“I dare to assume, my Princess, that you did it because, without me, you won’t find your way out of here.”
Elaine ignored him. After sitting down on the nearest boulder, she tried to dry her hair. However, it only became more tangled and messy, which annoyed the Princess even more.
Hadjar looked around. The place where they had found themselves was amazing. They had stumbled upon some very old ruins. According to his modest estimate (since his neural network still wasn’t working), these ruins were at least one hundred thousand years old. They’d been here long before the first royal castle of Lidus had been built on the hill.
Damn it, where were they?
Chapter 211
Hadjar got up and looked around. He stood on short grass that almost looked like it had been mowed. It covered the ancient stones that made up a road which snaked along among the rocky hills and cliffs. Once, in ancient times, this road had led to a pond or a well that had now turned into a small lake.
Elaine and Hadjar had emerged from this lake. Rather, Elaine had emerged from it. Then, while deprived of her strength as a practitioner, reduced to the level of a mere mortal, she’d miraculously managed to pull an adult man ashore, give him CPR, and wrest him from the clutches of death. Hadjar was overwhelmed with pride for his sister's accomplishment.
“It looks like a temple,” her muffled, brooding voice offered.
Hadjar turned and looked at the crevice where they were currently standing. Stone walls, reaching toward the sky, stood on either side of the wide road. They were smooth, as if carved by an experienced sculptor, and surrounded the plateau. Old bas-reliefs and patterns, sometimes destroyed by wind and time, could be seen on their surface. They depicted scenes that Hadjar didn’t remember learning about in history lessons. Even without his neuronet, Hadjar could recall most of South Wind’s lessons from memory, may the forefathers favor him.
Therefore, whatever this place was, it was ancient and probably part of the earliest history of the world. So ancient that Hadjar couldn’t even guess what it actually was.
He squatted down and touched a grass-covered stone. It was so smooth that water would’ve flowed across it without leaving much of a trace. No one in Lidus and, perhaps, in the whole Empire, could work stone with such skill. And it was even unlikely that technology had reached such a level back on Hadjar’s home world — Earth.
Having drawn his blade, Hadjar tried to cut a piece of the stone off. When he struck it, his hands shook and a tiny, barely noticeable scratch appeared on the surface of Moon Beam.
“Damn,” Hadjar muttered, running his fingers along the blade.
He put even more power into his next attack, using more force than when he’d cut the water in half back at the cave. Even so, he couldn’t leave a single scratch on the timeworn stone and only damaged his own sword further.
“How old are these ruins?” The Princess asked, watching the experiment.
Hadjar straightened and sheathed his blade. The road leading up the hill wound around the grass-covered, ruined walls and houses. Some of them had been three and four-story buildings. Now they were just remnants of the once magnificent dwellings. Stone protrusions and rare, preserved slabs hinted at stairs. Time hadn’t spared even these skillfully made, very sturdy buildings.
Nor had the sun, shining brightly. Maybe this wasn’t a mountain, but a volcano that had fallen asleep forever. It was so enormous that its eruption could’ve easily destroyed this planet... If it even was a planet, and not something else that Hadjar couldn’t comprehend.
“Ten thousand centuries,” he said. “Maybe more...”
Elaine blinked in surprise and rose abruptly from the stone she’d been sitting on. She brushed off the ivy and recoiled. What she’d taken for a boulder was, in fact, the head of a sculpture of incredible beauty — one depicting a female dancer. Every fold of her silk shawl, every eyelash, every pore on her beautiful face looked almost frighteningly lifelike.
Hadjar could swear by all the demons that, even in the crypt of the Ancient Cultivator, he hadn’t seen such beauty and skilled craftsmanship before. The most terrifying thing about all of this, however, were the implications.
Hadjar was scared of the possibility that a temple, sect, or school which had been at an unusually high level of cultivation had once existed in the territory of Lidus. Because, judging by how well-preserved everything was around here, something had ended its existence. Furthermore, it had done so swiftly, easily, and without being noticed, in less than a day.
“We need to get out of here, my Princess,” Hadjar pointed to the stairs carved into the rock. Winding upward, they almost reached the mouth of what he presumed could be a volcano, ending in a sharp precipice. Maybe a rockfall or storm had destroyed them.
“Princess?”
Hadjar turned around, but he didn’t see Elaine next to him. A moment of panic quickly gave way to relief. He saw her silhouette only a few yards away. She was walking along the timeworn road, heading for the farthest cliff.
“Elaine!” Hadjar called out, but...
She didn’t answer. She didn’t slow down, and her back remained ramrod straight. His relief was replaced by anxiety again.
Hadjar drew his sword and followed his sister. The blade, while perhaps useless in this situation, instilled confidence in him. Something was wrong here.
The former General was one of Lidus’ strongest practitioners. Even at the Transformation Stage, his power had become equal to that of a Heaven Soldier at the initial stage of that level. He was extraordinarily quick and strong. He could run as fast as the spring wind, racing horses at the middle point of the Awakening of Power Stage.
In contrast, after being wounded, Elaine had been completely cut off from all of her practitioner abilities and power. However, for some incomprehensible, mystical reason, Hadjar, who was running, wasn’t
