"In oral history, the Fountain of Youth originated from the unconscious digging of a man who quarried stone to build a house. The spring water gushes out from the ground and formed an active spring."
The old patriarch continued to move to the next mural. This mural was the most content-filled mural so far. It used a large number of lines to depict various animals, birds in the sky, beasts on the ground, and running people.
They are running wildly in the picture, all with the same goal - the specially marked spring.
"Can the Fountain of Youth really prevent aging?"
He Ao looked at the mural and asked softly.
"In the legends of our generation, after drinking from the Fountain of Youth, one can indeed live forever," the old patriarch said in a hoarse voice, and his eyes moved to the next mural, "The quarryman who first drank from the Fountain of Youth gained immortality.
.”
In that mural, the little man holding a stick who first dug out the Fountain of Youth stood behind the Fountain of Youth, and the artist who painted the mural painted a smiley face on his face.
In front of him, there were countless lives fighting against each other. Humans and beasts were fighting together, and corpses covered the forest.
The mural uses the symbol of water flow to depict the flowing blood, which gathers into a river and flows into the Fountain of Youth, mixing with the small circle symbolizing the Fountain of Youth.
It looks like the quarryman who was the first to drink from the Fountain of Youth triggered the killings.
He Ao looked at the ninth mural.
In this mural, the quarryman is still standing behind the Fountain of Youth, while the vast expanse of lush forest in front of him has turned into a dry Gobi.
A few little people were lying on the edge of the Fountain of Youth like dogs, drinking the water from the Fountain of Youth. Behind these little people were campsites.
He Ao looked at the drawing of the quarry man, and he found that the artist had added some very small dotted lines to the quarry man's original body structure, which could not be found without looking carefully.
These dotted lines are arranged densely together, almost covering the body of the quarryer.
He Ao's eyes moved downward, and he found that the little people lying down drinking water also had such dotted lines on their bodies, but they were much less than those of the quarrymen.
“What do these dotted lines mean?”
He Ao was not a person who was used to keeping questions in his heart. He pointed at the dotted line and asked softly.
"I don't know," the old patriarch shook his head, "Maybe it's some way of expressing strength. In legends, stone quarryers are very powerful and can even move mountains and fill seas. They are the most powerful beings around."
"Every life around has died?"
He Ao looked at the bare pictures and asked casually.
"That period of history seems to have been deliberately erased. We didn't leave any effective information. Those years were very scary,"
At this point, he paused, "My great-grandfather once told me that in the era ruled by the quarrymen, normal people would be regarded as crazy, so all normal people had to pretend that they were 'normal people', and some
When people pretend, they become truly 'normal'."
A change in groupthink?
"Did your great-grandfather survive the age of quarrymen?"
He Ao suddenly asked casually.
"He lived to be two hundred and nineteen years old," the old patriarch said hoarsely. "I also heard his story from his grandfather."
He controlled the wheelchair and continued forward, reaching the tenth mural. "According to our current estimates, the quarryman's reign was about 1,300 to 900 years ago. He ruled this area for four years.
century."
Nine hundred years ago, it was less than a hundred years before Chenxi City was established.
He Ao looked at the tenth mural. The description of this mural was very simple. There were dark clouds in the sky, and a ray of light pierced the dark clouds. In the light stood a tall figure, holding a long stick in his hand.
The stone man fell at his feet.
Those with dotted lines on their bodies, the minions of the quarrymen also fell around.
Most of the surrounding camps collapsed, with little people running away at the bottom.
The Fountain of Youth in the center of the picture is also covered by collapsed rubble.
"In the last days of the Quarry Man's rule, his sphere of influence had expanded to hundreds of kilometers north and south. He was as strong as a god and invincible. At this time, a man who claimed to be a wizard appeared. He was the most powerful among the Quarry Man.
Defeated the quarrymen."
The old patriarch slowly narrated, "After the quarrymen died, our ancestors who were still alive fled their original places and migrated to the north."
He Ao looked at the tenth mural. The way the 'wizard' appeared reminded He Ao of a word,
'Angel'.
And it seems that this 'wizard' is a good person, at least, he is sane.
If the legend of the Andavi family is correct, then by occupying an area of hundreds of kilometers, the quarrymen are the strongest group of B-level angels, even if they are not A-level angels.
That 'wizard' could defeat him easily and didn't care about the Fountain of Youth. He was most likely already an A-level 'angel'.
Does this mean that about nine hundred years ago, humans in the copy world had already figured out a way to maintain their sanity and become angels?
After the last copy, He Ao already knew that wizards were not a specific name for a certain person, but the self-proclaimed name of a group of people who pursued the truth during the Great Cataclysm.
Has this ‘wizard’ already obtained part of the ‘truth’ and entered the ranks of angels?
And it's so close to Chenxi City.
The commander of the Chenxi City Defense Army seems to be an angel. Is there a connection between the two?
It is a pity that all the history at that time is only a fragment of the legend of the Andavi family, and Ho Ao is not sure whether it is really an angel.
He turned his attention to the eleventh mural. This mural was very simple. It was that the Andavi family left their original residence and went to a new area.
There is no human habitation here, surrounded by desolate deserts with no animals on the ground and no birds in the sky. It should not be far from the core area originally ruled by the quarrymen.
However, the artist who painted the mural painted a little bit of sprouting branches among the rocks, which seemed to imply that everything was recovering.
In the past, the surrounding Gobi itself was an abnormal phenomenon, caused by the rule of quarrymen, but now nature has returned to its original appearance.
However, what the quarrymen did seemed to be really amazing, even the turf was removed.
Why does he want to make the surroundings look like such a Jedi?
He Ao turned his head and took another look at the mural of the quarrymen.
Then he walked towards the twelfth mural. In this mural, the surroundings were restored to full vitality. The center of the picture was a simplified version of the camp. In the center of the camp was a circular building, which is similar to where He Ao is now.
The camps are already very similar.
It seems that the Andavi family has recovered from the war.
“Can the place where the Fountain of Youth used to be still be found now?”
He Ao looked at the mural and asked softly.
"it's here."
The old patriarch raised his hand and pointed to a corner of the mural.
In that corner, a majestic city stood faintly.
Limen City.
······
After going round and round, I am back to the starting point.
"Is there a relatively certain location?"
He Ao looked at the old patriarch.
The construction of a fortress city will inevitably face a series of mountain removal and lake filling.
The terrain in the original murals should have disappeared.
In this situation, looking for a fountain of youth buried underground is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.
"We don't have the specific location of the Fountain of Youth," the old patriarch shook his head, "but we have preserved the route map of our original migration, which may be able to give you some help."
After that, he opened the small box hanging under the left armrest of the wheelchair, took out a mini tablet computer, swiped a few times with his fingers, and then opened a high-definition picture to show it to He Ao.
"These are scanned pictures," the old patriarch explained, "but the resolution of those pictures is not particularly high. Such high-definition scans can also be used, but these are secrets in our clan, and only members of the clan with higher status and
Only the clan leader can read it, so I can’t let you take a copy away.”
He Ao:······
They were just looking at the ancient murals and guessing about the lost history, but suddenly, the old patriarch took out a tablet and showed him the high-definition scan.
Reasonable, but a little strange.
There is a feeling of traveling through time.
However, he did not continue to think about these. He looked at these scanned documents, activated his super memory, and quickly glanced at them.
The resolution of the old patriarch's tablet computer is not low, and the accuracy of the scanner is also very high. Many details and even damage on the picture are clearly visible.
There are four migration maps in total, each depicting the migration paths of the Andavi family in different time periods. The mapping methods of these migration maps are completely different from the mapping standards currently used by the federation. They should be the mapping methods invented by the Andavi family themselves, or by someone.
A popular charting method of an era.
However, the meaning of each icon is marked on the picture, so He Ao does not have much difficulty in reading, but it is more troublesome to change his thinking.
He Ao memorized all four pictures when he quickly flipped through them for the first time, but in order to avoid exposing his ability, he still flipped through them in detail for a while.
Finally, he raised his head and whispered to the old patriarch, "Thank you."
"We should be the ones thanking you."
The old patriarch put down his tablet and smiled.
His expression at this moment was much more relaxed than when Heao first saw him. It seemed that solving the Merck family had indeed eliminated a huge threat to him.
He Ao glanced at the previous twelve murals and memorized them all. Then he turned his head and looked behind him.
Here is a new mural that has only been painted a little bit.
The background of the mural is mushrooms all over the mountains and plains.
Obviously, these 'mushrooms' are ghost mushrooms.
"Although there are more advanced storage methods now," the old patriarch controlled the wheelchair and walked to the mural, "but I still hope to use ancient methods to record these histories, so that even if one day we lose those
History can also leave some traces.”
He Ao looked at the mural calmly and nodded lightly.
He pondered for a moment, sorted out all the information he had just obtained, and then asked slowly, "So what does the saying 'After drinking the fountain of youth, it is not necessarily the person who lives forever' means?"
"I don't know the specific meaning," the old patriarch shook his head and said slowly, "but this sentence is a motto that has been passed down since the days when the quarrymen ruled."
In the era when the quarrymen ruled, there were indeed people in the Andavi family who drank from the Fountain of Youth.
He Ao stared at the mural with only some mushrooms painted on it.
He suddenly remembered that the Andavi family seemed to be highly resistant to mental temptations.
This seems to be an evolution in the face of harsh environments.
Generally, this kind of evolution takes a long time, so when did the Andavi family develop this kind of resistance?
Was it during the reign of the Quarrymen?
It was very possible, but He Ao vaguely felt that something was unreasonable.
He looked at the old patriarch, "Do you know when the Andavi family's natural mental resistance began?"
"The era before the Quarry Man is unknown, but what is certain is that after the Quarry Man, everyone in our family has this kind of resistance to a greater or lesser extent."
The old patriarch replied, "Currently we speculate that this resistance may be related to the Fountain of Youth."
He Ao's guess is similar.
When talking about this step, he paused for a moment and asked the question he had been thinking about for a long time, "Which god is your 'hospital' worshiping?"
"Do you think we are worshiping the gods?"
The old patriarch was stunned. He seemed not to have expected He Ao to ask this question, and then his movements froze.
He suddenly realized that he felt there was no problem with the hospital because he had lived in this environment since he was a child. In his world, the hospital should be the center of the camp, which was a matter of course.
That's how it should always be.
Although the Andavi family entertains many guests, most of the guests are just curious and surprised that there is a hospital in their camp, instead of thinking about whether this hospital is for worshiping a certain god.
After all, under normal circumstances, no one would associate a modern hospital with a temple. What's more, the Andavi family's hospital is just like a normal hospital and does not have any occult items.
He Ao's train of thought took a bit of a turn, and the old patriarch didn't react for a moment.
But he soon realized the reason why He Ao felt that they were worshiping the gods.
The hospital of the Andavi family is at the core of the entire camp. Doctors have a distinguished status, and only the director of the hospital can serve as the leader of the clan.
Regardless of functionality, these conditions are the conditions that other temples in the wilderness wanderer families with faith have.
Someone once asked the old patriarch why the status of their hospital is so high. His answer has always been, 'This is the tradition of the Andavi family, and it has always been like this.' This means that we care about the lives of our people, and the existence of the hospital makes us
The mortality rate of the tribe has been greatly reduced.'
But judging from the objective facts, it is indeed a waste for the Andavi family to maintain such a hospital building.
However, the Andavi family has many inherited talent sequences of the 'doctor' path, which allows them to obtain high-quality doctors at a relatively low cost.
The old patriarch kept flashing words to refute He Ao in his mind, summarizing the reason why the hospital is not a temple.
At this time, He Ao, who had not been able to wait for a reply, had already gone back to look at the previous murals.
"If this 'hospital' building is very important, then it must have appeared in a mural. Since the person who painted the mural wanted to record history, he must not miss such an important thing."
Among the twelve murals, the first building similar to a camp appears in the sixth mural.
The camp in this mural is very simple and looks like a makeshift stone fortress.
Next is the eighth mural. The eighth mural depicts the scene where quarrymen induce life to kill each other.
In the corner of this mural, there are several camps faintly appearing.
These camps have begun to take shape, and all facilities are complete, but in the center of the camp is a square, not a circular hospital.
He Ao's eyes moved to the ninth mural.
This mural depicts the peak of the quarrymen's rule. The mural is filled with a large number of camps.
Among these camps, almost every one has a circular building similar to the current Andavi Family Hospital.
It's just that the size of these 'hospitals' varies depending on the size of the camp.
Some are large, with two or three floors, and some have only one floor, a small room.
At this time, the old patriarch also drove over in a wheelchair and saw the mural that He Ao was looking at.
"These 'hospitals' are the 'legacy' left by the quarrymen."
He Ao looked at these camps and thought, "The gods that the hospital believes in are actually the gods of the quarrymen? It's just that with the end of the quarrymen's rule, your family overturned the gods they originally believed in and only retained
The hospital itself, which is of more practical value?”
The old patriarch looked at those camps.
He had to admit that what He Ao said was very reasonable, it was indeed possible, and it was very likely to be true history.
He choked back the words he just thought of to refute He Ao.
He looked at He Ao's thinking expression and began to think about whether to publish these murals recording history to more young people in the clan.
Perhaps the active thinking of these young people can help them find points they have never found before and unearth a more authentic history.
Although the 'Pate' in front of him is also a middle-aged man, the old patriarch can feel that his mind is unusually active.
But at this moment, He Ao's active thinking was blocked.
He vaguely felt that this 'hospital' might be closely related to the Fountain of Youth, but he could not determine what the connection was.
He's still missing some key clues.
Rubbing his eyebrows, He Ao sorted out all the clues obtained today. The next clues may need to be obtained from Limen City.
He gave up studying these murals and instead looked at the fountain of youth in the center of the room and walked over.
"This fountain of youth was brought out by our tribe when they migrated,"
The old patriarch slowly followed He Ao's footsteps,
"After we brought it back, we sealed it in this metal space.
"In order to prevent future generations who could not control their desires from opening this container, the first patriarch after the quarry people asked a passing wizard to design a self-explosion mechanism for this spring. Once you try to open this container, it will
Blow it up directly and take away the Fountain of Youth inside.
"Over the years, the breath of life it exudes has saved countless clan members, and also extended the lives of clan leaders who have been able to enter and exit this room.
"In order to prevent the patriarch himself from being tempted, we have chosen a strict succession mechanism. Only the extraordinary person with the best resistance can become the director of the hospital, and then the patriarch of the family."
"No one has been tempted in all these years?"
He Ao took out a test tube from his arms and asked softly.
"Yes," the old patriarch stared at the fountain of youth, his eyes a little dazed,
"The first patriarch who designed this device was tempted by this spring when he was about to die. Although he was stopped at the time, he still caused heavy casualties.
"When a person is close to death, the temptation of eternal life becomes infinite."
Finally, he shook his head slightly and said, "So when the patriarch of our family is old and about to die, he will choose to self-exile and leave the family."
This topic is a bit heavy.
An old man, no matter how strong he is, will have a hard time alone in the wilderness.
Self-exile is self-exile at best, and suicide at worst.
After hearing this, He Ao asked casually, "So do you plan to move to the city to retire?"
"?"
The old patriarch was stunned.
“Have you ever heard of the Wilderness Wanderer Immigration Act?”
He Ao continued to ask.
The old patriarch shook his head blankly.
It seems that there is still some problem with the dissemination of information among wilderness wanderers.
The intelligence of the Wilderness Wanderer mainly relies on communication with surrounding cities. If no one in the city is willing to share this information, the speed at which the Wilderness Wanderer obtains information will be greatly delayed.
The traveling caravan relies on the nearby wilderness wanderers for supplies, and the wilderness hunters out of the city need to purchase low-priced furs or gems from the wilderness wanderers.
No one wants wilderness wanderers to leave their original active areas and move into cities.
Even going to the city would make these wilderness wanderers live a better life.
Of course, there are also some wilderness wanderers who may be unwilling to enter the city for various reasons.
The world is often complex.
"It's okay," He Ao glanced at the test tube, "I will explain it to you in detail after the matter is over."
The test tube in his hand was one of the test tubes obtained from Shadow. It contained a milky white translucent liquid.
Ho put the test tube together with the container containing the Fountain of Youth. The color of the liquid in the test tube was very similar to the water from the Fountain of Youth.
At first glance it looks like a translucent fountain of youth.
"A dilute solution of the Fountain of Youth?"
The old patriarch also noticed the test tube in He Ao's hand at this moment. He was a little shocked, "Can you show it to me?"
"Give."
He Ao handed him the test tube.
"Ingenious design, almost no energy leakage."
The old patriarch took the test tube in his hand and played with it, then looked at He Ao, "Can I open it and take a look?"
He Ao thought for a moment and nodded slightly.
The old patriarch is obviously an expert in this field, and the other party's inspection is much more accurate than his guess based on his feelings.
After receiving He Ao's affirmative answer, the old patriarch carefully opened the latex stopper of the test tube, and a warm feeling instantly filled the test tube.
The old patriarch took a sniff and immediately put the stopper back.
"It's the Fountain of Youth, that's right. I've been here for more than a hundred years, so I can't sense anything wrong. However, the Fountain of Youth is not the main substance. It's also mixed with other things. I don't even know what he mixed in, but
What he added did neutralize part of the pollution that diluted the Fountain of Youth, although it greatly weakened the efficacy of the Fountain of Youth."
He raised his head and looked at He Ao, and handed the test tube back with some reluctance, "The person who developed this potion is a genius. Where did you get this?"
"In town."
He Ao took the test tube.
"Is this why you must understand the Fountain of Youth?"
The old patriarch groaned.
Heao didn't answer.
In fact, the old patriarch shared the information about the Fountain of Youth with him, which was equivalent to paying him future rewards in advance. After all, the information about the Fountain of Youth was the reward for destroying the ghost mushrooms as agreed between He Ao and the old patriarch.
"Aren't you afraid that I will break the contract and run away?"
He Ao glanced at the murals around him and chuckled.
"Although I am old and not very strong," the old patriarch said in an old voice, but unusually confident, "but I still have a certain eye for others."
He stretched out his hand and handed a folded piece of paper to He Ao.
"This is the secret medicine formula of 'Talent Sequence 115: Nightcrawler'."
