Recap
The dwarves, with their demanding work and love of drink, consumed vast quantities of food. This enormous oven, five meters high and tens of meters wide, could roast any beast to crispy perfection.
But the oven in the mural was damaged, its stores of food depleted. A group of angry dwarves shook their hammers at the sky, where a winged dragon, flames erupting from its maw, hovered. A small arrow pointed to the dragon’s head, with a single word beside it: Silver.
Shen Chaomu’s gaze snapped to Long Shiyu.
“It wasn’t me,” Long Shiyu said quickly, his expression earnest. “I don’t know anything about this.”
Shen Chaomu’s expression clearly indicated his desire to grab Long Shiyu’s horns and shake him.
“Ying!” Long Shiyu whimpered. Another misdeed was exposed.
“Don’t cry,” Shen Chaomu consoled, pointing at the mural. “Those dwarves have more reason to cry than you.”
Yang Zhiming, who had been practically vibrating with excitement, finally calmed down. “If I could see Xijia, the divine bird, I would die happy,” he declared. “Look at its magnificent wings, its beak! It’s a dream machine!”
“Perhaps you will,” Shen Chaomu said with a smile.
They ventured deeper, the long corridor opening into a spacious chamber with multiple branching paths. Signs in dwarven script labeled each path: “Forging Room 1,” “Heat Dissipation Room 1,” “Energy Furnace 3.” Murals adorned the walls, each depicting scenes related to the corresponding path.
They left a marker robot and followed the signs toward “Forging Room 2,” the general direction from which the bell’s sound seemed to originate. The passage descended, the terminal indicating they were seventy meters below the surface. The massive, exposed portion of the pyramid was merely the tip of the iceberg.
They reached the forge.
The space was vast, its thirty-meter-high ceiling crisscrossed with a network of tracks and machinery. It was a dizzying sight, yet strangely organized. In the center stood a colossal melting furnace with thirty openings, its tracks still laden with metal ingots.
The robot scanned the metal. No results found.
An unknown alloy. And the dwarves had clearly mastered its smelting. With a furnace this size, their output must have been staggering.
Yang Zhiming, speechless with awe, traced the tracks, his gaze glued to the furnace’s schematics. “This is incredible,” he breathed. “We have to document this.”
The others, less mechanically inclined, were still impressed by the scale and complexity of the facility.
Shen Chaomu’s spiritual power swept the room. It reveals an undersea tunnel, powerful emotions lingered, painting vivid scenes from the past. Steam billowed, sparks flew, and molten metal flowed.
The dwarves, their voices echoing in the cavernous space, worked tirelessly.
“Faster! Faster!” they yelled. “The earth and sky belong to machinery!”
Shen Chaomu paused, his senses detecting an anomaly.
“What is it?” Long Shiyu asked.
“There’s something here.” Shen Chaomu approached a section of wall, tapping it lightly. The sound revealed nothing unusual. But his spiritual power detected a hidden seam.
“A secret door,” he said. “I wonder where it leads.”
“Maybe to the pantry,” Long Shiyu suggested hopefully.
“Not everything revolves around food,” Shen Chaomu said dryly.
They would need a special method to activate the hidden door, likely a complex mechanism. But they had a more… direct solution.
Shen Chaomu deployed robots armed with lasers. The pyramid’s metal was incredibly strong, and the lasers, powerful enough for space mining, cut slowly.
Long Shiyu and Shen Chaomu explored the chamber, examining the murals. These depicted scenes from dwarven life, their early forays into space, and the strange landscapes they encountered.
The dwarves had reached the stars before the orcs, even before humans, their mastery of metal and energy fueling their powerful ships. Born with weak spiritual power, they relied on spider-like robots for protection. Their explorations had yielded a wealth of new metals and knowledge of distant galaxies, their experiences likely surpassing even the Alliance’s understanding of the universe.
The murals depicted fantastical landscapes – towering mountains, gravity-defying castles, winged beings soaring through purple skies, and transparent, fish-like creatures with beating red hearts.
“Have you been to many other galaxies?” Shen Chaomu asked.
“It depends on your definition of ‘many,’” Long Shiyu replied. “Not compared to other dragons, but more than most humans. Our lifespans are different.”
“True.” Shen Chaomu smiled. “Perhaps there are unknown species observing us, just as we observe mayflies.”
“Probably,” Long Shiyu agreed. “I’ve met a few races that live longer than dragons.”
“Is that why you rejected me?” Shen Chaomu asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Our lifespans are different. I’ve been thinking…we’ve shared many experiences, but perhaps they weren’t exciting enough for you.”
“No, that’s not it,” Long Shiyu said quickly. “I’ve been to many places, but no one ever told me such interesting stories.”
“But you…”
“No buts.” Long Shiyu launched himself at Shen Chaomu, burying his face in his chest. “I love our adventures.”
Before this, his journeys had been solitary, aimless. Working odd jobs in Cassandra, fighting and stealing in Bei En, robbing the dwarves’ oven in Tabu… He had seen those forests and deserts, but his memories were hazy, lacking the vibrancy of his recent experiences.
He could work, he could kill, he could steal, he could fly. He had seen countless worlds, taken what he wanted. But something had been missing.
A fleeting journey, even one spanning a century, held little significance if it lacked depth and meaning. Long Shiyu’s past was a blur of forgettable events, each day indistinguishable from the next.
It wasn’t until he met Shen Chaomu that his life gained color. The raid on the Cassandra auction house, the midnight escape through the flower streets, the shared wonder at Bei En’s undersea currents, the stories woven amidst the swaying ship… Shen Chaomu, with his knowledge and enthusiasm, had transformed those mundane memories into cherished experiences.
Now, they were exploring a hidden dwarven city, the ancient tree looming above them, the wildfire raging in the distance, and the promise of a legendary bird hidden within the earth.
Each adventure filled in the gaps of his past, painting a vibrant tapestry of shared moments and discoveries.
“Nine hundred years,” Shen Chaomu said, breaking the silence. “In that dream, I saw a friend from nine hundred years ago, and I saw you. His name was Li Ming. I checked; he existed. Was this the light rain’s doing?”
“I don’t—” Long Shiyu began, but Shen Chaomu interrupted him.
“Was this a chance encounter, or a reunion after a long separation?”
Long Shiyu, flustered, started to chew on his fingers.
“Don’t do that,” Shen Chaomu chided gently, pulling his hand away. “But I’m glad you didn’t reject me because of our different lifespans.” He smiled. “I can change many things, but not that.”
They continued along the corridor, the murals depicting a variety of civilizations.
“It’s strange that the dwarves disappeared,” Shen Chaomu mused. “Their technology was unmatched.”
“Maybe they ran out of food,” Long Shiyu suggested.
“No, it definitely wasn’t that,” Shen Chaomu said with certainty.
They reached the end of the mural. The narrative shifted, focusing on a human figure clad in an orcish cloak.
[This tall traveler brought new metals to our furnace, allowing us to forge again. We welcomed her with our strongest brew.]
The next image showed the traveler politely declining a massive barrel of alcohol. An arrow pointed to her head, with the label: Great Benefactor.
[This giant from afar shared her tales with us.]
Dwarves sat around a fire, listening intently as the woman, her cloak removed, recounted her experiences. The firelight illuminated their faces, the stars shining brightly overhead. And on her clothes, the emblem of a dragon-hunting family was clearly visible.
Shen Chaomu froze. The emblems were similar, lions battling dragons, but each family had a unique variation.
This was the Shen family crest.
The remaining murals depicted scenes from the woman’s travels: battling dragons alongside her clansmen, diving into the ocean depths, exploring mountains, sharing meals with a farm family, and wandering through a crowded, unfamiliar city.
Shen Chaomu reached the final mural, depicting a serene scene in the vastness of space. Starship wreckage and drifting meteors formed a cosmic graveyard, punctuated by the distant glimmer of stars. And amidst this silent expanse, a colossal whale swam peacefully, spouting water from its blowhole. Before it, a woman held a baby, her free hand outstretched toward the creature, her long hair floating like seaweed in the zero gravity.
“The Ghost Whale,” Shen Chaomu breathed, recognizing the creature instantly.
Several times larger than the wrecked starship, its three dorsal fins were like sharpened blades. Humans were insignificant before its might, their vessels mere minnows. Those who had encountered the Ghost Whale spoke of its presence with a chilling despair. It was a creature of another dimension, the cold void of space its domain. What could possibly defeat such a being?
Yet, the mural depicted a scene of tranquility.
The woman’s narrative ended here. Shen Chaomu frowned. No records mentioned any human interacting with the Ghost Whale. Was this artistic license, or something more?
Then, a memory surfaced. The isolated tombstone, the elder’s words: “She was a ‘whale whisperer.’”
Shen Xing.
The forgotten woman, her life shrouded in mystery. A wave of unease washed over him, the feeling of stumbling upon a secret too profound to comprehend.
A sharp clang echoed behind him. The robot had breached the hidden door.
___
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