Bai Ning supervised the digging after Captain Fenian left the ash field to gather information on the humans in Itonys. As time passed, more and more people fell sick to the toxicity in the air. Even the soldiers at the Fusion stage collapsed like a lump of coal. After seeing almost fifteen soldiers fall to their death, Bai Ning wondered what the hell she was ordered to dig up. As much as she liked to know the answer, she could not contact the great elders or the mysterious lord. Only they contacted her, not the other way around.
"Lady Bai Ning!" The old woman heard an elated shout from a few meters away. She quickened her steps as a group of soldiers gathered around a crater they had dug.
"They found something," the silver armored soldier sitting on the edge said, bowing his head toward her. Bai Ning approached the edge and looked down. Some of the soldiers were lying in the red sand unconscious as the remaining soldiers slowly dug something up.
"Bring that to me," Bai Ning raised her voice. The soldiers carried something gray and heavy. From her point of view, the object had no distinguishable shape. It took five soldiers to carry the object to Bai Ning. The soldiers groaned and panted heavily. A couple of soldiers from above ran downhill to help the soldiers carry the object upwards.
Finally, the soldiers managed to bring the object upside and placed it before Bai Ning. The old woman squatted beside the object.
Thud!
Some of the soldiers who carried the object to them fell down and rolled down the crater. However, Bai Ning didn't give a damn about them. Her full focus was on the object before her.
"What is it?" Bai Ning mumbled under her breath. She slowly ran her fingers through the object. Because it was under the ground for so long, its surface was blanketed with a thick layer of dirt. She rubbed off the dirt as much as she could. The soldiers helped her with brushes and tiny tools they used to remove the dirt. Then, the object started to take the shape of a triangle. The bottom of the object had cracks, and seemed like a part of it was missing. Judging by the smoothness and the shape, Bai Ning had a feeling that this might be a broken tooth.
"Lady Bai Ning!" As she was pondering about the object, she heard another shout. This time, a group of soldiers carried a six feet long pillar toward Bai Ning. They placed the pillar with a heavy thud. To Bai Ning's surprise, the pillar and the object on the ground seemed to have been made of the same material. Bai Ning looked up as she saw the pointy end of the pillar and felt a chill running down her spine.
"It is a tooth," Bai Ning muttered. The pointy end, the shape, and the cracks on the surface, everything pointed to one thing; a tooth. She wouldn't have come to this conclusion if she hadn't seen dragons in real life. But the tooth was too big to be a dragon's unless the dragon was almost two hundred meters tall. There was no mention of a two hundred-meter dragon in any texts, and according to her knowledge, a dragon could not grow to that size. It was biologically impossible.
Bai Ning's jaw dropped a few inches as she looked around the ash field, shocked to the core. At the moment, the biggest creature alive was Mugashuku, AKA the dormant hydra in the Southern Continent. As far as Bai Ning could tell, the tooth belonged to an ancient beast bigger than Mugashuko.
"We are standing in the graveyard of an ancient beast," Bai Ning mumbled. Her mind canceled out all the sounds around her. The eerie silence rooted strongly into her heart as fear crept down her spine slowly. If the tooth alone was six feet tall, she could only imagine how monstrous the beast would have been in real life.
"Take this to my tent and keep digging," Bai Ning snapped back to reality after briefly being in shock. Then, she took her gaze from the tooth to the soldiers around her.
"Scatter the demon caskets you have dug out," Bai Ning ordered the soldiers. Her tone contained a sense of urgency.
"Yes, Lady Bai Ning," The soldiers quickly nodded and carried the tooth to Bai Ning's tent. Meanwhile, the rest hurried toward the largest tent on the field to take out the demon caskets they stored there. Even on their way to the tent, some soldiers fell unconscious. While the soldier who was carrying the tooth to Bai Ning's tent wobbled as their legs felt weak. The radiation coming from the tooth was too much for the soldiers to handle. If she wasn't an Immortal, she might have lost consciousness to the radiation.
Ba Ning watched the soldiers carry out their words despite their comrades falling down like flies. Their loyalty and devotion toward the Skyhall were truly remarkable. She had lived for centuries, and every generation of soldiers had the same devotion toward Skyhall. They could only defeat the looming threat, the Dark Lord, with firm devotion and undying loyalty. Otherwise, the Dark Lord would corrupt their soldiers and turn those soldiers against them.
"Do not underestimate him," Bai Ning recalled the great elder's words. They were stronger than the Dark Lord, yet they avoided fighting with him. Instead, they believed the mysterious lord's words. He wanted no one except Noah to fight the Dark Lord.
Even an Immortal like her shuddered when she saw him up close. When she was talking to the Dark Lord, she felt like staring at death itself. The darkness in his eyes tested her will to speak a word against him. Reading texts about the Dark Lord and witnessing his atrocities in person was as different as the sky and earth. Just thinking about him made her shudder, especially after learning what was beneath them. No matter what, she could not let the Dark Lord know the secrets of the ash field.
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While Bai Ning and the Skyhall soldiers were trying to dig up the ancient beast, Michael was on his way to Ash Field at full speed. However, instead of flying in the sky, he flew through the forest to hide the trail of black lightning. He didn't want the old woman or anyone to notice him. On the way, Vedora was annoyingly silent. After seeing the mural in the pillar, they became silent, especially Ayag and Sarba. Cain, on the other hand, believed they could change the past and avoid fighting each other.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe creatures and birds roaming in the forest scattered away as they felt a strong gust of wind blowing past them. Micahel followed the sound of thunderstorms and the red sky in the distance to reach the ash field. Apparently, the ash field's eerie weather turned the ground and sky red, as well as created everlasting thunderstorms. They were disappointed the mother tree had no answers to their questions but only the stone pillar. Michael didn't hear any voices or recordings of the past Dark Lord.
Not everything was laid clearly for Michael by the past Dark Lord, in other words, himself. To be honest, Michael had no problem with that. Of course, it was shocking to the core that the past Dark Lord fought Vedora and killed them, but Michael believed there was more to the story than the mural told them. There must be a reason why Vedora turned against him.
Eventually, the trees around him lessened in number. It felt less cluttered and more spacious. Soon, the forest opened up to an entirely new biome. From a bird's view, a straight line divided the sparkling blue forest and the red sandy place with violent thunderstorms. The sky looked like someone painted it with blood and smeared the painting with clusters of black clouds.
Michael had a tough time looking through the thunderstorm. The storm lifted the red sand and started the sand storm. Luckily, it also helped Michael blend in with the surroundings. Just like he was having difficulty locating the Skyhall soldiers, they would have the same difficulty locating him. Thanks to the thermal vision, he was able to locate the soldiers. As soon as he turned on the thermal vision, he saw several yellowish figures with glowing redness in the center running around. They seemed to be digging the ground despite the storm. In addition, Michael also vaguely noticed some tents and tried to locate the old woman among them.
However, she was nowhere to be found, at least in his vision. Michael slowly ascended into the air to better view the place. Hovering in the air, Michael took out a few drones and willed them to fly through the storm.
Bang!
Surprisingly, the drones exploded into pieces in a few moments. Cain creased his brows.
"There is some kind of energy shield around the place," Finally, Sarba broke his silence and informed Michael about the strange energy dorm he sees around the place.
"I don't see any shields," said Ayag.
"Let's wait here and watch what's happening," Michael said. He didn't plan to go through the shield or break it altogether, which might alert whoever placed the energy shield in the first place.
Michael flew around the dome with Sarba's help. As he was hovering around, he saw more demon caskets on the ground. The soldiers tirelessly unearthed them to god knows for what reason. But what lies in the ground avoided both Michael and Sarba's senses. Bai Ning and her soldiers had no idea what they were doing. As a matter of fact, only one being alive knew the origin of the ancient beast, Andohr. This ancient beast was a large piece in his elaborate plan to exact revenge on the Dark Lord.