Chapter 115: The Land of Oblivion

A few of them coughed violently as the dust billowed up. Only after they had finally managed to clear the air did they slowly catch their breath.

Hua Rong, however, glared at Jun Yeli with irritation and couldn't help but reproach him: "Why on earth did you have to go and touch a corpse? Look at what you’ve done now—you’ve rattled the poor thing’s bones until they’ve fallen apart."

Just as she was pouting in annoyance, she suddenly heard Zhui Feng speak up: "Look, there seem to be characters carved into this seat!"

The group crowded around. On the high stone back of the chair, despite being mostly obscured by dust, the traces of carvings were clearly visible. They wiped away the grime to reveal a series of strange, unfamiliar characters that left them feeling bewildered.

"What does this say? Why can't we make sense of a single word?"

It wasn't that they were completely incomprehensible; a few of the characters bore a slight resemblance to those used in their own Fengling Dynasty, but with so few, it was impossible to grasp the full meaning.

Just as the group was scratching their heads, they noticed Zhui Feng staring at the inscriptions. His expression was dazed, and the shifting look in his eyes suddenly grew complex.

"What is it? Can you read them?" Hua Rong tentatively leaned in, her gaze flickering between Zhui Feng and the strange script. It was rare for this fellow to display such an unusual look; clearly, something was amiss.

Zhui Feng did not know how to respond. He pressed his lips together, his hand clenching into a fist. Jun Yeli, noticing this, couldn't help but study him closely. *This guy, why has he suddenly become so strange?*

Before anyone could ponder it further, Zhui Feng suddenly walked to the back of the stone chair, drew a dagger from his waist, and began to dig carefully.

This inexplicable behavior left the others confused. They hurried over, fearing he had lost his mind.

"What are you doing? Don't tell me you actually feel guilty and want to dig a hole to bury him?"

The series of jests suddenly struck a nerve. Zhui Feng looked up, his typically cold and detached eyes now sharpened with intensity. "Even if there were guilt to be felt, it shouldn't be mine!"

The implication was clearly directed at Jun Yeli. It was unclear where such deep-seated hatred had come from, but its sudden intensity was caught them completely off guard.

Sensing the subtle shift in the atmosphere, Hua Rong realized it was time for her to play mediator again. She bit the bullet and urged, "Alright, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have discovered these inscriptions. We’re all in this together, so why be like this?"

After playing the peacemaker, she looked at the hole Zhui Feng was digging deeper and deeper and asked tentatively, "By the way, what exactly are you doing?" After all, such a small hole wouldn't be enough to bury a person.

Just as she spoke, a box was revealed in the hole, which came as quite a surprise.

"There’s actually something inside!"

At these words, the group stepped forward, heads huddled in a circle. They watched in unison as Zhui Feng retrieved the box. He brushed the dust off it as if it were a precious treasure, yet he remained reluctant to open it.

"How did you know there was something here?" Realizing that things were becoming increasingly suspicious, Jun Yeli locked his eyes on Zhui Feng, sensing that he was hiding something from them.

The atmosphere in the cave grew tense once more. Under everyone’s scrutiny, Zhui Feng stood out as an outlier, as if he had detached himself from the group and now stood in opposition to them.

He rose slowly, cradling the box, his gaze sweeping over the others as a cold sneer played on his lips. "Why are you all so agitated? Do you really think that after traveling all this way with you through thick and thin, I would wish you harm?"

With that, he looked down at the box in his hands and placed it gently on the ground, treating it with an air of solemnity, as if handling something sacred.

The others remained bewildered, but as they watched him examine the box, he murmured to himself, "There is a code on this."

Hua Rong lowered her head to look. It was a three-by-three grid with numbers from one to nine arranged in order. A sense of familiarity washed over her—a feeling of having seen this before. Fragments of memory flickered through her mind, and the phrase "multiplication table" surfaced.

"What strange thing is this?" Hua Rong lowered her head slightly, feeling as though she were in a dream.

However, seeing the others stumped by the puzzle, Hua Rong drew upon the memory that had just surfaced and spoke tentatively: "Why don't I give it a try? I think I might have a way."

Under their watchful eyes, Hua Rong took the box and, with practiced ease, filled in the corresponding numbers according to the multiplication table in her memory. In just a few moments, she succeeded, leaving everyone stunned.

"How did you know this code?" Even Jun Yeli, who had been exceptionally brilliant since childhood, was completely baffled by the multiplication table. The fact that Hua Rong had solved it in less than a moment felt like a blow to his pride.

Seeing the suspicion in everyone's eyes, Hua Rong didn't know what to say. "This... I don't know either. Maybe it’s just wisdom."

As the others rolled their eyes at her, Hua Rong stopped joking. She opened the box to reveal a letter inside. Because the box had been perfectly sealed, it remained undamaged. The letter bore no instructions, and upon opening it, they found more of the incomprehensible script.

After studying it for a moment, Hua Rong eventually gave up and handed the letter to Zhui Feng. "Since you were able to find this box using the stone carvings on the chair, you must be able to read this, right?"

In truth, the characters were identical to those on the seat. Zhui Feng scanned the text from top to bottom, his face clouding over once more. It appeared the situation was not as optimistic as they had hoped.

"What is the situation exactly? Don't just stare and say nothing every time." Hua Rong felt frustrated by being kept in suspense.

"It writes about the Kingdom of Wanyou. The one who sat on that chair was an elder of Wanyou. Because he was suspected by the King, he was cast into this forest. By chance, he became the leader of a tribe and settled here..."

As he explained, the group grew even more confused. "What kind of place is the Kingdom of Wanyou? Why have we never heard of it?"

However, upon hearing the name, Jun Yeli fell into deep contemplation. He spoke up, explaining, "I have read of it in ancient texts. It is an ancient kingdom, extremely mysterious. I never expected to encounter it here..."

He then turned to look at Zhui Feng, puzzled. "Even for the most learned of scholars, deciphering these characters would be difficult. Why are you so proficient in them?"