Chapter Ten

1

"The artifact... rings a bell." The mechanical dragon crouched down and examined the ground, which was covered in traces of battles from a decade ago. Despite the passage of time, the marks left behind by the battles were still vivid.

Suddenly, Wenbin leaned towards me and whispered, "Brother, who is this person? Is this a robotic arm?"

She noticed the elaborate mechanical arm that the mechanical dragon exposed and realized that this person was not part of the group of people who had come to help with the puzzle from the beginning.

"Mechanical Dragon, pure Dragon Clan, not the Dragon People kind."

"Similar to the three-headed dragon?"

"Pretty much, but he has been alone for too long. If you strike up a conversation with him, it's highly likely that you won't be able to stop."

I was hinting to Wenbin not to casually chat with the mechanical dragon, but if she had nothing else to do, she could try to communicate.

"Look." Wenbin and I saw the news department people chatting with the mechanical dragon and getting into a lively conversation...

Zi Sirou saw the two of us whispering happily and felt unhappy, so he intervened, saying, "Is Mechanical Dragon his real name? Did you give it to him?"

"Such a hasty name was his own request, blame me?"

Suddenly, I felt something strange, something that I couldn't quite remember.

"'Guardian Dragon of the Holy Artifact.' Your Highness!" Suddenly, the mechanical dragon mentioned Elena's Dragon Emperor title.

"What's good about her," I said.

"If Your Highness were present, she would know what the sacred artifact is. Back then, I was only helping Your Highness watch the outer gates..."

"Ask her too..." I seemed to realize what was off, "Do you remember?"

"Remember what?" The mechanical dragon was unaware of anything amiss, still observing the ground.

"Do you remember the 'Dragon Realm'! Do you remember you were once Rita Ole's gatekeeper!" Suddenly, I recalled that since we began searching for the hidden Dragon Clan, they had all intentionally or unintentionally revealed this detail, but I hadn't paid attention. Tengyun had also said— "I remember the Dragon Realm where I was born was a place that never had nights." I had only heard this from Geirerofi before he lost his memory! But why couldn't I remember anything?

"Uh... it seems like... I kind of... I only remember that I used to guard the gates in front of the temple."

Five minutes later, I received an important message from The Human Realm— the "Divine Demon Gateway" had cracked.

The crack was inconspicuous at first, and I was initially worried that Marutian had attacked the gateway, but the message quickly reassured me that there was no sign of battle at the gate, until I observed that crack.

"It seems the gate is crucial in sealing memories... Besides Marutian's dragon bones, what else is sealed?" I remembered that in my memory, the gate only sealed his dragon bones, becoming the hub of the three realms.

"A crack? The 'Divine Demon Gateway' is an ancient relic of many years. Is it okay for it to be like this?" Wenbin didn't understand. The gateway had stood strong for so many years, how could such a thing happen?

"One possibility is that Marutian awakened his own dragon bones from within the gate, breaking the seal inside the gateway. If that's the case, he might soon go retrieve his dragon head, or else his power might be lacking."

"What should we do? Will we lose to him?" Wenbin was very worried that her homeland would disappear.

"If he's going for the dragon head, we can only have Elena distract him. But I just asked Elena to help find the dragons in The Human Realm. I'll have to keep an eye on the seal of the dragon head at all times. Once Marutian shows up, I'll have Elena and myself use spatial magic to save the day."

"Pray that Elena is available at all times to help!" Zi Sirou hit the nail on the head. During the process of finding the dragon, if there is an uncooperative dragon, can she be at its mercy at any moment?

"This ques... Machine dragon, stop!"

Just as we were thinking about how to prevent Marutian from reclaiming the dragon's head and still be able to continue looking for help from the dragon tribe, the mechanical dragon lightly pounded the ground with its mechanical wind arm, and the force and distance of this blow were just right to trigger the specific mechanism of the Phoenix tribe!

"Hmm?" Everyone was stunned, and one second later the entire ground suddenly cracked, and we fell down immediately. Among us, the one closest to me with the poorest floating Magic was Zi Sirou, so when I landed safely, it was her that I was holding onto.

"Brother! Why are you holding her, could it be that I, as a sister, am not as good as she?" Lin Wenxin landed on the ground with Liu Qingqing, very unhappy that the person I was holding wasn't her.

"Her flying Magic isn't good, is it!" I raised my hand and cast Magic, countless dark energy balls flew out and smashed the rubble and debris falling from above, otherwise someone in our group would have been injured.

Zi Sirou held onto me tightly, and I said, "You really don't plan on coming down? Or do you want me to say you're heavy before you want to come down?"

"You dare!"

"I dare!"

"You jerk of a brother! Stop showing off!" Wenxin threw a rock at the back of my head, it hurt a lot, but luckily I have a tough head.

"Alright, let's see if anyone is injured."

With a look from Zi Sirou, I finally came down.

Looking up in this cave, it seemed to be more than two hundred meters high. Climbing up wasn't difficult, but we weren't in a hurry to go up. The key was that the emergence of such a cave must have a reason, and the mechanical dragon was just a lucky coincidence.

"Qin Yang, I said before that the last time we looked at the ground was a hint, but you didn't believe it. Look at such a big cave, and those symbols on the wall, what are they all about?" Zi Sirou expressed dissatisfaction with Qin Yang for ignoring her conjecture, but she was very curious about the runes inside the cave.

Touching those runes, the mechanical dragon said, "The Epoch Wall of the Phoenix tribe."

"The Epoch Wall! If we search for the so-called 'Sacred Object,' we will have a clue!"

This thing called the "Epoch Wall" was almost the same as the wall with all the memories of the vampire clan in the ruins of the church. The principle was the same, but the effect was slightly different. The vampire clan could only see it in their minds, while the Phoenix tribe shared it publicly. Their style of action was very straightforward, and there was never a time when things could be hidden.

"How can we see this thing?" Both Wenxin and Zi Sirou were puzzled by the circle of runes on the wall, as these were questions born from the "old timeline" that only the Phoenix tribe and the dragon tribe could understand.

"The method is simple too, a drop of Phoenix blood activates the control symbol, adjust the time to play."

"Isn't this just a player?" Zi Sirou found this operation so familiar.

Wenxin also said, "I bet it can search for keywords."

"From the description of the runes, it should be possible." The mechanical dragon had read all the runes on the wall, and already understood the entire functionality of the "Epoch Wall."

"So it's essentially a playback device with search capabilities."

The mechanical dragon asked, "Where to find Phoenix blood?"

Zi Sirou and Lin Wenxin both looked at me, obviously, they still remembered the Phoenix bloodline in our Qin family ancestors.

"Besides me, who else could it be?" I drew a drop of blood and dripped it onto the control symbol, and the runes inside the cave began to run. The "Epoch Wall" was passed down from generation to generation by the Phoenix tribe historiographers. Even the day they were destroyed had been recorded, showing how responsible these historians were.

From the very beginning, the scene was one of a city being slaughtered, which was truly heart-wrenching. The Phoenix clan was the only one capable of defeat, and that was only by the Dragon clan.

After the scene, a virtual figure appeared in the cave.

"The Soul of the Phoenix Clan Historian - Cardo Kong Wu, we have been waiting for our clan's descendants for a long time."

This figure was none other than the soul of the last historian of the Phoenix clan. Regardless of the feelings that led him to leave his soul here, his purpose was to wait for the eventual reunion with the Phoenix clan descendants who would find this place.

"In the strict sense of the soul, I am of the Dragon clan, but in terms of physical inheritance, I am a human with the bloodline of both Dragon and Phoenix clans."

"The Dragon clan..." Cardo Kong Wu's soul clearly felt something stirring, a sense of anger.

"Calm down. Despite the city being slaughtered by a member of the Dragon clan, I am not the same as him. He is my enemy."

"You are also a Dragon Emperor! I can see it in your soul, you resemble that person, but with the bloodline of the Phoenix clan. Can I truly trust you?"

"Do you recognize this?"

"The Sword of the Demon Dragon! Your Majesty of the Demon Dragon? Have you returned?" The Phoenix clan historian was undoubtedly familiar with the sword I presented. A spiritual sword would never mistake its true owner.

"Well, the Sword of the Demon Dragon seems more convincing. Since the historian's soul resides here, it seems searching will be much simpler. Cardo Kong Wu, tell me, what is the Dragon clan's holy artifact?" I could tell from Cardo Kong Wu's soul language that he still held reverence for the Demon Dragon, even though they did not favor him. The Demon Dragon had ensured their countless era of peace.

"Your Majesty of the Demon Dragon, before we proceed with the search, please promise to avenge our Phoenix clan for this great feud!"

"Nonsense, if I don't kill that guy, he will come after me anyway. Stop wasting time, I want to know about the Dragon clan's holy artifact!"

"Understood!"

The scene began to shift, revealing the history of the Phoenix clan's distant ancestor, Yao.

Suddenly, I noticed Zi Sirou and the others sitting on the ground, snacking away. The kid on the left was even recording with his phone! Oh well, this wasn't something that needed to be kept secret.

The Phoenix clan's historian began to explain the scene. The so-called Dragon clan holy artifact originally crafted by the Phoenix clan was a means of manipulating the world's power. This privilege was not exclusive to the Dragon clan, as the early Phoenix clan also possessed this ability. They created a vessel to collect the world's power - while the vessel was small, it could store immense power. Sadly, it was eventually taken by the Dragon clan and became the power source for the "Time-Space Dragon," aiding in maintaining the new Dragon realm, thus becoming the Dragon clan's holy artifact - "a green object resembling jade."

"Is there anything else you don't understand, Your Majesty of the Demon Dragon?"

"One last question, is this the holy artifact?" I took the jade necklace my mother had given me from around my neck. This particular jade could store the sacred fire seed, and it resembled the "bamboo jade" in shape and imagery. Furthermore, this jade was taken from the gate by my maternal grandfather, who was an archaeologist for the god and demon gates. All the signs indicated that this "bamboo jade" had quite the origin.

After careful examination, the Phoenix clan historian concluded: "Indeed! Your Majesty, you must safeguard it properly. If the world's power is contained within the artifact again, this world cannot endure the impact of such a significant energy loss."

"The artifact that once protected the Dragon clan now resides within this 'jade'."