The people of the Jiao Dian city didn't know that this was but just the start of the disaster.

~RUMBLE~

The tremors got stronger and stronger as more buildings fell.

"SAVE THE PEOPLE!" The mayor ordered his men.

"YES MAYOR!" the cultivators under him replied before getting to work.

The mayor himself tried to stop the larger of the buildings from falling onto the citizens of his city. He even tried to use his cultivation base to restrict the tremors but discovered that they were different than he had thought.

"It's not a natural earthquake?" The mayor muttered to himself.

~CRACK~

And just as he said this, a loud cracking sound could be heard as the earth split apart. The people watched on in horror as four massive pillars rose up from the ground. The pillars had hundreds of runes carved onto them and looked to be ancient.

"What in the name of heavens!" The people exclaimed in shock.

They had never thought that their peaceful day would turn out to be like this.

"Let's go check the pillars out! There's bound to be something good there," Some of the cultivators though had completely different ideas from the commoners.

For them, this seemed to be a fortunate encounter instead and they felt lucky that they were in the city today. A few cultivators that belonged to the city were pissed through as the pillars had destroyed the buildings that they owned.

One of the four pillars had even come straight out of the Mayor's residence. The mayor looked on in anger as everything he knew was getting destroyed. But he didn't know who or what to blame as there was no part here to blame.

Lin Wu was watching everything from the top of the platform as well and was intrigued.

"These pillars… they are much bigger than the ones I've seen before. Seems like this location is special than the others." Lin Wu muttered to himself.

He also got to see the mayor of the city and the other cultivators. The mayor was at the Nascent Soul realm, that too at the Adult stage of the Nascent Soul realm which made him quite strong, yet he was unable to save the people of his city.

Most of the cultivators under him were at the Core condensation realm and below with a couple of trusted guards that were at the Nascent Soul realm as well. These Nascent Soul realm guards were nowhere near the mayor though and were working in a different part of the city according to the mayor's orders.

"System, scan the area." Lin Wu ordered, wanting to know more.

~DING~

——

SCANNER: Activated

SCAN COMPLETED: Map Updated

NOTIFICATION: New markers added.

——

Lin Wu opened the map and saw the new markers on it.

"Hmm… so there are around twenty Nascent Soul realm cultivators here. The mayor and one more person are the strongest and are at the Adult Stage of the Nascent Soul realm while the rest are all at the Child stage or below.

At least there is no one at the Dao Shell realm here." Lin Wu said upon observing the map.

He then switched the layer of the map to underground and saw what was it that was actually appearing.

"Oh? Another temple, huh… seems like it's like the first stone feather that I got, hidden in a temple." Lin Wu said upon seeing the map.

While Lin Wu was getting happy upon seeing the temple, the people below were only getting terrified.

~BOOM~

The sound of a loud explosion came as the ground below directly exploded. Unlike the other parts in Dread Coil Marsh where the ground was mostly soil and rocks, the ground here was solid due to being tiled.

These tiles were made from large slabs of solid rock that had been laid in the ground. These were restricting the temple from coming up but the temple exerted a great force, breaking apart these tiles and emerging.

"LOOK! What is that!"

"A RUIN! A rare ruin!"

The people who were watching it all exclaimed, their words varying according to what they felt. For some this was the worst day of their lives while for some this was perhaps the best day.

"Surround the Ruin! Don't let anyone get close to it!" The mayor immediately ordered.

The mayor's words echoed across the city and were heard by each and every person in the city. Even Lin Wu heard it high up in the sky.

"Oh? What does he wanna do now? Claim it for himself or something else?" Lin Wu wondered to himself.

~shua~

~shua~

~shua~

The cultivators quickly surrounded the temple according to the orders of the Mayor.

"City Mayor Jiao! What is the meaning of this?" One of the Nascent soul realm cultivators spoke.

He seemed to be the leader of a small group of cultivators. Along with him were a few Core condensation realm cultivators as well.

"Don't even think of getting close to the ruin. It does not belong to you." City Mayor Jiao Stated.

"Ridiculous! It's a fortunate encounter, anyone who can enter it will be eligible to get it. Who do you think you are? Even if you are the mayor you cannot order us like this." The man replied.

"Huh? Do you not see the damage everywhere in the city? The ruins and everything in it will be used to rebuild it and compensate for the people's losses!" City Mayor Jiao declared.

His voice was booming and echoed across the city once again. All the citizens heard it and felt pleased.

"City Mayor is benevolent!"

"City Mayor is generous!"

"Praise Mayor Jiao!"

The people were pleased quite quickly and rejoiced. After the disaster, this was the minimum relief they could get. But while the citizens were happy, the other rogue cultivators and private organizations were not happy.

By now more Nascent Soul realm had gathered around and their numbers had reached eight. They all looked at the City mayor Jiao with fury in their eyes.