Chapter 1088: Metal Corpses
The girls dug out this corpse. To be exact, it was a corpse made out of metal. It was very similar to the Mortal Monarch who had an iron-cast body. Each part of the body was made from exquisite parts in a truly breathtaking manner.
However, there was one difference between this metal corpse and the monarch. The monarch had a human head with flesh and blood while the head of this corpse was made from metal. Its skull was even more meticulous and awe-inspiring. It was simply the epitome of craftsmanship.
No cultivators could create such an exquisite skull. Furthermore, this corpse was much bigger than the Mortal Monarch. If the monarch was a growing boy, then this corpse was a mature adult.
The girls glanced at each other after fully digging out this metal corpse. They had seen the monarch before and felt that his body was incredible. Some thought that he was the only one in this world with such a unique constitution. However, they managed to find a body so incredibly similar to his in this lost civilization.
"There are more down there." Bai Jianzhen noticed that there were even more corpses underground and got started right away.
They were experts who could move mountains and flip oceans. In the blink of an eye, these metal corpses were all excavated. There were dozens of them, not just one.
The girls were perplexed and ended up staring at Li Qiye. During this whole process, Li Qiye only stood there and watched without being surprised at all; it was as if everything was within his expectations.
Li Shuangyan had to ask while looking at the corpses: "Is the Mortal Monarch related to this lost civilization?"
Li Qiye looked at the corpses. After a while, he looked away while answering: "Maybe, but one can argue otherwise as well."
"What do you mean by that?" The knowledgeable Mei Suyao found the answer too cryptic.
Li Qiye glanced into the far distance and said: "In a sense, the Mortal Monarch was born in this era. However, he also has nothing to do with this era."
"He has lived from this lost civilization all the way until now?" This was the most shocking thing the girls had heard yet.
Li Qiye gently shook his head and smiled: "It is impossible to live for that long with regular means. At a young age, the Mortal Monarch was imprisoned in the darkness and banished for an eternity. Even so, when he saw the sunlight again, he was on the brink of death."
Li Qiye left out the tales afterward. When he found the Mortal Monarch back then, the monarch was already halfway to hell. Li Qiye used extremely heaven-defying means to save him. Because of this, the monarch had a humanoid head.
"Just what is this lost civilization?" Mei Suyao was very curious about this mythical era.
Li Qiye said: "Who knows? The Mortal Monarch doesn't either because he doesn't have any memories of it."
Mei Suyao was about to say something else, but she refrained from doing so. She knew that even if the Mortal Monarch didn't know, Li Qiye certainly did.
"Okay, ladies, we have to keep going. We probably still have a long way to go." He smiled at the group.
They continued on the road. It seemed like Li Qiye knew where he was going since he was only going straight. From the beginning, the girls thought that this place was only a desert, but they soon found out that this wasn't the case.
Not long after, they saw a huge citadel in this vast desert world, a citadel made out of metal.
Judging by its appearance, it was very similar to the fortress that the Insect Pipe transformed into. Who knows what kind of metals made up this great citadel. In terms of construction, it resembled an iron man as it was made from countless tiny pieces.
From an architectural perspective, this incredible citadel should be towering all the way into the sky. However, it was collapsed on top of the golden sand. Looking around, one would find broken parts scattered everywhere.
Chen Baojiao carefully looked at it and murmured: "It was burned down."
From the crumbling ruins, this citadel must have been incinerated by an extremely ferocious fire of an unimaginable scale.
"Not just ordinary flames, it must at least be of the heavenly flame level." Mei Suyao noticed some clues.
Li Qiye only gave it a glance and didn't say anything. He led the girls onward.
The even more astonishing matter came after as they went further into this land. They saw an iron man, an extremely gigantic one of an unbelievable height. He was as big as a mountain with billions of exquisite parts placed together.
Also, there wasn't just one gigantic iron man, there were several hundred! This scene gave off the feeling that one was entering a forest of metal, resulting in an indescribable sensation.
The majority of these iron men were destroyed. Some were split into two halves, others were penetrated at the chest. Some were torn into little pieces, but of course, there were still some completely intact…
Regardless of their form, none of them were alive. They did not fall down on the ground as they were supporting their bodies with mighty divine swords.
Without a doubt, they had experienced a terrible war while they were still alive. There was even a chance that this once-prosperous land was broken into little pieces and became submerged in sand later on.
"Just what exactly are these iron men?" Chen Baojiao spoke in awe.
"They were fighting to the very last moment! I'm afraid when they fell, their world was destroyed as well." Bai Jianzhen was visually moved as well.
From the situation ahead, one could imagine the horrifying calamity that fell upon their era. Every single existence in this world stood up and fought to the very end. Alas, their valiant effort still couldn't save their world.
Li Qiye looked at one of the giants and slowly stated: "They're extremely powerful. In the present day, they would still be at the level of God-Monarchs or Godkings."
The group kept on going. Along the way, the girls saw even more ruins of citadels buried in the sand as well as fallen metal giants. Many of them were completely broken.
The biggest iron man they saw was half buried underground. The parts that could be seen spanned for thousands of miles. From this, it was easy to imagine just how large it was when it was still alive.
"If placed in the present, it would be extremely close to an Immortal Emperor if it wasn't already at that level. An Emperor Assailant at the very least." Li Qiye gave a quick glance and made his assessment.
After hearing this, the girls were shocked once again. Li Shuangyan was astounded: "Just what kind of era was this!"
"An era that had reached the peak of prosperity from the accumulation of millions and millions of years. There were too many experts to count." Li Qiye said dismissively: "An era completely different from ours. The path they walked is completely different from us cultivators."
"In the end, they were still destroyed." Mei Suyao muttered: "What are they really? Just what kind of enemies did they face for an entire world like this to be destroyed?"
"Did they meet a formidable enemy like an Immortal Emperor?" Bai Jianzhen had to ask.
"Immortal Emperor?" Li Qiye chuckled and shook his head: "If my guess is correct, their world had existences as powerful as Immortal Emperors, and not just one. However, even beings of this level couldn't save this world."
The girls felt breathless after hearing Li Qiye. Even a confident person like Mei Suyao felt quite suffocated.
In their minds, Immortal Emperors were invincible. This was the belief that everyone held. But now, even a world protected by Immortal Emperors was still annihilated in the end!
"Aren't emperors supposed to be the strongest?" It was Chen Baojiao's turn to ask: "There are existences even stronger than them?"
"There is no doubt that Immortal Emperors are the strongest." Li Qiye flatly said: "However, this is limited to the world of the living, the world of sentient beings."
"Then you mean there is a world of the dead?" Li Shuangyan followed the logic of his response.
"World of the dead?" Li Qiye shook his head: "I don't know if there is a world of the dead or not. Sometimes, the things Immortal Emperors will have to face aren't necessarily people. To be more specific, they might not be living beings and could be something else entirely."
"Like what?" Bai Jianzhen couldn't help but ask: "Like the existence that destroyed this world?"
Li Qiye didn't answer directly. He looked up at the distant sky and eventually spoke: "One day, you all will understand. Of course, this is predicated on you all being strong enough to see that day." Li Qiye turned back and stared at the girls: "Thus, you all still have a long way to go. When you actually become an existence like an Immortal Emperor in the future… that is only the beginning."
The girls felt a pressure right away from realizing how weak they were. Even though very few could stop them among the younger generation, they felt that they were quite trivial in the grand scheme of things.
Chapter 1089: Tiny Old Man
The excursion continued. Outside of ruins and metallic corpses, the rest was all yellow sand.
There were no rocky elevations in this world, let alone a scene of verdant hills and green water. Not to mention finding life in such a world, there were no traces of little blades of grass!
It was only silence and nothingness. The only thing that acted as a reminder of their existence was the occasional breeze slowly blowing by accompanied with hot sand. If it wasn't for this, they would be wondering if they were dead already.
This world was oppressive to a suffocating level. The girls had experienced harsh training before; they had been to even more dangerous locations than this.
For cultivators, crossing a desert was truly too ordinary. But today, they felt quite oppressed. Despite their firm dao hearts, walking through this world of golden sand left them in a weaker state.
In the past, no matter how dangerous their training locations were, there was hope that after leaving, they would come to see the wonderful nine worlds.
However, walking in this golden world left them the feeling that there was no end, only ruins and sand! The initial shock from seeing fallen iron men and ruins was gone after they continued onward since they had grown numb to it.
They traveled quite far and eventually reached a place where there were only shattered ruins in sight.
This particular citadel was the largest that they had seen so far. It spanned boundlessly as far as the eye could see. The sunlight always hit either the scattered parts on the ground or the collapsed walls due to their proliferation.
This metal citadel's sheer size exceeded everyone's imaginations. Perhaps even the largest city they had been to was not as big as this citadel.
Li Qiye glanced over this site with no end and murmured: "It should be this place."
Li Shuangyan asked: "Did we come here to look for something?"
He slowly answered with a focused look: "We are searching for an item in the legends, something that has never been seen before."
With that, he entered the ruins to search with the girls right behind him.
In fact, Li Qiye didn't really know what he was looking for because the records about this era had sunken into the river of time. He spent countless moons and flipped over all the ancient sites in the nine heavens to finally understand a little bit about this world.
Traveling in this ruins gave the feeling of walking in a world of metal. Outside of the sand, there were little metallic parts everywhere.
After walking for a long time, they finally came to a place that slightly resembled a palace. Despite its broken state, one could still see how sacred and extravagant it used to be.
"It's just ahead." Li Qiye's heart skipped a beat after seeing a high platform in front of him. This was exactly the same as what the ancient carving he had seen long ago depicted. He rushed forward with haste while the girls kept up.
After rushing up the platform, the first thing he saw was three green leaves.
Having been in this world for so long, this was their first time seeing the greenness of vegetation. This made them feel jubilated, as if they had come across an oasis in the dried desert. It was something that couldn't be described with words.
The three leaves were growing on top of a withered tree. This tree was supposed to be quite large, but it was destroyed by something and only a three-foot tall body remained. It was not overly thick and its cracked bark looked just like dragon scales. It was an extraordinary sight to behold.
However, such an incredible ancient tree was on the verge of death. The broken tree had withered. Even the three leaves hanging on its body were quite languish, as if they could fade away from existence at any moment.
What was even more shocking to the girls was that there was a person lying under the old tree. It was a tiny old man with a body only around the size of an adolescent boy.
His arms were quite long and seemed out of place compared to the rest of his body. His head was large as well, making people question whether his body could support it. His eyes were big even though they were closed.
His body had dried up with only his skin covering his bones. One couldn't see any signs of life coming from this old man. Who knows how long he had been dead for?
Li Shuangyan and the others were surprised to see this kind of corpse and exchanged glances with each other.
They wouldn't pay any mind if they saw this corpse in the outside world because it would be a very common occurrence — nothing shocking at all.
However, in a destroyed world that consisted of metal beings, it was astonishing to see a corpse so similar to a human.
Li Qiye pointed his finger at the old man's forehead. A very small universal law traveled inside.
At this second, the old man suddenly opened his big eyes in a feeble manner. Even though it was only a small squint, one still felt that powerful glare within. Such a scene startled the girls.
"Someone has finally come." The tiny old man spoke, but he was not speaking with his mouth. He was using his divine intent; this was a method of communication everyone could understand.
The dying old man didn't even have the strength to breathe. His eyes glanced over Li Qiye real fast as his divine intent spoke feebly: "I was wrong, I was wrong… I was the one who destroyed the entire Machine World…"
With that, the old man almost couldn't speak any further. He was definitely dead and only had one final breath. It was Li Qiye who prolonged this moment.
"Careful… careful… counterattack…" Eventually, the tiny man took spent his last breath to say this. His eyes closed afterward as he parted from this world.
At this time, his right hand slowly loosened to reveal an item that he had been gripping the entire time. He finally revealed it for Li Qiye to see.
"Can we save him?" Mei Suyao asked. This old man definitely knew many things.
Li Qiye gently shook his head: "Even if there were immortals in this world, they still wouldn't be able to save him. He only persisted until now to say that one phrase."
"Right, and by completely relying on this tree as well." His eyes fell on the tree that the old man was leaning on.
He shifted his eyes to the item in the old man's hand and reached out to take it.
It was not big and seemed to be made from ancient bronze. It looked a bit like a pocket watch that was assembled with many exquisite pieces in an indescribable manner. No one in this world could create such an item.
"What is that?" Bai Jianzhen asked. The old man was gripping this item the entire time. This made it apparent of its unfathomable value.
Li Qiye carefully looked at it, but there was suddenly an impact in his fate palace.
"Buzz!" Li Qiye opened his palace and something flew out from inside. It was the Myriad Star Egg that had always been in his thirteenth palace. It immediately went for the item in his hand, seemingly wanting to take it from Li Qiye. 1
He immediately grabbed the egg and slowly said: "Want this treasure? Not so fast…"
The girls found this scene quite strange as well. They didn't know the origin of the egg and why it wanted this item.
The egg was not happy with being held by Li Qiye. It shook quite violently as if it wanted to fly out from his suppression.
Li Qiye slowly said: "Don't play with me, my temper is much worse than yours. I'm allowing you to be arrogant in my fate palace because you have some value to me. However, if you anger me, I'll cook you!"
Eventually, the stone egg began to calm down. An existence like it knew that Li Qiye's words were more than just a threat!
He glanced at the egg. Until now, the egg didn't want anything, but it seemed to have a great desire for this item.
Li Qiye looked back at the treasure in his hand and asked: "You want this thing?" He had a general knowledge of this item. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spent so much time in the Machine World.
The stone egg quaked once to convey its intent clearly.
The egg/stone from the Heavenly Corpse Burial Ground. ↩