The ancient city has been sleeping in the underground world for an unknown number of years. Almost half of the city is submerged in water. The city is full of high-rise buildings, like a forest made of steel. From the appearance, these buildings look like tall beehives and abstract painters. The buildings that appear in the weird world of painting were originally supposed to be majestic big cities, but due to the erosion of time, everything looks lifeless. The buildings in the city are covered with yellow vines, and the air is filled with dark green mist. , simply like the city of hell in the doomsday scene.
Not long after walking around the collapsed statue, this is what Yalin saw, an ancient and mysterious city that was forgotten in the deepest part of the world.
"It's really breathtaking┉┉" Yalin said with admiration while standing on the rock wall and looking at the whole city.
Even without mental detection and search, Yalin could already feel that there was a familiar atmosphere in the huge pyramid-like building in the center of the city that was attracting him. There is no doubt that this is his ultimate goal. The soul stone, which can improve the recovery of soul energy, is sending a signal of guidance to him.
Along the way, Yalin used mental detection to search the entire city but found no traces of life. The road to here was filled with all kinds of weird and deformed terrifying creatures, but not even a shadow could be seen in this city. This made Yalin feel very weird. The pyramid building where the Soul Stone is located seems to have a strong shielding force. Even the White Dragon King's powerful mental detection cannot penetrate this shield.
There are no corpses, no ruins, and all buildings are intact. This gloomy and uninhabited ghost city does not seem to be caused by war or disaster, but rather seems to have been actively abandoned by the residents and abandoned. Yalin came to a conclusion after flying to a spire and looking down at the lonely uninhabited city below.
What happened that made the residents here abandon their city
The creatures set in the Cthulhu Mythos are not just deformed monsters. On the contrary, these creatures are species with extremely high intelligence. In the original novel, they even shared a lot of science and technology with humans, among which Chaos Nyarlathotep 'The messenger and representative of all Tibetan gods, a symbol of ridicule and contradiction. It is said that he taught Einstein the atomic bomb and the theory of relativity, with the purpose of making human beings accelerate self-extinction faster and complete the task of 'cleaning up'.
If 'Panda' really created these creatures based on the Cthulhu mythology, then these ancient creatures shouldn't just disappear out of thin air┉┉
When he arrived under the Great Pyramid, Yalin was surprised to find that this huge building was actually suspended on the water. It was as if someone had cut off the gravity underneath the building as a prank, causing the entire building to be uprooted and floating. in the air. Judging from the size of the stairs and the height of the entrance and exit, Yalin judged that the former residents here were almost as big as the giant dragon.
The interior of the pyramid building is much more complicated than it looks from the outside. There are forks and stairs everywhere. In addition, the builders have laid out the layout of the place in the same way, which is enough to make all outsiders who step here feel completely disoriented inside. But it’s okay. What's more, the fluctuations of the Soul Stone pointed out a clear path for Yalin. Even the walls and gates blocking the way would be shattered into pieces by the terrifying power of the White Dragon King.
Finally, after forcibly destroying the last thick gate, Yalin finally saw the residents here┉┉or rather the numerous remains of the residents here.
At this moment, Yalin finally understood the purpose of this pyramid building. It was not a tomb but some kind of escape room. The residents of the city were lying in something that was somewhat similar to the hibernation device on the spaceship in a science fiction movie. . The device has stopped running, but the sleepers inside have turned into white bones. Looking around, there are thousands of sleep devices placed up and down in the entire building. It was originally an escape room with hope for survivors. It was as lifeless as a giant's coffin.
Yalin walked forward slowly and looked at the ancient city residents inside. From visual inspection, it seemed that the shortest of these humanoid creatures was over ten meters tall, and the taller ones were almost more than twenty meters tall. They did have some Cthulhu The characteristics of the residents in the myth seem a bit similar to demons such as mind flayers in appearance. As he was walking, Yalin suddenly stopped. In a dormant device in front of him, a huge remains of a city resident was holding a much smaller remains. It seemed to be a mother and son or a father and son.
They may look scary in appearance, but on the inside they have the same affection and values as humans. If they were still alive, they might not be incommunicable creatures.
Yalin stood in front of the hibernation device and gently saluted the two remains. Then he walked to his ultimate goal here without wanting to look any further. In front of the huge machine with blue light beams flowing in the center of the building, the machine The middle part directly above is a cylinder connecting the ground and the ceiling. A dazzling blue stone in the middle is slowly flowing and exuding a strong breath of soul energy. Yalin can feel these soul breaths. The flow formed a chaotic shield, making his own mental detection power completely useless.
"My respected master, this is the Soul Stone. Bringing this back to your body will increase the recovery of soul energy." Nemo's voice suddenly sounded in Yalin's mind.
"Nemo, do you know why the Soul Stone is in this machine?" Yalin did not rush forward to take the Soul Stone without any hesitation. Instead, he asked Nemo in confusion why the Soul Stone was here. in the machine.
Nemo replied respectfully: "Yes, my respected master┉┉"
From Nemo's answer, Yalin understood that the Soul Stone seemed to be used by these ancient creatures as an eternal and inexhaustible energy source to drive these dormant survival devices. It is known that after tens of thousands of years, the Soul Stone is still transmitting energy continuously, but the device itself has lost its function due to aging, causing all the residents sleeping inside to die.
After listening to Nemo's explanation, Yalin nodded, sighed, floated into the air, approached the Soul Stone and stretched out his hand. However, the moment he touched the Soul Stone, the sound of gears seemed to be heard in the huge room. It seemed that this building had not completely lost its function in the tens of thousands of years.
A bright light suddenly flashed past. Yalin quickly took away the stone and turned around alertly. The powerful power of frost had already been condensed in his hand. However, the bright light was not a sudden enemy, but just a 3D projection. It's just a picture. On the picture, a creature like a sea devil looking at the deep sea is wearing a black robe, squirming its arms like octopus tentacles and speaking an unknown dull language. Even the White Dragon King, who lived thousands of years ago, has no record of this language in his memory.
"Nemo, do you know what he is talking about?" Yalin asked Nemo in confusion. Although he didn't know what the other person's words meant, Yalin could still read something from the other person's tone and body movements. Messages, fear, sadness, despair, as well as warnings and prayers.
"I'm sorry my respected master, my database does not contain the language data of this creature." Nemo told an answer that surprised Yalin.
"No, there are things you don't know." It was obvious that Yalin had developed the habit of getting accurate answers to Nemo when asking basic questions about the world.
Nemo also said apologetically: "I am really sorry, my respected master. What I am carrying are all the language, customs, and cultural information of the creatures created by the Creator in the new era. For those that have perished and been abandoned, There are not many detailed records about the creatures of the old times.”
Yalin sighed helplessly and said, "So there's no way to know what's going on here?"
"It's not impossible, my respected master." Nemo's voice continued to ring in Yalin's mind: "I can try to decipher and translate this language, but it will take some time."
"Okay, then let's start now." Yalin nodded while holding the soul stone.
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In the private hotel where the chairman of the Free City Chamber of Commerce in Hordaland County is staying, sitting in a luxuriously decorated bedroom, Lawrence Wake is listening to the reports of the major chambers of commerce through the magic device communication device, and dealing with different factions and merchants in the Free City. The benefits brought by the Chamber of Commerce Chairman's chair are indeed attractive, but there are also a lot of spikes on it. People who have no skills will hurt themselves if they sit on it. The merchants in the free city are a whole, and different merchants are brought together through the integration of interests. No one can do without each other, just like the weapons merchants cannot do without the ore supplier merchants, the horse merchants cannot do without the grain merchants, and all Businessmen cannot do without themselves, who have a monopoly on the transportation industry. Lawrence knew very well that the Free City was like a unique ecosystem. If there was a problem in any link, the ecosystem would collapse.
Today Lawrence did not listen too much to the income reports of the major chambers of commerce in the city. Instead, he focused more on matters in the Forest of Mist. The year-round heavy snow has saved the Kingdom of Saxony in the far north from two events. The war with the Og barbarians, if the snow continues like this, the situation on the continent may be slightly rewritten.
Lawrence tapped the table gently with his fingers and said: "No matter whether other countries' aid to the Kingdom of Saxony is reduced or not, the Free City's supplies this year are still guaranteed to supply the Kingdom of Saxony."
I touched the communicator and heard a reply: "Is this good? Mr. Lawrence! Every time a part of the supplies supplied to the Kingdom of Saxony will be misappropriated by the Kingdom of Belrama, isn't it too wasteful to continue like this?"
"It doesn't matter! After all, the snow this time really makes people feel uneasy. If it stops suddenly, the situation will still be the same as before. It's not a bad thing to gain some friendship from the Kingdom of Saxony at this time. There is no need to save a little. Throw away greater interests." When Lawrence said this, the young and beautiful maid behind him slowly poured him a cup of hot coffee.
The Og barbarians have always been the public enemies of all the countries in the continent, and the Kingdom of Saxony is located on the front line of the battlefield against the Og barbarians. In order to resist the Og barbarians, all the countries and free cities in the continent have given the Saxon kingdom a large amount of materials and supplies. food aid. On the surface, it seems that the Kingdom of Saxony has made huge sacrifices for the safety of the entire continent, but Lawrence understands some inside stories. In some cases, the Og barbarians have maintained the continued existence of the Kingdom of Saxony, which is not considered very powerful. The reason is that the Kingdom of Saxony in the far north is actually not suitable for crop cultivation. Food has always been the most scarce material in the country. If the Og barbarians stop invading, then various countries will also stop food aid to the Kingdom of Saxony, which may lead to The Kingdom of Saxony had to find other ways to obtain food supplies.
However, the most important point is the so-called greater 'benefits' mentioned by Lawrence. Although the Kingdom of Saxony is in the far north and is not suitable for farming, it can obtain a large amount of forest resources close to the Mist Forest, and there have been many forest resources within its borders. There are many high-value mineral resources, including six of the rarest magic crystal veins. The value of these six magic crystal veins alone is estimated to be in the trillions of Lien. It’s just that the Kingdom of Saxony does not have that many manpower and enough technology to mine these ores, and the countries that usually eye it covetously do not dare to openly invade the Kingdom of Saxony due to the importance of the Kingdom of Saxony, which has always resisted the Og people. territory.
The Kingdom of Saxony in the far north, which is very short of manpower and technology, is a starving people holding a mountain of gold. The various advantageous resources possessed by the Free City can quickly fill the vacancies of the Kingdom of Saxony. If this heavy snow really keeps falling like this, then it is necessary to get ahead of other countries and take control of the important mineral resources in the Kingdom of Saxony. For a country like the Kingdom of Saxony that cannot produce food, I am afraid that it will be a last resort in the future. Various precious minerals were exchanged for food supplies.
But that’s what it’s like, a lone wolf with claws and fangs removed can become a loyal watchdog!
Thinking of this, Lawrence nodded with satisfaction, but suddenly raised his eyebrows. Let's not talk about the Kingdom of Saxony. The recent rise of the Kalsemmen Empire in the continent is a real troublesome problem. It recently defeated Kresse. After the army of the Kingdom of Sri Lanka, the slave merchants who originally thought they could get a large amount of 'goods' actually only got a few fractions. The Kalsemmen Empire gave a soft policy to the captured prisoners of King Creses and the residents of the occupied areas. In the previous wars of some countries in the continent, selling enemy prisoners and subjects was a common method to support the war. The ruthless Prince Augustus actually made such a move, which really made Lawrence feel a little hard to understand.
The Creses and Kalsemmen empires both came from the same origin after the collapse of the Perlas Empire founded by Overlord Galceric. It can be said that they were two countries that were split from one country with the same blood┉┉ Every time he thinks about this, Lawrence always has some uneasy premonitions in his mind. Perhaps it is necessary to find out more about this prince!