1879 A Different City
Meng Chao used both his hands and feet to climb up the once grand and glorious sky fortress. It looked like it had been carved out of a crystal, but it had now turned into a gray rock. It was filled with beehive holes and was extremely brittle.
He noticed that the core of the air fortress had apparently been corroded by the acid of the ancient beasts. A hole more than ten meters in diameter almost ran through the air fortress.
Around the hole, there were also many human-shaped bulges, which also had the texture of grayish-white rocks. The surfaces of the bulges were full of beehive holes that could make anyone have trypophobia.
“Is this an Ancient?”
Meng Chao squatted down before a human-shaped bulge.
The bulge was about four to five meters long and two meters wide. The head, torso, and limbs could be distinguished, but all the organs had obviously evaporated billions of years ago. Even the hardest bones had become crooked, like glass that had been melted and then solidified again. Nevertheless, there were still some stubborn marks of the owner’s existence.
There were many similar corpses.
It was as if the driver of the air fortress was rushing out of the hole in front of him and trying to escape when the driver was critically hit.
He failed to prevent the fortress from being destroyed because they were not facing mere raging flames and serial explosions.
There were also vicious ancient beasts.
If one were to say that modern monsters were a combination of different animal characteristics, there would be traces to follow.
The remains of these vicious ancient beasts were all strange and indescribable. They could not be compared to any modern creature that Meng Chao knew of.
They seemed to be monsters that had broken through the gates in the deepest depths of hell. It looked like they had smashed themselves into pieces and pieced themselves back together before finally climbing up to the human world.
Many corpses of the Ancients were entangled with ferocious beasts that resembled such creatures of hell.
Many ferocious ancient beasts even released thousands of what looked like blood vessels and nerves from their bodies. These things pierced into the brains of the Ancients in an attempt to probably implant certain toxins or information into them.
Meng Chao even found the corpse of an enormous ancient beast behind the sky fortress.
The corpse had almost been destroyed by the continuous impact of time.
However, its remaining scales and claws were still nearly a hundred meters long.
Judging from its remains, it resembled a giant deep-sea octopus with thousands of waving tentacles, which pierced into the air fortress… No, it pierced into the hundreds of enormous buildings around the air fortress and even the underground core of the ancient city along the foundations of those buildings.
This strange attack gave Meng Chao some insight.
The ancient monster named Chaos did not want to “destroy” the city.
Instead, it wanted to seize, infiltrate, transform, and completely possess the place.
Just as it was about to succeed, the flames of destruction descended from the sky. It melted and blew everything up, including the magnificent city, buildings, Ancients, and beasts who were fighting to the death in the burning city. They were then sealed in this strange and unpredictable space for billions of years until today.
“What’s the difference between this ancient city and the other ancient cities?” Meng Chao muttered to himself.
In the monster mastermind’s ancient memories, he had seen hundreds of sieges that resulted from beast hordes.
Most of the time, the fierce ancient beasts carried out pure slaughter and destruction. They did not require any intelligence. They only needed to tear and swallow everything within their field of vision. They would then turn them into nutrients that were delivered to the Mother to produce increasingly powerful beasts.
The cities of the Ancients that had been ravaged by the beast hordes would often completely collapse and turn into nothingness. All the materials that contained spirit energy in those cities would be consumed by the beast hordes unlike this city before him, which had grand ruins.
‘This ancient city is definitely different from the rest.
‘Perhaps it’s the reason why the ancient civilization decided to wipe out the Other World’s entire ecosystem with the space-based orbital weapons!’
With that thought in mind, Meng Chao activated his searchlight again and tried to scan for Battle God Lei Zongchao’s tracks.
However, he was greeted by enormous light projections that were as lofty as mountains and as powerful as gods and devils.
“Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Meng Chao heard the soul-stirring roars of the ancient beasts, as well as the sounds of the Ancients burning their life force to channel their spirit energy. They activated all kinds of ancient divine artifacts that blasted out dazzling flames.
The ancient battlefield that he had once experienced in the deep memories of the monster mastermind descended into Meng Chao’s mind once again.
Illusions suddenly filled his eyes and set off a frenzy of colorful light and shadow.
“The residual spirit waves here are of such great magnitude!
“It’s incredible that I can still scan so much useful information after all the years of erosion!
“I have to be careful. The ‘remnants of spirit waves’ are, in a sense, the echoes of the vitality magnetic fields that belonged to the ancient beasts and the Ancients. One could even say that they’re the remnant souls of prehistoric experts. If I’m not careful, I’ll be easily affected by them. They might even occupy my brain!
“Speaking of which, if we find Battle God Lei Zongchao successfully and return to the surface safely, we can organize a stronger team to explore, excavate, and study this place again
“The ‘remnant souls’ that contain the mysteries of the ancient era can also help the Dragon City civilization grow new wings and fill them with powerful fuel. We’ll be able to ride the wind, break waves, and surpass our limits!”
Meng Chao’s heart beat faster, and his sweat poured.
He felt that the stakes in this gamble had risen to the highest level.
Fortunately, he managed to calm his mind and see scarlet afterimages in the chaotic dance of lights and shadows.
It seemed that Battle God Lei Zongchao was not affected by the ancient remnant souls around him.
He focused on passing through the corpses and trudged toward the area where the buildings and geometric structures were the densest.
Meng Chao took a deep breath and followed almost every single one of Battle God Lei Zongchao’s steps.
They passed through two streets that were as wide as a playground.
The ruins of the collapsed structures resembled a broken mountain.
Four air fortresses had been melted by the space-based orbital weapons before they were solidified and twisted again.
Meng Chao came to an abrupt stop, and his face turned pale.
His pupils suddenly narrowed into two needles.
He stared at the unbelievable scene before him with his mouth agape.