Tomb Raider: What the hell is this strange commission?

According to the records on the first mural, the number of people in this ethnic group was actually not large.

Apart from hunting and farming, they mostly sing and dance around an ancient deep well.

The red birds danced with them in the forest, carrying the harvested grains. When everything was over, the priest scooped up a bucket of well water and blessed all the tribesmen.

Until one day, a thin tribesman fell into the well. When he climbed out with difficulty, Chi Yu saw a stone that looked like a sun symbol appear in his hand.

From then on, the man grew tall and strong, and soon became the pillar of the tribe. But when people prayed around the well next time, they found that the water did not play its original role.

Everyone became uneasy because of this, and the priest investigated all the reasons and finally found out that the sacred object in the well had been taken away.

They caught the man who had taken the stone and returned it to the well, but it was too late to undo it - the sacred object had lost its power.

The angry priest ordered his men to kill the man who had made the mistake, trying to use his blood to recall the dissipated power, but to no avail.

So the priests prayed to God, hoping that a miracle would happen to them again. The revelation of fate told the priests: The miracle you are seeking is in the east, and the sun will show you the direction.

The priest led the tribe on a long migration. They chased the sun like migratory birds. The extremely harsh and dangerous journey caused them to lose many of their people, but finally, following the guidance of the sun, they came to a natural city covered with white mud.

——In the mild climate of Youze and the salty wetlands, they found the marks left by the sun on the earth, and in this slightly desolate and pale land, they built a new home.

The content of the first mural ended here, and when Xie Yuchen turned his attention to the second mural, the civilization in it had already developed very prosperously.

"It describes a lot of their trade with foreigners, and there is also the Loulan civilization on the northwest side of Lop Nur."

Xie Yuchen looked at the second mural and said, "If they are civilizations from the same period, then as a famous ancient Silk Road, the prosperity here seems to be inevitable."

"——However, these are not the source of my doubts."

As Xie Yuchen spoke, he walked to the junction of the wall where the second and third murals were recorded. He pointed out some faces that were repeated many times and gestured to Chi Yu.

"During this development process, starting from the middle period, another alien civilization appeared more frequently. Among them, apart from these women with snake heads and human bodies that I am more concerned about, there is also this place that I don't quite understand."

Chi Yu looked at the scene that was specifically pointed out by Xie Yuchen.

Among these contents, some show snake women trading with the people of the Sun Civilization. Caravans carrying large quantities of goods come and go in the images, which looks very lively.

Sometimes, the two of them went out hunting together. The hunting team was very long, and the most eye-catching ones were two women riding on giant horses.

Their images are not life-size, but appear larger than others. Their characterizations are also more delicate than those of the people around them.

The two women were surrounded by different people, and their complicated clothes and majestic aura also highlighted the obvious difference in their status.

When hunting, in addition to these people, there are also red birds and snakes surrounding them to drive them. These records, combined with the brushstrokes on the murals, look quite magical.

At the end of the second mural, the two civilizations seemed to have entered a honeymoon period after frequent exchanges, so much so that the content about this civilization still existed on the third mural.

"From the way these portrayals are done, these two women should have been the queens of the time, and they had a deeper understanding of each other's situation after establishing a stable trade relationship."

"From simple trade for clothing, food, shelter and transportation to cultural exchange, this period of mutual testing should have taken a long time, but from beginning to end, the two queens in the picture did not change at all."

Xie Yuchen looked at the content and speculated: "This may be a form of deification, just like the content in the third part of the mural."

Different from the actual records on the second mural, the records on the third mural have restored the original style, with most of the contents being related to sacrifice and blessing.

The Sun Civilization was performing a sacrificial dance beside a pond, with red birds chirping nearby. Everything seemed to have returned to the way it was before, with the only thing that had changed being the vehicle of the sacrifice.

When the sacrifice was over, the priest sprinkled the spring water on the tribesmen, and then asked someone to bring clay jars to put the spring water into the jars.

They left the sacrificial site with the jars, and the other civilization that had hunted with them reappeared in the picture.

Both parties in the image carry pottery jars, they exchange what they brought, and then quickly leave.

The pottery jars belonging to the Sun Civilization contained the spring water used for their sacrifices, while the pottery jars brought by the snake women contained heads.

The actual use of the heads is not recorded above, because their final destination in the picture is to be thrown into a deep pit along with the broken pottery jars.

Xie Yuchen pointed at this content and asked Chi Yu: "From the fact that the Sun Civilization has repeatedly offered sacrifices to the spring water, the spring water should have some magical effects. But why did they only get some useless skulls in exchange for such an important thing?"

Chi Yu looked at the content above and did not answer the question for a while.

He is thinking about the information he has received in the past and integrating it together.

A person's perspective on things depends on how deeply he understands these things.

Xie Yuchen had doubts about these records because the information he obtained was not comprehensive. He had just embarked on the road of decryption, so he was unable to piece together the truth from these fragments.

But perhaps it was fate that Chi Yu had caught a glimpse of it from the very beginning. He had obtained more information than Xie Yuchen, so he was able to fully interpret the content.

For example——

"When you were interpreting these contents, you mentioned the Loulan civilization, so do you think that the snake woman who exchanged with the Sun civilization and their queen were both from Loulan?" Chi Yu asked back.

"The Loulan civilization is the most famous civilization in the Lop Nur area, so it's normal for me to think of it."

Xie Yuchen said, "But since you specifically mentioned this to me now, it means that the facts are actually different from what I thought."

"Then you are right." Chi Yu said, "I have seen the person in this picture. She does not belong to Loulan, but she is definitely the queen."

Hearing this, Xie Yuchen raised his eyebrows at him: "So, you know her identity very well?"

In response, Chi Yu said "hmm" and turned to look at Xie Yuchen: "She is the Queen Mother of the West."