Ancient Country Returns to Ruins: Strange News from the Western Regions

  We stood there stupidly, staring at what had just happened, unable to snap out of it for a long time. Wu Zihan's eyes changed from shock to calmness, as if nothing had happened, he turned around and said to us, "Let's go!", then turned around and walked away directly.

  We several people snapped back to reality, and Lao San opened his mouth wide and asked Xiao Lao: "Just... what just happened?"

  Xiao Lao sighed: "Jun Yang, in people's lives, many coincidences are accompanied by inevitability. This may be a calamity predetermined for you."

  Lao San looked at Xiao Lao with a hint of helplessness and said, "If my second brother can get through this ordeal, it wouldn't be ungrateful to the kindness he received, would it? Xiao Lao, can you say something serious for once?"

  Xiao Lao gave a glance at Lao San and continued, "If I'm not mistaken, the one just now was the rare Four-Leafed Soul-Splitting Grass that appears only once in a thousand years. It's even harder to find than the Town Soul Grass. This Soul-Splitting Grass is transformed from the Four-Leafed Ghost Needle Grass that has lived for over a hundred years. The Four-Leafed Ghost Needle Grass rarely lives past a hundred years, and even if it does, there's only a small chance of it transforming. It seems as though it was destined by heaven."

  "What just happened? Did the soul-calming fail?" I asked hastily.

  Xiao Lao sighed: "It's not just a failure, the four-leaf ghost needle grass has mutated and its original purpose is now completely opposite. Now there are two Zhou Junyangs in this world."

  "What?" I shouted, "What does 'two Zhōu Yáng' mean?"

  "Don't you get it? It means Second Brother has been cloned, Cloned King Yang, no parents!" said Third Brother with a mischievous grin.

  "Is that Zhou Junyang also real? Is he not just a ghost? What impact will he have on me?" I really couldn't believe it, in an instant the world had two Zhou Junyangs.

  Xiao Lao shook his head and said: "I don't know either, I've never seen anyone being soul-split before!"

  Yang Cangcang suddenly became spirited: "Hey, there's something else you don't know about, Old Xiao!"

  Wu Zihan turned around and looked at me faintly, saying: "Both of us are people with incomplete souls. One day, one will replace the other!"

  I suddenly took a cold breath. If the enemy was someone else, I could have a good fight with all my might. But if the enemy was myself... it sounded like a paradox.

  Karamay had been silent all along, and suddenly inserted a sentence: "In life, the biggest enemy is often oneself."

  Yang Cangcang was getting impatient, pouting and saying: "You guys are big men talking about life and ideals here? Where are we going? Haven't you noticed that we've been walking in circles?"

  I didn't realize it before, but after listening to Yang Cangcang, I found that we have been circling around this lava pit all the time and never walked out.

  Karamay asked Wu Zihan: "Zihan, what's going on?" Wu Zihan seemed not to have heard and continued walking ahead, Karamay didn't ask again, he might be used to Wu Zihan's attitude.

  Yang Cangcang suddenly sat down on the ground with a plop, pouting and saying she was hungry, shouting that she wanted to rest and eat. Old Three hastily agreed, "Oh dear, I'm also hungry, we've been walking for half a day, let's take a break."

  Everyone nodded and sat down on the spot, Xiao Lao was silent for a moment, looking at everyone and said: "We may have fallen into an illusion similar to 'ghost blocking wall', no matter how we walk, we are just circling around in place."

  Yang Cangcang hesitated for half a day and asked, "Zihan, can't you feel the source of the Lingering Qi? Why are you leading us around in circles?"

  Wu Zihan looked around and said, "This should be the surroundings of the ancient country of Dài Yú, but we can't get in. It's probably something like a seal that's blocking us from entering, it's just that we can't find the source."

  Yang Cangcang had already prepared herself for Wu Zihan's indifference, but seeing his serious response, she immediately became spirited: "Then how do we get in?"

  Wu Zihan remained silent, and Xiao Lao also had no idea what to do. Now that everyone has reached this point, I suddenly felt that the sheepskin paper dug out from under the old house's cypress tree should be taken out. Although the messenger who delivered it told me not to let others know, but as for Director Zheng's dream, I can no longer distinguish who is trustworthy and whose words should be listened to. Let's just get through the current predicament first.

  I took out the purple wooden box from my backpack, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out the sheepskin scroll, saying to everyone: "Maybe this can help us, it was left to me by my grandfather."

  Karamay's eyes widened as he saw the sheepskin paper, shining with an unusual light: "Is this what Old Man Zhou left for you? What is inside?" He hastily snatched the sheepskin paper from my hand, quickly opened it, and carefully examined it. The others also gathered around to take a look.

  "This looks like a map." Lao San said.

  Karamay excitedly said: "That's right, it is! Junyang, why didn't you take it out earlier? I've heard people say that there are two volumes of this sheepskin paper. One volume is the text translated by your grandfather when he was in the bureau, and the other has a map of the Western Regions. He must have obtained this map when he led his troops to the Western Regions back then. What do the texts marked on this map say?"

  I stared at Karamay in a daze and said: "I don't know either?"

  Karamay seemed somewhat astonished: "Didn't your grandfather teach you how to decipher these characters?"

  I shook my head, Yang Cangcang furrowed his brow and said: "This is the ancient five nations script, our ancestors taught me before, but I don't recognize many of them. Most of the characters on this picture are unfamiliar to me."

  "Is it the ancient Wu State language?" Fu Ma suddenly thought of something, he turned to Yang Cangcang and asked: "The one that makes a hissing sound? The one you spoke when you first met Zhou Junyang?"

  Yang Cangcang nodded and handed the map to Wu Zihan, saying: "Brother Zihan should recognize this ancient Wuguo script."

  Wu Zihan took a rough look at the sheepskin scroll and smiled slightly at me, saying "thank you".

  I was taken aback: "What are you thanking me for?"

  Wu Zihan stopped speaking and carefully looked at the map. After a while, he slowly said: "This map is a geographical map of the ancient five countries, and naturally there is also the ancient country of Daiyuan. I already know where the cutting point to break this boundary is."

  "Gu Wu Guo Tu?" Lao San looked at us in disbelief. "You mean there are four other countries besides Dai Yun Guo?"

  Xiao Lao hurriedly said, "This old man has indeed heard of it, and also saw it in an ancient book. According to legend, 10,000 years ago, our Huaxia appeared with five civilized countries that were quite developed. These five countries had many complex connections between them, and they were called Dài Yú, Yuán Xiào, Fāng Hú, Ying Zhou, and Péng Lái."

  "I had thought the name 'Daiyuguo' sounded familiar, aren't these five ancient countries' names the same as the names of the five sacred mountains in our legends?" Fu Ma interjected.

  Xiao Lao nodded slightly and continued: "That's right, it is said that not far from Gui Yun, five immortal mountains are floating, which are the locations of the five ancient countries. These five immortal mountains have no foundation, they float on the sea like boats, slowly drifting towards the North Pole where the sun cannot shine and the moon cannot illuminate, cold and dark. Later, the people of Long Bo Guo had a dispute with the five ancient countries for some reason, and launched a war, causing the two immortal mountains, Tai Yu and Yuan Xiao, to sink into the sea. The residents of the ancient country came here through Gui Yun."

  "How did another Long Bo Guo appear?" asked Lao San in puzzlement.

  Xiao Lao stroked his Mediterranean-style hair and explained: "This is just an ancient myth, let's just listen to it and believe it."

  "Long Bo Guo?" Yang Cangcang repeated thoughtfully, "I've heard the old ancestors mention it before, called Long Bo Zu, they're all said to be giants and have a mysterious aura about them."

  Karamay said impatiently, "You few don't talk about legends anymore. That thing has been passed down through thousands of years, can it be true? Zihan brothers, what else can be seen on this sheepskin volume?"

  Wu Zihan glared at him for a moment before speaking, "This diagram clearly marks the internal structure of the ancient country of Daiyuan. It is composed of an eight-trigram array, and we need to break through layer by layer in order to finally enter here." He pointed to that semi-circular palace resembling a Mongolian yurt.

  This palace brings back memories of that dream in the bedroom, is everything really just fate? Or a conspiracy, long-planned and premeditated.

  Karamay's old three made a gesture, and old three asked as if he understood: "Zi Han brothers, is the location of Gui Yu's heart marked on this map?"

  Wu Zihan glanced at him and said indifferently: "No."

  Lao San sullenly stopped speaking, and Yang Cangcang loudly said: "This sheepskin volume should have some age to it, I reckon at least several thousand years. After such a long period of alternation, it's probably not the same anymore."

  Wu Zihan asked me: "This sheepskin scroll has been in the box all along, right?"

  I nodded and replied: "It's been in the box since I got it."

  "That's good, this box has a space-time connection with the ancient country of Daiyuan. As long as the map is in the box, no matter how the terrain changes, the map will change accordingly."

  "My goodness! So grand and luxurious?" I exclaimed.

  Wu Zihan stood up and said: "Let's go." Everyone looked at each other in dismay, unsure of how to proceed.

  Only to see Wu Zihan take out a dagger, cut his finger, dug a sand pit on the ground, dripped in a drop of blood, and then buried the sand pit flat. He made several handprints in the air and let out a hoarse voice.

  Yang Cangcang smiled slightly and muttered to herself: "So he's a wizard."

  Less than a minute later, a sapling grew out of the pit, and as it grew bigger and bigger, it became a towering tree in an instant, leaving us staring with our mouths agape.

  Lao San sighed: "From now on, I'm no longer afraid of trees being cut down, protecting the earth depends on you, Zihan."

  That tree looks like a willow, but its whole body emits a silver glow. Wu Zihan turns his head to us and says: "We have entered the ancient country of Dailang."

  Yang Cangcang's chin almost fell off, and he shouted loudly: "Rong Jie Liu!"

  Wu Zihan stood under the willow tree, its branches seemed to have become spirits, surrounding him into a cocoon shape. When the branches stretched forward and deepened into some place, the cocoon suddenly disappeared in mid-air.