Chapter 1067: Depths of the Ruins

"Qiuwu Ancient Saint? Who is he?"

A battle teacher looked over.

When it came to ancient history, even many true master teachers knew little, let alone battle teachers.

"Qiuwu Ancient Saint was a follower of Confucius back then, accompanying him on campaigns across the land, fighting great battles against the alien spirit race, charging in and out seven times. He was one of the most famous ancient saints in the history of the Master Teacher Hall, with a strength surpassing the ninth level of the Saint Domain, reaching a realm that inspires awe..."

Teacher Wu explained.

"A follower of Confucius?"

"Surpassing the ninth level of the Saint Domain?"

Those who had not known before were all astonished.

Not to mention anything else, these two facts alone made countless people shrink back in fear.

To be by Confucius's side, absorbing his influence, would make one exceptionally strong at the same level, and to be a super-strong expert surpassing the ninth level of the Saint Domain... no wonder the ruins he left were so terrifying, nearly causing their entire group to be wiped out.

"Qiuwu Ancient Saint was not only powerful but also made great contributions to humanity. The seals blocking the alien spirit race in our underground caverns were mostly left by him back then... Our branch hall master, Gou, is his loyal admirer. If he knew these ruins were left by him, he would definitely have come in person..."

Teacher Wu said.

"Single-handedly blocking the alien spirit race for who knows how many years, this ancient saint is indeed one of the most outstanding predecessors of our Master Teacher Hall..."

"Yes, though his merits are slightly inferior to Confucius's, they are still enough to be remembered through the ages..."

...

Hearing many things about Qiuwu Ancient Saint, everyone's eyes lit up, revealing deep admiration.

Whether battle teachers or master teachers, the most important thing was to protect humanity from the alien spirit race. Without the seals left by this predecessor, various battles might have continued for who knows how many years, and humans could never have enjoyed such a peaceful and stable life.

They had thought this was just an ordinary Saint Domain expert's ruins, never dreaming it belonged to this ancient great power.

"If these ruins have a statue of the predecessor, I will respectfully kowtow a few times..." Feng Xun was also filled with excitement.

He deeply respected this predecessor and never expected to personally visit the ruins he left behind.

"Me too..."

The other battle teachers nodded in agreement.

"Since Senior Qiuwu left such vast ruins, he will surely leave behind a will. Let's continue forward. According to Red Leaf King, Dean Zhang Yinqiu and the others are not dead, just trapped somewhere! Tianye King is also trapped with them. Let's hurry over to avoid any unnecessary complications."

Suppressing the urge to dig up and sell this stone tablet, Zhang Xuan said.

Though this stone tablet was valuable, seeing how the master teachers and battle teachers worshipped it, if he actually dug it up, they would surely fight him to the death. After much consideration, he decided against it.

"Good!"

The crowd nodded and walked forward.

After just a few steps, a war master suddenly brightened, stopped, and pointed ahead: "Look..."

Following his finger, they saw a long spear stuck diagonally into the wall not far away, half of it exposed.

Master Wu stepped forward and gently pulled the spear out.

"This is... a half-saint artifact?"

His pupils contracted.

This long spear was actually on the same level as the Ice Rain Sword, reaching the half-saint rank.

Weapons of this grade were very rare in the Hongyuan Empire, and even in the Qingyuan Empire, there wouldn't be too many. Yet here it was stuck diagonally in the wall, looking as common as trash—it was too exaggerated.

"There's another one over there!"

While still in shock, someone else shouted, and then they saw him pull out a half-saint rank longsword from the wall on the other side.

"There's one here too..."

"This one is actually a low-grade saint artifact..."

As they continued forward, more and more exclamations arose. Before long, almost everyone had obtained a weapon, the lowest being half-saint rank, and the highest even reaching low-grade saint artifact.

The Golden Origin Cauldron had previously been at the low-grade saint artifact level, and here such items were scattered everywhere—just thinking about it was shocking.

"The spirituality of these saint artifacts seems to have been heavily damaged and has disappeared... That is to say, although these saint artifacts and half-saint artifacts are still sharp, they have lost their intelligence and cannot unleash their former power!"

After examining all these weapons, Master Wu said.

Although these items were of high grade and very sharp and tough, without spirituality, their combat power would be greatly diminished.

"It's not heavy damage, but rather the passage of time has worn away their spirituality..." Zhang Xuan shook his head.

Although the spirituality of weapons lasts longer than human life, it still fades with time. As time passes, it gradually vanishes and cannot exist forever in the world. Otherwise, some powerful individuals could seal their primordial spirits into weapons and live forever.

The Golden Origin Cauldron had lasted so long because it had been sleeping most of the time and had not been awake for long.

This involved the mysteries of the soul, which even many master teachers did not understand.

"Let's keep going!"

After collecting these weapons, Zhang Xuan and the others continued forward and found many scattered medicines, herbs, and other treasures.

Unfortunately, like the weapons before, due to the long passage of time, many had lost their effectiveness. Even so, gathering these items was still a huge fortune, far surpassing the previous high-grade spirit stone stele.

Whether it was because they had the complete map or for some other reason, there was no danger along the way. After walking for a while, a wide plaza appeared before them.

The square was full of pits and cracks, along with dozens of corpses scattered around.

"There was a battle here..." The crowd's pupils contracted as they hurried over.

"This is... Mu Renxu, the former vice dean of Hongyuan Master Academy, Zhang Yinqiu's right-hand man!"

Approaching a corpse, Wu Tianqiong recognized it and said urgently.

Although the corpse's owner had been dead for some time, having reached the Saint Domain, his body was extraordinary and not prone to decay, still looking lifelike, not much different from when he was alive.

"Vice Dean Mu Renxu?" Zhang Xuan came closer.

After becoming dean, he had read the academy's detailed introduction and heard of this person.

Hongyuan Master Academy originally had, besides the formal dean Zhang Yinqiu, four vice deans, but they all followed him into the ruins and never returned. For this reason, Lu Feng, the dean of the Alchemist Academy, had overstepped his authority to become acting dean.

This Mu Renxu was the strongest among the four vice deans, and he had died here unexpectedly.

After searching carefully and not finding the old dean Zhang Yinqiu's corpse, Zhang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he had never met the old dean, the academy's library had his portrait, and Ziyang Beast had described him in detail. None of the dozens of corpses matched.

"There are thirteen masters and twenty-one Heterodox corpses here!"

After counting, Master Wu was filled with sorrow.

These thirteen, almost all six-star masters at the first level of the Saint Domain, had died here silently, a great loss to both the Master Academy and the Master Hall.

"It seems the battle was fierce..." Zhang Xuan was also somber.

He recalled the cenotaph Zhang Yinqiu had left in the Dean's Tomb.

He knew he would die, and the masters who came with him must have known too, yet they still came without hesitation. This spirit was admirable.

"Let's take these bodies back. If they couldn't return home in life, at least they can return to the academy in death!"

With a grab of his hand, he collected the masters' corpses into his storage ring.

Falling leaves return to their roots. They were dead, but their bodies could not remain here forever.

"Why did they fight here? And where did they all go afterward?"

After he finished collecting the bodies, President Han spoke.

"I don't know, but if I guess correctly, Dean Zhang Yinqiu and the others knew the Heterodox would enter the ruins, followed them in, encountered them here, and eventually broke into a fight."

Zhang Xuan speculated.

According to the words Zhang Yinqiu left in the Dean's Tomb, he came here out of necessity.

From this, it could be seen that the Heterodox had learned of the ruins in advance, and they followed behind.

Of course, without seeing the specifics firsthand, one could only guess and never know for sure.

"Everyone, come over here..."

As they were speculating, a master called out. They all looked over and saw him standing at one side of the square, staring at a huge stone before him, looking somewhat puzzled.

It was a master from Qingzhu Academy, not very strong but very meticulous.

The crowd walked over, came closer, looked, and frowned simultaneously.

It was a palm print, left either by a combatant or by the designer of the ruins.

"This is a mechanism to activate some kind of seal. I've seen it before!" Zhang Xuan came up to it.

During the Boundless Realm, he had seen something like this on the side of a stele. It was called a handprint, but it was actually a depression. By placing one's palm in it and infusing true energy, one could activate the imprint and unlock some seal.

It was probably left by Qiuwu Gusheng.

"A mechanism?" Master Wu looked carefully for a moment and nodded: "Everyone step back. I'll try..."

Mechanisms could be safe or dangerous. No one knew what would happen the next moment when triggered, so it was better to be cautious.

The crowd stepped back in unison and prepared their defenses.

Master Wu's expression was solemn as he gently pressed his palm.

Hum!

With a rumble, the wall before them split open, revealing nine small round doors, each over a person's height, exuding an aura of seals, clearly indicating that inside were still folded spaces of unknown depth.

"Why so many?"

Seeing no danger, the crowd came closer, all filled with curiosity.

"Nine is the limit of numbers. Nine doors should represent an extremely large number, endless." President Han explained.

The crowd nodded.

Nine, the extreme of numbers, derived from the three-three multiplication of the six lines.

In this world, many techniques revered nine, such as the nine levels of martial artists, the nine levels of Mortal Transcendence, and the nine levels of the Saint Domain.

Nine heavens, nine provinces, nine doubts, nine layers, nine heads, nine thoroughfares, nine unions, nine departures, nine gates...

"Nine doors, probably like formations, some with life, some with death, some with scenery, some with harm. Which one should we choose?"

A war master couldn't help but ask.

"This..."

Stumped by the question, President Han paused, unable to answer, and couldn't help but look at Zhang Xuan nearby.