It was a scorching sun that was so hot that it was frighteningly hot.

The blowing yellow sand choked in the mouth and nose, and the smell of smoke and dust filled the snorts. He Manzhou squinted slightly, and when she looked up, the sunlight shook her eyes painfully, with the scorching light source of the Phnom Penh sun under the endless desert projection.

The only thing left for the quiet desert was the disturbing wind, as if it were about to be cooked.

He Manzhou looked around and walked forward mechanically.

Her throat was so thirsty, her lips were cracked and peeled from the lack of excess, and the thin rubber soles of her sneakers could not insulate the hot sand from the hot sand, and every step was like surviving in a hot oil pot.

Her legs were no longer obedient, and all that drove her forward was her mind and instinct.

In front of her was a vague figure.

He Manzhou followed all the way, and she saw that the yellow sand gradually solidified, and the sky suddenly flourished. At the end of the oasis emerges an illusory mirage, a majestic palace rises from the yellow sand, and the ancient and mysterious building with a style that has not been recorded in history is hidden in the wind-blown yellow sand, which looks illusory and ethereal.

The domed towers rise above the clouds, and the white brick path gradually widens, and in the center of the eye is an ivory-white pool, splashing water that reflects the sunlight and moistens the rock walls around the fountain.

Countless girls dressed in white veils walked forward in two rows, left and right.

Their bare feet were hung with golden bells, which echoed with a crisp and pleasant sound as they staggered, and their robes hung straight down to cover their beautiful figures, all the way to their feet. The long black hair that hung down at the waist was braided in thin braids, and the headdress with gilt tassels on the tips of the hair also wore small bells, revealing indescribable holiness and elegance in every gesture, as if the clouds in the yellow sand were wrapped around the body.

The illusion seems to echo with the sound of mysterious chanting.

The maidens walked side by side, and then parted in front of the pool, round and round, as if in some unwarranted mystical sacrifice, their countenances covered by a white veil, hanging over their slender shoulders, revealing only a pair of beautiful, empty eyes, staring unblinkingly ahead.

He Manzhou looked at the scene in the mirage in a daze, and the black shadow in front of her who she was chasing all the way also stopped.

Reason told He Manzhou that she should immediately catch up with her at this moment, but her feet were like lead, and she didn't obey the call at all, so she could only stand in place. She saw that the scene in the mirage had changed several times, and the white-robed girls held the net bottles in their hands, their expressions solemn and solemn, and they came one after another to hold the clear water in the fountain, and picked up half of the branches from the side, almost bowing reverently.

The chanting grew louder and louder, and when the last girl had finished the ritual, everyone knelt in front of the tower, and the emerald green branches were stuck in metal bottles, and the slender fingers of the girls twisted them, and the water they had taken dripped down the veins of the leaves, and fell to the ground unhurriedly.

Everyone was doing this mechanically, chanting accompanied by the chanting of the maidens, and the crisp echo of the striking metal grew faster and faster. Until the golden light spread down the top of the Tower of Babel, the outer part of the tower was carved with strange symbols, like some kind of unrecorded writing, and it was activated by the light little by little. The pilgrimage maidens raised their heads reverently, and they knelt on the ground with their hands facing up, like gods waiting to come to earth.

It was a mysterious civilization that humans could not imagine.

For some reason, He Manzhou felt an inexplicable fear, that hollowness made her scalp tingle, she wanted to take a few steps forward to pull back the chasing black shadow, but she could only stand in place, watching him walk step by step in the direction of the mirage, without even turning his head, until he was completely submerged in an illusion.

The mirage landscape is still changing.

At the moment when the light was at its peak, the Tower of Babel, which towered into the sky, suddenly collapsed. But in the blink of an eye, the solemn sacrifice completely collapsed, and the overwhelming yellow sand swallowed up the scene in front of him. The girls who knelt beside the fountain raised their heads in astonishment, their pious gazes gradually turning into fear.

The sand buried everything as far as the eye could see, so suddenly that everyone had no time to react before they were completely buried by the overwhelming sandstorm.

The chanting still reverberates.

Through the illusory mist of the mirage, He Manzhou saw that in the dazzling golden light, an ethereal figure gradually emerged, and the woman wrapped in a veil walked over from the ruins of the Tower of Babel. She walked barefoot through the dry bones, a mist enveloped her, and behind her was an army of sandstorms, their horses raising their front hooves and neighing silently, and guards with spears and swords stood by her side, like guardians of the noble gods.

At this moment, the woman suddenly raised her head.

Her sharp gaze pierced through the heavy yellow sand, and her pupils were faintly turquoise, but it was just a glimpse, but it made people feel a sense of fear deep into the bone marrow.

What kind of eyes are they?

He Manzhou couldn't describe it in words, she only felt that at that moment, the fear was revealed from the depths of her soul.

Behind the extreme holiness, there is an evil devil lurking.

......

I don't know how long it took, but the illusion finally disappeared completely.

He Manzhou watched the black shadow he had been chasing all the way fade, and the palace hidden in the yellow sand all disappeared without a trace, and the mirage was shattered in mid-air, and no picture could be seen again. Instead, there was a staccato voice coming from nowhere.

Lao He's voice was as warm and restrained as ever, echoing again and again in the desert.

"Xiaozhou, go back, this is not the place for you to come, let's go......"

He Manzhou's lips touched, and she was about to say something, but before she could react, the picture suddenly began to reverse, and the surrounding scene also changed dramatically.

The tangled vines coiled in the yellow sand, like dry ghost claws, tugged at He Manzhou's cuffs, tearing her into the unknown abyss.

The black mire flooded her legs, pulling her down.

The smell of muddy rain mixed with the stench of rotting earth was all around her, and in front of her was an endless grove of trees, the bleak moonlight shining through the scattered branches and leaves, leaving a lifeless white.

It was a silent path, winding and winding, as if there was no end.

He Manzhou walked forward mechanically, the rain became heavier and heavier, and the path became more and more barren. I don't know how long it took, but there was a quaint and dilapidated temple in front of me.

The red bricks and tiles have become decadent and dilapidated after the baptism of age, and the painted paintings on the walls have lost their outlines, leaving only strange and staggered lines entangled, as if recording the unknown history left by a unique era, which makes people have to be in awe, and reveal fear from the bones.

Or maybe all fear comes from the unknown.

The rain trickled down the edges and corners of the black eaves, leaving muddy potholes in the land. Lao He stood in front of the temple, most of his body was hidden in the night, only the silhouette of the shadow remained, He Manzhou obviously couldn't see his expression clearly, but he inexplicably felt that his expression at the moment was with silent compassion.

The sound of rain was hypnotic.

He Manzhou wanted to go over, but the pouring rain curtain seemed to cut off everything, she couldn't take a step forward, she could only watch He Sheng's figure gradually become distorted, and the whole person was full of unreality, like a phantom that had just been shattered in a mirage, so little by little it faded down, until it finally disappeared completely in front of her eyes.

Nightmarish voices couldn't stop echoing in her ears.

It was the voice of several members of the expedition team, they strangely lowered their heads, circled around He Manzhou's side, and whispered like a curse, without stopping for a moment.

The sound of the water is getting louder and louder, and their voices are getting more and more urgent.

The last few sentences were broken into a hoarse murmur.

"Girl, we went to look for it, but the mountain road in Wucheng is too difficult to walk, and it caught up with the heavy rainstorm...... Your father insisted on going up the mountain, no one knew whether he was alive or dead, we searched for a few days, there was no clue at all, and it was futile to wait. ”

"There's no way, people really can't be saved, I don't know where Lao He went, I can't see people alive and dead, I can't see corpses, hey...... You should be buried in heaven and buried in the ground. ”

"I can't get it back, give up, give up......"

In the midst of the loud noise, those vague figures became no longer real, and the sound of water swept in with hypnotic bewitchment, completely burying the increasingly blurred figures. Vines wrapped around He Manzhou's legs, dragging her into the bottomless mire, the dilapidated temple getting farther and farther away, muddy water flooding her chest and neck, stripping her of what little air was left.

Before completely losing consciousness, He Manzhou faintly heard that sentence again.

"Xiaozhou, go back, don't come, don't come......"

......

"Girl, is this the building, have you arrived?"

The voice of the master taxi awakened the nightmare that had been repeating repeatedly, and the illusory scene came to an end.

He Manzhou rubbed his temples and slowly opened his eyes.

The dim light of the street lamp shined through the car window, casting a faint halo on her delicate cheeks, and the hard work of the whole day made her look a little tired at the moment, even the big smart eyes seemed to be preoccupied, and the nightmare just now made a thin layer of cold sweat ooze from her forehead.

It took her few breaths to gather her thoughts, and her voice was a little hoarse when she spoke.

"Okay, master, how much?"

"Thirty. ”

The taxi master raised his chin and pointed in the direction of the meter, but his eyes swept over He Manzhou's body, and while she was looking for money, this warm-hearted big brother couldn't help but open his mouth.

"Girl, I see that you fell asleep not long after you got in the car, and I didn't bother you, what's the matter, you have a nightmare?"

"It's okay...... Maybe I've been too tired lately. ”

"If you want me to say, this is tired of working overtime, you see, it's more than eleven o'clock, and people haven't arrived home yet, what kind of thing is this? You young people work too hard, you don't know how to take care of your body, you spend all your hard work, and you will regret it in the future. Go back and take a hot bath and get a good night's sleep, the body is the capital of the revolution. ”

He Manzhou was slightly stunned, and then raised the corners of his lips and smiled.

With this faint smile, two cute little dimples appeared on her cheeks, and the gloom along the way also diluted a lot, and she casually combed the strands of hair that fell down.

"I see, thank you. ”