NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 31: Veiled in Dust
A'Qiang drove the glaive deep into the ground with a forceful thrust, gasping for breath as he collapsed onto a large stone. The finely paved blue stone beneath them couldn't even slow the sharp blade of the weapon!
Ronald exhaled a breath of relief and glanced back at the dense mist. He couldn't help but feel incredibly lucky. If it weren't for his knowledge of Chinese characters, and his accidental discovery of books on the subject, the three of them would still be trapped in the fog!
Yet, questions gnawed at his mind. The Bagua Formation was known to be ever-changing, a deadly puzzle, but it had only taken a bit of understanding for them to escape unharmed. And then there was the mystery of how ancient Chinese characters had appeared in this distant land of Tianheng. Why? What was the connection?
Pushing the questions aside for the moment, Ronald looked down the narrow, quiet mountain path. "What time is it?" he asked.
Cuihua squinted at the sky. "Master, it's around 2 AM Earth time."
"I'm exhausted. Let's take a rest."
He accepted the dried meat and a sip of water from A'Qiang and stared at the mountain path ahead. After a long moment of silence, he finally said, "Let's move forward. We need to see what's ahead."
The atmosphere grew eerily quiet—no insects chirped, no breeze stirred the trees. Cuihua, always vigilant, picked up on a faint scent of blood in the air, and A'Qiang, with his sharp eyes, noticed broken weapons scattered along the sides of the path.
He reported his findings to Ronald, but this time, Ronald paid no mind to the discarded weapons. What if stepping off the path led them into another strange situation? It wasn't worth the risk of collecting a few useless relics. With the mist behind them and no way to retreat, there was only one way forward—answers lay ahead.
The path remained calm, devoid of any ghostly shadows or threats. Soon, they reached the end of the trail, a dense thicket of vines covering the entrance to a cave.
Before the cave, an ancient stone tablet lay cracked, with half of a blurred character barely visible. Ronald studied it carefully but couldn't discern the meaning.
A'Qiang hesitated. "Master, should we enter?"
"Of course," Ronald answered firmly. "There's no turning back now. Leave the weapons outside the cave. We may need to move quickly if something goes wrong."
"Yes, Master," they replied.
Ronald pushed through the thick vines, as if unraveling a forgotten history from millennia ago. He felt a strange, almost familiar warmth rising in his chest, a deep, unexplainable connection to what lay ahead.
As they entered the cave, the path was paved with smooth blue stones. A faint red glow flickered in the distance, casting a soft light across the dark cavern. On either side of the walls, ancient murals of human tribes told their silent stories, frozen in time.
They moved forward, their steps echoing in the quiet cave. The murals told tales of tribes evolving, from living in the wild, wearing animal skins, and fighting for survival, to learning to craft tools, growing into a nation, and battling fierce beasts and rival tribes…
Each mural captivated Ronald, drawing him deeper into this forgotten world. As he walked, he felt a strange sensation, as if he had traveled back to the distant past, to an era when humanity fought against nature, the earth, and countless enemies, never yielding, always striving to survive.
His chest swelled with emotion, a fire of determination igniting within him. Suddenly, he was jolted back to the present, and what lay before him would haunt his memories forever…