The carriage door opened, but no goods came out.

Because the source of the golden light was the carriage itself.

Inside the massive carriage, all furnishings were wrapped in a golden substance resembling amber.

Three-meter-high chairs, an even taller bar, and the nearly permanently preserved purple flowers on the bar.

Zhang Ze felt this scene looked familiar...

'What's going on, this place looks just like inside Li's belly.'

Inside Li's belly, there was a golden space that looked very much like this carriage.

And the crystals inside Li's belly had the same power, capable of preserving anything encased within permanently.

A project team at the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion is currently conducting specialized research on it.

If the research succeeds, the preservation period for many materials could be almost indefinitely extended.

However, the project has been progressing slowly.

The main reason lies with Li herself.

Though these crystals regenerate slowly like stomach acid or feces, due to Li's stinginess, only a little can be collected at a time, making Lily-style waste experiments impossible.

What a pity.

After the group entered the carriage, Zhang Ze reached into his pocket and took out an amber-colored crystal Li had given him.

Compared to the crystals inside the carriage, they were almost identical.... 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"What are these things?" Zhang Ze turned around and asked.

"I don't know. Since the first Horror Saint discovered the ancestral temple and remains, it's always been like this here."

The Horror Saint crouched in the carriage, his voice low.

"I've tried taking some before, but have never succeeded, these things..."

The Horror Saint was about to say these things were extraordinarily solid, but swallowed his words halfway.

He stared intently behind Zhang Ze.

Zhang Ze followed his gaze and saw Brother Feng standing there awkwardly.

In his right hand, he held a small black sword, and in his left, an irregular amber crystal.

Beside him, a small piece was missing from the carriage wall.

Brother Feng gave an embarrassed smile, wiped the crystal with his sleeve, and then pasted it back as it was.

"Sorry, habit of prying things."

Zhang Ze, "..."

The Horror Saint cleared his throat to cover his embarrassment.

At the same time, as the carriage door closed, the train automatically started.

The Horror Saint began narrating from the beginning of the story.

Due to his heritage, his storytelling was much more detailed than those based on hearsay like the thieves.

"The valley outside is where the Saint first imparted his teachings to the mountain and sea.

"But that time, the Saint only taught us language, script, and etiquette, without sharing the arts of cultivation.

"Countless years later, when the mountain and sea fell into turmoil, during the final battle, the remains appeared, as if the Saint had returned.

"After nine days of fierce fighting, only the first Horror Saint survived in the valley. He dragged his dying body into the ancestral temple.

"But when he emerged again, his injuries had healed completely, and he had even learned the Saint's cultivation method.

"Thereafter, with the Saint's teachings, the Horror Saint abolished hundreds of schools, swept the Six Kingdoms, and calmed the chaos.

"He then established the rules that have been passed down to this day in the mountain and sea."

After listening, Zhang Ze inquired, "Could I take a look at the cultivation method?"

"No problem." The Horror Saint then looked at the Giant, "Where's your axe?"

The Giant, squatting in the corner, had a slight change in expression upon hearing the word 'axe', its tail tapping the carriage floor lightly as it whispered,

"I gave it away."

The Horror Saint looked at Zhang Ze and Lin Feng.

Among everyone present, only the two of them remained.

Zhang Ze, somewhat awkwardly, took out the pink Taisui, then pulled out a giant axe with a pop and swiftly used a thermos cup to plug the opening again.

After putting the Taisui away, Zhang Ze politely handed the axe handle towards the Horror Saint.

"Here you go."

The Horror Saint didn't accept it with his mouth as he normally would but instead, with some disdain, took out his metal claw clip and received the axe.

After fiddling with it, the axe began to transform in front of him, and moments later, the copy of the original Taoist Technique he had stored with the Giant was extracted from the axe blade.

An old leather-bound ancient scroll.

"The original is stored in the ancestral temple. This is a copy. Although the material of the leather differs, the content is accurate."

Zhang Ze carefully took it, opening the scroll.

The text on it had been imprinted with magic. The handwriting seemed hurried and messy as if it was written in a rush.

Zhang Ze flipped through it and discovered this Saint's technique was the Golden Core Method practiced by the Human Race of East Continent.

The most primitive kind.

Zhang Ze rummaged through the Hundred Treasures Bag, digging to the bottom for a long time, eventually pulling out another duplicate booklet.

The booklet in Zhang Ze's hand was a copy of the Human Emperor Ancient Scroll collected by the Celestial Sect.

Opening the booklet and comparing it to the leather scroll, although there were some minor differences, they indeed followed the same method, also being the original Golden Core Method of the Human Race.

The same.

"Could you tell me when this second transmission of the Saint's teaching occurred?" Zhang Ze asked, looking up.

The Horror Saint answered without hesitation, "According to mountain and sea time, it was thirty eras ago."

Due to the absence of firmament, a day's time within the mountain and sea differs slightly from that of the Four Continents.

Zhang Ze did a quick calculation and found that the time of the Saint's second teaching in the mountain and sea roughly coincided with when the Human Emperor imparted the Golden Core Method to the Celestial Sect.

Could they be the same person?

While pondering, the train stopped, and a sound like gas venting interrupted Zhang Ze's thoughts.

The door opened, and Zhang Ze beheld the space where the so-called ancestral temple was located.

The space where the ancestral temple existed was not as lively as the mountain and sea. Besides the ancestral temple, there was only bounded void and omnipresent light.

The ancestral temple stood at the center of this void.

Divided in the middle, on the left was a traditional wooden building, ornately decorated with eaves hanging wind chimes that hadn't sounded for millennia.

On the right, most of it was enveloped in golden crystal, a building similar in style to that of the train.

The answer lay there.

"Have you been inside?" Zhang Ze didn't go in directly, instead turning to ask.

"No." Xiao Yaozi stood on the Giant's head, "In the past, only the Horror Saint could come here. This is the first time for us too.

"The Giant is younger, only having experienced one era transition. Although I have lived through several, each time the Horror Saint only allowed us a distant glance at the remains and never let us enter here."

With that, Xiao Yaozi looked at the Horror Saint, gesturing for him to explain what exactly lay inside the ancestral temple.

However, the Horror Saint shook his head, "Actually, I don't know either.

"I only entered this place once, brought by the previous Horror Saint during the inheritance of the Horror Saint.

"The previous Horror Saint took me into the courtyard and told me only two rules."

"What rules?" Zhang Ze asked seriously.

The Horror Saint replied, "Stay away from the house on the right, and don't enter the house on the left."

Zhang Ze, "..."

Hmm, the previous Horror Saint might be quite talkative.

Suppressing the urge to quip, Zhang Ze continued his inquiry.

"Can I go inside then?"

"Yes, since you're human, maybe that house... seems like it's meant for you."

The Horror Saint looked at the house on the left, its size seemingly tailored for Zhang Ze.

Having received the Horror Saint's nod of approval, Zhang Ze turned to look at Lin Feng.

But before Zhang Ze could speak, Lin Feng shook his head, "I'm not going. I'm afraid I might not resist taking more things again... if something unexpected happens, it'd be troublesome."

Zhang Ze nodded, realizing that made sense.

Brother Feng indeed had profound fortune. If he went along, there might trigger some unexpected event.

Things were complicated enough already, adding more chaos was unnecessary.

"I'll go in by myself, then. Wait for me," Zhang Ze waved back and slowly walked into the unfamiliar courtyard.

He didn't go to the right but headed straight to the left.

The wind stirred by his steps made the eaves' wind chimes jingle lightly as Zhang Ze pushed open the wooden door.

Omnipresent light slipped into the room from behind, casting Zhang Ze's shadow over Li.

Li lay on the ground, sprawled out, his round belly rising and falling as he slept like a log.

Zhang Ze, "..."