Chapter 1954: Two Thousand Years Ago Conflict

At the same time, numerous other skeletons appeared here. Some were humanoid but much larger, with two pointed horns on their foreheads, resembling cattle. Others had human torsos, fish tails, and six arms—He Lingchuan immediately recognized these as Yin Hui.

There were even several giant scorpions here, each over ten feet long, naturally also deceased. Weng Xing curiously poked one, and a scorpion leg snapped off with a 'crunch,' startling everyone.

The monsters' skeletons outnumbered the dragon-flood skeletons by a hundredfold.

"A battleground," Luo Xie murmured. The monsters didn't seem to be allied; traces of combat were everywhere on the ground. Beautiful corals and massive reefs were shattered into debris. "What were they fighting over?" he wondered aloud.

"Need you ask?" Weng Xing said, nodding towards the faintly visible dark crystal ore on the wall. "This stuff."

Though not a professional miner, he could see that this dark crystal vein was truly magnificent, and its reserves were surely vast. It had lain deep underwater when spiritual energy was scarce; now that spiritual energy was recovering, it began to grow new shoots, otherwise, humans above ground would never have known such a rich deposit was hidden beneath!

Fighting fiercely over a rich dark crystal deposit—that made sense!

The old miner kept pointing further in:

"And the ones inside are even bigger!"

Further inside was the most spacious part of the underground palace, a water-eroded cavern with a rock ceiling reaching seventeen or eighteen zhang high.

The rock walls here were part of the dark crystal vein, and under the light of the fluorescent spores, they sparkled like the Milky Way.

On the rock walls, there were also two skeletons, both "even larger," as the old miner had said.

Weng Xing gasped, instinctively stepping back two paces. Fang Canran also exclaimed, "This isn't a Jiao; this is a dragon!"

The dragon-flood skeletons they had seen earlier were already astonishing, but the one they first saw upon entering here was truly a prehistoric behemoth!

"When we first came in here a few days ago and shone our lights on them, oh, it scared us half to death!" the old miner recalled, still visibly shaken. "One of my old buddies stumbled back seven or eight steps and fell flat on his back! He even wet his pants that night."

Unlike the previous remains, this creature's scales were perfectly preserved, its whiskers, armor, and mane all intact, making it appear almost alive at first glance!

It was nearly ten zhang long, with a chest diameter wide enough to fit an elephant. Its form was like an enlarged version of the dragon-flood skeletons outside, but the horns on its head resembled branches or antlers, branching into three sections, appearing like a majestic tree from a distance.

Even motionless, this colossal creature exuded an invisible pressure that washed over them. No wonder the miners who first saw it were so terrified they stumbled backward; who would have imagined such monsters hidden beneath a mine shaft excavated for hundreds of years!

"An Azure Dragon!" Fang Canran's eyes gleamed. "In my lifetime, I've actually been fortunate enough to see a real Azure Dragon!"

However, this massive Azure Dragon was coiled tightly around something, or rather, prey, like an old serpent around a pillar. To everyone, this was also an extraordinary giant, covered in bluish-gray and dark purple scales, approximately forty feet tall, with a blue face, tusks, bulging muscles, and a necklace. Upon closer inspection, the necklace was strung with skulls of various appearances, with only two belonging to humans.

The Azure Dragon had bound it, beginning to swallow it from the feet up, already reaching its abdomen. Yet, this creature had raised its weapon and plunged it into the dragon's eye.

It went in one eye and out the other, piercing straight through!

Perhaps in pain, the Azure Dragon bit down harder, swallowing another half of the giant alive, but ultimately, it too drew its last breath.

A mutual annihilation.

Both had died in a struggle.

Upon seeing the giant's weapon, He Lingchuan understood how the earlier dragon-flood skeletons had died:

It was originally a trident, but its shaft was broken, and one of its prongs had snapped off, leaving only two and a half prongs. The remaining two sharp prongs were both rounded; the main prong had pierced the dragon's eye, and the secondary prong had pierced its ear—both vital points.

After emerging from the dragon's eye, the tip of the prong then pierced into the dark crystal vein on the rock wall.

The Azure Dragon had been careless, not expecting its prey to retaliate with such immense power, even when half-swallowed and on the verge of death.

Thus, the trident almost pinned these two mutually annihilated enemies, fastening them to the wall surface, two zhang above the ground.

As they stood on the ground, looking up, they could almost feel the creatures' lingering rage and defiance.

"This is the King of Chaohai Yakshas!" Fang Canran suddenly exclaimed. "I remember reading in a transcribed copy of the *Sea Soul Compendium* that in the early ancient era, there was a small sea in the central-western hinterlands of the Golden Plains called Chaohai, and the Sea Yaksha clan dominated it for many years."

A sea is still a sea; no matter what, it's much larger than a lake, and numerous aquatic creatures live within it.

Weng Xing was puzzled. "This isn't within Chaohai's territory, is it? If it dominated the sea, why did it come all the way here to fight an Azure Dragon?"

"The legend of the Chaohai Yakshas goes like this. The Yaksha King, like many other demon immortals and kings, once led his clan to participate in the War of Immortals and Demons, helping the immortals drive away the Heavenly Devils. However, this war caused immense destruction to the mortal realm and made the volcanic clusters around Chaohai increasingly unstable. From initial intermittent eruptions, they later became continuous for one or two months at a time, severely threatening marine life. So, the Chaohai Yaksha King sought a supreme treasure from the Dragon Clan. This treasure, called 'Mountain Suppressor,' was refined by the Dragon God using extraterrestrial meteoric essence and the hearts of mortal mountains. The Yaksha King likely believed this item could suppress the terrestrial fire and restore tranquility to Lake Chaohu."

"It didn't succeed, did it?" He Lingchuan remembered what Naraka had said: even the Dragon God didn't suppress the volcanoes near him, arguing that they couldn't be truly contained, and the terrestrial fire would always find another weak point to erupt.

If even the Dragon God was helpless, the Yaksha King's efforts were likely in vain.

"This was a relic of the Dragon God, a supreme treasure of the clan, said to possess the ability to evenly distribute dark crystals and spiritual energy. How could the Dragon Clan possibly give it away? This matter caused a huge stir, and both sides clashed fiercely multiple times. These battles are recorded in the ancient texts of several immortal sects. I also read a conjecture in a book: perhaps the Chaohai Yakshas had set their sights on the Dragon Clan's territory, wanting to claim it for themselves. After all, the Dragon Clan's habitats are true grotto-heavens and blessed lands, and for the Chaohai Yakshas, facing imminent destruction, finding a new home might have been a better option."

He Lingchuan pointed to the two remains above and asked Fang Canran, "How long ago do you think this battle took place?"

"It's hard to conclude just from these two. But judging by the remains outside, it was about two thousand years ago, within six or seven hundred years after the end of the War of Immortals and Demons."

He Lingchuan stroked his chin. "Two thousand three or four hundred years ago was still the early Middle Ages, and immortals and immortal sects still existed in the world. I remember that there was an ancient immortal sect, Danxia Palace, nearby at that time. It directly took control of the central Golden Plains after the War of Immortals and Demons. The Chaohai Yakshas and the Azure Dragon clan were fighting to the death right under its nose; didn't it intervene?"