Chapter 144: The Golden King and the Secret Treasure
Dak never imagined that Emma could actually find out the origin of the fresco in such a short time.
She found a damaged seal from the corner of the fresco and then restored it with the help of an upperclassman.
From this seal, she was able to determine the possible era of the fresco’s existence.
Thanks to the complete literature in the library, she was able to refer to the correct historical records based on the determined era.
The fresco originated from a time long before the four eras, recounting a complete story.
Emma transcribed the story into her notebook.
Dak took the notebook and carefully flipped through it, hesitating as he said, “The downfall of the Golden Kingdom?”
“Yes.” Emma pondered. “In fact, I had already been searching for information related to the Golden Kingdom before I found this fresco, which is why I was able to progress so quickly.”
As she spoke, she picked up a book from beside her and handed it over.
Dak took the book and looked closely. It was a novel titled The Golden King and the Secret Treasure.
Dak had long noticed that Emma sometimes read novels and biographies. She had started reading The Golden King and the Secret Treasure even before Halloween.
“Is this the reason those eight frescoes appeared in the secret path?”
Dak flipped through the book and suddenly understood.
This novel told a common adventure story, set against the backdrop of a gold rush era.
Someone discovered sand mixed with gold in the desert. The news attracted countless gold seekers.
The protagonist, Jioshu, who came from a slum, was one of them.
Jioshu’s mother died because she couldn’t afford medicine due to illness.
Seeing his mother close her eyes in pain forever, Jioshu developed a strong desire and obsession with money.
He stole, gambled, and robbed, gradually falling into the abyss.
When news of the golden sand spread, Jioshu joined the frenzied gold-seeking team without hesitation.
The golden sand pouring out from the ground made countless people instantly wealthy.
Slaves, fine wine, estates…
All conceivable things could be easily obtained.
Jioshu tirelessly traveled between the desert and towns, immersed in revelry day and night.
Until one day.
The desert where the golden sand gushed suddenly collapsed, and all the gold seekers fell into an ancient city.
That city was the Golden City, the last capital of the Golden Kingdom.
And the king of the Golden Kingdom slept eternally within the Golden City.
Surviving archaeologists identified the inscriptions at the fallen site, telling Jioshu and other gold seekers that the Golden King had buried endless treasures in his tomb—the secret treasure!
To find the Golden King’s secret treasure and become the new Golden King, Jioshu and the gold seekers were consumed by immense greed and delved deep into the city unprepared.
…
The story began like this.
As for whether Jioshu ultimately succeeded in obtaining the treasure or was permanently lost underground?
Dak did not see the ending.
He put down The Golden King and the Secret Treasure and picked up Emma’s notebook.
The notebook contained the story recorded in the fresco, which was “the downfall of the Golden Kingdom.”
There were a total of eight frescoes.
In fact, they used a relatively abstract depiction method.
The first painting depicted destitute peasants digging out carts of ore from the mine.
The ore inside was actually gold ore.
It showed miners digging in the mines.
The second painting showed a blacksmith half-naked forging the ore into standardized bricks.
In reality, these were gold bricks!
The third painting showed a merchant dressed in coarse cloth selling basket after basket of bricks to nobles.
In truth, the merchant was not a merchant, nor were they ordinary nobles.
They were architects and ministers.
The minister collecting the gold bricks symbolized the king’s command.
The fourth painting showed a noble in luxurious attire stacking the bricks into a tower shape on the altar.
Under the king’s command, the minister began constructing the golden tower.
The so-called “altar” represented that the construction of the golden tower was for a ritual.
Or, the entire golden tower itself was a sacrifice!
The fifth painting showed thousands of people praying under the altar for the arrival of some entity.
People prostrated themselves before the golden tower and began their worship.
The sixth painting showed a giant beast glowing with light emerging from a sky-black hole during the ritual.
The golden beast god responded to human worship, awakening from its slumber.
The seventh painting showed a ferocious and greedy giant beast roaring and devouring all the sacrifices and humans.
Everything became a sacrifice.
The eighth painting showed human blood and corpses pieced together into a bizarre pattern on the ground.
Only death was eternal!
…
The story itself was very simple, merely about how the king of that era summoned a deity for some purpose, only to be devoured by the deity.
The so-called “deity” was initially a term filled with reverence created by humans for individuals far stronger than themselves.
Whether it was a humanoid, intelligent deity, or a beast-like, ferocious and cruel deity, they were all deities…
In the ancient times, due to the preciousness and indestructibility of gold, humans linked it with “eternity,” forming the equation “gold = eternity.”
The Golden King, possessing infinite wealth, followed this equation, building the golden tower as a sacrifice to seek immortality.
But clearly, he failed.
And ultimately led to the downfall of the Golden Kingdom!
…
Emma enthusiastically shared her insights: “The Golden Kingdom has another name in historical records—Eternal Kingdom! The so-called alchemy is the refinement of gold, the pursuit of eternity, the quest for immortality!”
“The Golden King is often referred to as the earliest alchemist in many documents. He refined gold to seek the method of immortality, and the Golden Kingdom was merely a byproduct of his research process.”
“The Golden Kingdom was originally a nation built on desires, and it was ultimately destroyed by those desires.”
“The beast god depicted in the fresco may not necessarily be a real god but could be a manifestation of desire.”
“And the essence of the entire fresco lies in this last painting!”
“I suspect it is an array for alchemy!”
…
“The Golden King and the Secret Treasure, the downfall of the Golden Kingdom, the earliest ancient alchemist Golden King, and that last painting, composed of human blood and corpses, suspected to be an alchemy array.”
Dak couldn’t help but ponder.
While copying the frescoes in the secret passage, he felt that the eighth painting was particularly strange, so he put in the most effort to depict it very meticulously.
Even so, trying to reconstruct the complete alchemy array from a single painting was still an immensely vast project.
It could even serve as the subject of an entire academic career at the Mana Academy!
