Scripture of Days Past

On the second floor of the archive building, Chu Qiguang was still reading the notes of the ascensionist with keen interest.

The notes were preceded by an introduction written by a certain researcher from the Demon Vanquishing Department. According to the introduction, the Demon Vanquishing Department had found the notes in a tomb.

The tomb appeared to have once been a ceremonial site belonging to the Religion of Inaction, but it had already been abandoned for many years, and the only thing of value that was found inside were these notes.

According to some attached notes, the followers of the Religion of Inaction have been able to contact their pope, who had ascended to the immortal realm, through a ritual.

The pope went by the title of the Nine Heavens Immortal, and through the communication, he described what the immortal realm was like to the religion's followers.

The zealous followers performed the ritual over and over again, meticulously recording everything the Nine Heavens Immortal told them. However, the records were extremely bizarre.

To the Demon Vanquishing Department's researchers at the time, they consisted entirely of nonsensical ramblings interspersed with some strange and unsettling images.

In addition, the notes were filled with triangles of various sizes.

Recalling what he had seen in the Secrets of the Religion of Inaction, Chu Qiguang knew that these triangles likely represented the ritual artifacts of the Religion of Inaction.

After reading these records, most of the researchers became reclusive and developed a habit of talking to themselves. Later, they began suffering from severe hallucinations, some of which even spread to others.

The researchers quickly realized that not only did these notes trigger hallucinations, but they could also manifest the hallucinations of their readers into visual phenomena that were visible to everyone.

Furthermore, some of these hallucinations had demonic tainting properties that drove anyone who saw them insane.

As he continued reading, Chu Qiguang came across a passage written by one of the researchers, which read: "The followers of the Religion of Inaction definitely didn't make contact with an immortal. Instead, they were communicating with some sinister being beyond our comprehension. That being lured them in with false promises, claiming that it would reveal the secrets of the immortal realm to the. In reality, it only wanted to use them to spread its nefarious influence."

If these notes were disseminated on a large scale, a calamity of unimaginable proportions would surely follow.

However, they were very alluring to researchers because they possessed many strange and unfathomable properties that could be studied.

Hence, in order to minimize their harmful influence, the notes were separated and stored in different places.

One of those places was the second floor of the archive building, which housed several pages of these notes.

The Demon Vanquishing Department thinks that these notes have nothing to do with immortals, yet my Dao pursuer eyes tell me that these notes were left behind by the only person in history to have successfully ascended... Interesting, Chu Qiguang thought.

After reading the Demon Vanquishing Department's introduction, Chu Qiguang moved on to the notes themselves.

The records that came across as nonsensical ramblings to the researchers of the Demon Vanquishing Department presented themselves to Chu Qiguang as fantastical descriptions of rising above the heavens and traversing starry skies.

As for the strange unsettling images, Chu Qiguang saw them as vibrant, ever-transforming nebulae.

Even so, he was still struck by a sense of fear and panic as he read through the notes, as if he had ventured alone into the boundless expanse of space.

Faced with that unimaginably vast expanse of mystery and darkness, Chu Qiguang gradually found himself gripped by an indescribable fear.

It was a powerful sense of cosmic horror, the kind of fear that a human felt when it dawned on them just how tiny and insignificant they were compared with the universe.

At that moment, a resounding boom rang out from the first floor.

"Did... Did you see someone just now, Brother Chu?" Lin Lan suddenly asked fearfully. "I think I just saw someone run past. And what was that sound? Is someone attacking the archive building?"

Chu Qiguang immediately looked up and saw a familiar gray-skinned figure walk past him.

Is Lin Lan seeing my hallucinations?

"Close your eyes," he instructed gently. "You're just seeing hallucinations from the demonic tainting triggered by these scriptures. Ignore them. You can cover your ears as well if you're experiencing any auditory hallucinations."

Lin Lan obediently did as she was told, while Chu Qiguang returned his attending to the notes.

At that moment, another resounding boom rang out from downstairs. Lin Lan fought back the urge to open her eyes as she called out, "Brother Chu..."

"Don't worry. It's just a hallucination," Chu Qiguang reassured her distractedly as he continued poring over the notes.

As soon as he finished reading them, he was granted a new boon from the Ring of Ignorance.

This time, he was presented with only two cultivation arts: the Heavenly Demon Vanquishing Palms and the Star Shifting Cloud Piercing Step.

Chu Qiguang chose the former, and new information was immediately implanted into his mind, revealing the cultivation method for the fifth level of the Heavenly Demon Vanquishing Palms.

The fifth level? I thought the Heavenly Demon Vanquishing Palms only had four levels!

***

Meanwhile, Yang Ling was leading the way through the first floor of the archive building, with the undying divine general following close behind him.

Yi Shuang and Han Ying were behind them

Stone statue guardians pounced at them from all directions out of the darkness, only to be effortlessly smashed to pieces by the undying divine general.

As the stone statues were destroyed, blood began flowing from their shattered remains.

"These stone statues are actually people who underwent demonification while reading in the archive building," Yi Shuang explained. "After undergoing demonification, they were turned into these stone statues and made into guardians."

"It sounds like the Demon Vanquishing Department is even crueler and more unscrupulous than us fiends," Han Ying chuckled.

"The Demon Vanquishing Department is nothing more than the emperor's lapdog," Yi Shuang harrumphed coldly. "They don't exist for the purpose of slaying fiends and demons. They only do that to ensure that the emperor can rule over his empire unopposed. They like to paint themselves as the good guys, but they're far crueler and more ruthless than fiends."

As they continued onward, the stone statues emerging from the darkness grew increasingly powerful, but they were still no match for the undying divine general.

The undying divine general seemed to possess unlimited stamina. Despite the relentless onslaught of the stone guardians, it showed no signs of being worn down.

All of a sudden, Yang Ling spotted a figure up ahead. Instead of a stone statue, it was a grotesque, gray-skinned, humanoid creature.

The creature was immediately destroyed by the undying divine general, but it left no flesh or blood behind, almost as if it had vanished into thin air.

"Something's not right, Yi Shuang," Yang Ling said, feeling very unsettled.

"Just give up, Yang Ling," Yi Shuang sneered. "You're not going to trick your way out of this."

However, as they continued onward, more and more of the grotesque humanoid creatures appeared in their path. A fishy odor also began to permeate the air.

"What are these things?" Han Ying asked. "Are they also guardians of the archive building?"

Yi Shuang offered no response because he didn't know the answer either.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!