1883 A Familiar Corpse
The palace was so huge that conventional weights and measurements could not describe it.
The pillars that covered the palace had been eroded repeatedly by the river of time. Most of them had fallen off and collapsed over a span of billions of years. However, the remaining parts were still more magnificent than the Supernatural Tower that stood at the center of Dragon City.
There also seemed to be piles or floating hills with irregular shapes around the palace.
At first, Meng Chao thought that they were the remains of surrounding buildings that stuck to each other and piled up.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that these hills were actually tombs made of corpses. They had an average volume that exceeded the new 100,000-seat stadium in Dragon City.
Within the tomb, there were countless Ancients whose bodies were covered in spirit tattoos. Their flesh was crystal clear, but they had all turned into rotten grayish-white stone.
There were also ancient vicious beasts that once tore the sky and split the earth. Their auras had been comparable to tides that devoured everything in the past.
There were also destruction colossi that resembled the Angels of Slaughter whom Meng Chao had encountered on the Turan Holy Mountain. They were enormous war machines created by the Holy Light faction, but they were dozens of times larger than the largest Angel of Strength.
When these ancient, sacred, ferocious, and tyrannical existences were still alive, they all had the power to destroy an army.
Almost every one of them was the key to winning or losing a battle.
Yet, they were now scattered around like a group of worthless ants in this dim but glorious palace.
“It looks like this palace is of paramount importance to both the Ancients and Chaos Behemoth,” Meng Chao mumbled.
“As a result, a world-shaking and extremely tragic battle was waged around the palace. Even after billions of years, the corpses of the people who died in battle are still left in so many huge tombs!”
The tombs had been burned by the space-based orbital weapons’ super high temperature. So, just like the city itself, most of the corpses were beyond recognition, and it was difficult to picture their original faces.
However, the flickering flames of spirit energy deep in their twisted skulls were enough to make Meng Chao’s nerves feel a burning pain.
He subconsciously held his breath and walked through the floating tombs. He passed two pagoda-like pillars and entered the mysterious palace.
Countless towering pillars were still standing inside as if they extended from the ground to the endless starry sky.
The pillars must have originally been as transparent as the Ancients’ crystal fortresses. Plenty of secrets and information had probably been embedded in them.
Meanwhile, the omnipresent black fog turned into countless tentacles and coiled around the pillars. They made it hard to see the secrets and information embedded in the pillars.
Meng Chao forced himself not to observe or think about the secrets that were hidden in the pillar.
He focused on finding traces of Battle God Lei Zongchao instead.
He realized that once the scarlet afterimages extended all the way there, the path forward would become distorted. It was no longer as straight as an arrow that just left the bow. There would often be detours and U-turns on the path.
It seemed that this was also Battle God Lei Zongchao’s first time exploring the depths of the ancient palace.
Perhaps, during his last exploration more than ten years ago, the Battle God had only reached the edge of the palace when he was intimidated by the palace might and the mountains of corpses around it. Back then, he was too afraid to take the risk and seek answers that were too complicated and dangerous.
Now that Dragon City had come to a point where the slightest carelessness would lead to a crushing defeat, he finally made up his mind to give it his all.
This path of advancement gave Meng Chao a glimmer of hope.
Perhaps Battle God Lei Zongchao was not far ahead and was looking for the right path.
Perhaps he might be able to meet up with this pioneer if he sped up?
With that thought in mind, Meng Chao activated his vitality magnetic field. He slowly floated three to five centimeters above the ground before he floated forward.
He was getting closer and closer. The scarlet afterimages before him grew increasingly bright, and his movements became increasingly vivid.
This meant that Battle God Lei Zongchao had just left these imprints!
Meng Chao had a spurt of energy. With a few swift movements, he rushed to the place where the scarlet afterimages were the thickest and brightest.
He could even smell the unique fragrance of the gene serum that Battle God Lei Zongchao had just released in the air!
“This smells like the cell cooling agent that Heaven Pharmaceuticals specially made for Master Lei to delay the spread of his internal injuries!”
Meng Chao’s eyes lit up. “Master Lei probably stayed here for a long time, and he just left!”
Meng Chao looked around and tried to figure out Lei Zongchao’s coordinates.
Soon, he found something under a pillar that definitely did not belong there.
It was a human corpse.
That’s right. Meng Chao took two steps forward and knelt down on one knee. He looked at the dead body that was sitting down while leaning against the pillar.
He was sure that this was not an Ancient from billions of years ago or a monster in human skin. This was a human through and through.
To be more precise, this was an Earthling who had died twenty to thirty years ago at most.
The corpse had become a bag of bones due to dehydration. Meanwhile, his facial features were distorted, and his appearance remained vague for the time being.
However, the clothes on his body had yet to completely corrode and peel off. He was clearly wearing a camouflage uniform from Earth.
These camouflage uniforms were sewn with thick and wear-resistant Oxford cloth as well as canvas. They were labor protection products that countless citizens needed the most when Dragon City first transmigrated.
When the Blood Alliance drove a large number of citizens to explore the ancient ruins, they usually never prepared high-grade protective equipment for the explorers to save costs.
Being able to have a camouflage uniform was the treatment of an elite cannon fodder.
As expected, Meng Chao found a dagger in the dried corpse’s left boot.
The dagger’s handle was engraved with the symbol of the Blood Alliance.
The multi-functional tactical watch on the dried corpse’s wrist and the supplies scattered in the backpack beside him also confirmed his identity.
“So, this is an explorer who was forced by the Blood Alliance to enter the ancient ruins?
“He either lost his way, stumbled into something by accident, or simply did not want to return to the surface and become the Blood Alliance’s test subject. So, he groped his way to the core area of the ancient ruins. In the end, he died here silently from hunger or lack of water?
“But what about Master Lei?
“If Master Lei’s been here before, he should have seen this corpse. He should know that this person’s his comrades in a sense. Why didn’t he think of a way to get his comrade’s corpse out?”
Meng Chao pondered quietly.
All of a sudden, he found the dried corpse a little familiar from a sudden angle.