The villain young master just wants to live a Buddhist life Chapter 144

Dake had never expected that Emma would actually be able to find the origin of the murals in such a short time.

She found a fragmented imprint in the corner of a mural, and then, with the help of a senior student, restored the imprint.

Then, based on this imprint, she pinpointed the possible era of the mural.

It was also thanks to the sufficiently complete literature in the library that she was able to peruse the correct historical records according to the era.

The murals originated from the Ultra-Ancient era, four epochs ago, and depicted a complete story.

Emma transcribed the story into her notebook.

Dake took the notebook and carefully flipped through it, then hesitantly asked, “The Fall of the Golden Kingdom?”

“Yes,” Emma mused, “In fact, before I found these murals, I was already looking for information related to the Golden Kingdom, which is why the progress was so quick.”

As she spoke, she picked up a book from her side and handed it over.

Dake took the book and saw that it was a novel titled “The Golden King and the Secret Treasure.”

Dake had long noticed that Emma sometimes read novels and biographies, and this book, “The Golden King and the Secret Treasure,” was one she had been reading even before Halloween.

“Is this why those eight murals appeared in the secret passage?”

Dake flipped through the book slightly, then suddenly had a realization.

This novel told a rather popular adventure story, set in an era when a gold rush was sweeping through.

Someone discovered sand mixed with gold in the desert, and news of it attracted countless prospectors.

The protagonist, Josh, from the slums, was one of them.

Josh’s mother had died of illness because she couldn’t afford medicine.

Watching his mother close her eyes forever in pain, Josh developed a strong craving and obsession for money from then on.

He stole, gambled, robbed, and gradually fell into the abyss.

When the news of the golden sand came, Josh unhesitatingly joined the frantic gold rush.

The golden sand gushing from the ground made countless people rich overnight.

Slaves, fine wine, manors…

Everything imaginable could be easily obtained.

Josh tirelessly traveled back and forth between the desert and the town, immersed in revelry day and night.

Until one day.

The desert, from which the golden sand gushed, suddenly collapsed, and all the prospectors fell into an ancient city.

That city was the Golden City, the last capital of the Golden Kingdom.

And the King of the Golden Kingdom slept eternally within the Golden City.

The surviving archaeologists identified the inscriptions at the fallen site and told Josh and the other prospectors that the Golden King had buried endless treasures in his tomb—that was the secret treasure!

To find the Golden King’s secret treasure and become the new Golden King, Josh and the prospectors were consumed by immense greed and ventured deep into the city unprepared.

…

The story began like this.

As for whether Josh ultimately succeeded in obtaining the treasure or was forever lost underground?

Dake did not see the ending.

He put down “The Golden King and the Secret Treasure” and picked up Emma’s notebook.

The notebook contained the story recorded in the murals, which was “The Fall of the Golden Kingdom.”

There were a total of eight murals.

They actually used a rather abstract depiction method.

The first painting showed ragged commoners digging out carts of ore from a mine.

The ore inside was actually gold ore.

It depicted miners digging in the mine.

The second painting showed a half-naked blacksmith forging the ore into standard square bricks.

This was actually casting gold bricks!

The third painting showed cloth-clad merchants selling baskets of square bricks to nobles.

In reality, they were not merchants, nor ordinary nobles.

They were architects and ministers.

The ministers collecting the gold bricks symbolized that it was the king’s command.

The fourth painting showed luxuriously dressed nobles using square bricks to build a tower on an altar.

Under the king’s command, the ministers began to build the golden tower.

The so-called “altar” represented that the construction of the “golden tower” was for sacrifice.

Or rather, the entire golden tower was a sacrifice!

The fifth painting showed thousands of humans praying for the descent of a certain being beneath the altar.

People prostrated themselves before the golden tower, beginning the sacrifice.

The sixth painting showed a glowing giant beast emerging from a black hole in the sky during the sacrifice.

The golden beast god responded to humanity’s sacrifice, awakening from its slumber.

The seventh painting showed the ferocious and greedy giant beast roaring and devouring all the sacrifices and humans.

Everything would become a sacrifice.

The eighth painting showed human blood and corpses forming a strange pattern on the ground.

Only death is eternal!

…

The story itself was very simple: the king at the time summoned a god for some purpose, but was ultimately devoured by the god.

The so-called “god” was originally a respectful term created by humans for individuals far superior to themselves.

Whether humanoid, intelligent gods, or beast-like, brutal gods.

They were all gods.

In the Ultra-Ancient era, due to the preciousness and imperishability of gold, humans linked it with “eternity,” forming the identity “gold = eternity.”

The Golden King, possessing infinite wealth, followed this identity, building gold into a tower as a sacrifice to exchange for eternal life.

But clearly, he failed.

And ultimately led to the fall of the Golden Kingdom!

…

Emma enthusiastically shared her insights:

“The Golden Kingdom has another name in historical records: the Eternal Kingdom! So-called alchemy is refining gold, which is seeking eternity, which is pursuing eternal life!”

“The Golden King is referred to as the earliest alchemist in many documents. He refined gold to seek the method of eternal life, and the Golden Kingdom was merely a byproduct of the research process.”

“The Golden Kingdom was originally built on desire, and ultimately destroyed by desire.”

“The beast god depicted in the murals may not be a true god, but could also be the embodiment of desire.”

“And the essence of the entire mural is this last painting!”

“I suspect it’s an alchemical array!”

…

“The Golden King and the Secret Treasure, the Fall of the Golden Kingdom, the Golden King, the earliest ancient alchemist, and that last painting, a suspected alchemical array composed of human blood and corpses.”

Dake couldn’t help but ponder.

When he copied the murals in the secret passage, he found the eighth painting particularly eerie, so he put the most effort into copying it, depicting it very meticulously.

But even so, to restore a complete alchemical array from a single painting was still an extremely massive undertaking.

It could even serve as a topic for an entire academic career!

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