I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 181 - 181 180. Remains of the Sage_1

Chapter 181: 180. Remains of the Sage_1 Chapter 181: 180. Remains of the Sage_1 Lu Ban had never been to the desert before.

In his mind, the desert was not some beautifully idyllic natural wonder but a dangerous, arid forbidden zone where disaster could strike at any moment.

As a child, he’d watched documentaries about explorers disappearing in Lop Nur, and movies portrayed the peril of quicksand traps, instilling in Lu Ban a deep-seated fear of the desert.

Now, the silver desert stretched endlessly before him, as far as the eye could see, only sand upon sand, with no structures, vegetation, or other people in sight.

Not even the sky harbored birds, a world of absolute silence.

It was in such a world that Lu Ban heard a buzzing sound.

It was like the sound of metal vibrating under atmospheric pressure, commonly likened to the sensation of a fighter jet’s wings cutting through the sky.

The buzzing noise came from ahead, and at the same time, Lu Ban saw a column of light shooting straight into the sky.

“What is this?”

He asked Giant Arm, who was beside him.

“It seems this ruin does indeed conceal treasures,”

Giant Arm didn’t answer directly, but instead said excitedly.

“That light is from the Remains of the Sage, we need to speed up. When such a light appears, other Wasteland Hunters will surely see it. In the Wasteland, sometimes humans are more fearsome than monsters.”

“Remains of the Sage!?”

Lu Ban feigned surprise, but inside, he was indeed a little excited.

He had not expected that this mission would lead him directly to the Remains of the Sage, a stroke of extreme good fortune.

“When the famous die, they often do not decay but may continue to walk the earth for certain reasons. We who live in the Wasteland know well that the ruins holding the Remains of the Sage usually contain precious treasures.”

Flame Heart explained beside him.

“The famous ones?”

Lu Ban heard a term he had never heard before, and it piqued his interest.

“Haha, those are beings beyond our reach, you don’t need to focus on them. Just know that the famous ones are all Saints. There’s a saying in the Wasteland, ‘Below the Saint, all are as ants.’ It would be no harder for those beings to crush you than it is to crush an ant.”

Excitement sparkled in Giant Arm’s eyes.

“Then why are you all so excited? Shouldn’t we be avoiding them by all rights?”

Lu Ban asked, still curious.

“A dead Saint differs from a living one. Most dead Saints move according to a special pattern; as long as we know their names, we can largely avoid danger,”

Flame Heart explained again.

“Plus, our treasure map has already revealed the name of the Saint who guards this place. It seems those people did a lot of research beforehand.”

Giant Arm patted the map on his chest.

“What is his name?”

Lu Ban vaguely felt that names held a special significance in this world. Wasteland Hunters used nicknames instead of their real names, and Saints were known as the famous ones. While it wasn’t like in some stories where knowing your true name gave others control over you, perhaps in the Wasteland, a name was even more important than life itself.

After all, even in death, a Saint with a name could still move as Remains, wielding great power, while many people, though alive, were as insignificant as ants.

“Achilles.”

Lu Ban was stunned.

He hadn’t expected to hear this name from the mouth of someone from the Foreign Domain. Although the pronunciation was slightly different, indeed, it was the name that was passed down in Lu Ban’s own world—the name that Giant Arm had just referred to.

The hero of the Trojan War, the legendary warrior.

Does the Foreign Domain also have such a legend?

“What’s this name?”

Shia asked from the side, her eyes showing curiosity. After all, it concerned the high concept of a Saint; for a Mage, understanding the divinities and extraordinary powers of the Foreign Domain was also a part of their studies.

“Not sure, the names of famous people are always strange. The blueprint just records that this Saint was a very strong fighter, a supremely belligerent fellow.”

Giant Arm shook his head.

“Where do these names of the Saints come from?”

Lu Ban was filled with intense curiosity.

Being named Achilles truly means possessing extraordinary fighting prowess, brave and good at fighting?

And if one were called Einstein, would they be unrivaled in intelligence, surpassing others with their wit?

Lu Ban felt he could change his name to something invincible, and maybe he would then be able to stop time.

“Not clear. When the famous ones were alive, nobody knew what their names really were. It was only possible to find out after they died. No one knows where their names come from, maybe from the ruins. There was a rumor before; an ordinary Wasteland Hunter entered the ruins, found a treasure, and became a Saint. That’s what everyone says.”

Giant Arm, too, was interested in these matters, but to him, Saints and the like were too far away; they could only be part of campfire adventure stories.

“That’s why the ruins on the Wasteland are so alluring.”

Flame Heart smiled.

“And more importantly, becoming a Saint could alleviate the symptoms of the Crystal Nucleus Disease. People like us struggle to live past twenty-five, but Saints can live for dozens of years, even over a hundred.”

For a time, everyone fell silent.

The group quickened their pace as if intending to reach the ruins before others could discover them.

However, there was a certain distance to the location of the light, and it wasn’t until dusk fell that Lu Ban could see something out of the ordinary amidst the vast expanse of sand.

It was a deserted city, its buildings long collapsed, eroded walls crumbling, barely making out the outlines of its former prosperity.

The scale of this city was immense; the horizon that Lu Ban could see was occupied by it. He roughly estimated that it was at least the size of one of Jiangcheng’s districts—a remarkable feat for a world several hundred years post-apocalypse to preserve such a large district.

The buzzing and the light had long gone, but Lu Ban was aware that the light had radiated to the regions for hundreds of kilometers around. To expect that only their team was present in such a wide range was somewhat naïve.

Therefore, entering the ruins as soon as possible and fighting for every second was imperative.

Mounting camels to enter the ruins, the group had no time to admire the semblance of the old era. Giant Arm took out the blueprint he had been carrying and guided the team forward.

The sky darkened, stars rose, illuminating the world.

Without lighting torches, the group placed their camels under a wall that seemed sturdy, sorted out their luggage, and prepared to delve deeper into the ruins for exploration.

Lu Ban discovered that the technology level of the Wasteland seemed to have regressed to a quite backward stage or perhaps due to the emergence of abilities from the Crystal Nucleus Disease, people had become indifferent to the development of technology.

In the five-person squad, there were no firearms and almost no bows and arrows; they used torches to explore the city and determined time by looking at the sun and stars. There was almost no trace of modern civilization to be seen on these people.

In the dim light, they had just left their camels when they saw flickers of firelight emerging in a corner of the city.

Those were certainly other Wasteland Hunters.