Chapter Forty-One: Sandy Sculpture

  Fu Ma said beside him: "Jun Yang, take a closer look!"

  I calmed down and took a closer look, and it seemed to be a statue, but the statue was extremely lifelike, just like a real person. I quickly walked over and carefully observed the statue, which was made of sand. When I touched it, the sand fell off, and its height and build were almost identical to my grandfather's. Why would there be a sand statue of my grandfather in this ancient city from thousands of years ago? It really left me baffled and unable to figure out the reason.

  Xiao Lao walked around in a circle, constantly praising with his mouth: "It's like, it's like, no wonder Ceng Ceng recognized the wrong one."

  Lao San suddenly grabbed Yang Cui Cui and said: "You're not the real Cui Cui, tell me, who are you?" As soon as he spoke, all of us including Yang Cui Cui were stunned.

  Fu Ma said in confusion: "Why did you say she's not Cang Cang? The heart voice I heard didn't sound unusual."

  "Just now, I vaguely heard Cangcang say she went to the toilet. Are there any traces of going to the toilet around this statue? So I determined that she was not Yang Cangcang." Lao San raised his head, "How am I so smart!"

  Yang Cangcang scolded him loudly, "You stupid big-headed ghost, I saw the danger and didn't... didn't go up, what's wrong with you?" She hurriedly covered her half-wet pants, while Old Three snickered beside her, Yang Cangcang forcefully twisted his ear.

  "Why is there a statue of my grandfather here?" I turned around and asked Old Xiao.

  Xiao Lao was also perplexed: "This old man doesn't understand either."

  "Look over there!" Fu Ma shouted loudly.

  Not far ahead, there seemed to be another sand sculpture. As I walked over, I inadvertently glanced at Kelamayi and didn't know why, but since entering the array, he was like a lost soul, rarely speaking, often with a pale face, and frequently covered in cold sweat, muttering to himself as if reciting something.

  Not far away, the human-shaped sand sculpture had a somewhat strange posture. My grandfather's statue was just an ordinary standing posture, but this sand sculpture seemed to be a person about to run, with a distorted facial expression, as if it had been extremely frightened. Xiao Lao walked around the sand sculpture in three circles inside and out for several laps.

  Lao San impatiently said: "Xiao Lao, are you pushing the mill?"

  Xiao Lao's eyes flashed with an incredulous gaze: "How come I feel that this sand sculpture looks so much like Hei Zi?"

  "Who is Heizi?" asked Lao San.

  Xiao Lao said: "Heizi was originally from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I had the good fortune to see him a few times, later he came with your grandfather to Xiyu and..."

  "It must be him!" Wu Zihan seemed to have discovered something, using his hands to vigorously scrape off the sand on the sculpture. Fan Ma also came back to his senses and hurried over to help. The few of us looked at each other in confusion.

  After peeling for a while, the head of a mummy appeared from the sand sculpture. We were all startled at once. I immediately went over to help peel off the sand, and soon the whole mummy was exposed. His skin was dry and tightly attached to his bones. Possibly due to exposure to air, his skin quickly turned black. His face remained twisted in a distorted expression. He must have experienced extreme fear or pain before he died.

  "Does every sand sculpture have a mummy? Then this is......" Lao San looked around at the densely packed earth mounds, his whole body feeling a chill.

  Xiao Lao scrutinized him carefully for half a day and said: "Although he has changed like this, old man can still confirm that he is definitely Hei Zi."

  Yang Cangcang pointed at several sculptures around and said: "What about these..."

  Xiao Lao shone his flashlight and carefully examined each of them, taking a deep breath: "The one wearing glasses is Zhao Zi's deputy team leader from the archaeological team back then. These three women are Juanzi, Little Li, and Lu Jie...and this..." Xiao Lao paused, "I don't recognize."

  "It was their guide Nige, who followed the archaeological team that year and never came back... " Karamay said softly, covering her face with her hand.

  "Are these sand sculptures all mummies?" Old Three began to peel off the several sculptures that Xiao Lao had identified, "This one has it, this one also has it, they really all have it!" Old Three said with a tremble.

  "They all died here, what kind of danger did they encounter? Why did they all turn into sand sculptures?" Fu Ma's eyebrows were tightly furrowed.

  In an instant, I was as if struck by a thunderbolt on a clear day. If it's said that all the sand sculptures have mummies in them, then does my grandfather's sculpture also...? That would prove that my grandfather had died thirty-five years ago in this sea of sand, and the person who came back was... I shook my head, not daring to think any further.

  Wu Zihan seemed to see through my thoughts: "You have to look at it to know." He and Lao San peeled off for half a day next to the sand sculpture, and Lao San turned around with some excitement and shouted loudly: "Second Brother, your grandfather's sand sculpture doesn't have a mummy inside, it's really just a sand sculpture!"

  I was both delighted and shocked at the same time. I was happy that it was Grandpa who had come back to life, but I was also surprised to see a sand sculpture of Grandpa here.

  Xiao Lao counted those sand sculptures a few times, muttering to himself: "No, it seems like someone is missing."

  "Who's missing?" I asked in surprise.

  "When your grandfather came to the Western Regions, I was sent to another place, so I don't know much about it. I remember Director Zheng mentioning that there were seven people in total, including eight locals as guides. Hei Zi, Zhao Zi, your grandfather, these three ladies, and this guide Ni Ge, still missing one person."

  "It's possible that it's in some mound we haven't discovered yet," said Fu Ma.

  Suddenly, Lao San and Yang Cangcang shouted loudly, only to see countless grayish-white hands stretching out from under the desert, as if they were growing out of the sand. Those hands quickly grabbed everyone's feet, the more they struggled, the tighter they held on. Lao San swiftly drew his machete and chopped at those hands, which would immediately turn into sand upon being cut, only to be replaced by even more hands, the more he chopped, the more there were.

  "What is this thing?" Yang Cangcang shouted with a sobbing tone.

  "Coming right away to save you!" The more anxious Lao San became, the more he struggled to break free.

  The sand around us seemed to come alive, starting from under our feet and wrapping itself around us, slowly creeping up our bodies. I finally understood how Hei Zi and the others had turned into sand sculptures.

  Karamay waved his baton back and forth, his face was pale, and he kept muttering to himself: "I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

  A few of us can still hold on, but Xiao Lao is almost buried in the sand. I think of those mummies and shudder. I look around for Wu Zihan, it's strange that those hands seem to be deliberately avoiding him. He stands by, lost in thought, completely unaware of our predicament. "Big brother, what are you doing? Quick, go save Xiao Lao!" I shout loudly.

  As soon as I shouted, he turned his head back, obviously also taken aback, but quickly recovered to a poker face, motionless. Lao San suddenly became furious: "Wu Zihan, I have had dealings with you before, but Xiao Lao hasn't, how can you just stand by and do nothing?"

  Wu Zihan said to my grandfather's statue, "Come out!" I was stunned, who is he talking to? Did I hear it wrong? Seeing that the statue had no reaction, Wu Zihan added emphasis to his tone: "Come out!" The statue still had no reaction, and my lower body was almost buried in the sand, unable to move. Moreover, the sand continued to spread upwards, and Lao San was almost completely buried in the sand.

  Wu Zihan cut his palm, the dagger stained with his own blood, and a hoarse voice came out of his mouth. Just as he was about to insert the dagger into the statue, a woman's voice suddenly came from inside the statue: "I didn't know there were old friends here, please forgive me!"

  The sand on Grandpa's sculpture fell off rapidly, vaguely revealing the face of a beautiful woman. The hands in the desert disappeared instantly, and the sand wrapped around us also fell down with a rustling sound. Lao San continuously spat out the sand from his mouth, looking at the woman who emerged from the sand sculpture in shock, saying: "Geez——Second Brother, Grandpa has turned into a thousand-year-old beauty!"

  The woman bowed respectfully towards Wu Ziheng: "This noble person, please pass through directly."

  Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind a sand sculpture: "Sister, why did you let them off so easily? They bullied me..."

  Xiao Lao was originally choked by the sand, and when he heard this voice, he coughed even more severely. I turned my head to look, and suddenly my face turned black. It was indeed Dai Lei Qiu, and this woman was his sister? The difference is too big, I thought to myself.

  The woman gave him a sideways glance and angrily shouted: "Shut up!" Dai Lei Qiu pouted, furious and no longer spoke.

  Karamay shook off the sand on his body and said respectfully: "Miss is the array spirit of this formation?"

  The woman nodded: "That's right, I'm Dai Xinxin. I don't know if there are any acquaintances present, so please forgive me for the offense. Let's just say it was a joke between my brother and me. Please proceed directly to the Great Dry Heaven Array."

  "Who is the stranger? Is it Wu Zihan?" Old Three suddenly realized, "I said this kid was suspicious and must have had something going on. You guys didn't believe me, look now, almost got ourselves killed."

  "Why did you become like my grandfather?" I asked.

  "I also had no choice, I was ordered to do so, it's not what I wanted." Dai Xinxin replied evasively.

  "Whose orders did you receive, just say it straight out. Anyway, we're going to die too, let's be clear ghosts." Lao San asked Wu Ziheng with a slanted gaze and a tone of resentment.

  Dai Xinxin hesitated for half a day without speaking, Dai Leiqiu couldn't help but say with one hand picking his nose: "Sister, what are you afraid of? Just say it directly, isn't it your order? You even killed Ze Zhen's array spirit."

  Dai Xinxin was terrified and yelled as if she had made a big mistake: "Get back to the thunder array for me!" Dai Lei Chou disappeared in front of us, crying.

  Lao San immediately jumped up: "See, I told you it was all Wu Zihans doing. You didn't believe me, and now even Xiao Shu's wife is testifying."

  "Ah Long..." Piao Ma shouted from the side, Lao San turned around, "Dai Leiqiu just pointed at doesn't seem to be Zi Han brothers..."

  Lao San's face was filled with surprise: "Who is that..."

  "It's you, Yang..."