Chapter 10 Ancient City

  Continuing forward for a short distance, a strong beam of light shone over. Through the night vision goggles, my eyes felt a bit painful from the glare.

  Taking off night vision goggles, it was found that the light here is already suitable for eye conditions.

  "It seems like the exit is here." Cao Ming said, looking at the thin rays of light shining through from outside.

  "Even a fool can see that, no need for you to say it." After finishing speaking, I walked to the place with light and brushed away the sand covering it with my hand.

  Who would have thought that just as my hand touched the sand, whoosh, all the sand covering the exit suddenly slid down.

  "Could this also be a mechanism?" I wondered curiously as I looked at my own hands.

  "Maybe so, or maybe you just had a stroke of bad luck." After saying this, Cao Ming walked out of the passageway.

  After walking out of the passage, the scene in front of us was shocking. We originally thought that after coming out, it would still be a vast expanse of desert, but what we saw was a large area of dilapidated buildings.

  "Where are we going?" Li Wei whispered behind us.

  "We should have arrived at our destination." Cao Ming said, taking a step forward.

  "Hmm, it feels like there's something underfoot." As I said that, I rubbed the ground with my foot a few more times, and a small stone monument was exposed.

  Staring at the exposed stone tablet for a while, he couldn't make sense of it, but Li Wei discovered its meaning.

  "It's just an ancient city, it looks like it was buried by wind and sand." Li Wei said, then looked up at those buildings again.

  "An ancient city? Can you tell what era it's from?" I asked Li Wei, pointing at the building.

  Li Wei squinted his eyes and stared at the building for a while before saying, "It's probably from the Qing Dynasty."

  "How did you know it was from the Qing dynasty?" I asked curiously.

  "Look at that building." Li Wei said, pointing to a structure resembling a building not far away.

  I hummed and asked: "What else?"

  "That's typical of Qing dynasty architecture," Li Wei replied affirmatively.

  After listening to Li Wei say that, I stared at the building for a while and then thought of the scenes often seen in TV dramas. It really had some similarities.

  "How come I've never heard of a city here during the Qing dynasty?" Cao Ming asked in puzzlement beside him.

  "I'm not sure about this either, but judging from the appearance of the building, it's in the style of the Qing dynasty." Li Wei remained resolute.

  Cao Ming waved his hand and said, "No matter what period it is, let's go take a look."

  As I walked into the building complex, I found that every street was buried in sand. Those buildings that were once very high now had rooftops that could be reached with just a stretch of my hand.

  "Will there be treasures here?" I said curiously, looking at the already dilapidated building.

  "It shouldn't be available anymore, even if it is, it should no longer be for sale now." Cao Ming replied.

  "Why say that?" I was somewhat perplexed.

  Cao Ming pointed to the sand on the ground and said, "The wind and sand here are very strong, and any treasures have already been eroded away." After finishing speaking, Cao Ming looked at the tall tower in the center of the building and pointed at it, saying, "Let's go there first."

  I took a glance at the tower and immediately understood what Cao Ming meant. I nodded and we three walked towards the tower.

  The journey was smooth and uneventful, but it was quiet, eerily so.

  At the top of the tower, the entire appearance of the abandoned city suddenly appeared before one's eyes.

  "It seems those guys have arrived here." Cao Ming said, looking at a house in the northwest corner.

  "There is also that place." I pointed straight ahead and said to Cao Ming.

  "What you see is still little, come here and take a look." Li Wei called out from behind us.

  As soon as we turned around, we were immediately stunned by the scene in front of us.

  Only the originally dilapidated buildings were seen, and now they are even more crooked, with several buildings obviously burned by fire.

  "They really spent a lot of effort finding an entrance." Cao Ming said, looking at those destroyed buildings.

  "Let's stop messing around and find the entrance quickly." I said, then walked towards the bottom of the tower.

  "What's over there?" Li Wei said, pointing in a direction.

  Cao Ming and I turned our heads at the same time to look in the direction Li Wei was pointing, and found that there was a shining object over there.

  I took a glance at Cao Ming and said: "Let's go take a look."

  Cao Ming nodded after hearing what I said.

  After we walked to the place where the light was coming from, Cao Ming picked up the glowing thing and looked at it for a moment, puzzled, saying: "Why is it a mirror?"

  "It seems we've found the entrance." I said as I slowly stood up.

  "Huh?" Cao Ming furrowed his brow and looked back.

  All that can be seen is a wooden door behind Cao Ming. The door is not standing upright, but lying flat on the ground. There was originally a layer of cloth on the wooden door, but after being eroded by wind and sand, it has become transparent.

  Cao Ming stretched out his hand and pulled open the wooden door, took a look inside, and said, "They've already gone in."

  I hummed and looked at the footprints on the ground, which were quite messy.

  "Let's go in." Cao Ming said and jumped in.

  Li Wei hesitated for a moment, but still jumped down. I stayed behind, looked at the two sides of the wooden door, shook my head and also jumped down.

  After entering the tunnel, darkness struck again. But this time with a headlamp, it was possible to see very clearly even without night vision goggles.

  I took a glance around the walls of the passageway and found that there was a relief sculpture on the wall every one or two blocks.

  Just as I wanted to take a closer look, Cao Ming, who was walking in the front, suddenly stopped. As I was about to ask him something, he turned around and made a gesture for me to be quiet, while also turning off the headlamp in his hand.

  I thought turning off the headlamp would plunge me into darkness. But suddenly there was a light in front of me, and I could hear the sound of someone speaking.

  Cao Ming patted me on the shoulder and then made a few gestures to me. Although the light was somewhat dim, I could still see what Cao Ming meant.

  I nodded and then crouched down and ran along the wall to a corner up ahead.

  At this time, the light is getting closer and closer, and the voice of speech is also clearer and clearer.

  When they walked past me, I withdrew my body a bit and wasn't exposed to the light. There were two people coming, which made things easier.

  Those two people walked a few more steps forward and Cao Ming and Li Wei were immediately discovered by them.

  When they saw Cao Ming and Li Wei, the two men looked somewhat surprised. After their surprise passed, the two men then thought of pulling out their guns.

  But I wouldn't give them a chance to pull out their guns, and immediately walked out from my hiding place, using the Desert Eagle to press against one of the men's waist, saying "Don't move."

  Upon hearing my voice, the two of them immediately abandoned their idea of drawing their guns and obediently raised their hands.

  Cao Ming walked over and handed the guns of the two men over to Li Wei.

  "What's your purpose for coming here?" Cao Ming handcuffed the two together and began interrogating them.

  "Three big brothers, we were just hired by them and really don't know anything. Please let us two brothers go." One of the bearded men begged.

  "As long as you tell me your purpose, I will naturally let the two of you go." Cao Ming said to the man with a long beard.

  "We really don't know, if we did, we would have told you just now." The bearded man still held a glimmer of hope.

  I pulled out a military dagger from my backpack and stabbed it hard into another person's leg, who immediately let out a pained cry.

  The long-bearded man shuddered as he watched his companion being stabbed with a dagger.

  "Do you know now?" Cao Ming asked immediately after seeing that person tremble.

  The man with a long beard still shook his head, with an expression of being unafraid of boiling water.

  Cao Ming grunted and pulled out his pistol, aiming at the long-bearded man's leg and firing a shot.

  "Now you know, right?" Cao Ming asked, leaning in close to the long-bearded man's ear.

  The long-bearded man's face twisted as he nodded vigorously. Seeing the bearded man nod, Cao Ming put away his gun and said, "Since you all know, let's talk."

  The man with the long beard nodded and said, "We stole a golden cane from the Palace Museum. Our boss got a map from it, which is said to be a treasure map. Then we came here."

  "Is that all?" Cao Ming asked, tilting his head slightly.

  "Yes, yes, yes, the treasure here is all gold. If we take it out and exchange it for money, it can be exchanged for several billion RMB." The man I stabbed with a dagger immediately replied.

  "Consider yourselves two honest men." After finishing speaking, Cao Ming gave me a wink.

  I immediately raised my gun and knocked both people unconscious with the butt of it.

  "They might wake up soon, this won't do." I said, looking at the two who had fainted.

  Cao Ming nodded and said, "There's no other way, we can't just kill both of them, can we?"

  Just as we were discussing how to deal with these two people, a gunshot suddenly came from behind.