Chapter 327: Echoes of History
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
They had reached Surging River.
Qin Mu examined the surroundings. When Village Chief had brought him to search for Carefree Village, they had come near here, so that village where the messenger of death was guiding the souls shouldn't be too far from this place. It would be a five to six days journey at most, and then they could return back to Disabled Elderly Village.
It was close to the end of the eighth month, so the sun was scorching. With it burning high up in the sky, the road was quite a bumpy one. When Qin Mu had come out with Crown Prince Ling Yushu, it had been the season of spring and now it was already the end of summer. Another season later, he would have to go back to the village for New Year again.
All the encounters he'd had on his journey could be considered legends.
As they headed down the river, water vapor suddenly blew over on the surface of the river. Pure white fog then sealed it off, preventing them from seeing anything in their surroundings.
Qin Mu immediately halted, and the rest also stopped in their footsteps, standing on the river surface motionlessly.
Xiong Xiyu's heart tightened, and she asked in a low voice, "Monster?"
Qin Mu shook his head. "Doesn't look like it. It should be a kind of peculiarity in Great Ruins."
At that moment, Carefree Sword, which was in the wooden sheath behind him, began trembling, and Qin Mu's heart moved slightly. Carefree Sword rarely gave out sword hums. The last time it did so was when he met his father Qin Hanzhen on the treasured ship.
Carefree Sword trembled continuously, and the clamor of troops could gradually be heard from the fog. There seemed to be countless of people passing by here.
Look under our feet, the water is gone!" Xiong Qi'er exclaimed.
Qin Mu immediately lowered his head and saw that Surging River had vanished from under their feet. Replacing the river was a dry and parched yellow land.
The fog gradually became fainter and fainter, so they could see moving figures around them.
Qin Mu, Xiong Xiyu, and the rest couldn't help being stunned. Their bodies froze when they saw a barren desert surrounding them, the yellow sand filling the horizon. Tens of thousands of divine arts practitioners wearing olden style clothing were leading huge beasts to construct large buildings.
These buildings didn't look like houses for humans to stay. They were tall, with pagodas reaching the clouds and gold and jade palaces radiating glorious splendor. All of them looked like places in which giants or heavenly gods would reside.
On the tall altars stood brilliant golden heavenly gods. All of them had human bodies, but they heads were varied. Some were bird-like, while others matched different beasts. They all wore golden armor, and their divine eyes were shining brightly.
They were living gods, and it seemed like here would be eternal radiance where their bodies stood.
Tens of thousands of divine arts practitioners were building palaces for gods under their supervision, making the scale of the construction grand and spectacular.
However, wasn't Qin Mu and the rest walking above Surging River?
How could this place then be a desert?
A few hornless dragons dragged a treasured carriage through the sky, and the group could head a voice rumble through the sky. "By the orders of High Emperor: Ministry of Works shall construct West Palace and open up irrigation works and transportation!"
Qin Mu was slightly stunned. 'High Emperor? The third move of Sword Picture that Village Chief imparted to me is Calamity of High Emperor! What relation does the High Emperor from Calamity of High Emperor have with the High Emperor from the orders mentioned just now?"
A god with a dragon's head standing on an altar bowed to receive the orders. His body then trembled as he transformed into an azure dragon, summoning clouds and rain, drawing water over to water the barren desert.
At the same time, another god that held onto a bronze plow transformed into a giant, cutting into a mountain and digging a canal for the irrigation works.
Another god then took out a treasured vase which floated in midair. It pointed downwards and vegetation instantly flooded out, turning the desert into a grassland with dense forests that grew frantically.
There was also another god, who took out a huge cauldron. When it landed on the ground, a mountain range rose from the land, changing the terrain. In no time, the desert turned into a green mountainous region.
Qin Mu and the rest stared blankly at this sight. The boundless abilities that the gods of High Emperor Era used to change the heaven and earth, a blue sea into mulberry fields, did not seem to cost them much effort.
"This huge river should be Surging River, right?"
Qin Mu was stunned. He saw that a god that was wielding a bronze plow was opening up a main river stream. It was very long and surging toward the east.
The shape of this huge river was slightly similar to that of Surging River, but the path wasn't exactly the same.
At that moment, fog surged over once again and drowned out everything. While the group was distracted by this, they could feel the land tremble violently and heard huge rumbles that sounded like the sky crumbling and the earth rending. Within the fog was a sight of an apocalypse. The sky was swirling, and the earth was flipping over. Volcanoes, meteors, thick smoke, lightning flooded the once grand palaces, burying a civilization.
The group heard a rumbling behind them, and when they turned back to look, a natural moat was gradually rising up, blocking off the land.
The fog gradually dispersed, and the time and space gradually changed. The natural moat slowly regained clarity, and the waterfalls began to pour into Surging River once more.
The yellow sand under everyone's feet turned back into flowing water, flowing day and night toward the east.
Pssh, pssh.
The two white bats that were hanging under the dragon qilin's chin were stunned. Losing their firm grips, they fell into the water. They immediately flew out and hugged each other while shivering. "Great Ruins are too strange! Cult Master Qin, quickly send us back to Ghost Valley!"
Qin Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Fu Brothers, you two are also part of the strange things in Great Ruins and you still say that Great Ruins are strange? You brothers have scared god knows how many explorers in Ghost Valley."
The two white bats looked at each other in dismay. "We are also strange?"
Qin Mu was angry yet at the same time found it funny. These brothers didn't have the least bit of self-awareness. They had no idea how terrifying was the strangeness of Ghost Valley, which was filled with all kinds of strange life forms. Even Celestial Beings couldn't say that they would definitely manage to pass through that place unscathed. On top of that, the brothers were the guardians of Ghost Valley, and so the strangest of all things there.
The fog in the surroundings didn't disperse completely. When looking at the natural moat, everything was hazy.
Suddenly, clouds of the fog floated over, and when they came close, they showed up to be gray figures that passed right through them.
Everyone hurriedly turned around and saw the fog gathering together again. A voice came then came from it. "What happened in the High Emperor Era? Why did this magnificent time pass? Was what happened just now an echo of history? A record of what has happened, replaying a scene from times past due to coincidence and fate? This land is truly wonderful, and the people of the ancient empire are also admirable."
"Your Majesty, Dao Sect and Great Thunderclap Monastery have some records that were passed down throughout the years. Your Majesty just has to give an order to send them over."
"Excellent, have them send them over. I don't want to bother with these monks and Daoists that keep interfering with my reforms. Without a reform, how can we change the lives of the people. I don't want to see them."
The fog walked toward the natural moat, saying, "I don't want our Founding Emperor Era to end up in the same predicament, we have to learn from the lesson of our predecessors. How could such a magnificent empire, with gods ruling the mortal world and working for the people, ended up in ruins? Such a powerful and rich era..."
…
With excitement, Qin Mu looked toward the fog. Founding Emperor?
On the family register of Qin Family, the one in the first position was Founding Emperor. He was the ancestor of the Qin Family!
Qin Mu immediately chased after that human-shaped fog, but its speed was really fast, leaving him behind in just a matter of a few steps. Qin Mu executed Heaven Pilfering Divine Legs and ran as fast as lightning, but the fog had still suddenly disappeared.
He stopped in a daze.
Founding Emperor.
Founding Emperor Empire.
The empire before Great Ruins should have suffered a calamity, but how was Founding Emperor Empire related to Carefree Village?
Xiong Xiyu and the rest caught up. The woman looked around before asking, "Cult Master Qin, that sight earlier?"
"An echo of history." He then composed himself and said, "There are many weird things at the source of Surging River. This place is connected to numerous worlds, so when night falls, many weird things happen around here. Yet never did I expect weird things to happen during the day as well. From the echo of history earlier, this place should be where one of High Emperor's temporary imperial residence rested. We may find some ruins from that era here."
"An echo of history?"
Xiong Xiyu and the rest were stunned. How could things that had happened show themselves again?
Yet Qin Mu had seen an echo of history before. On the treasured ship, he had seen the scene of when his father Qin Hanzhen had been ambushed.
This kind of echo of history was usually the mark left behind in time by strong practitioners. Echoes of history were usually activated by a person, object, or incident that was related to the original, and had a strong sense of coincidence.
The echo of history on the treasured ship that time was due to Qin Mu and Carefree Sword, so what could have caused the echo of history this time?
'It was two echoes of history this time!'
Qin Mu suddenly came to a realization that it could be said that they'd seen an echo of history within an echo of history.
When Founding Emperor came to this place, he had activated the first echo of history and saw the incident when the gods under High Emperor had changed the desert in the ancient times. Then, the second echo of history was when Founding Emperor and the rest had appeared on Surging River.
The first echo of history was part of the second echo of history which got recorded by time as well.
'Then what had activated this echo of history? Could it be Carefree Sword again?'
Behind Qin Mu, Carefree Sword had already quietened down and no longer let out any sword hums. The echo of history had also completely dispersed. There was no more fog on the river surface, and the sky was clear with the sunlight blazing intensely.
The fog had come out from nowhere and left in the same manner!
'Too strange, why is strange stuff happening here… Wait a minute, the echo of history had also happened on father's treasured ship. At that time, it was stuck between Youdu and the real world, with the beehive seals sealing the entrance. If the circumstances are the same, then the echo of history here must have also been because there's an entrance to another world somewhere around here!'
Qin Mu pondered about it. Maybe, the echo of history was reflected on the barrier between worlds and once it was activated, past events would be shown.
He and Village Chief had met the messenger of death near here and entered the living realm of the dead of Fengdu. The second time he came here, he had also met the messenger of death and entered the living realm of the dead to borrow Moon Ship.
The living realm of the dead was close, so Youdu should be close as well.
'The source of Surging River seems like an important node that connects the worlds. Maybe there's a divine art here that goes to other worlds? There are definitely nodes that connect things to other worlds!"
Qin Mu regained his composure, and layers of lights swirled in his eyes, revealing Cyan Heaven's Eyes. Looking around, he didn't discover any abnormalities.
He raised his head to look upwards, and after a moment, he saw a trace of abnormality.
The sky was the same blue, but he actually saw two clouds meeting each other and passing through one another.
According to his knowledge, when two clouds met, they would converge. Yet even though these two clouds had passed through each other, it was as if they had never touched anything!
This situation looked more like two clouds existing in different time and space so they couldn't meet and collide!
This meant that there were two skies that were overlapping above their heads!
'No, it may be three!' Qin Mu leaped up and sprinted high into the sky. Suddenly, a wind blew over and made him shiver. 'It may also be four overlapping skies or even five…'