Chapter 1 Cloud Light in the Morning

As the cloud-borne microbes awakened from their dormant state, the underground world welcomed a morning illuminated by cloud light. Patches of pure white cloud, like light panels being sequentially powered on, lit up one after another, casting a mystical glow that illuminated the entire grassland from the cloud tops. The local people had their own worldview to explain the world's cycle of day and night, and the phenomenon of wind and rain. They believed that a giant monster breathed at the edge of the world, and the smoke it exhaled formed the clouds that shrouded the land. Every morning, a giant firebird called "Kudela" flew out of the monster's nostrils, setting the clouds alight, and thus light shone upon the earth.

A team arrived on a high slope near the ancient city of Dorasil. Vivian and Hao Ren stood at the highest point, observing the distribution of the city's buildings. Several small bats circled above the city, using ultrasound to probe the details of the giant stone ruins. Vivian had seen some of the city's secrets in the blood crystal illusions, and now she was using her bat clones to find parts that corroborated the illusions.

Gezel and Bernia were also brought along. The latter was now closing her eyes and praying to the clouds, constantly reciting profound sentences that seemed particularly strange for someone her age. Hesperianna, bored, curiously asked Gezel, "What's she doing?"

Gezel explained Bernia's actions: "The Holy Maiden is thanking the Flame Giant Bird 'Kudela' for lighting up the sky and bringing light to the world, and also praying that Kudela will remember to return to its nest on time at dusk, so that the world does not face the legendary 'Light Burial.'"

"Light Burial?"

"If the Flame Giant Bird forgets to return to its nest, the day will continue, and the clouds will remain lit for more than a dozen days and nights. The temperature of the entire world will rise, and plants will be scorched by the light—myths record several such events," Gezel introduced the world's mythology to Hesperianna. "If such an event occurs, all the Holy Maidens, elders, and warriors of each tribe will go to the Eternal Pillar guarded by their tribe and strike the outer shell of the pillar. This will remind Kudela to return to its nest, and the day will end."

He was probably talking about a situation where the world's fragile ecosystem occasionally fell out of balance. After all, everything here was barely maintained by a layer of cradle shell created by the eldest son. Even a slight fluctuation in this system could bring unimaginable turmoil to the entire world. The so-called "striking the outer shell of the Eternal Pillar" should have a certain effect, because it was the only way for surface creatures to communicate with the eldest son underground: those Eternal Pillars were connected to the eldest son's vast nervous system. These processes were endowed with mysterious mythological significance, so after listening, Hesperianna could only curl her lips. "Uh, heh heh... interesting legends, very interesting."

At this time, Vivian finished communicating with her bat swarm, and her gaze fell on the largest pyramid on the Dorasil side: "There's a lot of space inside that building, and it should lead underground. Several of the surrounding pyramids are connected to it by tunnels. Bernia, do you know any legends about these pyramids?"

Bernia had just finished praying to the clouds. She hurried over to Vivian's side. "The Great Pyramid is your throne. The surrounding pyramids represent the three kingdoms, three theocracies, and three autonomous territories of the Solar Dynasty era."

"Has anyone checked the underground of this city?"

Bernia thought for a moment, then shook her little head vigorously. "No! Because the city is sacred, and the foundation of the city is the foundation of the world. It's in the neck nest of the giant 'Tokka.' Moving the city will make 'Tokka' angry, and he will throw the whole world off his back and into chaos. Of course, if you want to move it, then it's no problem... right?"

The little Holy Maiden still retained the curiosity and recklessness that she should have at her age. She earnestly took those myths as true, but also rashly asked the "Goddess" to confirm these things. Vivian was slightly stunned before she reacted. "Oh, Tokka... in your myths, it seems that I built the whole world on the back of this hunchbacked old man. Tsk tsk, such a rich imagination, I really don't know how you came up with it."

Bernia blinked. "Isn't it?"

"Yes, yes," Vivian smiled, patted the little Holy Maiden's head, and then pointed to the Great Pyramid. "We're going there."

The Great Pyramid on the Dorasil side was a magnificent but purely decorative building. It occupied one-tenth of the city's area and was built from heavy white stone bricks. The side of the pyramid facing the wilderness was smooth and without steps, while the side facing the city had an unusually wide staircase that led from the base of the pyramid all the way to the flat top. With this staircase as the dividing line, the sides of the tower were covered with huge and mysterious ancient reliefs. These reliefs depicted a large number of plants, animals, and social life scenes that existed during the Solar Dynasty, almost a historical scroll carved in stone. Hao Ren and the others didn't have time to take a good look when they came to this city last time, and they couldn't help but marvel when they saw the reliefs on the pyramid this time.

Vivian stood at the bottom of the staircase and pointed to the reliefs that were distributed upwards along the pyramid. "Look at them in order from bottom to top. These things record the history of the Solar Dynasty's final period. The bottom layers are all pictures of plants and animals, and then above that are scenes of social life. Near the top of the pyramid, you can see people going to the highlands and wilderness to take refuge. If I'm not mistaken, the abstract painting on the top of the pyramid depicts the last stage: the closing of the firmament."

Hao Ren stroked the ancient, weathered stones and casually asked, "But the things we're looking for are underground, right?"

"Yes, but the entrance is here. We have to find a way to open this thing..." Vivian said, turning her gaze to the smaller pyramids surrounding the main tower. "I remember seeing in the blood crystal that these towers are activated and connected by light... The entrance to the underground is sealed by these giant stone buildings. You have to activate certain devices."

The data terminal vibrated buzzingly on Hao Ren's shoulder. "Tch, so troublesome. A large amount of technical support would solve everything."

Hao Ren casually peeled this thing off his shoulder. "Get lost. This is a cultural relic, and are you planning to bomb their temple in front of the locals?"

Vivian ignored the PDA and Hao Ren's unprincipled conversation. She walked back and forth in front of the huge relief panels, recalling the fragmented fragments in her mind. Because these fragments were not her own memories, it was quite difficult to recall them, but because the real thing was right in front of her, she still managed to match the information with the reliefs in front of her one by one. Finally, she came to one of the reliefs, which was embedded obliquely in the base of the pyramid, with a sun shining on the earth in the center of the picture. This was what she was looking for.

Vivian's fingers stroked the rough lines representing sunlight. "Sunlight, a symbol of the old world. In this world, 'sun' is synonymous with 'ancient secret', so to open this you need..."

She tapped the relief three times and said loudly in the language of this world, "Praise the Sun!"

Hesperianna slapped her forehead. "I feel so weird—the ancestor of the blood clan is actually praising the sun!"

Vivian glared at her. "This is the password!"

"But your password doesn't seem to be working." Hao Ren pointed to the motionless relief, reminding Vivian.

Indeed, nothing happened after Vivian "praised the sun." The relief didn't glow, and the pyramid didn't shake open a subterranean entrance or anything like that. The scene was as quiet as ever. Vivian frowned and tapped the relief again. "Maybe there's bad contact... Praise the Sun?"

"Praise the Moon?"

"Praise Mars?"

"Praise Saturn?"

"Praise Enceladus? Praise Arcturus? Praise Castor?"

The data terminal suddenly let out a sharp shriek and flew over, interrupting Vivian's blind experiments. Then, it released a scorching beam of light from a corner of its body and hit the relief. It cut the stone slab while sparking and shouting, "You have to know, this thing has been here for ten thousand years! Do you think the voice-activated switches in every world are as durable as those made by the Empire?"

While speaking, the terminal increased the power of the light beam, and the thick stone slab was cut open like butter. The others wanted to stop it, but couldn't. However, it was obvious that the terminal paid attention to scanning the structure behind the stone slab when cutting it. It cut the relief in half along a strange path. After the two stone slabs fell to the ground, the undamaged internal device below was revealed.

Some complex runes and fragmented crystals were embedded on a metal-cast substrate, looking mysterious and primitive.

The data terminal emitted a blue light, scanning the connection between these ancient magical symbols, and released some tiny sparks to stimulate the dull crystals. "This unit should be able to give it an initial signal... If the part buried underground is slightly more durable than this thing, the whole system might really start."

Continuous sparks hit the ancient symbols. After seeing this situation, Duncan whispered to Cassandra, "I see in the movies that secret agents who steal cars start them like this." "Yeah, stealing motorcycles is about the same."

After listening, Hesperianna couldn't help but mutter, "But I can't understand why starting ancient ruins is done this way..."

Just as the three were muttering to themselves, the data terminal's "car theft skills" actually worked.

The ancient runes suddenly lit up, and then a low rumble came from inside the pyramid. The sound rose from low to high, and finally the whole ground began to shake!