Genghis Khan, Emperor Taizu of Yuan, the Sagacious Martial Emperor Who Opens the Way for Heaven, Ruler of the Four Seas, Khagan of the Great Mongol Empire, the Scourge of God...
Throughout history, countless people have called this once-in-a-generation conqueror by various titles. To this day, the Mongol Empire he created remains a major, unavoidable chapter in the history of Eurasia.
For such a world-shaking emperor, the location of his burial has always been a subject of fascination.
The Yuan Dynasty's imperial family practiced secret burials, meaning the location of the emperor's tomb was unmarked, unannounced, unrecorded, and uncelebrated.
This makes the well-known Mausoleum of Genghis Khan essentially a cenotaph, its commemorative significance far outweighing its practical one.
"And the true tomb of the Scourge of God may be hidden in Kanas Lake, just a few dozen kilometers away from us," Bronya murmured. "After eight hundred years and countless dynastic changes, is it finally going to see the light of day?"
She now understood why the scale of the lake monsters was so exaggerated. The tomb they were guarding belonged to the man who had single-handedly created the largest land empire in history.
"Thinking about it, that's actually not a lot," Kiana piped up. "If you ask me, to do something like this, it'd be strange not to have an S-rank guardian—mmph!"
"Would you just shut up!"
Fuli quickly covered her chattering mouth. Damn you, you airhead! If you actually jinx us into summoning an S-rank, I'll rape you, then kill you, then rape you and kill you again!
Fu Hua, on the other hand, closed her elegant eyes, trying to recall any related memories and secretly praying that this part hadn't been erased by Fenghuang Down.
Thanks to Kiana's luck-sucking presence, Fu Hua, her own bad luck neutralized, soon found what she had been doing during that time period.
On Mount Taixu, pickling mustard greens.
The corner of the girl's mouth twitched. She had regained most of her humanity during the Battle of Sky Peak five hundred years ago. Before that, due to the influence of the Divine Key, she had always been in a state where her divinity far outweighed her humanity.
It was fine when she had Fuxi and Nuwa for company, but that period happened to coincide with the Book of Fuxi—that is, little Nuwa—shutting down due to a lack of energy.
Since there was no Honkai to eliminate, the solitary Fu Hua naturally abided by the rules. As long as the sky didn't fall, she wouldn't take a single step out of Mount Taixu.
Amidst the chatter, the owner of the farmhouse had already brought the food to the table.
Having just been through a battle, the group immediately broke open their disposable chopsticks and unhesitatingly began another 'battle'.
This was torture for Siegfried. He was hungry too, but to maintain his cover, he could only watch Kiana and Fuli, those two foodies, gorge themselves while he took small, delicate bites!
He was a Kaslana too! Was there no justice in the world, letting a Kaslana go hungry?
As the old man roared internally, the plates on the table soon became empty.
The owner, who was also the chef, was overjoyed. In his good mood, he brought over two more side dishes and a plate of peanuts.
After a satisfying meal, Fuli got up to pay the bill.
A rough calculation showed that they had eaten about 1,300 yuan worth of food.
He had no complaints. Anyone who had been to Xinjiang knows that, for various reasons, the prices in restaurants there are surprisingly high.
Kanas was a scenic area, this was a farmhouse restaurant, and they had ordered a huge amount of food. All things considered, the owner was being quite reasonable.
With full stomachs, the group made a decision.
The size of Kanas Lake alone was definitely not enough to hide the tracks of the lake monsters. It was highly likely that there was a hidden world at the bottom of the lake, such as a small bubble universe partially connected to the real world.
In that case, for the next three days, they would first use the Water Dragon's Chant's ability to control liquids to dive to the bottom of the lake for reconnaissance, trying to find that entrance.
It was just a lake of 45.73 square kilometers. With Kiana's space-sensitive aerial detection circuit, three days would be enough to patrol it once over, from nine to five, no overtime needed.
Yes, Dr. Zhou's determination was admirable.
But no matter how admirable, he couldn't expect them to work overtime without overtime pay!
This was a right won through the blood and struggle of their predecessors!
As they finished their meal, the drizzling rain outside also stopped.
They had met at nine in the morning, arrived at the lake and fought the monsters around noon, and then returned, ate, and discussed the situation. More than half the day had already passed.
The youths lazily walked out of the farmhouse courtyard, preparing to take the car back to the hotel to rest.
Fu Hua, walking at the back, adjusted her baseball cap and said casually, "You guys go ahead. I'll run back."
"Run? Not taking the car?" Bronya's eyelashes trembled, and she asked with a hint of suspicion.
"We have a saying in Shenzhou: 'A hundred steps after a meal, and you'll live to ninety-nine'," Fuli explained. "My cousin probably wants to digest her food."
"That's right." The girl cast him an appreciative glance, thinking that her little cousin was quite useful.
"Youths these days have so much energy!" Dr. Zhou chuckled. "Are you three little ones going to join her? If so, I'll drive back first."
Fuli waved his hand. "Not this time."
He wasn't emotionally inept. He could see that the two little ones were already unhappy with him being so close to his cousin.
Besides, he also wanted to get back to the hotel quickly to see that chubby orange cat. He had given it away without a second thought back then, so he had to make it up to it now that they were reunited.
Since even the King of the Hyperion had chosen to take the car, there was no reason for Kiana and Bronya to walk.
"We're heading off, Class Rep!"
They squeezed into the back seat in a "嫐" formation, waved at Fu Hua through the rolled-down window, and then drove off with a roar of the SUV.
[T/N: The character 嫐 (nǎo) is composed of two 女 (woman) flanking one 男 (man).]
Only when the rear wheels of the vehicle, splashing through the puddles, disappeared from view did the girl who remained behind lower her waving hand.
She turned and started jogging, but not in the direction of the hotel.
Half an hour later, Fu Hua, having left the city, arrived at a City God Temple in the suburbs.
Such divine buildings were not unheard of in Xinjiang, but they were relatively rare, as the local beliefs were somewhat different from those in the central plains.
The decorations, however, were magnificent, with no hint of decay.
As if sensing Fu Hua's confusion, a clear, righteous voice came from behind the towering statue of the City God. "For the past half-century, there has been a large migration of inland population to the border regions. They still maintain the customs of the Han people, so naturally, they would not be disrespectful to the temple where the City God resides."
Fu Hua's expression darkened. "I didn't expect it to be you. Where is the resident City God?"
"He took his vacation for this year in advance. He should be sunbathing on Silver Beach in Beihai right now."
A handsome young man who looked to be in his late twenties stepped out from behind the statue. His light yellow hair was tied in a waist-length ponytail, and two sharp swords hung at his waist.
"The time was nine o'clock this morning."
His smile was fresh and refined, his aura like a green lotus, to be admired from a distance but not touched.
"Or rather, the moment the three from the Hyperion entered the country and you took over the local City God's duties," Fu Hua said coolly. "Am I right, Your Excellency Yanqing, the current Sword Champion, former disciple of the General."
"Please don't say that."
Yanqing smiled wryly and shook his head. He knew that Celestial Master Phoenix didn't like him.
No, it should be said that she disliked every successor to the title of the Seven Swords of Taixu equally, even though they had no connection to the originals from five hundred years ago.
But since the three disasters from the Hyperion had entered Shenzhou territory, even knowing that Celestial Master Phoenix disliked him, Yanqing, who was in charge of matters related to the Third Honkai Eruption, had to come and see.
Even if the other party made no attempt to hide their identity and swaggered into Shenzhou's domain.
Schicksal and the Taixu Front had signed a bilateral agreement, allowing each other's personnel to carry out normal missions in non-core areas after reporting.
The Hyperion did not belong to Schicksal, but with Theresa, the head of the Far East Branch, vouching for them, Shenzhou wouldn't make things too difficult.
But they had barely been here for half a day, and this chaotic evil bunch had already given Yanqing a little Hyperion shock.
Due to his many arrangements in the bubble universe for the Starward Ceremony, he had first transferred to the capital of Xinjiang via the Lianshan Formation and then taken a high-speed train.
But in that short time, he had seen on the news that a 3.6 magnitude earthquake had occurred in the Kanas area.
Some might wonder: Shenzhou is so big, there are three to five small earthquakes every day. How could Yanqing know it was the disasters causing trouble?
The answer was simple: the epicenter of this earthquake was zero kilometers deep.
The epicenter depth is the vertical distance from the starting point of the earthquake to the surface.
When the epicenter depth is marked as 0 kilometers, it means the tremor occurred on the surface or at a very shallow depth. Such tremors are usually caused by human activity and are non-natural earthquakes.
In other words, either there were multiple extremely powerful individuals fighting on the surface, or someone had detonated a nuclear weapon on the surface, for such an abstract event to occur.
Realizing this, Yanqing felt like he had just used an enema as eye drops—his eyes had been opened.
No, seriously, guys, have you even been in Shenzhou territory for a total of three hours? In the blink of an eye, you've already shown me your hand?
As it happens, the Greed Wolf, Army Breaker, and Seven Killings positions in the Southern Heavenly Gate Project are still vacant. Why don't you three condescend to claim these three disaster stars?
Considering that one of the people who had accepted the mission was the old ancestor Phoenix, who had "hung up the newly-named Yanqing and whipped him as a child," and that she hadn't sent out a distress signal, Yanqing suppressed his inner turmoil. After the high-speed train arrived at its destination, he got off and went straight to the City God Temple in the Altay region.
After a short wait, as expected, Fu Hua appeared.
"So, Grandmaster, what exactly happened earlier?" he asked in a serious tone. "A small earthquake caused by the aftershocks of a battle, affecting a city dozens of kilometers away... this is clearly the effect of a clash between Critical-level individuals."
Since she had come here alone, Fu Hua had no intention of hiding anything.
Moreover, for some reason, her fists itched whenever she saw a junior who had inherited the title of the Seven Swords of Taixu. But she also knew that the young man before her, who had surpassed his predecessor, had perfectly inherited the fervent heart beneath the cynical exterior of the former Divine Foresight General, Jing Yuan.
"It was like this..."
The girl was concise, explaining everything that had just happened in a few words.
"A colony of 'Lake Saints' guarding the tomb of Genghis Khan, with strength approaching that of a medium-sized organization..." Yanqing's expression was grim, with a hint of regret. "I'm very sorry. If I had come earlier, I should have been able to annihilate the enemy here."
Fu Hua knew he wasn't lying.
The "S-Rank Restriction Treaty" had limited the named S-rank powerhouses of the major factions to the range of regular Critical-level. This was undoubtedly a good thing, as it prevented the large-scale destruction of their home planet.
Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, for every measure, there is a countermeasure.
At some point, many Critical-level powerhouses began to choose to stay at the breakthrough level of Critical, deliberately not advancing.
By doing so, they were not restricted by the treaty but could still erupt with S-rank combat power for a short period, thereby securing great benefits for their respective organizations.
And Yanqing, the current Sword Champion of the Taixu Front, was a representative of this category.
Don't be fooled by the fact that he was still only at the breakthrough level of Critical. Once he erupted, like the Stellaron Hunter Sam, he could suppress the more mediocre S-ranks for a short time, such as that pervert from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—no, the Knight of Death, Ironmaiden.
With such a Yanqing, combined with Siegfried, it would not be difficult to slaughter the entire Lake Saint clan that had appeared so far.
"And Grandmaster Phoenix, my next words may be offensive, but please forgive me."
This was the epitome of courtesy before force. After a fist-and-palm salute, the handsome young man's expression was grave. "I don't quite understand why you would agree to give the Hyperion crew seven days to resolve this crisis."
His concern was well-founded. For the past eight hundred years, the reason the lake monsters hadn't caused trouble was that no one knew of their existence.
Now, the actions of Fuli and the others had already alerted them. If the lake monsters went on a rampage, it would be the unarmed ordinary people who would suffer.
According to Yanqing's investigation on the way, the nearest large human settlement to the Kanas scenic area was the town of Jiadengyu, more than thirty kilometers away.
But in terms of smaller settlements, the river valley on the south bank, inhabited by more than two thousand Tuva people, was less than three kilometers from Kanas Lake!
Fuli and the others might not know, having just arrived, but Yanqing didn't believe that Fu Hua, who had been here for several days, would be ignorant of this!
"That's right. Less than three kilometers, more than two thousand Tuva people," the girl said softly. "That's why I came all this way to find the City God and ask him to find a way to contact the local government and temporarily evacuate these people."
Yanqing was puzzled. "Why?"
"Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Fu Hua's eyes shone with seriousness. "Yanqing, do you think the existence of the lake monsters is a coincidence?"
"Obviously not!" the young man said without hesitation. "Both the legends of the Tuva people and the many sightings of the lake monster prove that they have always been here."
"Then let me ask you, why is it that only today have we truly confirmed their existence?"
"That—"
Yanqing was at a loss.
As a rare 5A-level scenic spot, the Kanas area had not only undergone multiple investigations, but to this day, Shenzhou's supernatural departments still sent people to monitor it regularly, fearing that it might involve Honkai-related elements.
In other words, even with such thorough surveillance, the lake monsters had remained hidden until now.
What did that mean?
"It means they have some extremely powerful concealment ability, so powerful that even Shenzhou's most advanced Honkai energy detection devices have failed," Fu Hua said, word by word. "That's right. Even I couldn't see through their disguise."
Yanqing hinted, "So, Grandmaster, you want to use the two Kaslanas, use their bloodline, to bait the enemy out and then annihilate them?"
"I may be sorry for Kiana and her father, but that is indeed my plan."
The girl replied softly, her eyes filled with killing intent.
Not all Kaslanas were the same. Not everyone's bloodline was as strong as the atavistic Siegfried or Kiana, whose DNA had been adjusted by Otto.
Only they could make the one hidden in the lake react.
If Dr. MEI and Prometheus were to see this, they would surely be amazed by Hua's completely different demeanor and aura from her past self as a little follower.
It was clear that even though she had been affected by Fenghuang Down as much as Theresa, five thousand years had still tempered the former last MANTIS into a wise fool.
Moreover, from Fu Hua's perspective, it was one thing if she hadn't seen it. But now that the lake monsters had appeared right under her nose, she absolutely could not tolerate the existence of such a dangerous colony within Shenzhou's borders.
The guardian of Shenzhou, this time, had not neglected her duty.
...