Books truly were the legacy of civilization. This single book was crucial to Ye Wen, helping him see through many obstacles on the road ahead.
Now he needed to find a book about the geography of the continent.
Ye Wen walked along the old bookshelves, carefully checking them row by row. Before long, he found a book titled Eastern Continent Gazetteer. Curious, he pulled it from the shelf and glanced through it. It was indeed the kind of book he had been looking for.
The book briefly described the Eastern Continent. This was the continent where Ye Wen currently lived. Martial Cultivation was the main cultivation system across the Eastern Continent, though there were many other kinds of practitioners as well, including mages.
At this point, Ye Wen noticed a Demon Suppressing City mentioned in the book, but it was called Xingfeng Demon Suppressing City. So he didn't read it closely and kept flipping through the pages. He hoped to find the location of the city where he was staying, along with information about the surrounding area.
But the more he read, the stranger it seemed. He roughly counted eighteen Demon Suppressing Cities in total. They were all much the same, and most of their names began with "Star."
It wasn't until he saw Xinggui Demon Suppressing City and Xinghui Demon Suppressing City that he seemed to understand something. Xinghui and Xing Gui—weren't those the two people Old Uncle Zong had mentioned? And among the eighteen Demon Suppressing Cities, one had a name that stood out: Zongshu Demon Suppressing City.
"Old Uncle Zong, Old Uncle Zong! Haha, so your name was Zong Shu all along. I'm so foolish, so stupid!"
As Ye Wen laughed, tears streamed down his face.
"This old man used his own life to open my spirit and break the curse. And only today did I learn his name. Others had called him by it all along, but I was such a fool that I forgot to ask the villagers."
Ye Wen collected himself and resumed reading.
By comparing the information, he realized that the city where he was now had originally been called Xingyu Demon Suppressing City.
"Xingyu? Could this city have something to do with Yu Village in the Endless Forest?"
Ye Wen wasn't sure, but it was clear that this book was at least several thousand years old.
The book recorded that each Demon Suppressing City was the cultural, political, and economic center of a region spanning hundreds to thousands of kilometers. In other words, the territory governed by a single Demon Suppressing City was comparable in size to a country.
And that was only the part of the Eastern Continent where humans lived. Just how vast was this Ancestral Star? Ye Wen couldn't even begin to estimate it.
Ye Wen closed the book, unable to calm himself for a long time. It wasn't hard to conclude that Old Uncle Zong, as well as the Xinghui and Xing Gui he had spoken of, must all once have been City Lords of Demon Suppressing Cities.
After the experts of our clan were schemed against and wiped out on other planets or continents, the Ancestral Star suffered the same fate.
Most of our people were hunted down and killed. The few who survived hid in isolated places like Yu Village. But Old Uncle Zong had once said that only a handful of our people remained. It seemed that very few had escaped.
Even they, once City Lords, couldn't protect themselves and had survived only by hiding in isolated places. What of everyone else? Their fates must have been utterly tragic!
"No, the timeline doesn't add up!"
If they had been City Lords back then, wouldn't they have lived for tens of thousands of years?
They might have paid an enormous price to escape back then, then waited without hope, passing ten thousand years in isolation.
Thinking about it the other way, even at their peak, they had been so badly wounded that they were forced to flee. They hadn't emerged for ten thousand years. If they could survive that long while gravely injured, just how powerful had they once been?
They must have been stronger than even the current Ninth Rank Peak of the Xiantian realm. But what kind of strength did the demons they had needed to suppress possess? And why were there eighteen Demon Suppressing Cities across the continent?
It seemed that to find the enemy, he had to start by investigating the City Lords of the Hongmeng Clan, who had been wiped out along with their Demon Suppressing Cities ten thousand years ago! Old Uncle Zong and the others had stayed hidden for ten thousand years—or perhaps they had gone out at some point and failed. Otherwise, Ye Wen wouldn't have met Old Uncle Zong in Yu Village.
The enemies of the past must still have had forces in reserve on the Ancestral Star. He had been too naive at first, thinking that as long as he didn't leave the continent, he would be safe. That was completely wrong. He had to draw out their hidden forces and follow the trail to uncover the enemy behind it all.
Ye Wen rubbed his head. He didn't know how much of his deductions, based on so few clues, was correct. Still, he had at least figured out who Old Uncle Zong and the others had been.
He put the book back on the shelf. He had gained a great deal today, and time had flown by. It was nearly dark outside. Ye Wen started toward the exit, then suddenly spotted a martial arts manual for the Houtian realm on a shelf.
Thirty-six Forms of Invincible Leg. Ye Wen marveled at the title. Curious, he took it from the shelf. A book beside it fell down too: Seventy-two Forms of Demon Subduing Fist. Ye Wen picked it up and flipped through it. Good heavens—the legs and fists together added up to a hundred and eight forms.
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