"The Steward speaks." The voice came from the pair of reddened eyes.
The Steward's voice emanated from the bandaged figure, and the red eyes receded back into the darkness.
The group walked lightly forward along the corridor.
Gu Ya whispered to Liang Yuwei, "Master, have you been here before?"
"I've heard of it, but never been," Liang Yuwei replied in a low voice. "My rank isn't high enough."
Gu Ya felt a bit indignant for Liang Yuwei, and he said softly, "Are the higher-ups of the Old Days Faction crazy? Master, you're clearly very strong, why aren't you promoted?"
The bandaged figure tilted its head slightly, glancing at Gu Ya with the single mechanical eye that was exposed.
Liang Yuwei smiled faintly and said, "The Old Days Faction's promotions aren't based on combat power, but on contributions to balancing the divine power users of past eras. I always hold them back, hehe."
Gu Ya understood. With Liang Yuwei's personality, he would definitely choose to help the divine power users. Even if they exhibited dark tendencies, he wouldn't advocate for their elimination, but rather for their guidance.
Liang Yuwei continued, "Some divine power users are born rebellious, but that doesn't mean they can't find their way back. Besides, the vast majority of people live very miserable lives before becoming divine power users."
"I want to give everyone more chances, but my ideas go against the traditional concepts of the Old Days Faction."
Gu Ya asked, "How does the Old Days Faction handle the bodies of divine power users? Do they use technology?"
Liang Yuwei smiled faintly and said, "I know what you're worried about, but I'm afraid I don't know where the bodies of divine power users ultimately go, or how they are utilized."
"We've reached the main hall," the bandaged figure stated coldly.
Pushing open the two ancient and heavy stone slab doors at the end of the corridor, they emerged into a suddenly spacious area.
This was a cavern carved out of the mountain, spanning several thousand square meters.
The walls and ceiling were extremely smooth, coated with a special flexible material on one side, presumably for seismic resistance, noise reduction, corrosion resistance, and moisture resistance.
There were also eight ventilation pipe openings in the stone walls, ensuring the balance of temperature and humidity within the chamber.
The main hall was divided into four zones: the History Zone, the Classified Zone, the Waiting Zone, and the Rest Zone.
The History Zone featured hundreds of towering bookshelves, filled with paper records of divine power users from various eras.
The Waiting Zone stored countless peculiar objects, presumably created by divine power users of past eras.
In the distance, thousands of red warning lasers encircled a massive, cuboid metal chamber with no doors or windows.
The laser array shifted direction every three seconds, vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, making its pattern impossible to discern.
That metal chamber was immense, bizarre, and mysterious, likely belonging to the Classified Zone.
"You can speak normally here. The monsters won't enter the main hall," the bandaged figure said, holding its sword and looking at Gu Ya. "The clock starts now, one hour limit. You can go anywhere except the Classified Zone. I'll follow you."
The four headed towards the History Zone. Gu Ya gritted his teeth and said, "Liu Feng, you and I will look for records similar to my situation. Master, you should know what to do."
Liang Yuwei glanced at the Classified Zone and nodded silently.
"Got it!" Liu Feng said energetically, rolling up his sleeves and walking to the first giant bookshelf. He looked up for a moment and asked, "Are there no indexes or catalogs?"
The bandaged figure shook its head.
Liu Feng became somewhat agitated, "Then how long will it take to find anything! This single bookshelf has over a thousand books! We only have an hour, we won't even finish two before time's up!"
The bandaged figure chuckled contemptuously, "With divine power users around, why are you panicking?"
Gu Ya walked up to Liu Feng and patted his shoulder, saying, "Based on the names and chronological order on the books, just find the last few records of this divine power user."
Liu Feng scratched the back of his head, seemingly understanding, and began searching.
Gu Ya knew that people would unleash their strongest potential before death, and moreover, most divine power users were killed.
To survive, they would undoubtedly exhaust their potential to fight back, perhaps even grasping some secrets at the last moment.
Liu Feng started from the first row, and Liang Yuwei from the last.
Gu Ya went to a middle bookshelf, activated his concentration, and began searching.
He pulled out the 785th book on the second to last shelf of this giant bookshelf. Upon opening it, the first page read: [Year 64 of the New Era, the 23rd recorded divine power user, Outcome: Death.]
[Cause of Death: Killed by the Chongli Cult.]
[Age at Death: 9 years old.]
[Circumstances of Death...]
"What could a nine-year-old do?" Gu Ya murmured. He flipped further, but the content was of no reference value.
He returned the book to its place and climbed the wooden ladder. From the second row from the top on the far right of the bookshelf, he pulled out a book and opened the first page:
[...The 22nd divine power user, Outcome: Death.]
[Cause of Death: Killed by the Bairen Cult.]
[Age at Death: 7 years old.]
"This is even more absurd..." Gu Ya said as he returned the book to the shelf.
This bookshelf contained the experiences of five divine power users, all of whom had died young without exception.
Moving to a front row in the middle, this section recorded the experiences of three divine power users, all still dying in their youth.
After searching through three rows, all yielded the same result.
Gu Ya, like a cold-blooded robot, read through the experiences of each divine power user at the time of their death.
"Some children were killed when they were only at a beginner level. All of them were done by the Chongli Cult," Gu Ya said coldly.
As he continued to browse, Gu Ya found a pattern.
Some bookshelves recorded a large number of people, indicating that these individuals died before acquiring great power and didn't need detailed examination.
Therefore, he only needed to look for bookshelves with fewer recorded individuals but more books per individual.
This meant that the divine power user had experienced many events and possessed great power.
Gu Ya found the book he was looking for on a bookshelf in the fifth row from the front.
This divine power user occupied two entire rows of bookshelves, with thousands of records. There was definitely value to be unearthed.
Liu Feng suddenly shouted in anger, "This is too tragic! How could those bastards do this!!"
With a "bang," Liu Feng punched the bookshelf, shaking loose a layer of dust!
"Gu Ya!!" Liu Feng's voice was filled with anger and choked sobs as he shouted, "What exactly does the Chongli Cult do? They don't even spare two-year-old infants!!!"
The bandaged figure coldly reminded him, "Forty minutes remaining."
Liu Feng suppressed his grief and anger, wiped away his tears, and returned the book to its place, moving on to search for the next target record.
Gu Ya knew that these giant bookshelves were essentially tombstones for the divine power users of past eras, recording the tragic and bloody history of each individual!
But for his own sake, he had to set aside his emotions.
The book in his hand was very interesting. This, the 16th divine power user named "Xiao Yuhuan," had reached the same strength as Gu Ya. He had created many things and conducted very rigorous and detailed research on the Divine Machine Urn, recording numerous experiments. He was a typical scholar.
It was a pity that his end was gruesome, and not even his complete body remained.
Gu Ya sighed softly and returned the record to the bookshelf.
He glanced at the time; only twenty minutes remained. Gu Ya had spent too long lingering in front of Xiao Yuhuan's records.
"This method of searching isn't working," Gu Ya thought, glancing at the bandaged figure standing at the entrance of the bookshelf.
The bandaged figure held its sword, its sapphire mechanical eyes fixed on Gu Ya's every move.
"The Old Days Faction actually sent it alone to monitor me, and they don't know I've lost my divine power. Therefore, this bandaged figure is more than enough to resist the three of us. I must find a way to deal with it."
Gu Ya climbed down from the wooden ladder and steadily walked towards the bandaged figure.
When they were only three meters apart,
The bandaged figure tightened its grip on its sword, narrowing its mechanical eyes, wary of Gu Ya's every action.
But Gu Ya turned about a meter to its side and walked towards the next bookshelf, disappearing around the corner.
The bandaged figure breathed a slight sigh of relief, loosened its grip, and followed lightly.
As soon as it turned the corner, the bandaged figure froze. The bookshelf was empty; Gu Ya was gone!
Even more bizarrely, its sword was suddenly drawn, and it began to swing automatically in the air!
The cold, hard blade traced unpredictable trajectories, suddenly pointing and lunging towards the bandaged figure's chest!