Chapter 1009: Civilizational Glory and Dialogue

Author: Smile of Three Hundred JinCategory:Last Updated: May 31, 2020Word Count for This Chapter: 10,292 words

The deeper one ventured into the crystal labyrinth, the more intricate and complex it became. The entire white dwarf star was like a colossal diamond honeycomb. Each grid represented a once-thriving town or village; some had long been completely excavated, while others still held relatively intact ruins.

With the bloodline inheritance, the oppressive force of repulsion was instantly eliminated. All that remained to resist were the increasingly dense elemental ocean and electromagnetic storms. He continued to delve deeper.

"The ruins are becoming more and more intact.... Most Ninth-Tier beings would find it difficult to reach this point.... I must say, the civilization mechanism of elemental beings is very effective at protecting their ruins."

The elemental guardians of these tombs, born from corpses, possessed little sentience or wisdom. However, like elemental beings, they had an endless source of power. You simply couldn't outlast them; they could literally wear you down to death!

Xu Zhi observed a tomb within a crystal city. "Even if you have astonishing stamina and manage to deplete the guardian of this city's cemetery, causing it to vanish into thin air by exhausting its energy.... You still wouldn't gain anything. This is because the guardian would have already drained and shattered the remnants of the entire tomb—the Elemental Core—leaving you with nothing."

This was the frustrating yet perfected tomb-guarding mechanism. It was like fighting someone who practiced the "Nine Revolutions Profound Art": even if you managed to exhaust them to death, you'd find nothing left of their remains and would only end up in a sorry state yourself. Therefore, to break into a tomb, even after painstakingly defeating the guardian, you would still obtain nothing from within! Clearly, brute force could not be used to contend with the elemental guardians. One could only resort to trickery, or perhaps, overwhelm them with absolute power, launching a sudden assassination to strike at their weaknesses and sever their energy sources.

"That's why a very rare sight appears in these ancient ruins. Along the way, tombs of all sizes across different locations are relatively well-preserved, with their burial goods and remains intact.... They only target weaker tombs they can handle. If they lack the power to breach a Ninth-Tier guardian of equal strength, they won't attempt to use brute force... instead, they'll delve deeper, searching for relatively weaker elemental village tombs."

Xu Zhi observed the tombs of various sizes. In powerful, prosperous city cemeteries, due to the difficulty of breaching them, most elemental survivors would hide within, barely surviving and forming a "graveyard civilization." As for others, when they breached tombs, they might encounter survivors living inside.

Xu Zhi journeyed on, eventually stopping before an extremely prosperous super-city, arguably the largest town he had seen so far. "This should be a significant ruin stronghold. It must be very prosperous inside, with generations of tombs burying extremely powerful beings.... If the tombs are powerful, their guardians are strong, and there should be many elemental survivors residing within." Xu Zhi took a step.

*Swish.*

He led a group of young, newborn creatures directly into the tomb.

Inside the crystal tomb, it was exceptionally luxurious and translucent. Transparent elemental beings roamed within the various caverns.

One strong, tall elemental being couldn't help but slightly change expression, sensing something. "Other elemental kin have entered. Weren't they forbidden to enter? Our population here is already full." They didn't suspect outsiders had entered at all, because Akaz, the elemental guardian of the tomb, showed no reaction.

"There's no choice. Recently, there have been more and more evil grave robbers outside.... More and more tombs are being destroyed, and too many refugees are fleeing everywhere...." A fire giant holding an elemental trident beside him said, "I'll go check...." He had just taken a step, but a group of strangely shaped beings walked in. Leading them was, surprisingly, a gentle-looking youth in human form, handsome at fifteen or sixteen, with rosy lips and white teeth, clad in a classical robe, like a bright fairytale boy stepping out of a library.

"Enemies!" The entire elemental cavern erupted in chaos. Screams, wails, and ceaseless whispers filled the air. They were too weak, possessing only one gene. Any being capable of entering here had to be a great Enlightened One, transcending cosmic laws. If the guardian had been defeated, it meant certain death for them.

"No... they emanate the same aura as us; they are our kin...." At this moment, the tall elemental being leading them spoke. "And there's no need to run. No matter what, if we are truly destined to die, no one can escape."

Kin? They stopped. The aura was the same; there could be no mistake—they were kin.... But how could their forms be so utterly different? Yes! The creature before them was clearly an ordinary humanoid flesh-and-blood life form. How could it be their kin, an elemental being!?

"Who exactly are you!" the leading chief asked.

"Are you the chief of this tribe?" Xu Zhi smiled, looking at them.

"Yes." A strong elemental flame being stepped forward and respectfully said, "Who are you, where do you come from...? What kind of creature are you, exactly?"

"My name is Ji...." Xu Zhi smiled faintly. "As for what kind of creatures we are? Do you see this group of infants behind me? That is the best explanation."

Only then did they look at the group of creatures behind him. They had an identical aura and were enveloped in various colored energy flames, just like them. But their 'egg shells' were not crystal diamonds; instead, they were masses of flesh!

"Their egg shells?""What is this?""Flesh? How is that possible!?"

These weak survivors were dumbfounded. The cavern was filled with a bustling crowd, shouting in disarray, lacking any organization or discipline. The outside world liked to call the elemental crystal diamonds they resided in "elemental cores," but they preferred to call them "egg shells" because they were like "egg-laying" creatures. Elemental beings would lay eggs within the "egg shell" crystal diamonds. Their young were born and grew within the "egg shells," residing upon them until they became gods, at which point they could truly break free from their shells. However, most elemental beings, even after reaching adulthood, would retain their "egg shells." These shells had a high degree of compatibility, serving as containers for storing energy and as personal magic artifacts throughout their lives. In their battles, their energy was limitless as long as enough was stored, and the container for this storage was precisely the "egg shell."

"How could your egg shells be masses of flesh...? Doesn't that mean you can never leave your egg shells throughout your lives? Aren't you half flesh-and-blood beings?" The leading elemental chief felt bewildered and terrified.

Mutation! A word appeared in their minds. After all, elemental civilization had existed for an extremely long time. Especially after its decline, having endured countless millennia in the ruins, perhaps one branch of their species, striving for survival through natural selection, had undergone some unimaginable mutation, becoming partially flesh-and-blood life forms. This wasn't impossible... because the other party also possessed the inherited memories of their species, meaning they were kin, descendants of a common ancestor.... There was no doubt about that.

"Yes, we naturally share some blood ties...." Ji, the youth, smiled gently. "It's just that we've been separated from this species for too long, having roamed the outside world for countless millennia.... It's rare to return and find you all still in such a desolate state. It's truly regrettable."

"You are traitors! You have betrayed the glory of our kind! You are no longer our pure elemental species!" At this moment, a young elemental being nearby roared, "You have flesh, which means... you can never escape your egg shells! For your entire lives, you'll be burdened with this fleshy flaw, a symbol of shame! You are no longer purely immune to physical attacks! You now have a physical form and will be vulnerable to targeted physical strikes; that core of flesh is your fatal weakness!"

"Oh?" Xu Zhi looked at the young elemental being.

"Al!" The chief beside him's face fell.

"You are ruined!" This elemental being named Al continued to roar, passionately shouting and cursing, "Furthermore, with flesh, you no longer possess the heaven-defying characteristic of us elemental beings—unlimited energy conversion! You are no different from ordinary flesh-and-blood creatures; your stamina is limited.... You have become base, inferior! No different from ordinary flesh-and-blood life... In fact, you are even weaker than ordinary flesh-and-blood life!" The youth roared and cried simultaneously, elemental tears streaming down continuously. "Wuwuwu, you are too despicable! You have no faith, you have lost the glory of our ancestors..."

"Hold him down! Hold that scoundrel down!" Beside him, the elemental chief of this settlement was utterly enraged. "You brat, causing trouble normally is one thing! But you're still talking nonsense now!? You're asking for a beating!" In an instant, several elemental beings grabbed his crystal egg shell, pinned him down, and dragged him away.

"My apologies...." The elemental chief looked nervous. "That fellow has always been a troublemaker in our camp."

"It's fine." Xu Zhi quietly watched the young elemental being being dragged away and confined in a cavern. "He is absolutely right; he's a very clever little fellow.... Half-elemental beings have indeed lost all the advantages of elemental life: physical immunity and infinite energy conversion...." That was indeed the truth. From the beginning, half-elemental beings, represented by the Phoenix, did not possess these heaven-defying characteristics of pure elemental beings. Possessed a core of flesh? Then, there must certainly be a physical vulnerability. The powerful advantage of elemental beings, extreme physical immunity, was lost. Possessed a core of flesh? It would definitely have to go through the process of absorbing elements → flesh-and-blood body → energy outer body.... This would negate the instantaneous, infinite energy conversion rate. The second advantage of elemental beings, infinite energy conversion, was lost. Pure elemental beings and half-elemental beings, though seemingly a single character apart, were fundamentally two distinct species and originally did not possess the two great heaven-defying advantages of elemental beings!

"May I ask, what is your current cultivation realm?" The elemental chief looked excited. And the elemental survivors nearby also became incredibly excited, as if grasping at a lifeline! They also knew that becoming flesh-and-blood meant losing their glory. They would lose the most powerful characteristics of their extraordinary bloodline system, falling into the ranks of extremely ordinary cosmic flesh-and-blood races! Their most powerful systems of "physical immunity" and "energy conversion" would be lost, but now, faced with life and death, they could no longer afford to care about such things... Even becoming a mediocre, weak, ordinary cosmic extraordinary race was better than slowly waiting for death, better than completely awaiting chronic demise and extinction! And they no longer had the chance to rise like their ancestors.

How did their ancestors rise? Their elemental ancestors naturally also had genes. Initially, they couldn't find any gene fusion methods, as powerhouses needed to continuously integrate genes, and three genes were required to become a god. So, at that time, the ancestors of the elemental race, unable to become extraordinary, first pursued a path of technology, developing spacecraft and traveling to various places, white dwarfs, and highly electromagnetic planetary worlds, to search for cosmic elemental life forms similar to themselves. They were also very fortunate. Generation after generation, it took hundreds of thousands of years to finally find the first batch of elemental life forms, and then hundreds of thousands more years to reach the second type of elemental life.... After all, the number of elemental life forms was too scarce! Carbon-based flesh-and-blood life was the easiest to form, as carbon is a very common substance, accounting for 98% of life. But what about them? Even lower. Their rise was built upon the efforts of generations of their people over millions of years. They were also very fortunate to have escaped countless disasters because they lived on white dwarfs, hiding and barely surviving. Most civilizations truly wouldn't venture into such desolate places.... Countless millennia later, they found the fourth elemental civilization. At that point, they fully rose! Four genes meant they could break through to the Ninth Tier of elemental beings. Their advantages fully erupted. They belonged to a late-stage extraordinary system, incredibly defiant of the heavens and powerful, accumulating the efforts of countless generations. They transformed into dragons amid wind and clouds, displaying heaven-defying combat power to an extreme degree, sweeping aside everything and reaching their peak. Finally, they entered a Tenth-Tier civilization... Achieving the ultimate in the universe, the end of the Great Dao!

This was their history of development. However, at this point, it was impossible for them to rise like their ancestors. Although they had survived as remnants in the ruins, barely clinging to life in the tombs for decades, this place was also a cage. They had no opportunity to go outside and redevelop.... Outside the ruins, a group of Enlightened Ones guarded them, trapping them to die. There was no more opportunity.... Our glory is completely lost.... The Elemental Empire was long gone! They looked at each other, feeling despair as their belief in glory crumbled. Especially now, seeing their own kind fallen to such a state, reduced to ordinary flesh-and-blood beings just to survive... losing their strongest characteristics was equivalent to severing the civilization's faith! Abandoning the race's belief! They felt the same sadness and despair as the young Al.... But they couldn't show it, because this new race before them was for the continuation of their species.

"Alas, that Al fellow simply doesn't understand that we truly have no other choice...." The chief sighed. If they had a choice, who would abandon their own species? They had abandoned their dreams! But they also had to accept the cruel reality! Al, this is the world of adult elemental beings. "In the world of adult elemental beings, there are no dreams." The chief looked at the struggling youth in the cage and sighed, as if he had aged another decade.

"Don't keep that little fellow locked up. Let him come out. Let's see what else he has to say..." Xu Zhi said with a faint smile at this moment.

"But..." The elemental chief hesitated, stammering, "He's too young, too idealistic...."

"Don't worry. Let him out. If he wants to talk about dreams with me, then I'll talk about dreams with him." Soon, the youth was released. He glared resentfully at the mysterious "Ji" before him.

"Everything in existence is balanced.... While elemental life is certainly powerful, it has lost too much and is too singular to be considered truly powerful," Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Our elemental species isn't considered truly powerful? As soon as these words fell, an inexplicable expression flickered across all the elemental beings. Observing this tribe, their initial goodwill shifted into a trace of resentment. Was it truly powerful to abandon their heaven-defying talents and degenerate into such ordinary, weak flesh-and-blood life forms? This was simply ridiculous.