Chapter 250: All for Nothing
News spread throughout Rong City.
It was said that a very powerful figure had come to the city. That fellow was young but had extraordinary methods. He had repelled the invading enemy outside with a single move. His methods were simply terrifying.
“Where is that lord now?”
“He said he’s staying in the library.”
As Li Yuanqing’s news spread throughout Rong City, the outside of the library was gradually filled with people. They surrounded the library layer by layer.
If not for the fact that Hall Master w.a.n.g was watching outside, they would have rushed in long ago.
“Is he here? Why is the library closed today? Why is everyone here?”
“Hall Master w.a.n.g, what time is it? Why are you closing the door so early? Isn’t it usually later? Why are you still ignoring us today?”
“That’s right, Hall Master w.a.n.g. I think you’re getting lazier and lazier. If this continues, you’ll lose your position as the hall master sooner or later.”
Most of the people who shouted were new. The first batch of people who came were already stopped outside. They also knew why the door of the library was tightly shut.
However, the people who came later did not know. When they arrived and saw the commotion in front, they followed the rhythm of the people in front.
Hall Master w.a.n.g did not have the time to explain to them anymore. He blocked them outside and went to entertain Li Yuanqing.
This was a big shot. He could not be negligent.
Li Yuanqing read at an extremely fast speed. Just now, he had already read all the strange novels that Hall Master w.a.n.g had brought over.
But he was clearly not satisfied after reading it. Most of them were legendary stories written by current people. They were very similar to the thoughts of modern people and their behavior. He could roughly guess at a glance.
Li Yuanqing treated it as a form of entertainment, but it was not very helpful. However, the few thick books that Hall Master w.a.n.g brought over later were very heavy.
These books were not only heavy in weight, but also contained thousands of pieces of information. They basically covered the changes in the entire human race in the past few hundred years.
Moreover, there was a detailed description of the life of the humans in the Catacombs a thousand years ago. The situation of the forces at that time was also recorded very clearly.
According to these books, when the ancestors of the human race first arrived in the Catacombs, this was only a desolate land.
At that time, there were all kinds of races living here. They fought with each other for territory.
At that time, they were all very weak because no large-scale mineral vein had been discovered yet. The large-scale mining of mineral veins was at a certain time a thousand years ago.
To cultivators like them, mineral veins were simply like the relationship between fish and water. Without these mineral veins, it could be said that they would not be able to move an inch. They would only be able to painstakingly increase their cultivation level by a little in their lives and would not be able to improve at all.
However, once that mineral vein was discovered, it would immediately bring a qualitative improvement to the race. Among them, the humans were the most experienced in this aspect.
In fact, in the beginning, many talented races of the demon race occupied the underground world.
Although they had the ability to rely on their innate instincts to find the places that contained spiritual energy, they did not have the intention to mine all these mines for themselves.
They only moved their race to that land and entrenched themselves around the mineral vein to increase their cultivation. This was indeed a very good strategy, and it was very friendly to the mineral vein. Both sides took what they needed and advanced together.
However, this growth model was very slow. Moreover, after the ambitious humans discovered these mineral veins, they used a large number of temporary transactions to trick these huge mineral veins from the demons at a very low price.
How could the demons have ever experienced such things? In less than a few decades, many small mineral veins below had been occupied by the humans. Moreover, they used advanced technology that was constantly improved to continuously mine the spirit stones from the mineral veins, creating huge human cities one after another.
Ping City, Rong City, and Sea City were the ancient ruins left behind a thousand years ago. They were still shining brightly now. It could be said that they reflected the architectural attainments of the human race at the peak of perfection.
The humans had changed all the rules. Before the humans came, although there were battles in the Catacombs world, it was only a small-scale battle. They could not form a large-scale power struggle.
However, after the human race changed the situation here, everything changed. They could no longer live their lives in peace like before. They had to face the powerful pressure brought by the growing human race.
This forced the intelligence of many demons to be enlightened.
Among these demons, those with agile minds naturally climbed to the throne of leader. Moreover, they gradually had the awareness of joining forces like the humans.
They realized that most of the humans would group up when facing the demons. This way, although there were many demons, they were always at a disadvantage against the humans.
The human race relied on demons’ scattered and hostile att.i.tude to transform the Catacombs world that originally belonged to them into a human world.
After discovering this, these forces gradually formed a relatively loose alliance with the demons who were becoming stronger by the day. Although they still disliked each other, they did not hate each other as much as before.
Therefore, from the original transactions to the compet.i.tion between the humans and the demons, the demons also realized the potential and importance of those mineral veins. Therefore, they no longer allowed the other demons to sell the mineral veins to the humans.
Although the battle between the two sides continued and escalated step by step, the alliance of the demons could not stop the gradual growth of the human race.
Both sides were strengthening, but the speed at which humans became stronger was clearly much faster.
Things changed because of a very sensational matter.
The humans relied on these resources to nurture many talents to mine everywhere in the Catacombs. Moreover, the depth of the excavation had increased more than ten times compared to before. It was a place that those demons could not reach with their talent alone.
They finally found a very, very large mineral vein. This mineral vein was so unique and filled.
Li Yuanqing suddenly recalled that the mineral vein described in the book should be the one he had seen that day.
From the looks of it, that mineral vein was indeed very magnificent. Moreover, it was really jaw-dropping that the humans could spend so much effort to move the mineral vein up from such a deep underground.
If that was the case, after the human race discovered this unique mineral vein, they would naturally grow stronger step by step in the future. This should continue to stabilize their advantage, but why did they suffer a huge defeat later on?
Li Yuanqing could not help but flip through it faster. He wanted to find the reason. He wanted to find any records about that time. He wanted to know who the Blood Vine was.
However, the detailed records of the situation were far inferior to the previous description. From the discovery of the mineral vein to its final defeat, it only gave a hasty conclusion.
It was said that there was a traitor among the humans who kept mining the majestic main mine and selling it to the demons, causing the main mine to dry up. However, the humans knew nothing about it.
The demons secretly increased their strength, and a black dragon suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The black dragon appeared at the right time. Just as the extravagance of the human race had reached its peak, the corruption and festering had already seeped into their bones.
Coincidentally, the black dragon appeared in front of the humans and swept away all the human experts with an overwhelming advantage.
The humans never expected that these indigenous demons could use those incomplete and rare resources to nurture such a powerful peerless expert.
The appearance of the Black Dragon was unexpected. Even though the human race had already developed a very strong system, it was as difficult as ascending to the heavens to fight the Black Dragon with these systems.
According to the records in this book, the description of the black dragon was so profound. Moreover, it vaguely revealed that this black dragon was actually a being above the Formation Arrangement Realm.
Li Yuanqing had only heard that there were other levels above the Formation Arrangement Realm, but this should be just a rumor. How could he see someone who had crossed the barrier of the Formation Arrangement Realm here?
Li Yuanqing did not understand if what the book said was true or false. Was the Black Dragon really so powerful?
He was now at the sixth-grade Formation Arrangement Realm.
In his plan, he was only one step away from the Black Dragon. As long as he worked harder, he would be able to reach the level of the Black Dragon. At that time, he would help the humans and unify the Catacombs world, establishing a world where humans and demons could coexist.
If those demons refused, they would be expelled.
But from the looks of it, if it was really as described in this book, that the Black Dragon had already crossed the Formation Arrangement Realm a thousand years ago, then what kind of monster would it be after thousands of years of cultivation?
Li Yuanqing suddenly felt a little uncertain.
Looking down, it was the Black Dragon that had defeated the humans and wanted to invade them. The humans had no choice but to retreat.
The Holy City of the human race was originally such a sacred city. It contained the system and culture that the human race had worked hard to develop for more than a hundred years. All of them were treasures of the human race.
If all of this fell into the hands of the demons or was completely destroyed by them, then the human race would not even have its last roots.
A large number of humans were scattered throughout the catacombs. The elders in the Holy City used their powerful strength to seal the Holy City in the void, preventing the demons from finding it.
There could not be any living people in the sealed Holy City. If living people were sealed inside, there was only one outcome: they would be drowned in the long river of time and torn to pieces by the cracks of time.
There was only one way to reach the Holy City, and that was their teleportation array. However, the entrance to the teleportation array was now in the hands of the demons. Moreover, the elders had sealed the last door of the teleportation array, even their bodies.
Therefore, these humans no longer thought about how to find the Holy City.
Li Yuanqing did not expect that after reading it, he realized that it was indeed useless. He sat behind the counter gloomily and looked at the book that was already at the bottom. He muttered something in his heart.
He took out the strange key again and carefully examined it in his palm.
He had originally thought that he would be able to find some answers here and perhaps find some use for this key. As long as he could unlock the secrets on this key, he might be able to obtain some treasures.
Since it was a key that that senior had handed to him so solemnly, the thing behind the key must be extremely precious. There was no doubt about it.
Such a precious thing should be able to help him increase his strength by a lot. This was a heaven-sent opportunity.
However, he did not expect that he would not find anything in the end. He only received the news that the Holy City had been sealed forever. Moreover, anyone who entered would die. What was there to see?
The more Li Yuanqing thought about it, the more depressed he became. He put away the key and muttered to himself, “This senior has indeed stayed inside for too long. It’s been more than a thousand years. Now that things have changed, it’s only right to make some mistakes.”
Although what he said was right, Li Yuanqing still felt that it was a pity. He did not expect to come all the way here for nothing. If this treasure was still useless after he obtained it, he would keep it for the time being.
As Li Yuanqing spoke, Hall Master w.a.n.g rushed over. When he saw that Li Yuanqing seemed to have finished reading, he immediately went up to him.
“Young Master Li, you read books so quickly.”
Hall Master w.a.n.g looked down. He had finished reading such a thick book in such a short period of time.
Li Yuanqing did not answer him. He only looked at the door and asked, “Hall Master w.a.n.g, what’s going on outside? Why does it sound like a mess? It seems like many people are coming in. Why did you close the door?”
Hall Master w.a.n.g replied helplessly, “Young Master Li, you don’t know. Everyone didn’t come in to read books. They just came in to see you. They all heard that you were here, so they fought tooth and nail to get in. I stopped them outside.”
“Isn’t that because I delayed everyone’s reading?”
“No, Young Master Li, you don’t have to think that way. Most of them don’t have the intention to read. I think you’re thinking too much.” Hall Master w.a.n.g thought for a moment and said to Li Yuanqing, “However, if you want everyone to come in, I can bring you to the secret room below first.”