The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “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.

  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.

  Chapter 2271 - Bizarre Sea Creature Sculpture!

  Chapter 2271: Bizarre Sea Creature Sculpture!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  As Wang Chong was thinking, a voice rang out. “Found it! The path is here!” The group had made another discovery.

  At the very end of these large halls, they had found a long passage.

  This passage seemed to be made of thick ice. Its depths were dark and cold, and it was impossible to tell where it went.

  Even so, the group knew that they had to head down it, because this passage was beginning to intensely pulse with spacetime and cold energy.

  Wang Chong’s eyes flashed as he came to his senses and warned, “Everyone, be careful. The Celestial God Organization should be nearby!”

  This place had been abnormally calm, but Wang Chong firmly believed that things were not as simple as they seemed.

  The bones littering the floor of these halls said enough.

  The peace and quiet was merely the calm before the storm.

  Wang Chong took the lead and entered that cold, dark passage.

  The passage was much colder than he had expected. As he walked in, a penetrating cold traveled through the soles of his feet, so cold that it almost froze his blood.

  This chill was so harsh and piercing that even Stellar Energy found it difficult to block it.

  But in a flash, Wang Chong’s attention was drawn to something else.

  “As expected, what incredible scale!”

  Wang Chong looked around and quickly realized what was going on.

  This passage appeared to be in the middle of the polar ocean, but that was far from the truth. The moment he stepped into the passage, he had sensed intense spacetime pulses.

  The moment they stepped through t
his passage, they would no longer be in the polar sea, or even in that ancient building.

  That building deep under the sea was merely an outside cover. In reality, it was simply a ‘node’ connecting to another place, and the direction of the passage and the spacetime pulses indicated that…

  The source of the cold wave, the dimensional teleportation gate, had been hidden by the Celestial God Organization in the depths of spacetime.

  This was a gate of a completely different nature from the teleportation gate at the shore of the Caspian Sea.

  It was more hidden, more complex, and more important. For the Celestial God Organization, this was safer and less likely to have outsiders intrude upon and destroy.

  And for his group, it meant greater danger!

  As a Grotto Heaven realm expert, Wang Chong understood more than anyone that manipulating spacetime was like walking on a steel wire. The slightest lack of caution would result in being crushed to powder by spacetime.

  The passage was quiet. The rest of the group was able to tell that something was wrong from Wang Chong’s expression, but none of them fell back.

  One after the other, they released their Stellar Energy into barriers that surrounded them.

  The passage was dark and seemed to have no end. Even their senses were heavily disrupted there, preventing them from determining its length.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Wang Chong emerged from the passage.

  Whoosh!

  He was greeted by a blast of cold wind. Appearing before Wang Chong was a space that was many times larger than any of the halls in that building behind them.

  It was a cold and desolate place, with snow pelting down and pattering against their faces.

  For a moment, they felt like they had returned to that polar plain of ice on the surface.

  But Wang Chong knew that this was just a misperception.

  This place was in the depths of another space, and even Wang Chong was momentarily unable to determine exactly where it was.

  Looking around closely, Wang Chong saw nothing but thick sheets of ice.

  This was a strange and icy space that was several dozen times larger than any of the previous halls. Besides howling winds, there was only thick ice that completely encased this enormous space.

  Through the ice, one could see blurry images of the deep sea, and there were even deep sea fish swimming around. It appeared entirely like they were in the depths of the polar sea.

  But Wang Chong remained calm and knew that these were merely tricks used by the Celestial God Organization to confuse outsiders.

  “Hmph, a nice trick!”

  Wang Chong coldly snorted, his eyes clear and calm.

  His foe’s methods were truly superb, The surrounding sea water and those fish freely swimming around had clearly been transported here using some incredible technique.

  All of it was done naturally and without a single trace of evidence. Those not in the Grotto Heaven realm would have no chance of spotting anything suspicious.

  But Wang Chong quickly came back to his senses.

  He scanned the area again and saw enormous statues of a savage sea creature looming around this icy space, each more than one hundred feet tall.

  For some reason, upon seeing these statues, Wang Chong had a very strange sensation.

  “Everyone, be careful. There’s something weird about these statues!” the Demonic Emperor Old Man called out to everyone.

  Just like Wang Chong, the Demonic Emperor Old Man had also noticed the sea creature sculptures.

  The enormous sea creatures depicted were different from any known organism in the ocean, and no books existed with records of these creatures.

  They had bronze skin, massive mouths with gear-like teeth, and four eyes on their foreheads. They had golden eyes with vertical pupils, like those of a snake, and they were aimed at the entrance, staring right at the group.

  But this was not what had drawn Wang Chong’s and the Demonic Emperor Old Man’s attention…

  These statues were alive!

  Wang Chong had noticed something strange the moment he had entered this place.

  At the start, these sculptures had been no different from rock, but the group entering this space had seemingly triggered some sort of seal or mechanism. Wang Chong immediately noticed some sort of slumbering vitality in the depths of the statues beginning to rapidly bloom and flourish like bamboo growing in the rain.

  Buzz!

  His eyes coldly flashing, Wang Chong thrust out his palm, sending a howling wave of Stellar Energy at two sea creature statues to the front and to the right of him, obliterating them.

  Countless shards of debris sprayed everywhere.

  “Your Highness?”

  This sudden attack frightened everyone.

  But in the middle of everyone’s shock and consternation…

  Kaclack!

  The surrounding sea creature statues that Wang Chong had yet to destroy began to crack open like hatching eggs, sturdy shell fragments dropping to the ground.

  As these fragments struck the ground, they made metallic clangs.

  Roooar!

  The space trembled, and the group stared in shock as those seemingly lifeless sea creature statues began to come to life as if by magic.

  These sea creatures were covered in bronze scales, and their strange golden eyes were tinged with crimson as they stared at the group that had entered.

  As if their bodies concealed black holes, they radiated a powerful pull that drew the surrounding cold energy to them, which they devoured into their bodies like they were whales.

  As the group watched, these savage creatures began to soar in power. It took only a few moments for them to reach a fearful level of power, and their growth showed no signs of stopping.

  Fwoosh! One of the sea creatures opened its maw, and just by exhaling, it unleashed a white wave of cold that instantly created a layer of ice several inches thick on the ground.

  Everyone trembled in fear at this sight.

  These sea creatures were clearly Ice Element creatures.

  Even worse was that they could absorb the cold energy of this space. This place was the origin of the cold wave, and this space was packed with concentrated cold energy.

  This also meant that if they were not killed in one blow, these bizarre monsters would be able to absorb energy from the cold wave and grow stronger and stronger.

  “Let me!” A saber clanged as a voice rang out.

  Before the others could react, Yeon Gaesomun unsheathed all of his sabers.

  Rumble!

  With an enormous boom, a wave of saber energy swept through the air, its destructive energy hurtling toward the mysterious creatures.

  Yeon Gaesomun was the Emperor of Goguryeo and a peak Great General existence. He should have been able to deal with a few of the sea creatures with no problem. At most, he would just have to waste a little Stellar Energy in this strange environment. This was what all of them believed.

  But reality was far different from what they had imagined!

  Bang!

  As the wave of saber energy landed, there was a metallic clang. The sea creatures swayed, and blood splashed out, but the wound was far from fatal, or even serious.

  “How could this be?!”

  Yeon Gaesomun paled.

  Wang Chong had been able to destroy these sea creature statues with a flick of his finger, meaning that they shouldn’t have been very tough. But in these few short moments after awakening, the sea creatures had accumulated so much ice energy that they had become even tougher than steel.

  Of the members of this northern expedition, Yeon Gaesomun was neither the strongest nor the weakest.

  He had never imagined that the sea creatures had grown so strong so quickly.

  Chapter 2272 - The Ambush Behind the Passage!

  Chapter 2272: The Ambush Behind the Passage!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

 
Clangclangclang! In a flash, several waves of Sword Qi descended from the sky.

  The earth trembled as those mysterious sea creatures collapsed to the ground in chunks.

  “There’s something weird about this place. Everyone, seek out the source of the cold wave as quickly as possible so we can take care of it and leave,” the Demonic Emperor Old Man said after taking care of those mysterious creatures.

  Everyone solemnly nodded. But just when everyone was about to leave…

  Boom!

  Those sea creatures that had been sliced into countless pieces by the Demonic Emperor Old Man’s Myriad Spirit Sea Art suddenly began to vibrate on the icy ground.

  An enormous torrent of energy surged into these dismantled corpses, and in the blink of an eye, they began to grow and swell.

  Roooar!

  With frightening roars, new sea creatures grew from the numerous chunks.

  In a flash, the number of sea creatures in this icy space had increased tenfold to more than seventy of these beasts.

  Moments after appearing, these sea creatures ruthlessly glared at the group.

  Roooar!

  Before the group could respond, the sea creatures erupted with cold waves of energy and lunged at them.

  As these sea creatures lunged, rumble! The passage behind them suddenly closed, an invisible spacetime wall appearing around the entrance.

  If one looked carefully, one could see that it was covered in mysterious formations of various sizes, the characters upon them wriggling like tadpoles.

  And from the other end of that icy space, there was an enormous boom. At that moment, the intense spacetime pulses seemed to run into some barrier and began to rapidly weaken.

  The Wushang Village Chief paled as he shouted, “Not good! The passage entrance is closing!”

  They had been able to sense the energy pulses from the cold wave’s origin this entire time, but now, the cold wave’s energy signal was weakening. This meant that the entrance to the cold wave’s energy source was being cut off.

  This was definitely not good news for them.

  “There’s no time. Leave this place to us and head to the cold wave’s energy source!” Yeon Gaesomun called out as he lunged at one of the sea creatures.