The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 528: The Statues

Aldrian and the others flew closer to the central area as a new scenery appeared before them. In recent days, while flying through the forest, they had found more of the obelisk structures hidden among the tall trees, each one triggered by Aldrian.

They also stopped from time to time to cultivate, as this place was unlike any other. Thanks to that, they had saved many years of cultivation, with their progress advancing at a speed never seen before. Some of them were already nearing their breakthrough points. For example, Xin Haotian was close to breaking through to the middle emperor stage.

While they kept moving toward the central area, they also wondered if this place truly had no danger. They had not encountered any traps or anything dangerous on their journey so far, which made them question whether there was any danger in this place at all.

Aldrian also found it strange that there were no traps or some kind of obstacle. With so many treasures possibly hidden here—and the entire area being a cultivation sanctuary—there had to be something in place to prevent just anyone from entering.

They also wondered about the fate of the people they had sent back then. Where were they? Had they already died? If they were still alive, then where were they now? That was the question they wanted answered, because they still had not found any trace of the groups the Xin family had sent at that time.

Now, after flying through the forest for days, they finally found another new scenery—and this time, they saw a river. With a width of a kilometre, the river contained still golden water that exuded thick divine energy.

All of them, including Aldrian, were truly shocked by what they saw, because the golden water stretched to the horizon, and all of it was pure divine energy. This was a liquefied form of divine energy, which meant the source of this river was so rich with divine energy that it had caused the energy to turn into liquid.

This followed the same concept as the pond created inside the Doria and Vindas Empires, which was full of divine energy. The crystal of divinity produced dense divine energy, and because there was no one who could absorb it, the energy became so rich that it liquefied and formed a pond.

But here, the dense divine energy had formed a river that stretched toward the horizon, leaving all of them agape. Just how rich was the source of the divine energy at its origin, to have turned it into a river?

If this rich energy could be absorbed, how much could a cultivator’s cultivation be raised? They could not imagine it, because they did not fully understand the potential of divine energy within their bodies. They knew that they needed to reach a certain stage of cultivation before they could absorb divine energy.

The cultivation stages they currently had—from Beginner to Emperor—were still considered "mortal" compared to the higher stages. They could only dream of the day when the "restrictions" on this continent would be lifted, so they could continue their cultivation journey. They wanted to experience that before their lifespans caught up to them.

On the other side of the river, they saw a vast grassland with many large statues, all of them facing toward the palace on the floating land. These statues were shaped many kinds of living beings, which made them realize that the statues represented many races.

The statues were placed at a distance from one another and seemed to follow some kind of order. For some of the group, the placement of the statues looked scattered and without meaning. But for Aldrian, as he observed the scattered statues, he could see that they were not placed carelessly.

The statues stretched all the way to the horizon, and he saw that all of them faced the palace in the sky. Their heads were lifted to gaze at the palace itself, and their expressions were full of respect and worship.

They finally landed near one of the statues. The statue was enormous, reaching a height of a kilometer. The one they landed near was a statue of a human man wearing regal robes, with both hands resting on the hilt of a sword that was stabbed into the ground.

Even though it was only a statue, all of them could still see the handsomeness of the man in front of them. They also felt the charisma exuding from it. They did not know why, but it felt as if the statue might be alive—perhaps because of how detailed it was. Aldrian felt the same, but he focused on something else. There was something about the man’s face that felt familiar to him.

"What a magnificent statue. Is this a statue of a cultivator from the higher realm?" one of the elders said.

"I think so. All of the statues here must be of people with high status in the higher realms. That must be why they were built—to immortalize them."

"All of them are looking at the palace in the sky. I wonder what they saw, and what is inside that palace. For all of them to look at it with expressions like that... could it be a sign that the dragon and the phoenix are inside the palace?"

They continued discussing the statues while Aldrian was thinking about something else. He looked at the face of the statue and narrowed his eyes.

If it felt familiar, then he must have already seen the real man behind this statue in one of his visions. After a few moments of thought, he finally remembered seeing this face in some of his visions, although he still did not know who the person was.

He looked at the statue and activated his Eyes of the Heaven.

---------------------------------

The Statue of the Daryl Harrison

Description: A statue of the fourth patriarch of the Harrison noble family, a noble family located in the Eighth Heaven.

----------------------------------

"Daryl Harrison?" Aldrian thought, and after a few moments, he raised his eyebrows. Suddenly, memories from his visions of this man named Daryl replayed in his mind in a split second. He had already met this man a few times in his past life, and just like the others, Daryl was one of his followers.

Aldrian then looked at the other statues before turning to the rest of his group.

"You all can observe this statue. I’ll check the other statues," Aldrian said to them.

Patriarch Xin looked at Aldrian and nodded.

"Be careful. Although we still have not faced anything dangerous, we cannot drop our guard," he said. Aldrian nodded and flew toward the other statues. Patriarch Xin watched Aldrian as he flew farther away, then asked Xin Haotian beside him without looking at him.

"What do you think about him, son? Don’t you feel curious about him with all of his strangeness?"

"Don’t you feel that since we entered the core area, Aldrian seems more and more like a being separate from us? I mean, separate in the sense that he is not someone who belongs to this continent. More like he is from somewhere else, or maybe—just maybe—from the same place as the dragon and phoenix. It’s really strange, considering he claims he was born inside the secret realm," the patriarch added.

Xin Haotian did not answer immediately but looked at Aldrian as well.

"I also have this feeling that Aldrian is someone who is not supposed to be here. Since we arrived, he seems to be the only one who can trigger something in this place, and his expression..." Xin Haotian paused, remembering Aldrian’s expression here.

"He is like he knows this place."

Aldrian was calm, as if he knew exactly what he was doing inside this place. With the strangeness of the environment and Aldrian’s behavior, and how the place seemed to react to him, Xin Haotian even began to think that this place was built with Aldrian in mind. It was as if this place was created just for him.

"Do you think the dragon and phoenix built this place to wait for someone like Aldrian to step in?" Xin Haotian asked his father.

Patriarch Xin remained silent and couldn’t help but consider the possibility before letting out a sigh.

"This is getting stranger. But if the dragon and phoenix are actually waiting for someone like young Aldrian, then what is his real origin? Didn’t you say his parents are nobles of this continent?" he asked.

Xin Haotian turned silent, unable to answer the question. Aldrian was an enigma to him. On one hand, he was someone born on this continent, but his very existence felt out of place here. Their journey inside the core area had only made him more convinced of that.

While Xin Haotian and Patriarch Xin were discussing him, Aldrian flew around observing some of the statues. Each of their faces made him remember his past visions, as he had seen each face at least once in those visions.

"Are these statues of those with a certain status in the higher realms? Maybe that would explain why they can meet me directly and appear in my visions," he thought.

He kept flying, and as time passed, he flew deeper into the central area. Then suddenly, he stopped as he saw a certain statue, and without hesitation, he approached it.

The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮