Chapter 1611. Mysteries Pile Up.
Chapter 1611: Chapter 1611. Mysteries Pile Up.
While Yasenia explored, the group of seven left the Death Dunes with difficulty. Mid-journey, the one who had scanned Yasenia up and down suddenly became mad thanks to Doriel’s curse.
The effect was quite devastating. Using his strength, he dragged two people into the dunes. The leader of the Dune Tracers became resentful. "Once we return to the [Earth Shadowing Palm Tree Mercenary group], you’ll know fear."
Did that name sound familiar? It was the group that tried to use Yasenia to deal with Dune’s group.
***
Meanwhile, Yasenia glanced at the map with a strange expression. "No wonder those people were lost here and stuck. What is this?"
Maps were rare, to say the least. Usually, a cultivator would just take whatever treasure they encountered. Creating something like a map was useless in many ways. If anything, most maps led to cursed lands, so one had to be careful.
That was not the reason for Yasenia’s look, though. The map, a moving dune-sea with some spots marked by starlight, was confusing to say the least.
"How do you even find where this is?"
The map was not a guide on where to go, but what to do once there. According to it, in a place where dune waves swirl, you need to gather the Star Energy of starlight and pour it in different nodes. This, in turn, would activate a natural formation and open a hidden ruin.
Evelyn asked. "Is that ruin now the one we are right now?"
Kali shook her head. "No. The ruin depicted in the changing map is not a large mansion like this, but more like a palace."
Evelyn glanced around and agreed. Angel tilted her head, and suddenly, her soft blue eyes flashed. "Yasenia... what if the place we are in is a fallen country?"
Yasenia’s intelligent mind turned, and a moment later, she understood where Angel was going. "Are you saying that some sort of catastrophe took over these lands, sinking the entire city or country?"
Angel nodded. "If that’s the case, wouldn’t this map point toward the palace with either the intention of helping the remnants or stopping the Forbidden Zone?"
Evelyn glanced at Angel with surprised eyes and then laughed. "I forget it often because you are always snuggled in Yasenia’s arms, but your intelligence has always been incredibly high."
Angel pouted. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
Evelyn flicked her forehead playfully. "It’s a compliment. A compliment."
Angel snorted and dove into Yasenia’s arms. "Whatever."
Yasenia laughed and patted Angel’s head. "My Baby is super clever~."
Tatyana smiled. "If what Angel said is correct, then this formation and palace were most likely hidden away by the leader of this country. This natural formation was created to protect the palace, which, most likely, is at the very center of the Forbidden Zone."
Her words were exactly what everyone was thinking. With the puzzle piece Angel deduced, the rest fell into place quite easily. Why were the ruins they encountered closed spaces? Why were they all mansions, ceremonial structures, and the like? Why did they all have treasures in them... the reason was that only the structures belonging to high-level powers survived the dune ocean created by the Forbidden Zone that swallowed their country.
After pondering, they decided to investigate the mansion. Even if the other party had stayed here for a while, Yasenia believed that she would manage to find the treasures they had missed.
She was right.
Even when her nose was a bit clogged due to the special sand particles in the air, once close, the scent of treasures was impossible to miss.
"Wow... What is this?"
Andrea lifted a fist-sized dusty emblem. Cecile approached, curious. "It looks like a family seal."
"This heavy?" Andrea was a bit surprised, but Cecile nodded. "I was a bit young back then, but I recall my family having one."
Those words reminded Andrea that Cecile actually came from one of the most influential families of the Black Tortoise continent back in the Sky Continent. Sadly, Cecile never really lived to enjoy the luxury of being born in such an affluent family. Her mother wanted to sell her to the Black Tortoise Emperor, while her father escaped with her to give her freedom and fell during the chase.
It was basically luck and effort from her long-gone father that Cecile reached the central continent and attended the Rising Talent Academy. Speaking of which, Cecile was also saved by Yasenia when she was dying from an ambush by a fellow student.
Cecile’s eyes thought back for a second and felt two soft yet strong arms circle her waist. Abundant softness made itself known pressing on her back as a face that could charm gods and demons leaned over her shoulder.
"Are you feeling sentimental, Sweetheart?"
Cecile leaned in and kissed her lips softly. "Not much, just nostalgic."
Yasenia smiled softly and looked at what Andrea had without releasing Cecile. "Hm... Yes. Mom also had something similar. So, it should be a family seal."
They were not exploring together to cover more ground. This place had been mostly emptied by the Dune Tracer bunch, so they weren’t excessively careful when exploring.
"So... is this the room of the Head of the family?"
Yasenia looked at the destroyed furniture and shrugged. "Who knows. Perhaps it is the bedroom. Still..."
Her nose twitched as she sniffed, and a moment later, she sneezed.
"Hashiu~!"
The cute, high-pitched sneeze made Cecile and Andrea laugh, while Yasenia grumbled. "The sand particles are really annoying." Pointing to the side wall, she commented. "I can smell something from there. It’s very faint, though. So, I might be mistaken."
Cecile and Andrea blinked and looked at the solid wall. "Hidden room?"
"You might not be wrong, Cecile. Such things are not unheard of, right?"
"Unheard of? It’s quite the opposite, actually. Almost all highly influential people have some sort of hidden place to hide their skeletons."
Yasenia nodded in agreement and moved away from Cecile’s back, walking over. "Should I just punch it open and see?"
Andrea laughed. "What if that makes the space that hides it collapse? I recommend trying to open it with the proper means, love."
"Alright then." Yasenia sighed and picked a communication device. "Angel, Tatyana, can you come over? Call the rest too if they are not in the middle of something."
Ten minutes later, the large room became a bit cramped as over 200 people gathered. To not make it that stuffy, most of the maids waited outside.
Angel, Tatyana, Selena, and a few other formation specialists worked together for a few minutes. Tatyana guided Angel, teaching her and occasionally helping her. Eventually, with the assistance of the maids, Angel slapped the wall with a smile. "Open."
A hidden formation appeared, incredibly complex symbols and structures moving around as if falling into place. Then the solid wall rumbled and began to open sideways. The bricks seemed to fuse together instead of sliding, creating an opening wide enough for three people to walk side by side.
Yasenia hugged Angel, giving her kisses. "My Baby is the best!"
Angel giggled happily, answering Yasenia’s kisses with a smile. Yasenia, of course, also patted the heads of her maids for doing a good job. "Alright, let’s enter."
The stairs led down into somewhere. Due to the tilted nature of the structure, the stairs were more like a spiraling free-fall than anything else.
Evelyn asked. "Should we leave a few people outside, just in case the formation closes?"
Yasenia blinked. "There should not be a creator stupid enough to trap people inside their secret place, right?"
Angel chuckled. "Don’t worry, Evelyn. I destroyed the entry formation. It will remain open permanently from now on."
Those words were actually more reassuring than Yasenia’s words, relaxing Evelyn. It was best not to leave any variable up to chance!
After they arrived down below, the girls became quite surprised. "...Cells?"
They were clean, with some rusty chains and other similar items sprawled on the walls. Any sign of a living person had either been erased or decomposed by time.
Yasenia’s nose scrunched up. "The smell here is quite a thing. So... stagnant."
They didn’t clear it up, just in case they could use it as a hint. For an immortal cultivator, breathing was relatively optional, so they just held their breaths.
After passing by around 50 empty cells, they arrived at a large, circular underground room. In the middle of the room, a destroyed, rocky bed made for rituals caught their attention. Tatyana glanced around, curious. "Sacrifical formations... ?"
Evelyn frowned. "What the hell was this noble doing?"
"Nothing good..." Andrea had walked to the side and picked up a half-destroyed book that a maid gave her. "Tatyana, can you read this language? It’s not in heavenly language."
Most places shared one language, the Heavenly language, which could be used to read and transcribe Heavenly secrets and techniques. Therefore, scripts from other languages were rare to find.
Tatyana approached and glanced at it. "Hm... I can’t tell. Strange."
"That’s Divine language."
Mirrory’s voice reached them from behind. Looking at it again, Tatyana frowned. "This is not Divine language. That language goes like this."
Her finger swept the air, creating Divine letters and symbols. Mirrory glanced at it and blinked. "That’s... a dialect. So peculiar, has that dialect of the former Divine language become the standard now?"
Mirrory extended her hand, and a second later, the entire book was translated into heavenly language. Andrea read it, and as she read the chunks, she sighed. "No wonder the map pointed at this place. It seems that the mansion had part of a ritual piece."
Her eyes moved toward the center of the room, and everyone else followed her eyes. A maid approached the rocky bed and looked back. "Young Miss, should I?"
Yasenia nodded. "Break it."
With a gentle palm strike, the precarious stone shattered, revealing an orange orb with yellow lines. The maid picked it up, but when she did, space around her shattered, chains shooting forward quickly.
All maids and Yasenia’s group moved swiftly, blocking the chains while the maid dropped the orb. After a few seconds, the chains seemed to have lost their target and retreated deeply into space... or so they thought.
Yasenia, her face ferocious, grabbed one of the chains with a growl. "Do you think you can retreat safely after targeting my dear maid?"
Her muscles tensed and bulged softly, space starting to tremble due to her physical strength. "Since you are here, whatever you are, come out."
CLANG!
The chain tensed up as Yasenia pulled. For a moment, the group thought that they saw the chains becoming flustered, as if it had not expected it.
Meanwhile, Yasenia’s strength began soaring as her buffs enchanted her already monstrous physical strength further. However, as she was about to pull, that single chain was separated and let go.
Yasenia clicked her tongue. "I want to see you appear again. Next time, I am not letting you go."
The maid behind Yasenia almost had heart eyes when looking at her Young Miss.