"What are Crystalline Life-Orchards?" Wang Tao asked.
Yako-Vesti shook his head. "I don't know... There isn't much recorded in the pyramid. It seemed the Saru people didn't want their descendants, who had degenerated into primitives, to know too much about the Crystalline Life-Orchards. But..."
"But what?"
Dr. Yako stomped his foot and took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly with excitement. "There's another secret recorded here. Right beneath our feet lies the enormous underground city built by the Saru people!"
"An underground city?" Wang Tao said in astonishment.
Dr. Yako nodded emphatically. "That's right! An underground city! When the Saru people faced that terrible disaster a hundred thousand years ago, they hid their city underground. That's why, when we dug down along the pyramid, we hit hard bedrock. Because this was their refuge all along! Next, they used the Crystalline Life-Orchards to absorb their people's intelligence and turn them into primitives, leaving the Mind-harp behind as a means to restore their wisdom."
Wang Tao found it hard to believe as well. "What kind of catastrophe could have driven such an advanced civilization to preserve itself in such an extreme way? They didn't even have the courage to fight to the death?"
It was like a school bully claiming he was coming over to beat the hell out of you. No normal person would rush to dig a basement to hide in, then smash himself stupid with a brick, no matter what. Even if a serial killer were coming, you would still try to save yourself. Backed into a corner, you would probably put up a desperate fight. Even if Kayako were coming, it wouldn't come to this! What kind of terror could make such a powerful civilization completely abandon any thought of resistance and simply give up?
"The answer