Full-Time Magister: I Had No Intention of Reaching the Dimensional Throne

Chapter 147 Arrogance of Yelang

The sword-tailed earth dragons couldn't catch up with him, and what attracted them was the aura emanating from the initial soul seed and the massive, fresh, bloody smell of the corpses piled up on the ground after Bai Mo had killed too many demons.

Bai Mo was also covered in cold sweat at this moment. Fortunately, he did not choose to use a vessel to contain the soul seed, otherwise, the short time would not have been enough.

If more demons were lured here, it would truly be the end. If his soul seed had been absorbed half a minute later, he would probably be severely injured now, let alone escape alive.

"Bai Mo, are you alright?"

"No, what about you?"

"Little Wind Spirit and Big Orange protected me very well."

"That's good. If anything were to happen to you, I wouldn't be able to face Qingqing."

Lingling nodded slightly. Through the blindfold, she could vaguely see the outline of the retreating dark cave. She noticed that the terrain was different from when she came.

"Isn't this the path we came in through?"

"No, there's a group of demons blocking that road."

"Have you shaken off those sword-tailed earth dragons?"

This time, Bai Mo used even more sonic magic, allowing the sound of his detection to travel far even beneath the rocks and soil. He was relieved to find that those guys were eating the demon corpses and hadn't come after him.

He slowly stopped, put Lingling down, and said softly, "They didn't chase after us."

"Let's find an upward-facing dark passage to leave."

There is no maze within the Dark Cave. Although the Dark Cave itself is like a huge maze, it is not difficult to get out of it.

Simply go up to the top level of the dark cave passage, and follow that passage to find a crack or cave leading to the ground.

Bai Mo nodded and led Lingling to a crossroads ahead, where they made a turn. After some time, the two arrived at the uppermost dark cave.

Returning to the place where you first came down is impossible; the intricate network of underground lava tunnels is even more complex than the city's sewer system.

In addition, the underground rock and soil obstructed the positioning instrument and the pointer, causing them to malfunction.

Fortunately, predecessors had already summarized their experiences in getting out of this place, so Bai Mo and his companion were not anxious. Instead, they encountered many strange demons in the underground cave.

"There seems to be an exit leading up there!"

After turning another corner, Lingling, holding the luminous crystal ball, pointed to an irregular crack, about two meters wide, on the left wall of the dark cave passage, which was more than four meters high.

"Let me see!"

Bai Mo flicked his finger, and a tremor of sound entered the crack, flying straight forward for eight thousand meters, bringing back everything along the way.

"There's also an underground space above, which seems to be a transit station, but it does connect to the outside world."

Bai Mo explained the situation of the passage, then pulled Lingling along, and they stepped on the ground, scaling the almost vertical cave wall as if flying over eaves and walls, and entered the passage.

The journey upwards was uneventful, and they quickly traversed the passage before arriving at another space.

As the light from the crystal ball diffused and filled the entire dark space, it painted the surrounding environment with color.

Bai Mo and Lingling then realized that this did not seem to be a dark cave space.

A glance reveals traces of human civilization.

The ground was covered with light blue stone bricks, and the walls on both sides were also light blue, nearly five meters high, as was the dome.

The entire space resembles a somewhat flattened ellipse.

There seemed to be something carved on the wall, but it was too far away to see clearly. At the front was a tall gate, with a row of clay figurines standing on both sides.

The clay figurine was a little taller than Lingling, about 1.6 meters, but it was dressed entirely in adult clothing. Its hair was styled in a bun, unlike the hairstyles in the period dramas Bai Mo had seen.

Their faces were covered by bronze masks, obscuring their features.

In the very center of the entire hall is a jade sculpture of a bamboo, so lifelike that even the fine bamboo hairs are clearly visible.

On either side of the sculpture, four figures that resemble corpses lie on a low jade bed.

The corpse's face was also covered with a bronze mask.

There were also weapons laid out beside him, which appeared to be bronze swords.

On the ground, scattered were some broken and irregularly shaped demon corpses or bones, clearly killed by something.

The times of death varied, but they all likely crawled in from the same tunnel they had just come out of.

It was these corpses that made Bai Mo more vigilant.

"This seems to be a tomb, but it doesn't quite look like one," Lingling said, pulling Bai Mo to the edge of the wall to look at the carvings on it.

There are abstract drawings and text.

The script seemed to be an ancient script that had been lost, which neither of them recognized, but they could understand some of the pictures.

One person, a contract array, and a bamboo pole.

Bamboo grows, people die.

A group of people worshipped bamboo, and the bamboo glowed, seemingly indicating a change was taking place.

A group of people, giant bamboo, bamboo leaves filling the sky, and invading demons.

These drawings end here; what follows is all text.

The illustrations following the text are no longer related to the previous ones; they seem to depict a nation's struggle against demons.

The two were looking at it backwards. At first, they thought it might be recording a totem, but when they saw the contract array, they changed their minds.

Generally speaking, totems cannot be bound by contracts.

Just as Lingling was about to make rubbings of them with special paper to take back and study, Bai Mo heard a strange noise and immediately pulled Lingling away from where she was.

"bite!!!"

Three bronze swords whistled as they struck the spot where the two had stood. The blue stone bricks remained unharmed, but sparks flew everywhere!

Three humanoid creatures turned around, swords in hand. Their exposed dark purple skin was covered with strange patterns, and their empty eyes stared straight at the two figures who had flashed past.

A strange, eerie wind howled through the otherwise peaceful interior!

Another one, moving a little faster, was already chasing after the two of them!

These were the four human-shaped figures that had been lying next to the bamboo sculpture earlier.

"How can there be undead here?! And warriors at that!"

A wall radiating silver light blocked his way. Bai Mo felt the chilling aura emanating from it and asked in surprise.

"I don't know, this seems to be the ruins of an ancient kingdom." Lingling frowned as she watched the four unidentified creatures constantly attacking the spatial barrier.

"Warrior-level undead can detach from their original form, but they still retain their human appearance, and the gloomy winds they stir up are not as powerful as those of warrior-level undead. This does not seem to be necromancy."

"No?" Bai Mo was somewhat surprised, so he focused his attention and carefully sensed it.

As Lingling had predicted, he also noticed that each time these creatures attacked, the masks on their faces would light up almost imperceptibly.

It seems that what sustains their power is not the special patterns on their bodies or the power within their bodies, but the mysterious bronze masks on their faces.

To verify his hypothesis, he reached out and grabbed it. A sudden burst of silver light flashed in his eyes, and the four unidentified creatures that had been attacking were instantly immobilized by an invisible spatial hand.

With another thought, the masks covering the faces of the four humanoid creatures were easily removed, revealing four vaguely recognizable Eastern faces.

After the masks were removed, the four corpses seemed to lose their power, withering and dying at a visible speed, turning into dust on the ground.

Bai Mo's brows twitched, somewhat puzzled. He carefully moved the four bronze masks in front of him and examined them closely, but found nothing.

He then moved it in front of Lingling so she could observe it, but Lingling couldn't see anything.

Bai Mo didn't feel any powerful force from it, but he wasn't discouraged. Just because he couldn't feel it didn't mean others couldn't. He could take it back and have Old Man Bao check it.

After putting away the bronze mask, Bai Mo and Lingling inspected the entire underground hall again. The hall was neither too big nor too small, about the size of two standard classrooms.

The first thing to be inspected was the clay figurine by the stone gate; Bai Mo was genuinely worried that these things might also be movable.

They discovered that it was just an ordinary stone figurine, and on the bamboo sculpture carved from jade, the two only noticed that it would occasionally flash with light, and the light seemed somewhat peculiar.

But there was nothing else, not even energy.

Bai Mo tried to put the jade carving into his space, but he found that the jade carving was extremely heavy, and even his spiritual power was powerless to move it.

Not even a single leaf could shake it, as if this not-so-tall bamboo jade carving was heavier than Mount Tai.

However, I managed to pick a small stone bead from a leaf with some difficulty, though it wasn't very regular in shape.

After inspecting the entire underground hall, Bai Mo was still completely bewildered. Apart from what they had just seen, there was nothing else in the entire underground hall, not even a hidden compartment.

There were no mechanisms or formations to prevent tomb raiders, so this doesn't seem to be a tomb.

"Lingling, do you have any guesses?"

Seeing that Lingling looked thoughtful, Bai Mo couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.

"Have you heard the story of Yelang's arrogance?" Lingling slowly finished thinking and asked a question instead of answering.

"I've heard that long ago, there was an ancient kingdom called Yelang in Qianzhou. One of their kings was so arrogant that he thought he was invincible. He single-handedly stormed into the Green-Faced Ape Demon Empire in Fanjin Mountain, which angered the Ape Demon Empire and led to the destruction of Yelang."

"Such an arrogant ruler served as a warning to many emperors throughout the history of Kyushu."

Lingling nodded slightly, pointed to the murals on the wall, then to the clay figurines wearing bronze masks, and finally said:

"I suspect this is a relic of the ancient Yelang Kingdom. There are many legends and stories in Qianzhou that reveal bamboo worship."

This culture and the tradition of burying the deceased with their faces covered both originate from the ancient Yelang Kingdom. The shape of this underground chamber also resembles a bamboo leaf.

"Is that so? Then those texts must be the records of the true reason for the destruction of Yelang."

Bai Mo nodded thoughtfully. Many stories and legends have long deviated from the original facts, and some are not even true at all, which is why he made this statement.

"I'll find the information when I get back and translate it, then I'll know."

Lingling looked at the stone door in front of her. There were four indentations on the stone door, which looked exactly like the ones that Bai Mo had just taken off the faces of the four ancient corpses.

"Let's go outside now."

"Okay." Bai Mo took out the bronze masks from his personal space and placed them one by one in the recesses on the stone door. When the last recess was filled with the bronze mask, a rumbling sound was heard.

The stone door in front of them slowly moved to both sides and finally opened completely.

Bai Mo led Lingling out, then removed the mask from the outward-opening stone door, which then slammed shut again.

On the front of the stone gate, however, are four human faces carved.

Those pairs of eyes seemed to be staring at the two people who were walking away.

The further you go, the narrower the surrounding rock and soil passages become, and they gradually transform from polished traces into completely natural rock caves.

It seems that it was indeed a small ruin, and the entrance was not a passageway to other civilization sites.

When they saw the light of day again, the two found themselves seemingly on a mountain, a bamboo mountain, with lush bamboo stretching as far as the eye could see.

Below the mountain flows a gently flowing river, and where the river meanders, a small town can be faintly seen.

The sky was a clear, bright blue, and the sunlight fell on my body and face, warm as perfectly cooled water, completely washing away the oppression and coldness of the dark cave.

I had only been inside for half a day, but when I came out, it felt like three autumns had passed.

Upon arriving at the small town on the mountain, Bai Mo realized that it was a county town, not far from Zhuyang.

The two casually sat down at a noodle shop. During their meal, they chatted for a few minutes, listening to the enthusiastic owner tell many interesting stories and rumors about Qianzhou.

For example, a stream that can sing.

For example, there's the story of the phoenix that fell on Fanjin Mountain. It's said that Fanjin Mountain was originally the home of a phoenix, but later a powerful demon took a liking to it and attacked when the phoenix was weak, killing it and taking over Fanjin Mountain.

Later, a descendant of the phoenix was reborn and perished together with that powerful demon using flames that blazed across the sky.

"Don't you believe it? The reason why our Qianzhou land is so barren is because of that epic war."

The boss enthusiastically boasted, and Lingling just nodded, while Bai Mo indicated that he believed it.

But the shopkeeper muttered to himself that the prettier the customer, the more likely they were to deceive him, and went to serve the next customer with a somewhat disbelieving look.

After the meal, the two headed to Zhuyang.

Lingling, who was eager to return to Shanghai to study the characters and pictures that resembled those of the Yelang Kingdom, was put on a plane bound for Shanghai.

Bai Mo took the next available flight to Yaodu.

Stepping out of the airport and arriving at the city's most famous landmark, the Canton Tower, Bai Mo, using his status as a judge, quickly met his target, Feng Zhoulong.

This was a man who looked to be in his thirties, wearing a white overcoat, with a solemn expression and a meticulous demeanor.

"Hello, Judge Bai, what brings you here?"

As soon as he entered the living room, Feng Zhoulong saw Bai Mo sitting on the sofa in front of the coffee table and immediately greeted him.

His expression didn't show the panic one would expect from someone summoned for questioning by the Inquisitor. Firstly, he genuinely hadn't done anything wrong, and secondly, as the leader of the Demon Capital's Mage Tower Research Society, he had considerable dealings with the Inquisition.

Thirdly, his superior cultivation level gave him his primary source of confidence.

Bai Mo wondered if, if he hadn't believed in his own powerful cultivation, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to inform the Asian Magic Association about the fusion method.

(End of this chapter)