It must be because our figures were too small; compared to that white giant, we barely reached its ankle, so it hadn't noticed us at all. It merely continued its ponderous march slowly toward the distance.

Although it seemed unable to see us, we nervously took cover behind the stone tablet just to be safe. Because there was a long distance between us and the giant, compounded by the snowstorm raging overhead, we could only discern that it was a colossal white mass, perhaps fifty meters tall, its back blanketed in thick layers of accumulated snow.

"What in the world is that thing?" Number 12 asked me, tense. "I thought this was the kingdom of the Progenitor Beasts.

Why is this giant here? And there shouldn't be any humanoid life forms in this era, right?" I glanced at him and whispered, "How do you know it's a living creature and not machinery?" Number 12 pointed toward the giant's retreating silhouette.

"I can feel its presence, its qi. I can sense the aura of anything alive.

Can't you feel it?" I nodded slowly. "This thing has absolutely no psychic energy..." I studied its back intently and suddenly realized that wasn't entirely accurate.

Around the entirety of the massive form, there seemed to be a delicate, black electrical mesh, constantly interfering with my senses. I muttered to myself, "Or perhaps they possess a special ability that shields them from the observer’s probes." At this moment, Number 2’s face was quite pale.

He said, "That’s right. This thing radiates an overwhelmingly powerful presence." We remained rooted to the spot, cautiously peeking out from behind the stone tablet to observe the giant.

The giant didn't seem to be in a hurry; after a few steps, it stopped, its head constantly rotating, as if scanning for something. I was certain it wasn't looking for us, as its gaze was fixed on the horizon, level with its height, rather than downward toward the ground.

"What on earth is it looking for? It seems to be searching for something," Number 12 asked me.

My thoughts differed from his. Looking at the swirling snowstorm, the faint outline of the massive ice city in the distance, and influenced by the recent wave of melancholy, I suddenly felt this giant resembled a sentinel standing at the very edge of time, watching for the dawn of light for a thousand years.

I glanced at the Yehuo (Cinder Fire) in my hand; it showed no agitated response. Given this, I concluded that despite the giant's formidable aura, it wasn't emanating any sense of danger.

"Let's go take a look!" I suddenly proposed. Number 12’s eyes widened as he stared at me.

"Look? Look at what?" I pointed toward the giant's back.

"Let's go see who or what it really is." Number 12’s expression shifted instantly. "Are you kidding me?

If we go over there, we'll die. We are intruders!" I shook my head.

"No, I don't think so. Maybe...

maybe it’s waiting for us." With that, I prepared to move, but Number 2 grabbed my arm, shook his head, and said, "Look over there." I followed the direction he pointed and saw, protruding from the snow cover, a human hand. Its five fingers were clenched into a fist, entirely black, already dry and frozen solid.

I frowned. "Someone has been here before us!" Number 2 suggested, "Let's see if it’s that father and son who disappeared.

Perhaps they stumbled upon this place and were attacked." I nodded. That desiccated hand was something I couldn't ignore; it felt like a crucial clue we couldn't afford to miss.

The three of us slowly approached the withered hand. Soon, we could clearly see that it was indeed a human hand.

The reason it appeared black wasn't due to burning, but because all the blood had frozen solid, causing the skin to darken. The hand was stiff as a dead branch, looking terribly grim.

There were no sleeves on the arm, so we had no idea what the person was wearing in life, nor how long they had been dead. The three of us exchanged glances.

Then, Number 12 prepared to reach out and pull the hand, intending to haul the body out of the snowdrift. Number 2 immediately stopped him.

"Don't act rashly. That hand is frozen brittle; a tug and it will snap off.

And before we fully grasp the situation, it’s best not to touch anything." Then he directed us, "Come on, dig away the snow around it." We nodded, and the three of us crouched down, using our hands to scrape away the snow on the ground. With our combined efforts, we quickly excavated the owner of that hand.

Then, all three of us were stunned, because the person before us was a woman, and she appeared to be heavily pregnant, her abdomen massively distended. As for her face, it was completely obscured because she was wearing a strange crystal mask.

The crystal mask was hexagonal, and its surface wasn't smooth but faceted with edges and corners, much like a cut diamond, translucent and refracting a dazzling light. On the forehead of the mask, there was a small diamond-shaped hole, through which a glimpse of the woman's darkened forehead was visible.

Despite the many angles, the areas corresponding to the eyes and mouth on the mask were smoother, outlining a pair of large eyes and a slightly smiling mouth. Number 12 examined the mask and asked, "That’s odd.

How does this person breathe? Wearing a mask like this, it seems impossible to get air." I also found it extremely strange.

Even if this woman didn't wear the mask often, she wouldn't be able to breathe for the duration she had it on. Did she not feel uncomfortable?

Just then, Number 12 said, "There's one possibility: this woman committed suicide while wearing the mask." I rolled my eyes at him. "Have you ever seen someone commit suicide by holding their hand up this high?

Why go through the agony of suicide if it's that difficult?" Number 12 argued back, "Maybe that hand position was part of some ritual, you never know." I chuckled. "Are you watching too much anime, or did you join some cult?

A hand gesture? You’re overthinking things." As we were talking, Number 2 frowned slightly and said, "This woman wasn't incapable of breathing, but the way she breathed wasn't through her nostrils." His words sent goosebumps crawling across our skin.

Number 12 asked, "Then where did she breathe from?" Number 2 pointed to his own forehead, looking at us with intense seriousness. "Here!" I was instantly so shocked I couldn't speak.

After a moment, I managed to ask, "H-how do you know that?" Number 2 pointed at the female corpse. "Listen for yourself." After saying that, he moved away from the corpse, motioning for me to approach.

I swallowed hard, stammering, "Listen? Listen to what?" Number 2 replied, "Put your head close to her forehead and listen carefully.

I’ll hold her hand steady in case anything unexpected happens." Hearing this, I became even more unnerved, because what he implied was that this woman might still be alive! However, since he had said it, I felt too embarrassed to refuse, especially since I considered myself a former tomb raider; there was no reason to fear a corpse.

Even if this was a high-level undead, I had to bite the bullet. So, I stopped arguing and slowly brought my head closer to the woman’s mask.

At that moment, no matter how fiercely the blizzard howled around us, I could hear the booming of my own heart and my heavy breathing. I swallowed with difficulty again.

My eyes were fixed directly on the area where the mask suggested her eyes were, trying to see if she was looking back at me. All I could see was the hazy black skin beneath the mask, and I truly dared not imagine how terrifying the face beneath that mask might look.

I moved slightly closer, and sure enough, I heard a faint sound resembling breathing. This breath was incredibly faint, making a sound only about once every three seconds.

But I heard it with startling clarity, and the sound of respiration was definitely coming from the small hole on the forehead, not the nose area. I was transfixed, glancing back at Number 2 intermittently, but he just frowned, saying nothing.

In reality, the more I heard that faint breathing, the more anxious I became. I quickly pulled my head up and grasped the woman's wrist.

After fumbling for a while, I confirmed the corpse had no heartbeat; she must be dead. I turned to Number 2 and asked, "What’s going on?

Is this one of those paranormal incidents, you know, the supernatural stuff?" Number 2 shook his head. "No, it’s not a paranormal event.

This person... is not human." I paused, then said, "She looks like this, and you say she's not human?

What else could she be?" Number 2 continued to frown, softly chanting an Amitabha, and stated, "This person is not of the same stage of civilization as us. She is from the era of Patriarch Randelight and the others, documented in the scriptures." Patriarch Randelight?

The name suddenly felt familiar, like I’d heard it somewhere before. I thought about it and immediately recalled—wasn't Patriarch Randelight the Dipankara Buddha?

Legend says the Buddhist world is governed by three generations of Buddhas: the Past Buddha, the Present Buddha, and the Future Buddha. Randelight Buddha was the sovereign of the era that has passed.

Our current Buddha is called the Tathagata Buddha, or Shakyamuni. The Future Buddha is Maitreya.

When Tathagata Buddha no longer presides over the Western Heaven, Maitreya will take his place. I vaguely remembered hearing a high monk mention that the epochs of these Buddhas—past, present, and future—might not strictly be calculated by billions of years, and that Randelight, Tathagata, and Maitreya might not refer to singular entities, but perhaps just codenames for certain eras or stages.

At the time, it all went over my head, but now it seems the Buddhist theories might not be baseless. This ancient female corpse before us is actually described in Buddhist scriptures.

Then Number 2 continued, "The civilization immediately preceding ours was a matriarchal one. The beings of that time, if you can call them intelligent life, looked similar to us, but they reportedly possessed a third eye on their forehead capable of communicating with the divine, and they could breathe through their eyes.

Women could commune with the gods through their wombs and possessed abilities beyond human imagination."