1539 The Silent Skydome and Nine Provinces Buddha
The Black Egg departed God Metropolis and entered the lonesome space.

The sense of freedom was amazing. Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha felt their whole bodies relax; after all, they were no longer under the control of the Four Great Clans, and were now even viewed as highly-respected warriors of the realm. Their trip to God Metropolis had plenty of ups and downs, but the growth Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha had experienced could not be ignored, either!

Unexpectedly, the biggest character everyone was mesmerized by was not Xia Fan or Traveling Buddha, but the Frostseal Megadragon Bright Pearl. She had countless fans from God Metropolis, and there were even mascots made up to resemble her appearing on the streets who became extremely popular.

—

On the third day of their journey, Xia Fan began to get nervous. He kept pacing about on the command deck, thinking about the ancient tomb under the dome, and the Disasters.

“Look, there’s the Cosmic Gate!” Bright Pearl pointed out the window and gushed excitedly, “As long as we get past it, we’ll enter the Great Chiliocosm, where there are countless cosmic gates connected to countless universes. It’s absolutely magical!”

The others had all seen the Cosmic Gate; Traveling Buddha and Hidden Water were the only ones seeing it for the first time. Their eyes were wide, revealing absolutely shocked expressions. Hidden Water’s hands subconsciously grabbed Traveling Buddha’s arm.

The relationship between the two was something worth mentioning; it was as if they had this unspoken acceptance of each other. When leaving God Metropolis, Hidden Water acted like a young daughter-in-law, following behind Traveling Buddha, and the latter did not stop her. But when the foolish Dragon Dou wanted to walk along with her, all it took was a glare from Traveling Buddha to scare him off, which just went to show that Traveling Buddha no longer treated Hidden Water as an outsider.

“How spectacular! It’s hard to imagine just what sort of amazing world would be behind the Cosmic Gate!” Traveling Buddha sighed in awe.

“Your father once mentioned that a good man would have ambitions everywhere, and I took these words of his to heart. I was very fortunate to have been able to devote myself to the investigation and search of the Great Chiliocosm together with him all those years back,” Tamu said, puffing his chest out. Whenever Xia Fan’s father was mentioned, he would always become animated, as if the Skywings were Tamu’s biggest idols.

Traveling Buddha thought about Tamu’s words and his eyes burned with passion, tempted by the thought of leaving Ashen Moon. Hidden Water did not say a word and just hugged Traveling Buddha’s arm even tighter.

Not too far from the Cosmic Gate was the Holy Tomb Planet. This planet was not marked on any star map, so Xia Fan had to rely on his memory and what he had learned from the Disasters to calculate its approximate coordinates. The Cosmic Gate was eternally unchanged, so it was not difficult to calculate the planet’s location based on its orbit around the Cosmic Gate, given the laws of orbital dynamics for anyone who had knowledge of astronomy.

There was an old saying that the closer you get to your hometown, the more anxiety you feel. Staring at the dead silent planet in the distance, Xia Fan’s voice trembled slightly. He maneuvered the Black Egg to make a landing, and disembarked to take a look at the ancient tomb where he had spent his childhood.

He lifted his head up. The Skydome was already gone, most likely destroyed by that terrifying enemy. Though the ancient tomb did not appear to have any signs of battle from the outside, Xia Fan nevertheless felt absolutely nervous, his breathing gradually becoming heavier by the second.

“Why don’t you stay here and let us go take a look first,” Traveling Buddha suggested. He was afraid that Xia Fan would be traumatized if he saw the corpses of the Disasters.

“No need. Let’s go together. The ancient tomb is very complex, and none of you know the way,” Xia Fan replied.

——

Arriving at the entrance of the ancient tomb, Bright Pearl saw the intricate markings on the ancient tomb and frowned. “Swirled Clouds and Floating Clouds? I seem to recall seeing suck patterns before. But it has been too long, so I can’t remember clearly. That Blind Grandpa you mentioned, he might not be someone from the Ashen Moon Universe, right?”

That was highly likely. The famous clans of Ashen Moon were just the Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon. Meanwhile, Blind Grandpa’s first name was Luo. There was a chance he might be someone who had passed through the Cosmic Gate and into Ashen Moon.

The scene inside the tomb was much like before. Opening the doors to the Machinist’s workshop, there were all sorts of tools hanging on the walls, and in the corner was a pile of scraps. There were still unfinished work on the workbench, a half-assembled unmanned reconnaissance drone.

The plants in the Farmer’s room were left unattended, and had grown wildly, until they were over the average height of a human adult. Unprocessed medicine was still on the Pharmacist’s scales, while music could still be heard coming from the room of the Dancer couple…

Everything was as familiar and intimate as before, though unfortunately the same could not be said about the people, as there were no signs of the Disasters anywhere.

Arriving at the deepest parts of the ancient tomb, they opened the hidden gantry gate and looked inside, where there were plenty of carvings of eyes. Nevertheless, they still did not see any of the corpses of the Disasters anywhere, nor were there any signs of battle. There were some cracks on the altar, but those had been made when Blind Grandpa abruptly sent Xia Fan away.

Tamu frowned and asked, “Could they have been kidnapped? Because the enemy was far too strong, there was no way for them to resist, and so there’s no signs of battle at all?”

No matter the case, the fact that there were no signs of battle in the ancient tomb was abnormal, especially considering that the Disasters had hardened their resolve and were determined to take down the intruder with their lives!

Pearl stood on Xia Fan’s shoulder as she said, “It’s also possible that this is the result of some mind-control special ability or parasites invaded their brains. I’ve saw too many unimaginable secret techniques while I was in the Great Chiliocosm.”

Everyone dispersed to look for any possible clues that could allude to what happened here in the ancient tomb. When they were attacked, Blind Grandpa had said the enemy was here for the Law of Gold, but now that the Law of Gold was in Xia Fan’s hands, the enemy should not have succeeded…

…

…

The Upper Echelon Meeting of the Four Great Clans…

“Let’s begin the vote to decide the route we’re taking in the future.”

“God Metropolis has already completely collapsed, and there are only two choices ahead of us: Continue to stay here in the core region of the universe, or return to the Three Federations.”

Hidden Wind’s expression was somber as he swept his eyes across everyone present and continued, “I believe everyone should be very clear about the benefits and drawbacks pertaining to the two options. Staying here in the core region means we only have Four Kings City as a place of residence. Here, we have freedom, but there’s a limit to the space in Four Kings City, and it will not be able to bear the influx of the hundreds of millions of citizens from God Metropolis. The pressure of survival will be huge, and necessary supplies will be a significantly lacking,”

“If we return to the Three Federations, we will have plenty of resources, and with just our reputation as the Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon, we ought to lead very comfortable lives.”

Speaking to this point, HIdden Wind suddenly adopted a more serious tone, “I would like to remind everyone before we begin the vote, to consider the risks that Hidden Moon will be facing now. Though we’ll be using Tamu’s warship to destroy the God Metropolis space, whether Demonic Energy will escape is not something anyone can guarantee.

“On top of that, the Three Federations have already found traces of Demonic Ants in Ashen Moon. Demonic Ants are the oldest species that has been found to be Demonic lifeforms, meaning that in no time at all, a dreadfully savage battle will break out. If we are a part of the Three Federations when that happens, we’ll be able to fight side by side with them in the future, doing our part in protecting our universe.”

The crowd present furrowed their eyebrows. There were eight people present; they were the Patriarchs and the strongest warriors from each of the Four Great Clans. The Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon had never been a democracy, and everything was decided by these eight individuals who would represent the Four Great Clans.

“Let’s begin the vote,” Hidden Wind said after a pause. He was the first to raise his hand and said in a somber voice, “I agree with our return to the Three Federations. After all, we’ve all seen what catastrophe Demonic lifeforms can bring, and while all of you may call me the crazy old man, I have a granddaughter, too. There’s no way I am willing to let Hidden Water and her future children become like the elders, turning into some inhuman monsters.”

“I agree as well. As a member of the Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon, we have the responsibility to stand up and fight when Ashen Moon needs us.”

“I agree, too. Living in seclusion has not given us the strength to challenge the Skywings, and instead turned our elders into monsters. The price we paid was too heavy.”

In no time at all, the voting ended. Hidden Wind sighed in relief and loudly declared the results, “We have six votes in agreement with the motion, and two against. Previously, Traveling Buddha gave me a method of communication, so I’ll be contacting this elder as soon as possible to inform him of our decision.”

“This elder you speak of.. Who is he?”

“Is he someone we can trust?” everyone asked.

Hidden Wind nodded, “You might not believe me when I tell you all this, but the elderly war god Nine Provinces is actually still alive.”

“Nine Provinces Buddha!”

“Oh heavens, he’s still alive?!”

Everyone present was shocked. Nine Provinces Buddha was a peer of the founders of Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon. He held a very high position and if he was still alive, would already be over forty thousand years old. Even someone like Dragon Dingtian would have to call him an elder if he were to meet Nine Provinces Buddha!