Chapter 3 Ancient Ruins

  Everyone fell silent and looked at Wu Feng together. After all, the main leader was not there, he was the highest commander, and his words and deeds directly affected the morale of the entire team and its future direction.

  Wu Feng smiled lightly, perhaps pretending to be relaxed, and said: "It's not entirely fake, they really do study ancient special building structures, it's just that he's a rookie, no experience. Besides, he was personally appointed by the old master, don't you trust the old master's vision? Which of us here wasn't chosen by the old master?"

  It's just human nature that people always trust the eyes of those who appreciate them 100%. Because they always think, if someone can discover a talent as excellent as themselves, this person must have the best taste in the world.

  Wu Feng said: "Alright, it's not the time to discuss these things. Pang San, tell Su Yi carefully about the situation when Old Master disappeared. The others will come with me to the scene."

  Wu Feng took me to the other end of the camp, where I saw those temporary workers gathered chatting and playing cards. From time to time, someone would glance over at us, and some people who brushed past us greeted us. Although these people were all strangers to me, I could sense their tension.

  On the other side of the camp is a large pit, about twenty meters deep, as big as a sports field. Inside, there are seven or eight houses scattered around. From above, it's hard to tell how big they are, only that they're arranged very irregularly, at least that's the feeling you get when you first see them.

  "I said..." I started by saying, "Just a few houses can make people disappear, and it's right in front of you."

  Wu Feng's expression was as ugly as it could get, and he said with a bitter face: "If it weren't for this kind of situation, do you think we would still be able to cope?"

  I shook my head and said, "That's not what I meant, where did that person disappear?"

  Wu Feng pointed to one of the houses with his finger and said: "That one, the third house in a row of three houses horizontally, we call it House No. 3."

  "Ah!" I raised my eyes to look, but the distance was a bit far and it was a downward view, so I couldn't see any specific situation. A pair of binoculars was handed in front of me, I took them over with one hand, carefully observing that house. The binoculars were quite good, not ordinary goods, probably brought back by those retired special forces soldiers as military supplies.

  "I said... " I looked around and said, "Wu Feng, you wouldn't have deliberately deceived me with these houses, would you? Looking at the structure of these buildings, they should be from before the Spring and Autumn period. However, most ancient buildings were made of wood, but these ones are obviously made of stone. And the sturdiness of these houses far surpasses that of the stone houses in ancient city architecture. This is just not scientific."

  "If it's scientific, then it's not the remains of an ancient super civilization." Su Yi and Pang San walked over at this time, followed by several temporary workers. Everyone was carrying equipment, looking like they were going to search downstairs. Su Yi came to my side and said: "Originally we thought these were buildings from the Zhou Dynasty, but later after studying the geology, soil layers and the age of the bricks in the houses here, it was discovered that the appearance of these houses may be much earlier than we imagined, Old Master thinks that these houses are probably buildings from the Xia Dynasty."

  "What!" I stared at Su Yi in shock, saying: "You're kidding, that was still a slave society back then. From the level of architecture to the processing of building materials, it's impossible to manufacture something like this."

  "But it's right in front of us." Su Yi looked at me unyieldingly and said, "We're going down to search now, are you coming or not?"

  I didn't respond, I just picked up the binoculars again to examine those buildings. This is impossible, I said to myself. While flipping the binoculars over, turning it into a shrinking mirror. It's my habit, when I was playing with binoculars as a kid, I always liked to flip it over, so I would discover that what I saw earlier would present a different side of itself in a smaller state, and I would feel especially happy about my discovery. Today is no exception, but today I felt terrified by my own discovery.

  "I'm going." I estimated that the voice was too loud, so loud that even I myself felt shocked. All the people present were startled by me. Even Su Yi and others who were about to leave stopped and looked at me in confusion.

  "Don't tell me you've been digging for so long and haven't found anything." I stared at them with wide eyes, no one spoke, they were all waiting for my answer. "This damn thing is Orion's Belt."

  Wu Feng didn't say a word, snatched the binoculars from me and looked through them upside down like I did, apparently he couldn't see anything. After a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "How did you know this is Orion?"

  I said: "Because I had read a report before, it was said that in March 2010, the Herschel Space Observatory found potential biomarkers of life in the Orion Nebula. I was interested at the time, so I looked up a lot of information about Orion, including the star chart of Orion, and the third house is Alnitak."

  "San Su San? What's going on?" Pang San asked inappropriately.

  "Wu Feng almost shouted: 'What's the point of asking so much, immediately gather all the information about Orion, maybe we can find a clue. Su Yi, don't rush down, preparation work is also important.'"

  Su Yi nodded in agreement with Wu Feng's opinion, and gave a thumbs up, seemingly praising my previous performance. The camp was once again bustling with activity, while I and some people who looked like they were doing physical labor sat idly on the side, snacking and drinking tea. To be honest, I really enjoyed being with these people, because the admiring gaze they gave me made me feel incredibly sincere.

  This group's efficiency is surprisingly high, and in just two hours, they collected the star chart, detailed introduction, relevant formal papers and reports, as well as some informal online rumors. A large pile of materials was placed in front of me, and looking at it all gave me a headache.

  "Wu Feng said: 'Take a look, is there anything else that needs to be added?'"

  I said: "The person is gone in Beta Trianguli Australis, now we only need the data of Beta Trianguli Australis."

  "Why didn't you say so earlier?" Su's boot-like shoes left another footprint on my butt, and I couldn't help but cry out in pain, as she had changed into a pair of military boots since arriving at the camp.

  Wu Feng said: "The things we collect will definitely be used later, what should we do now?"

  I looked at Wu Feng and said: "Ask me if you're directing well or not?"

  Wu Feng said: "I am studying command, now it is saving people, with you as the main."

  "Oh!" I nodded and said, "Go take a look."

  This time it's the turn of the laborers to take the stage, and when I arrived at the place where I really needed to go down, I realized how much trouble this sentence had caused me. Although this camp has electricity, it is all driven by small generators, which cannot support an elevator going up and down here. So they prepared a soft ladder, fixed it with steel nails on the edge of the pit, and hung it down below. Upon closer inspection, the soft ladder was still made by hand using coarse hemp rope.

  Wu Feng saw my hesitation and said: "Don't worry, it's very solid. Wu Wen and Wu Bin are below you, they can handle any situation."

  People from top to bottom, especially vertical down, have a natural fear, fortunately I am not afraid of heights, otherwise this physically demanding job would be the death of me. After arriving at the bottom, it was discovered that these guys did a great job, the pit below was dug very flat, without any bumps or unevenness, those few houses looked almost the same, only one seemed particularly large, the three houses in the middle were lined up in a straight line, with handmade signs standing on either side, with numbers written on them, feeling like the rooms of a certain hotel in the city.

  "That largest house should be inhabited by people with status, why isn't it in the middle? Not even a bit of planning." I said, "No Planning Bureau is indeed not feasible."

  Wu Feng said: "At first we thought so too, but when collecting data on the Orion Nebula, we unexpectedly found that these houses are not ordinary arrays, they also have rules."

  I took another close look and suddenly had an epiphany, hastily asking: "Could it be that the buildings are constructed according to the ranking of the stars?"

  Wu Feng nodded and said, "That's right."

  "I'm going." I sighed: "Is this really an ancient building?"

  The third house, or San Suo San, is the last of three small houses lined up together. This house is about 200 square meters in size. The doors and windows used to be made of wood, but now they're all gone, leaving only a few openings. After entering, I found that this broken house not only had doors and windows, but also a skylight. There's nothing inside the house, just an empty room with a slightly square shape, which I find quite unbelievable.

  Wu Feng said: "People just disappear in this house. What's your idea, speak up."

  "Why are there no pillars?" I finally realized where the incredible part was, "These are all ancient buildings, 200 square meters without using pillars, and they haven't collapsed, what's going on?"

  Su Yu explained: "We didn't think about whether there were pillars or not, but we found that the stones used to build these houses are extremely unusual. They are so solid that it's unimaginable. We've tried many methods, but none of them have been able to damage any wall surface. What we really can't understand now is how those ancient people managed to drill holes in these stone slabs."

  Wu Feng added at this time: "Like this room, there are no pillars because its top is made of a whole piece of stone slab."

  "I said, 'That's even more unscientific. If that were the case, this room should have sunk by now due to the weight-bearing relationship, with the four walls pressing down into the ground. After all these years, it should have sunk to who-knows-where by now. But obviously that's not what's happening... unless..." I trailed off."

  Wu Feng nodded and said: "Yes, the reason why we can only dig so deep is that almost all of the places below this are of this kind of rock quality."

  No wonder these guys can flatten it so smoothly, it's not that they want to flatten it, but they really can't flatten it anymore. Su Yi looked at the house and said: "There will be plenty of time to discuss academic issues later, now the sky is almost dark. You hurry up and see what's going on, saving people is urgent."

  "Alas! My poor child!" I sighed, looking around, "Traveling thousands of miles, coming from afar, without stopping to rest, struggling until now. An empty room, nothing at all, making me search for someone, oh mother! Just as I was about to get choked up, I saw Su Yi seemingly wanting to use her 'invisible leg' again, so I quickly changed the subject and asked: "Where did those two people disappear? Was there anything unusual that happened before they disappeared?"

  Wu Feng pointed to a location with his finger and said: "That's where Wen Long disappeared. Wen Xiang was right next to him when he vanished. Wen Xiang, come here for a moment."

  Wu Wen was originally searching on the other side, heard his name being called and hurriedly ran over. He used a common running form in the military, and as someone with a military background, he naturally showed off his trained side.

  Wu Feng pointed at me and said to Wu Wen: "Tell him in detail about the specific situation at that time."

  Wu Wen said: "At that time, I and the class leader were just entering the clearing work..."

  "Class Monitor?" I looked at Wu Feng.

  Wu Wen busy explained: "Wen Long was my squad leader when I was in the army, later we transferred to this institute and we got used to calling him squad leader." I nodded, indicating for him to continue.

  Wu Wen continued: "At that time, this place was not as flat as it is now. We were doing cleaning work here. I was facing away from the class leader. First, I heard the sound of the class leader spitting, so I turned my head to look at him, and he told me it was nothing. When I turned my head back to continue working, I seemed to hear a 'whooshing' sound, which is hard to describe specifically. When I turned my head again, the class leader was gone."

  "Does your monitor like spitting a lot?" I asked.

  Wu Feng looked at me with a glance, as if blaming me for asking such an unqualified question. Wu Wen replied: "No, the class leader doesn't smoke. Moreover, people like us who have received training rarely have this habit. So when I heard him spitting, I was surprised and turned back to look at him."

  "What situation would make him spit?" I continued to ask. Wu Feng had already started baring his teeth at me.

  Wu Wen thought for a moment and said: "This? I really don't know."

  "Alright, I know. Thanks." I felt like I couldn't ask anything else and turned to Wu Feng saying, "Ask the old man how he disappeared again."

  Wu Feng nodded at Wu Wen and immediately went back to continue his work. This time it was Su Yi and a worker who had just been chatting with me earlier.

  I looked at Su Feng and said, "Aren't you supposed to be walking with us? What's going on, switching people?"

  Su Yi clasped her hands behind her back and said, "I've already gotten the specifics from Pang San, so I came to report. What's your opinion?" As she spoke, she raised her foot as if to kick.

  "No, no..." I've been kicked by her shadowless foot. Hurriedly said, "Where exactly did the old man disappear?"

  Su Yi was momentarily speechless, because although he had learned about the situation from Pang San's mouth, since he hadn't been to the scene, it was fundamentally impossible for him to know the specific location. Su Yi pinched his waist and glanced at the worker beside him.

  The worker said: "It's probably around this location, can't be too far off. We were searching for the missing Wen Long at that time, and then the old man also disappeared."

  "What sounds are there at the scene?"

  Su Yi said: "At that time, Pang San was closest to him. He said he seemed to have heard a very faint 'plop' sound. When Pang San turned his head to look, the old man had already disappeared."