27 Indiana Jones

It was done. Nie Li didn't even have to use his plan B. So he will keep it for Dark Guild if he encounters them. Nie Li removed his sword from the demon beast's corpse. And took its demon spirit. It costs around 60 thousand, which is less than the cost of the four Inscription scrolls he used, but his own life was priceless.

Nie Li then hid in the forest. If the Dark Guild was really here they would be attracted by the Demon beast's roars. He scanned the forest for intruders with his spirit sense. He had waited for half an hour and when he hadn't noticed anything he returned to the clearing. It looks like Dark Guild hadn't come to the ruins this time. Or they would have followed their group and wouldn't have been too far behind. Of course, they could have deviated from their route, but he couldn't do anything with it anyway. He will just check his surroundings every once in a while. And if he notices them he will make them regret coming here.

He decided to harvest other resources from the demon beast and take a rest. Running from a demon beast that's entire realm above him and avoiding its attacks was tiring. He unhurriedly finished and stood up when he heard a gasp. He quickly turned around lifted his sword and sighed. He should have known.

He should have expected that they wouldn't listen to him. Here, staring at him and the corpse of the demon beast from behind a bush were Ye Ziyun and Xiao Ning'er.

"What are you doing here?" Nie Li asked exasperatedly releasing them from their stupor.

"Uhm, well…" began Xiao Ning'er.

"Did you kill it?" Ye Ziyun asked interrupting her.

"I told you I had a plan. Now answer my question. What are you doing here?" Nie Li asked again.

"We were worried about you," replied Xiao Ning'er.

"I told you to wait for me with the others. That I will return when I finish my other business."

"Then you shouldn't have run alone, baiting a strong 5-star Silver rank beast after yourself. You can't be higher than 1 star Bronze rank. Why would you stupidly bait a peak Silver rank beast? Do you know how worried we were?"

Now Nie Li noticed some small tear streaks on their faces and felt guilty.

"How long it was since we separated?" Nie Li asked.

"Maybe two hours. We haven't paid attention to the time." Ye Ziyun answered.

"Are the others alright?" Nie Li asked.

"Yes, when we left them they were alright."

"Do they know where you were going?" Nie Li wanted to know if there would be others who would be looking for them.

"Yes, we told sister Lanruo." Xiao Ning'er replied.

"Okay, then you're going to accompany me. We are going to investigate a couple of locations." Nie Li had given up on leaving them with the group. It was already early evening, and it was a bad idea to walk around the ruins at night. And it looks like Dark Guild has not come to the ruins this time. Well, it was another good news.

They quickly headed towards the first possible locations. It had taken them an hour to reach there. On the way, they encountered a number of demon beasts, but they were mostly Bronze rank and some early Silver rank beasts so the group quickly disposed of them and continued their way.

The location was the ruins of some kind of monument. But not the one he wanted. Nie Li looked around for a stone pedestal with ancient writings but couldn't find one. All of these pedestals crumbled with time or from attacks and there were no intact writings. Nie Li sighed. These ruins were almost eight thousand years old. In Robert's world, it would have been a precious archeological site, but in this one, it's just a useless ruin. No one is going to study it. Who did these monuments belong to? What did they depict? How many such ruins are scattered around the Divine continent? How many of them lost to the sands of time, taking their secrets with them forever.

Seeing the melancholic look on his face Xiao Ning'er asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"This was a bustling city some eight thousand years ago. There were people walking around, doing their jobs, shopping in the markets, children running around. They had their own dreams and worries. All of that turned into dust now. Will this be the fate of Glory City as well if we fail to protect it? Will there be people walking around the ruins of our city thinking about us?"

Girls looked at the ruins in sadness as well. Most likely imagining the picture he just described. Nie Li sighed again. He had become too melancholic after absorbing his future memories and Roberts personality. And now he made the girls sad as well.

"Don't worry. We won't allow it." Nie Li said taking both girls' hands in his "While we are alive, Glory City's flame will not be extinguished. And one day our adversaries will rue the day they opposed us. Humanity's glory days are ahead of us. And we will be the ones to bring it."

All three of them silently watched the sun setting over the ruins of a once-glorious human city and vowed in their heart that they will never allow the same thing to happen to their homes.

After some time Nie Li let go of the girls' hands and noticed them blushing. It looks like they have forgotten about it. He has become too sentimental after inheriting his past self's memories. His previous self's life had not been easy. He had seen too many hardships, tragedies. Seeing people and remembering how they died, and seeing your home remembering how it was destroyed was painful.

Well, he is doing all of this so that it did not repeat itself. Novel shows that he succeeded at that. Of course, he didn't know what happened in the end. Was he able to kill the Sage Emperor? Well of course he did he thought after thinking a bit. Because if he hadn't there wouldn't have been a novel in the first place. It's a shame that Robert hadn't read it till the end.

"This is not the right place. It's already late so we will investigate the next location tomorrow. Let's set up a camp here," Nie Li said.

They chose the most intact building around them and set up their tents inside. Nie Li put a sensor array around the building anyway.

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The next morning after breakfast they headed towards the second location. It wasn't far so they reached it in a half hour. It was a crashed monument. Its Pedestal had writings in the Sacred Empire language. This time they were lucky. They had found the hidden entrance to Kong Ming's Underground Palace.

Nie Li spread his spirit senses. Yeah, an array under the surface. But it was very subtle. Nie Li doubted that anyone without deep knowledge like him would notice.

"Girls, keep a distance from the monument. There's some kind of array on the ground," he warned them.

Nie Li studied the array. It was complicated. It would take him a long time to learn how it worked. But there was no need for that. He knows how it works anyway so he walked up to the pedestal and brushed the dirt from the writings.

He got out of the array and read, "Those who follow me, shall be honored. Those who oppose me shall perish."

Girls looked at the writing with an interest. They had only two lessons on ancient languages so this writing was out of their reach for now.

Sure enough, after Nie Li pronounced the words he could see the array activating. Some kind of pattern back of the monument changed its structure. Nie Li walked around to that place. The ground was intact. So Nie Li took a stone tossed it towards that place.

The ground began quickly crumbling and a big hole appeared. Girls looked fearfully at the hole and then at him with awe. It stoked his ego greatly. He felt like Indiana Jones from Robert's world.