48 Silk Road 08
He put his hand on Helan Dao's shoulder and said coldly, "Haven't you smelled enough yet?"
The people on the boat watched helplessly as the sandstorm swallowed the two people below. When the sandstorm finally dissipated, revealing the empty sand river, Zhu Heng and Helan Dao had disappeared without a trace.
"Where is the person? Is he dead?" A crew member leaned half of his body out from the deck to look around.
"Of course he died. It's impossible for anyone to survive a sandstorm."
"But...but their bodies were not found in the sand river."
"It must have been buried under the sand."
"but……"
"No buts!" someone began to grow impatient. "I know what you're saying. You're just saying that maybe they used the mirror to get to the next level, just like we did when we came from the dungeon to this level. Yes, everyone knows that mirror, while dangerous, is likely the door to the next level. But let me tell you, since we've been here, we've never seen anyone reach the next level. No one knows what the token looks like, and even if they did, how would we get it?"
"Perhaps they both have a token of their love?"
"What token? They have nothing but silk and porcelain. We also have these two tokens. If they were useful, why would we be stuck here?"
No matter how hard the crew members thought, they could never have guessed that Zhu Heng and He Lan Dao had already knocked open the mirror and entered the next unknown world. Naturally, they also had no idea what token they had used to leave, because in this one-way passage, the person who could answer their questions would never return.
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Archaeological team data monitoring hall.
Wang Kunshu almost pressed his face against the screen, but still couldn't see what Tao Ran was looking at. What was certain was that there must be something painted on the inner wall of the cave, but because of the display screen, it looked blank to them.
Seeing that there was no progress, Wang Kunshu had to shift his gaze away from Tao Ran and look at the main task on Helan Dao's side. On the screen, there happened to be a scene of two people disappearing from the mirror and going to the next level.
"Is it that simple?" Wang Kunshu said, "The so-called S-level dungeon seems to be about finding a token and then continuously advancing to the next level, right? Then the end point of all the worlds on the bottom level must be the Western Han Dynasty, when the Silk Road was first opened. If so, what's the difficulty? Even if Helan Dao fails, we can always send new people in until all the worlds are opened."
Xu Wenjun shook his head: "It's not that simple."
According to any previous records, no one has successfully cleared the Silk Road dungeon so far. If it had not affected the central city this time, she had always planned to put it aside for the time being.
Although the system did not have any reminders such as "no breakthrough point" and "not recommended for execution" before this accident, judging from the authority threshold set by the system, this is definitely not a task that can be taken lightly.
If even Helan Dao fails, no one in the Central City will be able to succeed. Even if she goes into battle herself, she will have nowhere to display her extraordinary abilities because she doesn't even have the permission to enter the dungeon.
Helando said that the system was not out of control, but there must be a reason to explain why the Silk Road copy would affect the entire central city.
So where did everything start to change?
The first person that came to Xu Wenjun's mind was Zhu Heng.
The person who, according to Helandao, has a heart on the right side and extremely strong mental power.
"Which dynasty is the next level? Song?" Wang Kunshu's voice brought her back to reality.
Xu Wenjun looked up and glanced around, as if looking for someone: "Where is the leader of the Song Group?"
No matter what, Helan Dao had to succeed, and she needed a general understanding of the Silk Road in every dynasty. Ever since Helan Dao and Zhu Heng entered the Silk Road dungeon, she'd had a bad feeling. The feeling of being unable to interfere with the dungeon was terrible, and this helplessness was driving her crazy. So, she had to find someone to discuss the Silk Road situation with her, even if it would only give her a little peace of mind...
However, no one responded to Xu Wenjun's question.
Wang Kunshu also noticed something was wrong. She looked at Xie Shen and asked, "The leader of the Song Dynasty team is called Liu, Liu what?"
Xie Shen continued, "Liu Qiao'er."
Wang Kunshu: "Yes, her name is Liu Qiao'er. Go find her."
A man suddenly ran up to Xie Shen and blocked his way: "Don't look, don't look."
Wang Kunshu frowned: "Who are you?"
The man scratched his head and explained, "I'm a member of the Song Dynasty team. Our team leader...she's trapped in the Silk Road dungeon."
Xu Wenjun turned and stared at the person: "How did she get in?"
The man quickly said, "No, no, no, don't misunderstand. The team leader didn't enter the Silk Road dungeon. She was originally carrying out another dungeon mission in Quanzhou during the Song Dynasty. Perhaps because Quanzhou is one of the important port cities on the Maritime Silk Road, the entire city was swept up in the Silk Road. Before she left, the central city hadn't yet been covered by the yellow sand, so now only we know about it. The team leader is in it, so she probably doesn't know yet."
Hearing this, Wang Kunshu's face suddenly paled. "This Silk Road not only affects the central city, but also affects other instances? Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
Wang Kunshu's eyes looked like he wanted to kill someone.
This meant that this dungeon was much more difficult than she had imagined.
The man shuddered. "We don't know who to tell. Apart from the team leader, we can't find anyone higher up."
"Captain of the archaeological team." Wang Kunshu clenched his fist. "The only one with higher authority than us is him."
It's not his fault. No one knows who the archaeological team leader is. Even she herself has never seen the captain who only exists in legends since she became the leader of the Wei and Jin team.
"Who has any information about the captain?" Wang Kunshu said, "We must find it, otherwise..."
"It's no use." Xu Wenjun interrupted her.
Wang Kunshu: “You won’t know if it’s useful until you find it.”
"Then I'll tell you now, it's useless." Xu Wenjun's tone sounded as if he had overdrawn all his strength.
Wang Kunshu frowned: "Why do you..."
She suddenly stopped and looked at Xu Wenjun with wide eyes: "You can't... Impossible! How could you?"
Xu Wenjun smiled bitterly, a hint of helplessness on her face. She finished what Wang Kunshu hadn't finished saying: "Yes, it was me."
"I am the leader of the archaeological team."
-
When he landed, the touch from behind was much softer than Zhu Heng had imagined.
This time when it fell, it was finally not as dirty as the previous two times, but it was not much better either.
At this moment, they were in an antique room, with a wooden bed covered with bedding.
Zhu Heng was pinned down by Helan Dao and couldn't move. He looked at the wrinkled, gorgeous bedding beneath him, his mind a little confused for a moment.
The colors were gaudy red and gaudy purple, the room was filled with a strong smell of sandalwood and camphor, and even the curtains beside the bed were made of ambiguous pink fabric.
He tried hard to gather information from the ancient human dramas he watched with the dean when he was a child. Places like this room decoration seemed to have a specific name, called something...
At this moment, a clear and pleasant female laughter suddenly came from outside the door. Before the two people on the bed could react, the door was opened by the woman with a "bang".
"Sir, take care. Come back next time..."
Zhu Heng remembered it and called it a brothel.
The woman who opened the door saw the guest off and turned around with a smile.
Her skin was as white as cream, her black hair hung down to her waist, and she was wearing a water-green gauze dress that enveloped her body, which was as slender as a willow in spring. The voice that had just been speaking to the guest suddenly stopped.
Liu Qiaoer opened her dark eyes and looked into the eyes of the two strange men on the bed.
"...Sorry, sorry, I came to the wrong place." Liu Qiaoer apologized repeatedly and slammed the door.
She flipped her hair. How come the system sent her a handsome guy when she came out to carry out a mission? It just looked like it was sent to the wrong person. The excitement was theirs, and she got nothing.
Thinking of this, Liu Qiaoer looked up at the doorplate, on which was written the name "Liu Qiaoer" in black and white.
She blinked twice slowly.
-
The house was dead silent.
Zhu Heng: “…”
He put his hand on Helan Dao's shoulder and said coldly: "Haven't you smelled enough yet?"
Helan Dao chuckled twice, causing Zhu Heng's chest to tremble slightly, and the skin on the side of his neck became red and hot.
He finally let go of Zhu Heng and stood up.
However, before he could stand firmly, he stepped on empty air and fell off the wooden bed with a dull thud.
At this moment, the door was opened again by Liu Qiao'er. The force she used showed how irritable the person was. "What kind of stinky man dares to have fun here with me? Get out of here!"
Helan Dao stood up from the ground, raised his right hand wrapped in blue silk, placed the back of his hand under the tip of his nose, and rubbed it very quickly.
Zhu Heng's attention was drawn to Helan Dao's action, and he ignored Liu Qiao'er, who was furious at the door. A thought flashed through his mind, but he didn't catch it.
Helan Dao didn't look at Zhu Heng. He stared at the silk in his hand thoughtfully, with a serious expression.
"I say, is anyone listening to me?" Liu Qiaoer walked in directly and bumped into Helan Dao when she looked up. She also saw clearly that he was wearing the uniform that was unique to the members of the archaeological team.
Liu Qiaoer: “?”
A huge storm seemed to be disintegrated and disappeared in an instant.
Zhu Heng had never seen a woman change her expression so quickly. Her tone softened immediately, and she greeted them with a smile: "Oh, colleagues, welcome, welcome, and wish you good fortune and prosperity. Are you here to repair the merchant ship outside? That's really timely. Thank you, thank you, for your hard work."
"Repairing merchant ships?" Zhu Heng sat up from the bed, straightened his clothes, and repeated Liu Qiaoer's words.
"Yes, I was repairing the merchant ships that the foreigners were leaving Quanzhou. They were carrying a lot of porcelain for export overseas. As long as these ships left, my mission would be completed. But for some reason, all of them broke down overnight, and not a single one could leave."
Helan Dao stood up and walked to the window, picked up a short wooden stick by the window, and propped up the wooden window.
The window faces the harbor dock. The moment it is opened, the sound of waves pours into my ears.
Countless sailboats, large and small, crowded together on the sea, bobbing up and down with the current. At a glance, there were thousands of them.
On the shore not far away, there are rows of Erythrina trees with bright red ivory flowers in full bloom, and the road is full of residents who look like foreigners.
"Countless people have traveled thousands of miles from all over the world to this bustling port city. Along the way, you can see people from Japan, Korea, India, and Europe, speaking different languages and holding different faiths. They disembark here and depart from here. Everything here is so fresh, full of vitality and energy. What a great 'City of Light.'"
Liu Qiao'er sighed as she sat down at the table and poured herself a cup of tea. "It's very meaningful, isn't it? Our job is to be witnesses and recorders of history, guiding and helping these great civilizations to restore their glory when necessary."
She raised her teacup and saluted the ships outside the window: "To our great civilization."
After saying that, Liu Qiao'er drank the tea in one gulp. Before she could swallow it, she spat it out again. She frowned and shook the teapot: "I just made tea this morning, but why does it taste like plain water? There is no tea flavor at all?"
Just as she was about to open the teapot to check, she remembered Zhu Heng's expression just now and suddenly felt a little confused.
Something seems wrong.
She had carried out thousands of missions alone, and never once had she encountered a colleague midway. Even the most difficult dungeons were handled by her on her own.
How come two people suddenly showed up this time?
Liu Qiaoer glanced at Zhu Heng, a hint of subtle vigilance on her face. "From your tone, you sound like you're not here to repair a merchant ship?"
He Landao stood by the window and turned around, smiling meaningfully, and replied on behalf of Zhu Heng: "It wasn't originally, but it is now."
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