Player Reload
Chapter 399 - 368 - : Prophecy

Chapter 399: 368 Chapter: Prophecy

According to the contents of the mural, the resurrected prince, in a non-human form, returned to the shore, killed the usurper and an entire army with formidable force, and reclaimed the throne.

He then promoted more advanced architectural technology and bronze smelting techniques within the kingdom, creating magnificent ancestral temples and palace complexes.

In the final scene of the mural, the exceptionally tall prince, or rather the King of Cangze, was wearing a tightly sealed yellow robe, sitting regally on his throne. Through eyes inlaid with pearls, he gazed down at the subjects below the palace who were as insignificant as ants.

Sikong Lan shivered unexplainably; the style of the rock painting was primitive and barbaric, with the background subjects below the palace resembling simple line figures like those in Huashan rock paintings, yet the depiction of the King of Cangze was extraordinarily vivid,

whose indifferent gaze seemed to pierce through a millennium, staring at the three people in the oval hall.

"The Dan people are descendants of the Baiyue, and Cangze belongs to Baiyue."

Zhang Fulu furrowed his brow, slowly piecing together the existing clues in his mind, "For some reason, Cangze did not carry forward, while the ancestors of the Tu Family were ’pure Cangze people’ hidden among the Dan people,

or perhaps they were originally ordinary Dan people who unexpectedly acquired the Cangze country’s heritage, such as ’Divine Shedding’, and thus became wealthy.

As for these rock paintings..."

"By using mythological theory, all the contents on the mural can be explained."

Li Cheng said, "Separate by geography, different languages and customs prevail, yet because they all undergo stages like dwelling in caves, slash-and-burn, and feudal city-states, highly similar mythological religious stories emerge among all ethnic groups.

The first scene of the rock painting, the palace coup, symbolizes a hero’s peaceful life being upended;

In the second scene, the prince’s entire family is killed, and he is dismembered, symbolizing the hero facing hardships;

The third scene shows the prince encountering the frog-shaped boulder, symbolizing the hero meeting a prophet, ally, and gaining help;

In the fourth scene, the prince reshapes his body, symbolizing a hero escaping the limitations of a mortal shell to become a mythological being—often in mythology, heroes must die once and obtain a new body to transcend;

The fifth scene is about returning to the shore and killing the enemies. The sixth scene is about ruling the country, being revered by the people, and becoming a mythical figure."

Tracing the roots in mythology is a form of anthropology that remains adhered to in narrative frameworks of mythic heroes from Shakespeare’s play, through the Four Great Classical Novels, to modern films, video games, manga for laborers, instant noodle anime.

Sikong Lan couldn’t comprehend much about mythology but understood enough to sense Li Cheng’s disagreement with the mural content, hesitating, "Then what about the king’s non-human appearance..."

"Merely propaganda for maintaining rule."

Li Cheng said casually, "Yu Shun’s double pupils, Ji Chang’s four nipples, Can Cong’s vertical eyes, Liu Bei’s arms reaching below his knees. The more exaggerated the congenital anomalies depicted, the less ordinary the person seems and thus the more legitimate their rule appears. Liu Bang supposedly killed a white snake; did he really? The answer is likely not.

Don’t forget history is written by the victors, so the mural naturally reflects the governing new king.

Have you noticed the penultimate scene where the king promotes more advanced architectural and bronze smelting techniques in Cangze?

Historically, relations between the ancient Yue people and those from the Central Plains were based chiefly on trade, with the Yue exchanging ivory, rhino horns, and tortoiseshell for silk and crafts from the Central Plains, albeit infrequently.

It wasn’t until the Zhou and the Spring and Autumn periods that interactions became more intensive.

The King of Cangze was likely situated during the period when Central Plains bronze technology spread to Lingnan.

And backtracking from this fact, the resurrection segment in the mural could likely be embellishing the upper echelon—he wasn’t sacrificed and resurrected,

but fled to the Central Plains, where advanced technology and military support were obtained.

As for the frog-shaped statue, I am inclined to consider it largely fictitious, crammed with exaggerations for beautification."

There are far too many strange happenings in myriad worlds for the academicians in the Special Affairs Bureau to call upon their scientific faith, but stitching a corpse back together after it was corroded by seawater and consumed by marine life remains too far-fetched.

Even if attempted with Necromancy from the Demon Scientist Alliance, the requirement is to ensure the corpse is as fresh and intact as possible for resurrection.

"If I am guessing correctly, this is likely the sanctuary, religious structure like temple or ancestral shrine of the Cangze Ancient Country, moving forward may reveal more clues."

Li Cheng strode forward, while Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu exchanged glances, keeping up nevertheless.

The passageway at the end of the oval hall was wider and more direct compared to the tunnel leading out of the stone chamber.

The walls and ceiling of the passage were also covered with murals, which continued the storyline from the oval hall, depicting the process by which the Cangze Ancient Country leaped from the Neolithic into the Bronze Age.

Seeing Li Cheng remain silent, Sikong Lan asked curiously, "Is something wrong?"

"The absence of ritual artifacts."

Late in the primitive society, clan nobility arose, and ritual vessels emerged, rapidly evolving in the Shang and Zhou.

The tripod, yan, and fu for holding food, jiao, jue, and dou for holding wine, bells and chimes for playing music, etc.

Yet, having just entered the Bronze Age, Cangze, which was supposed to fervently worship spirits, had not a single bronze ritual item on its murals.

The entire kingdom seemed like a coldly operating armory,

where slaves dig for ore in the mines, craftsmen used piece-molding and lost-wax techniques to cast bronze tools,

and soldiers wielding bronze weapons attacked various other Baiyue Kingdoms and lesser tribes, capturing numerous slaves to mine further.

No lack of opposition to the king existed, yet regardless if it was warfare waged by enemy nations, assassinations plotted by domestic nobility, or revolts by slaves,

the king, with his pearl eyes, hidden under a yellow robe, could, as if he possessed divine sight, foresee and quash threats while still in the cradle.

In the faint light from the Luminous Pearl, the murals revealed that Cangze exhausted its national strength and used accumulated bronze to refine numerous exceedingly precise mechanical components within the caves. They included gears, cranks, rods, bearings, among others.

The level of machining precision astonishingly bridged a gap of two millennia, approaching the underground black workshops of the modern-day Peshawar.

It arouses curiosity about where the King of Cangze obtained these technologies and what he intended to create with them.

The mural artist cleverly depicted the king gradually aging and the passage of time by changing his hair color from black to white.

Until the end of the king’s life, the undertaking finally began to take shape—a tremendously grand, era-surpassing Bronze Giant Ship.

Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu stared, slack-jawed, at the Bronze Ship, which took up an entire wall as it rested in a cave, devoid of any sails.

Li Cheng strode forward, scanning the murals on either side.

Until his end, the King of Cangze never saw the completion of the giant ship. His body was placed in the deepest part of the ship, and the kingdom was jointly inherited by his five sons, each inheriting a non-human trait from their father, such as gills or a frog’s tongue.

Among them, the prince with the pearl eyes was particularly special. He, along with his wife, children, loyal soldiers, and many slaves, left the city-state, took refuge in the caves, and left the murals in the oval hall deep within the cave.

When the earthquake struck, sinking the entire Cangze Kingdom to the seabed and leaving the Bronze Giant Ship’s whereabouts unknown, only this prince and those around him survived.

Further down the corridor, large sections of the wall had peeled off, leaving many murals indecipherable,

only the last two murals remained relatively clear.

’Predictive ability...’

Li Cheng slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, reflecting how the king dodged countless assassinations, the prince avoided the earthquake, and prophecies were sent to Dragon Tiger Mountain by figures in raincoat—all attributed to the powerful foresight conferred by the pearl eyes.

Tap tap tap tap.

Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu quickly followed, stopping simultaneously with pale faces upon seeing the last two murals.

The mural on the left vividly depicted two obscurely faced individuals in black clothing standing within the passageway, one holding a Luminous Pearl, the other with a short sword at his waist. Perfectly mirroring their current postures.

While the mural on the right portrayed a bloodshed event occurring within a grand mansion during a longevity banquet.