They soon arrived at the city gate, only to find it open. Amidst the swirling yellow sand...
A row of soldiers stood straight in the doorway, wearing heavy armor and holding spears, standing there motionless. When they saw Jian Ning and the others coming, their expressions did not change at all.
They resembled statues. Their faces were expressionless, but their chests rose and fell slightly; they were not dead, but rather like living puppets.
Jian Ning and Xiao Lingfeng couldn't help but exchange a glance; this ancient city was truly full of mystery and eeriness.
"Let's go in and take a look," Xiao Wuyu suggested. He was in a hurry and wanted to resolve things here as soon as possible so he could go back.
Jian Ning nodded, and the three of them carefully entered the ancient city together.
The city's architecture is ancient and rustic, entirely in the style of antiquity. The shops lining the streets are also completely silent.
All the pedestrians on the road maintained their fixed postures.
Even the steamer baskets for selling steamed buns had only been slightly opened, and the buns in the pot seemed to still be steaming. Only a layer of yellow sand covered them, and time seemed to have completely stopped here.
"Is this a time-based formation? Or a space-based one?"
Jian Ning turned to look at Xiao Wuyu and asked, "Besides this, I can't think of any other way to stop time on a large scale here."
"I'm not sure either. There aren't any strong spiritual energy fluctuations here. Or is it some kind of natural phenomenon we don't know about?" Xiao Wuyu had lived for thousands of years and had never seen such a strange scene.
I can't give you the correct answer either.
"Whatever the reason, the atmosphere here is too oppressive, making people feel uneasy." Xiao Lingfeng frowned, looking around warily.
The three continued walking into the city without stopping, and soon arrived at a grand hall. A huge banner hung in front of the hall's entrance.
Although the flag was covered with a layer of sand by the blowing sand, it was still clearly visible that it was embroidered with a fierce golden dragon. Moreover, the silk thread was probably made of real gold thread, as it had a very heavy feel to it.
"That's the royal insignia, isn't it? Could this have been the former palace? Or the capital?" Jian Ning guessed. The two people beside her remained silent, cautiously scanning their surroundings. There wasn't a single living person in sight!
I cautiously entered the main hall. The ceiling was extremely high, with a five-story atrium. I wondered what the purpose of building such a large building was.
The three of them searched the main hall, but found no one alive who could speak. Jian Ning was impatient.
Realizing that searching like this wasn't going to work, he simply pulled over a maid who was standing bent over to the side, patted her chest, and transferred some spiritual energy to her.
Unexpectedly, the spiritual energy actually worked. As the spiritual energy entered her body, the maid slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, straightened her back, and opened her eyes.
"Who are you people?" The tone of voice was stiff, clearly not Han Chinese, but the three people could understand it.
“We’re just passing by. Where is this place? And who are you? Is there an emperor here?” Jian Ning asked in quick succession.
"This is the new capital of the Loulan Kingdom. How did you, guests from afar, find this place?"
The people of our nation are cursed, destined to guard this place for millennia, unable to move or leave. What magic did you use to bring me back to life?
"What kind of curse is this, that it requires the lives of an entire city to be sacrificed? You've lived for three or four thousand years, aren't you an old monster?" Jian Ning felt like she was dreaming about what had happened today.
In her memory, the ancient Loulan Kingdom should have long since disappeared into the long river of history.
I don't know which book she read in the library mentioned that in 1998, a well-preserved thousand-year-old mummy from the ancient Loulan Kingdom was discovered. She was a beautiful woman, very pretty.
Moreover, the ancient Loulan should be located in Xinjiang. They've been teleported too fast, so it will be quite a hassle for them to get back the way they came.
Fortunately, she possessed a celestial abode, unrestricted by spatial limitations. This was also a powerful tool for cheating.
"Has it been that long? In my memory, it feels like just a moment."
The maid sighed, and as soon as she finished speaking, her skin suddenly changed, aging rapidly, and her once jet-black hair turned white in just a few dozen seconds. Before anyone could react...
The maid had become shriveled and collapsed to the ground with a thud, turning into an incredibly ugly mummified corpse.
"The spiritual energy you channeled into her has dissipated, which is why she's like this," Xiao Wuyu sighed. Though filled with pity, he knew it was utterly useless.
"What should we do? By saving someone's life, I actually hastened her death. I should have asked her a few more questions earlier. We still don't know anything, only that she's cursed. What kind of curse? Who placed it?"
Jian Ning felt completely confused. Maybe she should just go back and stop wasting her brainpower here.
"Xiao Ning, you don't need to feel guilty. These people are no different from the dead, except that they have a breath left. After all, several thousand years have passed, so their existence here is unreasonable."
"Why don't we look around and see what this curse is? There must be a reason why that teleportation array brought us here."
"Alright, split into three directions. If there's trouble, use a long howl as a signal."
Jian Ning nodded in agreement. The place was too big. It would be inefficient for the three of them to search together; it would be better to split up and see if they could find any clues.
Xiao Lingfeng and the others had no objections. They left from there, each choosing a direction, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Jian Ning chose to head due south. The journey was no different from when she first entered the city. It was a dead city. There probably wasn't even a single living insect left.
Just as I was thinking this, I suddenly saw something move on the ground in the distance, quite clearly. I could see a bulge rise in the soil, then quickly disappear.
"What is it?" Jian Ning muttered to herself as she ran over quickly.
Upon closer inspection, the muddy ground before me was nothing but yellow sand; there was absolutely no sign of human activity. Had I misjudged the situation?
Jian Ning believed it was impossible; she was a Golden Core cultivator now. If she misjudged the distance, she might as well choke to death on a sip of water.
Her insight is unmatched, even by Xiao Lingfeng. It's no exaggeration to say that she is the most skilled among these three.
But since nothing inside was coming out, and she couldn't dig with a shovel, she simply flew into the air on her sword and waited quietly, deciding to see who would give up first.
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