Chapter 225 Guide to Ruins Exploration
The three of them climbed the stairs, one floor after another.
Besides the warehouse area we passed earlier, there are many rooms here where you can see a lot of well-preserved gold and silver furniture and utensils.
The rooms were arranged along a wide aisle, as orderly as the cabins of a luxury cruise ship. According to his rough estimate, this floor alone could accommodate tens of thousands of people.
However, these rooms have long been eroded by time, with some walls covered in cracks, some ceilings collapsed, and some completely swallowed up by the tree roots hanging down from above.
After walking for a while, Mu En was getting a little bored.
Archaeologists might like this place, as each stone could be studied for a year or two, but for him, there's nothing interesting to see. He'd rather waste his time here and go directly to more valuable places.
He stopped and turned to look at the two children behind him who were discussing whether a pure gold cup would be too heavy to use.
"Come to me, let's go straight to the upper floor."
Pazu, who had walked quickly to Mu En's tall figure, suddenly felt his body become lighter, as if the stone slabs beneath his feet had lost their pull. He looked down and found that his feet were dangling in the air, flying off the ground.
Wow!
He cried out in surprise, frantically trying to grab something, only to find that his body remained firmly suspended in mid-air, showing no sign of falling.
Sheeta was startled, but she quickly realized that the feeling was almost the same as when she used the Volucite to descend.
"Don't be afraid, you won't fall."
As soon as Mu En finished speaking, the three of them slowly flew to the center of the channel, and then quickly flew forward.
After a few days of getting used to it, Mu En can now manipulate gravity at will within a few meters around him using the Law of Gravity. Not only can he fly himself, but he can also take others with him, which is much more convenient than climbing stairs with his feet.
The flight speed increased rapidly, the stone walls on both sides swept past quickly, and the wind whistled in our ears.
"We're flying!" Pazu had calmed down. He opened his arms, enjoying the wonderful feeling of weightlessness. " Sheeta, look, we're flying!"
Sheeta was also infected by that feeling of freedom, and a smile appeared on her lips.
" Mr. Tree is amazing!" she exclaimed sincerely.
After adapting to weightlessness, Pazu suddenly remembered a question.
" Mr. Tree, where are we going? Aren't we going to take another look at those gold and silver treasures?"
While manipulating gravity to lift the three of them into the air, Mu En replied, "When exploring ruins, you can't be after gold and silver treasures, or you'll easily run into trouble. This is a guide to ruin exploration summarized by countless predecessors."
He silently added in his mind: I didn't watch all those episodes of Ghost Blows Out the Light and Indiana Jones for nothing.
Pazu nodded as if he understood, though he didn't quite know who those "predecessors" were, but it did sound quite reasonable.
"Where shall we go?"
"Let's go see the temple first. I want to know if there really are any gods there, and also meet the city's only gardener."
"Gardener? Is anyone still living here?"
Sheeta's tone carried a complex emotion. Ever since she set foot in this floating city, she had been trying to find some kind of connection with her ancestors, but she had found nothing.
Neither the ancient buildings nor the faded murals seemed to have anything to do with her; they simply stood there silently, like a giant tomb.
Mu En originally wanted to answer "no," since the gardener robot was obviously not a living person; there should only be a cold machine there.
But then he remembered the anomaly he had encountered when breaking into the Dragon's Nest.
Under normal circumstances, Laputa should welcome Sheeta back, but the city is refusing to let the "royal bloodline" carrying the Volucite return. This doesn't fit the original storyline, and it's hard to say whether someone is really manipulating Laputa.
The problem is, if that person truly wanted to stop them, he shouldn't be facing such a peaceful scene now, but rather an overwhelming barrage of combat robots.
He finally replied, "Perhaps there is, perhaps there isn't, but that gardener isn't human."
The two children were confused by this question. Did it exist or not? And what did it mean that it wasn't human?
Before they could even ask, Mu En had already flown out through a gap in the outer wall.
Outside is a vast expanse of sky.
Mu En is currently located in the upper-middle area of Laputa, and is rapidly ascending along the outer city wall.
The city wall was thick and tall, constructed of massive, dark brown bricks, its surface covered with moss and vines.
Even though less than one-fifth of it remains, Laputa is still a colossal city hundreds of meters high. Looking up at the ring-shaped suspended city walls from the outside is so spectacular that it leaves one speechless.
As Mu En flew, he used his mental power to scan the internal structure of the city wall.
He saw wide walkways large enough to allow objects five meters tall to pass freely. These walkways ran through the entire city wall, dividing it into many areas of unknown purpose, presumably for the gardener robots.
After all, the only way to attack Laputa is from the air, and these walls serve no purpose other than to distinguish the divine realm from other lower areas.
It's less of a defensive fortification and more of a decorative item.
I just don't know how the once magnificent Crumbling Farum Azula ended up in such a dilapidated state.
As Jiu Mu En carefully observed the outer layer of the city wall, trying to find clues about the destruction of Laputa, a slight scraping sound of something slipping suddenly came.
He immediately looked down.
At the base of the city wall, a huge rock brick with sides exceeding two meters in length was tumbling downwards, eventually disappearing into the vast sea of clouds.
Mu En immediately led the two children down to the spot where the city wall had collapsed, leaving a shallow, distorted trail behind them as a result of Gravity Sorcery.
Pazu had obviously heard the sound too. He peered into the huge gap and showed off his knowledge to Sheeta: "I know! It must be because it's been neglected for years and the stone has become brittle. That's how the support pillars in the old mine broke down."
Mu En didn't speak, but instead reached out and patted the city wall.
What seemed like a gentle tap caused the branches around his body to tremble violently, producing a dull, loud thud.
However, the city wall was much sturdier than he had imagined. After the loud crash, he only left a shallow palm print, and the bricks themselves still maintained considerable strength.
"No, this stone is very solid; it's not due to natural aging."
Pazu was stunned, his mouth agape, unsure how to respond.
Sheeta couldn't help but laugh out loud; the sound was crisp and pleasant in the wind.
"So what exactly is it—" Pazu scratched his head, forcibly changing the subject.
Mu En rested his chin on his hand as if deep in thought, while carefully examining the damaged parts of the city wall with his mental power.
This damage wasn't limited to one spot; a quick glance around revealed irregular damage throughout the base of the entire ring-shaped city wall.
(The damage to Laputa occurred from the bottom up.)
"It's gravity, or rather, the power of the Volucite." He finally sensed the difference.
An extremely faint energy from the Volucite enveloped the entire Laputa, so faint that even he hadn't noticed it at first. It was this energy...
Energy sustains this colossal city, weighing millions of tons, suspended tens of thousands of meters in the air.
Mu En looked up at the layers of buildings above, and a bad feeling crept into her mind.
Perhaps this floating city wasn't destroyed, but simply because it lacked the energy to continue operating.
The crumbling city walls and collapsed buildings, along with the tree roots spreading up from above, are all signs of declining energy.
This is shown in the destruction of Laputa in the film.
When the Volucite is powerful enough, the entire Laputa can be steadily levitated, and it becomes incredibly stable under the influence of the force field.
When it stops providing energy, the entire city will begin to disintegrate, first the lower levels, then the middle levels, and finally only the Sanctuary connected by tree roots will remain.
"Let's go, we need to speed things up."
As Mu En's thoughts raced, the three of them flew upwards again at an extremely fast speed, covering dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, with a slight booming sound echoing in the air behind them.
He needed to confirm whether Laputa was still the deserted city he remembered.