Revelation of the Way of Heaven

Chapter 126 Ancient Civilization

"Extravagant, so incredibly extravagant."

When Qin Xiaochuan stepped into this ancient palace, he felt his worldview and outlook on life were deeply shaken. Putting everything else aside, there were at least two things he could no longer believe.

First, he doesn't believe that some ancient kings and generals lived such extravagant and decadent lives for enjoyment;

Secondly, he doesn't believe that humans will become more and more perfect with social progress and human evolution.

His idea stemmed purely from what he was seeing.

In this palace of unknown size, there was a towering wall that reached into the clouds. Not to mention anything else, these walls were all made of pure white jade. The five-meter-high palace gate was glittering with gold and was made entirely of gold. The fist-sized rubies inlaid on the gate were countless.

Inside the palace, the ground beneath their feet was naturally paved with various jade or gold stones, and colorful gemstones were almost everywhere. As for the buildings and furnishings in each palace, they were all made of exquisite and luxurious crystals, jade, and glittering gold and jewels. The ground was covered with a carpet woven from animal fur, either red fox fur, pure white snow wolf fur, or the feathers of some kind of bird, without a single blemish.

As for the artificial mountains and viewing stones in the garden, they are all made of large pieces of agate and jade, and the insulation around the tree trunks is made of animal fur, not to mention the magnificent fountain and the clear lake landscape.

Of course, in such a magnificent place, art is indispensable. In fact, along their journey, they saw exquisite sculptures and lifelike murals everywhere. The palace's musical instrument workshop displayed all kinds of musical instruments inlaid with gemstones, such as bells, drums, guqin, xiao, and many others that he did not recognize, too many to list.

Don't think these things are for admiration. This is precisely the basis for his conclusion. Because a cane made of gold does not bring more comfort, but rather increases the owner's burden. Similarly, these things do not actually bring more comfort to the owner, but are used to show off the owner's pitiful vanity.

As for the second point, the Wu tribe, who are said to possess divine power, can be considered to have reached an extremely high level of human evolution. Yet, in the end, they became so vulgar and shallow. This shows that people tend to degenerate after they become wealthy to a certain extent, let alone become more and more perfect.

"Sigh, I'm getting visually fatigued from looking at all this." Guo Shiyi sighed, then blew on a golden chair, and a fox fur cushion on the chair turned into dust and disappeared into the hall. She then slumped into the chair. When she first arrived, this little girl rushed in with her eyes shining, but after only a short while, she was already complaining of being tired.

"Just how wealthy were the people in ancient times? This is too extravagant! Compared to the descriptions of 'Epang Palace,' which stretched for three hundred li, this is nothing!" Guo Shiyi said weakly, half-closing her eyes to rest.

"I still feel like I'm dreaming." Qin Xiaochuan shook his head vigorously, hoping to clear his mind. He asked Han Kexin, "Are you sure this place was built by the Witch Clan and not aliens? It's too illogical."

"But I think it makes perfect sense." Han Kexin's answer greatly surprised them.

"Why? Where is the logic in this?" He looked at her in surprise. How could this be considered reasonable? Was her thinking as incomprehensible as that of the ancient witch clan?

Han Kexin gently stroked the golden armor hanging on a golden clothes rack. The armor was studded with colorful gems. Next to the armor was a cloak made of white fox fur. Han Kexin did not answer his question directly, but asked him in return, "How about we take two pieces of armor back for you to wear?"

"Then forget it." He said speechlessly, "I can't afford something so valuable. Besides, what era are we living in? Who wears armor now?"

"What's there to be unable to afford?" Han Kexin said coldly. "But these things are indeed not worthy of us. There must be some golden armor for self-defense here. We can take one or two pieces." As she spoke, she left the golden armor and began to look around.

Qin Xiaochuan looked at her helplessly, still preoccupied with the question from earlier, and couldn't help but ask again, "You just said that everything here is perfectly reasonable, but exactly how is it reasonable?"

"You really have a poor understanding." Han Kexin said, giving him a disdainful look.

Being interrupted by the beautiful woman like that, he felt his face flush slightly and was too embarrassed to ask any further questions. He only heard Han Kexin coldly explain, "It is precisely because of these luxurious things that the powerful Wu Clan was wiped out. Since ancient times, no matter which country, race, or dynasty perished, the reasons for their demise are actually very similar, and they can never be separated from these eight words."

"Which eight characters?"

Han Kexin gave a strange look, which seemed to be both mockery and disdain, and then coldly said, "Straying from the right path and indulging in extravagance and debauchery."

"You mean, the ancient witch clan was because..." He looked at her in surprise, not expecting her to say such a thing. He had always thought that the lessons recorded in ancient books had nothing to do with modern humans. After all, we live in a technological age and no longer have to worry about material scarcity.

"Besides themselves, who else could defeat them, who possess almost divine power?" Han Kexin asked him.

Qin Xiaochuan looked at her speechlessly, unable to refute her words.

Han Kexin ignored them. Sure enough, she found a gold-threaded garment in a cabinet. It was woven from extremely fine gold threads, as thin as a cicada's wing, and naturally had little weight, but it was incredibly strong, practically impervious to swords and spears.

After wandering around the palace for a while, the five of them discovered that it was filled with luxurious and extravagant decorations. In addition, there were a large number of items that required spiritual energy to use, such as spiritual energy fans, ovens, palace carriages, and so on. This showed that the ancient times were a wonderful world that used spiritual energy as its energy source.

"It's really strange. There were so many great inventions during that period, why haven't any of them survived?" Qin Xiaochuan couldn't help but say. He felt that taking any one of the items from this palace would be a major discovery for the archaeological community.

"Tangible things will eventually disappear, only intangible things can endure," Han Kexin said calmly. "Actually, it's not that nothing was left behind in ancient times."

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.

"Since ancient times, the theory of the Eight Trigrams, the theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, as well as the Book of Documents, one of the Confucian classics, have been the cornerstones of the development of Chinese culture. However, no one can explain their origins to this day, and it can only be proven that they are ideas left over from ancient times."

At this point, Han Kexin couldn't help but sigh, "But the great wisdom contained in these ideas cannot be surpassed even with today's infinitely advanced technology. If such a great civilization had not existed in ancient times, how could it have summarized those theoretical systems that could reveal all the mysteries of the universe?"

Well, he had to admit that she had once again shattered his understanding of history.