463: The truth that disappeared for 20,000 years

Xu Sanyan's indifferent gaze swept over the scattered corpses, his eyes devoid of any emotion, as if looking at pigs and dogs.

His gaze only lingered for a moment on the long spear in Princess Lu WanZhe's hand before moving away; another old acquaintance was gone.

And the original team of about a hundred people now only had a dozen or so left, including the Lu Family Elder, the Yue Family Old Ancestor, and Princess Lu WanZhe. To Xu Sanyan's surprise, Yue Shanhe was actually still alive.

Xu Sanyan ignored them and went to the outside of the palace to observe carefully, the Heavenly Dao Imprint behind him gradually fading and returning to the Void Realm.

The Lu Family Elder and the Yue Family Old Ancestor exchanged glances and followed, but they dared not get too close to Xu Sanyan, stopping at a considerable distance.

Xu Sanyan's mind was active as he looked at the chaotic lines of the murals on the dark walls, trying to understand their meaning.

The murals were divided into five parts, which together seemed to tell a story.

The first part depicted a few outlines of backs, with countless people kneeling in worship behind them. Two suns hung high in the sky, and the backs were almost parallel to the two suns.

In the second part, the backs were gone, the kneeling worshippers were gone, and even one of the suns in the sky was missing, replaced by many dark clouds shrouding the palaces below.

From the third part onwards, everything changed. Lightning flashed in the sky, and the ground was a ruin, as if it had suffered some kind of world-ending Heavenly Tribulation, everything destroyed.

And the fourth part, there was nothing left, only a light rain falling from the sky, and a deathly silence below, where even flowers, grass, and trees no longer grew.

As for the fifth part…

Xu Sanyan pursed his lips, his eyes filled with surprise and uncertainty.

In the fifth part, the sky suddenly cracked open, and the surging strong winds were brutally torn apart. A surge of "Qi" blew in, and the world regained its vitality.

The light rain stopped, saplings broke through the soil, birds flew into the sky, and everything came back to life.

This painting…

It reminded Xu Sanyan of something he had heard about in the Hundred Saints Secret Realm back then. The Yaotian Holy Sect was once prosperous, dividing the world's Sects into nine ranks. The first rank was the highest, with only the Yaotian Holy Sect, which governed the world.

It was like the nine-rank system of the mortal court, requiring one to climb up level by level.

Everyone had to start from a ninth-rank Sect, gradually rising to eighth-rank, seventh-rank, sixth-rank… until finally entering the Yaotian Holy Sect.

This system made the Yaotian Holy Sect incredibly prosperous, drawing all the world's talents into its grasp, ensuring the Sect's eternal existence.

Doesn't this correspond to the first painting?

However, unforeseen circumstances arose. The Yaotian Holy Sect exhausted the world to sustain itself, finally incurring the backlash of the Heavenly Dao. To avoid the Heavenly Tribulation, it specially created that Secret Realm, leading to the later story.

This corresponds to the second and third paintings.

However, all of this happened thirty thousand years ago. In contrast, the oldest recorded power in Central Continent, the Tianyi Fumo Temple, was established less than ten thousand years ago. So, the question arises, where did the two lost tens of thousands of years go?

The mural seemed to provide an answer. The fourth painting had nothing on it, only the sky raining lightly, as if to wash away all lingering traces in the world.

Although this painting had only a few strokes, it depicted the feeling of loneliness and vastness extremely deeply, making one empathize as if they were present.

This might be the lost twenty thousand years in between.

Nothing was left; an entire era was forcibly erased.

And the last painting, with the world regaining its vitality, seemed to herald the beginning of a new era, which is their current era.

Thus, another question arises: where did people come from?