Chapter 155 - 123: Everything Moves Forward

Charles was slightly taken aback.

Lin Lan didn’t hurry to explain anything; instead, he focused his gaze downward.

Even in the cold winter, Seagull City was still a scene of bustling activity, with several tunnels being dug around the buildings, leading to the shore.

Workers continued their busy toil, swinging specially-made Ash Soil iron shovels in the tunnels, the surface of the tools glowing with a scorching light, easily breaking through the frozen dirt and gravel.

The foundation plans provided by the bionic beings involved more than just digging a big hole; the drainage system was also a crucial component. This was a huge project, engaging almost every able-bodied youth from various parts of the Southern Territory.

Everyone’s face was filled with enthusiasm.

Charles gazed at those youthful faces, lost in thought.

Lin Lan turned around, descending first from the rooftop, with the two financial managers quickly following.

Although the high-rise had stood silently in the Ideal Outer City for millennia, the interior of the building remained immaculate, with seamlessly clean and bright silver-integrated corridors. Lin Lan stopped before a room, and a micro-screen embedded beside the door scanned the young man’s face.

’Welcome home, esteemed Chief Administrator~’

A gentle female electronic voice greeted the trio in their ears, as the alloy door, seamlessly fitted with the wall, slid open and disappeared into the wall.

Charles and Dean exchanged glances, eyes filled with surprise.

"For safety’s sake, Bai has reset the highest authority for managing the entrance,"

Lin Lan explained offhandedly, leading the two into the room.

Though detailed in its finesse, the room’s area was actually quite small, even rather compact. Besides the basic living facilities, the floor was empty.

After all, ordinary people in the Era of Ideal no longer required typical furniture, having become accustomed to transmitting their consciousness to a celestial-like network world.

The body in the real world was merely a vessel for the soul and a consumable for satisfying basic desires. All needs were thoroughly resolved by highly advanced ideal technology.

Even so, the comfort levels of company employee dormitories in this era were an overwhelming advantage!

Even the most basic bedding had reached the utmost level of comfort.

Charles settled into the sofa, feeling the soft material automatically conform and support his body, releasing a long, comfortable sigh.

"This is what the interior of the Deep Sea ruins looks like..."

Old Dean, curious and cautious, inspected the amenities in the room: "To be honest, this building itself is a perfectly preserved Ancient Century treasure, isn’t it?"

His expression was peculiar: "If the archeology professors at White Tower Academy saw this scene, those old codgers might go mad..."

Because living inside the Deep Sea ruins was abnormal in itself.

Under the Sun Mine’s influence, Old Dean had nearly forgotten the inherent danger of the ruins.

He involuntarily recalled his past knowledge, when an Alliance tycoon spent a massive amount of Bright Gold Coins collecting relic fragments unearthed by a platinum-level fleet from the ’Lost Golden Land.’

The tycoon refused scholars’ research requests and, to satisfy his desire for boasting, specifically arranged for workers to cast that wall corner into his living room, inviting guests to admire and praise it.

The young Dean had the ’fortune’ of being invited to one of the tycoon’s banquets, witnessing the relic’s true form.

It was merely a corner of a wall made of pure gold, seemingly part of a lavish palace, with strange mutilated images carved into the surface, where twisted little people surrounded a distorted giant tree, their actions appearing both worshipful and dancing.

Initially, no one questioned the relic’s safety; the tycoon’s life proceeded as usual, and his business even began to flourish.

Until suddenly, the market was flooded with numerous gold lumps the size of heads, and clues from several child disappearance cases all pointed to the tycoon’s company.

Investigators unraveled the clues and eventually found the tycoon’s secret underground chamber.

—— People witnessed a blood-flesh giant tree made of human bodies.

Several skeletal remains bound in fixed positions were scattered throughout the chamber, posed in kneeling or dancing gestures, mirroring the mutilated images on the relic wall...

The branches of flesh bore abundant fruits of tortured gold heads, with a sea of Gold Coins filling the chamber.

The tycoon even cast his own wife and children into the roots of the giant tree.

But when the investigation bureau proceeded with the arrest, the tycoon mysteriously vanished, and a twisted figure appeared in the relic wall’s image, crawling toward the giant tree, with lines outlining an expression of ecstatic joy.

The tycoon successfully achieved immortality, an eternal life of perpetual entrapping.

This incident caused quite a stir at the time, only for the news to be promptly sealed by the authorities; now, only a few old folks knew about that horrifying sacrifice case.

The tycoon’s residence was demolished by the investigation bureau, the authorities retrieved and destroyed the mysterious gold blocks from the market, and the relic remains were placed in a secret containment facility, completely sealed by the Grey-clothed Secret Guard.

Staff in close association with the followers underwent periodic maximum-scale mental examinations, but eventually, they all disappeared, no survivors left...

It was a subtle, insidious influence.

After that, no one dared entertain the absurd idea of collecting Deep Sea ruins.

Old Dean swallowed hard.

Looking back, the relic Lin Lan brought back seemed noticeably older.

Archeologists had broadly organized the ’Great Silence Era’ before the ’Age of Exploration’; ancient people had a penchant for offering sacrifices toward the Celestial Calamity, and relics from the Gray Realm’s ’Lost Golden Land’ at least had a bit of historical authenticity.