This was not the first time Zhang Yu had come to the An Mountain Range, but at the time, his teacher had brought him in from the northern river pass. Five years later, he had returned to the protectorate from the lower reaches of the Dan River. He had spent most of his time traveling to the east of the An Mountains and had never come to the west foot of the An Mountains.
The situation here was very different from the east, both in terms of climate and geography.
However, the west side of the An Mountains was still within the protectorate's territory. Even though there was still an endless stream of wild beasts and strange monsters, as well as the native barbarians of unknown origins roaming about, it was still much safer than the east side.
As he gradually ascended the mountainous plains, his breathing also felt a little sluggish. After adjusting his breathing slightly, this feeling quickly subsided, and he no longer felt any discomfort afterward.
On the other hand, the horse he sat on seemed to have become somewhat dispirited. He specially fed it some crushed pills and then released the reins to allow it to move on its own. Only then did it slowly recover.
After another two days of trekking, he led the horse along a mountain ridge. In the distance, the Goddess Peak still towered there, as if it had not shrunk in the slightest.
As he gazed at that imposing and solitary figure, he couldn't help but begin to ponder. He believed that very few people had seen the Tianxia Beacon Tower on the Goddess Peak, but from a certain perspective, it could already be considered the spiritual symbol of the protectorate.
However, Zang Shu had said that some people wanted to push it down and sever the connection between the protectorate and Tianxia. This truly did represent the thoughts of a portion of the people.
In the battle sixty years ago, the upper echelons of the protectorate had changed greatly, and power had also been redistributed. However, this did not conform to Tianxia's etiquette. Now that Tianxia had returned, they would definitely be worried that they would be dealt with.
And the Army of God would definitely not be willing to see Tianxia return, because that would mean that they would once again become the slaves of Xuanfu.
Those heretical believers would naturally be unwilling. If Tianxia returned, no matter what kind of god they were, they would be suppressed once more.
It was obvious that the Orthodox Faction led by Xuanfu and Taiyang Academy were the ones who were struggling to maintain the name of the Governor-General Manor and the old rules.
Although Zhang Yu did not approve of some of the actions of the Education Palace and Xuanfu, in reality, the existence of Xuanfu had truly ensured the stability of the protectorate.
Compared to those cultivators and heretics, Xuanfu's actions were at least on the side of the people. Whether it was opening schools for children or protecting the safety of the people in the territory of the protectorate, they were all like this.
It could be said that those cultivators who practiced the Unorthodox Scripture were inferior to the Army of God. Although the Army of God was arrogant, under the current constraints of the Protectorate, they had at least contributed to maintaining order in the Protectorate.
If the Protectorate were to break away from Tianxia, regardless of whether the heretics or the cultivators who practiced the unorthodox scriptures were to gain power, Xuanfu would be their target of extermination. At that time, not only would the people suffer, he would also lose the way to learn the higher-level scriptures.
Thus, no matter what, he had to find a way to stop this person.
However, in order to do this, he needed greater strength and a higher status.
At this moment, he crossed over another mountain ridge and looked at the undulating mountain range in the distance. A layer of dark clouds covered the ash-gray surface of the mountain, and golden grass covered the originally brown slope with a thin layer of lichen. Above the clear blue sky, an eagle circled incessantly.
While he was looking, the horse suddenly took a few steps closer to him. He thought for a moment, then fished out a handful of specially made beans to feed the horse.
After he finished feeding the horse, he was about to take a step forward when he suddenly felt something strange. He turned his head, but there was nothing behind him. He turned his gaze and saw a sharp-horned goat jumping on the cliff across from him. It would occasionally turn its head to look in his direction.
His heart trembled, but he acted as if nothing had happened and continued to lead the horse forward.
Not long after he left, behind a rock, a small figure poked its head out to look at him. Then, it nimbly scuttled away, disappearing again.
Zhang Yu walked and stopped, and from time to time, he would walk around and observe. He discovered that as he gradually went deeper into the mountain plains, he would occasionally pick up some clearly manmade stones. He thought to himself, "It seems like this path is not wrong."
After walking slowly for another half a day, he once again climbed over a high slope. A lake appeared in front of him, but the lake water was murky. In the rock pits inside, bubbles were bubbling, and steam constantly drifted across the surface of the lake.
His eyes lit up. After looking around, he walked towards the narrower end of the lake. Soon, he saw some broken steps, half-buried stone tablets, and pottery shards that looked like tributes.
He walked in front of the stone tablet, and reached out his hand to gently stroke it. The originally hard stone seemed to have been heavily corroded, but there were still many deeply carved words left. After trying to decipher it, his spirit was lifted. He looked around and said, "That's right, this should be the legendary 'Raging Spring'."
The 'Raging Spring' in his opinion was actually a geothermal spring. The ancient natives believed that it was caused by the anger of the gods. Of course, in the era when the land was full of gods, this might be the truth.
In the documents he read, there was such a record. On the way to the altar, if there were people who bathed in the Raging Spring and didn't die or get hurt, then they were truly devout believers. They could become the guardians of the gods and were allowed to pass down their bloodline.
Although this attracted countless warriors to try, there were always a few lucky ones. Under the Raging Spring, there were countless corpses of people who tried to become heroes.
And finding this place meant that he was on the right path to the altar.
He looked up and saw a peak covered with ice and snow in front of him. If he was not wrong, his goal should be at the bottom of the peak.
Because this place was relatively warm, there was a water source, and the terrain was very flat. Moreover, he only cared about hurrying along these few days and did not adjust his breathing. Therefore, he decided to stay here for a night to recover his condition. He would go there tomorrow.
He looked around and found a high ground. Fortunately, there was a relatively intact stone platform here. The field of vision was very wide, and he could clearly see all the movements at the bottom of the mountain.
Therefore, he chose to sit here and placed the Xia Sword horizontally on his knees. He took out an Elemental Pill and swallowed it. Accompanied by deep breathing, he quickly entered a meditative state.
After a night of adjusting his breathing, he felt that his spirit and physical strength had recovered to a perfect state. Perhaps it was because he had experienced a battle a few days ago, even his spirit had faintly increased.
He stood up, washed up, and went on his way again.
It was just that after that, he walked around this mountain for two days in a row, but he did not find anything.
On the third day, he walked up a peak. When he was looking around, there seemed to be a flash of light in his eyes. He realized that it was the reflection of a metal object. He immediately looked around. Sure enough, there was a dilapidated ruin in his line of sight. But most of it was buried in the soil and piles of rocks, and it was difficult to distinguish.
He exhaled.
Found it!
After memorizing the location, he went down the peak. Half a day later, he arrived at the ruins. But when he arrived here, the horse refused to move forward no matter what.
So he let it go and walked in alone.
And when he set foot on this ruin, his nose faintly smelled the smell of blood.
He did not feel strange. Instead, he was more excited because this was the remains of a large number of spiritual monsters after a large number of deaths. This just showed that he had found the right place.
He walked in here alone. There were collapsed buildings everywhere, and the style was all from the Omezo period.
In fact, before the Omezo people came, this had always been the place where the indigenous people of this continent worshipped many gods and built a magnificent temple. Every year, on the altar here, a large number of spiritual creatures had to be killed to sacrifice to the gods.
When the Omezo people came, they pushed down the temple here, killed the priests, imprisoned and suppressed EsGod, and built a temple that belonged to the Omezo people. This action was also an important reason for the subsequent War of the Gods.
After the Omezo people were destroyed, their temple also collapsed in the earthquake that destroyed the island. After that, other than some oral legends, there were no more records about this place.
Zhang Yu had also seen some ancient tree bark books in the tribes east of Mount An and learned of this place. However, the specific location was only roughly determined after flipping through a large amount of Xuan Wentang's records.
The deeper he walked into the ruins, the stronger the smell of blood he could smell. However, this also provided him with a clear location. At this time, he seemed to have a feeling that behind these buildings, there seemed to be figures hiding there, spying on him with ill intentions.
He activated the "Zha Sheng" seal, calmed his mind, and suppressed these negative emotions. As he continued to walk in, when he walked in front of a tall slope, a familiar heat flow surged toward him!
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