With the power of the rocket, we get sent flying into the forest at high speed, passing by a few other people who give me similar feelings to those two from before, as expected they attempt to chase after us. Thankfully the trees aren't slowing us down too much as they get shoved aside, just as Wanjing mentioned. Although they seem to be completely immune to everything else, even my corrosion, the force of impact pushes them down. Thanks to the rocket and my manipulation of the wind, we pull ahead and lose them before the rocket begins to break down as it wasn't made to handle my corrosion.
With the breakdown of the rocket, our speed slows down tremendously before we soon come to a complete stop somewhere in the middle of the forest. Not wasting any time I quickly shift to my humanoid form and collect the pieces of the rocket that still remain intact while the others take a few moments to come to their sense.
We are in the middle of the Lan Shu forest with the imperial guard chasing us and we don't even know where to go, what do we do now?" Wanjing asks
"Don't ask me, it was Lia's idea to come here instead of just running away," Aurelia says, turning towards Lia.
"I think I know where to go. I don't actually know where to tomb is, but I feel like I can get there if I tried," Lia says as she begins to move forward.
Without much thought, I just follow Lia and despite their complaints, Wanjing and Aurelia come along too.
After a bit of running around, Aurelia comes over to me and asks, "the place we're trying to go is called qinlong tomb, but the translation of the land doesn't look to handle names well, does this name mean anything in particular?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Your the only one who can speak any language, if I talk to Wanjing about this it won't mean much because of the land's translation, but you can perfectly understand and translate it yourself. Wanjing and Lia probably couldn't see it, but I know you did, the status of the two tiger beastfolk. Although it would be wrong to call them that since that isn't their true species, you noticed too, right? That they are more like you, a monster with a complete humanoid form."
"Yeah, I saw it and I think I know what you getting at now. Most people would be fooled unless they had special inspection abilities like us, they aren't tiger beastfolk, rather, their racial name is 'Scion of the White Tiger'. The name of the tomb would roughly translate to Tomb of the Azure Dragon."
"I'm only familiar with the names of the four Divine Beasts, but this should be his handiwork, right? What do you know about this?"
"Back when I was a teacher, I never dabbled in the field of mythology too much, but I do have some surface knowledge since it is related to history. But regarding this matter, I too am only familiar with the names and nothing more, the Black Tortoise of the North, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Azure Dragon of the East. They correspond to the cardinal direction and the seasons, additionally there is the Yellow Dragon at the centre."
"From what I know, they are Divine Beasts that reside in Celestia and seldomly descend to the mortal world, other than that there is only what you just said. My ancestors never really got involved in the matters of Celestia so the information I have isn't much more than you. But if these people are really as the System says, we should try to avoid combat with them."
"Do you think the Azure Dragon is really dead? I mean, this place is called the Tomb of the Azure Dragon." I ask.
"I doubt it, it's likely one of the first generations from when Akkre first created Grauntia and not the Azure Dragon himself. If the true Azure Dragon was really killed here then not even Akkre could get away with some real punishment from Celestia. But we can talk more about this later, look, we can see the tomb from here."
Just as Aurelia said, the tomb comes into view as we pass by a few more trees. Although much of the view is obscured by overgrown vegetation that it really gives that sensation of an ancient ruin. Passing by a row of bright blue stone pillars, they begin to glow as a load roar shakes the ground.
"There they are, just as we thought, they came to the tomb!" a voice yells out from behind us.
Turning back we see not just the tiger duo but two of the people we fly by with the rocket. Now that we have a clear look, they too at first glance seem to be beastfolk, a bird and a tortoise. Just as we thought, they are just like the tiger duo.
While Wanjing looks panicked, Lia yells, "quickly, run further into the tomb, they shouldn't be able to chase us!
Since we had almost gotten to the end of the stone pillars, it doesn't take long before we reach the entrance and a light blue barrier is formed around the last pillar coving the entirety of the tomb, causing the four enemies to stop.
"Let's keep going, until we finish here they won't be able to do anything," Lia says leading us past the entrance to the tomb.
{Just how do you know all this,} I ask through our Soul Connection.
{I really don't know, I just have this feeling that everything will be alright so long as I'm in the tomb. Ever since we had been watching the entrance from afar, I've felt as if I absolutely had to enter. I'm not sure what's waiting for us at the end, but I think it will be a good thing.}
It doesn't seem like I'll find a way to obtain a Divine Essence here. At least it seems like Lia will get something out of this and if my thinking is right, it probably has something to do with the 'Blood of the Ancients' thing she has. Whatever the case, thanks to the barrier outside, we can explore this place in relative peace.