I changed the world.

Page 422

On the southern coast of Misura Island lies a vast, dense forest, mostly composed of mangroves, banyan trees, and other species of the genus *Garlandia*. These trees are tall and lush, and hidden within this dense rainforest is a large archaeological site.

Historically, this site wasn't discovered until 100 years ago by the runic explorer Wilson Gleifis, who believed it to be the location of the main city of a former kingdom on Misura Island. Of course, this is based on a Western historical perspective. In reality, the local indigenous people were always aware of the ruins in the dense forest; however, they regarded it as the "resting place of their ancestors' souls" and would avoid that area when hunting, leaving it undisturbed.

However, some faculty and students from the History Department of the University of Rune conducted research here and believe that the site dates back much earlier than the island kingdom that once existed, possibly even more than 5000 years. In other words, the ancient civilization of Misula Island can be traced back to an even more ancient era. Of course, this sounds rather improbable, since the general consensus is that the evolution of island civilizations is based on the spread of continental civilizations. Therefore, a 5000-year-old Misula civilization seems quite far-fetched.

So much so that even the history professor who led the research at the time felt that the weathering rate of the ruins was much higher in the island environment than in the mainland environment, which caused some problems with the measurement. He believed that the true history of the ruins was about 2000 years ago, but even so, it was already a very long history.

Of course, this was also what the colonial authorities wanted to see, so they gave it the name "Kumbor Ancient Civilization Site Complex," a name derived from a transliteration passed down orally by the locals, meaning "land of the ancestors."

Since then, the local colonial government has had the idea of ​​developing the site as a tourist destination to attract tourists from all over the world. After all, the ruins of island civilizations built on islands are rare, and if the ruins of Misura Island can be developed, it should be one of the best of its kind in the world.

However, due to problems with the initial investment, and because it is located in a tropical rainforest area, if a road cannot be built directly to the ruins, and instead local guides lead tourists on foot, then visiting the ruins will obviously be less convenient and user-friendly.

The current situation is that the difficulty of road construction has obviously exceeded the expectations of the colonial authorities. After the road was completed, the erosion and rapid growth of vegetation caused the original investment costs to exceed the budget, resulting in an overall cost overrun. This directly led to the intermittent nature of the project, and the final section is still not fully completed. However, at the current pace, the road construction should be completed in about two years at most. In fact, apart from the core area, the rest of the site has already begun to be opened to the public on a small scale. Visitors need to be guided to hike the last section of jungle road, which is over a thousand meters long, to reach the site.

At this very moment, on a staircase near the core area of ​​the ruins, a man wearing a trench coat and trousers, sunglasses, with a slightly hooked nose and dark skin, clearly of Southeast Asian island descent, was silently making his way towards the core of the ruins, stopping occasionally to assess his surroundings.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 872 The Altar

This person is none other than Sonny Ghana, the patient who went missing from the Pasig Medical Center in Port Takeda, Sulu.

Around him were some tall, stone-wall-like ruins, and in some places there were huge dome-shaped structures over three meters high. However, due to the erosion of time, many of these structures were covered with thick vines. Although the government regularly sends people to clear the vines in order to protect the ruins, the plants in the rainforest grow at an astonishing rate, and new vines will grow in just a few days.

However, it is still possible to see that the exposed parts of these relics are extremely sturdy, and thousands of years of wind and rain have not been able to completely erode them.

Many of the structures here are carved from a type of hard rock unique to the area, and many buildings are decorated with intricate patterns of unknown meaning and some abstract and bizarre statues.

Many of these rocks appear extremely large, even unimaginable, and it's a mystery how such massive rocks were quarried and transported here in ancient times with limited technology. The rocks are held together by a cement-like substance.

This substance is said to be a mixture of clay, glutinous rice, the blood of certain organisms, and the juice of some plants. Of course, this is also speculation. However, similar adhesives have been used in ancient civilizations around the world, with only slight differences in the formula. It is not particularly difficult to understand. Although the cost is high, the resulting buildings are as hard as modern concrete.

After walking for about ten minutes, Sonny Garner climbed up a platform that was clearly man-made. Only a base remained of the platform, which may have once had a wooden structure on it in ancient times, but now there was nothing left.

Sonny Garner stood on the stone platform, which was about five or six meters high, and looked ahead. Not far ahead was a spacious square, which was at least the size of a football field and looked extremely spacious.

Sonny Garner leaped directly off the stone platform, landing lightly, and then continued forward towards the plaza...

Soon, he arrived at the square, which was paved with a large number of stones. It looked very flat, and some patterns could even be seen on the surface. They looked twisted and unintelligible.

In the very center of the square stands a bizarre and enormous stone sculpture. It appears to be some kind of deity, depicting a strange figure with intricate tentacles at the lower body and an upper body shrouded in a tattered cloak. However, the statue's head is missing, presumably destroyed in some accident. Furthermore, like the other ruins here, this massive statue is covered with moss and ferns.

Sonny Garner stood before the enormous statue, kneeling respectfully on one knee, muttering something as if in prayer. After a moment, he rose again, walked to the statue, placed his hand on it, and murmured something further…

A moment later, a pale red light rose from where his hand touched the statue. Then, beneath the layers of weathering and erosion accumulated over the years, strange pale red patterns began to shimmer. At the same time, the moss and ferns growing on the statue began to wither rapidly at a visible speed, as if burned by some invisible flame. These plants began to turn to ash and fall to the ground...

At the same time, a light mist began to rise in the surrounding air, just like the sea fog most common on the beach, and quickly spread in all directions. Soon, the entire ruins were shrouded in an increasingly thick mist...

At the same moment, the ground beneath the statue began to shift to the left and right, revealing the entrance to a passage. Sonny Garner waited for a moment, then walked straight in.

Below were long steps. After walking down the steps for a while, the steps came to an end, and ahead was a dark passage filled with waist-deep water.

Without hesitation, Sonny Garner waded into the waist-deep water. In the darkness and silence, the only sound was the rushing water as he moved forward.

Sonny Garner turned on a flashlight, shining it around him. It was pitch black. The further he went, the more open the space became. The surrounding water began to ripple, as if something was swimming towards him…

Sonny Garner clearly noticed this as well, but he wasn't nervous. He simply raised his hand in that direction as if to block, while uttering a few disjointed monosyllables that carried far in the silent darkness.

The ripples in the water stopped, and it seemed to fall silent again. Sonny Garner continued forward. After walking for a while, the water began to become shallower, and the surrounding space became more and more open. Under the beam of his flashlight, he could see the stalactites standing all around. This place was actually an underground cave.

Soon, Sonny Garner emerged from the water and began walking ashore. Ahead lay a wide area. Strangely, as he walked, light gradually appeared around him. It was a phosphorescent glow emitted by some unknown plants, and occasionally, spore-like particles could be seen floating in the air.

Through these phosphorescent lights and the beam of Sonny Garner's flashlight, it can be seen that the space here is larger than the square on the ground.

Sonny Garner crouched down and kicked a white stone on the ground. Half of a broken rib fell off. Clearly, this was not a white stone, but the calcified remains of a skeleton from who-knows-how-many years ago.