Chapter 237

Haise Annah didn't know about Vivian's "auditory hallucinations," so she was confused at this moment: "What do you mean?"

"Vivian has been hearing someone calling her name recently, but it's all auditory hallucinations," Hao Ren said as he turned to Vivian. "You heard it again? Hasn't it gotten better lately?"

"This time it's clearer than before," Vivian said with a solemn expression. "I can almost be sure it came from that direction..."

The direction she was looking at was the end of the dark tunnel. In the firelight that Bobcat was happily swaying, only deep darkness remained beyond ten meters, and the end of the tunnel was as if shrouded in the unknown of eternal malice, with an icy aura.

Hao Ren felt that Vivian's "auditory hallucinations" were probably not as simple as he had initially thought. And now that he thought about it carefully, it seemed that her "auditory hallucinations" had indeed appeared after the people of the Haise Annah family discovered this other dimension.

If there was indeed a connection between the two, then what kind of secrets were buried in this ancient city?

The end of the tunnel was an open hall, empty and seemingly without any anomalies.

After passing through the stone arch of the corridor, Hao Ren looked at the empty space in front of him and asked, "Are you sure the sound came from here?"

Vivian looked around. Emerging from the long corridor was a square space that resembled a temple. Judging from its location, it should be near the central area of the Great Pyramid. Like other places in the temple, it had been completely emptied. Apart from the huge stone pillars in the center of the hall and the reliefs on the pillars, which could not be moved, the various ornaments and magnificent statues that might have been displayed here were long gone.

"The sound is gone again," she gently tapped her forehead. "But it definitely came from this direction."

Since the stone statue legions outside would not enter the Great Temple, the data terminal had returned to Hao Ren's side at this moment. It flew around the empty hall and finally stopped next to the square granite pillar in the center of the hall: "The patterns on this pillar seem to offer some clues!"

The granite pillar was the most conspicuous thing in the hall. Each of its sides was several meters wide and covered with exquisite relief patterns. Even after thousands of years of wind and frost, the patterns remained in fairly good condition. The data terminal quickly restored a few damaged areas on the reliefs using restoration technology, and then discovered that the pictures on this pillar were actually the continuation of the murals in the outer temple.

At first glance, Hao Ren saw the mask pattern on the pillar: the Utos residents used this mask to represent their great "ruler."

"This depicts what happened after the death of the Utos beast, when people built a new city on the head of the beast," the data terminal indicated different positions on the relief with different beams of light. "Here, and here, are all continuous."

"'The Great Ruler' did not leave after killing Utos, but settled on the plain. Ta neither accepted the offerings of mortals, nor did ta leave this place, but silently watched the construction of the new city..." Lily pointed to the cuneiform writing below the relief and slowly read, "Under the leadership of the surviving Beast Head Gods, people spent twenty-two years to finally build Utos, and established four other cities on the fertile land around Utos."

"On the day the city was completed, the sky of Utos was surrounded by cloud rings. The Wolf God among the Beast Head Gods believed that this was a great omen, so he led the other Beast Head Gods to the cave on the plain to request the Great Ruler to protect the city. They offered barley, chickpeas, honey, and roasted meat smeared with spices, and made offerings to the Great Ruler in the posture of followers. Finally, the Great Ruler nodded in agreement and became the main god of Utos."

Hearing Lily read this, Hao Ren couldn't help but ask Vivian: "Is there anything special about this 'offering'?"

"The content of the offering is not very important, because there was no unified etiquette at that time. It is the 'offering' itself that has a special meaning," Vivian explained. "In the mythical era, various races were precarious. Not every alien could serve as the supreme ruler of mortals for a long time—sometimes great disasters or wars would cause some weaker 'gods' to be defeated. They would then offer other aliens stronger than themselves in the attitude of mortals offering themselves. This would lead to them being annexed by other 'divine systems' and even completely losing their status as 'gods,' but at least they could save their lives. It seems that the situation around Utos was very bad at that time. Those Beast Head Gods felt that they did not have the ability to protect their territory, so they went to hug the thigh of that Great Ruler."

Hao Ren nodded and continued to look down, reading the content on the relief himself: "...The new main god lives in the Great Temple in the center of Utos, receiving the pilgrimages of mortals day and night. Under the protection of a powerful god, Utos has become a country that no one dares to offend..."

"The Beast Head Gods chose to submit to the new main god. They became the priests of Utos and lived in the Great Temple and the surrounding small temples."

"In order to protect the city, the Beast Head Gods collected the bone plates that fell from Utos' body after his death. They forged and burned these bone plates, injecting them with the power of fire and earth, and then made them into giant warriors..."

"These warriors are made in the image of the Beast Head Gods. They are incredibly strong, have bodies as solid as mountains and rocks, and are never tired..."

"The appearance of the Beast Head Gods, the giant statues, never tired," Lily blinked. "This is talking about the giants we encountered."

"Without a doubt," Hao Ren agreed with a nod. "I didn't expect that the main bodies of those statues were actually made from the remains of Utos. No wonder they are so strong, and they don't look like any known metals and minerals on Earth."

Izhaks pointed to the picture on the relief depicting the new main god entering Utos: "So this Great Ruler lived in the central temple of this city—which is where we are now?"

Hao Ren stood up straight, his eyes looking around with increasing suspicion.

This was a temple that had been emptied—or even looted. If that "Great Ruler" was really the supreme ruler of Utos, and if ta really had supreme authority here, then why had it become like this?

Considering that everything was intact in the surrounding small temples, this Great Temple was more like it had been abandoned before the city had an accident. Had the "supreme ruler" who ruled this place moved away at that time?

There was no subsequent record of this event on the relief, not even a record of the abandonment of this Great Temple. But thinking about it, since people had abandoned this place, there was no need to leave construction instructions in the demolition ruins.

Vivian stood in front of the pillar carved with reliefs for a long time, as if trying to recall the city that was destroyed by her moonlight, but her fragmented memory was as difficult to mobilize as ever. After a long period of thinking and silence, she placed her hand on the mask pattern on the pillar representing the "ruler": "To be honest, this mask is really ugly..."

She had only said half of her words when the pillar suddenly underwent an unexpected change!

The lines on the relief twisted, and the originally solid hard stone material began to flow and deform like soft mud at this moment. The cuneiform writing and patterns full of ancient civilization style on the pillar were quickly swallowed by the mud-like wriggling surface. In the stunned gazes of everyone, all the reliefs on the pillar dissolved in a few breaths!

Then rows and rows of twisted words appeared:

Do not awaken Him! Do not awaken Him! Do not awaken Him!…

The words on the pillar were popping up row after row like crazy screen scrolling, and then quickly dissolving with the mud-like flowing surface. This scene was eerie and terrifying, and this was just the beginning: Along with the changes on the pillar, a deep voice suddenly echoed throughout the Great Pyramid:

The sound was difficult to describe. It was like muffled thunder rolling in the clouds, continuous and seemingly endless, but the muffled sound was mixed with the sounds of countless people shouting and screaming, interspersed with the crackling sound of tearing and the sharp鳴響(ming xiang) like howling wind. Roll on Hao Ren's back was almost instantly awakened by this sound. She jumped down from Hao Ren's back in a panic, and lay on the ground on all fours, her eyes constantly looking in all directions, her tail standing upright like a furry stick, her back arched high: "Meow wuu wuu wuu--"

"Spatial distortion detected, repeat, this unit detects spatial distortion..." The data terminal also issued a warning at the same time, and then shot an indicating beam of light forward. At the end of the beam, Hao Ren saw one of the stone walls in the hall suddenly "expand."

This was a phenomenon that the human brain could hardly understand directly. The originally square, unobstructed stone hall trembled violently like a reflection in a mirror. One of the stone walls became farther and farther away in the trembling. In an instant, the area of the hall more than doubled, as if it had originally been so huge. And in the newly added part of the hall, Hao Ren saw a high stone platform standing there, surrounded by a circle of fire basins—they automatically burned the moment they appeared.

On the top of the stone platform that resembled an altar, a heavy coffin made of gold was slowly being pushed open.

Hao Ren instantly felt his hair stand on end.

"One of the essential knowledge points for grave robbing," Lily said unhappily next to Vivian, "Don't touch anything you don't understand what it's for."

Vivian stared at the golden coffin on the stone platform and tried to swallow her saliva: "Sleeping in a gold coffin... So rich..."

Everyone: "?"

"Who cares what it is." Hao Ren didn't care about anything, having been exposed to various movie, television, and novel plots, he deeply understood the principle that waiting for the opponent to complete their transformation, awakening, charging, and explosive qi was equivalent to courting death. So while the golden coffin was only half open, he directly raised his hand and threw a graviton bomb into it.

At the moment when a loud bang exploded, he took out his inspector's pistol and fired three more shots.