In Sumeru, pretend to be a scholar

Emerging from the tent, I looked up and saw seven or eight mutated scorpions, glowing with a purple light, lying haphazardly about twenty meters from the camp, already completely dead.

Normally, waking up to such a scene would inevitably make one feel uneasy.

Perhaps Wang Yan had already adapted to this world, and seeing this scene, Wang Yan felt no ripples in his heart.

"Stop looking, go get some water, wash up, and then get something to eat. We'll be going into the ruins soon."

Eros's voice came from the other tent.

Wang Yan turned his head and saw that his mentor was fully armed with tools such as a magnifying glass, a small hammer, a small shovel, and a small brush, looking like an archaeologist.

"What are you looking at? You have one too." Falushan glared at her disciple, then took out an identical set of tools from somewhere and placed it outside Wang Yan's tent.

Wang Yan chuckled and said, "Haha, then I'll go wash up and make breakfast first."

Taking out toiletries from the tent, Wang Yan yawned as he walked towards the clear pool of water. He scooped up a handful of cool water and splashed it on his face, instantly sobering him up considerably.

After a quick wash, Wang Yan took out the portable stove he had used the night before, fetched some water from the pond, and placed it on the stove to boil.

After the water boiled, I took out two packets of macaroni, thought for a moment, and then added another packet. I skillfully opened the package and poured the coiled dry macaroni into the portable pot.

Before his transmigration, Wang Yan was quite unhappy with Fu Ningna's habit of eating macaroni every day, but now he himself thinks that it is really convenient.

In the days before instant noodles, this macaroni was good, strong, and amazing!

After the water boils, the macaroni gradually expands and softens in the pot, releasing a faint wheat aroma.

Wang Yan tore open the accompanying sauce packet and poured in the orange-red tomato cheese powder, which melted into a thick sauce upon heating, coating each strand of macaroni. Finally, he sprinkled on some dried herb flakes, and a steaming, tempting pot of macaroni breakfast, just like the one served to the Water God, was ready.

"Mentor, breakfast is ready!"

Wang Yan served a portion and called out.

"They're here."

Eros put down her notes, walked to Wang Yan's side, and took the macaroni.

Wang Yan served himself another serving.

“I just checked, and those scorpions came out of the ruins last night. My previous guess should be right. A monster has taken over the ruins and is controlling these scorpions.”

Eros said as she ate.

She woke up a little earlier than Wang Yan, which was completely different from her previous habit of staying up late and sleeping in at home.

After Eros got up, she naturally saw the dead scorpion. She did a simple investigation and confirmed the source of the scorpion.

"Did the mentor have any guesses about what it is?" Wang Yan asked, taking a bite of macaroni.

Eros: "It's most likely the Sacred Remains Scorpion."

"Hmm? But when I looked at the 'Illustrated Guide to Desert Creatures,' it said that the Sacred Beasts are all solitary creatures." Wang Yan asked, somewhat puzzled.

Like the "Illustrated Guide to Desert Creatures" that Amir had given him before, "Illustrated Guide to Rainforest Creatures" is a popular science book published by the Cult of the Church.

As you can tell from their names, one is about rainforests and the other is about deserts.

The most mysterious and powerful monster in the desert is the Holy Beast.

As I have mentioned several times in the book, the Holy Relic Beast is a solitary monster. Often, a single Holy Relic Beast needs to occupy a large area of ​​territory in order to obtain enough prey.

“The books record the general situation, but there are exceptions,” Erosham instructed. “Books are treasures for the transmission of knowledge, but you must also remember that it is better to have no books than to believe everything in them.”

"The knowledge recorded in books is not necessarily all correct, and what is not recorded in books is not necessarily wrong."

After speaking, Falushan explained to Wang Yan, "Generally speaking, Sacred Beasts do indeed live alone. This often happens to Sacred Beasts in their youth and prime, when they are at their most ferocious."

"After reaching their prime, the physical strength of the Holy Beast gradually declines, but its mastery of elemental power becomes stronger. At this time, the Holy Beast will change from ferocious to cunning."

"It is also during this stage that some lower-level monsters of the same kind often gather around the Holy Remains Beast."

“The Sacred Relic Scorpion will summon scorpions, the Sacred Relic Red Eagle will summon a flock of red eagles… and so on.”

Wang Yan listened and nodded slightly: "So, the mentor thinks that the one occupying the ruins is an elderly, sacred scorpion?"

"Let's guess. It could be something else. We can't draw conclusions without seeing it with our own eyes." Erosanne finished her last sip of soup, stood up, and said, "Let's pack up and go inside the ruins."

Wang Yan nodded, quickly tidied up the dishes and cookware, and then hung the tools that Falushan had given him on his body.

“I’m ready, mentor.”

"Let's go then."

Eros led the way, heading towards the pit on the other side of the pool.

Wang Yan quickly followed.

As you get closer to the ruins pit, you see more and more messy grooves and tiny footprints left by scorpions crawling on the sand.

It appears that this site has become a complete nest for scorpions.

"Wang Yan, check the traces around here," Falushan stopped and instructed.

Wang Yan nodded, squatted down to examine it briefly, and quickly identified several obvious, wide, and deep drag marks.

These are not traces left by ordinary scorpions.

The claw marks were rough and widely spaced, winding their way to the dark cave entrance, undoubtedly belonging to a large, remnant scorpion.

"So, what did you find?" Estée Lauder asked.

“Yes, Master, I found the tracks of a giant creature. Judging from the situation, it should be a Sacred Relic Scorpion. The spacing between the footprints is at least three meters wide. Based on the size proportions of a scorpion, this guy may be nine meters long.”

Many people may not have a good grasp of what nine meters means; simply put, it's about three stories high.

This relic scorpion is no exaggeration to call itself a biological tank.

“Hmm… three meters wide and nine meters long, which matches the data of the elderly Sacred Remains Scorpion.” Erosan nodded slightly.

She did not question Wang Yan's conclusion. Along the way, she had taught Wang Yan a lot of things, including the deduction of traces in the wild. The instructions she had just given were also a kind of test.

"Did I bring you the sensory elemental protection device?" Erosanne asked again.

Wang Yan pulled at his shirt, revealing a disc: "I always carry it with me."

He has carried this thing with him ever since Erosanne gave it to him.

It would be incredibly foolish to have life-saving items on your person instead of hiding them, only to find yourself helpless in a dangerous situation.

"Okay, let's keep going, but be careful."

Eros nodded and continued walking towards the entrance of the ruins cave.

Chapter 80 Entering the Ruins (May 20th, please subscribe)

The closer one gets to the pit's entrance, the faster the heat in the surrounding air dissipates, replaced by a cold, damp air rising from the ground, mixed with a faint smell of rust and decaying dust.

The sand around the cave entrance was darker in color due to the dampness, and there were traces of congealed mucus with a dim purple glow in several places, which were obviously left behind by the mutated scorpions when they entered and exited.

The entrance to the pit slopes downwards, where the sand recedes to reveal rock walls covered with neat chisel marks.

That's normal. As the entrance to a site, it certainly couldn't have been formed naturally; there must have been traces of human intervention.

Erosham glanced at the surrounding marks and said, "These marks are typical of human excavation."

"The most basic distinction when examining relics in the desert is to determine whether the relics were left by the Red King civilization or not. Another point is to determine which era the relics were left from."

"We haven't seen the actual remains yet, so it's hard to determine the specific civilization. But the traces of human excavation allow us to make a rough judgment: the remains predate the era of the Elemental Mechanism."

"After the emergence of the Elemental Machines, the construction of buildings in the desert gradually moved away from purely manual construction. In particular, the excavation work, which can be described as hard labor, was often handed over to the Elemental Machines."

As Falushan delved deeper, she explained things to Wang Yan, who listened attentively.

These are all the experiences of our predecessors, knowledge that is rarely found in books.

As you venture deeper into the cave, the salt walls and the ground begin to show signs of dampness.

Erosian crouched down, smeared some wet mud with her finger, sniffed it lightly, and then carefully examined the color:

"The water vapor is pure, without any obvious salt or sulfur smell, indicating that the water quality of the veins is acceptable and may be connected to deeper underground water sources. This also explains why a pool of water formed outside the ruins after they were discovered. It is estimated that the vibrations caused by the ruins created cracks in the strata, allowing the internal water pressure to find a new outlet."

"Tsk, so there are water veins in the desert after all." Wang Yan chuckled softly.

Erosham stood up and glared at him: "There are other reasons why a desert is a desert. The water veins didn't disappear from the beginning, so there is always some groundwater deep underground in the desert."

"Otherwise, how do you think these desert people have managed to survive living in the desert for generations?"

Wang Yan smiled sheepishly: "I was just feeling a bit sentimental."

"Alright, let's continue."

Eros didn't say much and led Wang Yan deeper into the area, where they found more and more traces of arthropod activity.

"Master, why did the Sacred Corpse Scorpion come here? This place is near Aru Village, and there are few wild animals. It shouldn't be the Sacred Corpse Beast's preferred territory, right?"

As they walked, Wang Yan became curious again: "Could there be some treasure in the ruins?"

“It’s unlikely.” Erosham shook her head. “Even if there were any treasures, they would be mostly ruined over the centuries.”

After a pause, Erosham continued, "I guess this Sacred Beast probably lost out in a battle for territory with other Sacred Beasts deep in the desert. It was driven out, found a water source here, and took over the area."

"As for the prey here, there may not be enough... Even the Holy Remains Beast understands that as long as there is a water source, life will gradually gather around."

Wang Yan nodded thoughtfully and looked at Falushan: "Teacher, did you already know this from the beginning? Is that why you refused Fudeer's help?"

Previously, Erosanne said she could solve the problem and told Fodil to go back directly. Now it seems that she may have already guessed that the monster behind the attack was an injured, elderly Holy Relic Scorpion after the scorpion attack.

“At first it was just some speculation. The scorpions that attacked us before were driven away by a hissing sound. Did you hear that?” Erosanne asked.

Wang Yan recalled for a moment: "It seems so."

“Hmm, there was a hint of weakness in that voice, I could hear it,” Erosanne said, then stopped in her tracks. “Alright, we’re here.”

Wang Yan also paused, his gaze following Erosan's figure as he looked over.

A giant door embedded in the stone wall, with a frame over ten meters high, appears to be carved from a single piece of rock. The patterns on it resemble vines entwined and blooming flowers.

"Is this the pattern of the ruins that Fodil was talking about?" Wang Yan asked hesitantly.

This looks more like a vine.

"And what about the monsters?"

Wang Yan looked around but did not find the expected Sacred Remains Scorpion, nor even the Mutated Scorpion.

There were quite a few traces of arthropod crawling before, but they disappeared when we got to the entrance of this site.

Wang Yan looked around but couldn't see any tunnel entrance.

You should know that the Sacred Corpse Scorpion he calculated was three meters tall and nine meters long. Such a giant beast could not simply disappear; there must have been traces left behind.

"Stop looking. This door isn't broken. It has a fixed rune array on it that can clean up some of the traces around it," Erosham's voice came.

Wang Yan subconsciously looked over and saw that the other person was already standing in front of the gate.

Wang Yan quickly went over.

Erossan had already put on gloves and was feeling around on the stone door.

Seeing Wang Yan approach, he pointed to a circle of patterns on the stone gate: "Look here, this circle of patterns looks like carvings, but in fact, it is a pattern formed by a large number of runes superimposed together."

“This is a common occurrence in desert ruins,” Eluca explained. “Many people in the Church think that deserts are barbaric and uncivilized, but this view is completely wrong.”

"In fact, ancient desert civilizations may have been barbaric, but they were definitely civilized, and even highly civilized."

"They not only possess autonomous mechanisms like the primal energy mechanism, but also have a deep understanding of runes and mystical rituals."

"For example, the technique of layering runes to create beautiful patterns as decoration is still cited by the 'Miao Lun' school today."

Eros pointed to the patterns on the stone door again and looked at Wang Yan: "Take a look, how many can you recognize?"

Having studied with Falushan for so long, he has gained some basic skills.

Without needing to use any cheat codes to analyze it, Wang Yan said, "I can recognize the wind element runes 'flow,' 'rotation,' and 'direction'... as well as the rock element runes..."

Wang Yan named about a dozen elemental runes.

Eros listened and nodded in satisfaction: "That's pretty much it. Remember, these runes combined are called [Quicksand Cleansing Pattern], which is often used to maintain the cleanliness of buildings."

Wang Yan nodded: "Okay, mentor, I've got it."

"Well, also, although runes have been widely used in ancient desert civilizations, this kind of [Quicksand Dust Removal Pattern] is not something everyone can afford."

Erosham continued, "During the investigation, we discovered [flowing sand dust patterns], and they are still ongoing, indicating that this site must have been an important location."

As she spoke, Erosham looked away from the gate and around: "Those scorpions must have made this their lair. So the ruins must have been opened. Go and look around for any hidden mechanisms."