46 Silk Road 06
◎You are just mortals, hoping to change the world◎
Zhu Heng watched the person in the water reaching out his hand. It didn't seem like an illusion, but directly grabbed Zhu Heng's ankle and pulled him to the bottom of the water.
Zhu Heng seemed to be able to sense the warm touch of the palm of the person in the water, and when he pulled it over, it was powerful and firm.
The wandering monk had not yet noticed anything unusual about Zhu Heng and was still rejoicing at the system notification of zero casualties. However, Helan Dao inexplicably turned his head and gave Zhu Heng a quick glance.
"You..." The half-smile that had been on Helan Dao's face had disappeared. He lowered his head to look at Zhu Heng's feet, then raised his head and looked at Zhu Heng.
His body's subconscious movements were faster than any mental reaction, and Helan Dao took a step toward Zhu Heng. In a flash, Zhu Heng used all his strength to pull his feet free from the water and threw himself directly into Helan Dao's arms.
The huge impact forced Helan Dao to take two steps back, and his back fell heavily on the ground, splashing water mixed with mud and sand all over the ground.
Zhu Heng placed his hands on Helan Dao's ears. The wind blew from behind, brushing against his skin which was covered with a thin layer of sweat under his clothes, and a chill instantly ran down his spine.
Helan Dao raised his eyes and looked at him steadily.
The two of them were so close that their breaths practically mingled. Zhu Heng didn't move, nor did he speak. He simply turned his face away and breathed softly.
Helan Dao slowly placed his hand on Zhu Heng's back and patted him.
Zhu Heng glanced at Helan Dao and suddenly stood up.
"There is indeed something wrong with this water." He said immediately.
The wandering monk heard Zhu Heng's voice and turned to see him rising from Helan Dao's body. His eyes swept from Zhu Heng's face to Helan Dao's. Both of their faces were red.
Helan Dao was a little better, but Zhu Heng's neck and ears were even red.
Amitabha.
The wandering monk immediately recited a passage of Buddhist scriptures.
-
In order to find something to do to distract himself, Zhu Heng returned to the lake, stuck half of his body out of the water, and made a few movements to his reflection in the water.
There is nothing unusual.
"What did you see?" Helan Dao followed.
Zhu Heng glanced at him and was about to speak when he caught a glimpse of the water and stopped.
At the same time, Helan Dao stopped talking and just looked down at the water without saying a word.
Two dark figures with unclear faces appeared in the lake. They were wearing long robes and standing side by side. They were silently looking at Zhu Heng and Helan Dao from the water.
It’s “them”!
"They" are chasing us.
Zhu Heng and Helan Dao reacted quickly, looked at each other in tacit understanding, and then retreated together to a few steps away from the water's edge. They nimbly dodged the hands that reached out from the water to grab them, and returned to the wandering monk.
Zhu Heng glanced at Helan and said, "Did you see it clearly?"
"What do you mean by seeing clearly?" The wandering monk was confused.
Helan Dao also looked over.
Zhu Heng added: "There are strange things about them."
"You mean their actions?" Helan Dao understood Zhu Heng's subtext.
Zhu Heng nodded. "Rather than looking up at us from the water, it's more like... looking down from a high vantage point."
"What are the two donors talking about?" The wandering monk suspected that he had misheard Zhu Heng's words. How could someone "overlook" the scene on the water from the water?
Zhu Heng said: "I suspect there is another world underwater."
-
Zhu Heng's words were broadcast in real time by the system to an electronic screen in the data monitoring hall of the archaeological team.
The sound was transmitted along the signal into Xu Wenjun's ears in front of the screen. She crossed her fingers, put her hands to her nose, stared at the picture on the screen, and said nothing.
Suddenly, someone rushed in. It was a slim figure with a good figure. Her long black hair cascaded down to her waist. Two streaks of bright red eyeshadow powder were picked out from the corners of her eyes and rushed to the ends of her eyebrows.
When the busy archaeological team members in the hall heard the rough noise, they stopped their work and looked at the newcomer with confusion, surprise, or calm eyes. When they saw that it was Wang Kunshu, the famous red pepper of the archaeological team, they shook their heads without surprise, and then buried their heads in their own work.
Xie Shen followed Wang Kunshu all the way to help her clean up her mess, and apologized to his colleagues with a kind smile.
Wang Kunshu shook his long hair, sending up a cloud of sand. "Which group is responsible for the Silk Road? I've already completed a mission and returned, but why is Central City still covered in this awful dust?"
Someone frowned and looked at Wang Kunshu with a slightly displeased look.
"Team Leader, that's hard to say." Xie Shen reminded quietly, "Many teams' work scope involves the Silk Road, including... our Wei and Jin team."
Wang Kunshu glared back at Xie Shen, then turned and walked straight to the corner where Xu Wenjun was.
Xu Wenjun was staring intently at the electronic screen in front of her until a hand slammed down on her desk. "Tracing the origins of the Silk Road is the responsibility of your Qin-Han team, right? Why don't you solve this problem?"
Xu Wenjun's eyes twitched twice, and he looked up at the person who came.
Xie Shen cautiously tugged at Wang Kunshu's arm. "Team Leader, the system has given this Silk Road instance an S rating. It won't be that easy to resolve."
Wang Kunshu shook off Xie Shen and his gaze fell on the screen in front of Xu Wenjun: "What's wrong with S-rank? She can't do this job, so she should quit as soon as possible. I will personally..."
"Personally... what is this? System monitoring for the Silk Road dungeon?" Wang Kunshu froze, staring at the screen. Then his voice rose a notch. "Who are you sending to carry out the S-rank mission? Helan Dao?"
Xu Wenjun had no time to speak. She recalled the footage she had just seen from the surveillance camera and carefully considered the information contained therein.
Oasis, pool, water...
She frowned, stood up, walked past Wang Kunshu, called the head of the Ming and Qing group, and asked, "Which Silk Road was more important, the land route or the sea route?"
The leader of the Ming and Qing team was taken aback. "Of course it's the sea route. Although the road from Jiayuguan Pass to Central Asia was still in use at that time, the land route was far less important than the sea route."
"So you're not afraid of water?"
"How can we do business if we are afraid of water?" explained the leader of the Ming and Qing group.
Xu Wenjun frowned after hearing this and wondered: If you are not afraid of water, why are all the dangers concentrated in this oasis pool in the center of the underground city?
unless……
Unless this oasis pool is not dangerous at all, or even more likely, it is the safest place in the entire dungeon.
If this is true, then the so-called cannibalism in the oasis is nothing more than a trick played by those people on the ground who are hunting down the residents of the underground city, making everyone confused.
It was because sea trade was frequent at that time, so the people on the ground were afraid that the residents of the underground city would open up the Silk Road again, which subtly changed everyone's memory and fear of water.
If this all makes sense, then the question is, what kind of world is on the other side of the water?
-
"Hey, are you even listening to me?" Wang Kunshu's patience ran out. "Besides Helan Dao, who else is there? The unidentified person who didn't even join the archaeological team?"
Xu Wenjun's eyes lingered on Wang Kunshu's face for a brief, reluctant second. "Correction, it's not two people, it's three."
"There's another one? The one called Tao Ran?"
Xu Wenjun didn't say anything.
"Crazy, you are absolutely crazy!"
In the monitoring hall, all members of the archaeological team were attracted by Wang Kunshu's movements and looked over in unison.
"Show me Tao Ran's surveillance." Wang Kunshu finally realized that his behavior had disturbed other colleagues, so he took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
Xu Wenjun glanced at her, stepped aside and made a gesture of invitation.
On the screen she had moved aside, Wang Kunshu saw Tao Ran. He was alone in a narrow cave-like space, staring at the snow-white inner wall in a trance.
Wang Kunshu frowned: "What is he looking at?"
-
Tao Ran had just walked past the portrait of "Zhu Heng" when he suddenly turned around, stared at the mural, and stood there motionless.
There was nothing unusual in the portrait, but Tao Ran always felt that something was odd, a strange, indescribable feeling.
Tao Ran returned to the portrait of Zhu Heng and dusted it off. In the painting, Zhu Heng was standing behind a window, with a lifelike white butterfly fluttering around him.
Tao Ran's gaze fell to the side of the portrait, and his movements suddenly froze - there was a string of words engraved there.
Tao Ran carefully deciphered the words and muttered to himself, "You mere mortals, hope in vain to change the course of events. You try to change the sun and moon, to make the world anew, but in the end, it's all just a dream, a mere dream, a butterfly dream, a dream of Zhuangzi. You've seen the rise and fall of half your life, buried in the world, with no place to rest. Why bother?"
Tao Ran exclaimed, "Wow!" Is this referring to his brother Zhu?
He rolled the words on his tongue several times, but still couldn't figure out their meaning, so he had to turn his head to the right. Unexpectedly, when he looked up, he met the eyes of another "old acquaintance".
There is a portrait of "Helan Dao" painted on the wall. Although it is not as lifelike as Zhu Heng's, it is still vivid. His eyes seem to be smiling, as if mocking all visitors who enter the cave.
Tao Ran felt somewhat familiar with them and began to miss them for a moment.
I don’t know what his brother Zhu and Helan Dao are doing now.
-
Zhu Heng stared at the oasis pool from afar without saying a word for a long time. Helan Dao knew he was thinking, so he didn't interrupt him and stood patiently beside him.
After a moment, Zhu Heng raised his eyelids, called the wandering monk over, and asked, "Are you sure that all dead life forms will be counted by the system on the digital screen the next day, and those who are still alive will not be counted?"
The wandering monk nodded, then added, "Aside from those eaten by the oasis, there will definitely be a display. The system is very cautious, as the underground city has a small population, and one less person will die... Why did you suddenly ask this, benefactor?"
Zhu Heng stood up and turned around, about to head back to the oasis. "The system never counts the lives that 'died' in the oasis. So is there a possibility that those who were 'eaten' by the oasis were actually... not dead?"
The wandering monk stood there in a daze.
"Then where did they go?" the wandering monk asked in a high voice.
Zhu Heng turned his back to the wandering monk and shook his head. He had already stepped one foot into the lake and stood by the lake, turning his head to look behind him.
Following behind was Helan Dao. He walked into the water with Zhu Heng. With a smile in his eyes, he explained to the wandering monk on Zhu Heng's behalf: "What exactly is beneath the oasis? We'll find out only if we try."
As soon as he finished speaking, two whirlpools formed in the lake water beneath his feet. With a huge suction force, the blue silk on Helan Dao's right arm suddenly spread out, wrapping him and Zhu Heng in the cloth. But in a flash, the two disappeared from the oasis.
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