Chapter 1499 – Ancient Bronze Temple
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After laboring for seven years and putting in great effort every day, the moment Lin Ming waited for had finally arrived.
He had truly walked through the God Beast Tomb array formation and had arrived in this place that no one had ever been to!
“Where are we?”
Xiao Moxian asked, surprised. Even so, when Lin Ming broke through the first dao diagram, she had a premonition that he would really be able to break past this God Beast Tomb array formation and even lead her out of this dangerous land.
However, upon actually arriving at the core of the God Beast Tomb array formation, Xiao Moxian felt as if she were living a dream.
The God Beast Tomb array formation’s array heart was filled with mysteries. Ever since Tragic Death Valley had existed, countless martial artists had perished here, and yet none of them were ever able to step foot into the eye of the God Beast Tomb array formation.
As the illusions of the Dreamland array diagram vanished, the final three dao diagrams revealed themselves in front of Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian.
These three dao diagrams were arranged in a triangle, each one a thousand miles wide. These dao diagrams were filled with countless intricate patterns, but none of them had any energy flowing through them. Rather, there was nothing but a deathly silence.
There were no God Beast skeletons stabilizing the dao diagrams. They were like Lin Ming had thought – empty.
And, in the center of these three vast dao diagrams, floating in space was a magnificent ancient bronze temple!
This bronze temple was as large as a mountain. As it floated in the endless darkness it emanated the aura of mystery and the atmosphere of endless years.
“Let’s go over. There shouldn’t be any dangers…”
Lin Ming grasped Xiao Moxian’s hand and the two of them flew towards the bronze temple together.
Their speed was extremely slow. The distance of thousands of miles took a full two hours to cross.
As they approached the bronze temple, they were able to deeply feel just how grand and wondrous it was.
Standing before it, Xiao Moxian and Lin Ming could feel a terrifying demonic power originating from the temple. It seemed that all the demonic power from before had surged out from this bronze temple.
“How do we enter?”
Xiao Moxian looked at the great gate of the bronze temple. This gate was thousands of feet high and appeared extremely heavy, sending out a boundless aura. It was like the most source Great Dao of the universe was sealed behind this gate, and after opening it one would experience a baptism of the Great Dao.
Lin Ming remained silent. As he stood before the gate he could feel the ancient jade within his inner world grow increasingly hot. With a wave of his hand the ancient jade appeared in his palm. Then, grasping the ancient jade, he pressed it onto the gate.
If he wasn’t wrong, then the ancient jade itself was the key to this gate.
Like this, the ancient jade that was the size of a baby’s palm sank itself into the gate.
“What are you doing?” Xiao Moxian asked.
“Opening the gate.” Lin Ming simply responded. However, he frowned. This ancient bronze door didn’t move nor were there any changes.
In that moment he thought he had made a mistake. But, after waiting for several breaths of time, Lin Ming heard a loud rumbling sound like thunder as the thousands of feet high gate, a gate that was as heavy as a planet, began to slowly open!
This ancient bronze gate opened at an extremely slow speed, but there wasn’t any strength that could prevent it from opening.
As the two sides of the gate gradually separated, Xiao Moxian felt as if a world was being created in front of her and those two sides of the gate were the heavens and earth.
As the gate opened, the aura of the boundless Great Dao surged outwards. The scene within the mysterious ancient bronze temple also revealed itself to Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian!
Xiao Moxian couldn’t help but open her mouth in shock. Traces of excitement, awe, and fear percolated in her heart.
This ancient bronze temple lay at the center of Tragic Death Valley’s God Beast Tomb array formation. No one had stepped in here for billions upon billions of years; just what could be inside?
Lin Ming held Xiao Moxian’s hand, a serious expression on his face as he said, “Follow me.”
Like this, the two of them stepped past the front gates.
The ancient bronze temple was spacious. Everything within was large to the point of shocking others. The columns were thick enough that it would take hundreds of people holding hands to wrap around it. Grandiose murals covered the walls and the tiles were as thick as tomes. Everything here seemed solemn and dignified, exuding the presence of an emperor.
The great hall was quiet without the least bit of sound. Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian could clearly hear their own beating hearts as well as the echoing of their footsteps.
At this time, the whistling sound of beating flames resonated in the hall.
Xiao Moxian and Lin Ming were startled. In the next moment, they saw torches light up on both sides all around them, blazing like miniature suns and illuminating the interior of the bronze palace as if it were daytime.
Then, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian were finally able to clearly see everything within the hall.
This hall was broad enough to hold a vast army. All around it were sculptures of different kinds.
Some sculptures were fierce, some sculptures were peaceful, some sculptures illustrated martial artists of different races, and some sculptures emulated flowers and trees. However, most of the sculptures were of… God Beasts!
Just walking down the hall, Lin Ming could see hundreds and thousands of God Beast sculptures surrounding him. These God Beast sculptures were all lifelike, and all of them were ancient variation species, types that even Xiao Moxian had never even heard of before.
As they reached the end of this hall, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian crossed through a corridor and entered into a second grand hall.
This grand hall was much smaller than the previous one. The most prominent object in this hall was a towering bronze tablet. This bronze tablet was 99 feet tall, 13 feet thick, and appeared extremely heavy. The surface of the tablet was as smooth as glass, without a single character carved into it.
And beneath this bronze tablet was an ancient bronze coffin. This ancient bronze coffin was wrapped in thick chains, seeming as if they locked in the coffin. Lin Ming looked closer and could see that the materials used to craft these chains were heavenly materials that could only be encountered through a stroke of fate. If an Empyrean level refiner were to obtain just a little bit of these materials, they could be happy for the rest of their life.
“Bronze tablet, ancient coffin… could this be a grave?”
This was Xiao Moxian’s first thought. If it really was a grave, then the person most likely to be within the ancient bronze coffin should be the Asura Road Master!
Although the Asura Road Master was powerful beyond comparison, he was a character who existed billions or tens of billions of years ago. The most likely scenario was that he had died. If he were to die and bury himself in this bronze temple and also establish the God Beast Tomb array formation to protect his resting place, then all of that was reasonable.
“Could it be that… Tragic Death Valley is a grave that the Asura Road Master constructed for himself!?”
Xiao Moxian suddenly blurted out loud. She couldn’t help but feel faint at heart. No one wished for their grave to be disturbed by others. If a grave was truly the Asura Road Master’s goal when he created Tragic Death Valley, then it was natural for everyone who entered to have died. But, she and Lin Ming had arrived at this step and had even seen the Asura Road Master’s coffin. This was really… a disgraceful crime beyond all morals.
“You’re mistaken.” Lin Ming shook his head from beside Xiao Moxian. The Asura Road Master had clearly left the emperor jade behind as the key to opening the God Beast Tomb array formation. Of course, even if one were to obtain the emperor jade, wanting to open the God Beast Tomb array formation was beyond difficult!
The requirements for the person opening the God Beast Tomb array formation were that they needed a solid foundation, bizarrely outstanding perception, and they also needed to cultivate essence, energy, and divine.
Lin Ming pointed towards the bronze tablet and said to Xiao Moxian, “This bronze tablet looks like a table but the truth is that it’s a book, an ancient book cast from bronze.”
“Book?” Xiao Moxian was dumbfounded. After she probed with her sense, she discovered that it was indeed a thick ancient book.
From the front, this ancient bronze book that stood up on the ground was no different from a bronze tablet.
“So this is a book. I wonder what is written inside, and just what is in that coffin?”
Lin Ming shook his head, “I don’t know what is in that coffin, but what I’m sure of is that the Asura Road Master’s remains aren’t interred within it.”
Lin Ming had reasons for his speculations. The Asura Road Master was an unfathomable existence. Even if he had already died and was resting forever within that ancient coffin, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian would still feel an impossibly terrifying pressure standing in front of the ancient coffin; there was no way they could stand there with such relaxedness. Moreover, Lin Ming believed that if the Asura Road Master chose to leave behind his inheritance before he died, he wouldn’t choose his own grave as the spot and have countless trial challengers come thronging here to disturb his resting place.
“Can I open it?” Xiao Moxian pointed towards the ancient bronze book. Here, she had to be careful with every movement she made. If she accidently touched something that had some spell on it, she might bring a fatal catastrophe upon herself.
Lin Ming closed his eyes and investigated with his sense. In truth, after they broke past the God Beast Tomb array formation, that should have been considered as passing the test. Thus, there shouldn’t be any dangers in the bronze temple.
“You can.” Lin Ming replied.
“That’s great!” Xiao Moxian excitedly said. She rubbed her hands together, looking somewhat impatient.
After coming all this way and being on the verge of seeing the final secrets within Tragic Death Valley, of course she was excited.
Moreover, she might be the first person in all these years to open the ancient bronze book and see the secrets within. As she thought of this, she had a very high sense of achievement.
She cheerfully hopped over to the front of the ancient book. Then, her two hands grasped the cover of the ancient book and she made an effort to pull it back. However, as she tried to open the cover, she simply couldn’t move it at all. It was like this ancient book was a metal statue, not moving no matter how much Xiao Moxian tried.
Xiao Moxian didn’t believe in superstitions. She pulled up her sleeves, bit down on her lips, and then pulled with all her strength, grunting, “Open up!”
Xiao Moxian’s shout was loud and clear, but the ancient book simply didn’t care how much effort she was using. It remained unmoving as before.
“Argh! Is this a joke? We’ve come this far but there’s still a spell on this book, how exasperating is that!” Xiao Moxian indignantly huffed.
In her opinion, the previous tests were more than enough. In the countless years since Tragic Death Valley was created, no one besides that freakish fellow Lin Ming was able to pass the trial, so why was there a need to add another unnecessary sealing spell on the book?
As Lin Ming saw this, he couldn’t hold back a smile. He walked forwards and reached out to release the buckle on the book cover. With an amused expression on his face he said, “There is no spell, it’s just that the cover was fastened down. You only needed to undo the metal buckle.”
“Uh…” Xiao Moxian looked at the buckle on the side of the ancient book and gulped down like she had swallowed an egg. She blushed red as she was filled with embarrassment. She awkwardly said, “Why didn’t you say so earlier…”