Chapter 55
The dream remained unfinished.
Cheng Xuyuan was awakened early the next morning by the smell of breakfast. As he came to, he was greeted by a handsome figure standing by his bedside with a tray of food.
"Go freshen up," Tang Yunxian said with a laugh, "We can set off after breakfast."
Emerging from the shock induced by the dream, Cheng Xuyuan blinked, shifting his attention to the enticing food.
After breakfast, everyone gathered to check their essential luggage. They led a few pre-arranged camels from the inn in the village, crossed the long road, and under the scorching sun, they embarked on their journey towards the vast desert.
Many residents in the village claimed to have seen the ancient kingdom. Tang Yunxian specially inquired about their experiences. However, their stories varied wildly, pointing in every direction; it was mindboggling.
Tang Yunxian simply gave up, opened the map, and marked a spot his finger had brushed. He set off in the marked direction, leaving the rest to fate.
Before leaving the village, Zhao Xintong couldn't help but take a final glance. This was, after all, a journey laden with danger, instilling a hint of fearfulness in her heart.
The town at the edge of the desert resembled a gem embedded in the sand. With impressive greenery and exotic architecture glistening under the sunlight, it made for a unique sight amidst the desert sands.
As everyone moved further, riding on their camels, the village in the distance transformed into a tiny silhouette among the swirling sands.
The blazing sun was relentless, scorching them. Waves of intense heat could be felt assaulting them, despite their full gear.
In Tang Yunxian's backpack were: a compass borrowed from Lu Tan, the key left by Zhao Xintong's grandfather, and a few archaeological notes related to the ancient kingdom.
As their caravan of camels gradually neared the center of the desert, the compass began to tremble. However, being tucked inside the backpack, Tang Yunxian didn't notice this anomaly.
Time seemed to fly in the desert, with the sun already overhead. The team paused for lunch. He Zhen thoughtfully offered Cheng Xuyuan a bottle of mineral water. Strangely, he felt that He Zhen seemed familiar.
After lunch, Tang Yunxian, still atop his camel, continued to endure the desert's sunbath, his head growing heavy. Overwhelmed by drowsiness, he couldn't help but lower himself onto the camel's hump. It was oddly comfortable...
Between a haze of dreaming and wakefulness, a multitude of voices rang in his ears, slowly growing louder and clearer.
"Burn him!"
"Burn the traitor!"
"Burn Li Yuan!"
Tang Yunxian slightly furrowed his brows, confused by the strong fervor in these vehement voices.
Next, he felt as if he dove back into a dream. The noises grew increasingly chaotic around him, seemingly like millions of people shouting in unison, swearing to burn a man named "Li Yuan" to ashes.
The frantic crowd, the blinding torchlights, the scampering footsteps.
A palace appeared before Tang Yunxian. He hovered mid-air and saw a familiar figure emerge from a bedchamber, his royal black robe appearing a little disheveled.
The Emperor's face seemed pale, even his crown was askew. He frantically caught hold of a minister beside him and roared, "Where is Li Yuan?!"
"Your... Your Majesty..." the minister's legs gave out and he collapsed on his knees in front of the emperor. "Master Li... he's in the Zhaixing Tower..."
The emperor's gaze instinctively found the Zhaixing Tower in the distance, ablaze. The flames surged, creating tongues of fire like a fiery dragon erupting from the ground, dreadfully eye-catching under the night sky.
"Yuan... My Yuan…”
The Emperor's voice contained a clear shake. His royal aura had vanished, his eyes instantly turning red.
He didn't rage, nor did he sob openly, instead he just seemed to lose all his energy instantaneously.
Perhaps being an Emperor for so long, he was accustomed to living behind a mask. At this moment, seeing his beloved being burnt alive, he was so sorrowful that he didn't even know how to react, forgetting even how to breathe.
A tremendous sadness cascaded over the Emperor, heavy like a mountain. He staggered a few steps forward before finally collapsing to the ground.
From a distance, the military officers and soldiers were still cheering for their victory, seeing the man they called a "criminal," Li Yuan, had finally died.
The tragic ending unfolded so suddenly that Tang Yunxian was abruptly thrown into a state of sadness.
He could see that the Emperor deeply loved the man called Li Yuan, who must have been a kind-hearted astrologer deeply cared for his people...
Why did something like this happen?
Before he could unravel these mysteries, a jolt from his camel startled Tang Yunxian from his dream.
"Tang Yunxian, be careful!" Tai Sui's voice rang from one side, filled with urgent worry. "There is quicksand under your feet!"
Tang Yunxian hurriedly looked down to see the camel's footprints sinking slowly as though stepping on a sponge. The others had already swiftly distanced themselves from this area.
Typically, encounters with quicksand in the desert would affect a larger area; a patch of quicksand localized to his area was unlikely.
Everyone promptly dismounted from their camels, unsure of what to do.
Cheng Xuyuan took a rope from his bag, initially meant for tying clothes, and rushed forward with it.
He Zhen's voice echoed, "That's quicksand, be careful--"
Before He Zhen's words could settle, Cheng Xuyuan launched forward like an arrow, stirring up a cloud of dust. He executed a leap that no average person could manage, landing swiftly on the back of the camel.
Before Tang Yunxian could react, Cheng Xuyuan scooped him up and jumped from the camel, rolling them both a few times in the sand.
Tang Yunxian didn't mind the grit infiltrating his clothes; his sight was completely fixed on the face of the young man holding him.
The closer the distance, the more enticing he found the young man's face.
Cheng Xuyuan pushed him away abruptly, "If you keep clinging to me, your camel is going to die."
Stunned, Tang Yunxian scrambled off him and watched as Cheng Xuyuan got up, threw his rope from a considerable distance, and effortlessly pulled the camel out of the quicksand, much like leading a small dog.
Everyone was stunned by Cheng Xuyuan, seemingly fragile, demonstrating such explosive power and jump force unparalleled even among national athletes.
After rescuing both Tang Yunxian and the camel, Cheng Xuyuan nonchalantly returned to his camel, shouting at the group, "Watch your steps. We can set up camp after a bit more walking…"
Though the group thought further incidents would not occur, something bizarre happened.
Every so often, a small patch of quicksand would appear beneath Tang Yunxian's feet. Fortunately, since he was on high alert, he managed to avoid danger every time.
These constant appearances of small quicksand seemed to be guiding him. It persisted until the night fell, whereupon it stopped emerging.
Bathing in the moonlight, the temperature in the desert dropped swiftly in the absence of the sun, prompting the group to hurry into their prepared coats and tents to set up camp.
Zhao Xintong, warming herself by a desert fire, couldn't help but marvel, "Those who dare to trek through the desert on foot are truly brave..."
In reality, they haven't encountered any real danger so far, ensuing a peaceful sleep for the night.
However, in the middle of the night, a strong wind suddenly arose in the desert.
Awakened by the noise outside the tent, Cheng Xuyuan carefully peeked out, only to have his breath seized.
"Wake up, wake up!" Cheng Xuyuan shook Tang Yunxian vigorously.
Seeing the young man's panicked expression upon waking up, Tang Yunxian immediately asked nervously, "What's happened?"
"It seems like a sandstorm!"
At these words, Tang Yunxian rushed out of the tent in a panic. Not far off, a whirlwind stirred up a sky full of sand and dust. Under the ghostly moonlight, it appeared as a scene from a horror film.
The two hastily woke everyone up in the tents. The group scrambled to pack up their belongings and ran in the opposite direction of the sandstorm. Tang Yunxian rode a camel, with his eyes tightly fixed in Cheng Xuyuan's direction, fearing he might come to harm.
However, the camels seemed unfazed, and even reluctant to move, covering less than five meters in several minutes. To them, it seemed the sandstorm wasn't a thing to fear.
Cheng Xuyuan appeared to have seen something. He leapt off the camel's back and ran towards the whirlwind amidst the gasps of horror from the group.
A few minutes later, the whirlwind miraculously came to a slow halt.
Everyone was stunned.
"Everyone, look over here—"
Cheng Xuyuan waved everyone over. As everyone saw the wind dying down, they also breathed a sigh of relief and headed towards Cheng Xuyuan's location.
An astounding sight met their eyes.
Under the cover of night, a palace emerged not far away!
The sand receded as if it were ebbing sea water, and the palace slowly rose from beneath the earth. The magnificent palace seemed identical to the one in Tang Yunxian's dreams, with its ornate carvings and painted beams making an eerie impression under the moonlight.
"Is this... real?" Zhao Xintong stood with her mouth agape.
Several accompanying experts were completely taken aback, having never encountered such a bizarre sight in their decades of experience.
He Zhen, equipped with his bag of archaeological tools, suggested to the group, "It could be that we've triggered some sort of mechanism. While it's still above ground, let's quickly go and take a look."
While everyone hesitated, the sight of the grand and magnificent palace was too alluring. For all they knew, it could house rare treasures. At this thought, even the experts couldn't resist. They immediately grabbed their toolboxes, switched on their flashlights, and led the way.
The passageway leading to the palace was just like the one in Cheng Xuyuan's dream — long, damp, and dark.
Next to the palace's main entrance, several soldiers clad in armor stood.
Someone shone a flashlight on their faces, letting out a gasp of shock—
Each soldier had wide-open eyes filled with sand and exploded eyeballs, as if they had been buried alive.
Yet, at the same time, they stood upright as if still guarding the door.
Fragments of memories stabbed into Tang Yunxian's brain, his mind uncontrollably drifting away and the surroundings gradually became blurred.
In his vision, the soldiers in front of him slowly transformed into living beings, no longer covered in sand. Time seemed to rewind to a night thousands of years ago when these soldiers were discussing a coup happening inside the palace.
The coup started due to a drought in the Xing Country. After the drought, a series of natural disasters followed, and all the astrologers throughout the kingdom declared it was due to the descent of the Evil King.
Using the chaos caused by these disasters, Prime Minister Zhong intended to initiate a coup concerning citizens' taxation. However, this move was blocked by a group of officials led by Li Yuan.
"Prime Minister Zhong is the leader of all officials, the emperor will surely listen to him," one of the soldiers confidently asserted.
The second soldier disagreed, saying, "The new policy proposed by the Prime Minister is not beneficial to the common people at all; I think the Emperor will side with Li Yuan."
"But Li Yuan is just an astrologist," the third soldier interjected. "Although the Emperor appreciates him, I don't think he'll have any say in such matters concerning state politics."
"Still, in my opinion, the Prime Minister is only implementing these new policies to strengthen his position, not for the sake of the people."
"With the Emperor seriously ill, Li Yuan alone can't resist the Prime Minister. I'll bet a jug of wine on that…"
As the soldiers continued discussing, the palace door suddenly burst open. A frantic eunuch rushed out, his face filled with panic.
"What's going on? Why the rush?" one of the soldiers grabbed the eunuch.
Trembling, the eunuch, on the verge of tears, stammered: "It's terrible... The Emperor has been unconscious for too long. The Prime Minister Zhong's soldiers, along with a group of people, are threatening to burn down the Zhaixing Tower in order to enforce palace regulations..."
"Ahhh—"
At that moment, a piercing scream woke Tang Yunxian from his illusion. Startled, he looked toward the source of the scream and saw—
A sharp dagger plunged into the chest of a professional desert companions.
And that dagger's handle was held in the hand of a soldier who had already turned into a dried-up corpse.
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