Besides that stirring passage on the stone wall, countless names had been carved into it as well — clearly the signatures of Danxiao Ancient Sect's disciples.
Every name was written in bold, sweeping strokes, without the slightest trace of despair or lamentation one might expect from men marching to their deaths. Instead, each character radiated a serene clarity that had seen beyond life and death.
The writing reflected the people behind it. Even after untold ages, Jiang Chen could glimpse the soaring heroism of those Danxiao Ancient Sect disciples simply by gazing upon these names.
They had marched to the front lines to repel invaders from beyond the domain. They had known they would die, yet they faced it with open-minded optimism and the clarity that comes from transcending the fear of death.
"What exactly happened in the ancient era? For an entire sect this powerful to send every last member to the battlefield — and for every single one of them to fall?"
Jiang Chen's mind churned with questions. He found the origin of those foreign enemies rather suspicious as well.
But the stone wall held no further records.
He followed the stone steps along both sides of the wall, climbing upward, and arrived at the upper reaches of the cliff. Three towering statues loomed before him.
Each stood roughly three to four zhang tall, perched on the high precipice. No matter how the endless river of time had washed over them, nothing could diminish the majestic bearing of these three figures.
Beside the cliff, a stone stele stood erect, inscribed with three characters — Ancestral Master Cliff.
Jiang Chen nodded to himself. So this was the sacred ground where the founding masters' statues were enshrined.
The three statues were strikingly lifelike. Though they were sculptures, they seemed to contain faint traces of ancient willpower, giving Jiang Chen the impression that an intangible presence lingered around them, as though they might draw breath at any moment.
Jiang Chen knew that many powerful cultivators could fuse their own will and spiritual sense into statues, lending a semblance of vitality to inanimate matter.
On the various planes, even more formidable beings merged their divine consciousness into statues and paintings, refining them into clones.
Those with lesser power could only embed a wisp of spiritual thought.
Those with truly extraordinary abilities could manifest an entire clone — one that even possessed autonomous awareness and could hold independent conversations.
Jiang Chen studied the three statues. They contained traces of ancient will, but obviously had not yet reached the stage of developing autonomous consciousness.
It was a good thing it was Jiang Chen who stood here. Any young cultivator from the Myriad Phenomena Region with an insufficiently developed spiritual sense would have been unable to perceive the anomalies in these statues at all.
He stood at the foot of the statues, absorbing the ancient aura they exuded.
Beneath the base of each statue, streams of mysterious energy radiated outward. Despite being suppressed by the stone sculptures, a force beneath seemed to pulse and surge, on the verge of bursting free.
This piqued Jiang Chen's curiosity. He surmised that something remarkable must lie beneath the statues.
Earlier, the inscriptions on the stone wall had stated that any surviving disciple of Danxiao Ancient Sect who returned should revive the sect.
But every last disciple of the sect had evidently perished.
And he, Jiang Chen, appeared to be the first person to set foot here since antiquity. By that logic, he should be able to inherit the Danxiao Ancient Sect's legacy.
Yet when he looked around in bewilderment, aside from the spiritual energy seeping out from beneath the three statues, he had no idea what the sect could possibly offer as an inheritance.
There was nothing but an entire mountainside of graves, patch after patch of crumbling walls and broken ruins, and this single high cliff. Standing atop it, Jiang Chen activated his Heavenly Eye Divine Pupil and scanned every direction, but found no special legacy.
He wandered around the cliff several times without discovering anything.
As for the spiritual energy leaking from beneath the three statues, he guessed it probably came from some form of Spiritual Medicine.
Jiang Chen had no intention of disturbing them. The three founding masters' statues were clearly the sect's most sacred ground, and even if something valuable lay below, extracting it without disturbing the statues was impossible.
He would not deign to crack open another sect's sacred statues for the sake of a few Spiritual Medicines. That was not something he would do.
It would not only be a desecration of the statues, but an affront to the entire sect.
If this had been an evil sect, Jiang Chen might have had fewer reservations. But the deeds of Danxiao Ancient Sect — though he had not witnessed them firsthand — could be read in the impassioned words on the stone wall. This was a righteous and honorable sect, one deserving of genuine respect.
Naturally, Jiang Chen would not disturb their ancestral sacred ground for the sake of a few herbs.
Besides, he was not particularly eager for the Danxiao Ancient Sect's inheritance. After all, with the memories of his previous life, even a sect as impressive as Danxiao could not compare to what he had known.
After circling a few more times and finding nothing, Jiang Chen felt a twinge of disappointment, though not enough to dwell on it.
"Forget it. The Danxiao Ancient Sect has passed into history. Perhaps there is a legacy, but I am not the one fated to receive it. No matter — time is pressing. I should find a way out as soon as possible."
Jiang Chen had not forgotten that he only had two days left inside the Illusory Wave Mountain. And if he remembered correctly, he had entered the ancient ruins through the area of the Ancient Medicine Garden. The formations in that zone opened only once every three thousand years.
If he did not leave soon, he might well be trapped here for three millennia.
At that thought, he approached the three statues and cupped his fists respectfully. "The Danxiao Ancient Sect gave everything to protect their homeland against invaders from beyond the domain. Every member died in battle — a sacrifice worthy of the highest admiration. I, Jiang Chen, have visited this place. Though I was not destined to receive any legacy, I will remember what happened here and seek out the right person to carry on your legacy."
In the end, Jiang Chen held genuine respect for the Danxiao Ancient Sect.
No matter how one looked at it, for such a glorious ancient sect to send its entire body of disciples to the battlefield — even at the cost of sealing their gates forever — was something truly extraordinary.