Within the stifling darkness of the tomb, Gu Qing Shan slowly progressed.
The Cambrian civilizationââ
Iâve never heard of the existence of such a civilization before.
I originally thought that the Samsara great tomb only entombed the participants from the previous Samsara Clash for Supremacy or the previous tomb guardiansâŠ
Come to think of it, the information I obtained at the time suggested that most of the âthingsâ that swapped souls with people in the Tomb of Myriad Beasts were once tomb guardians.
ââ-and from what I now know, the rest might be from lost civilizations.
Thatâs a bit strange.
While pondering this matter, Gu Qing Shan continued to head forward.
However, it wasnât long before he stopped again.
âWhat are you doing?â Gu Qing Shan asked in surprise.
The old pixie had already flown ahead of him and was now hovering in front of a random location on the wall.
âTake a look here, the decorative patterns on this wall are very nice, itâs full of other-worldly style!â
The old pixie praised.
âAlright, no need to look at a brick for too long, we still have official businessâ Gu Qing Shan said.
The old pixie glared at him: âThis wallâs brick was made very intricately, I canât just sit back and watch it being wasted away in a place like thisâ
The old pixie then pulled out his short stick and tried to pry the brick off the wall.
ââ-even after he went red from exerting his strength, the wall remained intact.
The old pixie appeared irritated and waved his stick while shouting: âBubalabu, I order you to come off!â
Pop pop pop pop popââ
All the bricks on the entire wall began to detach and neatly lined themselves up on the ground.
The old pixie waved his stick again.
The brick with the beautiful patterns flew out by itself and landed in front of him.
The old man happily examined his brick before turning his attention to the other bricks, muttering under his breath: â⊠Toilet⊠flooringâŠâ and various other things.
âââeventually, the old pixie put all the bricks away.
As an observer, Gu Qing Shan really didnât know what to say except: âOi, Iâm sure you can only use one ability while youâre hereââ didnât you only retain one Quipcraft?â
âWhich Quipcraft did I retain?â the old pixie glanced at him.
â[Playing Dirty]â Gu Qing Shan shrugged.
The old pixie patted his shoulder and amicably answered: âThatâs right, I threw a tantrum and played dirty, so I was able to retain a few more Quipcraftsââ all to help you, my dear brother Guâ
ââŠI seeâ Gu Qing Shan muttered with an understanding tone.
The two of them continued to head deeper into the tomb.
The hanging lights, decorative wall bricks, stair railings, stone benches, ceramic bowls, candlesticks, and pretty much everything else on their way were all taken by the old pixie.
As Gu Qing Shan turned around, the only thing he could see now was a literal empty passageway.
Before they even finished exploring, this tomb had already been stripped bare.
What kind of spirit is this?
âHey, even pixies donât usually pillage every single last thing they are able toâ Gu Qing Shan couldnât help but comment.
âThose descendants donât know anything about living sparingly and managing their assets, but Iâm not like them, Iâm their ancestor!â the old pixie perked up his chin and boastfully declared.
Gu Qing Shan was speechless once again.
The two of them continued forward for a short while until they reached a spacious open square.
The square was relatively empty with only a single black door that stood erect at the very center.
The old pixie flew around the door to examine it.
âAh⊠such an ancient Phase Realm door, how rareâ he said with an intrigued tone.
âSo thereâs a Phase Realm on the other side?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
The old pixie waved his stick to shoot off a Quipcraft towards the black door.
âTsk tsk, 300 million years of historyâââ this door has been sealed for a very, very long time, there shouldnât be any living thing insideâ
Gu Qing Shan walked up to the door, but didnât try to touch the doorknob.
His Spirit Sense was faintly warning him about somethingââ
This door was giving him an ominous sensation, almost as if something terrifying would happen if he disturbed it.
Gu Qing Shan became even more cautious.
He took a few steps back and turned to the old pixie.
Only to see that the old pixie had narrowed his eyes while mumbling something, as if to carefully evaluate the door.
âYou pixies must have researched these strange and unusual objects a lot, huh?â
Gu Qing Shan asked.
âYouâre correctâ the old pixie clapped his hands and gave him a thumbs up: âCuriosity is one of the foundational driving forces for the pixie civilizationââ is what I always tell my descendantsâ
âThatâs true, you are the pixie ancestor after all; so you should know how to enter this doorâ Gu Qing Shan commented.
The old pixie froze briefly before answering: âGimme a secondââ thereâs actually something quite dangerous about this door, if we try to forcefully open it or use any destructive spells on it, a huge problem would occurâ
The old pixie tilted his head in thought for a while before searching his fanny pack.
After a while, he pulled out a small dirty rag.
As soon as the rag was pulled out, a strange mixture of odor started spreading in the air. It was a mix of cake, BBQ, foot soap, chocolate, booger, and sweat of various kinds.
The old pixie covered his hands with the dirty rag before trying to turn the doorknob.
Cl-clack!
The black door opened without a problem.
The inside was completely dim without anything noteworthy being visible.
The old pixie sighed in relief and began to wipe the sweat off his forehead with the dirty rag before speaking: âThe oldest gate-opening technique, combined with us pixieâs [Playing Dirty] techniqueââ without any of them, this door wouldnât have openedâ
âImpressive!â Gu Qing Shan praised him.
âSo, Gu Qing Shan, you can go in now, Iâll guard the door hereâ the old pixie said.
âYou arenât coming in?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
At this point, two lines of bloody red text had appeared in the void of space:
[The Door of True Inspection has opened]
[Attention, this door will only open once and allow entry to only a single individual before it is completely destroyed]
Sure enough, the old pixie explained: âOnly one person can enter this door, and since I came here to help you, I wonât take this quotaâ
After saying that, the old pixie took out a small carving knife and began to carefully scrape off the layer of gold gilding on the doorknob.
âIâm going to be richâŠâ
The old pixie put the gold into his fanny pack and smiled so brightly that his face was full of wrinkles.
Gu Qing Shan shrugged and said: âThen wait here for meâ
He swiftly entered.
âŠ
The gloomy atmosphere from before quickly faded away.
Gu Qing Shan now found himself standing inside a high steeple.
There existed nothing but white structures outside of this steeple that took up space from where he was standing until the horizon.
Unfamiliar fluctuations could be felt radiating upwards from the ground, isolating the fluttering wind and snow outside.
[If this Phase Realm has been activated, then our civilization must have truly been eradicated]
A voice spoke up from behind him.
Gu Qing Shan turned around.
Only to see a man with a crown and scepter standing a bit further away from where he was, silently observing him.
âCan you communicate with me?â Gu Qing Shan tried asking.
But the man didnât seem to have heard Gu Qing Shan as he simply continued: [The civilization of our Cambrian world can only be inherited by our future descendants, any others who attempt to peek into our history would only be rejected]
[After all⊠the rise of our civilization was indeed strange]
[We donât want to bring trouble to others]
[After all⊠the sole reason why we were able to breed, foster, build our society, and develop our civilization⊠was thanks to those things buried under our feet]
The man waved the scepter in his hand, seemingly to vent some sort of stress.
[During the most recent 700 years, weâve gradually been able to realize our standingâ]
[IndeedâŠ]
[Like parasites, we live by sponging off the surface of that great tomb]
[We attempted to unearth that tomb, managing to build our civilization from the tiny bits of energy and the little excerpts of knowledge that leaked from inside]
[After 200 years, our environment gradually became more ferocious, causing our world to slowly fall to ruinâŠ]
[We also tried to excavate more of the tomb like our lives depended on it, hoping to obtain more resources for survival, but unfortunatelyâŠ]
[We were far too shallow, unable to reach the requirements of the great tomb, unable to unearth any new resource to prevent our destruction]
[And so, we finally drew a conclusion]
The manâs expression displayed a heavy sense of sorrow.
[That in fact, there was nobody who cared about us or our civilization]
[Our civilization was an accident]
[ââAn unexpected product of this tomb]
The man lowered his body and gently placed the scepter in front of Gu Qing Shan.
[This is a map of the great tomb, a map that took our entire civilization thousands of years of excavation to complete]
[ââIt shows the way to the entrance of the great tomb]
[Thatâs right, after thousands of years, we only managed to draw a set of maps that led to the entrance of the great tomb]
The manâs expression now displayed self-deprecation and deep sorrow.
[Ridiculous, isnât it?]
[But this was the extent of what we managed to do after exerting the entire power of our civilization]
[âŠThis is the only thing we can leave for our descendants]
[Take it]
After explaining this, the man remained motionless.
The entire steeple, even the world itself fell into stasis.
ââas if everything had ended right at this moment.
Gu Qing Shan stayed silent for a long while.
A tomb?
The leaked energy contained inside a tomb was enough to create a whole civilization?
After several thousand years of development, even at the cusp of its destruction, that civilization still couldnât open the tomb.
âŠWhat a sorrowful and unbelievable history.
Gu Qing Shan silently sighed and stepped forward to pick up the scepter.
Instantly, lines of bloody red text appeared in front of his eyes:
[Youâve obtained a map]
[This is the map that directs the way to the Human realm Initial Grave]
[It will lead you to the seventh entrance of the Human realm Initial Grave]
[Attention!]
[Due to this discovery, a portion of your strength is about to be unsealed]
[Special note:]
[Following this trail, you will face true danger; but as you are a Chosen Saint who joined half-way through, you still cannot use any swords; otherwise, you will immediately regain all of your strength and get kicked out of this Clash]