Ch. 13 - Ruins of A Heavenly Palace

"This is..."

Even though they had mentally prepared for it, their faces were still filled with disappointment.

Affected by them, the others also looked up at the night sky and quickly noticed the undeniable fact that two moons were hanging in the sky.

"How can this be?"

Many couldn’t help but cry out.

The last hope of returning home was shattered.

They would never see their loved ones again.

Many female students broke down in tears.

Everyone now fully understood, they were truly far from Earth, with no way back.

"Mars... has two moons, which are... like the moon we see from Earth..." Cade murmured in broken Chinese.

Then he rapidly said a bunch in English and began talking to Li Xiaoman.

For decades, space probes had sent back a wealth of valuable data about Mars.

The two moons orbiting Mars were tiny celestial bodies.

Due to their size and distance from the surface, from the ground of Mars, Phobos (Mars I) would appear about half the size of Earth's moon.

Deimos (Mars II) was even smaller, but brighter than the average star, like a miniature moon.

Those who understood Mars explained this, and everyone fell into deep despair.

It now seemed there was no way back home.

The top priority had become finding a way to survive.

They were already 600 meters away from the five-colored altar and much closer to the faint light ahead, now only about 500 meters away.

They didn’t delay any longer and continued moving forward.

Under the night sky, a gentle breeze brought a hint of chill.

After walking another hundred meters or so, the light drew nearer, and just then, someone cried out, having spotted a collapsed structure.

It seemed to be an old pavilion, now fallen apart from years of decay.

"A manmade pavilion, there must have been humans on this desolate planet. We’ll definitely find a way to survive."

"Is this really Mars? Why would there be human architecture here? The air, temperature, gravity, none of it feels too different from Earth. It just seems like a desert region of Earth."

Though filled with endless disappointment, the group hadn’t yet given in to despair.

They had many doubts.

"We’ve already seen dragon corpses, what’s this in comparison? Maybe this is just a special area on Mars."

"Possibly. There’s a grand five-colored altar here capable of summoning nine dragon corpses and a bronze coffin. Calling this place a divine region wouldn’t be too far-fetched."

"If our guess is right and this is just a special region on Mars, then our space for survival may be very limited."

These words brought on a heavy silence.

"If this is just a small, isolated sanctuary on Mars... then what way forward do we have?!"

Their emotions fluctuated wildly, this concerned their life and death, their future.

No one could stay calm.

"Ah!"

A female classmate suddenly screamed, and her cry echoed far beneath the night sky.

"What happened?"

Everyone turned pale and rushed to ask.

"A skull, a human skull!"

The girl’s face lost all color.

She trembled and backed away, terrified.

Not far from the collapsed pavilion, half of a white skull was sticking out of the gravel.

She had stepped on it, which explained her panic.

All the male students gathered around.

Pang Bo used his foot to kick the skull out of the sand.

It was clearly an adult human skull.

No one knew how old it was, already weathered by time.

The bone was dry and cracked, with no smoothness left.

What shocked them even more was a perfectly round hole in the forehead, about the width of a finger, as if pierced by a sharp object.

The edges of the hole were smooth and clean.

"This place is clearly full of unknowns and uncertainty. Even though this is just an old corpse from long ago, we’d better stay alert."

An unfamiliar environment, filled with unknown dangers, gave everyone a chill.

"What are those things up ahead?"

Beneath the hazy night sky, the stars and moons were not bright, they could only vaguely see uneven silhouettes in the distance, like piles of stones scattered about.

As they drew closer, everyone froze.

It was a field of ruins, and what blocked their view was only a small part of it.

The rest of the ruins extended far and wide.

Broken walls and shattered tiles covered the ground, whispering of long-forgotten stories.

Under the moonlight, the scene was eerily silent.

Once, this must have been a sprawling palace complex.

Now, only desolation remained.

It was an enormous ruin, covering a vast area.

The solid foundation had been built entirely from massive stones, a testament to the grandeur and scale of what once stood here.

That faint glow was at the far end of the ruins, behind a broken wall.

"Are we... really on Mars? Was there once a vast palace complex here?"

"Just how much manpower would such a massive project have required?"

"What could have caused this place to collapse, this grand structure to fall to ruin?"

The group nearly forgot their fear.

This astonishing sight left them in awe.

If this truly was Mars, then everything here was too incredible to believe.

Ye Fan said calmly,

"Honestly, it’s nothing surprising anymore. We’ve seen so much today, things that defy all logic. Even if someone told me that this massive ruin was once the site of a Heavenly Palace, I wouldn’t be surprised."

Pang Bo sighed.

"A Heavenly Palace’s ruin... it could be true. After all, we saw dragon corpses."

Everyone was stunned upon hearing that.

The Heavenly Palace ruins, it might not be nonsense after all.

The light was just ahead, gently radiating from behind the broken wall, casting a faint halo, giving off an otherworldly and sacred feeling.

"What exactly is that?"

The light moved within the ancient ruins, making the broken walls and fallen stones feel even more sorrowful and lonely.

It naturally filled the air with mystery.

Creak, creak, creak...

As the group stepped across debris, the sounds echoed across the vast night sky.

They passed fallen palaces, weaving their way through the enormous ruins.

Up ahead, that broken wall, though partially damaged, still stood four or five meters tall.

Who could imagine how grand it had once been?

"Let’s go see what that light really is!"

They carefully made their way around the massive broken wall and reached the end of the ruins.

Suddenly, they were met with a breeze that brought a deeply comforting sensation.

It felt as if a divine light had crossed the void and entered their eyes.

The group had fully emerged from the ruins.

They now stood behind the wall, and clearly saw the source of the light.

About fifty meters ahead, an ancient temple sat quietly.

Within it, an old Buddhist lamp glowed faintly like a bean-sized flame.

In front of the temple stood a gnarled ancient bodhi tree, shaped like a coiled dragon.

Its entire trunk was withered, yet around two meters off the ground, five or six green leaves still clung to it.

Each leaf was crystal clear, glowing with emerald light, like divine jade carved from emerald.

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