Star Trace Gate

Chapter 807: Ominous Record, God's Incarnation

When Ren Ye got the badge, it was less than half an hour before nightfall. In order to avoid any accidents, he quickly called Xiao Bitan and they lay down in the ancient bronze coffin to rest.

At dawn the next day, the master and his disciple climbed out of the coffin, washed up quickly, had breakfast, and then continued to search in the ruins.

They did not plan to travel today, but decided to dig graves here and continue looking for clues.

The reason why the Little Bad King was willing to spend time in this ruin was mainly because the discovery here involved the Xianlan Sect, Chaolong City, the Long Family, as well as the Ligui Sect and Chu Jin's reminder.

These mysteries put together made him feel vaguely uneasy and also aroused a strong curiosity in his heart.

But there are some rules for digging graves, you can't do it recklessly, you need to use your brain to narrow the scope. Otherwise, with such a large piece of wasteland, it would take only the strength of the master and the apprentice to dig for a long time and probably won't find anything.

The owner of the waist badge obtained yesterday was named Yang Yong, a centurion. Based on the scattered locations of his belongings, it can be inferred that this person was sitting in the tallest and largest carriage, and it is obvious that he was of high status.

Therefore, Ren also ordered Little Bit to conduct a careful second search with him around the area where the carriage was dug out.

Both the master and the apprentice are action-oriented people. They work as soon as they say they will. They are busy from early morning to afternoon. They take a break when they are tired and eat on the spot when they are hungry.

During this high-intensity "archaeological" work, they actually discovered something very important, a book called "Unlucky Record".

This ominous record was dug out from the rotten soil on the other half of the tall carriage. Since most of the carriage was buried in the dark soil, that half was extremely rotten, and most of the body frame had turned into mud, but the ominous record was placed in an iron box and was relatively well preserved.

Ren Ye judged from the width of the car body that Yang Yong usually lived in the car, and this iron box was probably just a storage box where he placed his personal belongings, and it was not something particularly valuable.

After obtaining the ominous record, Ren Ye sat at the foot of the slope. He just opened it and took a look, and he showed an ecstatic expression.

The first page of the Unlucky Record reads: "In the 26th year of Tianbao, on the second day of the third month, the third battalion and the fifth chamber received an order from the city lord. After the 15th day, all soldiers and armor will go deep into the unlucky place to conduct an investigation, and within three days, they will gather the supplies for a half-year march. The military officers and soldiers involved must keep the matter strictly confidential and not ask, hear or see anything."

Judging from the contents of the Unlucky Record, this seemed to be a diary casually written by a military officer, but based on Ren Ye's accumulated knowledge, this was definitely not a private thing and was completely different from a diary.

Whether in ancient times or modern times, any military action is a very serious matter and should not be taken lightly. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, any army will have special civil servants following them and keeping records.

This kind of civil servant has many names. Some are called Gongcao, some are called clerk officials, or recorder canjun, etc.

Writing a diary is not possible in most power structures with a complete military and political system. This is a military operation that requires strict confidentiality, not an outing. If you write something behind closed doors, you might get your head chopped off.

Besides, who the hell would write a diary?

Therefore, Ren Ye was digging graves with all his strength today, and he actually wanted to find this kind of things. Military records, or food and grass mobilization records, or some military merit records, because such documents would reveal a lot of potential information.

He and Xiaobitan were lucky enough to find the "Unlucky Record" that the centurion kept during the military operation. This record was most likely to be submitted to the higher authorities after the military operation.

Ren was also very happy. He took the Ominous Record and began to read it carefully.

In the first dozen pages of "The Unlucky Record", the records are quite miscellaneous, such as the amount of food and supplies consumed, whether any accidents occurred during the march, the marching speed, whether they arrived at a certain designated location at the specified time, etc.

Ren also read it carefully, analyzing it in his mind while writing down various summaries in his little notebook.

Soon, he had thoroughly understood the contents of the first dozen pages and obtained some very shocking results.

First, in the twenty-sixth year of Tianbao, Chaolong City not only dispatched three battalions and five chambers, but also mobilized two entire guard armies, which amounted to more than two thousand soldiers and horses.

Second, the two guards that were mobilized to go deep into the ominous wasteland were Long Yuqing's father, the most trusted personal guard of the old city lord, and even General Yang should not know the details. Because Yang Yong recorded that the troops only needed to pass the customs with orders when traveling, and they did not need to explain to any officials along the way.

Thirdly, this time the expedition was ominous, and the one leading the troops was not any military officer from Chaolong City, but the old city lord himself.

That's right, he came too, and he personally led a battalion of troops, as well as a hundred scouts and spies from the secret service battalion.

In other words, entering the ominous place to explore was an operation personally organized by the old city lord and kept highly confidential.

Fourth, the army set out in mid-March, but the centurion Yang Yong's record lasted for more than eight months. Excluding the time spent on the journey, the two guards actually spent nearly half a year searching in the ominous place.

What exactly are these two guards looking for here?

There is no clear record in the Ominous Record, it only says that soldiers from all walks of life should look for a place with light that pierces the dark clouds, and it is likely to be around the dark mountains standing in the wasteland.

Fifth, these two guards did not travel together, but were divided into different camps and rooms, each setting out from Chaolong City and searching separately.

After Ren Ye summarized the main points of the previous dozen pages, he continued to flip through the pages.

[The following year, on the eighth day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year of Tianbao, the spy from the secret agent camp held the city lord's order and ordered our third battalion and fifth room to rush to the marching organization number - the col on the south side of the 72nd peak to be on guard. If we encounter ominous ghosts at night, we will fight to the death. After receiving the order, the third battalion and fifth room arrived at the col on the south side of the 72nd peak three hours ahead of schedule, with complete military equipment and full staff.]

[At dawn the next day, a dazzling divine light suddenly appeared above the sky of the 72 peaks, piercing through the dark clouds that had lasted for eternity. The vision was like the birth of a divine being. The city lord immediately gave orders, ordering two guards to surround the mountain and guard it, with their backs to the vision and not to look directly at it.]

[The spy camp also sent someone to pass on the order that the flying general, Long Qingyan, will go into the mountain with the city lord and sixteen fourth-rank generals to investigate. If an accident occurs, our third camp and fifth house are the closest and will be the first to respond.]

【After receiving the order, we acted according to the plan and did not dare to neglect it for a moment. 】

[On January 15, the 27th year of Tianbao, the three battalions and five houses rested on an unnamed earth slope in the wasteland, preparing to continue searching for the land of chaos and eternal night in the wasteland tomorrow. After the rest, this officer personally checked the food and supplies, and the quantity was enough for more than 30 days of travel. After the 72nd peak, the ominous signs in the wasteland became stronger and stronger, especially after nightfall, there were always eerie wailing sounds echoing, the soldiers were terrified, and the morale was low. The current number of missing soldiers is 27. ]

"brush!"

When Ren Ye saw this, he was eager to know what happened next, but when he flipped through it, he found that "The Ominous Record" ended here, and there was only yellowed blank paper at the end, and there was no record at all.

After he finished reading it, his head was buzzing, and the guesses in his mind, which had gradually become clear, became blurred again.

"What the hell... Why are the records about the Seventy-Two Peaks written so cautiously and vaguely?! A dazzling divine light appeared there, and the city lord brought a large number of high-ranking people to investigate. Such an important matter... How can it be ended with just a few casual remarks?"

"The most important thing is that the Third Battalion and the Fifth Chamber were transferred to the 72nd Peak on January 8th. Yang Yong did not write about what they experienced along the way, but then he jumped directly to January 15th, as if he had deliberately omitted all the experiences at the 72nd Peak. And after January 15th, this ominous record ended without any more records."

"hiss……!"

Ren Ye took a deep breath with a suspicious look on his face, and quickly deduced in his mind that the day when this ominous record ended was most likely the day when Yang Yong died.

The process is not difficult to guess. Yang Yong mentioned in his record that soldiers disappeared one after another, and the ominous signs became stronger and stronger. He also recorded that they were resting beside a slope.

Ren Ye looked back and saw that the earth slope recorded in the record was most likely the one behind him. The landform characteristics were very consistent. In addition, all the military supplies were buried here, as if they had been attacked by the enemy. Therefore, he guessed that on the night of January 15, all the people in the three battalions and five rooms might have died in some strange incident.

As for why there were no human remains here, he couldn't guess.

Ren Ye slowly stood up and walked around while muttering softly, "There is very little information, I must extract it word by word. Look, Yang Yong mentioned in the Unlucky Record that the seventy-two peaks were shrouded in a shocking light, and pierced through the eternal dark clouds and drowsiness... What characteristics does this phenomenon meet?"

"The announcement of the Headless Man said that the Infinite Pearl has the ability to transcend heroic souls, cleanse the three souls and seven spirits, absorb the pure spiritual energy of heroic souls, and prolong life. So when it was born, did it match the vision of the stunning light covering the seventy-two peaks and piercing the eternal dark clouds?"

"No, it does fit the description... After all, this divine object contains the purest spiritual energy of the hero's soul. Once it surges out, it is not surprising to see such a strange phenomenon. Then, on January 15, the third battalion and the fifth room rested beside the nameless earth slope, preparing to set out again tomorrow to find the land of chaos and eternal night."

"What is the land of chaos and eternal night?"

Ren Ye muttered to this and then thought of the Wuliang Zun again. This divine object had the ability to purify heaven and earth, and could absorb the wronged souls wandering in ominous places and transform them into Wuliang Water.

To explain it bluntly, the function of the Infinite Pearl is to extract the essence of spiritual energy from the soul of the hero; then, the Infinite Vase is responsible for eliminating all the resentment of the wronged souls, the filth of negative energy, and the miasma left after the corpse of a high-level Taoist priest rots, except for the essence of spiritual energy.

Then, the place where the Wuliang Zun is located should also be in chaos, and the filthy miasma must be worse than other places in the wasteland. So it is not drowsiness there, but eternal night...

After this deduction, Ren Ye's eyes brightened instantly, and he muttered almost instinctively: "If we follow this conjecture, then the old city lord should have obtained the Infinite Pearl!"

"Look, on the eighth day of the first month, he led a group of high-ranking people into the Seventy-Two Peaks, and had two guards facing away from the mountains, so they couldn't spy directly on him. This was obviously to hide the news and keep it secret... If the soldiers weren't allowed to see it, naturally there wouldn't be any 'rumors' that could spread. And then, in Yang Yong's ominous record, there were six blank days. Does that mean that the higher-ups probably spoke and tactfully told him not to record this part... just leave it blank."

"The most important thing is that since the Third Battalion and Fifth House left the Seventy-Two Peaks, the ominous signs in the wasteland have become stronger, and soldiers have disappeared one after another."

"That's not a possibility. This is because the Infinite Pearl that can absorb the essence of the heroic souls was taken away by the old city lord. Therefore, the balance of suppressing the wronged souls and evil spirits in the wasteland was broken, so the ominous sign could not be controlled, and then indirectly led to the tragedy of the annihilation of the three battalions and five houses."

"That night, misfortune befell the slope, and all the people who were repairing it died!"

"It matches, everything matches. This guess is perfect, there is a cause and effect."

"It is very likely that the old city lord really took the Infinite Pearl. However, he may not have thought that taking the Infinite Pearl would cause such serious consequences, so he had to send people to look for the Infinite Vase."