The second dream, however, was not based on reality, and was full of frantic and incomprehensible elements, which I could only record as faithfully as I could—the reason why I had to record the contents of both dreams is that I will write them down later.

In the dream, I saw Xixin again, but this time she was lying quietly on the bed, her face pale.

I sat on the edge of the bed, at a loss, and I could only hear Xi Che who was standing on the side say to me, "In a while, Xi Xin will say goodbye to us forever." ”

I felt a great heartache that enveloped me, and I held my head and asked in pain, "Why?" ”

"We are all from the land of heaven and sea, and the god we believe in, Baha Moor Irrero, who has been a god hiding in the shadows deeper than eternal hell since the time lost in human memory, and whose world we created and destroyed by him. In the sea we have eternal life, and when we come to earth, we will sacrifice to the great Irrejo. ”

He paused for a moment and continued, "Get ready, the messenger of Irreyro will be coming soon, this is the law and the custom. They will take my sister, your bride. ”

As if I understood his words, I could only protest in a weak voice: "But she is not dead - her illness is very peculiar, she looks like a lifeless dead person, lying still, but she is still alive." She had lost consciousness twice before, her body was cold, her heart was stopped, and she was almost like a dead person. But on both occasions, she woke up a few days later...... We should have waited a little longer. ”

The air was filled with breathless sadness, and I looked at Xi Xin lying on the gray sheets with tears in my eyes, her face was bloodless, she was dressed in white, her hands were flat on her chest, she was still so beautiful, like a pure white lily that had been picked and placed on the bookcase.

"You don't understand, the lives of the inhabitants of the land of heaven and sea...... Forget it, we've been waiting for a week, maybe you're right, we should keep waiting-" Heiche was halfway through his words when his face suddenly changed, and his voice trembled, "No, they're already here......"

I heard an evil, sneaky creak coming from the staircase leading to the attic, which made my scalp twitch instantly, and the sound had an inhuman swiftness, approaching the door from downstairs almost instantly.

I couldn't help but stand up, my chair flipped to the ground, and Xiche next to me lowered his head, and I could feel the solemn atmosphere emanating from him.

The door opened silently, and under the moonlight, four frightened figures entered the room.

They wore strange and thick black cloaks—I had traveled with Mr. Xu to many places, and they were dressed in robes that resembled the funeral robes worn by wizards or priests in some remote areas, and they wore silver masks carved into the image of skeletons, and not a single pore was visible from the top and bottom of their bodies, and even their hands were hidden by black leather gloves.

Their black funeral robes hung loosely down to their ankles, looking like a loose shroud.

They were surrounded by a vague, eerie black aura, and with their unnatural, eerie posture, and beastly agility that was unhindered despite their cumbersome costumes, I was reminded of countless terrifying ghost legends I had ever heard.

They carried a coffin made of similar black glass, the outer frame and handle were the thigh bones of something huge, the coffin was translucent, the exterior was oily and black, and there seemed to be a constant black gas inside, faintly in the form of a human.

These four terrible weirdos, neither speaking nor saluting, walked straight to Xi Xin, who was lying quietly on the bed, cut off from life.

"Stop them!"

Suddenly, Heeche suddenly yelled at me.

I subconsciously rushed towards the bed where Xi Xin was lying, and the four weirdos suddenly turned their heads towards me, as swift as some kind of snake, as if they had already seen through my plan.

Beneath the four silver skull masks were four pairs of whiteless eyes. Triangular eyes as black as snake pupils!

I was horrified and couldn't help but stop, but then I felt a throbbing pain in my back - something cold had penetrated me.

I looked down and saw the bloody tip of the knife coming out of my chest, and it took almost a long second for me to understand what had happened and feel a long, sharp pain coming from my heart.

Heiche pressed my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "If you can die in my place, then she will have another chance." ”

The four weirdos lowered their bone coffin handles and surrounded me and Xiche at a speed that was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye.

"The merciful and great Baha Moor-Irrero, the god of eternity." Heicher's voice was low and cringe, flattering with a suppressed horror, "Forgive me for my misdeeds for bereavement, and we obey your holy law, and ask for your just mercy—I offer you this mortal body, in exchange for my sister's temporary exemption from your calling. ”

Heeche let go of the hand that was pressing my shoulder and knelt down.

The four weirdos remained silent, but reached out and grabbed my limbs, their dry knuckles embedded in my skin and lifted me high.

For some reason, I couldn't open my mouth or move, and I watched as the lid of the black translucent coffin lifted automatically, and the black gas in the coffin formed a terrifying human face and pounced on me......

It was at this time that I woke up from my dream.

When I opened my eyes, it was still dark, there was no starlight, and the bonfire was already extremely faint.

"Are you awake?"

Mr. Xu noticed my movements, and I remembered that after me, Mr. Xu was the third on duty at night.

That said, I've been sleeping for almost six hours.

"I can't sleep a little." I prevaricated casually, still thinking about those two dreams in my head.

"We will definitely overcome the difficulties, don't worry."

Mr. Xu still has the same warm smile on his face as always, he is always like this, always has a beautiful vision for the future, which is an extremely rare personality charm, and it is because of this that we, the members of the Chinese team, are willing to follow him.

Even now, five years later, I still firmly believe that Mr. Xu's ## #的设想 will eventually be confirmed.

I chatted with him for a few words, and the cold sweat on my body that had grown from the nightmare gradually retracted.

But when I was about to add firewood to the campfire, Mr. Xu stopped me and he raised his hand and pointed to the sky.

"It stands to reason that it is already daybreak...... "but you see, it's still the same all around." ”

"Mr. Xu, what do you mean ......?"

"There's something strange here—or in other words, everything gets weird from the moment we walk into that red mist."

"I perceive it."

Seeing me say this, Mr. Xu nodded, and his voice was lowered: "Have you ever heard the story of the disappearing army of ancient Rome?" The army was in a thick fog, and then disappeared in broad daylight. I suspect that we may have suffered the same incident as the ancient Roman army. I don't want you to waste wood any longer, because we may need it to make torches later, if the darkness continues. ”

Mr. Xu's words shocked me, and after I escaped from the black storm, I was immersed in this kind of happiness, and I didn't even think of this layer.

Thinking of Dr. Hedin's unusual reaction, I couldn't help but wonder - could it be that Dr. Heding and his gang knew that this was a "different world" from the usual area?

By the way, I once overheard the conversation between Dr. Hedin and the guide Lao He, they talked about the "eye of the storm", and then Dr. Hedin tried to calm people's hearts, saying that thirty years ago, it was precisely because of a huge sandstorm that he accidentally broke into a mysterious ancient city, which is the remains of what was later called the ancient city of Loulan.

An hour later, there was still no sign of dawn, and Mr. Xu's pocket watch had shown that it was already five o'clock in the morning.

We woke everyone up and told them about the situation.

Dr. Hedin told everyone not to panic, he instructed the crowd, packed up the tents and belongings, and then let some of them start making torches—this was Mr. Xu's suggestion.

I kept an eye on Dr. Hedin and saw that he had pulled out the strange map I had seen before, and used the compass to measure the location.

When everything was ready, we began to turn to the south.

There was still sand underfoot, but the temperature was low, less than 10 degrees.

Fortunately, we have long been accustomed to the huge temperature difference between day and night in the desert, everyone wears more than two layers of clothing, and there is a camel with some blankets on its back, which greatly solves the problem.

In the darkness, our line did not dare to stretch too long, relying on the few camels that remained, and we walked in a huddle like a thirty-meter worm.

Xixin was still worried about her brother, and she was very depressed, and I accompanied him without saying a word, during which Liu Shaowu wanted to talk to me several times, and I told him to wait first.

Under the ghost's mission, I told Xi Xin about the dream I had last night, and after the first dream was finished, Xi Xin also showed a smile and said, "You remember it so clearly, you even dream of it", and when I said the second dream, Xi Xin fell silent.

After listening to this, she had a shocked expression on her face.

I thought it was the content of this dream that frightened her, so I quickly told her that the dreams are all the opposite, life is death, which means that she will be fine, and we will definitely be able to get out of this place.

She said "I'm fine", but her face was extremely pale, and when she looked at me by chance, her eyes were extremely terrifying, and I couldn't help but blame myself, why did I tell Xixin about these two terrible dreams?

Who wants to hear about dreams about their own death, and how many people can remain calm in the current situation?

I wanted to say something, but at this time Liu Shaowu forcefully pulled me aside, and as the night passed, his face became even more haggard, and even his cheekbones were exposed.

"What's the matter?" I'm a little upset.

He mysteriously leaned into my ear and said, "I know where they're going!" ”

When Shaowu said "they", he naturally referred to Dr. Heding and his group. So, I took my nerve and listened to what he had to say.

I only heard Shao Wu say: "I heard with my own ears, Wen Ya Heding said that this road will take him back to the ancient city - they want to go back to the ancient city of Loulan!" ”

"Loulan Ancient City, isn't that already-"

Halfway through my words, I suddenly woke up!

In the distance, the flame of the torch jumped into my eyes, like the succubus dancing wildly in Western mythology, and Shaowu's "message" was obviously just as seductive.

Shao Wu took in the change in my expression and showed a smug smile of "You finally get it".

Although it has been 30 years since the discovery of the ancient city of Loulan, Dr. Wenya Hedin has always claimed that the ancient city he first arrived at was as brilliant as a real palace, although he also found some ruins of the ancient city that also belonged to the "Loulan civilization", but he has not been able to find the city he called "Gushi" again.

Shao Wu's next words were even more tempting: "It is rumored that the explorers who followed Wen Ya Heding and returned alive from Gushi City have all become rich people, and they have collected a lot of treasures from there, all of which are fine products on the Silk Road!" ”

Although I followed Mr. Xu around in the wilderness, mainly because of my love for archaeology and history, man is a very complex animal, and I say unabashedly that when I heard Shaowu's words, I was very moved.

It's not for the money, but because those ancient treasures are rare and precious cultural relics, and their research value is far greater than the broken pottery shards or human bones that we dig out of the field.

As he spoke, the crowd suddenly stopped.

The blood-red fog appeared in front of us again.

Surprisingly, this time, Dr. Hedin did not agree to pass through the red mist right away.

"My friends, I'm sure everyone has some speculation about our current situation, and Mr. Xu and I have come to the same conclusion that we are most likely in an anomalous space."

"Like the ships that mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, we may have stumbled upon a very special territory because we got lost in the desert – Mr. Xu told me the story of the mysterious disappearance of the First Legion of Ancient Rome, and this story inspired me."

"The red fog in front of us is most likely the medium through which we shuttle between the real space and the anomalous space we are in now."

Someone questioned: "Then as long as we get through this fog again, we can go back, why don't we move forward?" ”

Dr. Hedin explained, "Because we can't yet say whether your hypothesis is true or not. ”

"If this mysterious red mist is moving—then we can't be sure that the other side of the red mist is 10,000 meters in the air, or the terrifying deep sea, or some savage place on Earth!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone suddenly fell silent.

No one dares to arbitrarily say that such a possibility does not exist, and no one dares to take the risk directly.

Dr. Hedin continued, "Even if we return to the surface safely...... Don't forget, folks, that it appeared with a terrible black storm, and do you want to go back to it? ”