The sound of snake flutes in the Jemaa Rina Square was mixed with strange rhythms. Tang Wo squatted in front of the spice stall and sneezed. The saffron powder on the tip of his nose showed a string of Berber numbers. Su Chen scraped off the powder with a silver coin, and the moment the sunlight penetrated, a certain coordinate of the Atlas Mountains was projected on the surface.
"This, this is the secret symbol of the ancient salt caravan!" Qin Feng compared the pattern of the sheepskin water bag, and his stuttering voice was drowned in the drumbeats of the snake charmer. We followed the camel team deep into the desert. Tang 꿦's sunscreen headscarf was blown off by the strong wind and entangled with a camel skeleton half-covered in the sand dunes. There were copper bells stuck between the ribs of the skeleton, and the letter Q was painted on the inner wall with indigo dye from the Tafilalet Oasis.
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While staying overnight in the Tuareg indigo tent, the old chief suddenly stopped grinding lapis lazuli powder. He stared at the copper bell we showed him, and the tip of the knife drew ten radiating grooves on the sand - exactly the "desert web" in the Sahara rock paintings. Tang's compass completely failed here, but the camel insisted on walking towards a crescent-shaped sand dune.
When the sandstorm came, we hid in the cracks of the rocks. Qin Feng's flashlight swept across the murals and he stuttered, "This, this is the aqueduct from the Roman period!" The depressions of the aqueduct were covered with thousands of years of scale. Tang's dagger scraped it off, and mixed with saliva, a map of the river network in the river was revealed. The Phoenician letter "Q" was marked at a certain intersection.
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Between the remaining columns of the ancient Roman theater, Tang Yu played hopscotch on Byzantine mosaic tiles. A purple tile suddenly sank, revealing the stairs leading to the cellar. Qin Feng raised his hand to illuminate the wet mural: Hannibal's elephant legion was stepping on Punic coins with the letter Q on them.
"Look at the water tank!" Su Chen pointed at the bronze valve of the water diversion system. When Tang turned the valve wheel according to the irrigation rhythm recorded in the "Book of Agriculture", the water gushing out of the culvert spelled out the Phoenician letters in the reservoir. The moment it spelled out "CARTHAGO", the stone slabs at the bottom of the pool moved away, and 23 clay jars floated to the surface, each with an uncivilized wax seal of the letter Q.
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The Mediterranean sun scorched the stone walls of the Knights Templar's palace. We followed the trident mark on a clay jar to a dock. Tang Wo fiddled with a medieval ship model, and a parchment chart suddenly popped out of the mast. Su Shen smeared the map with olive oil, and next to the missing Templar treasure mark, there was a Q with scaly patterns.
When diving into the blue hole, Qin Feng discovered axe marks on the rock wall ten meters underwater. Tang held his breath and smashed the coral layer, revealing a bronze door inlaid with sea lilies. The door ring was in the shape of a double snake staff. When Su Chen hung the copper bell obtained from the Sahara on the snake head, a loud sound of gears turning came from inside the door.
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In the underground secret room of the Colossus ruins, twenty-three civilization Q-letter symbols meshed on the mechanical disk. Qin Feng turned the Byzantine gear, Tang 꿦 adjusted the Egyptian dial, and Su Chen pressed the last Chinese mortise and tenon. The dome star map suddenly came alive, and the light of Sirius penetrated the mechanism, projecting the silhouette of my great-grandfather when he was young on the sundial.
"Guardian, guardians live forever..." The holographic image Yayan spoke her last words, and the jade cicada falling from her fingers rolled around Tang Xiao's feet. The cicada wing pattern turned out to be a micro-carved world map, and a red dot flickered in the Himalayas. As the sea breeze passed through the hall, all the ancient civilization Q characters began to fade, and a new Chinese character "承" condensed on the wall.
Tang Xiao chewed on dried squid and muttered: "Are we really going to the snow mountain this time?" Qin Feng wiped the jade cicada and smiled. I looked towards the gradually whitening sea level in the east - the remains of the giant's thumb were pointing towards the direction of Mount Everest, and new green olive branches were emerging from the cracks in the rocks.