Although his obesity was due to congenital genes, people couldn't help but think that this guy was just fat because he was lazy.

The two of them were worlds apart in both family background and talent, and should have been like parallel lines that never intersect. Yet, during their two years in high school, they got along very well, birds of a feather.

“Isn’t it because part of the Academy of Sciences’ super-ancient ruins touring exhibition will be displayed at our school? Aren’t you usually the most interested in super-ancient civilizations? Aren’t you going to check it out?” Adam Cooper said.

“Ruins of a super-ancient civilization? Sure, let’s go take a look!” What Adam Cooper mentioned also piqued Brian Carter’s interest.

When Brian Carter and Adam Cooper arrived at the exhibition area specially set up at the school, it was already packed with people. Although Jinghai No. 13 High School was just an ordinary school among dozens in Jinghai City, the total number of teachers and students exceeded ten thousand, practically a small town. Now, with everyone heading toward the exhibition area, one could imagine how crowded it must be.

After the Great Cataclysm, the research, excavation, and restoration of super-ancient civilizations became mainstream in society, and the government would often exhibit some less important super-ancient relics in various places.

This time, the super-ancient relics on tour at No. 13 High were only a small part of the entire touring exhibition.

Brian Carter and Adam Cooper moved slowly with the crowd. Brian Carter’s gaze was fixed on the exhibits locked behind tempered glass—there were stone carvings from super-ancient civilizations, broken weapons, and so on. Although they were artifacts, their actual value wasn’t very high.

At the very front, there were also descriptions written in a complex and strange script—this was the language of the super-ancient civilization. But for the students present, this was no big deal.

Since human civilization entered the Kunlun Era, with the excavation and discovery of super-ancient civilizations, learning this language had become a compulsory subject from childhood, just like Chinese students in the Gregorian era learned English.

Moreover, this language closely resembled the seal script popular in ancient China—it was also pictographic, and compared to English, which was a completely different system, it was a bit easier.

Because of the similarity in writing, there had always been a theory in academic circles that the super-ancient civilization in the Kunlun world must have some connection with ancient China, though this has yet to be proven.

Over the course of several centuries, thousands of commonly used ancient seal characters have been deciphered. Although many rare and obscure characters remain untranslated, the regular ones are now easily understood.

Brian Carter glanced over the exhibits quickly. Although these were artifacts, he had already seen them many times online, and the pictures in textbooks were pretty much the same. Nothing too special—except that these were the real things.

Suddenly, he noticed that on one of the display stands, next to a simple, ancient-looking sword, a huge scroll was floating above the sword.

On the scroll was a landscape painting, with mountains and rivers, painted in bold, sweeping ink strokes. Although it was just a painting, it gave Brian Carter the feeling that a real world was imprinted within it.

This seemed a bit unbelievable, since it was just an ink painting!

“Old Gao, is that painting also an exhibit?” Brian Carter pointed at the landscape painting in the display.

The super-ancient civilization was at least tens of thousands of years removed from the present. Such a long time should have erased all traces of its existence, yet this landscape painting looked as if it had just been completed.

Although Brian Carter’s cultivation wasn’t high, he knew that during the excavation of super-ancient civilizations, this kind of thing was common. It seemed that some special energy protected these items, allowing them to remain as vivid as new after tens of thousands of years.

And these items could basically be classified as magical artifacts. Even a modern reproduction of such an artifact would cost at least a million, even tens of millions. Not to mention a genuine super-ancient artifact preserved to this day—those were priceless.

How could something like that be casually displayed in a school? All the other exhibits combined probably weren’t worth even one percent of that landscape painting.

“That painting? You must be seeing things!” Adam Cooper looked in the direction Brian Carter was pointing, but saw nothing. He couldn’t help but give Brian Carter a suspicious look.

“No painting?” Adam Cooper’s reaction actually shocked Brian Carter. Was this a joke? Such a huge painting, and he didn’t see it?

“Of course not! Don’t forget your meds!” Adam Cooper patted Brian Carter’s shoulder earnestly, looking like someone who’d been through it all. “A man’s got to take care of his health. See, you’re seeing things!”

“Go to hell, get lost!” Brian Carter really had the urge to stomp on Adam Cooper’s fat face.

He looked again, and there was clearly a painting floating above that ancient sword.

But when he looked at the people around him, it seemed that no one else noticed anything unusual, as if only he could see it.