The inside of the pyramid gate is not dry or cold, the air is very humid, and the temperature is stable in a cool but not cold state, and it is clear that there is still a thermostatic system in operation inside the pyramid.

"You...... Can you speak snakes?" The female wanderer was surprised and said, "You have snake blood?"

"No, I'm purely human...... I guess so." Aaron smiled self-deprecatingly, pointing to himself, "I have this ability in my talent as a warlock."

The female ganqi oracle, disguised as other gods, he relied on the power of the female ganqi to deceive the stone statue guarding the door.

Elunora wanted to say something more, but Aaron stretched out his hand and motioned to stop talking, "Look at this."

On both sides of the passage leading to the interior of the pyramid, huge frescoes are painted in an ancient style and painted with special pigments.

"It's ...... The history of the Serpent Empire?" The female wanderer looked interested: "Interesting, what did it say?"

"Won't you read?" Aaron looked at the mural carefully, the first and second murals depicted the story of the Snake People before the establishment of the Empire.

"I don't know how to speak snakes!" The female wanderer was genuinely interested: "You know, clever viscount, tell me about it, I want to hear it."

This woman...... She knows how to make a man feel comfortable, but she doesn't seem to be interested in herself, and Aaron is not interested in her, but considering the current relationship between the two parties, it doesn't hurt to say it again.

Everyone has a desire to show and express.

"This is the history of the Snake Empire." Aaron pointed his finger at the first mural.

The first mural depicts a group of serpentine creatures prostrating themselves towards a giant serpent that surrounds the universe.

During the Age of Thunder, an intelligent creature called the Saruk Witch began to rise in the southeast of the realm, when a divine creature from the depths of the universe, the Cosmos Serpent, descended, and offered to grant them the secrets, civilization, and power of magic, and all she asked in return was that the witch worship him and offer her sacrifices.

The witch agreed to this condition, and thus gained great knowledge and power.

In the second mural, the three-headed witch rules over all things, and a large number of races bow down.

As the Witches gained magic, knowledge, and power from the Serpent of the Universe, they became the masters of the world, and the Witches established three great empires to rule over the peoples, and thousands of other races were busy meeting their needs.

At the height of their glory, the witches feasted on the finest meat, dressed in the finest costumes, surrounded by gold and jewels, and achieved an ideal society of distribution according to need, at the cost of enslaving almost all races in the world.

In the third mural, the witches retreat into the deep palace and hand over their authority to the snake people.

The snake people are the most proud race created by the witches, they are strong and loyal mixed with human genes, with the snake people, the witches gradually give all the authority and responsibility to the snake people, they no longer need to bother to find food, build cities, even manage slaves and do not do it themselves, gradually, nothing can let the Saruk witches leave their palace of pleasure, they gradually become lazy, tyrannical, lose all initiative, nothing in the outside world can no longer interest them, Since then, the race has declined, and three empires have perished due to civil strife, climate change, and decay.

….

Aaron looked at the first three murals in silence.

The fall of the Saruk Witch Empire was very Roman and very Anglo.

The demise of the three great witch empires basically covered the three major elements of Rome's demise – civil strife, climate change, and decay at the top.

But equally, the demise of the Witch Empire is also related to their expansion to the extreme.

In his previous life, as a member of the Celestial Empire, Aaron didn't understand very well, why does a big empire have the concept of decline? Isn't it true that the bigger the territory, the stronger it should be, and the more land it has, the better?

Later, after reading some literature, he realized that this was not the case.

In any big empire, there will be an expansion threshold, and until this expansion threshold is reached, that is

The bigger the better, but if this threshold is breached, the larger the territory will become a burden, and under the influence of rising management costs, if the empire cannot complete internal innovation, it will begin to collapse and disintegrate itself.

For example, the famous empire on which the sun never sets, the British Empire, expanded to its limit in the 19th century, and the whole world was a colony of the empire on which the sun never sets, and it was the world's first power at that time.

However, it was in the 19th century that an interesting phenomenon began to emerge - Britain was involved in almost every war in continental Europe and even in the world.

This is not actually what they want, but because any little wind and grass at that time was a challenge to the status of the empire on which the sun never sets, and the empire needs to constantly respond to challenges to maintain its hegemony, and even many times need to participate in some wars that have suffered bloody losses and not even more losses.

Mrs. Empire is too big.

Frequent wars with no end in sight, the painful choice of whether to lose blood or lose blood, will cause everyone to think after a big defeat.

Also, to maintain such a large territory, the Empire of the Sun Never Sets has to prop up many regimes with very low legitimacy, and to pay a huge cost for maintaining stability, and after decades of entropy increase, when the costs of maintaining stability outweigh the benefits, this cost seems to be unnecessary.

Finally, there is the problem of uneven distribution of benefits.

The second mural tells of the beginning of the decay and degeneration of the witches, who enjoy the highest level of luxury, become lazy and lose their enterprising spirit, which is the degeneration of the upper class.

I know the empire is going down, but what does it have to do with me having a big party in the manor?

The fifth mural deals with the degeneration of the faith of the Empire.

As we all know, the conditions reached between the Cosmos Serpent and the Saruk Witch are faith and sacrifice, and the object of the sacrifice is the Salek Witch itself, and the Cosmos Serpent needs the Witch with normal intelligence to perform human sacrifice to strengthen its strength.

In the early days, all the witches rushed to become sacrifices.

Then, the witches of the living sacrifice become some of the criminals and outcasts of society.

At the height of the empire, there were no witches among the living sacrifices, and the slave race replaced the witches for the living sacrifices, and in order to compensate for the Cosmos Serpent, hundreds of slaves were killed every night in front of the blood pool of the temple.

The mass sacrifices of these non-witch races have actually polluted the belief of the Serpent of the Cosmos, causing the faith to split and the "sacred values" that the Empire uses to unite all people no longer valid.

….

History is a cycle.

There is no eternal dynasty and no eternal winner.

Aaron stood in front of the mural as he reached out and touched the ancient mural.

He felt, he felt, the glory of the empire in its heyday, the grandeur of any civilization, the strong pioneering spirit, the use of magic to create flying machines, the splendor of the starry sky with other races, the flourishing of art, and the market full of goods from other star fields.

He also felt, he felt the decay and depravity of the witches, the indulgence in the pleasures of pleasure and the insensitivity to all things in the world, the destruction of the empire, the despair and fear of the remaining witches, their absolute psychological superiority to the fear of mortal beings, the fear of death.

The witches who once dared to confront the Weaver Empire in the astral plane are now just a bunch of dying old ghosts who are afraid of death, and there are still a handful of witches alive, but they have long since become frightened birds, and they are not willing to participate in anything, even if it may make them gain a lot.

However, it is not without a legacy to mortals.

"What is this?" Elunora asked, pointing to the fourth mural of a group of witches making scrolls.

"It's called the Golden Skin of the Universal Serpent." Aaron nodded, "It has a more famous name, though."

"Color-resistant scroll!"

The Nexera civilization, the beginning of the great empire built by the Grand Arcanists, was created by the Saruk Witches, who recorded all the magical research they had collected.

So in a way, the Nesserel civilization is the rightful successor of the Saruch Witch

。

The fourth mural has a large borehole inlaid with something inlaid inside, which Aaron carefully removes after detecting it several times to make sure there are no traps.

He got the first big takeaway from this adventure.

Timeless hands made from gold and precious stones.

According to the snake language, the pointer is always pointing in the direction of the nearest "color-resistant scroll".

The pointer points northeast.

Aaron held the magic item and was silent for a long time.

It's not my track.

However, if you can get some of the color-resistant scrolls, even if it is a fragment and a solitary book, perhaps, the Arcane Empire......

Aaron put the pointer away.

The next few murals tell the history of the Snake Empire, the Snake Empire inherited the territory of the Witch Empire, but the Snake People lacked the powerful magic ability of the Witch Empire, and were always in a state of not being able to go up or down, and could only barely maintain a state of domination until they were defeated by the dragon.

Around 300 years ago, a snake empire was re-established under the leadership of a sage named Seth, who was later confirmed to be a sage incarnation of the Cosmos Serpent, which flourished with the emergence of Seth, but also quickly declined with the disappearance of Seth.

There was nothing left to see, and Aaron motioned for Elunora to move on.

"Du~DongdongDongDong~"

Aaron skillfully used the Female Dry Wonder Oracle to disguise himself as the messenger of the Cosmos Serpent, opening door after door.

Unfortunately, there was nothing inside the pyramid, and the two men walked through room after room, with only walls made of boulders, tables and chairs fixed to the floor, and dusty bookcases.

Where are the sleeping snake abominations?

Aaron was still searching for more, but Elunora signaled to stop.

The two men listened attentively, and soon heard the faint sound of footsteps.

Someone's coming?

The roar of heavy objects hitting the walls followed by footsteps! Someone is using brute force to force a goal!

Bursts of poisonous snake roars were heard from inside the pyramid.

Aaron's face changed drastically, and he was about to say something when the stone chamber at the end of the road opened.

A large undead creature over five meters long and weighing more than 600 pounds crushed the dust on the ground, holding two knives, and screamed in rage.

The guards guarding the pyramids were dispatched.

It's an undead abomination of snake people!

Challenge Level: Master.

Quantity, a full eight!

The Emperor of the Han Dynasty