Ancient Language of True Dragons

"Yeah, there's something I need you to do.", Zhang Baichi spoke casually.

Of the people that came to the Beastwilds Mystic Realm, he knew Yu Hao the best, so Zhang Baichi felt no need to be overly polite or formal.

Yu Hao raised an eyebrow and looked at Zhang Baichi, waiting for the latter to continue. "Did you notice the reaction of the Willow Tree Pavilion's disciples when I asked how they got into a fight with the Demonbeast wolf earlier?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about.", Yu Hao frowned. "They seemed a bit scared, but that much should be normal."

"Yeah, only they weren't scared about the best, but about me questioning them.", Zhang Baichi nodded.

Yu Hao got serious. "You think they're hiding something?"

"Jup. And I want you to try to find out what.", Zhang Baichi said. He already knew what Yu Hao would ask next, so he explained himself beforehand. "I don't want to confront them about it now. We've just teamed up and it wouldn't be good to create a rift so soon. That's why I'm only telling you."

"Yeah, don't worry. I get it.", Yu Hao waved him off, then looked at him and nodded seriously. "I'll see what I can find out."

He turned around and was about to head back to their camp when Zhang Baichi grabbed his shoulder. "Just a second. Stay away from the camp for a few more minutes."

Yu Hao was confused while Zhang Baichi smiled. "I really do want to take a look around, so you going back immediately would look strange, wouldn't it?"

"Then I might as well scout the area after all. We have about an hour, right? Let's return to camp when it gets dark." Sighing, Yu Hao rolled his shoulders and wandered off into another direction.

Zhang Baichi chuckled and waved at Yu Hao.

A few moments later, his smile vanished and he walked into the direction of the Dragon Peak.

Half a kilometre wasn't a big distance for a martial artist at all, but Zhang Baichi purposely took his time to scour through the area.

'If there's a Demonbeast around, there has to be clues. If not, then there should at least be an old cave or something…', he thought to himself, carefully inspecting the crevasses and natural shelters all around.

The closer he got to the Dragon Peak, the more unruly the terrain got. The protruding stones and boulders got larger and rougher, while the grass and other vegetation grew sparsely.

Grey stone and green grass intertwined into a tough terrain for anyone who tried to move through, but it wasn't enough to stop ordinary cultivators, much less Zhang Baichi.

Even while carefully combing through the area, it only took Zhang Baichi half an hour to reach the foot of the Dragon Peak.

The mountain stood in the center of the Mystic Realm and shot straight into the sky like an enormous pillar of rock.

Zhang Baichi frowned and looked up the pillar. It was unusual for a mountain to be so… smooth and clean. While it was obviously not polished, it looked like someone had cut the whole mountain to shape with sharp cuts.

Moreover, the surrounding ten or so meters around the Dragon Peak were devoid of any of the former rock formations and only wild grass grew around it.

'Those are the murals Lu Zheng mentioned…', Zhang Baichi mused and looked at the carvings on the mountain.

Just as Lu Zheng had told them, the whole side of the mountain had pictures and letter-like symbols carved into its surface. The carvings were intricate and spotlessly clean, clearly the work of masters.

The highest points of the pictures even reached as high up as 10 meters and most of them depicted dragons.

It appeared that the dragons in the pictures were revered as above men and beasts alike. As most depictions of humans were kneeling or standing with their heads bowed when close to dragons, Zhang Baichi even thought they might be servants of the dragons.

Still, he was unable to make any sense of the letter-like carvings all around the murals. None of these carvings looked like any language he had seen before.

'Hey, system, do you know what's written here? What does all this mean?', he casually asked, not really expecting a helpful answer.

[Ding! The carvings are runes written in the ancient language of True Dragons.]

'…That's surprisingly helpful.', Zhang Baichi thought in surprised. 'Since you know it, can you translate it for me?'

[Ding! The ancient language of True Dragons can be acquired from the Shop for 25.000 Points.]

'Yeah, never mind that, then. Why did I even get my hopes up.', Zhang Baichi rolled his eyes.

Not bothering with the system any further, he concentrated on the paintings instead. Maybe he could figure out the general meaning from just them.

He was already sure about the relationship between humans, beasts and dragons; The latter ruled over all, while the former two were inferior to them.

Between humans and beasts, there doesn't seem to be any great difference in the murals. All lived their life in peace and all would bow or kneel to the dragons.

There also appeared to be temples and other religious sites dedicated to the dragons.

In one such picture, Zhang Baichi saw a host of humans and beasts kneeling and bowing before a structure that looked like an altar.

In the front stood one beast and one man with their hands raised, seemingly presenting something to the altar.

That 'something' was a glowing ball radiating light that he couldn't identify and above even that ball was a massive dragon looking down on all those below.

'An offering or sacrifice of some sorts… But what for? And what is that ball supposed to be?', Zhang Baichi murmured.

This one picture stuck out to him, since it seemed to be even more intricately chiselled compared to the all other murals. Moreover, there was a lot of rune text written on both sides of the picture.

He couldn't figure anything more out from that picture, so Zhang Baichi started to pay more attention to the pictures surrounding this one with the altar.

The one to the left showed endless forests and mountain ranges filled with beasts of all sizes while even further left were pictures of enormous beasts cowering before the dragons.

To the right from the central picture were depictions of humans living and hunting in ancient times. Some looked small and weak, others strong and powerful.

Further right were depictions of the strong and powerful cowering before the dragons.

'It looks like these pictures are meant to be seen together.', Zhang Baichi thought to himself. 'Maybe its not offerings, but some kind of pledge? The weak races pledge themselves to the dragons and obtain power in return, allowing them to rule over the other races?'

This did seem to make some kind of sense. At least, it would explain how there's Demonbeasts with the bloodlines of True Dragons in this Mystic Realm if the ancestors of these Demonbeasts had obtained the blood of True Dragons to become stronger.

But why were there no humans in the Mystic Realm, then?

Zhang Baichi had no answer for this question and thought about it for a few moments.

Suddenly, he raised his head and looked at the sky. It was getting dark, rapidly. With a frown, Zhang Baichi watched the sun that was illuminating the whole Mystic Realm turn dim.

'Time to go, huh.' He quickly turned around and made his way back to the encampment. Still, he had to run most of the way in the dark as the sun only to a single minute to 'set'.

After that, it was pitch black all around.

He returned to the camp and saw that Yu Hao had already come back. Lu Zheng, Xiao Xueling and the others welcomes him and asked about his findings.

Zhang Baichi shook his head. He had scoured around the rock formations and searched for tunnels, caves, or crevasses all along the way, but there was really nothing.

In the distance, the group could already hear the roars and howls of Demonbeasts. Just as Lu Zheng had said, the night belonged to the beasts, not humans like them.

A thought suddenly struck Zhang Baichi; Was this also part of the rules the dragons established? He would have to ask Lu Zheng about this later, maybe that guy knows something.

Zhang Baichi stepped forward and clapped is hands. "Alright, since it's already night, lets be careful now. We don't know how many Demonbeasts there are around or how powerful they might be."

He looked at the disciples surrounding him and continued. "First, dim the lights. Then try to cover or tracks and smell as much as possible. We'll also establish night watches. Make sure to eat and recuperate; We don't know when we might need to fight."

Yu Hao looked at one of the weaker disciples of the Willow Tree Pavilion. The two made eye contact and Yu Hao called out to Zhang Baichi. "Brother Zhang, a word, if you will."

Zhang Baichi glanced at him, then the woman from the Willow Tree Pavilion, and followed the two of them to the back of the camp.