151 | Around Panic and choose the way of things 3

Xie Ren said, “Is that so? How can I see that?”

Hua Cheng was about to open his mouth, at this time, stuck in speech Pei Su stretched out his trembling fingers and began to write on the ground. Out of inexplicable respect, everyone gathered around to look at him, only to see that his hand is written under the four words “combat form” askew, after writing, as if the last ounce of strength is exhausted, clenched into a fist, motionless.

Hua Cheng raised his head and said, ”This is it. The protector of the Rain Master’s mount is a black bull transformed into the golden beast of the Rain Master Kingdom’s Royal Dojo, which travels steadily without leaving any traces on weekdays, and once it enters a battle, it will change its form. Therefore, this hoof print is different in shape from the ordinary ox hoof print, and is much wider.”

Pei Ming said, “Your Excellency the Ghost King has an amazing amount of information.”

Hua Cheng pointed at the marks on the ground and continued to say to Xie Ren, “Brother, look.”

Xie Ren put together his head to see, said, “Well, really …… this hoofprints appeared suddenly, think they encountered the enemy is also very sudden.”

Hua Cheng said, “Uh-huh. And the hoof prints are very deep, showing that the enemy is not simple, and that ox was opposing the enemy with its horns here, and was pressed so hard that it sank into the earth by more than two inches.”

The two simulated the battle scene at that time, and Pei Ming, not to be outdone, said, “But in the end, the two sides still fought to a draw.”

Xie Ren said, “Not bad.”

There is no bloodstain around, there is also no drifting ghost qi, it looks like, they collided here, fast and hard hard against a few moves, with the realization that the other party is a piece of hard bone is not good to gnaw on, so both give up.

Flower City informed that something to the east had reversed its direction, and the group continued to travel westward, only to rush at a slightly slower pace. Not long after, a very tall strange building appeared on the side of the road, from afar, more imposing than any other houses, even after collapsing a few walls and part of the eaves, it was still something one could only look up at. Xie Ren couldn’t help but stop and said, “What kind of place is this?”

Flower City only glanced at it and said, “The temple of the Uyong people.”

Pei Ming held one of Pei Su’s arms and dragged him along, saying, “How did City Lord Hua learn that this is the Divine Hall?”

Flower City said, “Because it says so.”

Upon hearing this, everyone looked up, only to see that on the stone beams in front of the building’s main door, there was indeed a row of incomparably large bucket-sized characters carved. Although it had been sharpened through the years and there were some strange scratches, it was still quite clear.

However, after a moment of silence, Xie Ren said, “It does say that, but ……”

But this text, it’s not even readable!

Never would I have thought that even this would be difficult for Hua Cheng. He said to Xie Ren, ”This line of text is to the effect of ‘His Royal Highness the Crown Prince descends with light to eternally illuminate the land of Wuyong’. It’s just nonsense to sing praises. Brother, look, the penultimate few characters, aren’t there two that resemble ‘Wu’ and ‘Yong’.”

When he heard “Your Highness the Crown Prince”, Xie Ren was slightly moved, and when he took a closer look, sure enough, although this line of text was like a child’s drawing, with circles and curves, mixed with many strange symbols, the shape and strokes of the word “Wuyong” were quite similar to the text he was familiar with, as if it was some kind of variation. But the shape and strokes of the word “Wuyong” were quite similar to the words he knew, as if they were some kind of variation. Pei Ming said, “Master Hua City can actually decipher this ancient script that has been lost for thousands of years, Mister Pei really admires it.”

Hua Cheng raised one eyebrow and said with a fake smile, “I’ve spent ten years in Copper Furnace Mountain. You can do a lot in a month, so if you can’t even decipher a single text after ten years, then what’s the point of staying in the world, right?”

The top ten Wen Gods in the Upper Heavenly Court might not dare to say such words, as a Martial God, what could Pei Ming do. Could only also fake smile and say, “Maybe.”

Xie Ren gently exhaled and said, “Fortunately, Sanlang is there.”

Hua Cheng said, “I can only roughly decipher some rough Wuyong texts. If I encounter any difficult ones, I’ll have to ask my brother to come along and push through them.”

Xie Ren sweated, “This …… this I’m definitely not as good as Sanlang. However, the god that the Wuyong Kingdom believes in is also their Crown Prince?”

Flower City clasped his arms and said, “I think, yes.”

Xie Ren frowned in thought and said, “Since my master knows about the Crown Prince of the Wuyong Kingdom, he should also know that he ascended. But why did he tell me that that Crown Prince was ‘dead’?”

Hua Cheng said, “There are three possibilities: first, he indeed doesn’t know; second, he lied; third, he didn’t lie, the Crown Prince of Wuyong Kingdom is dead, but not ‘dead’ in the common sense.”

Pei Ming said, “If the emperor is also here, perhaps he can ask him if he knows about this country and this person.”

Hua Cheng, however, said, ”That is not yet seen. The Wuyong Kingdom disappeared over two thousand years ago, and compared to it, Jun Wu is just a youngster. It’s all a generation removed.”

Jun Wu ascended about fifteen hundred years ago, a famous general of the chaotic world, who later made himself king, manipulated for a few years, and successfully ascended to Immortality. As the First Martial God who had been sitting in the town for a thousand years, his origin had long been clearly understood. As for the “alternate generations” that Hua Cheng mentioned, he was referring to the “generations” of the Heavenly Realm.

Today, the Upper Heavenly Court, with Jun Wu as its head and a hundred magi, belongs to one generation, and earlier than that, to another.

Just like the change of dynasties in the mortal world, the heavenly realm is also subject to “change of dynasties”. Although it takes a long, long time, but the essence is not different, new believers will replace the old believers, the new God will also replace the old God.

Sometimes the decline of a god is not because he was demoted for doing something wrong, or because a stronger magus than him came along, but simply because people’s lives and minds gradually changed and he was no longer needed.

For example, a magistrate in charge of horses is bound to do well today, because people can’t travel without horses and carriages, and who doesn’t want their horses to be strong and healthy and travel safely? Therefore, there is no shortage of incense for him.

But if one day, mortals discovered something completely new that ran faster than a horse, after this new thing became the first choice for people to travel, the incense of the Magi in charge of horses would surely grow colder and colder. It is the vast majority of such magi who pass by like shooting stars.

This type of decline was the most brutal because the process was almost irreversible. Unless that Magus jumped from the sky, knocked himself back into his mortal body, cultivated once more on a different path, and ascended again as a brand new god, he was doomed to watch himself slowly decline, to the point of disappearing. However, not everyone has such courage and luck.

The previous generation of the Immortal Gods of the Heavens is so declined, there are also said to be because they caused a big mess, chaos of war, so all the fall, with the unquantifiable, but also does not matter.

Because, a few hundred years later, Jun Wu came out of nowhere and opened up a new Heavenly Divine Era, and, after him, a large number of new generations of Divine Officers rose up in an endless stream, filling in the gaps of the believers and gradually forming the stable Heavenly Court that exists today.

In other words, unless there was a shinigami with more seniority than Juno’s fifteen hundred years of experience, it was unlikely that they would know how all traces of the ancient kingdom of Uyong and the god they worshipped had been silently erased.

The group stepped over the wall that had collapsed a large portion and entered the pitch-black hall. Without taking a few steps, Xie Ren realized that something was wrong.

He originally thought that the inside of this hall was pitch black because it was always out of sight and there were no open windows, who knows, after looking around, the more he looked at it, the more bizarre he felt. He walked to the wall, his finger gently scratched on the wall, put it in front of his eyes, and couldn’t help but say, “This is ……”

Flower City said, “Black.”

It wasn’t that the light was dim; the walls of this huge shrine were actually completely black!

Hua Cheng said, “From what I’ve seen, almost all of the shrines within the Copper Furnace Mountain are like this.”

It was a horrifying sight, what kind of temple would have its walls painted in such a pitch-black color as if it were hell? How could one worship the gods in this place when just looking at it would make one feel terrified?

Pei Ming said, “Are they all like this? Have they been left to rot for too long?”

Xie Ren said, “We just passed by other houses but we didn’t see them darkened like this. According to reason, these houses should all be the same age.”

As he spoke, he continued to gently caress and explore the walls of the temple. The walls were not only luridly black, but also uneven, as if a woman’s disfigured face, covered with wretched and horrifying scars, and hard as hell. Xie Ren’s heart stirred and said, “This temple has been burned by fire.”

Pei Ming said, “How can you see that?”

Xie Ren turned around and said, “The walls of this shrine should have originally been painted with frescoes, using special pigments, a very thick layer, which would turn black after being burned by the fire and melt part of the deformation, and after solidifying, it would be this kind of bumpy and hard feel.”

Pei Ming said, “Your Highness the Crown Prince knows quite a lot, Mister Pei also admires you a little.”

Xie Ren rubbed his brow, coughed lightly, and said, “This …… is not something to be admired, just because I used to have many princely halls burned after this effect.”

“……”

Upon hearing this, the crowd fell silent. Xie Ren remembered something else and said, “There’s also that stone beam outside! There are many scratches on the chants engraved on the stone beam, it doesn’t look like ordinary wear and tear, someone should have taken a knife and scratched on it.”

Pei Ming frowned, “Why would you do that?”

Flower City said coldly, “For not recognizing the words anymore.”

Xie Ren said, “Right. It’s the same thing as smashing the plaque.”

Halfmoon was stunned and said, “So, this shrine, was set on fire by the nationals of Uyong, themselves?”

After a period of silence, Xie Ren was about to speak when he suddenly heard Pei Ming say, “What does this mean?”

When Xie Ren turned around, he only saw Pei Ming raising his left hand, which had a scorpion tail snake in a big bite, and was still poking him with that pointed tail constantly and forcefully. Half Moon was about to kneel down for him again, saying, “Sorry, I have snakes all over me ……”

Xie Ren cried and laughed, pulling her back, “Half Moon, don’t get into the habit of kneeling down and apologizing to people without moving. General Pei how did you get bitten by her snake?”

Pei Ming held up his hand and said with a dark face, “How do I know? As soon as I reached out to take her shoulder, that’s it.”

Xie Ren patiently asked, “Then what are you doing General Pei reaching for her shoulder?”

“……” Pei Ming seemed to notice and begin to think about this only now, and in a moment, said, “Habit makes it so. In such a dark and gloomy place, isn’t it common sense to take a woman’s shoulder and comfort them not to be afraid?”

Halfmoon said, “I’m sorry, I’m not scared.”

“…… “Xie Ren understood, this was just a tragedy that arose from Pei Ming’s unconscious itchy hand. Pei Ming easily ripped off the scorpion-tailed snake, and his left hand had already swollen up a large area. He said, “Quickly give me the antidote.”

Halfmoon said, “I’m sorry, I’ve run out of Good Moon Grass on me.”

Xie Ren said, “It’s fine, General Pei you’re a Magus, in a while and the swelling will go down.” After saying this, he turned back and continued to study the walls. Suddenly, his eyes swept over a black wall and instantly froze.

He said, “Guys, come look, there’s a face left in this wall!”