Chapter 236: Golden Crow, Jade Toad

At the edge of the isolated island, on the sandy beach, seven elderly men gazed curiously at the stone stele.

It was covered with mysterious Star Script. Though they couldn’t read it, they more or less knew what Star Script was.

“Star Script—this is truly a treasure. Even if it’s just an ordinary stele, it’s worth fighting over among the major factions.”

The seven elders looked excited, but the happiest among them was Xu Hengzhi.

Since they couldn’t leave, this Star Stele could only be given to Jiang Changkong.

With such a valuable find, wouldn’t Jiang Changkong look after the Xu family once he got out?

Jiang Changkong descended from the sky and landed beside the seven men, examining the stone stele.

It was one meter long and one foot wide, entirely pitch black.

This wasn’t a Star Stele, nor did it have any martial arts patterns. There wasn’t the slightest fluctuation of Star Power. It seemed to be just an ordinary stone stele inscribed with Star Script.

“President Jiang, this is it. We can’t read what’s on it, but Star Script is always valuable. Please take it,” the seven men quickly said.

Jiang Changkong looked at the stele and tapped it with his hand—it was very hard. “Have any of you tested this Star Stele with Star Power?”

“We wouldn’t dare. Some Star Script artifacts aren’t indestructible—even Star Spirits can damage them,” the seven men shook their heads repeatedly.

Nodding slightly, Jiang Changkong began to examine the Star Script.

His recent study of Star Script hadn’t been in vain—he actually recognized every character on it.

However, he was still somewhat of an amateur, and translating it was a bit of a struggle.

“You go ahead and study the instruments. I’ll try to translate this first,” Jiang Changkong said.

“Changkong, you can read Star Script?” the seven men asked in surprise.

“Professor Yun is my teacher. She taught me,” Jiang Changkong replied.

“No wonder you came to rescue Wang Ruiqing,” Xu Hengzhi said, suddenly understanding.

Jiang Changkong raised an eyebrow. “What? Are Professor Yun and Wang Ruiqing very close?”

Professor Yun had only told him to help if he could, and to forget it if he couldn’t.

She hadn’t mentioned a word about her relationship with Wang Ruiqing.

“Her husband,” Xu Hengzhi whispered. “It was after Wang Ruiqing’s accident that she withdrew from the Void Realm.”

Jiang Changkong didn’t ask further. “You go ahead with your work. I’ll focus on translating. Don’t disturb me.”

“Alright,” the seven men nodded repeatedly.

“This should be the character for ‘star,’ this is ‘sink,’ this is…”

Jiang Changkong translated word by word, sentence by sentence. As Professor Yun had taught him, Star Script was generally read from left to right.

He carefully translated the content on the stele, knowing that a single wrong character could completely change the meaning.

Immersed in his translation, the seven men didn’t dare disturb him, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

The sun rose and the moon set, and in the blink of an eye, it was deep into the night. Jiang Changkong finally finished translating the Star Script on the stele.

After checking it several times to ensure there were no mistakes, he flipped the stele over—there was nothing written on the back.

“I’ve finished translating. Do you want to take a look?” Jiang Changkong asked, holding up his phone.

He had saved all the translated content into his phone.

The seven men quickly shook their heads. “President Jiang, you can keep it to yourself. We’ll continue examining the instruments.”

They had to pay attention to every detail while checking the instruments. Some people didn’t hide Star Stones in just one place.

They were all experts at hiding Star Stones, and hiding too many in one place was troublesome, so many divided them into batches.

Some were lucky enough to find others’ Star Stones while hiding their own.

Jiang Changkong knew what they were thinking—they were worried that the content might involve certain secrets.

What if there’s some high-level treasure or something, and Jiang Changkong kills to silence them to prevent the information from leaking?

He ignored them and began examining it himself: “Stars sink, all things are buried and destroyed, a dilapidated Immortal Palace, a damaged divine statue, star arrays filling the sky, boundless starlight, the legacy of the Celestial Gods lies hidden within the stele.”

“Immortal Palace? Celestial Gods?”

Jiang Changkong stared blankly at the content, then looked at the stele again.

This Immortal Palace definitely wasn’t the one on Earth.

“What does this mean? The stars sank—how did they sink? Where did they sink?”

Jiang Changkong frowned. Did “stars sink” mean they were destroyed?

The next line said “all things are buried and destroyed,” so presumably everything died. A dilapidated Immortal Palace, a damaged divine statue.

Star arrays filling the sky, boundless starlight—if there were an Immortal Palace and a divine statue, it would be normal to have star arrays and boundless starlight too.

But this last line—”the legacy of the Celestial Gods lies hidden within the stele”?

Did this world still have Celestial Gods?

Were Celestial Gods immortal?

Jiang Changkong suddenly felt a surge of excitement. Why not become an immortal or a god first, achieve immortality, and then figure things out?

That’s it, happily decided—strive to become an immortal and a god!

“Then, let me see what legacy this stele holds.”

A wisp of golden light flowed from Jiang Changkong, forming a blade aura that struck the stele.

Clang!

The stele trembled, leaving a faint blade mark, but the Star Power directly surged into the stele and disappeared.

“As expected, just like the warship.”

Jiang Changkong had only speculated before, since it wasn’t impossible for something to be pitch black like the warship’s material.

When he asked the seven earlier, they hadn’t touched it, so naturally, they wouldn’t have discovered this.

This time, he was prepared and immediately released the hilt, withdrawing his power.

The seven glanced over and breathed a sigh of relief. He must have discovered something incredible and was about to destroy the Star Stele.

Good thing we were smart and didn’t look!

“The long blade can leave a mark. It seems this material isn’t all that sturdy.”

Jiang Changkong picked up the stele and walked to the side.

Since the seven didn’t want to look, he wouldn’t show them. He’d study it himself to see what was hidden inside.

Boom!

Jiang Changkong punched the stele, his body glowing with golden light, six Power Runes stirring.

The stele bore a half-inch-deep fist imprint. His Diamond Indestructibility had reached full mastery, and his fist was even more powerful than a sixth-tier long blade.

Still, the recoil hurt a bit.

“Oh right, isn’t there something else I can try?”

Jiang Changkong slapped his forehead. How could he have forgotten the Lunar Sword?

He took out the Lunar Sword, activated the Mystical Tai Chi Art, gathered Moonforce, and lightly traced the tip of the sword across the stele.

Far beyond Jiang Changkong’s expectations, the sword tip slid through, easily cutting open the stele.

Against the sword tip, this stele was as fragile as Tang Ruoxi’s glove back then, pitifully brittle.

“What level is this sword tip exactly?”

Jiang Changkong muttered. This stele could absorb Star Power, so it definitely counted as high-level material.

With his pure strength and full force, he only left a half-inch fist imprint.

He could feel that the sword tip could just as easily tear through his defenses.

Even now, he couldn’t block this terrifying sword tip!

A faint wave of heat emanated, and a golden-glowing round bead rolled out from inside the stele.

“Could this be the legacy of the Celestial Gods?”

Jiang Changkong picked up the bead. It felt slightly scorching but had no effect on him.

A wisp of Star Power flew out and merged into the bead.

Suddenly, it was as if a floodgate had been opened. A torrent of memory fragments and textual information surged into his mind.

“Two phoenixes perch upon the parasol tree, the Golden Crow is born upon the sun.

Beneath the Moon Laurel Tree, a woodcutter stands; upon the Taiyin Star, a jade toad resides.”

An ancient, hoarse voice echoed, speaking in the pure and archaic Star Script.

Among the flood of images, a sun grew a towering parasol tree, while a Taiyin Star bore a Moon Laurel Tree.

A Golden Crow and a Phoenix alighted upon the parasol tree. Beneath the Moon Laurel Tree, a crystalline, jade-like toad stood alongside a middle-aged figure, chopping at the tree.

What the hell… don’t tell me this is mythology?