The Sacred Ruins Novel - Chapter 3

“Dong!”

The clear sound of bronze was tainted by the vicissitudes of time.

Chu Feng put down the rock in his hand, certain that the tablet was indeed made of bronze. He could hardly believe that an ancient bronze antique, thousands of kilograms in weight, existed here. This was no small matter.

A great commotion could be expected if news of this was spread.

Two words “Queen” and “West” were visible on the surface. The aged words were simple and unadorned but also somewhat mystical, easily drawing one’s attention. The era from which it originated remained a mystery, however.

“Who could’ve buried it deep within Mount Kunlun?”

Chu Feng knocked on the bronze tablet, eliciting continuous metallic vibrations. Unfortunately, he was no archaeologist and he had no idea how to appraise it.

“Perhaps a magnificent bronze civilization existed here many eons ago,” he mused.

He was never quite believed in superstitions despite the many legends surrounding Mount Kunlun. Even after seeing the words queen and west, he still quite skeptical of the myths.

Chu Feng felt that even if the Queen Mother of the West did indeed exist, she was perhaps just a powerful tribal leader during ancient times, and this was probably just an ancient relic.

“The great earthquake causing magnetic field abnormalities in addition to the large piece of protruding bronze may have attracted lingering lightning and electricity.”

Chu Feng felt that this might be the actual reason.

He really wanted to dig out the whole bronze tablet and observe in greater detail, but he was powerless to do so without specialized equipment.

After walking around the area for some time, he decided to continue upwards.

The cracks up in the mountain were quite deep. Its interior was a dark and frightening scene of destruction.

There were no trails to speak of, and the topography was fraught with danger. Large boulders lay scattered in disarray, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to progress.

Walking alone along the vast mountain allowed one to appreciate its majesty. It oddly reminded Chu Feng of the many legends surrounding this place. He glanced into the distance where the mountain was seemingly touching the sky. It was quite the grand panorama.

He continued upwards for over a thousand meters. The post-earthquake hike was indeed difficult, and the loose rocks posed a considerable danger.

There were heaps of earth and stone before him where the mountainside had recently collapsed.

Chu Feng spotted something abnormal from a distance and revealed an astonished expression. He approached swiftly and climbed up to verify what he had seen.

“It appears to be bronze!”

From the distance, he had seen a large area of mottled and corroded green within the collapsed cliff. It wasn’t just a small piece but a whole area.

He finally arrived at his destination and clearly witnessed it.

“Just as I thought!”

This was even more alarming than the bronze tablet he had seen earlier.

The long-hidden truth, positioned close to the main mountain, had finally been revealed after the collapse of the huge cliff.

A patch of green was leaning against the stony mountainside. An ancient and mysterious bronze architecture revealed itself gradually through the collapsing mountainside.

Three simple and quiet bronze buildings were built into the stony walls of the mountain. Some parts of it were still buried within the earth, but most of them were already visible.

The design of these bronze buildings was ancient, and their grandeur was suffused with the solemnity of history.

Neat rows of bronze tiles covered their rooftops making them appear, from a distance, as if they were covered in green scales.

Chu Feng truly was astonished, and he could hardly calm down.

It was a sensational discovery. He had found large bronze equipment and numerous bronze architecture buried deep beneath Mount Kunlun.

What era were these things from? Who had constructed them?

He believed this place was definitely hiding the remains of a whole area of brilliant bronze civilization from the distant ages, an era not even recorded in history.

But he was as puzzled as he was apprehensive.

The Simu Cauldron was known as the largest bronze craft to date, but it seemed smaller compared to the bronze tablets and houses here, the antique almost failed to appear heavy at all.

Doubtlessly, the difficulty in building such houses was much more difficult than casting cauldrons.

These houses cast from bronze appeared majestic, solemn, and somewhat mysterious.

If this finding was announced to the outside world, it would be considered priceless treasures as no one had ever discovered such large bronze antiques before. It was definitely a new discovery.

Even as a normally calm person, Chu Feng subconsciously felt extreme excitement upon discovering these astonishing bronze relics.

He tried pushing the bronze door open with some force and was able to get it open amidst grinding metallic sounds.

He didn’t go in immediately but instead observed from the outside for a while before cautiously stepping in. The somewhat isolated interior was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. The interior was quite bare with barely any furnishings.

Similarly, nothing noteworthy was found in the other two houses; the floors and walls were all undecorated. Without a doubt, they were all empty.

Chu Feng exited the buildings with more questions than he had before he entered. Were these buildings used as a residence or perhaps for sacrificial ceremonies?

These ancients were simply too extravagant!

Historical records stated that the Simu Cauldron of the Shang Dynasty was cast, with great difficulty, by several hundreds of bronze artisans working together.

How difficult would it be to construct such gigantic bronze architecture?

Realizing that he had spent quite a bit of time here, Chu Feng decided to continue upwards. Sweating and huffing, he finally arrived close to the peak after a few hours; only a few hundred meters remained.

Chu Feng was tall, strong, and possessed good stamina, but after climbing such a large mountain, he was still left rather exhausted.

As he approached the summit and gazed into the distance, he saw rising mountain ranges and vast lands as far as the eye could see. The view made one feel as small as a speck of dust.

He stood on the great mountain and raised his head to gaze at the blue dome above. He felt quite comfortable as if he could forget all of his worries, all honor, and disgrace. Everything else seemed relatively insignificant.

Chu Feng was baffled to see that there was no snow despite the altitude and even grasses and trees could be seen.

“Traces of lightning strikes!”

Chu Feng noticed some charred marks which signified a lightning strike. All vegetation within that area had been burnt and charred.

Moreover, some large rocks had been cleaved open and the many parts of the mountainside had collapsed.

This further reinforced Chu Feng’s theory that the dense mist and blue lights should’ve been caused by the lightning. This whole area had suffered lightning strikes.

Chu Feng had to take a detour because the road ahead was blocked large piles of rocks.

But as he circled around to the other side of the peak, his body froze in place and his pupils constricted. This was the first time he had been this overwhelmed.

He didn’t react this way even when he discovered those bronze houses.

The collapsed mountainside had produced a large defect, revealing the metal within.

It’s a bronze mountain!

The scene uncovered by the collapse of the mountainside was truly astonishing.

This mountaintop might actually be made of bronze concealed within the mountain!

It wasn’t just a small area. The whole region up to the summit several hundreds of meters away was made of bronze.

This gave one the solid impression that the true mountain was made of bronze within and covered up by earth and rocks.

This was absolutely unimaginable!

The actual truth, however, is yet to be confirmed, but at least the 200-meter summit was indeed made of bronze, a number sufficient to shock the world.

Chu Feng was startled. This bronze mountain of the Kunlun Range had toppled his ingrained concepts of size and history.

He had always been quite skeptical of mysterious folklore and legends.

But he could hardly explain the peculiarity before his eyes.

The lightning strike had revealed the truth of the bronze mountain.

It was definitely a shocking discovery!

Chu Feng continued upwards and was a mere hundred meters away from the summit. The bronze terrain here was quite precipitous, making it difficult to proceed.

At the same time, he noticed a sudden fragrance drifting in the wind.

But the cold ground was made of bronze and devoid of all vegetation.

Chu Feng thus looked around in detail and eventually found a plant growing on the bronze cliff!

It was at the peak of the mountain. Chu Feng tracked back to find another way to approach the flower. He wanted to observe in greater detail.

He finally found another path which gave him a better view despite not being able to take up further upwards.

The verdant little tree, about 150 centimeters tall, was rooted firmly on the bronze cliff. There was a single flower blooming on it.

Chu Feng glanced again in order to make sure there was no mistake—there truly was no earth under the tree—the shocking plant was rooted on the bronze cliff.

Such a thing was as astonishing as it was inexplicable.

He moved to another place where he could climb upwards and get a closer look at the little tree rooted in bronze.

—

Retranslated by Alsey 2018/JAN