Chapter 306: Piling Bones to Build a Soul

The boat docked amidst a shivering tremor.

The lake water rose and fell ceaselessly; they stepped into it, secured the boat with ropes and long stakes in a safe spot to ensure it wouldn't be swept away by an unexpected wave, then carefully set foot on this "island."

Beneath the towering pillar that exerted a palpable oppressive weight, the ground felt like soil debris gathered around tall aquatic plants—flimsy, unstable, ready to be washed away and collapse at any moment.

Several broken stone ridges extending into the water suggested this might once have been a small dock, but given the depth that even a flat-bottomed boat would struggle to navigate, it was hard to imagine what originally moored here.

Those buildings of unknown style clung to the stone foundations in barnacle-like forms, standing half-ruined.

They belonged to no known style, or one might call it the "Dunling Ruins Style," characterized by a lack of distinctive features and unique details, yet possessing extraordinary craftsmanship that allowed them to survive under extremely harsh conditions.

Stone blocks quarried locally and polished were fitted tightly together, forming walls and vaults that were not tall but sufficiently sturdy, constructed exactly like sewers, revealing the builders' superior level of spatial geometry.

It was the kind of thing that appears in certain monotonous, repetitive nightmares; when regularity reaches a certain degree, it instead brings discomfort.

No traces of life or artistic expression could be found; not even a hint of cultural atmosphere, nothing that could be called "human touch." These things were simply buildings, carrying no meaning beyond their function.

If a regional community were personified, the architecture would be its face, the source of the first impression.

And when visitors tried to gaze upon the ancestors through the ruins, they saw only a blank, featureless face. The traces of humanity had been wiped away, leaving only something extremely pure as its sole remaining base color.

These buildings were more likely to awaken fear than the creatures lurking underwater, hinting that those who once lived here were some kind of alien race transformed from their own kind, yet no longer capable of understanding each other.

But they could not stop. Such a grand display was not made just to sightsee the outskirts of these ancient ruins.

Green had intended to leave someone to guard the boat, but considering that the firelight was more likely to attract creatures wandering the shore, and that even if an accident occurred, two people could do nothing about it, he finally abandoned the futile effort.

Carrying an indescribable feeling, the squad began to advance toward the inner circle, searching for any information that might exist.

The observed traces indicated that the changes in this place were quite complex.

Gaps and corners were filled with a good deal of sediment, most of which had solidified into a semi-mud, semi-stone state, smoothing out some contours; the colors were layered and intermingled, mottled and uneven, formed by different components at different times.

On the stone surfaces, there were some gray or white circular or irregular small protrusions, possibly from barnacles, oysters, or other shellfish capable of adhering to hard surfaces; while the membranous and fluffy coverings were common sights on reefs in shallow waters, mostly related to algae and aquatic plants.

All these signs indicated that this place had been submerged underwater more than once.

Moreover, the lake water at that time was not lacking in life; indeed, it could even be considered abundant, certainly not as barren as lime water that had been filtered once.

They thrust their torches into several buildings that were still relatively intact; the original contents inside were unrecognizable, having crumbled and disintegrated under weathering and water erosion, with only the parts wrapped in sediment retaining a rough outline; no human remains were found.

It was hard to say whether the residents left voluntarily or were destroyed by some disaster. How they survived here was also a question; perhaps when the lake water was not yet so clean, they could meet their needs by fishing and collecting edible aquatic plants.

But even setting aside the technical feasibility of doing so, the biological resources in the freshwater zone should have been too scarce to satisfy the food supply of a town-sized settlement.

Buildings lacking distinctiveness were piled up repeatedly; while appearing chaotic, they possessed a certain order, causing the squad to frequently experience the illusion of "have we been here before" as they advanced along the winding path.

When they penetrated to a certain depth, things whose purpose was hard to judge began to appear. These were Shi Zhu rising straight from the flat ground; the special terrain here greatly facilitated their creation, requiring only the random selection of a slightly modified one to be carved into a standard hexagonal prism shape, with various patterns added on top.

They were firmly fixed into large foundation blocks, or simply carved out of a single piece of rock, merging with the ground; most still stood upright to this day.

The decorative patterns displayed two completely different styles: one consisted of flowing, serpentine interwoven curves, while the other featured straight lines dropping vertically down from the six sides.

Thanks to their excellent geometric skill, they were depicted beautifully, extremely symmetrical and uniform, possessing an irresistible, bizarre harmony; amidst the monotonous buildings, they were so striking, like a temple mirage appearing on the horizon of a spiritual wasteland.

The designer had a special obsession with height. Regardless of thickness, the Shi Zhu far exceeded head height, approaching one and a half times the height of most doorways, seemingly driven by a psychology similar to the high, pointed designs of churches, representing the most direct expression of "height."

This also meant they had to step onto the surrounding ruins to see the tops of the Shi Zhu. As expected, they found half-rings, broken circles, and writhing lines with no distinguishable head or tail.

The deeper they went, the denser and larger these pillars became, even reaching a thickness that one person could barely embrace, forming a forest of pillars that dazzled the eyes.

Among them were some with materials that were awe-inspiring, displaying a familiar ghastly white hue or an extremely deep light-absorbing black, making anyone who had seen similar things jump in their heart.

But after careful observation and touch, Kraft discovered that they were not the two substances he had thought.

Although they looked basically the same, something intuitive was missing, reducing them to ordinary materials that merely appeared special, with a mixed texture between chitinous shells, limestone, and bones, somewhat rough and granular.

【They have died】

This intuition was strange; it could be compared to new arrivals in a morgue versus sleeping people; while their composition was basically identical, their essence was completely different.

He felt a trace of regret, like seeing a patient who died on the eve of a new therapy's birth; this was something that had never arisen before. It seemed as if a part of himself recognized these things as living beings, even as kin, forming a tendency akin to mourning one's own kind.

Shaking off the inexplicable emotion, as the squad passed through the pillar forest, an open clearing appeared before their eyes.

In the center of the clearing were several hexagonal pits the size of a Jingkou, nearly filled with mud, sand, and gravel; judging by what they had seen along the way, this should have been the bases for several especially massive prisms.

The religious totems that once stood here were nowhere to be found, pulled up by an incredible, unimaginable force as if wielded by thousands of people together.

The pillar forest was knocked down like straw, clearing a wide channel that extended toward the outskirts; along the way, buildings were pulverized, and the road surface was plowed up and turned over, pointing directly at the shore and disappearing into the clear waves.

"This makes sense..."

This was the kind of existence they had encountered in the royal tomb, or rather, that chaotic army was an imitation of such behavior.

【Aggregation, proliferation】

If an army was still not enough, what about an entire race? An entire race that once lived on the various islands of this underground lake; did the Tower of Babel built from bodies and souls undergo a qualitative change, becoming closer to the supreme height on the other side?

Or was this true path to the heavens that would unite them all, this living temple, still one step short, patrolling the lake and waiting for the final few bricks?