Chapter 150: The Golden Gate

The mural of Great Yu was merely the first.
Further down the corridor, there were at least forty or fifty more murals!
Yishen stepped into the second mural, and the era depicted within it had advanced significantly.
By this time, the civilization established by Yu had survived the great floods and was rebuilding a new world atop the mountain peaks.
However, apart from the floods, they now encountered monsters known as "Flying Stars"! In the era of the barrier, these flying monsters were referred to as "Heaven"!

The third mural depicted a war.
By this time, the floods had already receded.
The tribes were led by a man named "Yi", who wielded a long bow.
He fought against the ten golden crows in the sky, as well as other tribes and monsters left behind in the wake of the floods on the ground!
The contents of this mural were much clearer, showing that heaven, earth, and humanity had already split into three distinct realms!
The leader of the Heavenly Clan was a golden crow, known as "Huang"!
The leader of the Earthly Clan was a tiger, known as "Bi"!
The leader of the Human Clan was "Yi", also known as the "Human Emperor"!

Each mural's projection lasted about one to two minutes, yet the volume of information contained within them was terrifyingly vast.
"Is this genuine history? Or history that has been heavily altered?"
Yishen spent over an hour viewing every single mural here.
The elements reflected in these images bore a strong resemblance to the ancient civilizations Yishen was familiar with, yet there were also stark and profound differences.

Soon, however, he summarized three pieces of information that were crucial to him.
First, the lineage of the Human Emperors had now come to an end. The ultimate demise of the Human Emperor lineage culminated under a leader named "Zhou". While this "Zhou" possessed a rather tyrannical personality, his downfall was ultimately orchestrated by the Heavenly and Earthly Clans, who sowed internal discord within humankind.
In Chinese history, a "King Zhou" also existed, and there was even a legend that after King Zhou, there would never be another Human Emperor—a concept that dovish-ly complemented the content on these murals.

Second was the information regarding the Classic of Mountains and Seas exotic beasts.
According to the murals, the majority of those exotic beasts should belong to the Earthly and Heavenly Clans, standing in opposition to humankind, with only a small fraction aligned with the human lineage.
Quite coincidentally, the Whirlpool Tortoise actually belonged to the human lineage. This explained why Yishen was ultimately able to enter this Human Emperor's Tomb and why he had chosen the red door.
Although it was a door of Yishen's own choosing, looking back now, his decision must have been subtly and imperceptibly guided.
He hadn't noticed it before, but seeing these murals and the connection to his bloodline now made things suddenly click into place.

The third piece of news was that the Human Emperor's Tomb here was the burial place of all successive Human Emperors!
This Human Emperor's Tomb had, in fact, appeared in many of the visions.
Judging from its external silhouette, although half of it was submerged underground, it bore a striking resemblance to the Human Emperor's Tomb depicted in the visions!

Regrettably, after viewing the projections, Yishen still remained somewhat unclear about what this secret realm truly represented, leaving him with no choice but to continue moving forward to investigate.
"Splash."
Passing through the mural area of the hall, Yishen felt that he was likely more than a hundred meters deep underground.
It was hard to imagine such a massive palace suddenly appearing in this place. According to the Bureau of Investigation's intelligence, this area—much like the previous Jingmen Safe Zone—was a suddenly materialized secret realm district, distinct from traditional gates of planes.

"There are monsters at last."
Yishen undoubtedly favored farming monsters the most. He walked forward along the corridor until he reached a cavernous karst cave area.
This karst cave area was much larger than he had imagined. Yishen sensed some shadowy black figures up ahead, and upon casting a light illumination spell, he could discern the true appearance of these dark figures, discovering that they were remarkably similar to the humanoid creatures in the murals!

[Shadow of the Ancient Tomb]
[Level: 70]
[HP: 340,092 / 340,092]

"Such a high level?"
Yishen casually cast an appraisal skill.
Originally, he thought that due to his relatively low level, he might fail to detect any information, but to his surprise, the stats were successfully revealed.
However, almost every single one of these shadows exceeded level 70, with hit points reaching as high as 340,000—making them quite formidable elite monsters.

"Crack."
[-290,852]
[-239,990]

Of course, to Yishen, mobs devoid of much defensive capability possessed hit points that were merely inflated, no matter how high they seemed.
His base damage alone approached nearly 300,000, supplemented by an additional 240,000 in extra damage, instantly obliterating this Shadow of the Ancient Tomb.

[Ding! You have killed a Shadow of the Ancient Tomb. Human Emperor points +2, Total Human Emperor Faction points +2.]

Following the kill, just as before, no loot dropped, but points were acquired.
These points were somewhat similar to those in the Scepter Secret Realm, but this time an additional metric of Total Human Emperor Faction points was included.
"..." Yishen shrugged and continued forward.
If it were merely a matter of grinding monsters, it would indeed be far too boring. What he truly hoped for was to uncover the truth regarding the bloodline of Mountains and Seas within the Human Emperor's Tomb; ordinary points held little practical use for him, and having some equipment drop for him to research and dissect would be far more tangible.
Furthermore, the Shadows of the Ancient Tomb dissipated directly upon death, cutting off any possibility for Yishen to research and decompose them.

"Swish, swish, swish!"
Yishen advanced along the path without hindrance. His terrifying attributes, combined with true damage values, allowed him to achieve a level of absolute suppression even within this high-tier secret realm.
Occasionally, traps would appear within the karst caves, but these traps failed to pose any obstruction to Yishen. The fire element could withstand the brunt of most attacks, while Yishen's own Blink spell could evade any remaining unexpected hazards.

These karst caves sloped continuously downward, and Yishen eventually arrived at a new hall. This hall was even more cavernous, and in the distance before Yishen stood a massive golden gate, its surface flowing with strange, intricate runes.
Yishen drew closer to these runes.

[Ding! A prospector of the Human Emperor Faction has reached the Golden Gate. Current sequence ranking: 1. Points +100.]

A prompt sound rang out on his system panel.
Yishen seemed to understand something.
The opening of the Human Emperor's Tomb evidently involved combat among three factions.
Yet, due to the special method by which he had entered this secret realm, he was currently the only person being recorded on the scoreboard.

The Golden Gate slowly creaked open, revealing a new stage, and Yishen stepped inside with a deeply peculiar expression.
However, once Yishen drew closer, he paused in blank astonishment, discovering that behind this giant gate lay no underground cavern at all.
Instead, it was a battlefield.
A vast, boundless battlefield stretching across heaven and earth!!

Skeletons were piled high everywhere across the battlefield, and the sky hung in a bleak, dark grayish hue, while Yishen's Mountains and Seas bloodline instantly surged to life, stimulated into a frenzy.
This was by no means underground; rather, upon crossing the Golden Gate, he had entered an entirely different space!
Yishen caught the ancient scent of wind and frost, as well as the colossal mausoleum looming indistinctly in the distant sky!
It was an exact replica of the Human Emperor's Tomb buried in the ground in the outside world!

And precisely at the moment Yishen stepped through the Golden Gate, tremendous disturbances began to ripple across the barrier of the external Human Emperor's Tomb. It abruptly erupted with a massive surge of crimson aura, spreading outward for a full forty to fifty kilometers! Shen Shimao and the others, who were originally investigating the Blood Clan, were directly stunned by this spectacle!
The Human Emperor's Tomb—which previously stood half above ground and half below—was now experiencing violent tremors as it slowly rose into the air!!