Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Passing through the gate, Li Yao found that the walls of the pathway were full of interconnected tubes, gears that had been bitten precisely, and overlapping mechanical structures. Steam was even spurting out. He felt that he had entered the internal organs of a mechanical beast.

After passing through the ‘gut’ of the mechanical beast for a long time, Li Yao discovered that the gate below was actually made of translucent crystals. He could vaguely see that countless lightning bolts that had been sealed were flowing slowly among the crystals, as if they were vipers guarding treasures. However, under the command of the mysterious golden man, the lightning vipers all retreated. The crystal gate gradually turned transparent and disappeared.

Further down, they passed by another gate that was purely made of plants. There was another gate that was wreathed in vague mist and in a half-solid state. There were also several other gates that were of different styles and had complicated technology that even Li Yao had never seen before.

Every gate was opened in a different way. Some of the methods were beyond the limits of human biology and imagination.

But the mysterious man seemed to have been through the place hundreds of times. He was familiar with every step and opened all the gate smoothly without any hesitation.

After passing through a gate, going a hundred meters underground was like entering a whole new world. Dazzling clusters of crystals were growing in the pathway behind the gate, emitting dazzling brilliance that was not entirely gone after thousands of years.

Behind the gate of plants was what seemed to be a withered primitive forest. The vines and bushes had dried up and turned into human-shaped shadows.

Behind the gate of mist were traces that looked like frozen smoke. They seemed to belong to the explorers a long time ago. Their bodies of flesh and blood had long been burnt to ash, but their souls had been preserved in an unbelievable way, guiding the way for the latecomers.

Li Yao even saw countless… corpses of creatures on the four walls of a pathway.

The ‘things’ looked like gorillas with four arms. There was a giant eye on their forehead, but it had a bronze gloss and texture. After billions of years of erosion, they gradually melded with the pathway and turned into hideous, twisted paintings. The only thing left were tiny black holes, which were their eyes. The unbelievable scene made Li Yao shudder. He thought quickly and realized that it must be a laboratory, research center, or a forward operating base that countless civilizations had tried to explore over the billions of years.

When the ancient carbon-based intelligent creatures, who used to be the rulers of the Pangu Universe, discovered the primeval relics, they naturally gathered the most cutting-edge talents and technologies just like the Pangu civilization and the human civilization did and established the most magnificent laboratories and forward bases in the place, trying to unveil the mysteries of the primeval era.

However, a certain mysterious force had erased the traces of dozens of civilizations with ancient carbon-based wisdom, and only the ruins deep below the ground told of their past glory. Hundreds of thousands or even millions of years later, a new generation of intelligent carbon-based creatures developed a developed civilization and found the primeval relics. They established their own laboratories and forward bases on the ruins of the previous civilization, only to be destroyed again.

It was a never-ending cycle. Today, billions of years later, the underground of the City of Silver had dozens of collapsed buildings that were hundreds of times larger and more complicated than those on the surface.

If the City of Silver was destroyed by the tides of the ferocious beasts today, and the tides of the ferocious beasts were destroyed by the terrifying power released by the ‘heavenly towers’, it would not take hundreds of thousands of years for the ruins of the City of Silver to be corroded by time and become the topmost layer of ruins.

“Hundreds of civilizations stopped here, as if this was the end of their civilization!

Li Yao was deeply shocked.

He did not believe that when a civilization arrived in this place, they would not see the traces of the destruction of dozens of other civilizations.

Dozens of civilizations were recorded clearly in the database of the other half of the Fuxi civilization.

Knowing the dangers of the primeval relics, the civilizations were still rushing forward like moths to a flame. Why?

Li Yao thought quickly and smiled bitterly, laughing at his own stupidity. Curiosity and thirst for knowledge were necessary conditions for the development of a civilization. Human beings were human beings because of their endless desire for “unknown’ and ‘future’.

No civilization could leave such a huge ancient relic untouched.

There were always ambitious people, adventurers, and lunatics. Righteousness or evil, they were the first motivation for the advancement of civilization.

Besides, the more developed a civilization was, the more likely it would destroy itself.

Even without the primeval relics, could a civilization not develop ‘universal magical equipment’ that could destroy itself?

A civilization that could not destroy itself did not deserve to be called a civilization.

Maybe, the so-called civilization was such a crazy ‘cosmic virus’?

Li Yao was deep in thought.

At first, he tried to communicate with the mysterious golden man, too, including shouting and telepathic thoughts transmission. But the mysterious golden man turned a deaf ear to him and simply ran ahead of him.

Li Yao knew that he was being guided. He could only suppress his impatience and follow closely behind while he scanned every detail around him.

The last gate rumbled like an underground thunder and retreated to the crags nearby. It was no longer a narrow pathway or collapsed debris in front of him but a giant cave more than five hundred meters in diameter. Faint mist of light was swirling around him. The mist was like a living spirit that would condense as Li Yao’s gaze moved. When the mist of light condensed, its brightness would increase by a few degrees, allowing Li Yao to clearly see everything around him.

It was like… a museum of a prehistoric civilization.

In the hazy mist of light, Li Yao saw the remains of a ‘Iron Knight’ first. It had been carefully dissected into almost a hundred units. Even the most delicate core mechanical structure had been dismantled, as if a mechanical surgery had been performed.

Then, there was a structure in the shape of a crystal pyramid. It was transparent on the surface, but it was full of tiny holes inside. Li Yao observed for a long time before he came to the conclusion that the holes that looked like a network of nerves were indeed ‘nerves’ in a certain sense. It was a very efficient approach to transmit and process information through the transmission, refraction, and diffraction of the photoelectric signals inside the holes.

Li Yao did not know whether such a structure was a creation of the ancient civilization or a corpse of the ancient civilization. Although it did not look like a carbon-based intelligent life, it was possible that it was the crystallization of a certain coral-like creature after death.

There were many weird things inside the mist that looked like the structure of a crystal pyramid. But before Li Yao examined them carefully, the mysterious golden man had already walked into the depths of the mist.

The mist dispersed, revealing several enormous human figures.

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. He had discovered several other members of the Pangu Clan.

With a closer look, he discovered that the Pangu Clan members were not moving at all. They were soaked in the enormous strengthening crystal towers and surrounded by preservatives.

The Pangu Clan members had been killed a long time ago and turned into ‘specimens’.

No. It was not just the Pangu Clan. Hundreds of crystal towers were standing in the depths of the mist, each of which stored the corpse of a prehistoric, carbon-based, intelligent creature. Not just the Pangu Clan, whose skin was gray and whose head was full of heat-dissipating wrinkles, there were also the Nuwa Clan, which had human heads and snake bodies, the Kuafu Clan, which looked no different from plants at first glance, the Houyi Clan, which was made of black beetles and evolved from sponges, and the Gonggong Clan, which looked like transparent gel… The corpses of thirteen prehistoric species had been collected in this place. Many of them had been cut off precisely from their skin and muscles, leaving only veins and nerves.

The master of the place seemed to have a profound understanding about the biological structure of the ancient, intelligent species.

There were also ferocious beasts. Passing through the crystal towers where the corpses of the prehistoric species were stored, Li Yao saw more than ten operation tables that had been modified from maintenance platforms. The bloody corpses of the ferocious beasts were placed on the tables. On the biggest ‘surgery table’, there was even the head of a Armored Storm Dragon. Its skull had been cut open in a ring. The entire skull had been removed, revealing a deformed brain that had been sealed by a certain bright green gel so that it would not wither or rot.

Hundreds of crystal wires were inserted into the brain of the Armored Storm Dragon and led to the super crystal processors of the Star Ocean Imperium nearby. The crystal processors were emitting dim fluorescence and performing high-speed computations. The virtual brain of the Armored Storm Dragon was created on a 3D light beam.

Following the instructions of the crystal processor, the Armored Storm Dragon, which only had its head left, seemed to still be alive. Occasionally, it would blink.

It seemed that the master of the place had a very precise understanding about the brain structure of the Armored Storm Dragon, as well as its fighting pattern and habits. That was why he could reach its head and kill it without alarming anyone!

Li Yao was more and more curious about the identity of the mysterious golden man. In the museum of the prehistoric civilization, there were so many remains of the ‘Iron Knights of Starry Skies’ and the ‘Rampaging Armored Dragon’, including almost a hundred corpses of the intelligent creatures of the primeval erain the eyes of most human beings, they were ‘specimens of gods!!

Who was he exactly?

An obvious answer popped up in Li Yao’s brain.

The name that contained infinite power and almost represented ‘invincible’ made Li Yao feel short of breath just thinking about it. His heart was beating fast, his blood was boiling, and his pores were bulging uncontrollably, ready to spurt crimson steam.

Led by the mysterious gold man, they passed through the crystal towers and the operation tables. In front of them was the end of the mist and the maintenance and modification workshop of heavy magical equipment.