Chapter 428 Star Map
A path to the stars!
This road is very abstract.
The ancients were unable to express its specific meaning and could only draw an actual road on the mural.
On the left side of the passage, the last mural depicts the aliens boarding a flying disc-shaped aircraft and flying along the road into an unknown world full of stars.
"The aliens left in a spacecraft." Su Xia understood what he meant.
At this point, all the contents of the mural have ended, and the little robot has reached the end of the passage.
To sum up, a group of alien creatures did come to this world thousands of years ago, taught the people of this civilization how to farm, and led them into agricultural civilization. This huge pyramid was built at that time.
After the pyramid was built, the alien creatures stood on the top of the pyramid and said something unknown.
After saying this, they left on a spaceship and never returned.
“Why would they do this?”
Su Xia was puzzled. There is no good in the world without reason. Did those creatures from alien civilization come to this planet just to spread knowledge and help the people here?
Could it be that they want to turn this place into a resource planet or a colony planet?
Could it be that helping the people here enter agricultural civilization is to make it easier for them to control this planet?
“Is it a charity?”
Su Xia suddenly remembered some basic knowledge that Hal had told him.
Hal was Su Xia's guide to the starry sky, opening the door to the vast universe above his head for Su Xia.
“Hal said that the resources in the universe are almost endless. Many large organizations that have been developed for a long time no longer need to worry about resources. There are even few wars. Therefore, many pure charitable organizations have emerged. They are not for profit, but only to help low-level civilizations in some remote star regions.
"They will impart knowledge, spread crop seeds, and help lower-level civilizations develop rapidly, allowing them to complete a civilization journey that would take hundreds or even thousands of years in just a few decades ..."
At first, Su Xia didn't believe it.
He has always been skeptical about so-called "charities".
Even though Hal gave many examples, Su Xia did not completely believe them. After all, Hal was just an intelligent steward of a small exploration spacecraft. The information in the database was limited. He only knew the information on the surface and had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.
Su Xia's suspicion is not without basis. There are a large number of charities on Earth. Many people use the name of charity to do other things and use charities to launder money.
"Is there really such a pure organization in the interstellar space?" Su Xia thought thoughtfully. He had never come into contact with these interstellar organizations, so he could only rely on guesswork for everything.
"Captain, are you thinking about those charities?" Sarah asked with a smile.
"Um."
“Such organizations do exist.”
"I know." Su Xia nodded. "Your database should be similar to Hal's. They are all superficial information data."
“Captain, you don’t have to think that human hearts are so evil. The universe is so vast, and there will always be people who are purely kind.” Sarah said with a smile.
"That's true."
While the two were talking, the little robot had already walked out of the passage.
The murals on the passage have been recorded by Sarah and can be viewed at any time in the future.
She can even construct a virtual world inside the pyramid based on the images recorded by the small robot. Su Xia only needs to wear a device similar to VR glasses to experience the immersive feeling.
Beyond the long passage is a long and narrow room.
To be precise, it is a stone tomb.
On both sides of the room, there are six gray-black stone coffins.
"How could there be a coffin?" Su Xia was surprised. "The interior of the pyramid is very large, and we haven't reached the center yet. Even if it is a tomb, the tomb owner should not be here. This place is more like... the tomb keeper?"
Moreover, according to the description of the previous murals, this pyramid is obviously not a tomb, but was built specifically for aliens.
In the room, there are six stone coffins on each side. They look very strange because they are placed vertically, like two rows of standing soldiers.
There are also a large number of complex patterns carved on the surface of the sarcophagus.
On its left and right sides, there are patterns of mountains, trees, flowing water, animals, etc., but they are all relatively abstract and cannot be recognized without careful observation.
On the front, on the stone coffin lid, there is a human-shaped pattern as tall as the sarcophagus, with eyes, mouth, nose and other facial features, which are lifelike, strong limbs, and a sharp trident in his hand.
The carved eyes were very smart, staring at the entrance of the passage, closely watching the small robot coming in.
They seemed to be able to look at Su Xia who was far away in the submarine through a display screen.
"Are these the guards?"
Su Xia observed carefully for a moment and roughly understood the purpose of the sarcophagus.
The people in the stone coffins were probably the most brave and fearless warriors in the entire civilization at that time. They voluntarily stayed here and became soldiers guarding the pyramids, forever protecting this symbol of theocracy, faith and power.
Anyone who wants to enter the pyramid must pass through the passage guarded by them.
Of course, thousands of years have passed and these people are now dead.
Even if there were intruders, they would have no way to intercept them.
"Perhaps they were already dead before entering the sarcophagus." Su Xia thought that in some civilizations, there were special methods to create mummy-like warriors.
In these civilizations, people did not fear death.
Some people firmly believe that the gods they believe in will resurrect their bodies one day in the future and give them new life.
Others believe that after death, the soul will remain in the body, and as long as the body does not decay, eternal life can be achieved.
Therefore, this kind of guardian warrior is likely to take the initiative to end his own life before entering the sarcophagus, and let others make his body incorruptible, so that they can guard the pyramid forever.
"It's a pity that once you're dead, you're dead. There's no such thing as a soul."
The so-called soul weighs 21 grams, but it is still just an experiment full of doubts.
To a materialist like Su Xia, these beliefs, legends and the like are naturally false, but he respects the normal beliefs of other people.
Of course, perhaps there really are worlds like the "dark world" or "energy universe" that cannot be observed by humans, and the soul exists in such a world.
If such a world was really proven to exist, Su Xia would believe it.
As for now, he only believes in the real world and only values everything he has while he is still alive.
"Sarah, do you think the soul exists?" Su Xia turned around and asked.
Hearing this, Sarah smiled slightly and asked, "Captain, do you think I have a soul?"
"No."
“Yes, I am just a string of data.”
"Well, live in the present..."
Su Xia thought about it and realized that even if the soul really existed, there was no way to rely on the corpse not to decay.
The Earth is a very real example.
Over there, the ancient Egyptian civilization loved this practice.
From the pharaohs and nobles to the common people and slaves, everyone was willing to make themselves into mummies so that the incorruptible body could preserve the soul.
But...those unfortunate guys probably couldn't have imagined that hundreds or thousands of years later, the incorruptible bodies they had worked so hard to preserve would become the food and medicine that some Western countries crazily pursued.
Their bodies, which carried their hopes for the future and their souls, were eaten one by one by the fanatical Europeans, and this went on for hundreds of years.
In the end, there were not enough mummies dug out, and even an industry of fake mummies emerged.
"I don't know what it tastes like. Will it be similar to aged bacon?"
Su Xia pondered for a moment, shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
If he continued thinking about it, he might not even be able to eat dinner today.
When he is about to die, he will definitely not choose this path. If he has money, he will ask someone to take his ashes into space and scatter them in space.
"Let's keep going."
Su Xia's attention returned to the display screen. Under his command, the small robot slowly moved forward, passed through the passage in the room, passed the stone coffins, and walked to the end of the long and narrow room.
Standing at the end and looking forward, there is a stone staircase sloping upwards.
In the surging water, the steps appear somewhat twisted.
On both sides of the steps, every three meters or so, there is a small stone platform with stone lamps on it, which look like lighting supplies.
"Huh? There's still lamp oil?"
In the images fed back by the small robot, Su Xia saw that there were some charred solid substances inside the lamp. It should be the lamp oil used by that civilization, most likely some kind of animal fat.
Continue forward and climb the stairs. After walking about thirty meters, the end of the stairs appeared in front of Su Xia.
"Walking up this slanted staircase, we should be able to see a large room," Sarah said based on the conclusion drawn by the exploration system.
The little robot continued to move upwards, and after a moment, it walked out of the stairs.
As expected, what appeared in front of Su Xia was an extremely large internal hall, which was also the central hall inside the entire pyramid.
“Is this the center?”
The stone walls surrounding the hall are all tilted inwards, and the four sides are all regular triangles. The shape of the entire hall is like a pyramid with one level smaller.
At a glance, the hall is at least a hundred meters high, with a huge gray-black stone column in the middle as support.
The little robot is located at the lower right corner of the right wall of the hall, which is a very obvious entrance and exit.
"There is more than one entrance and exit. There are three on the right side alone." Su Xia observed carefully. "It seems that there should be twelve passages leading to the outside inside the pyramid. I only opened one of them."
Looking forward, the interior of the hall was extremely empty, with only endless sea water.
There are still strange murals carved on the surrounding walls, most of which are about the history of the city's development.
"Nothing?"
Su Xia was puzzled and asked the little robot to explore the hall carefully.
If this pyramid is really some kind of energy tower, there must be at least some metal equipment inside, right?
Even after thousands of years, corrosion by sea water and dilapidated equipment, there should be some metal residues left.
"No?" The big whale's surprised voice also came.
"Nothing has been found so far." Su Xia said.
"Strange, the contents of the murals discovered before are similar to what those old sea monsters passed down orally, which is related to aliens. Logically, this pyramid should be an energy tower." The big whale was also surprised. Those old sea monsters would not lie to him, but the hall was indeed empty.
This means that the information about this sea monster that has been passed down orally is most likely wrong, and errors occurred when it was passed down through a certain generation.
This pyramid may just be an ordinary building symbolizing divine power, not an energy tower for external communication.
"Don't worry, I'll look for it again."
At this moment, the little robot had walked around the entire hall and did not find any special area.
It then went to explore other passages, but the situation in each passage was similar to the one it had passed through before.
"Perhaps the pillar?"
Su Xia thought for a moment, and his eyes quickly moved to the huge gray-black stone pillar in the center of the hall.
The stone pillar is more than ten meters in diameter and a hundred meters high, which is shocking. It looks like a giant pillar supporting the sky, holding up the dome of the hall inside the pyramid.
The small robot began to move, getting closer and closer to the giant stone pillar, and the image on the display screen became clearer and clearer.
Soon, Su Xia discovered something strange.
"There's nothing carved on the surface of this stone pillar?"
Everything the little robot saw along the way, whether it was the stone walls of the passage, the stone coffin, or the walls and floor around the hall, was engraved with all kinds of strange pictures and patterns.
Only this stone pillar has a smooth surface, as if it had been carefully polished without any damage.
This is obviously a problem.
"Look carefully."
The small robot circled the stone pillar, exploring it bit by bit, extremely slowly, without missing any details.
Su Xia stared at the screen with focused eyes, even her blinking slowed down.
Sarah was watching as well.
About twenty minutes later, when the stone pillar was about three meters above the ground, the little robot finally found a unique area.
"Gap?" Su Xia's eyes fixed on the screen, and his body subconsciously leaned forward a little.
In this area, there is an extremely hidden gap, which can be easily overlooked if you don't look carefully.
Exploring slowly along the gap, a triangular pattern formed by cracks appeared in front of Su Xia.
"Could it be... this is an entrance?" Su Xia made a bold guess.
At his command, the little robot stretched out its mechanical arms, pressed on the huge triangular pattern, and pushed hard.
With a buzzing sound, the entire picture trembled, and the triangular pattern sank slightly.
"really……"
Su Xia's heart moved, and he gave another order, asking the small robot to continue pushing in.
Outside the stone pillar, the suspended small robot used all its strength, turned on the thrusters on its back, and pushed the triangular stone, pushing it little by little into the stone pillar.
The triangular stone continued to move inward and was soon pushed more than one meter away.
The small robot also entered the triangular column-shaped passage and continued to push. After a moment, there was a loud bang, and the triangular stone suddenly collapsed under the huge force of the small robot.
What appeared in front of Su Xia was the secret space inside the stone pillar!
There is a different world inside the stone pillar!
"What is that?"
In the center of this hidden space, there is a smaller stone pillar.
On top of the stone pillar, there was a vague oval-shaped object, like a cold stone egg.
"Is it something left behind by aliens?" Su Xia wondered.
Before the small robot could move forward to investigate, the stone egg began to tremble, and the surrounding sea water also shook slightly, as if it was impacted by some external force.
Suddenly, a beam of dazzling blue light shot out from the stone egg.
The blue light swept across the body of the little robot, as if scanning something, scanning it from top to bottom, and disappeared after more than ten seconds.
" What's going on?" Su Xia looked calm and asked the little robot to maintain its position and not move.
After a moment, the oval stone egg shone brightly, emitting strands of dazzling blue light, which rotated and intertwined in this secret space.
After about half a minute, the blue lights slowed down and turned into tiny points of light in the dark sky, twinkling like a dazzling galaxy.
A voice suddenly appeared and came out from the stone egg, as if narrating something.
Su Xia didn't understand, he had never learned this language.
Fortunately, the system had its own language translator. He immediately turned on the translator and heard the translated words.
"As a civilization that has accepted our sponsorship, you have finally made it this far. I guess you have already started exploring the starry sky?"
There was a hint of relief in that voice.
"Your star region is very remote, too far away from other civilizations around it, so I left a set of star coordinates. You can regard it as a map, which will guide you on the road in the starry sky..."
