Martial Cultivator
chapter-530-2

After a long time of walking slowly, Chen Chao estimated the distance and realized they were about a thousand feet deep underground.

In other words, they were now approximately a thousand feet below the surface of the desolate northern plains.

They walked for a considerable time, and because they walked very slowly, they only reached the end after a long time.

At last, they arrived at a large plaza and a great hall at the front of the plaza.

Surrounding the plaza were pathways leading to various places, and everywhere was littered with ruined buildings, including the great hall which was also in a state of disrepair.

The pitch-black wooden pillars, showing signs of having been scorched by fire but not burned through, still managed to support the great hall after hundreds of years.

In contrast, the other buildings surrounding the area had mostly collapsed, leaving many parts in ruins.

However, what truly made them stop was the scenery on the plaza.

Perhaps it should not be called a scenery.

But a truly tragic sight.

In front of the plaza, there was a small hill made of white bones. It was unclear how many people had died here to form such a mound of bones.

Among these skeletal remains, there were likely no remains of demons, only those of humans.

Chen Chao could even imagine how the demons had killed all the cultivators in this Small Hill Sect and then dragged their bodies here to build this scenic spot!

He could also picture how the victorious demon cultivators laughed wildly in front of this scenic spot!

He was silent, keeping his head lowered and trying to calm his emotions.

He had never fought demons in the Northern Frontier or experienced such a bloody battlefield, but he had imagined many scenarios. Yet, the reality he saw with his own eyes was far beyond what he had imagined.

This was ultimately something different.

This was merely the Small Hill Sect. If he were to go to a larger sect, the sights there might be even more shocking and infuriating.

The war between the human race and demons had been ongoing for many, many years. The atrocities committed by demons against humans seemed to have long ceased being a novelty.

But has it always been this way since ancient times?

Does it have to remain unchanged just because it has always been this way?

……

……

After some time, Liang Jinjin asked, "Do we find a place to bury them?"

Chen Chao thought about it, then shook his head. "Maybe someday someone will come here and see these things. They might have their own thoughts about it when they see it. But if one day the war between the human race and demons comes to an end, I'll come back here and give them a proper burial."

After saying this, Chen Chao looked at Liang Jinjin and asked, “Can you find what you're looking for?”

Liang Jinjin frowned and said softly, “I can only try, but it should be possible if the demons haven't taken it.”

Chen Chao nodded and asked, “I'll check the great hall. You look around elsewhere?”

The long-lost secret technique would obviously not be placed in such a conspicuous location as the great hall, that was why Chen Chao said that he could check out the great hall. It was to express that he was not intending to take that item.

Liang Jinjin did not think too much and just nodded her head.

Then, she walked off to one side.

Chen Chao walked past the skeletal mound and arrived at the great hall.

The great hall had long lost its former glory and now appeared even more dilapidated. The doors of the hall were wide open, and when Chen Chao walked in, it was just as he expected, there were no corpses in sight. The entire great hall was nearly destroyed, with most of the structures in ruins. At the front, on an empty platform where countless memorial tablets of the Small Hill Sect's ancestors should have been, the tablets were now on the ground, shattered and in pieces.

They were likely crushed carelessly by someone's foot.

An entire sect had been exterminated, its ancestors' memorial tablets destroyed, and with that, the lineage was cut off...

Chen Chao could not help but think that if one day the demon race's army broke through the Northern Frontier Great Wall, marched southward, and stormed the Divine Capital, would the ancestral shrine in the imperial city where the tablets of previous emperors were enshrined, end up looking like this?

Among those tablets on the ground, there would be his grandfather's, his great-grandfather's, and his predecessors'.

Perhaps even his uncle's.

But would his father's be there?

His father's tablet would surely be there. After all, when Elder Brother ascended the throne, he posthumously conferred their father, who had only been a Crown Prince all his life, as the previous emperor. The tablet would naturally be in the ancestral shrine. Even when the Great Liang Emperor finally entered the capital, he did not strip their father of his imperial title, though many in the court at the time had suggested it.

If the late Crown Prince's imperial title was not revoked, it would make His Majesty's legitimacy even more questionable. How would the court think of it, how would the world view it, and what would future generations think?

Moreover, the fact remained that the late Crown Prince never ascended the throne.

Perhaps out of brotherly affection, or perhaps indifference, His Majesty did nothing.

Chen Chao returned to his senses and gave a self-deprecating smile. If that day ever came, when the ancestral shrine was overthrown and the dynasty was reversed, those would be minor concerns. What truly mattered was the countless civilians who would suffer and whether the entire human race would be wiped out.

Even if humanity survived and was not exterminated, it would likely face the fate of being enslaved.

At that point, cultivators might be slaughtered entirely, and ordinary people, even if they lived, would become nothing more than food for the demons.

That would be the true dark age.

Chen Chao withdrew his gaze and glanced around the great hall, frowning slightly.

Before long, Liang Jinjin walked in from the entrance of the great hall, glanced at Chen Chao, and shook her head. "I didn't find it."

Chen Chao asked curiously, "You searched everywhere?"

Liang Jinjin nodded, somewhat regretfully, "It seems I wasn't fated to find it, but I did find some other things that will suffice for my report."

Chen Chao nodded, "Alright then, let's go. I'll escort you out of the desolate north, and then I can finally get to some proper business."

Liang Jinjin looked at the worn-out meditation cushion and said, "I'll go and kowtow"

Chen Chao was a bit surprised, "Don't you qi refiners only revere heaven and earth?"

Liang Jinjin replied, "This is out of respect."

Chen Chao responded with a simple "Oh," and said nothing more.

Liang Jinjin walked over, and knelt on the cushion. Then, with sincerity, knocked her head heavily to the ground.

The sound was very loud.

However, Chen Chao quickly raised an eyebrow.

It was not that he had any particular thoughts about Liang Jinjin's earnest gesture, but rather that the sound seemed off to him.

It was obviously hollow.

Chen Chao walked over, while Liang Jinjin lifted her head in a daze, not understanding what was going on.

Chen Chao drew the long saber from his waist, inserted the tip into the gap between the stone bricks, and with a forceful pry, the stone brick loosened. Chen Chao reached in and pulled it out.

Inside was a wooden box.

Next to the wooden box was a booklet.

Who would have thought that such an important item would be hidden here?

It probably confirms the saying: the most dangerous place is the safest place.

Liang Jinjin's eyes lit up with excitement, "That's it!"

Chen Chao ignored her, just staring at the wooden box, wondering what could be inside.

"Open it and see?"

Chen Chao glanced at Liang Jinjin.

Liang Jinjin agreed, picked up the wooden box, and was about to open it.