132: Chapter 132 Dark Turmoil

Su Fan followed Jiang Zibo to the murals on the other side.

The murals here recorded brief biographies of the Ascendants in the history of the Shenyuan Clan.

holy calendar Year 3,102,803: Supreme Elder Chen Wenfeng ascended to the Upper Realm; Shenyuan Holy Land decided to posthumously grant him the title of Saint Wenfeng.

holy calendar Year 2,035,672: Supreme Elder Yun Youyou ascended to the Upper Realm; Shenyuan Holy Land decided to posthumously grant him the title of Saint Yunyou.

holy calendar Year 1,121,255: Supreme Elder Chu Jingtian ascended to the Upper Realm; Shenyuan Holy Land decided to posthumously grant him the title of Saint Jingtian.

holy calendar Year 1,000: Founder of Shenyuan Holy Land and its first Holy Lord, Gu Jingyuan, ascended to the Upper Realm; descendants of Shenyuan Holy Land decided to posthumously grant him the title of Saint Jingyuan.

Seeing this, Su Fan fell silent. He hadn't expected a single Shenyuan Holy Land to possess four Ascendants—talented individuals capable of dimensional ascension!

Truly terrifying!

"Elder Su, actually, these are only the Ascendants of the holy calendar era, which is the era of our Shenyuan Holy Land. In even more distant eras, Shenyuan Star had many more Ascendants," Jiang Zibo said with a hint of pride.

"Exactly how long has your Shenyuan Clan existed? There were other eras before three million years ago?" Su Fan was dumbfounded.

"Before the holy calendar, there was another era we call the Ancient Calendar era," Jiang Zibo said, a sense of cultural pride stemming from such a long history.

Su Fan was stunned. The history of the Xia Clan was only five thousand years long; there was simply no comparison with the Shenyuan Clan.

Could it be that the Xia Clan truly is the bloodline left behind by some Saint or Grand Elder of the Shenyuan Clan while they were traveling the universe?

"Are there records of the Ancient Calendar era here?" Su Fan felt it would be better to draw conclusions only after thoroughly understanding the history of the Shenyuan Clan.

"Not here. To understand the history of the Ancient Calendar era, one needs to go to the Archives Room," Jiang Zibo explained with a smile.

"However, because that time is so distant, combined with the tragic wars of the Dark Turmoil era, a large number of books were destroyed. The records of the Ancient Calendar era are not very numerous."

Su Fan nodded. He could understand this; after all, it was something from three million years ago. Even without war, it wouldn't be easy for anything to survive.

On Blue Star, the Xia Country, which has the longest recorded history, currently only traces back to the Ancient Yu period, about 8,000 years ago.

Things from three million years ago would have long since turned into a handful of dust and scattered with the wind!

"Come, follow me. I will take you to the Archives Room," Jiang Zibo led the way.

The Archives Room were located on the back mountain of the Holy Land. The journey was long, and the group walked for quite a while.

Along the way, Su Fan asked about some matters regarding the Dark Turmoil. His intuition told him that the Dark Turmoil was definitely a significant historical event, or rather, a major historical turning point.

"The Dark Turmoil! That was a dark age," Jiang Zibo said with a sigh.

"At the end of the Ancient Calendar era, the political power of the Ancient Saint Dynasty collapsed. Lords and heroes rose up across the land, warlords carved out their own territories, and the common people were displaced, their lives worth less than paper!"

"In those troubled times, ordinary people would eat leaves, gnaw on bark, and dig for Guanyin clay just for a bite of food. By the later stages, there were even instances of selling daughters for grain and exchanging children to eat!"

"At the end of the Dark Turmoil, a massive beast tide appeared along the Xingluo coast. Countless sea beasts landed on the Shengyuan Continent, dealing another heavy blow to the already fragile Shenyuan Clan!"

"After a century of cruel struggle, although the Shenyuan Clan won with great difficulty, not even one in a hundred of the population remained!"

"Saint Jingyuan rose during that era!"

"With peerless individual martial prowess, he slew sea beasts, slaughtered warlords, and forcibly unified the fragmented Shenyuan Clan."

"The current Shenyuan Holy Land was established after Saint Jingyuan unified Shenyuan Star."

When speaking of Saint Jingyuan, Jiang Zibo's face was full of admiration.

Su Fan was also deeply moved. This Saint Jingyuan was a classic figure on the level of Qin Shi Huang or Emperor Wu of Han—perhaps even stronger, since he had unified an entire planet.

"You mentioned sea beasts just now. What exactly are those?" Su Fan realized that Shenyuan Star had quite a few secrets, as Jiang Zibo had thrown out yet another unknown.

"At the bottom of Shenyuan Star's Xingluo Sea, there are a large number of sea beasts. Their strength is terrifying; the most powerful can even reach the level of a Supreme Elder!" Jiang Zibo's expression turned serious.

"Whether it was the former Ancient Saint Dynasty or the current Shenyuan Holy Land, people are sent to clear out the sea beasts every so often."

"Why not clear them out completely?" Xia Feifei suddenly asked.

"They can't be cleared out!" Jiang Zibo gave a bitter smile.

"Every time we clear these sea beasts, many more will pop up out of nowhere after a few years."

"They're like leeks—you cut one crop and another grows, cut one and another grows. We are quite helpless as well!"

"There's such a thing?" Su Fan was startled and blurted out, "With these inexhaustible sea beasts, wouldn't you have an endless supply of food?"

Jiang Zibo froze. He had imagined several reactions, but he hadn't expected Su Fan to approach it from this angle.

"Elder Su makes a good point. These inexhaustible sea beasts have indeed provided our Shenyuan Clan with a large amount of high-quality food."

"In the late stages of the Dark Turmoil, sea beast meat became an important food source that sustained countless families."

"The existence of sea beasts is, for the Shenyuan Clan, a mix of blessing and curse," Jiang Zibo remarked.

Su Fan and Xia Feifei looked at each other in silence; they didn't want to comment on the history of the Shenyuan Clan.

After a long time, the three of them arrived in front of a massive building.

"We're here. This building is the Archives Room," Jiang Zibo pointed to the structure before them.

"Inside are countless historical and cultural records; it is the largest and most complete historical and cultural repository of the Shenyuan Clan."

Su Fan looked at the place with some excitement. Perhaps the more distant history of the Xia Clan was hidden inside.

"Come, follow me. The Archives Room are very large and divided into many sections. I'll first take you to the area where the history of the Ancient Calendar era is stored," Jiang Zibo said with a smile.

Su Fan and Xia Feifei responded with smiles and followed Jiang Zibo into the Archives Room.

After entering the Archives Room, Su Fan and the others turned left and right for a while before finally stopping in a relatively small room.

"The historical records of the Ancient Calendar era are in this small room. You can browse through them at your own pace. There aren't many; it shouldn't take more than a few days to read them all," Jiang Zibo said, pointing to the only bookshelf in the small room.

The books on the shelf were sparse; at most, there were only a few dozen.

"Alright, then we'll be reading here for the next few days. If Holy Lord Jiang has other matters to attend to, please feel free," Su Fan said politely.

"It's just a few days, no trouble at all. Usually, when I cultivate, a single meditation session takes several months," Jiang Zibo said, waving his hand with a smile.

"Besides, if you have questions while reading this history, I'll be right here so you can get answers immediately."

The smile on Su Fan's face widened. "Then we shall trouble Holy Lord Jiang."

"You're welcome."

Next, Su Fan and Xia Feifei began to flip through the history books of the Ancient Calendar era one by one.

...