Jiang Ping An thought he was cautious enough, but he didn't expect the reactions and actions of this group of people to be faster than him.
Sure enough, none of the people who can cultivate to the God King Realm world and live to this day are really fools, they are all human beings.
Jiang Ping An calmly took out the strengthened Little Golden Man from Storage Ring and put it on his shoulder.
At the same time, he mobilized World Eye and carefully scanned the surrounding environment.
This seems to be a huge underground cave, the air is humid and cold, and water droplets condense on the rock walls.
Except for the weird mask in front of him that exuded a weird aura, no other living creatures or obvious energy fluctuations were found for the time being.
The mask's open mouth seemed to be able to swallow everything, bottomless.
Seeing that there was no other danger coming for the time being, Jiang Ping An was slightly relieved, but his vigilance did not relax at all.
In this unknown place, any oversight could prove fatal.
He turned back, looked at Ning Yun Ya who was tightly protected by the light ball shield, and asked directly:
"Young Master Ning, now that we have arrived, what exactly is this place? What are we looking for? It should be clear now."
Following his question, the eyes of several other people were all focused on Ning Yun Ya.
Before they came here, they knew nothing about the specific tasks and were completely attracted by the generous rewards.
Now that we are in this strange place, we are naturally eager to know the truth.
Ning Yun Ya used the light emitted from the light ball above his head to form a thick shield of light around his body.
He stared solemnly at the mask in front of him and explained in a deep voice:
"The world we live in has gone through an unimaginably long time since its birth."
"In this endless river of time, countless glorious civilizations have been born and annihilated. Although some civilizations have long since disappeared in the dust of history, they did exist and left behind many extraordinary things that exceed our cognition."
"The place where we are now was once the site of an ancient tribal civilization. After the vicissitudes of geological changes, it was buried deep underground."
"Years ago, I accidentally discovered its entrance during an accidental expedition."
"Later, I spent a lot of time and resources investigating based on the characteristics of this mask totem, and finally found some incomplete information about this tribal civilization."
"This tribe is named 'Zhu Mu'."
"According to ancient records, Zhu Mu and the five Lord God recognized today as God Realm were born in the same distant era."
"What's even more shocking is that it is said that this Zhum Tribe almost destroyed the early civilization where the other five Lord God lived in ancient times!"
Hearing this, everyone present was shaken violently, and their faces could not suppress the look of horror.
This civilization named "Zhu Mu" almost destroyed other civilizations before Lord God grew up?
What kind of terrifying strength does this require?
Ning Yun Ya paused, seemed to be organizing his words, and then continued:
"The beliefs of this tribe are very strange. They worship 'consciousness' and believe that consciousness is a higher form of existence beyond the material body."
"Furthermore, they firmly believe that the consciousness of all living things originally originated from the same point, which they named - 'Zhu Mu'."
"Based on this belief, they made an extremely crazy decision: to abandon their bodies and merge everyone's souls into one!"
"They spent a long time creating a totem that carries consciousness, 'Zhumu Totem'. Its appearance is similar to the mask in front of them."
"They integrated the consciousness of everyone in the clan into this totem, forming a huge, unified collective consciousness!"
"They can use this totem to transfer the consciousness of any clan member to any other living being at any time, thereby achieving theoretical immortality and eternal reincarnation!"
"In the early days, Zhum Tribe relied on this incredible ability to destroy and assimilate countless other tribes and creatures like a plague."
"The bodies of all the beings they take a fancy to have become containers for their consciousness to be replaced at will."
"Their ambitions also expanded infinitely, and eventually they set their target on the consciousness of all God Realm creatures."
"At the peak of the Zhum Tribe's strength, he even defeated several of Lord God's former tribes, and they were almost unable to resist."
"However..."
Ning Yun Ya changed the subject, with a hint of emotion in his tone, "Success is Zhu Mu, failure is Zhu Mu."
"As Zhumu Totem erodes and fuses more and more consciousness, too many different thoughts, memories, and emotional 'impurities' begin to be mixed into this huge collective consciousness."
"It becomes increasingly chaotic, full of internal contradictions, with different fragments of consciousness often quarreling and confronting themselves."
"In the end, this collective consciousness named 'Zhu Mu' collapsed and disintegrated from the inside because it could not bear the infinite growth of internal chaos and contradictions."
"Other tribes took this opportunity to besiege Zhum Tribe. In the end, this once glorious and terrifying tribal civilization was annihilated in the long river of history."
"If Zhum Tribe had not been destroyed, perhaps now the entire God Realm would have only one consciousness."
After listening to this dusty history introduction about the "Zhu Mu" tribe, everyone was deeply shocked, and no one said a word for a while.
In the dark and silent cave, only the heavy breathing of a few people could be heard clearly.
It turns out that before God Realm, which is now ruled by Five Main Gods, there was such a strange and powerful civilization.
Ning Yun Ya broke the silence and brought the topic back to reality:
"According to sporadic historical records, in order to create a totem that can carry the consciousness of their entire clan, Zhum Tribe used secret techniques to cultivate an extremely special metal tree named [Mummy Soul Tree]."
"The ultimate goal of our trip is to go deep into this ruins, find and bring back some branches or remains of [Mummy Soul Tree]."
As he spoke, he controlled Divine Power to outline and condense the specific form image of [Mummy Soul Tree] in the void.
The shape of this kind of tree is very strange, its whole body is as black as ink, and its texture is like wood and gold.
The overall outline is distorted, like a painful person who has been burnt to charcoal by the fire, but barely maintains his human shape. It makes people feel extremely uncomfortable and chilled when looking at it.
Ning Yun Ya The reason why he took the risk to look for this weird tree at a huge cost is because this thing has an extremely special function.
Four Great God Kingdoms is used to make the altar for resurrecting creatures. One of its core materials contains [Mummy Soul Tree]...
"Okay, that's it for the background introduction."
Ning Yun Ya waved away the image of Divine Power, and his expression became serious, "Everyone has also felt that even though this totem 'Zhu Mu' has been silent for countless years, its remaining power still has a continuous corrosive effect on our souls."
"The longer you stay here, the greater the impact will be, and the heavier the pressure will be on your soul."
"We must seize the time, find [Mummy Soul Tree] as soon as possible, and then leave immediately!"
Everyone could clearly feel that the mental erosion from the mask was continuously impacting the barrier of their consciousness.
They have just come in and can still resist this influence, but as time goes by, no one can guarantee that there will be no problems.
Ning Yun Ya looked around at the teammates with different expressions, "Who wants to be at the front to explore the road?"
Ahead, the mask's open mouth is the only entrance to the depths of this ancient ruins.
It was pitch dark inside, and no one knew what kind of danger was hidden.
Those who are at the forefront exploring the path will undoubtedly bear the greatest risks and be the first to face unknown threats.
The eyes of several people, almost subconsciously, were all looking at Lan Jie, the one with the highest cultivation level in the team.
Under normal circumstances, it is the most reasonable and safest choice for the member with the highest cultivation level and the strongest strength to lead the way.
Lan Jie's face suddenly darkened, he snorted coldly, and said righteously:
"I need to protect Young Master Ning Yun Ya at close range. I have a heavy responsibility. I must not leave Young Master to explore the way ahead! Once anything goes wrong with Young Master Ning Yun Ya, no one present will be able to get any subsequent rewards!"
He immediately raised his hand and pointed at Jiang Ping An, pointing the finger at him. "This Long Ping, doesn't it have a puppet? And he also said that he has strong perception and uses a puppet to explore the path, which can not only reduce risks, but also give full play to his specialties, which is just right!"
Immediately afterwards, he pointed to Zhang Yong and Ding Han:
"Zhang Yong, you are Third Level God King Body Cultivator. You have a strong body and can endure sudden dangers for longer. You should share the pressure!"
"And Ding Han, you are proficient in Space Rule. Even if you encounter danger, you can teleport away immediately. Pathfinding has the least risk for you!"
Lan Jie speaks very fast, and his words are high-sounding, but the core meaning is only one. He will never take risks ahead.
In his heart, as a core member of the Lan Clan Royal Family, his life is much more valuable than the others present.
Ning Yun Ya Seeing that no one seemed to be greedy, his brows furrowed tightly.
He took a deep breath and offered an attractive condition. "Let's do this. Whoever is willing to take the initiative to explore the road ahead, I will personally give him an additional thousand Spirit King Pill as additional risk compensation."
One thousand Spirit King Pill is enough to buy a top-quality king-level second-order Divine Weapon!
This is definitely a big fortune.
The scene fell into a brief silence, as everyone quickly weighed the risks and benefits in their minds.
After a moment, a calm voice broke the silence.
"I'll do it."
Everyone's attention focused on Jiang Ping An who opened his mouth.
Jiang Ping An didn't say any nonsense, turned around and walked towards the huge entrance of the mask.
According to his usual personality, he would generally not take the initiative to take the initiative in such obviously high-risk matters.
But he knew in his heart that everyone had to move forward, and someone always needed to go in front.
Moreover, with World Eye's extraordinary perception, he can often detect potential dangers earlier than others.
If someone else is allowed to explore the way ahead, he will feel uneasy because he cannot fully trust the other person's observation ability and needs to keep his nerves tight at all times.
In this case, it is better to do it yourself, at least you can take the initiative in your own hands.
Seeing that someone was finally willing to take on the task of exploring the path, the few people behind were obviously relieved.
Everyone looked at each other and followed silently, but kept a safe distance of about ten meters from Jiang Ping An.
Jiang Ping An thought and controlled Little Golden Man on his shoulders to run forward.
After Little Golden Man landed, golden light immediately emitted from his body, dispersing the darkness in a large area in front, adding a faint sense of security to this gloomy environment.
It can be seen through the light that behind the mask's huge mouth is a wide cave passage. The space is very large. There are obvious traces of artificial excavation on the rock wall, which is rough and ancient.
The ground is covered with thick dust, and there are some relatively new human footprints on it, which should be left by Ning Yun Ya who had been here before.
In addition, there are also many huge paw prints and hoof prints of various shapes that are definitely not human.
It seems that this ruin that has been silent for countless years is not without life, and it is very likely that some unknown beasts inhabit it.
"Uh-huh!"
Little Golden Man, who was exploring the road ahead, suddenly accelerated without warning, turned into a golden light and rushed towards the rock wall on the side. He waved his small metal fist at the seemingly empty rock wall and smashed it hard!
"Boom!!"
A violent explosion roared suddenly in the empty cave, with echoes that made people's eardrums hurt.
The people at the rear were frightened by the sudden loud noise. They thought they were being attacked and almost entered a fighting state instantly like a conditioned reflex.
Zhang Yong's muscles tensed, and his body surface glowed with a bronze sheen; Mo Xiu's array plate lit up with light; Ding Han's surrounding space rippled; Lan Jie once again strengthened his shield.
Ning Yun Ya also nervously grasped the folding fan in his hand.
However, when they were on full alert and fixed their gaze on the direction of Little Golden Man's attack, they only saw the rock wall with shattered rocks and scattered smoke.
No enemies or dangers appear.
Several people looked confused and had no idea what was happening.
Ding Han was so frightened that he almost jumped up. He spat out the branch in his mouth and shouted loudly at Jiang Ping An's back in shock and anger:
"Hey! Long Ping! What are you doing! Are you trying to attract all the monsters in the ruins by making such a big noise?!"
Although the others did not speak, their eyes looking at Jiang Ping An were full of confusion and blame.
In this unknown and dangerous environment, it is common sense to stay quiet and avoid alerting others.
Making such a loud noise so recklessly is simply stupid.
Making such a big noise will definitely attract something!