Chapter 106: Ancient Ruins (Seventh Update)

Qin Ming clung to the Scorpion Emperor as they plummeted downward.

The moment the space opened beneath them, he realized there was an underground cavity here. Before he could think further, the two spiders above also dropped down.

"Hey!"

With a flicker of movement, he teleported onto the head of the large black spider on the left, cleaved its skull open with one slash, and the next instant appeared atop the other one.

Pfft...!

Another blade sank into its brain. His form flickered again, and he materialized in an open clearing.

The art of instantaneous movement, flashing through space with no trace whatsoever—the thought alone brought him there—gave the two quasi-royal-ranked spider beasts no time to react, not even to sense the danger.

No matter how formidable their abilities, they could only meet one end.

Rumble!

The three beasts crashed down one after another, producing a thunderous sound. Looking at the Scorpion Emperor, it struggled for a moment, then went still. After all, its skull had been split open—no matter how tenacious its vitality, it was useless.

"This place is...!"

Just as he was about to continue investigating, two figures burst out from the fallen sand—it was Thunder God and Hong.

"Third brother, good that you're safe!" Hong spotted Qin Ming at once and let out a relieved breath. Only then did he notice the three massive corpses below, and said in surprise, "You killed them all?"

"I was just as shocked when I was ambushed. After falling down here, I activated my domain and unleashed my top speed, catching them off guard and killing them!" Qin Ming laughed. "Within my domain, in such a cramped space, even a royal-ranked beast—I'm confident I could slay it!"

"Mm!" Hong nodded.

Having comprehended a domain himself, he naturally knew how terrifying one could be.

"Awesome!" Thunder God gave a thumbs-up. "I, your second brother, have been outshone by you, third brother. No good—after this is over, I'm definitely going into seclusion and cultivating in earnest. If I don't comprehend a domain, I won't come out!"

He was thoroughly spurred on.

Surveying the underground space, Hong immediately noticed something: "This is the wreckage of a cosmic spaceship!"

"A spaceship?"

Qin Ming saw it too.

Metal debris lay scattered everywhere in disarray, though a main structural frame supported this underground cavity.

The flowing sandstorm had already ceased.

Hong removed the wristwatch from his wrist and tossed it into the air. It hovered there automatically as he said, "Take a look around!"

"Yes, master!"

The wristwatch flew off, emitting waves of invisible pulses—clearly scanning the area.

The three stood quietly, none of them venturing anywhere recklessly.

"There are many ancient ruins on Earth. They should be remnants left behind when cosmic civilizations visited Earth long ago and, by accident, left things here!" Hong broke the silence, evidently explaining to Qin Ming matters he considered secrets. "Take the headquarters of the Limit Martial Hall, for instance—it's the wreckage of a cosmic warship, too severely damaged to ever fly again. Nowadays, the most dangerous ruins on Earth are the Bermuda Triangle and Shennongjia. Those two places are taboo. There are also dozens of others we've surveyed. This is why humanity developed so rapidly after the Great Nirvana—because we received blessings from those ruins. If not for that, the consequences would truly be unthinkable. But this place was never discovered in our surveys, and I never imagined it would be hiding two pseudo-royal-ranked beasts, nearly causing you harm."

At that moment, the smart wristwatch returned: "Master, the scan is complete. This is a B-class cosmic spaceship. It is severely damaged, its database obliterated, its energy depleted, and its defensive systems gone. Based on inference, it was destroyed by external force. Only the nutrient pod remains relatively intact, along with some weapons. The rest holds little value!"

"Nutrient pod? Lead the way!" Hong's eyes gleamed.

The smart wristwatch went ahead, and they followed behind.

Hong spoke again: "According to the ruins we've excavated, everything in the cosmos—battle suits, weapons, ores, defensive gear, spaceships, and so forth—has a strict classification. A-class corresponds to planetary-level, B-class to stellar-level, and C-class to cosmic-level."

"A stellar-level spaceship? That's still quite impressive!" Qin Ming gave a timely expression of awe.

When he had taken office as an Inspector, Hong had acknowledged him and imparted some knowledge about the cosmos. For martial artists, after the planetary level came stellar-level, then cosmic-level, and so on.

"Too bad it's damaged far too badly—otherwise it would be a great help to us!" Thunder God said.

Soon, they arrived outside the nutrient pod. It was clearly visible that the hatch was warped with obvious cracks, and the exterior bore terrifying impact marks with residual fibers and bristles.

"These are remnants from the Scorpion Emperor and the two ghost-faced spiders!" An electronic voice rang out. "These three pseudo-royal-ranked beasts are ninety-nine percent likely to have smashed against the hatch, causing the nutrient fluid inside to leak out. After absorbing it, they evolved."

"A nutrient fluid that can evolve beasts to pseudo-royal rank must be no less valuable than the Cold Ice Spirit Spring!" Thunder God exulted. "Haha, this time we're sure to break through to Planetary Level Eight!"

"There is no nutrient fluid remaining inside."

"What?!" Thunder God's voice shot up nine octaves.

The wristwatch fell silent.

"If there's none, then there's none!" Hong remained composed. "Any other good things? Lead the way!"

"What a waste!" Thunder God could only reluctantly accept the outcome.

Qin Ming shrugged.

He had been looking forward to it too, but unfortunately things hadn't turned out as hoped.

They arrived at an open area. Here, alloy walls were pockmarked everywhere with jagged tear marks—clear evidence of a terrifying attack in ages past.

But that history had long since been annihilated in the river of time.

In a corner lay three dust-covered war blades.

"These are B1-class war blades, the lowest grade in this tier, but they can still breach stellar-level defenses!" The electronic voice rang out again.

"Excellent finds!" Thunder God's eyes gleamed. He grabbed one and felt its weight in his hand, unable to resist examining it. "My SSS-grade Blood Shadow Blade clearly isn't adequate anymore, and I've been lacking a fitting weapon. Perfect timing—three blades, one for each of us!"

"You pick first. I can take or leave a war blade!" Hong gestured to Qin Ming.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony!" Qin Ming's eyes burned with eagerness too.

An SSS-grade Blood Shadow Blade, placed in the cosmos, was an A-class weapon—and at the lower end of that tier at that. A major grade of weapon also had nine sub-levels; planetary-level meant A1 through A9.

The stellar-level tier was the same.

Qin Ming picked up a blade. Gene origin energy rippled through it, scouring away the dust and grime to reveal a gleaming luster. There were fine notches along the edge—not perfect, but more than enough for his use on Earth.

They inspected further and found some damaged battle suits and desiccated corpses that had weathered to mummies, none of much value. Hong picked through them, gathering a few things to take back for research.

In the end, each took the corpse of one pseudo-royal-ranked beast, and they shot out of the desert, returning to their fighter jet.

"Next, we split up and hunt down all the king-ranked beasts on the world's landmasses!" Hong said sternly to the screen. "Third brother, remember this: any place marked as dangerous, you absolutely must not enter!"

"Understood!" Qin Ming nodded.

He knew better than Hong that some places, once entered, even a hundred lives wouldn't be enough to save you—even teleportation would be useless.

The three split up, each heading in a separate direction.

With the Snow Vulture and the Scorpion Emperor gone, they had nothing to fear.

The remaining pseudo-royal-ranked beasts couldn't withstand their divine might, nor could they escape.

Yet in this world, what ever is truly perfect?