Long Di's brow rose so high that it began to invade the personal space of his hairline. A single word escaped his lips.
"Interesting."
****
"Damn it! Where's Long Di? This is not what I expected!" Yaomu Shou's beautiful face was stuck in a perpetual pout as she travelled through the 'not relic.'
"I'm sure Long Di is fine Miss Yaomu Shou. To be honest, I'm more worried about Shen Ling than anything else." Feng Yu was the one who spoke.
"I'm sure it's fine. Maybe Shen Ling is actually with Long DI right now." Tie Lang tried to comfort his senior apprentice-sister.
"Would you believe me if I told you I would be even more worried about her if she was?" She said with a wry smile.
"Well, I can't blame you. He's definitely… eccentric," Yaomu Shou commented after a moment of thought.
They, like many other people, came to the same starting point in the relic. However, they were confused when they realised that both Long Di and Shen Ling were not with them.
They started to get a bit worried, but the knowledgeable Yaomu Shou calmed them down almost immediately. Still, it didn't keep her from being annoyed that he had just up and disappeared.
Jia Yan, Tie Land and Feng Yu didn't forget to use this to look around as boundless curiosity filled them.
This was the first time they ever came to a place like this.
The entire place was a larger-than-life structure that seemed like the inside of a temple. There were numerous designs and carvings that decorated the inside, which exuded an ancient feeling.
"I thought that there were supposed to be treasures and wealth thrown around, but it just seems… empty." Tie Lang pointed out.
"Well… it's not as exaggerated as there being money just thrown around all over the place, but there should have been multiple rooms with treasures in them, at least based on my experience. It's almost like this isn't a Relic at all," said Yaomu Shou with a pondering expression.
There were many rooms in the temple-like structure, yes, but they were filled with carvings of two people that the people here were not familiar with.
Each room depicted a different scene of the pair. One was a human, and the other was of a race that they didn't recognise.
The structure was massive, so even though there were thousands of cultivators inside, it wasn't crowded in the least.
One could see the disciples entering the different rooms with wary expressions before exiting a moment later with a defeated look.
At the moment, Feng Yu, Yaomu Shou and the others entered another room to see what they could find.
Unsurprisingly, there were no treasures. It was another room, bereft of treasures, but instead lined with carvings of the two people they saw from before.
"Sighs…"
They exited the room sometime after feeling a bit disappointed. Their expressions alone spoke volumes.
Yaomu Shou's expression was one of more annoyance than anything else. They didn't have many chances to enjoy something like this, and it was because of Long Di's coaxing that they even came here, to begin with.
Now when they finally had the chance, according to Yaomu Shou, this Relic was not like the many others and lacked the factor that made Relics such a hot spot for cultivators.
They continued down another path and eventually saw an exit at the end of the passage they were in.
When they stepped through the exit, even Yaomu Shou was slightly startled by what she saw.
They came upon a large opening that could house thousands of people, which it was currently doing at the moment.
All around, Feng Yu and the others could see other pathways just like the one they exited where people periodically filtered from.
The only thing in this massive room was a few steps of stairs that spanned the length of the room.
Above it, a short distance away, was a mural of the same pair of figures that could be seen all over, but this particular artwork was different from the others.
Though the earlier carvings in the other rooms showcased many scenes, they were primarily composed of moments of happiness and sadness.
Adventures were had that ended well, while others were had that ended… not so well. The figures shared laughter and tears, but they always had each other and the stories would be enjoyable if the readers were actual readers and not annoyed cultivators who were expecting treasures but received anything but.
However, the mural before them was much bigger than the others, for one. It encompassed the entire wall that ran the stretch of a room that could hold thousands of people, and the scene was not of them going through mundane struggles but a scene of war, or to be more accurate, an impending one.
The two figures stood hand in hand. Their backs were all that could be seen as they faced what lay before them. In a magnitude that blotted the sky was an army of cultivators that looked upon them with disdain, hatred, and scorn.
Yet, the two were not daunted. Though it was a mural that presented no movement, one could feel their unwavering love for each other and a willingness to go against anyone or anything, if it meant they could be together.
A particular disciple of a big clan climbed the few steps where the mural was located to investigate if there was anything hidden there. But after a moment of searching, his expression turned ugly, as nothing that appeared even remotely similar to a treasure or inheritance could be seen.
He soon looked back to the mural that blocked any idea of going further and shouted in fury.
"What the hell kind of Relic is this!?"
"That's right! This place is just a place of stories and fairy tales!!!"
"Not even a piece of scrap metal or a single coin! A massive waste of time!!"
Following the shout of displeasure that came from the disciple atop the stairs, the other cultivators voiced their displeasure as well. It didn't take long before it turned into a crescendo of dissatisfaction.
Feng Yu and company didn't join the others in their cursing and venting but instead focused their attention on the mural that lay before them.
"I didn't say anything before, but the woman in the carvings and now this mural… doesn't she kind of look like apprentice-sister Shen Ling?"
The one who spoke was the normally reticent Jia Yan.
"Now that you mention it," Tie Lang followed up. "Yeah, you're right. Still, the eyes did look a little different, though."
"Hmmm, it's weird that I didn't see it before, but you're both right." Their senior apprentice-sister agreed with them both.
The woman in the murals sported the same type of hair that Shen Ling had and a similar atmosphere as well. If they had to spot a difference, it would be the eyes. Based on the previous carvings they saw on the way here, the woman in the murals had 'white' in her eyes compared to Shen Ling, whose eyes were entirely black with dots of light here and there.
Creak!
Just as they were discussing the striking similarities between the two, a slow and jarring screech echoed through the large room that silenced the entire room.
A small crack appeared at the bottom of the mural before it soon expanded into the shape of a rectangle. The rocks inside the rectangle receded to reveal a doorway where small chatter could be heard from.
"I've never seen so many spirit stones before! Heavens!"
"Well, there was a lot, I guess. I'm more interested in the scrolls or techniques we found. I'll need to study them so I can… Oh."
Two figures stepped out of the doorway in plain view of every single disciple who came here but could NOT find a single thing of value.
Spirit stones!?
Scrolls!?
Techniques!?
All the things that the people here couldn't find were being used with the words 'lot' and 'many!'. What fresh hell was this!?
The two figures stopped in their tracks upon realising they walked into a room filled with people staring at them. One of them shuffled back a little upon seeing so many people staring at her, while the other one stared at them with an indifferent expression.
The silence their arrival wrought was palpable and would continue were it not for the throat-clearing employed by one of the newly arrived figures.
"Ahem… Hello everyone, my name is Long Di. I don't have any money. How are you all doing today?"