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(Southern Region- Xercopolis Empire)

(The Forbidden Desert- Ancient Ruins)

Xu Lu gently placed her hand on the side of one of the buildings and traced her fingers along the edges of the material.

It was amazing that these buildings were still standing.

In the desert, the intense heat and dust storms produced quite the strong weathering effect.

Most traces of civilisation should eventually be buried under the sand and lost to the passage of time and yet...

These buildings were still standing.

They were not in perfect condition but the fact that they were still relatively intact was nothing short of a miracle.

Xu Lu looked around for any clues or hints about the missing disciples but found nothing. Still she didn\'t mind exploring the ancient ruins.

Being here made her feel like an archaeologist.

Someone who explored the mysteries of the past and brought that knowledge to the present.

Now all she needed to do was ditch her long flowing white robes for a sharp outback fedora, a long sleeve shirt, some khaki pants, brown jacket and a whip!

Xu Lu giggled softly to herself as she continued to examine the sides of each building while taking care not to damage the structures.

Oh... this was interesting.

Xu Lu paused in her steps and examined a picture that was carved into the side wall of one of the buildings.

The picture was so small that she nearly missed it. The saintess knelt down and brought her eyes closer to the image.

It showed a pair of men and women floating high above in the clouds surrounded by kneeling humanoid figures who were apparently worshipping them.

Xu Lu rubbed the bottom of her mask thoughtfully and then walked over to another building to see if there were other images that she had missed.

Like she suspected there were indeed other pictures carved into the stone and granite outer walls of the buildings.

The next image showed the kneeling figures on the ground being abused and punished by the floating gods.

No... not gods...

Xu Lu suspected that the man and woman hovering in the air were supposed to represent cultivators.

She looked for the next image and it was not a pleasant one. The image showed a village being set on fire with dead children scattered across the street.

The cultivators in the picture were laughing with their mouths frozen in a permanent grin of pleasure and amusement.

The fourth picture was... a bit strange.

It was unlike the images that came before it. This time it showed a... well actually Xu Lu wasn\'t sure what she was looking at.

A human? A monster? Both?

The entity carved into the stone looked human but not at the same time.

It was very hard to describe since its appearance seemed to change ever so slightly every time that Xu Lu looked at it.

There was only one more building left so Xu Lu walked over to it to try and find out how the story ended.

As she was walking towards the final building at the end of the semi circular formation, Xu Lu could not help but think about what she had seen so far.

Even ancient civilisations were not safe from the wrath of cultivators.

Well to be fair hundreds of thousands of years was a mere blink in the eye of an immortal.

Xu Lu wasn\'t surprised that science and technology in this world had not advanced for a significantly long period of time.

If there were beings capable of just one day deciding to take over your city, empire, or country just for fun then there was an inherent lack of stability.

Any progress made would be wiped out due to the wars, massacres and other atrocities that took place around this world.

Human life was worthless.

Xu Lu frowned slightly as she genuinely could not think of a way to fix the situation.

Even she somehow became the strongest person in the lower realm, she would still be unable to change the status quo at least outside of her immediate influence.

Maybe humans were not meant to have god-like powers...

That thought lingered in Xu Lu\'s mind as she approached the final building and slowly walked behind it to see where the picture was carved.

She eventually found the image carved on the back of the building.

The section around it had been partially turned into rubble but surprisingly the picture was still intact.

This final image showed a very old and feeble looking man and woman kneeling down at the feet of a humanoid figure whose body was covered in dark tattoos.

Xu Lu wasn\'t sure what to make of this image.

Was it just a straightforward case of one of the oppressed humans became a cultivator himself and overthrew the man and woman?

No but then... why were the evil cultivators now old?

Oh wait... maybe this was at the end of the fight and they no longer had any qi left in their dantians to maintain their youthful looks.

Xu Lu nodded her head as she figured it out. Well, this was an interesting tale and maybe it had a grain of truth.

Now she had done sightseeing and it was time to resume her search.

Xu Lu spent the next few hours wandering around through the ruins looking for any hints or clues that the disciples had passed through here.

She examined the sand nearby for any footprints, looked inside the buildings for any traces of setting up camp and even climbed up a nearby sand dune to get a bird\'s eye view.

Nothing.

​ Damn. Another lead that went nowhere.

Xu Lu sat down a few dozens metres away from the stone statue and let out a heavy sigh. Her master would not be happy that she failed yet another mission.

But what could she do?

This mission was impossible from the start.

It was not a straightforward request such as hunt down a monster or slay a demon cultivator... noooo.... that would be too freaking easy.

Instead she was out here in the scorching hot sun in the middle of a desert looking for five assholes who honestly...

Xu Lu would not be unhappy if they were all cold corpses by now.

The saintess knew that she needed to take her mind off the stress that she was currently dealing with so she lightly tapped her pocket.

Squeak! Squeak!

The little mouse pokes its white head out and smiled at its master. Xu Lu smiled back and gently touched the top of its furry head.

Squeak! Squeak!

Suddenly the mouse scrambled out of Xu Lu\'s pocket and climbed up her robe towards her head.

There it sat down lazily and basked in the hot sunlight.

Xu Lu reached into her storage ring and pulled out a small piece of meat for her pet to nibble on while it rested.

The obsidian statue behind them glowed slightly and the dark tattoos on the mouse\'s body briefly appeared as if responding to the statue\'s signal.