On the southwest side of Pu Ban City was a mountain range with white rocks. The mountain range was not tremendous, as it extended for no more than thousand miles in length and five-hundred miles in width. Quiet valleys and caves could be found easily in this area; tall trees were rare, and sparse bushes covered the whole place.
In the core area of this mountain range was a deep valley. On both sides of the valley, ancient pines stood on the mountain sides, branches coiled by thick veins, and roots covered in moist mosses and large ganoderma mushrooms. The entire valley was suffused by the special herbal aroma of ganoderma mushroom.
Walking in through the valley, at the end of the ten-mile-long winding path was an extensive area. A series of buildings stood in this area. These buildings were all built with the special jade-like white rock from this mountain range.
Exposed in the wind and rain for countless years, the beautiful white rock surfaces were mottled and covered in cracks, which were filled with mosses. At first glance, these buildings looked like old bronze, dull and heavy, full of stories.
Walking past these buildings, one could see a regular sized entrance to a cave, on the mountainside at the end of the valley. From time to time, human beings with white, black and gray long shirts would silently walk in or out.
Inside the entrance was a clean and broad path, with doors on both sides. All doors were cast in bronze, embossed with all kinds of fierce creatures. All doors were shut tight. No one knew who was behind those doors and doing what.
Abruptly, a door opened. A hoary-haired old man leaned his upper body out and handed out a dragon-skin scroll, which emitted a faint herbal scent, while saying, "A hundred secret dragon-skin scrolls, put them in, fie!"
A young man in a black shirt quickly walked over, handed over the scrolls with both hands, then walked away towards the deeper area of the path quickly. The old man murmured something, then heavily shut the bronze door.
Walking in through the path, one would find that the sizes of the doors on both sides were turning larger and larger, and more and more forks were emerging in the path. At the end of the path was an enormous, magnificent palace, which was clearly enchanted with a space-folding magic.
The palace was a hundred miles squared, with an earthy yellow color. The dome of the palace was mysterious dark-cyan in color. The floor of this palace was cast from brass, and the dome was made from bronze. Countless fist-sized pearls were inlayed between complicated patterns in the dome, glowing brightly while pouring a stream of light onto the floor. Some light streams were meters in radius, and some were over ten meters in radius.
Under each light stream was an iron wood table, with dragon-skin scrolls piled on it. Some scrolls were covered in blood-red characters, paintings, and spell symbols, while some were emitting a faint herbal scent, and were completely blank.
A group of human beings stood beside those tables, holding ink brushes, carefully writing on those dragon-skin scrolls with a special ink made from flood dragon blood mixed with cinnabar, and tens of types of rare materials.
The hands of these people were all wrapped in a thick layer of light. Their powers had been flowing into their ink brushes, merging with the ink, and printing those characters, paintings, and spell symbols on the scrolls.
These dragon-skin scrolls were made through a hundred and eight processes with rare magical herbs, and were especially strong. No weapons could break these scrolls, no fire could burn them, and no water could soak them. No bugs dared to approach these scrolls either. Unless some powerful beings at the level of Magus Kings or above tried to damage these scrolls on purpose, these scrolls could be preserved until the end of the day.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes, flood, volcano eruption or thunder blasts, could never hurt these dragon-skin scrolls. This kind of scroll was the best information carrier, developed by the humankind after countless years of efforts. With these scrolls, the civilization of the humankind would be preserved and passed on.
The special flood dragon blood ink would never fade with time passing by.
Everyone in the palace had been writing or drawing nervously. Their movements were slow, especially slow. Every stroke they made was made with extra carefulness and cautiousness. By writing on those scrolls, they felt like they were carving steel blocks with heavy axes. They tried their bests to not make any mistake; they didn’t want to leave any mistake for the later generations.
A young man in a white flax shorts walked hurriedly into the palace, with a large pile of well-prepared dragon-skin scrolls held in his arms. He quickly came to an old man and carefully put those scrolls on a table.
"These have just arrived from the Magi Palace. The one thousand, seven-hundred, and eighty-nine improved formulae for diseases, created by the Magi Palace in the recent three months." said the young man politely, "Every formula is at least two-hundred percent more effective than the old one."
The old man nodded with a faint smile, and responded with a deep voice, "Well done. Diseases will certainly attack after the flood, yet the Magi Palace provided so many improved formulae timely. Well done!"
A bronze board floated in the air. A hoary old man sat on the board quietly, with his long hair and bear tangled together, piled up around his body for three feet, yellowing like old ivory. Expressionlessly, this old man looked down at those people in the palace.
Two young men stood behind the old man. Their eyes sparkled with a faint five-colored light. With twisted, evil looks, they stared at those people in the palace. Extremely low voices came from the mouths of these two young men, only for the old man sitting on the bronze board to hear.
"Don’t worry, Rock Dragon old man. We will keep our promises. You and your children, and the children of your children, will all have eternal lives, and will not be attacked by us. All you need to do is cooperate. Help us in seizing the highest power of your kind, and let us control your humankind. Your reward will beyond your imagination."
Rock Dragon old men gazed at those people in the palace with a complicated look.
A very long while later, he murmured to himself, "I am the leader of Star Guards. My duty, the duty of Star Guards, is to save and preserve the human civilization, when human beings are facing destructive disasters, and pass it on, to make sure that the human civilization will not die out."
"But this time…I chose to be on your side, to push the humankind deeper into the swamp, towards the destruction." continued Rock Dragon old man, "My family, generation by generation, we have been loyal and devoted to the humankind…I…I…"
The two young men smiled coldly, pressed their hands on Rock Dragon old man’s shoulders, and said, "You did nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all. We all have to think of ourselves, and our children. Betraying your own kind? We’ve seen a lot like this. It’s truly no big deal."
The two young men seemed to say more, but a middle-aged man rushed in, kneeled, and kowtowed to the old man.
"Grand Elder, Emperor Shun is here."