Chapter 1934: Chapter 1928: Land of Ruins

This is an epic poem describing the Cloud City.

“The earth beneath the clouds, endless above the white clouds, giants sculpted from jade sing and dance.”

“Friendly giants invite mortals, granting gold and blessings as a brother…”

The poem is long, with subtle grammar, enough to tell a prosperous giant’s story within 3,000 words.

The giants’ subspecies in the story, friendly and artistic, hold various balls and performances in their Cloud City, even actively inviting mortals, the Dragon Clan, and beast swarms to participate, granting the final winner “blessings” and wealth.

Does it sound nice?

“The heavenly scoundrel’s cloud war chariots constantly patrol the world, hunting earth’s life forms for entertainment, forcing them into cruel angles and performances, turning losers into a feast during the games…”

However, in the ancient beastmen’s records, this is a demon-like race.

There seems to be a clear conflict. Who is telling the truth?

“Both sides should indeed be telling the truth…”

Lu Ping’an vaguely realized, perhaps only “real information” in this world can withstand the test of history.

From the giant’s perspective, they are the elder siblings of all life, naturally making choices for their “younger brothers,” and conveniently eliminating the weak.

But for the earth’s life forms, hundreds and thousands of individuals are captured, and only one might be returned.

Even if they bring gold and so-called blessings, what is the significance?

Lu Ping’an put down the “book” and sighed.

This is the real history, not a beautiful heroic epic, nor a flawless grand narrative.

Filled with contradictions, racial divisions, and struggles of interest, it is full of various helpless and sorrowful upward twists, which should be the real “history.”

“Compared to the current puppet show, these brutal histories seem more realistic, more vital…”

For insiders, it is quite cruel and ruthless. The earlier the era, the more cruel and inhumane, but with historical progress, newly built civilizations possess morality, law, and culture. The brutal gladiator culture from the past is replaced by drama and dance, mortals even employ machinery and beast taming, further liberating labor…

“Eventually, it regressed artificially… by the gods.”

Fairy tales of the Earth Realm, purgatory and arenas of the Underworld, battlefields of the Heavenly Realm… the ultimately cruel yet real societal evolution stops here, turning into a “ranch and arms factory,” leaving one unsure how to evaluate it.

Is this progress? Lu Ping’an cannot evaluate, as the happiness index of mortals might indeed have increased…

“Fortunately, I don’t need to evaluate. It seems whatever evaluation is incorrect…”

Sometimes Lu Ping’an secretly rejoices that fortunately he did not go into politics and lacks interest in that, otherwise these issues truly have no resolution at times.

He has always been just a “civilian strongman,” interfering in the world according to his preferences, not needing the official’s comprehensive considerations, contemplating until losing hair.

But on the other hand, knowing “I don’t understand this” is a rare quality itself. Too many strongmen act recklessly based on their preferences, never thinking they lack administrative points, usually leaving a mess… this is actually good, not being ousted by the lower ranks, leading to a mad tyrant’s rule, being unable to manage the call of the Mother Star, considerably good already.

After pondering, Lu Ping’an shook his head.

The more he knows, the less he randomly interferes with societal forms, as most forced interference only brings tragedy.

Matching society with proper systems is normal, in this extraordinary multi-universe, different races represent completely different social structures and historical experiences.

“Interesting…”

The documents on the Cloud Kingdom are not just stories.

Conversely, these records are genuine gains.

Cloud Giant’s skills, including the rare Cloud Control ability, also, a large amount of floating technology… in that era without machinery or alchemy products like magic-guided engines, Lu Ping’an is quite interested in the ancient era’s long-term floating methods.

Cross-referencing these records is because the giants ultimately became history… those sunk Floating Cities are also buried in history, although the giant’s records may be lost, the era’s victors have recorded the locations of several battles.

Among the records, there is even the ancient map of the world… as long as enough corresponding records are found, those falling points can be deduced.

Not to mention, just the gene modules of those ancient giants intrigue Lu Ping’an.

Additionally, these records mention massive amounts of secret arts and spells, including ceremonies similar to Domineering Three Faces’ Martial Fight Ascension ritual, and the trait abilities of different races.

This is what’s most valuable.

An epoch of a race may equal a complete extraordinary system, along with gene modules and life evolution chains.

This world can cultivate the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods… Lu Ping’an doesn’t think those ancient dragons or giants are weaker than today’s so-called New Gods.

After all, the researched documents show those race’s epochs fell partly due to the rise of successors, but mainly because of all kinds of internal wars and chaos.

“Location A to C is confirmed… it’s a lost area, no way out.”

“Three locations might have important targets and are within the safe zone, our people are already on the way.”

“Most heading to other great graveyards are doing well, people there offer no resistance and even cooperate with our digging…”

The courtyard begins allocating personnel to investigate possible locations as much as possible.

In some locations and crucial objectives, the Tomb Guardians have already speculated for a long time, but maintaining their inheritance and lives was too difficult before; attracting local lord’s attention would be suicide.

But for Lu Ping’an now, the “archaeology” brought profit margin might be zero or ten thousand percent.

A large number of top combat power is allocated out, each location verified and confirmed. Most areas yield no results; occasionally finding a few antiques is good luck.

Yet, in some regions, the remains of ancient creatures have been unearthed. The courtyard’s Life System is tightening time to research.

“Top priority target, Dragon Language spells, and Heroic Spirit Technology, any results?”

“None, but a lot of unknown items are stored, requiring further validation.”

Even though Lu Ping’an deployed all Rule System abilities for convenient extraordinary item analysis, overly many unknown items exceeding their level limits leave many stored items still unknown in use… but this is good news, in some sense “unidentifiable” also nearly equates to “very valuable research materials.”

Lu Ping’an enjoys such days, where alongside redemption, there’s income, providing him and his team with more motivation.

He patiently waits for the moment of a bountiful harvest.