It was a different experience. There were too many differences and fine distinctions between the Octopus people civilization and the human civilization. The conventional technology tree in the human world was in a different structure in the world of the Octopus people. This seemed mysterious, and humans could not imagine how the Octopus people civilization had progressed. But in reality, the two civilizations focused on different directions in their developments. Their encounters and experiences were also different. Thus, the direction and structure of the technology tree would be very different.
While Tatamu was still spasming on the ground, w.a.n.g Zhong had already regained consciousness. The divine cells were trained to reduce themselves into tiny pieces. Thus, this journey did not place a huge burden on w.a.n.g Zhong's body. At that moment, he looked around.
His surroundings were completely different from the vast area they had set off from. This was a rather narrow s.p.a.ce that was only several hundred meters wide. It stretched into the distance like a pathway, but there was no shelter overhead. Instead, there were stars shining in the sky. Upon closer inspection, they were actually sword bases.
Most of them had taken the shape of a sword, except that the shapes were rather crude. Some of them were still in the shape of a rectangle. They were suspended high in the sky and sparkled brightly. Each sword base contained a great power that was simple and implicit, yet vast and profound. Upon closer inspection, one could even imagine how sharp the sword bases[1] were. If just the sword bases were able to make w.a.n.g Zhong feel this way, he could imagine how it would feel like when these 'stars' were refined or transformed into divine swords. As he sensed the sword bases in the sky, w.a.n.g Zhong could even sense a wonderful connection between him and the countless sword bases. It was as if they all had a unique life and consciousness, and they had taken a liking to this intruder. He felt as if they were calling for him to take them away.
In the past, he had heard that the Octopus people believed true divine swords grew naturally. w.a.n.g Zhong had never accepted this, but now, he could see that the treasure vault of the phoenix's remains was probably where the Octopus people refined or produced divine swords. w.a.n.g Zhong was not greedy. It was not because he was not interested in the sword bases, but it was because there was no time to choose the sword bases and successfully produce divine swords from them. No one had told w.a.n.g Zhong about the process, but anyone would be able to tell that it was not something that could be completed in one or two days.
Just as w.a.n.g Zhong was about to enter, the world in front of him suddenly shook. Many purple-gold seals appeared in front of him… They looked like rune engravings.
They seemed like… they were from the human world????
The next moment, a warning sign appeared, and the runes surged toward w.a.n.g Zhong. Even with his current condition, w.a.n.g Zhong could not react in time. Crash! Countless runes surged into his head. It was as if w.a.n.g Zhong's body exploded at that moment.
Countless Octopus people were kneeling in worship at the foot of a volcano as they chanted loudly. However, they were faced with an erupting volcano and scampered away pitifully in fright. w.a.n.g Zhong saw something flying above the volcano. It was a humanoid creature… with wings?
After that, it was as if he had leaped through time. The Octopus people started to develop rapidly. Among them, winged creatures seemed to be obtaining something from the Octopus people. Meanwhile, the Octopus people advanced very quickly. They lived in the Fifth Dimension and had good endowments. Furthermore, the antennae on their heads allowed them to have superb senses. Their control over their strength continued to increase as their ambition surged. In the end, they finally started a dimensional war. Although humans thought that the Octopus people isolated themselves, the Octopus people had actually conquered many races. For example, the Polylegs, which humans thought were a native race, had earned this status during one of the early wars.
In this vision, the Octopus people had millions in their armies and enough Warlocks to fill the skies, as well as countless soldiers and dimensional lifeform armies. Dozens of Warlock G.o.ds led thousands of Warlock Saints. This sight caused the humans to fall into despair as the Octopus people would definitely crush the Holy Land with this power. The entire world was influenced by this power. They chanted spells as if they were calling for something…
It was as if a door had opened in the skies, and the winged creatures appeared. Then, the sky turned white and slabs appeared one after another.
The Golden Stone Slab!
There was no doubt that it was w.a.n.g Zhong's Golden Stone Slab. Then, multiple stone slabs appeared in succession. The second slab was covered in blazing flames, while the third slab produced waves. The fourth slab represented the steady earth, while the fifth slab represented unwavering steel. Lastly, the sixth slab was green, representing life. It was undoubtedly the Golden Stone Slab, but the power it contained was definitely different. It was as if… this was the true Golden Stone Slab. When the sealed Golden Stone Slab was opened, the rune within was living and fluid.
Then, the Light and Darkness Slab appeared. Following this was the most important scene.
The slabs were differentiated by rank, and higher-ranked slabs appeared later on. They represented time and s.p.a.ce, order, chaos, and fate respectively. These slabs were not simply made out of a golden material. There was no doubt that mastering these four forces was a shortcut to understanding the meaning of the universe.
After each slab showed up, the shadow of the winged creature would appear. When the 11 slabs were gathered together, a ma.s.sive altar rotated, and the 11 slabs fused. Then, what appeared was…
The whole world started to spin as it was completely engulfed in light. There was an earth-shattering explosion, and everything vanished.
When w.a.n.g Zhong regained consciousness, he saw a human who was shining with radiance. He was definitely a human. He possessed the characteristics of a human that w.a.n.g Zhong was all too familiar with. No matter whether it was his physique, his appearances, or even how he fought, it was evident that he had trained in the Holy Land.
This human was far too powerful. The moment he appeared, he seemed to have the power to completely destroy the heaven and the earth. It was as if a G.o.d had descended from heaven to face the thousands of Sword Saints and Warlock Saints, as well as the powerful Sword G.o.ds and Warlock G.o.ds, by himself!
The entire peak level-three civilization gathered, but they were only evenly matched against this single human. The Octopus people seemed to have gone mad as they surrounded and attacked the human without any consideration for their own lives.
The civilization of the Octopus people suffered a huge shock from this fight. Ten Sword and Warlock G.o.ds had fallen to this human, while a large majority of the Sword Saints and Warlock Saints were killed just as easily. As a result, their strength dropped drastically. This was probably the main reason why the Octopus people paused their wars to conquer other planes of existence, causing humans to misunderstand that the Octopus people were a race that did not think about progress.
However, they had also severely injured the human in this battle, forcing him into the phoenix remains. The human guarded the entrance of the remains, killing all the Octopus people that tried to enter. The two parties stood facing each other in a confrontation. The Octopus people did not dare to enter the remains nor could they enter. Thus, they gathered their armies to guard the entrance in an attempt to trap and kill the human.
Then, w.a.n.g Zhong regained consciousness and returned to the restricted area. The runes had completely disappeared. Beside him, Simba was very worried, while Tatamu constantly looked around.
Simba wanted to say something, but w.a.n.g Zhong stopped him. w.a.n.g Zhong believed that the human was the Holy Saint Teacher. In the history of humanity, only the Holy Saint Teacher possessed such power. However, to be honest, w.a.n.g Zhong had never imagined that the Holy Saint Teacher could achieve such absolute power. But when he thought about it, this made sense. Without this power, how would they be able to control the Holy Land? After this fight, the Holy Saint Teacher had probably started to conduct research on the stone slabs, but the stone slabs seemed to have lost their mystical power. In the end, he fell short of success and disappeared. No one knew whether he had died or entered the hyperdimension.
w.a.n.g Zhong believed that the runes here were left behind by the Holy Saint Teacher for a successor. It was left behind specifically for a human. Since this was the case, w.a.n.g Zhong was sure that there was a conspiracy behind the matter. After the fight with the Holy Saint Teacher, the Octopus people had suffered heavy losses and treated humans as their greatest enemies. While the humans explored the Fifth Dimension, the Octopus people looked for signs of humans. However, w.a.n.g Zhong was not sure whether the Holy Saint Teacher had left all these behind for the Holy Land. w.a.n.g Zhong could not guess what was happening in the Patriarch Society. However, he knew that someone as powerful as the Holy Saint Teacher would have long-term considerations.
Now, w.a.n.g Zhong was no longer naive. He did not think that he was the only one who was aware of the situation. The background of the war between civilizations was beyond his imagination.
There was no doubt that the stone slabs contained a divine power. If the 11 stone slabs were gathered, he would be able to summon something. However, what were the winged creatures?
From the vision, the winged creatures had probably bestowed the Octopus people with strength and wisdom. At the same time, they wanted to use the Octopus people to obtain something. However, the Holy Saint Teacher had stopped their progress in conquering the Fifth Dimension.
w.a.n.g Zhong was slightly worried. Ever since he arrived in the Fifth Dimension, he realized that many things were beyond his imagination and the norm. However, there was a piece of good news. Since the great Holy Saint Teacher was able to leave behind this information, he would have definitely left behind a way to escape!
A red light shone faintly at the end of the pathway. Their hope to leave this place was probably there. w.a.n.g Zhong released Salamander to be on patrol in the treasure vault. The pathway was far too long. Thus, he had released Salamander to be on guard so that they would be aware if the Octopus people troops arrived. At the same time, they quickly traveled to the end of the pathway.
They reached the end of the pathway in just a few minutes. The red light filled their surroundings and separated them from the rest of the world like some sort of ward protection. In addition, there was a sluggish feeling in the air. When w.a.n.g Zhong stepped into the red light, he felt as if he was being scanned and approved by something. Just one step into the light and he was instantly enlightened.
They found themselves in a somewhat vast enclosed area. They did not see any transmission array or transmission pa.s.sageway as they had expected, but they found countless sources of the red light.
The four walls were filled with fiery red crystals of various sizes. They seemed to be either mounted on the wall or were growing from the wall. They were similar to the red crystals that w.a.n.g Zhong had seen at the entrance of the phoenix's remains and possessed ma.s.sive amounts of energy. However, they were slightly different. Various peculiar objects were sealed in these red crystals, just like the prehistoric insects sealed in amber that were found in the human world. The bigger the red crystals were, the bigger the object sealed inside was.
These were probably the treasures of the Octopus people. About one-fifth of the red crystals contained complete and unique divine swords. There were also some objects in strange shapes that w.a.n.g Zhong did not recognize. There were also white jade plates that continued to emit a unique shine even through the red crystals. They were similar to the material of the white jade stairs on the Sacred Mountain, but much smoother. Some of the red crystals contained complete sets of flags, strange gourds, and even instruments like the qin, se, or pipa[2]. Furthermore, some of the crystals contained high-leveled creatures. Some of them were only palm-sized, such as a young dragon. There were some that were dozens of meters tall, such as some atavistic bird species. Their entire bodies were red, and their ma.s.sive wings were tightly bound to their bodies, allowing them to be forcefully packed into the ma.s.sive red crystals. These red crystals were fully filled.
No matter whether the creatures in the red crystals were living or dead, they all possessed a mysterious energy that could not be overlooked.
"They are all treasures!" Tatamu's eyes lit up. "This is the treasure vault of the Octopus people and the source of their strength!"
Simba had started to drool at this sight. Many items that belonged to the Octopus people were of research value to humans. They would be able to obtain a large amount of resources if they brought any of these strange items back to the base. Furthermore, these were the treasures that the Octopus people had carefully stored in their treasure vault. "Lao w.a.n.g, Lao w.a.n.g, let's take all of these away!"
It was a pity that they could only talk about taking these items away. w.a.n.g Zhong had seen the defensive capabilities of the red crystals outside. As he did not know the correct way to unseal these crystals and while it would not be completely impossible to open the crystals and obtain their contents, they would waste a lot of time doing so. They could only sigh in excitement upon the sight of these treasures. "The exit is definitely here!"
"Master is brilliant!" Tatamu would not miss the chance to fawn on w.a.n.g Zhong. Although his new master did not seem to take a liking to this, once he got used to its bootlicking, he would definitely not be able to leave it behind. "Tatamu has suddenly been enlightened as if Tatamu has been filled with wisdom!"
w.a.n.g Zhong was speechless. He did not have any hate towards this fellow. Instead, he saw it as a pitiful tool that just wanted to live. w.a.n.g Zhong also asked Simba to find an exit. The more people he asked, the more help he would get.
This was the deepest part of this s.p.a.ce. w.a.n.g Zhong saw a strange stone slab sealed within a red crystal. He immediately recognized this stone slab as it had left a deep impression on him. This was most likely the stone slab that represented the order of this place!
Beside the stone slab, there was a palm-sized red crystal. A token was contained within the red crystal.
The token showed strong signs of being from human civilization. The appearance and design of the token were unique, and the word 'Pioneer' was engraved in a simple font. It was very similar to the Pioneering Order that was used in the Holy Land. This was something that had never appeared among the Octopus people. It was very different from the other treasures around it and was easily noticeable.
Was this the Pioneering Order? This was the original Pioneering Order!
[1] sword bases - semi-completed swords that are ready to be turned into actual swords.
[2] qin, se, or pipa - various types of Chinese instruments.
