Chapter 7: The Mysterious Western Regions

  "Are you saying that bronze sword in the museum is fake?"

  I couldn't hold it in anymore and shouted out loud. It seemed like no one would know about this kind of thing, so how did the bronze sword come out?

  "Of course it's fake, just a counterfeit, and there are only a few people who know about this matter." Tang Guangze said with a smile.

  "Isn't there someone in charge of appraising them regularly? How can they possibly know?" I asked, puzzled. Like the Yue King Goujian's sword, such cultural relics are extremely well-protected, with multiple layers of security checks on their transportation routes.

  "Haha……" He burst out laughing, looking at me with a hint of mockery: "You're still young, some things are far from being as simple as you imagine. Think about it, if the Yue King Goujian's sword was stolen, would the museum announce such a thing? That would lose them many customers."

  I thought about it carefully, and what he said is very right. No one wants to make that kind of thing public.

  "While the sword of King Goujian of Yue stays in one place for no more than two years, I'm referring to that very sword, it's so restless, making me suspect it wants us to discover something, like where it comes from?"

  Tang Guangze said this with a look of adoration on his face, like a reverent expression, I've seen this kind of expression in antique shops, where many customers are infatuated with certain antiques.

  Yes, Tang Guangze's face was infatuated.

  There was a moment when I thought he had gone mad.

  "Isn't this thing from Yue State?"

  "How could it be possible? How could Yue State have forged such a sword back then?" Tang Guangze sneered.

  "I recently found out that the sword of King Goujian of Yue has appeared in a place, and the circular pattern on the sword is the same as the secret text passed down from a certain tribe in the Western Regions." Tang Guangze became more and more 'excited', his whole person was like someone walking at the forefront of the times, making crazy moves.

  Of course, I couldn't understand the thoughts of people like Dr. Tang Guangze, after all, his inner thoughts are vastly different from those of normal people. Otherwise, how could they have achieved what they did, relying on that bit of crazy thinking and persisting in it?

  I have a strong feeling that Tang Guangze is investigating the origin of this bronze sword. He's been researching curses, circular patterns, and even mysterious places in the Western Regions.

  "Pack up your things, we're going to Western Regions this afternoon." Tang Guangze gave me a glance and threw out a sentence that left me utterly shocked.

  Western Regions

  The term "Western Regions" in the narrow sense refers to the area east of the Pamir Mountains, while in the broad sense it includes all areas that can be reached through the narrow Western Regions, including Central Asia, West Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Eastern Europe and North Africa. Later, it also referred to western China.

  In my impression, Xiyu is just a narrow general term, without too much standardized region.

  For thousands of years, the Western Regions have been a place that people yearn for. Because it has different scenery and human feelings from the Central Plains, it is a different China. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, it has been a symbol, a place where men can ride horses, build achievements, and establish their careers, and a dreamland where women can dance, sing, and be beautiful, like Loulan, and have their own country.

  But what I understand about Xiyu is that it's full of mystery, whether it's the 36 countries outside Xiyu or more so the unsolved enigmas brought by those countries.

  For this trip, I didn't refuse to the point where if I couldn't find a way to break the curse, I would live in fear forever, which is what I least want.

  I packed a few things, but there weren't many, just a few clothes, all of which were small bundles that I had managed to scrounge up, and then I followed Tang Guangze and the others onto the train headed for Xi'an.

  Sitting across from me was a man with a standard build, but his appearance was slightly lewd. He was probably around my age and seemed to be called Yu Gang. He sat upright on the "bed" in the private room.

  I heard his name and burst out laughing at the first time, he stared at me with a deadpan expression.

  He was wearing a camouflage uniform, looking proper and decent, but I found that every time the beautiful flight attendant turned around, his eyes seemed to be like a hungry wolf, staring greedily at her buttocks, as if he wanted to take a bite out of it.

  I almost choked on the water I was drinking when I saw this, since getting on the train with Tang Guangze, this person has been following me everywhere, claiming to be protecting me, and then sending everyone else away.

  But I found this stuff extremely unreliable along the way.

  "Little brother, don't be so nervous, I'm a good person. By the way, I've never seen a doctor take such a serious attitude towards picking someone up. What's your relationship with the doctor?"

  That guy's mouth was spitting saliva stars flying everywhere, I quickly stretched out my hand and coughed a few times in a pretentious manner, then said:

  "Nice to meet you, I'm Chen Yu Song. Do you know the specific details of this action? Can you tell me first so I can understand it better?"

  "This I'm not clear about, the confidentiality level of this operation is too high, it's said to be directly issued by that person." Yu Gang mysteriously raised a finger and pointed upwards: "For people like us who are just laborers, we'll probably only know when we arrive at our destination. Little brother, you're so young, how did you get selected? Are you an expert in some field?"

  I vigorously shook my head like a rattle drum: "Maybe I'm just as good as you doctors."

  After chatting with this guy for a while, I didn't get any useful information at all, and suddenly I lay down on the "bed" in a discouraged manner and stopped talking to him.

  All the way, my ears were almost ruined by this guy's nonsense. Not only is he a pervert, but also a bigmouth. All the way, he kept talking nonsense, telling me all about his life from when he was one year old to now. If it weren't for the gun on his waist, I wouldn't believe that he came here to protect himself.

  After a little more than a day's journey, we finally arrived in Xi'an. As soon as we got off the train, someone came to take us away.

  That's a research institute, and he just told me, "This is one of the doctoral hidden points, used to study something."

  I asked him what it was, he shook his head and said he didn't know.

  At that moment, I felt that Yu Gang really didn't know.

  The exterior of the institute is no different from the surrounding buildings, an old building that seems to have been around for a long time. However, when we walked in, it was like entering another world, with high-end laboratories like those seen in movies. Within a hundred meters of the research area, soldiers wearing cotton-padded jackets were armed and on duty, while inside the research center, the security level was even higher by several levels.

  I followed Yu Gang into a room, and the room was already packed with people.

  There were military officers sitting upright in uniform, bespectacled professors, and even people with rugged features similar to Gang's. In short, all sorts of people from the nine schools had almost all arrived.

  "These people are all weirdos, they generally have strange habits and aren't easy to get along with... whatever you do, don't provoke them..."

  Yu Gang was whispering reminders in my ear.

  "This time going to the Western Regions, am I the only stranger?" I couldn't help but ask in a somewhat strange tone.

  "No, have you seen that old man with the old flower-shaped glasses? He's a professor who studies desert habits and is very familiar with the desert area. And that bald-headed monk is from Shaolin Temple, wearing a Taoist robe is Zhu Dao Shi, and that young man in black clothes, don't mess with him, he's a killer..."

  Yu Gang just told me a few more outstanding ones, and I was secretly amazed.

  This lineup is simply everything, although I've never heard of these people's names, just listening to the halos on their heads, I can tell that those people must have something special about them, and of course, I wouldn't dare to have anything to do with it.

  Finally, I took a closer look at the young man that Yu Gang had just mentioned. He was holding a knife in his hand, which appeared to be a Mitsubishi military dagger from its shape. He sat there motionlessly, as if immersed in his own world.

  Will he kill someone?

  I couldn't help but be surprised, and he didn't look like a murderer either. He was slightly older than me.

  Right after that, Tang Guangze walked out. He glanced at me and stood in front of the house. His eyes were stern as he said, "I believe some of you already know the reason for this operation. We suspect that there is a lost civilization site hidden in the southwestern part of the Taklamakan Desert in China's Western Regions, specifically in the Pamir area. Of course, this isn't just speculation; some of you have seen the evidence and experienced it personally."