Liu Dashao’s first thought was that someone had knocked him unconscious. Now, he felt like a feather floating in the air—but no, floating on water.
His hazy consciousness could sense the dampness around him. Yes, he was floating on the surface of the water. Gradually, he slowly pried open his heavy eyelids. What was going on? His mind felt so clear, as if nothing had happened moments ago.
Right now, he was lying on the water’s surface. The water emitted a faint green glow, casting an eerie green light across the entire area. There was no woman, and no Ni Ren Zhang.
“Where is this? Why does it feel so familiar?” Liu Dashao furrowed his brows.
At that thought, he struggled to stand up from the water. The water here only reached his knees. Liu Dashao had no idea where he was, so he slowly started walking forward.
The deeper he walked, the stronger the sense of familiarity became. Suddenly, he turned a corner, glanced ahead, and his heart skipped a beat. Yes, he finally remembered where this was.
Why here? What was going on? How did I come back again?
Before him stood a stone gate, half-closed and half-open, with a clear carving of a Yinglong dragon on it. Right, this was the tomb of Zhang Jiao.
Seeing this, Liu Dashao was nearly overwhelmed. This was beyond scientific explanation. Was he in Northeast China or Xinjiang now? Was this the tomb of Zhang Jiao or the Golden Ancient City? Had he never left this place at all? Was everything in the past just a dream? At this thought, Liu Dashao’s head throbbed so painfully he almost fainted.
At that moment, Liu Dashao’s feet began moving on their own, toward the stone gate. What was happening? He hadn’t intended to move, so why was this happening? That stone gate seemed to possess a magical force, pulling Liu Dashao toward it involuntarily.
Passing through the stone gate, Liu Dashao’s feet stopped again by themselves. None of this was under his control. Upon arriving here, nine stone pillars naturally stood in place, with massive stone slabs still resting atop them.
Suddenly, a figure appeared on the stone slab above. Zhang Jiao? The first thought in Liu Dashao’s mind was that name, but upon closer inspection, it was definitely not Zhang Jiao.
Standing on the stone slab was a woman, a woman with an excellent figure. She wore a light yellow Taoist robe, her curves clearly outlined. She wore a tiger-shaped mask and held a feather fan, standing gracefully on the stone slab.
“Who are you?” Liu Dashao barely managed to whisper those three words.
“You’ve finally arrived!” came the woman’s voice from above the stone slab. Her voice was soft, beautiful, and deeply enchanting.
“You finally arrived? What do you mean? Do you know me?”
“Master Liu!”
Pain suddenly shot through his face, two sharp slaps. His head throbbed, his eyes unable to open for a long while. Everything around was silent.
“Wake up! Master Liu, you must be possessed by evil spirits!” A voice entered his ears—it was Fan Debiao.
Then, the surroundings became noisy. Liu Dashao’s eyes slowly opened, but all he could see were blurred figures. Ni Ren Zhang was among them.
“Are you okay?” came the soothing voice of Wang Feifei from above him.
Liu Dashao rubbed his eyes and realized he was lying on Wang Feifei’s lap. A breeze passed by, carrying a faint fragrance. He felt a warm feeling in his heart, thinking she might have just given him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
It turned out the previous scene had only been a dream. But everything had felt so real. Liu Dashao falling into the pit was definitely real. He struggled to sit up and asked what had happened, staring intently at Ni Ren Zhang, waiting for an explanation.
Ni Ren Zhang also stared back at Liu Dashao, his gaze unchanged as always, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and walked away.
Seeing no one else would answer, Fan Debiao began to explain, “This morning, I was sleeping soundly when suddenly everything became noisy. I didn’t even get to see the rest of my dream about a beautiful woman before I heard someone say you were in trouble. I couldn’t ignore it when my brother was in danger, so I rushed into the crowd and saw Ni Ren Zhang carrying you. He said he went out to urinate in the middle of the night and accidentally fell into a pit. Then he heard you behind him mumbling in your sleep about Zhang Jiao and the Taiping Jing, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t wake you up. Eventually, you fainted. Not knowing what else to do, he carried you back. Fortunately, Miss Wang was here and gave you a few rounds of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and you finally woke up.”
After hearing Fan Debiao’s explanation, Liu Dashao only understood half of it. But from his words, Liu Dashao realized he had lost consciousness the moment he fell into the pit, and everything that followed was just a dream. At this thought, he felt a wave of relief.
He looked around and asked, “Where are Wang Zhicai and the others? Why aren’t they here? And what about Master Diao?”
Wang Feifei took a sip of water and replied, “They went exploring early this morning. Master Diao went with them.”
Liu Dashao nodded. Suddenly, Shu Lao came running in a hurry, telling everyone to get their gear ready—they were about to move out.
Hmm? Had Master Diao already found the tomb of the Golden Queen? That was too fast. Thinking about it, with Master Diao’s experience and the equipment they had brought this time, finding a tomb shouldn’t be difficult. Liu Dashao stood up, took a sip of water, prepared his gear, and everyone followed Shu Lao.
The houses in this city were very densely packed, and the doors were mostly made of poplar wood. No wonder this ancient city had been buried by sand—these people clearly didn’t care about environmental protection, cutting down trees recklessly.
Shu Lao led the group through the alleyways for quite a while before finally arriving at a dilapidated palace, declaring it was where the Golden Queen had lived. Master Diao, Wang Zhicai, and the others were already inside.
The palace wasn’t particularly luxurious, but it was quite refined. In terms of value, it was undoubtedly extraordinary.
The main goal was still to find the Golden Queen’s coffin, so they didn’t spend much time examining the palace. The group walked straight inside.
Upon entering the palace, Liu Dashao saw Master Diao, Wang Zhicai, Jackson, Lin Simiao, Ni Ren Zhang, and several others gathered around something. Liu Dashao thought to himself, Could this be where the Golden Queen’s coffin is? That was too easy to find. Master Diao had even lost his memory for this.
With various questions in mind, Liu Dashao walked over. When he reached Master Diao’s side, what he saw was something he had never expected, though not entirely surprising.
There were four mummified corpses lying on the ground, their faces twisted in horror. Their clothes bore the word “tour.” These four were definitely members of the tour company. Judging from their appearance, they were the same group as the corpse they had seen outside.
Beside the bodies were many daily necessities, now completely weathered and unrecognizable.
“It seems the tour company had searched here for some time, but why did they die in different places yet all die the same way?” Liu Dashao raised the question first.
“The person we found outside might have been a survivor from this group, but perhaps he went mad with fear and ultimately failed to escape,” Master Diao shared his thoughts.
At this moment, Wang Feifei and Jackson frowned deeply. They were senior members of the archaeological team, yet they hadn’t known that some of their people had come here to excavate. This was a frustrating feeling.
But what was the real purpose of the tour company? That remained a mystery—perhaps even these people themselves didn’t know what they were searching for. Just like everyone else, the answer lay hidden in Master Diao’s subconscious. However, they would soon discover the truth.
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