Chapter 80: Ancient Ruins
After familiarizing herself with her Fate Card’s new abilities, Xilutiya was like a fish in water, moving through this Twisted Forest. When the unknown becomes known, fear is greatly reduced, and it is currently the same for her.
Once again, she emerged from the Gray White World into a clearing in the forest that possessed color. Xilutiya discovered the wondrous sights here. In the center of the clearing, remnants of stone brick buildings remained, including a fountain pool gushing from the ground. However, this fountain had been dry for a long time, and the pool contained only fallen leaves and stones.
Cautiously approaching the pool, Xilutiya found nothing strange. It was just that the fountain itself seemed out of place with its surroundings.
The stone bricks and soil of the ground, though only a foot apart, were completely different, as if this fountain did not originate from here but was forcefully moved from somewhere and then crashed into this world.
Perhaps it was like herself; these were originally buildings from the outside world, Xilutiya mused, her gaze shifting to the center of the fountain. There stood a water bottle carved from White Stone; water should have flowed from it previously.
Ignoring the abandoned fountain, she moved forward.
Passing through layers of trees, Xilutiya stepped into a new area that clearly held danger. Three Leopards, entirely black and deep blue, surrounded her, poised to attack.
【 Star Shadow Leopard 】（ First Order · Alien Star ）: A leopard corrupted by distortion, the starlight on its body is dim and unclear. Its attack method is unknown.
“Roar—” The leading Leopard attacked first. It ran at high speed, its form shimmering with strange colors, as if stepping into the world’s folds, disappearing from the sight of normal creatures.
Invisibility? No, it was more like traversing another dimension, yet this dimension was only a breath away from the Present World.
Xilutiya’s eyes burned with focus as she calmly responded. When the Leopard attacked from the side, she dodged with prior preparation and then slashed with the Sword Blade in her hand, tearing open a gash on the Leopard’s back.
The first Leopard’s attack was unsuccessful, and the other two did not hesitate. They accelerated respectively, their bodies also transforming and disappearing into strange dimensional rifts.
Unfortunately, such bizarre attack methods had no effect on Xilutiya. She could easily detect their traces and accurately strike their vital points.
After several exchanges like this, these Leopards were wounded, while she remained unharmed.
“If it were other Transcendent individuals lacking observational skills, they would probably suffer greatly at your hands,” the Maiden said softly, twirling her Short Sword with elegant movements.
“But since we are all ‘Alien Stars,’ there’s no need for these fancy tricks.”
Seeing that they could not defeat the Maiden, the three Leopards roared and hesitated for a moment before surprisingly fleeing rapidly, disappearing into the Gray White World and heading towards other Colored Bubble nodes.
“Sigh, they actually know how to run away?” This was the first time she had encountered an opponent that fled since passing through so many Colored Bubbles.
Perhaps these creatures were more resilient and not completely corrupted by the distortion, retaining a considerable amount of intelligence.
Pursuing them was impossible; traversing the Gray White World would consume a significant amount of Nature Power, and she could not afford such a luxury.
After repelling the three Leopards, Xilutiya roamed the forest clearing for a few steps, searching for spoils.
“Are there still puddles here?” She discovered a small water pit in a crack in a Stone Slab.
The water in the pit was exceptionally clear, like dew in the early morning. Its appearance in this Twisted Forest was truly incredible.
No wonder the three of them were gathered here, Xilutiya thought. She took out a wooden bottle and collected some of the Clear Water.
She didn’t know if it was drinkable, but she decided not to drink it unless she was extremely thirsty.
After finishing her collection and finding nothing else, Xilutiya stood up and continued forward. At this point, she was not far from the ruins of the pillar she had seen on the Mountain Peak.
…
After enduring much hardship, Xilutiya finally arrived at the ruins of this building in the forest. The area of this colored region was several times larger than the number of nodes she had encountered along the way; it was vast.
When she truly stepped inside, she discovered that the buildings here were exceptionally large. Judging from the Pillars and fragmented walls in the ruins, this must have once been a grand Temple, with buildings made of White Stone everywhere.
The style was grand and elegant, possessing considerable aesthetic appeal. Unfortunately, Xilutiya had never encountered a similar architectural style in history. She also wondered who this Temple was built for.
This world indeed had beings similar to gods; they were existences above ‘Tenth Order,’ mostly controllers of some Nature Law. Such great beings were often the Overlords of multiple Epochs.
In the Second Epoch, the Sky Sea Epoch, the Overlords were the Ancient True Fish that roamed the Heavenly Sea. They could reach millions of kilometers in length, and their movements alone could alter the flow of the entire Sky Sea, guiding changes in its currents.
In the Third Epoch, the Sun Moon Epoch, the Ancient True Fish perished from the scorching of the Blazing Sun, and the entire Sky Sea was separated. Light gases expanded and diffused, making this world exceptionally vast.
In the Fourth Epoch, the Star Beast Epoch, the Primal Beasts that gazed at the stars became the Overlords of the era, and this was also the origin of the ‘Primal Beast’ Nature.
In the Fifth Epoch, the Fairy Epoch, ‘Emerald Honey’ and ‘Insect Moth’ reconciled, and Fairies were born into the world. They began to resist the ‘Primal Beasts” control over other Natures and cultivated the World Tree that supported the heavens and the earth. Its roots gathered the remains of all True Fish, forming a complete and unified Earth. The Monarchs of the Fairies began to divide the Four Seasons, control the rise and fall of the Sun and Moon, and degraded the ‘Primal Beasts’ into ‘Beast Fangs.’
In the Sixth Epoch, the Seven Dragons Epoch, the Black Snake burned the roots of the World Tree, was severed by the Fairies’ Monarchs, and then transformed into Seven Dragons. They gnawed at the World Tree and devoured the Fairies’ Monarchs, becoming the Seven Law Dragons that governed the seven Natures of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and split the unified Earth.
In the Seventh Epoch, the Erosion Epoch, one of the Seven Dragons, the Star Dragon, summoned an Alien Star to descend and impact this world. The Heavenly Sea paradise fell, and countless beings perished.
…
Xilutiya recalled the complete secret history in her mind as she searched for traces within these ruins.
It should be a product of the Seventh Epoch or later, because the worlds before that were basically destroyed. Humans had not yet risen then, and buildings would not be constructed according to human scale.
Xilutiya estimated in her heart. As she walked through the open space in the ruins, corners of the forest opened their eyes, spying on the unfamiliar figure in this relic.
Faint buzzing sounds spread through the forest, echoing…
Soon, Xilutiya’s steps halted because she saw the only intact large fountain within the ruined buildings. Clear water flowed from a bottle carved from White Stone, and the one holding the bottle was a statue of a woman wearing a Veil.
Although it was a statue, the Veil and Long Skirt on the woman were exceptionally detailed. At her shoulders and wrists, there were ties that tightened the long openings on the clothes, thus showcasing the woman’s slender figure and also revealing the beautiful skin of her shoulders and arms.
The water flowed ceaselessly, and a faint, clear mist diffused, refreshing Xilutiya and bringing her a sense of comfort.
This is… the Aura of ‘Brilliant Moon.’
She was surprised to discover that the Clear Water in the pool contained the ‘Brilliant Moon’ Nature. Such a precious Resource, possessing complete Nature Power, even though she had only arrived in this world recently, she could guess what a valuable legacy this was.
Why was no one tending to it? Had no one come here? Thinking this, alarm bells suddenly rang in her mind.
Countless buzzing sounds erupted in the forest, the trembling wingbeats creating anxiety. When Xilutiya turned back, she saw a sky full of white bee swarms like a covering net, swooping down.
【 Withered White Bee 】（ First Order · Insect Moth ）: A special type of bee that feeds on tree sap and can turn to stone to hibernate. They are mortal enemies of ‘Brilliant Moon.’
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Nature 【 Insect Moth 】: （ Crawling primordial life, the newborn Coleoptera following the ancient centipede ）
