The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns Chapter 265: Exploring The Martian Civilization Ruins

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With Bloodclaw’s guidance, we found an entrance to the underground city of the Martians, which were nothing more than old ruins by now. The stairs looked rather old but worked just fine; the stone they were made of had barely degraded, although everything else had done so, I believe.

“Wow, this is like in the movies where they explore ancient ruins!” Orion said happily as he walked downstairs very quickly.

“Orion! Don’t go so fast; you may end up falling,” I said.

“It’s not like I’ll get hurt, Mom!” Orion giggled.

“Maybe, but I don’t want your fall to provoke a huge crack or for the entire ruins to fall over us, so mind your steps, dear,” I reiterated.

“A-Ah… right, okay,” he nodded, calming down a little bit.

“So Bloodclaw, where’s that place where the rest of the Saurians are?” Yanisse asked the ex-priestess of the dinosaur people. “I am very interested in meeting your people as well; if possible, I wouldn’t mind acting as an ambassador for Earth. I know Bing Xue could do it as well, but she’s always busy, so I don’t know if she’ll want to fully commit to these interspecies relationships. I usually work a lot with that back on Earth with people and species coming from the Tower to live on Earth.”

“Is that so?” I wondered. “Well, I hadn’t really imagined myself working that way either, but aren’t you already working too hard, Yanisse? Perhaps leaving this job to someone else would be better.”

“Don’t worry about me; I can handle these things easily. I’ve got a lot of experience already,” Yanisse smiled, acting confidently.

“Oh well, if you insist,” I nodded. “Bloodclaw, you heard her already.”

“O-Of course! If the goddess’ ally desires such a thing, I don’t have any objections,” nodded Bloodclaw. “It might be hard at first though; are you prepared?”

“I’ve dealt with worse things, I think… There was once a large tribe of Ice Trolls that moved to Earth, and they tried freezing a whole city to live there; chaos ensued afterwards,” Yanisse said. “Back then people thought they were monsters and tried to kill them. But they were really strong; even A Ranks struggled. They were lucky I was sent there first, and I was able to find out they were actually just sentient people looking for a home… After I gave them a good beating, they understood that what they were doing was wrong, and they moved on to a larger area for themselves. Since then, I usually visit them every year to bring them anything they need.”

“In which country did they end up settling down?” Wondered Peperina. “I know Earth has a lot…”

“Russia, where I was born,” said Yanisse. “They live in an isolated, snowy area near the southern mountains. Nobody else lives there, and there’s plenty of game in the form of giant wild monsters, so they actively hunt them down, lowering the chances for monsters to attack the cities; hence, why the government agreed to keep them around.”

“Oh wow, you sure know how to do these things…” I nodded. “Haha, well, not like I lack the experience either; back in Murim I did several similar things… and others not so similar. Nonetheless, I believe this is indeed a job made for you; I can tell you’re rather passionate about it.”

“Haha, do I look to be passionate about it? I suppose I am…” Yanisse giggled, feeling embarrassed. “I just like interacting with people that aren’t just humans… It’s weird, right?”

“Not at all!” I said. “I am also always amazed about the multiple cultures out there and how interesting they are. I always yearn to learn more about people and their way of life, even after I’ve lived so long.”

“Hmm, I see…” Yanisse smiled with a nod, looking at me with her beautiful blue eyes; she seemed slightly enamored. “I can tell why I would fall for someone like you then…”

“Oh my, saying such things out of nowhere,” I giggled, caressing her head. “Oh well, Bloodclaw, where might the Saurians be at?”

“I believe they hide a few floors underground…” Bloodclaw said. “Hmm, yes, I can feel their psychic waves; they’re down there… Ah! Is there another member of my family? I can sense a strong Psychic Aura.”

“Is that so? That might make things easier on our end then,” I nodded with a smile. “Let’s go, hurry.”

We quickly started walking faster; the children played along even when I told them not to, grabbing old relics they found lying around, and Rainbow Eyes brought her mother the dried hand of a Martian mummy… Martian Man would definitely not like that.

“A dried hand…! Doesn’t smell tasty, though,” Fiery Hair sighed, throwing it away.

“A-Ah…” I had tried to stop them, but she had already thrown it away, and we had to keep moving… so at the end I decided to let that slide. “Don’t go grabbing things that don’t belong to you, alright? Let’s be respectful to these ruins. Martian Man would be very upset if he knew what you did… Athena, put that cube down into the ground.”

“Eeeh? But it’s like some sort of piece of ancient technology! I want to check how it works!” Athena complained.

“Oh, Martian Technology, huh?” Merneith wondered, as she looked at the cube. “I would also like to check it! In my world, we never found any of these ruins… So I believe Martians might have never existed in that timeline, for one reason or another… So I am quite interested in an Alternate Mars Timeline where there were aliens living in here.”

“Hm…” I sighed. “Let me ask him, or I’ll feel pretty guilty.”

I quickly talked to Martian Man through telepathy.

“Yes, I can hear you, Bing Xue.”

I asked him about it.

“Ah, I see… I have little use for those things… My people are resting. I would ask you to leave them alone if possible, but those things… well, they are only objects. We never treasured physical objects; they were simply used for their purpose and nothing else. You can keep those you find along.”

“Really? Thank you for being understanding!”

Now I felt even worse. I left that dried hand on the floor; I’ll send a Doppelganger to put it back.

And get some more loot, heh.

“Alright, he said that it’s fine,” I nodded. “But don’t touch the corpses or the mummies, okay? If you find a piece of someone, leave it there and don’t go grabbing it around; it is terribly disrespectful, and Martian Man told me to not desecrate the tombs, understood?”

“Y-Yes… sorry…” Rainbow Eyes apologized again.

“Lots to learn, boy,” Fiery Hair sighed, patting her head. “Be always mindful, respectful! Especially with ancient civilizations! Great people lived here.”

“I understand, sorry,” Rainbow Eyes nodded. “I-I’ll be mindful, I promise!”

“Good,” I nodded. “Alright, Merneith, Athena, you can keep the cube. I sent a Doppelganger to place the hand back where it came from and secure some more technology, but we won’t take excessively, okay?”

“Okey!” Athena nodded happily. “Big sis! We can keep the cube!”

“Yaaay!” Hekita said happily. “I’m still getting the hang of this, but I wonder if it’s compatible with Spiritual Energy like Anubis?”

“We can investigate once we get to that,” Merneith said. “First we have to figure out a way to… open it or activate it. Well, that’s part of the fun! Heheh…”

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