"There... there are words... you all come look..."
Yao excitedly and nervously called out to everyone.
On the floor tiles, a line of text read: "Face the mountain, lean on the water, the path ahead will appear."
Jiang Fan blinked, instinctively asking,
"What does this mean?"
Yao shook his head; deciphering riddles was clearly not the wolf-child's forte.
Panda shook his head like a rattle drum, indicating he didn't know.
Seeing no progress,
Jiang Fan shook his head.
"Never mind, let's look around some more."
He didn't even bother to ask Dai Xiaomei and Zhou Niannian, which immediately displeased them.
"Why didn't you ask us? Do you look down on our deduction skills?"
"Don't joke, I'm known as the Agatha Christie of the streaming world. Everyone calls me Detective Jin Tian Dai. Who do you think you're looking down on?"
Jiang Fan sighed.
"Alright, do you two know what this means?"
"No."
Dai Xiaomei and Zhou Niannian replied in unison.
As expected, not asking them was the right choice. Jiang Fan shrugged, he had already guessed they would answer him this way.
"It's fine, it's fine. I never had any expectations of you anyway."
Zhou Niannian, upon hearing this, instantly knitted her brows.
"Ah, is this how you comfort people?"
Dai Xiaomei was also enraged.
"This is unbearable, Sister Nian. Let's go explore those three paths."
"Let's go! We'll go as soon as we say so! The stars in the sky guide us!"
The two of them were clearly sulking. Their words sounded spirited, but their feet didn't move an inch.
Jiang Fan couldn't be bothered with them. With the light still abundant, he wanted to properly survey his surroundings.
Soon, Jiang Fan made an unexpected discovery.
On the surrounding walls were countless exquisitely carved murals.
The carving of these murals was extremely masterful; in Jiang Fan's understanding, only national-level art masters could have produced them.
Moreover, they were immense in size, with each mural measuring at least five meters long and three meters wide.
The larger ones were even ten meters long and ten meters wide.
Panda had brought them to find treasure, and in Jiang Fan's opinion, regardless of what lay at the end, these murals were already priceless treasures.
Their historical value was undoubtedly on par with the Buddhist stone carvings of the Longmen Grottoes.
The murals depicted the scene of ancient tribal warfare between two factions.
Countless indigenous warriors from both sides wielded their weapons, engaging in fierce combat. The scene was one of overturned carts and rivers of blood.
What astonished Jiang Fan was that the weapons held by these ancient tribal natives were incredibly advanced.
Many were finely crafted and elegantly shaped iron weapons. In Jiang Fan's memory, ironware only became widely prevalent in the late Warring States period.
Sharp halberds and keen battle axes, impossible to find in an era of ancient tribal warfare, all appeared in the murals.
He browsed along the walls in order. After a while, a third force joined the war between the two tribes.
What horrified Jiang Fan was that these third forces were not human.
Among them were giants over ten meters tall, whose movements shook heaven and earth.
There were also beings with faces like the Thunder God, capable of controlling wind, rain, thunder, and lightning—Feng Bo, Yu Shi, Lei Gong, and Dian Mu.
There were also mechanical puppet soldiers, seated in chariots resembling the legendary southern-pointing compass, beating war drums made of dragon hide.
These were all things found only in mythology, yet they were all depicted in the murals.
Among them was a warrior with a bull's head, a bronze forehead, three heads, and six arms. Wielding six divine weapons and riding an armored panda, he was exceptionally valiant on the battlefield.
He emanated a terrifying killing aura, displaying an indomitable spirit.
Any enemy that encountered this warrior was killed with a single blow.
This was precisely the warrior whose true form Jiang Fan had glimpsed on the mural at the entrance.
On a nearby mountain peak, two figures clad in red and yellow dragon robes, with the majesty of emperors in their eyes, gazed down at the battlefield below.
In their hands, they clutched two peerless divine weapons. One was entirely golden, radiating a light more intense than the sun.
The other was as vivid red as blood, emanating a thirst for it.
Jiang Fan's attention was drawn to the small mountain where the two emperors stood.
At the foot of the mountain lay a lake. Although the mural was static, the lake appeared so lifelike that it seemed to be flowing.
In the live stream, netizens were in an uproar.
"How could such exquisite murals be carved underground?"
"My god, this is the Battle of Zhuolu! It's the tribal warfare of ancient China!"
"You're right, I recognize it too! It's the Battle of Zhuolu."
"The man riding the panda is the Demon God Chi You, holding the Jiuyi Tianzun Sword."
"The ones in the red and yellow dragon robes are our ancestors, Emperor Huang and Emperor Yan. Those two swords are the Xuanyuan Sword and the Blood Drinker Sword."
They were all immensely excited. Legends of ancient Chinese tribes, the so-called era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, had always lacked historical proof.
Existing historical records were merely some written passages passed down orally and folk tales.
The most detailed account came from the Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian."
However, the "Records of the Grand Historian" was written thousands of years after the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, entirely based on Sima Qian's imagination and compilation of folk legends, thus not serving as strong evidence.
Many foreigners had taken this opportunity to slander, claiming that the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors never existed and was merely a fabrication by the Chinese.
Now, with these murals, it was sufficient proof that that near-mythical era was a true part of the long river of Chinese history.
At this moment, Jiang Fan was quietly stroking the murals, completely immersed in their magic.
One by one, the static murals seemed to come alive, coalescing into a film that played out in his mind.
The Demon God Chi You, with his three heads and six arms, rode the panda, invincible on the battlefield, flinging aside warriors of Emperors Huang and Yan one by one.
Emperors Huang and Yan could no longer restrain themselves. They personally entered the fray, wielding the Xuanyuan Sword and the Blood Drinker Sword, and charged towards Chi You.
The clash of their weapons sounded like dragon roars, echoing for hundreds of miles.
Sparks flew as Emperors Huang and Yan and Chi You fiercely held their ground, neither giving an inch.
From their bodies erupted astonishing auras that disregarded life and death.
Feng Bo, Yu Shi, Lei Gong, and Dian Mu, as Chi You's reinforcements, furiously beat their thunder drums and scattered lightning, cheering him on.
Over there, a colossal dragon, hundreds of miles long and of a dark cyan hue, transformed into a war drum.
Huan Long Shi, piloting a chariot pulled by four giant dragons, frantically beat the war drum, cheering for Emperors Huang and Yan.
Soon, a thick mist enveloped the battlefield, and the figures of Chi You and Emperors Huang and Yan were lost within it.
Only their overwhelming battle intent surged across the ancient battlefield.
After a long while, Jiang Fan finally awoke from the shock brought on by the murals.
"Truly a treasure of heaven and earth, a masterpiece of history."