Chapter 473: Origins 4/50
The Golden City Shandora was actually not very large in area; it was a city nestled in a mountain hollow, otherwise it wouldn't have been hidden by the clouds.
However, despite its small size, the moment Ian saw this city in the hollow, he knew that the Golden City Shandora must have been an extremely prosperous city in its time.
Because the architecture here reflected a very high level of civilization!
At the center of the city stood a pyramid-like structure. Although years of erosion had weathered the pyramid, covering it with plants and vines, this could not conceal its majestic grandeur.
This was not a structure that a group of natives could have built. The Shandora of the past was undoubtedly a representative of its era.
When Nami and the others saw this pyramid, they were all stunned. Although they had often seen damaged ruins since entering this forbidden land, this place was remarkably well-preserved, giving them a completely different feeling.
"This... this is our homeland?"
Wyper and the other Shandian guerrilla fighters stared blankly at the city, feeling an unprecedented sense of familiarity welling up inside them.
The glory of Shandora still remained, but over four hundred years had passed. Aside from the pyramid, many of the other buildings were already damaged. If the Shandians wanted to live here again, they would have to put in considerable effort to clean it up.
Among these damaged buildings, Ian did not find any gold artifacts, which surprised him, because the legendary Golden City Shandora was said to be covered in gold everywhere.
"Where's the gold? Isn't this supposed to be the Golden City Shandora?" Nami asked the same question, her hopes high as she came here, but seeing no gold anywhere made her anxious.
Ian observed for a moment, then thoughtfully looked at the Sky Lord lying unconscious on the ground.
In fact, according to the Shandians, this Sky Lord should be called the God of Kashii. The Shandians of four hundred years ago had worshipped it as a deity. The Sky Lord's presence here was no coincidence; Ian suspected that it had been guarding this place for four hundred years. This was a highly intelligent creature, and it probably thought that bad people were after the gold here, so it had swallowed most of the gold into its belly.
That was why Ian and the others hadn't seen much gold when they arrived.
Thinking this, Ian suddenly felt a bit anxious. The Sky Lord was a living creature, and living creatures need to eat and digest. If it had been swallowing the gold here for four hundred years, who knew how much gold had been dissolved by its stomach acid!?
Nami, seeing Ian's expression, also realized this and said with a trembling voice, "Ian, you don't mean to say that all that gold is inside this giant snake's belly, do you?"
"Very likely!" Ian pointed at the ground around them and said, "Look, there are traces of gnawing everywhere. Besides this giant snake, I can't think of anything else!"
"Ah! Then we'll have to go into its belly to get it!" Luffy said, pounding his fist into his palm.
"I don't want to!" Nami screamed, covering her face with both hands in terror. "I don't want to go in there!"
Seeing her like this, Ian couldn't help teasing her, "If you don't go in, you won't get the gold, no treasure!"
Nami was torn, but in the end, her greed for treasure overcame her fear. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed Ian's clothes and said, "I'll follow behind you!"
Ian couldn't help but laugh. That was so like Nami. Perhaps the moment she saw the gold with her own eyes, her last bit of fear would disappear.
Turning around, Ian said to Wyper, "If you want to put the Golden Bell back in place, you'd better find more people!"
Wyper nodded. That wasn't a problem. In fact, as they were climbing down the vines, Wyper noticed that at the bottom of the vines, more Shandians were already rushing toward this place.
Perhaps the sound of the Golden Bell ringing on the island had made the Shandians realize that the battle was over, so they came to see what was happening.
Also appearing were many brave Skypieans. The thunderclouds in the sky had disappeared, and the pleasant sound of the bell echoed across the island, reminding everyone of the legend of the Earth's Song, so they came as well.
Gan Fall had been worried about potential conflict between the two sides, but after observing for a while, he found that no such thing happened. He thought to himself that this was good news; perhaps reconciliation with the Shandians would be easier this way.
Both Gan Fall and Wyper knew that all of this was thanks to Ian. He had found the Golden Bell and let Wyper ring it. The sound of the bell had spread across the entire island, not only fulfilling the Shandians' wish but also signaling the end of the war.
Perhaps, when the time came, Ian could mediate the conflict between the Skypieans and the Shandians... Gan Fall thought to himself.
Ian temporarily put these matters aside. He led the group into the Sky Lord's gaping mouth to search for any gold that might have survived.
Once inside, they indeed found many ruins of buildings within the snake's belly. Ian wondered what the giant snake was thinking, swallowing even stones. Could it digest them?
"Look! It's gold! Gold!"
Nami suddenly screamed excitedly, tugging at Ian's clothes.
The situation was much better than Ian had expected. The Sky Lord had indeed swallowed all the gold from Shandora, but it couldn't digest all of it.
Moreover, because of its massive size, the giant snake consumed an astonishing amount of food each time it ate. After each meal, it would go into hibernation, using this long sleep to digest its food.
This meant that Ian and the others found a considerable amount of gold inside the snake's belly.
Only a small portion of this gold was still intact, probably swallowed recently during the snake's last feeding. Some of this gold was in the form of jewelry, while others were statues.
As for the rest of the gold, although it had been dissolved by the stomach acid, since the snake couldn't absorb it, it had solidified into gold nuggets and gold eggs.
If Ian and the others hadn't come in, it was conceivable that this undigested gold would eventually be excreted by the snake.
By this logic, there might be similar gold deposits in some specific place where the snake defecated. But that was too disgusting. Just thinking about it made Ian feel sick. Even though he knew that gold was valuable, he really didn't want to go looking for it.
Forget it. Let's first gather all the gold in the snake's belly. If it's already worth a fortune, then there's no need to look for the excreted stuff.
Without Ian needing to give orders, Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and the others were already running around excitedly, collecting the gold. Matthew and Dorry were also helping. With them around, Ian was confident they could find everything that could be found in the snake's belly.
"How astonishing!" Robin and Reiju stayed by Ian's side. Robin bent down and picked up a lifelike gold statue at her feet, examining it as she said, "The history of the Golden City Shandora spans at least a thousand years. It's hard to imagine how prosperous the civilization that created these crafts must have been."
Ian nodded, then thoughtfully said, "Actually, based on the murals I found at the Barron Gray Terminal, the Shandians and the Skypieans likely both originated from the Moon."
"Indeed!" Robin nodded. "The wings on their backs are the same!"
"But they don't seem to remember that they come from the same race?" Reiju asked.
"According to my speculation," Ian said after thinking, "when the Moon People first arrived on this planet, their first stop was the Barron Gray Terminal. That was probably over a thousand years ago. Then, these Moon People left the Barron Gray Terminal, abandoning it. After leaving, some of them went down to the Blue Sea and survived on the ground—the Shandians are likely one of those groups. Others found other Sky Islands to live on, and they became separated from each other. The ancestors of the Shandians created a prosperous civilization on the ground, which was the Golden City Shandora. But then, during the Blank Century, their cultural heritage seemed to be lost. Their ancestors left them the mission to protect the Poneglyph, but they failed to pass down the civilization itself. As a result, their descendants, the Shandians, don't know their own origins, let alone that they and the Skypieans are actually the same race."
At this time, Enel had been restrained by Ian with a piece of Seastone taken from Wyper, so he could no longer use his abilities. As Ian and Robin talked about the Sky Islands, he couldn't help but listen intently.
When Ian reached this point, he suddenly turned and looked at Enel, asking him, "Enel, I heard that your home Sky Island is called Birka, right?"
"That's the name," Enel nodded.
"Then do you know?" Ian said with a smile. "The Moon People's original home city was also called Birka. If I'm not mistaken, your home Sky Island might very well be the second stop where the Moon People branched out!"
Hearing this, Enel's eyes widened in shock.