The Murals

"What happened?"

Ling Yun's face went pale with shock. His head spun, and his body plunged uncontrollably downward. All five of his senses were completely blocked, leaving him unable to perceive anything around him.

Fortunately, the deathly sensation lasted only a few breaths. Soon, Ling Yun felt solid ground beneath his feet, and when he looked around, he found that he was no longer surrounded by darkness.

"An underground palace?"

Ling Yun suddenly realized that he was inside a tunnel. It seemed to connect to an underground palace that had been built in magnificent style, and the entire structure was made of some unknown, sturdy stone.

In an instant, Ling Yun recalled the breathtaking scenes from the tomb-raiding films and dramas of his previous life.

"Could this... be the ancestors' tomb?"

Ling Yun could not help wondering as he looked around in surprise and caution.

After looking for some time without finding any dangerous mechanisms, Ling Yun mustered his courage and headed into the underground palace.

Before long, he passed through the tunnel without obstruction and arrived in an exceptionally spacious hall.

The hall had eight walls in all. Aside from the wall connected to the tunnel, each of the other seven bore an astonishing mural.

The murals had been painted with special pigments, and even after a thousand years, they had not faded in the slightest.

Ling Yun could not help walking over to examine the reliefs.

The first mural depicted a shattered sky. A colossal hole stretched across the heavens for who knew how many miles. Compared to it, the vast lands below seemed utterly tiny.

Ling Yun was shaken to the core.

"What level of expert was this?"

In the first mural, a demonic claw that blotted out the sky and sun reached through the shattered heavens. Ling Yun even believed that if the terrifying claw descended, the entire world in the mural would probably be reduced to ashes.

Only after looking away from the first mural did Ling Yun regain some of his composure. The chill that had risen along his back gradually faded as well.

"The second mural is much more normal. It should be a scene of evil cultivators throwing the world into chaos."

Ling Yun reached out and touched the mural. Looking at the scene of blood flowing in rivers and living beings suffering devastation, he fell somewhat silent.

"Could these murals depict scenes from a thousand years ago?"

Ling Yun wondered, but when he thought of the first mural, he felt that could not be right.

"How could a great expert of the Dao Palace Realm possibly be powerful enough to reach such a level? It was practically world-ending..."

Ling Yun had never seen a Dao Palace Realm expert make a move, but his instincts told him that the demonic claw in the first mural belonged to an existence even more terrifying than the Dao Palace Realm.

"If the murals are real, they would explain why the third formation in the Royal Mausoleum is so much more advanced than the other two."

"A thousand years ago, the origins of the seven ancestors may have had something to do with what these murals depict..."

Unwilling to miss a single detail, Ling Yun turned to the third mural.

It was the scene on this third mural that left Ling Yun momentarily stunned and speechless.

At the center of the mural, a sacred, inviolable figure stood in midair. Endless golden holy light surrounded him, making him as dazzling as the blazing sun.

Around the golden figure were five enormous beasts: a dragon, a tiger, a bird, a turtle, and a qilin.

The entire mural had been rendered in bold, vivid colors, leaving the viewer deeply shaken.

"Aren't these five beasts the totems of the Five Branches of the Ling Clan?"

Ling Yun's eyes widened. He felt a wave of disbelief; it completely overturned his impression of the Ling Clan.

"Who could make the guardian totems of the Five Branches of the Ling Clan serve him?"

An inexplicable shudder made Ling Yun's scalp tingle, and he stared at the mural in a daze.

Ling Yun knew that everyone in the Spirit King's Manor held a spirit flood dragon as an object of faith and had offered worship to its portrait for generations.

Ever since the four kings had made their move last time, Ling Yun had gained an increasingly clear understanding of the origins of the Five Branches of the Ling Clan. Now, however, that understanding was shattered with a crash, only to come together again.

"Perhaps the true origin of the Ling Clan lies with these five beasts... or rather, with the golden figure in this third mural," Ling Yun murmured, striving to calm himself.

Looking again at the scene, the golden figure, protected by the five giant beasts, appeared like a god descended upon the world. The might of his presence matched that of the demonic claw in the first mural.

Both were existences beyond the present Ling Yun's imagination.

The murals had clearly been depicted in chronological order. By the fourth mural, the scene had become one of two sides divided.

On one side was a scene of demonic Qi surging to the heavens and the world being destroyed. On the other, golden light stretched for hundreds of millions of feet as something sacred descended. The two forces, so visually opposed, faced each other, setting Ling Yun's heart ablaze.

What followed was a scene of the two forces dissolving and heaven and earth shattering. Everything was filled with the desolation of the ruin left by a great battle.

In the final mural, Ling Yun saw seven figures, seemingly tall enough to support heaven and stand upon the earth, appear on a land where life had returned...

"So this final mural is the true origin of the Ling Kingdom..."

Understanding suddenly dawned on Ling Yun.

"Clearly, the fated enmity between the Ling Clan and the evil cultivators goes back much further than I imagined. It very likely began with the master of that demonic claw and the golden figure."

"After the great battle between the two sides, this world was shattered, and the seven ancestors of the Ling Kingdom established the Ling Kingdom here, possibly to wipe out the evil cultivators."

"And the most important point is that the seven ancestors' inheritances very likely came from the five giant beasts that served the golden figure!"

Ling Yun walked to the center of the hall and took in all seven epic murals. The shock in his heart only grew.

"I hope this battle between the evil cultivators and the Ling Clan ends with the Ling Clan's victory."

A long time passed.

Ling Yun took one last look at the seven murals, suppressed the many feelings in his heart, and left the hall, following the tunnel in the other direction.

Before long, Ling Yun spotted a huge stone door in the distance.

A relief of a majestic spirit flood dragon was carved into the stone door. Its body was coiled, and its scales were as lifelike as if made of meteoric iron.

Ling Yun looked at the stone door before him and thought for a moment. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

He cut his fingertip and squeezed out a drop of bright red blood. With a flick of his finger, he sent it toward the dragon head on the spirit flood dragon relief.

"Will this work?"

Ling Yun did not know. He was simply giving it a try, to see whether his Spirit King bloodline could serve as the key to opening the stone door.

Under Ling Yun's watchful gaze, the dragon head actually absorbed the blood. A moment later, its eyes suddenly lit up red, and at the same time, the stone door shook violently.

"It actually worked..."

Ling Yun was overjoyed and kept his eyes fixed on the stone door.

At last, the stone door slowly opened from the middle, its two halves moving to either side. A ray of light spilled through, allowing Ling Yun to see the scene inside at a glance.

"This... this is..."

In an instant, Ling Yun's eyes widened.