possibility into a real story, she still needed to find some decisive evidence.
But this evidence was not here. Perhaps it could be found on a higher floor.
“Chuyue, if I’m not mistaken, our trip here is actually a trap.”
“A trap?” Yan Chuyue asked, puzzled. “Whose trap? That emperor’s trap?”
“Although he’s smart, he’s not that smart.” Gong Yiling shook her head. “The only one who could set a trap in this place is the master of this place. Even that Murong Jing is a victim.”
At this point, she instinctively glanced at Murong Jing, but it was only then that she discovered…
Murong Jing was gone!?
