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The entrance to the air-raid shelter seemed to have been forced open, causing it to be twisted and deformed.

Xia Chao tried to move the door with all his might, only to find it incredibly durable. Even with his cultivation of the Dragon Tiger Arhat Power, he couldn’t budge it a hair’s breadth.

“It should be some form of composite steel,” Xia Chao speculated, aware that such materials are rarely found among mankind, except in specialized tools for four or five-star contracted beasts. They are costly due to their scarcity.

Wealthy individuals often used this special steel to make armor and weapons for their contracted beasts.

“It’s stronger than you think. The toughest material you’ve created can withstand attacks from five-star demon beasts, equivalent to Divinity Transformation Stage attacks. This door is stronger than that; only the full power attack of a six-star beast can break it.”

“This is a lost technique.” Jiang Li identified the process used to create the door at a glance. This involved technology that did not currently exist in the Lingxi World.

At this current rate of development, it might take thousands of years to recreate it.

“So this…”

“Is this a future construct?” Qiu Shi stepped into the shelter and noticed that although the buildings seemed rather old, they appeared to be more advanced than the current technology.

“Could it be that future humans created a time-traveling air-raid shelter and traveled back to the present?” Qiu Shi wildly speculated.

“…” White Snow Spirit was speechless, clearly thinking that ignorance knew no fear.

Did they know how much energy it would take to transport an object of such size through time?

Did they understand the technological level and degree of comprehension of the nature of the universe necessary for time travel?

It seemed like only Ji Zhi, upon reaching the Transcendance Tribulation Stage, could achieve this.

“Guess again.”

Jiang Li did not mind allowing them a few more guesses. He wiped the wall to gauge its age, which seemed to be around two thousand years old.

The shelter was pitch dark, as though one could not see their hand in front of their face. Jiang Li snapped his fingers, and rootless fire stretched from the entrance all the way to the end.

Rows of small fireballs illuminated the surroundings like soldiers, revealing the truth to the visitors.

Xiao Qing turned back into a small dragon, coiling around Xia Chao’s neck and curiously observing the surroundings.

The inside of the air-raid shelter had also been attacked. The walls were deformed, and scattered around were sci-fi guns. At the handle of one of these guns was a white skeletal forearm.

Xia Chao formed an image in his mind:

Some extremely powerful demon beast broke open the door of the air-raid shelter. The humans inside retaliated, but their firearms had no effect on the beasts.

The beast wreaked havoc, swallowing the humans whole, leaving behind only a half-arm and a gun outside, which didn’t interest the beast at all.

“Was this built by humans of the past?” Xia Chao guessed boldly after a moment’s contemplation.

Both Xia Chao and Qiu Shi were known to excel academically, taking diligent notes and always ranking high in their exams.

They both had a good grasp of history.

They knew that the documented history of the Lingxi World spanned about two thousand years. Beyond that, there were no records, only vague, inconsistent legends.

For example, legends of humans that tamed beasts to ascend to immortality, of the earliest humans existing alongside cultivation, and of human history extending beyond two thousand years with technological progress far superior to the present.

Whether humans could tame beasts into immortality was unknown, yet the Immortal Realm indeed existed. It was unknown if the first humans could cultivate, yet Xia Chao could now cultivate. The appearance of Jiang Li lent weight to these elusory legends.

Xia Chao considered the final legend as possible.

Human history was more than two thousand years old, and there was a more glorious past before that.

“The past? But we’re now in the second millennium of Lingxi history, and it says four thousand two hundred years of Lingxi history written on the gate,” Qiu Shi remarked in confusion.

“Then where does our ‘Lingxi history’ come from?”

Xia Chao left Qiu Shi wordless. Yes, they always said many years in Lingxi history, yet why was it called Lingxi history? Surely it wasn’t named arbitrarily and should have some justification.

Could there have been a period before the Lingxi epoch?

Had the previous Lingxi era been annihilated while survivors inherited the former name and started anew?

Qiu Shi increasingly believed this to be possible.

“This was built by your ancestors.” Jiang Li confirmed.

Both Xia Chao and Qiu Shi felt somewhat odd at the term “ancestors”.

When they thought of ancestors, they pictured individuals living in agricultural times wearing coarse clothes.

However, judging by the technological level of the shelter, it seemed they were the real primitives.

Their ancestors’ technology level surpassed theirs manifold.

As they ventured further in, they found some relatively complete skeletons. The skeletons had hardened into a jade-like material and remained unchanged even after more than two thousand years.

Xia Chao found something familiar about the skeletons and in a moment of realization said,

“My bones are similar to these ancestors.” Xia Chao remembered the sight of his skeleton when he was pierced by a spirit sword during his three months in devil training.

“Your ancestor?” The Bone-winged White Tiger chimed in, grabbing a chance to show its presence.

“My bones were of normal color before I began cultivation,” Xia Chao clarified.

“Not Xia Chao’s ancestor. The change in Xia Chao’s bone structure was the result of cultivating the Perennial Power. This individual was a cultivator during their life, probably cultivating a technique similar to the Perennial Power, and their realm was higher than yours, likely in the Nascent Soul Stage.”

Qiu Shi’s eyes widened in astonishment. So the legends were true; the humans of the past were not just helpers for the contracted beasts to level up, but were capable of cultivation.

“You can try firing one of these to measure its power.” Jiang Li picked up a gun from the ground.

After two thousand years, the gun was fragile and many of its parts had deteriorated, rendering it useless. Jiang Li reinforced it and repaired some parts.

Xia Chao pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

“A misfire?”

Jiang Li chuckled: “Inject spiritual energy while pulling the trigger.”

Xia Chao did as instructed, and with a bang, a bullet of condensed spiritual energy shot out, more powerful than any bullet he had ever seen.

White Snow Spirit picked up a gun as well and studied it. After a while, she commented, “The design is innovative, and certainly made for cultivators, but unfortunately, the power isn’t satisfactory. It’s better to use a spiritual treasure.”

Xia Chao also realized that the power of the gun was indeed greater than that of any gunpowder-powered gun, but that was it. After his cultivation of Dragon Tiger Arhat Power, his punch was stronger than the spiritual energy bullet.

However, this showed that the original Lingxi World was a world of cultivators who sought to integrate spiritual energy with science. A mysterious event happened later that resulted in lost history, cultivation methods vanished, technology regressed, and all memories of things from two thousand years ago was wiped clean, starting anew as zero.

Finally, they came to a section of the wall etched with a long mural and scattered texts as captions.

The wall was hard. Leaving marks on such a wall would require at least a late-stage Divinity Transformation cultivator.

“This is the history of the Lingxi World, the history of that period four thousand two hundred years ago in Lingxi history.”