Chapter 296: Inside the Temple
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren looked and the temple was in front of him. He was amazed, not just because of its majestic beauty, but its existence since the ancient times of Earth. If it was revealed to the outside world, chaos would have ensued—humans' perception of the world would be rewritten. However, the temple had been quietly withering away with time in the hidden, otherworldly space. Hessiana just discovered one of these temples but, how many more secret places were hidden away in some unknown corner of the planet? Nobody knew.
The temple was rectangular and divided into many sections. There was no way of telling what its original function was. Its exterior wall was carved with reliefs and a large number of ancient Greek sculptures. The life-like sculptures of heroes and gods were inlaid into their respective alcoves with arched roofs. The exterior wall was interjected with columns of huge, white stone pillars, which supported the heavy dome of the temple and kept the temple on its feet.
They were standing at the end of the cloud trail. Going forward, there was a broken stone trail floating amid the clouds. The cause of the broken stone trail was obvious: the temple was slanted at an angle of 15° in the air however, it was not like that in the beginning. A bloody war had damaged the balance of the temple, tearing apart the path that linked the cloud trail to the temple.
Hessiana manoeuvred across the broken trail with ease. As she reached the steps of the temples, she waved to them. "Come on! Those stones are pretty stable. You're not going to fall!"
Hao Ren put his foot on a floating stone nearest to him. It sank, but just a little. His movement was not as agile as Hessiana's but with his physical state right now, manoeuvring such a trail was not a problem at all. Hence, he made it across. Lily followed and she was not afraid at all, hopping from one stone to another like a puppy. Soon after, she landed as well. Next were Vivian, Zeon and the nimble Becky. Y'zaks was the last; a single prance and the giant landed on the other side. He made a three-inch pit as a result...
It ached Hessiana to see the damaged steps. She cried out, "Be careful! This is an artifact!"
"What artifact? What's the use of mentioning the artifact before me?" Vivian shot Hessiana a glance before she raised her hand and waved at Nangong Wuyue, who was still at the end of the cloud trail, looking hesistant. "Why are you still standing there, Wuyue?"
The siren maiden looked at the broken slabs, hesitating as she wondered what kind of cloud could support her weight. After a long while, she finally said, "I'm somewhat nervous... Give me a second, I'll change into a something with more fighting power!"
While Hao Ren looked at, puzzled as a curtain of water suddenly formed around her. While the water curtain slowly disappeared, she turned into a five-metre sea serpent. Nangong Wuyue carefully coiled herself into a spring and warned them. "Move... I'm about to jump over!"
Hao Ren was in awe. "You're almost as creative as me!"
Nangong Wuyue coiled and compressed herself as she got ready to spring. She shouted, "Huzzah!" and a graceful parabola swept across the air, over the trail of broken slabs.
Becky witnessed in surprise. "Whoa, cool!" She gave Nangong Wuyue a jab on the tail with her sword: she had never seen anything like this before in The Plane of Dreams.
Nangong Wuyue was hanging on a beam of the temple. She tossed her ball of clothes to Hao Ren and at the same time, whacked Becky away with her tail. "I'll remain in this form, at least it has a better survival ability. Please keep my clothes. By the way, I think I need to practice my accuracy."
Hao Ren shoved the ball of clothes into the Dimensional Pocket. Nonetheless, the entire time, his eyes were on Nangong Wuyue, who was still hanging on to the middle of the beam with much difficulty. She was looking for a way to get down. So, he asked her, "Need help? I can help pull you down."
Nangong Wuyue rolled her eyes. She used her tail to grab the beam then slid down the pillar. "You're underestimating me. Even if you've never seen a siren before, haven't you watched Animal World?"
Hao Ren was speechless.
The entrance to the temple was wide open and there were no signs indicating that traps were laid. The mysterious, old temple had been there for thousands of years, quietly awaiting the arrival of its visitors. Inside, a huge and long gallery was lined with sculptures of heroes, gods and goddesses on both sides. They looked like they were keeping an eye on the visitors' every movement.
Becky's mercenary instincts were keeping her on alert. Her eyes were constantly on her surroundings, looking out for traps. However, the others were much less discreet. Lily was getting her hands on every gap in the wall to quench her curiosity. Luckily, she still retained the feeling of shame and did not mark her territory with pee.
Zeon Lucas was in front as the group explored the mysterious temple. Meanwhile, Hessiana had made sure that she stuck with Vivivan all the time. "How much do you know about this temple?" asked Vivian.
"Not much." Hessiana scratched her head. "The structure of the temple is complicated. Something seems to be still running in there. We were concerned about safety, so we didn't go deeper. Based on the observations from our previous explorations, some unique phenomena certainly exist in here."
Hao Ren looked at the sculptures on both sides of the gallery; they were imposing and magnificent, but also spooky at the same time. He gave Vivian a glance and said, "Do you know whose temple this is? Didn't you know Zeus well?"
"Not as well as you might think. There wasn't much thing to do back then, not many otherworldlings liked to talk. I was here just for the food." Vivian frowned. "Besides, I've never seen this temple before—not even once. I haven't got the slightest impression. There's nothing like this on Mount Olympus."
"You don't know?" Hessiana looked disappointed as she mumbled, but it lasted just for a moment. She had a quick change of heart as she said, "Can't blame you. Mount Olympus is a big place and Lady Vivian, you have a bad memory too..."
The empty gallery was resonating with the sounds of their footsteps. Hao Ren felt that there had to be some kind of artificial gravity there,which was obviously still at work. The temple and the clouds were on a slant of more than 10° but they did not feel it; that was gravity at work. So, based on the theory that the unusual creatures came from The Plane of Dreams, did it mean that the previous civilisations in The Plane of Dreams had already mastered the technology of artificial gravity?
But Hao Ren had no idea how the technological tree of the magic civilisation in The Plane of Dreams looked like. He also did not know what level of technology that magically-created artificial gravity belonged to. Therefore, he could not hastily make a conclusion on the status of the previous civilisation in The Plane of Dreams.
He was not going in blind. In fact, he had gotten the MDT to scan the otherworldly space for movements of energy. It seemed the strange force was coming from within the temple itself. The source of energy was hidden somewhere in the deepest part of the temple and energy was radiating from its core.
The team then went deeper into the gallery. Vivian wanted to explore every corner of the temple to search for any clues regarding the ascriptions and functions of the temple. Of course, Zeon complied happily; he had been wishing for someone to tell him what the temple was all about, so he guided her with great enthusiasm. They passed through the outer gallery and into the inner court, where Hao Ren noticed some changes; the sculptures here were different. These sculptures were not of ubiquitous, heroic faces like those in the outer gallery, they were more unique, realistic and lesser in number. These scultures were scattered around the inner gallery, consisting of both males and females. A glimpse of nostalgia was on Vivian's face as she said, "It looks like we're at the core area. These are sculptures of the Oympians. They were actually the ones who made these sculptures of themselves during their free time. This is Ares, next to him is his uncle, and the next one is Poseidon's brother-in-law. The two standing right there are Aphrodite and Hera. Squatting at the corner is Demeter's pet dog; it's named was Propter or Fatso or something like that..."
Hao Ren listened to Vivian as she identified the sculptures one by one, cold sweat trickling down his neck. He said, "There goes the sense of mystery..."
"Myths are just distorted visions created by humans," said Vivian as she spread out her hand. "Those in-the-know knew that the subject of these myths was just a dysfunctional family. They greeted one another and patted each other on the shoulder when they met. They would gather in a gang and have booze at Dionysius' house. Even Ares was a p*ssy before his wife—he was a henpecked husband."
Nodding his head, Hao Ren listened attentively. Suddenly, Lily scurried before them and screamed. "Hey, get over here and take a look! Something's on the wall!"
Hao Ren quickly pulled and in a corner at the end of the gallery, there was a row of characters on the wall.
They were Letta runes.