Although Qiu Fangzheng spoke simply, Li Hai only realized how difficult this small path was after he actually started walking it.
If one were to consider its total length, this small path probably didn't even reach two hundred li.
However, it wasn't a straight path, but rather winding, up and down, filled with countless detours, and even Penetration many caves and more than one underground river.
Additionally, only Qiu Fangzheng himself knew the correct route of this small path, so no matter how fast Li Hai was, it was useless. Thus, once they started walking, it was particularly time-consuming.
Therefore, the two ghosts walked for a full day and night before barely reaching the end of this small path.
Whoosh—
In a deep pool, the figures of Li Hai and Qiu Fangzheng slowly emerged.
Li Hai looked up and saw that surrounding the pool was an extremely large underground cave.
The top of the cave, nearly a hundred zhang high, was covered with long stalactites emitting a faint greenish glow.
These numerous stalactites were like an inverted forest, almost filling all of Li Hai's upper vision, front, back, left, and right.
And in terms of hearing, it wasn't silent here; one could clearly hear the hissing sounds of many snakes and insects slowly crawling.
Thus, the combination of all these factors made this cave as eerie and terrifying as a ghost city.
After carefully surveying the area, Li Hai asked Qiu Fangzheng:
"Where is the relic? Why is it all stalactites?"
"Don't worry, my lord," Qiu Fangzheng explained, "We still need to walk a bit further to reach it."
"Mm," Li Hai nodded, "Lead the way."
Subsequently, the two ghosts set off again.
As Li Hai continued to walk, he was also surprised to find that in many corners of this cave, there were traces of human habitation, such as houses, suspension bridges, wooden fences, courtyard walls, and so on.
However, these were now covered with a thick layer of dust and exuded an extremely heavy and ancient Qi, so one could tell at a glance that they had been abandoned for a long time.
And as they traveled, Qiu Fangzheng seemed to notice Li Hai's gaze constantly shifting to these objects, so he said:
"My lord, these things were not left by the Disciples of that ancient sect, but are relics from an even older era."
"An older era?"
Li Hai asked in confusion, "Why are you so certain?"
"My lord, I have entered the relic."
Qiu Fangzheng explained, "According to the inscriptions on the relic stele, when the ancient sect encountered an earthquake and fell to the bottom of the mountain, ninety-nine percent of its Disciples died, and the remaining people were all injured. Therefore, they had neither the energy nor the need to go to such great lengths to Breakthrough numerous rock layers to reach this cave and leave behind so many traces of life.
Furthermore, all the relics within the ancient sect do not have such thick dust or such a heavy ancient charm. Therefore, it can only be concluded that these things must be from an era even older than the Da Xuan period."
"An era even older than Da Xuan (Great Xuan), which was before Great Jing?" Li Hai's interest was suddenly piqued, "When was that?"
"My lord, I am not very clear about that. I only know that the Da Xuan Dynasty also lasted for over a thousand years."
Qiu Fangzheng said honestly, "After all, when I was still alive, I was just a merchant."
But then he added:
"However, when I was alive, I seem to have heard the old scholar in town say that before Da Xuan, the world was extremely chaotic, with many countries existing simultaneously."
"Oh~" Li Hai realized, "Then I understand, it's the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period."
"Warring States?"
Qiu Fangzheng thought for a moment, "An era of warring states, indeed, what you said is quite fitting."
While the two ghosts were talking, an ancient stele, which flashed by, firmly attracted Li Hai's gaze.
"Wait!"
His rapidly moving blurry figure suddenly paused, then retreated to the side of the ancient stele.
Seeing this, Qiu Fangzheng immediately stopped and flew over with him.
"This is..."
Li Hai slowly squatted down, silently looking at the incomplete ancient stele, which was leaning and buried in the solid rock and soil, his eyes filled with shock.
Although this stele was covered in rust and scars, one could still roughly make out two lines of extremely strange and ancient characters written on it.
"What kind of characters are these?" Qiu Fangzheng asked in great confusion, "Why have I never seen them before?"
He couldn't recognize them, but Li Hai, who possessed the 'Study Hard' System... recognized them.
If the characters on it were translated into understandable content, it would roughly be—'Wu Xian Federation, Qionggi Sea Region Battle Zone, Third Mech Brigade Parts Main Warehouse. Unauthorized personnel are forbidden to enter.'
Li Hai looked at this ancient stele over and over again several times, then turned to ask Qiu Fangzheng:
"Have you heard of a country called the Wu Xian Federation?"
Qiu Fangzheng shook his head blankly: "My lord, I... have never heard of it."
"Then have you heard of the Qionggi Sea Region?"
Li Hai asked again. "Is it south of Dragon Mountain?"
Qiu Fangzheng still shook his head: "I've never heard of it. I only know that south of the Dragon Mountain range there are many barbarian small countries. South of these barbarian countries is the Cangming Ocean, not some Qionggi Sea."
"Barbarian small countries?"
Li Hai suddenly had an idea and asked again, "Then, is there a small country named Wu Xian south of Dragon Mountain?"
"This..." Qiu Fangzheng said uncertainly, "I haven't heard of it, maybe there is, uh... or maybe not."
"Alright."
Li Hai nodded, exhaling a long breath, "I probably know... the true origin of this ancient stele and those relics."
"What origin?" Qiu Fangzheng asked curiously.
"Prehistoric civilization."
Li Hai said with certainty, "It's definitely a prehistoric civilization, no doubt about it!"
"What is 'Prehistoric Civilization'?"
Qiu Fangzheng was even more confused, "Why is it called a civilization and not a prehistoric Dynasty? And it's a two-character word, not a single character, this... is a bit like the names of those barbarian countries to the south."
In his perception, great nations had to use single-character names to appear noble, while two-character or multi-character country names were inferior names used by those barbarian small countries.
"Prehistoric Civilization is something that cannot be explained in one or two sentences."
Li Hai didn't want to bother explaining, so he urged, "Let's go, to the ancient sect's relic."
"Okay." Qiu Fangzheng nodded, then turned and quickly sped towards the depths of the cave.
And Li Hai, who was also rapidly flying, had complex emotions and his mind was filled with various chaotic thoughts.
All along, the appearance of various martial Dao, ghosts, and arcane arts had made Li Hai take for granted that this world named Yu Continent was a Xuanhuan-oriented Different World, with at most some firearms and cannons.
But now, the appearance of that ancient stele completely shattered his perception.
"Wu Xian Federation, Mech Brigade."
Li Hai muttered in his heart, "This is clearly a prehistoric civilization that took the technological route... Hmph, what a chaotic world, but also an interesting world."