Above The Sky
Chapter 273 - 273 259 Eternal Echo 23

273: Chapter 259 Eternal Echo (2/3) 273: Chapter 259 Eternal Echo (2/3) But the content of the mural that followed was far less noteworthy.

Through Bloodline memories and an auxiliary memory organ located at the back of the brain, let alone ordinary people, at least the leaders and professionals of each generation could retain their skills, leading their people to survive.

Redwood Base originally had the functions of a doomsday fortress, with fully equipped internal facilities.

As long as they did not forget how to operate them, survival was absolutely no problem.

After several generations of life and death, the different functions and professional skills led by the four leaders gradually transformed into four major tribes within the base, and the four leaders became the hereditary Four Great Elders.

Although the social structure devolved into a tribal system over time, this was perhaps the most efficient and stable method of governance due to the size of the population.

The four tribes exchanged what they had and even vied for power and profit, but because the resources within the ruins were indeed abundant, and each tribe needed the others’ technology to ensure the quality of life, there were no real conflicts among them.

At this point, the colors of the mural suddenly brightened, and the content became much more interesting.

Ian saw the image of a tall, determined-looking man with gray hair and sky-blue eyes.

A confident smile was at the center of this section of the mural.

The man appeared ambitious, with four keys orbiting him.

Clearly, this man should be the Great Elder during the period when the mural was painted—he gathered the Four Keys, unified the four tribes, and concentrated the power of the Redwood leaders in one person.

And there, the mural abruptly ended.

Ian closed his eyes, deep in thought.

After a long while, he let out a breath, “It seems that the reason why the Natives left the base has something to do with this Great Elder.”

To enter or leave the Redwood Base’s gate, one must gather the Four Keys.

The past Redwood People had neither the idea nor the right to do so; many dangerous and technically advanced areas were off-limits to them.

Without the need for premonition, Ian was one hundred percent certain that all changes were due to this guy.

Below the unfinished mural lay a skeleton.

The clothes on the skeleton and the tool in its hand were still quite intact; it sat serenely beneath its own unfinished mural, having died there.

Initially, Ian had no intention of disturbing this ancient Redwood person’s eternal rest, as there could be many reasons for not completing the mural, but the cause of death was very simple.

Through the Silver Chip, he could see that the person had committed suicide by poisoning, with a significant amount of toxic substances remaining on the bones.

However, it was precisely because Ian used the Silver Chip to scan that he noticed something was amiss.

“Huh, behind this artist…”

With a light exclamation, Ian frowned slightly.

He walked forward, reached out his hand, and tilted the skeleton slightly forward, revealing the wall hidden behind the corpse.

On the wall, there was a cluster of writing that looked like tangled hemp.

It was clear that the writer was very agitated, even desperate when writing it; the trembling of the handwriting was so evident.

If it were someone else, they definitely could not make out these words.

But Ian could.

With the aid of a Silver Chip’s correction, he softly read those words.

“Madara Qunsen, the Great Elder of the Four Keys.

He’s gone mad, opened the forbidden door, altered the echo of the ancestors’ blood…”

The more he read, the more Ian’s brows furrowed tightly, “The main brain of the Inheritance has been replaced by him, we will all become him…

we will all die completely, even our souls will not be at peace!”

“Monster, vicious madman, a devil seeking immortality!

I curse you…”

The writing was corroded by blood, and is now unclear, but the rest was just curses and didn’t need to be considered.

And Ian fell into silence, his gaze fixed upon this place, and he couldn’t help but murmur to himself.

“Echo?” the young man frowned, “Immortality?”

“Is it a coincidence?”

The branch of the White Folks that Ian belonged to was once the renowned Labyrinth scholar family known as the Cheharlowa Family in the Imperial Capital.

They had flourished due to the new pioneering movement initiated by the Former Emperor Inega II and the ‘Labyrinth Development Discipline’.

They enjoyed immense glory but were exiled as a whole due to an extremely secretive fault.

Sublimators who practiced the inheritance passed down by the Silver Peak Emissary were not only deprived of their inheritance one by one but were also executed.

Outsiders neither knew nor cared about this, as during the reign of the Black Tyrant, it was not uncommon for families and organizations to meet similar fates…

Although the Cheharlowa Family was indeed one of the larger families to be dealt with, at most, it was just another footnote under the cumulative blood debts of the Tyrant.

As far as outsiders were concerned, that was all there was to it.

But Ian knew that the Cheharlowa Family was dealt with because of a secret concerning ‘Echo’ and the ‘mystery of immortality’.

As for the other families that Inega II had disposed of, either they engaged in blood sacrifices, plotted rebellions, or were truly guilty of grave corruption and mistakes–to be honest, even Ian, who had little sense of family honor, felt like crying out for his family’s innocence.

–To be compared with these vermin, was to truly lower one’s own standards!

And now, here, at the world’s end far from the Imperial Capital, within the Nanling Ruins Cluster.

Ian saw the same words again.

“Echo…

and immortality.”

Standing there, Ian found it somewhat incomprehensible, “Are they the same thing, or is it a coincidence?”

“Could it be that my family had found ‘Echo’ in a major ruin similar to the Redwood Base?”

It was possible.

As a site of ruins, the Redwood Base could almost be said to have everything.

Not to mention anything else, it brought together essential facilities related to space engineering, extraterrestrial ecology, energy cores, and biotechnology departments…

Even for a civilization of the previous era, it would be hard to find a few bases as large and comprehensive as Redwood Base.

And also, just as Inega II had furiously reprimanded,

associated with Echo, the ancient Redwood Great Elder, despised and feared by his people, was called ‘the devil that sought immortality’.

With such doubts, Ian returned to the group.

He did not plan to tell Master Gossay or Yisen about this, not because he felt estranged, but because he did not know how to bring it up—what if these two fellows mistook his intention as wanting their help to restore the Cheharlowa Family’s honor?

Restoration was definitely needed, as the exiled folks in South Ridge faced no discrimination, simply because South Ridge was a large land of exile, where eighty percent of the residents’ ancestors were exiles.

It was uncertain here who would discriminate against whom.

However, the identity of ‘exile’ was inconvenient in other places.

Not to mention anything else, but being unable to legally organize a merchant guild, purchase land, or run a Magical Beasts breeding business were significant inconveniences.

The Ellen Family and Master Gossay certainly had the ability to speak before the Emperor and help restore the Cheharlowa Family’s honor.

But not now.

Now, Ian had to understand the true nature of ‘Echo’ to predict the fate of the Cheharlowa Family.

Otherwise, if Inega II could exile the family, Protector Axer could do the same—how could he predict the future fortunateness or misfortune without even knowing what the taboo was?

With such anxieties, Ian had planned to find Yisen Gard and inquire about the team’s situation.

But in the midst of heading there, he was found by Green Tide.