Chapter 680: Chapter 691 The Former Civilization

“Alright! Since this is the first time you’d let me stay by your side, of course I’d come!” Yun Qing smiled coyly.

Meanwhile, Chen Hao merely smiled and nodded in reply, deciding that he wouldn’t mention a single word to her about his plan to save the lady in white at midnight; if he didn’t compromise at all, then he’d be in trouble if she messed up his efforts to recall the lady in white’s soul.

……

“Shuisheng, where’s the Snake Cave? Do you remember where it is or not?” One hour later, everyone had set off with the gang consisting of Shuisheng, a curious Su Ruoxi and Yun Qing, who was tagging alongside Chen Hao. They soon arrived at the mountain.

“Of course I do, it’s just a little secluded. Let me think.” Shuisheng scratched his head, then stood on a dirt mound. “I found it! Over here!” He leaped forward in an agile manner, then parted a thick patch of grass to reveal a cave entrance with a height that was as tall as a man.

When Shuisheng was little, he’d discovered this cave while playing with his friends in the mountains, then made a bet that he was brave enough to go inside. When he did, he discovered a gigantic snake’s skin. Also, he was bestowed with special powers after eating a fruit he found inside. As such, he called this cave the Snake Cave.

At first, everyone had to crouch down as they entered. But after walking for some time, the passage opened up to reveal a large stone chamber with the huge snake’s skin in the middle of that chamber. It wasn’t a stretch to say that this large snake was as large as the one they saw in the Palace in the Sands.

“This is it!” Shuisheng looked as if he knew the place as well as his own home, rounding the pitch-black cave with a smile before turning on a lamp to illuminate the dim stone chamber.

With the light, Chen Hao could finally see the strange drawings painted all over the cave walls. An eye-

catching plant grew from one of the wall’s cracks, except that this plant did not bear any fruit. “This is the plant I took that fruit from, except it doesn’t seem to have any now. In fact, I don’t think it’s bore any fruit since the one I took when I was little!” Shuisheng recalled.

“That’s weird. This is called the Saint’s Fruit, and it’s an ancient spiritual item that only bears one fruit at a time. You were lucky to have eaten it! Though I suppose its effect would be diminished since it grew on Earth, where there’s not much spiritual energy to go around,” Yun Qing said, clearly recognizing the plant and smiling as she explained.

“Hmm, so that’s how Shuisheng got his powers,” Chen Hao said. However, the cave paintings had already drawn his attention, since it was apparent that these paintings were old. Honestly, ‘old’ wasn’t even the right word to describe it; ‘ancient’ was probably the right one.

After scanning the paintings, Chen Hao thought it was quite weird because there were many strange humans depicted in the paintings. For example, there was a human-shaped figure with a pair of wings, and the most uncanny one was a human with three eyes.

Besides that, there were many animals depicted there, except they were enormous in such a way that Chen Hao couldn’t tell if their size was deliberately exaggerated. There was also a huge bat-like creature in the paintings that made Chen Hao think. When he went to take the Water Elusive Stone with Gu Yuxiao, there was a huge bat with a human head in that cave, and it looked very similar to the one in this painting.

At the time, he’d thought it was a bat demon that had meditated for some time, but could it have been a surviving creature from the ancient times? There were too many strange aspects about the situation.

“Do you know what world is being shown here? Is this Earth?” Chen Hao asked.

Yun Qing seemed to be engrossed in studying the paintings as well and she only spoke when Chen Hao asked her that question. “Yes. This looks like Earth, but it seems to depict Earth of tens of millions of years ago. Legend says that Earth used to have a period of civilization, and I’ve read some stuff about it in the Border Realm. This should be a painting of a prehistoric civilization or more accurately, the short-lived but immeasurably glorious Cultivation Civilization of Earth!” she exclaimed.

Su Ruoxi stared at her as if she’d heard nothing but gibberish. If it weren’t for the things that Chen Hao had experienced, he’d probably have the same expression. He’d heard that Earth was home to many prehistoric civilizations, with a special one predating even the dinosaurs and happened to be in the same era when dragons still lived. However, that era appeared to be short-lived.

“Could it be that the cave paintings from that era survived to the present day?” Chen Hao asked curiously.

“If that had been a regular cave painting, then of course it wouldn’t have been preserved to this day.

Let’s see what will happen if you use your Celestial Vital Energy on the paintings.” Yun Qing fixed her gaze on the wall.

Chen Hao didn’t know any better than her, so he had no choice but to obey and brushed the walls with his Celestial energy.

“Oh, it’s changing, it’s really changing! Look, Chen Hao! There are so many people and messages showing up on the paintings!” Su Ruoxi exclaimed. Chen Hao could see that the paintings seemed to be completely revealed.

“I think the painters of that era used psychokinesis to preserve the paintings this way. Naturally, you can’t compare them to normal, present-day painters because they had unimaginable powers. This method of preservation was used by some sects in the Border Realm and as long as there’s vital energy, the messages will appear. I think this big snake was no ordinary animal either. It must have used its own vital energy to reveal part of the paintings!” Yun Qing explained.

“I see. so the rumors aren’t completely unfounded, and such a civilization really did exist.” Chen Hao nodded. “Hmm, the people and animals in this cave painting seem like they’re performing some sort of ritual. I’ve never seen humans and beasts get along so well, and it looks like they’ve come from all over the world to pay their respects to this big stone statue,” said Chen Hao as he tried to interpret the paintings.

“I think I get it, this depicts only a small part of their lives. In their prehistoric era, I think only that person could have inspired such devotion in them,” Yun Qing said grimly.

“That person?”

Apparently, they’d made the right choice in bringing Yun Qing along because she was quite knowledgeable.

“This is another one of the Border Realm’s legends, because it’s the closest civilization that resembles the Cultivation Civilization. Of course, it’s similar but far from the same. In other words, any one from that civilization could easily take over the Border Realm, let alone present-day Earth! And according to legend, which I read from an ancient book from the Border Realm, that person was the first person in his entire civilization to attain the state of the Invulnerable Body, making him the invincible existence of the Cultivation Civilization that was impervious to any bodily harm! I think only he could be powerful enough to make every being of the Five Elements be so devoted to him.”

“Invulnerable Body?”