Chapter 499: Ancient Record Hall
Pushing open the door leading down into the underground section of the temple, Xuan Hao was taken aback by the cloud of dust that suddenly greeted him the moment the door opened up.
From the amount of dust that greeted him, Xuan Hao could easily tell that it had been a long time since anyone had been down there. From the looks of it, the grand elder might not have visited the ancient records stored away beneath the temple.
The reason for the grand elder not doing so, was likely because he and the rest of the elders from his race saw no use in them going down there to check out the ancient records. After all, there was a high chance that other elders before them had already gone over the records below the temple.
At that point, they would have already taken everything of use out of the ancient record hall. Only leaving behind what they had inevitably deemed as something useless...
Scanning the entire underground hall with his divine sense, Xuan Hao breathed out a sigh of relief discovering that there were no hidden traps and there were indeed some still intact records present in the ancient record hall!
Whoosh~
Not wasting any time after discovering this, Xuan Hao directly moved towards the closet shelf that had an intact record scroll on top of it before carefully picking it up.
"At least the written language is still the same... Although there are a few differences, but they shouldn't be too hard to decipher with a bit of time!"
Smiling happily to himself as he read through the ancient record, Xuan Hao could not help growing excited after realizing that the ancient record in his hands was not only fully intact, but also in the common language on the Ewaria Continent.
For the first time since discovering something similar to the temple he was currently below, Xuan Hao would finally be able to get some insight into the era that the temple was constructed in!
Filled with excitement at this thought, Xuan Hao began reading through the ancient scroll held firmly in his hands.
The content of the ancient scroll was not something Xuan Hao had expected, as it didn't mention anything regarding the temple itself, but was instead some kind of ancient record about the people who had visited the temple in the past.
"Grandmaster of the Forsaken Well, Revered Thousand Doves, Master Shoeless, Dao Mistress Bloodless..."
Reading through the many unique names written down in the ancient record, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just how they had managed to come up with so many interesting Daoist names for themselves...
However, even if there was nothing more than their name and short description beneath each of these people's names, Xuan Hao understood that each of them should have been an expert during their time.
How strong they truly were, was still a complete mystery, but he did get some clues that they should at the very least be experts of the Soul Ascension Realm, if not stronger. From the short description written beneath each of their names.
The most unique of which was Master Shoeless, a spiritual tree that had apparently gained sentience at some point before cultivating and becoming strong enough to take on a human form.
Even if he did not gain any of the information he wanted from the ancient scroll, there was still more scrolls left inside the ancient record hall and to be honest, Xuan Hao was more than fine just getting an insight into the experts that had been around during the era that the temple was from.
However, Xuan Hao was far from done checking out the ancient records kept in the record hall below the temple, as he directly made his way over to the next intact ancient record scroll before quietly reading through it.
...
At the same time that his master was reading through the ancient record scrolls of the temple under the control of the Half Spirit race, Chu Yang had just started his journey and was looking around himself with a confused expression on his face. Not willing to admit that he had already gotten lost before he could even reach his first destination...
"I should not be too far away from the Shattered Star Peak if I'm not wrong... But why can't I see it?"
Muttering this to himself as he walked up a nearby hill to get a better grasp over where he was, Chu Yang could only frown after not discovering the Shattered Star Peak in the distance.
The reason why he had even chosen to go to the Shattered Star Peak, was because it was located just next to a relatively famous demon beast forest inside the Flying Sword Sect's territory.
Inside the demon beast forest, there were a lot of opportunities for people in the Core Formation Realm like himself and at the same time, there were also a lot of demon beast at the Core Formation Realm!
The demon beast forest had mostly been under the Flying Sword Sect's control and was at the same time also the place the beast tamers would go to choose new demon beasts for the Flying Sword Sect.
For this reason, Chu Yang had decided to visit this demon beast forest first before making his way towards some of the other famous locations inside the Flying Sword Sect's territory.
At least... That had been his plan...
"I should go to the village over there and see if I can find out where I am..."
Whoosh!
Spotting what he expected to be small village in the distance from the hilltop hidden inside a small valley through a few distinct clouds of black smoke rising into the air from the valley, Chu Yang quickly made his way towards the village in the distance. Even if he had... Taken a slightly different route than he had originally planned, he should not be too far off his original route.
Asking the local village for directions should be more than enough to help him find out where to go to reach the Shattered Star Peak before making his way to the demon beast forest!
...
"Fight back! We can't-"
Ching~!
"Ah! Brother! No!"
However, things did not go as expected. The black clouds of smoke did indeed belong to a village. The only problem was the fact that the village in question, was currently in the process of being burned down by a group of bandits.
When he arrived, the last few among the villagers mostly consisting of the elderly and children were left behind.
Standing in front of this group protecting them from the large group of bandits that had invaded their village, was what remained of the small villages fighting force.
The fighting force consisted of both the villages young men and woman, with only a few middle-aged men and woman remaining. All of them wounded to some degree.
The strongest among the villagers was only at the Seventh Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, while the strongest bandit had already reached the Foundation Establishment Realm! Not only that, but there was also more than one person at the Foundation Establishment Realm among the bandits!
Looking over the fighting force of the small village and the bandits, Chu Yang could not help frowning as he sensed just how big the difference between the two groups were.
The bandits could obviously deal with the group of villagers easily, yet they were smiling sinisterly as they played with the last remaining villagers struggling to fight back!
Things really are still quite chaotic. No wonder Elder Song is constantly asking for help to deal with bandits roaming around terrorizing merchants and villagers alike!
Thinking this to himself, Chu Yang could not help remembering how Elder Song had worked hard over the past few months to get every available disciple to help cleaning up the territory of the Flying Sword Sect...
Deciding to help the group of villagers now that he was here, Chu Yang unfastened the spear he had been carrying on his back before thrusting it forward towards the strongest person among the bandits.
A relatively older man who was currently showing a lewd smile as he greedily gazed towards a few younger women among the villagers.
Whoosh~!
Ptch!
Before the bandit even had any time to react, Chu Yang's spear had already pierced through his head. Killing him on the spot!
"Wha-!?"
"B-BOSS!!!"
Swish~
Not waiting around after having killed the leader of the bandits, Chu Yang's spear moved towards the next bandit. Another person at the Foundation Establishment Realm that had been standing just next to the bandit leader.
"No-"
Only after all the Foundation Establishment Bandits had died, did the rest of the bandits manage to register what had just happened, as they scattered in all directions. However, they were only in the Qi Condensation Realm. How could they possibly run away from Chu Yang, who had reached the Core Formation Realm?
"R-run- Agh!"
"D-demon! A demon has appeared!"
Swish~!
Soon enough, the escaping bandits were cut down in a short period of time under the bewildered eyes of the remaining villagers...