Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The most important thing about the breastplate was that several ancient characters had been written in the center of it.
“It’s Bird Script! Why would words from the Yellow Emperor’s era appear here?” Wang Zhongsi said, his expression turning grave.
As Wang Zhongsi spoke, the hall fell silent, everyone speechlessly glancing at each other.
If Wang Zhongsi was right, it meant that in a long-gone era, many experts had also ventured into this place.
The only question was why they had come here.
Was it because the world had also frozen over in that era after a cold wave descended?
Had the experts of that era, just like them, come to the polar sea to stop the Celestial God Organization?
They looked at each other and saw that they all thought the same.
If this conjecture was correct, it meant that the Celestial God Organization had wanted to destroy this world more than once.
This mysterious organization was the enemy of the entire continent!
As they were all thinking, another voice spoke up. “Look over here! It seems that they left something behind.”
In another corner of the hall, the Xi Queen had also found something.
This was the skeleton of a human that was seated against a wall. In its hand was a metal plate.
The Xi Queen took the metal plate from the skeletal hands, glanced at it, and then handed it to Wang Chong.
The words on the metal plate were written entirely in Seal Script, completely different from the language of the Xi Tribe. Only Wang Chong and his fellow Great Generals could interpret this script of the Central Plains.
“It’s a bronze slip. Though it was more popular to use bamboo slips in the time of the Yellow Emperor, the imperial household used slips made of bronze. While these bronze slips are thin, they are very difficult to break. Normally, only officials of the Imperial Palace could use them.
“These things are extremely rare. I’ve heard about them before, but this is my first time seeing one.”
Zhang Shougui looked at the bronze slip and sighed in wonder.
Ten-some years ago, when Zhang Shougui reached the peak of his career, he had begun to study ancient script, and he had immersed himself deeply in this field.
His mastery of this subject placed him far above all the others.
“Lord Zhang recognizes these words?” Zhangchou Jianqiong said.
“The difference in characters is too much, so I can only recognize a few words here and there,” Zhang Shougui said. “However, the characters of our Central Plains were developed based on the forms and shapes in the world, so if I know a part of it, I can conjecture as to the rest of the contents.”
Zhang Shougui’s brow creased as he read out the words. “Zhuluo Record… obeying the Yellow Emperor’s decree, to the Northern Sea… chaos-causing fiends… power too great to contend against… I can’t recognize anything after that.”
Everyone’s hearts sank.
No government records could have recorded what had happened here. And while they didn’t know what had happened to this group that had ventured into the polar sea, they could judge by the final result that it hadn’t been good.
The only problem was that if they had failed, it meant that Heaven’s Purification plan at the time had worked and that the entire world had been sealed in ice.
But not even Wang Chong recalled any sort of cold wave engulfing the world in the Yellow Emperor’s time.
If they had succeeded, this mysterious building wouldn’t have existed, and they certainly wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go inside it.
Many unknown things had taken place here, and what they could conjecture from the information available to them differed greatly from the official history.
None of them said anything as they pensively and warily continued deeper.
A few moments later, after passing through the hall and entering the adjacent room, they discovered something new.
“How could this be? Isn’t this the Turkic language?”
Ozmish Khagan and Tiechi Bileli were both stunned.
They had been very surprised to see fallen experts from the Yellow Emperor’s era in these ruins, but since it hadn’t been related to them, they hadn’t considered it a big deal.
In the second hall, however, Ozmish Khagan and Tiechi Bileli were blown away.
Bones also littered the floor of this hall, and rusted armor could be seen amidst the skeletons.
This armor was extremely old and did not appear to be from the Central Plains. In fact, the crude style and color matched the armor used by the Eastern Turks.
Not only that, the ancient experts that had died here had also left some documents.
Ozmish Khagan and the others glanced at the words on the documents and found that they were somewhat similar to the script of the Turkic language.
Ozmish Khagan was almost sure that these had been left behind by a steppe civilization.
What Ozmish Khagan found most absurd was that the people of the steppe were extremely reliant on the Great Steppe, and they would never lightly leave their territory to head to a distant place like this.
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And that wasn’t even considering that this place was eighteen hundred meters below the surface, deep in the sea.
This was far too bizarre.
They had never imagined that this mysterious building would also have connections to them.
“It’s the ancient Xiongnu language.”
Wang Chong glanced at it and instantly had an idea.
To be precise, the steppe had no concept of countries. Rather, it was more about different tribes.
The word ‘Turk’ had only cropped up several hundred years ago. Moreover, one would not normally think that the Turks were linked by blood to the ancient Xiongnu.
But for those tribes who lived on the steppe, anyone that lived on the steppe was part of one big tribe. In this fashion, it was not wrong for Ozmish Khagan to believe that the Xiongnu were an ancient civilization of his people.
As they continued, they discovered more and more.
“This is… the Ice Phoenix Tiara!”
The Xi Queen had discovered a tiara.
It was a gorgeous piece, covered in silver decorations, jewels, and patterns.
But most striking of all was the azure ice phoenix vividly carved upon it. If one looked closely, one could even discover that a small formation had been carved into it.
“What is the Ice Phoenix Tiara? A lost relic of the Xi Tribe?” Wang Chong asked.
Wang Chong didn’t know much about the Xi Tribe. It was silently acknowledged that the Xi Tribe didn’t have a very long history and had not left behind much civilization.
But it was now clear that things were more complicated.
“Mm!”
The Xi Queen nodded.
“This is an object from our legends. The era of the Ice Phoenix was a legendary and glorious era for our Xi Tribe. The civilization of that time was far greater than what we are now.
“The Queen of the Ice Phoenix Era was the Ice Phoenix Queen, and she possessed divine Ice Element abilities, far surpassing all the other Queens of the Xi Tribe. This tiara was her symbol.
“During the reign of the Ice Phoenix Queen, she ruled over an extremely large region, far greater than the region ruled by the current Xi Tribe.
“In her era, the world was frozen over. This is also primarily why our Xi Tribe cultivates Ice Element abilities.
“In addition, the legends say that the Ice Phoenix Queen battled with a devil and ultimately died.
“The elders in the tribe told me these legends when I was a child, but I never treated them as real,” the Xi Queen solemnly said.
Everyone was flabbergasted. Amongst the various countries, the Xi Tribe was the youngest and had the fewest resources.
No one had ever heard of them having some Ice Phoenix Era.
“In addition, the Ice Phoenix Tiara is not merely an accessory, but the Queen’s crown. Only the Queens of the Xi Tribe can use it.”
As the Xi Queen spoke, she placed the tiara on her head. To everyone’s surprise, the tiara was a perfect fit.
In a flash of light, the Xi Queen poured a stream of extremely cold Stellar Energy into the Ice Phoenix Tiara.
A dazzling azure light erupted from the tiara, illuminating the entirety of the hall.
It was so bright that the others couldn’t help but close their eyes.
But this azure light disappeared as quickly as it had come, and the hall returned to normal. However, the Xi Queen had changed, and the Ice Phoenix Tiara she wore had transformed into an azure Ice Phoenix Crown.
The Ice Phoenix Crown caused a substantive evolution in the Xi Queen’s nature, and she now seemed noble, hallowed, and inviolable.
Not only that, the Xi Queen’s energy soared, and all of the Stellar Energy she had used in the earlier battle was completely restored.
This transformation made everyone sigh in praise.
Continuing on their way, the group found more and more. Some of the remnants in this building came from a different era, but some had come from their era.
And in the later halls, they discovered signs of intense fighting.
The various countries were only working together because the Great Tang had emerged victorious in the battle for supremacy. But it appeared that this was not the first time there had been an expedition to the far north.
In other words, this great cold wave had probably swept through the world more times than they had imagined.
In one of the large halls, Wang Chong’s eyes flew open, for he had discovered a familiar script.
‘In the year 2771 of Landeshunger, following His Majesty’s orders… attack the demon gods…’
This familiar script made Wang Chong lock his brows together in thought.
Wang Chong had never imagined that remnants of the vanished Landeshunger civilization would appear here.
Wang Chong’s mind was in turmoil.
The Celestial God Organization’s crimes against humanity had been far greater than anyone could imagine, as had its meddling in human history.