Ignoring Yun Xiang, who was almost exhausted, Zheng Yang's brows furrowed deeper. He circled the stone stele and then looked at Wei Ruyan, who stood nearby.
Wei Ruyan nodded, her eyes filled with certainty.
Without further hesitation, Zheng Yang took a deep breath, stepped back a few paces, and sharply thrust his spear forward.
Whoosh! Ripples appeared in the air as the spear struck a pattern in the middle of the stone stele.
Crack! The sound of a tearing formation echoed, followed by the stone stele shaking. A huge crack appeared on the ground, revealing a long, narrow passage descending before them.
Inside the passage, there was no scent of decay. Instead, it exuded an ancient, eerie feeling, as if it led to the underworld.
"Let's go down and see!" Zheng Yang, emboldened by his formidable skills, stepped forward and began to descend.
Wei Ruyan followed closely behind him.
The passage was dark and damp, permeated by the power of an Ancient Sage that they had previously sensed. Special runes carved into the walls effectively locked these energies within, making them undetectable from the surface for anyone who hadn't reached the Ancient Sage realm.
"This must have been built during Master Kong's era..." Wei Ruyan remarked, observing her surroundings as she spoke.
Although it appeared perfectly intact and indistinguishable from new, the construction techniques and the types of runes on the walls clearly bore traces of the ancient era.
It must have been built during that period.
They continued their rapid descent, observing as they went. After walking for nearly half an hour and descending several tens of kilometers, a massive stone chamber appeared before them.
Zheng Yang held his spear ready, wary of any sudden changes. With a flick of his finger, several luminous pearls instantly embedded themselves in the walls, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
It was an underground palace, over forty meters in diameter. In its very center lay a sarcophagus carved from bluestone, emitting an ancient aura.
"Just one sarcophagus?" Wei Ruyan asked, full of confusion.
To construct an underground passage extending tens of kilometers downwards, complete with a stone stele to seal all auras, merely to secure a single sarcophagus? This seemed quite strange!
Without further ado, Zheng Yang slowly approached. Just as he was about to use his spear to open the coffin, his hand suddenly trembled as a powerful suction force emanated from the sarcophagus.
As the spear reached the sarcophagus, it swayed gently and bowed down.
"What's wrong?" Wei Ruyan hurried forward, a poisonous aura spreading around her, seemingly ready to strike at the slightest sign of trouble.
"My spear is being affected by spear intent," Zheng Yang explained. "It's as if there's a more profound truth of spear arts inside the coffin!"
Although his spear wasn't an Ancient Sage artifact, it had been imbued with his own spear intent and wouldn't be much weaker even against a true Ancient Sage artifact. Yet, it was still drawn towards the coffin, clearly indicating an even more powerful truth within, causing his spear to involuntarily submit, without even the ability to resist.
"More powerful than your spear arts?" Wei Ruyan asked in disbelief.
Her senior martial brother, having inherited from their teacher, had long reached the level of true comprehension in spear arts, arguably making him the second-best at the time. Yet, even he couldn't resist it. What could possibly be inside the coffin to possess such immense power?
"Whatever it is, we'll only know if we open it," Zheng Yang said. "Junior sister, in a moment, let's both attack together and force it open!"
Wei Ruyan nodded in agreement. The two positioned themselves on either side of the sarcophagus, one to the left and one to the right.
They exchanged glances, a silent signal passing between them. Both Zheng Yang and Wei Ruyan raised their eyebrows simultaneously and reached forward.
Creak! With a harsh screech, a crack appeared on the coffin. A powerful aura shot straight upwards, as if to shatter the entire underground chamber.
With a sweeping motion of his hand, Zheng Yang sealed the aura, preventing any leakage. Only then did he slowly move forward.
The aura of an Ancient Sage possessed world-destroying power; even a trace could cause immense destruction. While this aura was easily suppressible for them, if it were to leak into Tianxuan Royal City, the entire city could be utterly destroyed.
Arriving before it, they simultaneously looked inside the sarcophagus. They saw a body lying motionless, as if asleep.
"It's an Ancient Sage's corpse..." Both of their eyebrows twitched simultaneously.
Only the corpse of an Ancient Sage could possess such power after death, remaining uncorrupted and unchanged in appearance for ten thousand years.
"This is..." Zheng Yang looked closely at the corpse. After a moment, something occurred to him; his face paled, and he couldn't help but step back a few paces.
"What's wrong?" Wei Ruyan asked, puzzled.
Having spent a long time together as senior and junior martial siblings, she knew him very well. He was usually fearless and reckless, so why was he acting like this after seeing a mere corpse?
"He is... he is Ancient Sage Ran Qiu!" His fists clenched, Zheng Yang's body stiffened.
"Ancient Sage Ran Qiu? Master Kong's most powerful disciple, the founding patriarch of the Combat Master Hall?" Wei Ruyan was stunned.
"Yes!" Exhaling, Zheng Yang calmed his chaotic mind.
Ancient Sage Ran Qiu was one of Master Kong's Ten Sages, the most powerful Ancient Sage apart from Master Kong himself, and the founding patriarch of the Combat Master Hall...
When he had inherited the positions of Hall Master and Combat Son, he had specifically knelt before a statue identical to the corpse before him. Thus, he recognized it with just a glance.
One of Master Kong's most esteemed disciples, the second most powerful Ancient Sage in the world, had actually died here... This was something no book had ever recorded.
No wonder his spear bowed down immediately upon encountering the coffin. Ancient Sage Ran Qiu's weapon was a spear, and the Dragon Bone Spear was precisely forged by him.
To be able to forge such a powerful weapon, his understanding of spear arts was clearly profound, undoubtedly far more so than his own.
"Junior sister, I'll guard here; you go quickly and inform our teacher!" Clenching his fists, Zheng Yang recovered and turned to instruct her.
With such a powerful Ancient Sage corpse appearing here, given their knowledge and understanding, they had no other recourse. They could only seek their teacher and let him decide.
"Understood!" Wei Ruyan also understood this reasoning. With a flicker of her delicate body, she shot straight out.
After she left, Zheng Yang slowly circled the coffin, wanting to carefully pay his respects to this predecessor who founded the Combat Master Hall. Suddenly, a creaking, groaning sound of machinery came, followed by another passage slowly emerging from beneath the sarcophagus.
He hesitated for a moment, then Zheng Yang quickly walked down into it. As soon as he entered, he heard another "creak!" and the light above him vanished.
The passage had closed instantly.
Frowning, Zheng Yang took out a luminous pearl to illuminate his surroundings and continued walking downwards. After a few steps, another spacious hall appeared before him. In front of him, another coffin lay flat, arranged exactly like the previous one.
Gritting his teeth, he opened the coffin lid again. A figure appeared before him.
As he looked forward to clearly see the corpse, Zheng Yang's scalp suddenly tingled, and he involuntarily stumbled back more than ten steps, his back hitting the wall, unable to recover.
After an unknown period, a murmured voice slowly emerged from his throat: "Master... Master Kong?"
[32 seconds ago] Chapter 1947: Change of Events
[2 minutes ago] Chapter 172: Just This Building
[3 minutes ago] Chapter 2429: From the Abyss Comes Revenge
[5 minutes ago] Chapter 1142: Female Driver Arrives
[6 minutes ago] Chapter 370: Unknown Existence
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