Dream King

Chapter 45

Just then, Shirley Yang thoughtfully took out her notebook and looked towards the setting sun. She was overjoyed when she discovered that, just as the notebook had recorded, there were two enormous magnetic mountains nearby. These two magnetic mountains were the gateway to the ancient city of Jingjue. Once they found the magnetic mountains, it would be equivalent to finding the gate to the ancient city of Jingjue.

After Shirley Yang recounted everything, she and Hu Bayi picked up binoculars and looked around. After a while, Hu Bayi called everyone aside and said, "Whether we risk going to the Jingjue Ancient City or go back safely, we need to ask everyone's opinion, since continuing forward is too dangerous."

After careful discussion, they could not give up their hope for the ancient city of Jingjue. After all, the ancient city of Jingjue was right in front of them, and none of them wanted to live with regrets for the rest of their lives.

Anliman, standing to the side, took out the coin around his neck and said that the result of flipping the coin was God's will.

Hu Bayi reached out and tossed the coin into the air. The coin, which would determine everyone's fate, landed on the sand in a perfect parabola. However, to everyone's surprise, the coin landed neither heads nor tails, but rather upright in the sand.

With his extraordinary eyesight, Mo Mo had already spotted the Magnetic Mountain in the sandstorm not far away. He pointed to the distant Magnetic Mountain and said, "The gates of the Jingjue Ancient City have been opened to us."

Following Mo Mo's gaze, the group was delighted to discover that two towering mountains had indeed emerged from the distant sandstorm, forming a striking contrast with the surrounding dunes. The ancient city of Jingjue had finally opened its doors to them.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 95 Entering the Jingjue Royal Mausoleum

Exhausted from a day's journey, the group set off towards Cishan with high hopes. After a long and bumpy ride, they finally reached the foot of Cishan at nightfall. But as they arrived, the camels suddenly began to bray. Anliman said in terror, "We can't go any further. This is a warning from the gods of the desert. We should go back, or you will all die."

Seeing this, Shirley Yang comforted Anliman, "There must be something ahead that scared the camels. After all, there are plenty of wild beasts in the desert."

After saying that, she raised her pistol and aimed it forward, while Hu Bayi threw a sparkler over. In the light of the sparkler, everyone discovered that there was a person sitting in front of them.

No matter how much they shouted, the person didn't respond. Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang decided to go ahead and check, leaving Mo Mo and Fatty to stay put and keep watch. Mo Mo knew what was going on, so he let them go, but he didn't dare to relax. He raised his pistol and cautiously watched Hu Bayi and Shirley as they moved forward carefully. After all, Fire Serpent was here, and he couldn't allow anyone to get into trouble under his nose.

The two approached the man, glanced at him, and found him lifeless. Hu Bayi then lifted his veil to examine the corpse, discovering that he hadn't been dead long and the body's color was eerily strange. At this moment, Mo Mo warned them that there were more corpses around.

Then Hu Bayi picked up the gun next to the corpse and found that it was Soviet-made. He deduced that they were very likely the group of foreigners who stole the mummified corpse, and that the deaths of these fully armed people were very strange.

Just as everyone was preparing to leave, Hao Aiguo saw Mo Mo pick up some equipment from beside the corpses and, for some reason, followed suit. Hu Bayi noticed this and nervously scolded him not to touch the corpses, but it was too late. Just as he picked up the gun, a thin snake with a red glow emerged from the corpse in front of him. The red snake stood in front of Hao Aiguo, hissing and flicking its tongue, and then suddenly pounced on Hao Aiguo.

Seeing this, Mo Mo couldn't help but sigh. Hao Aiguo was simply a master of courting death. Without Ye Yixin's acute dehydration, Mo Mo could have escaped a disaster by asking him to fetch the water bottle. Unexpectedly, he actually wanted to imitate Mo Mo by picking up equipment. However, Mo Mo couldn't bear to watch him die in front of him. After all, he wasn't a bad person at heart; he was only targeting Mo Mo out of jealousy.

Despite his admiration, the moment the fire snake leaped up, Mo Mo's gun fired, blasting the fire snake's head apart with a loud bang. After all, with Mo Mo's physical abilities and superhuman senses, becoming a sharpshooter was too easy for him, especially since it wasn't his first time handling a gun.

Hao Aiguo, still shaken, took four or five seconds to come to his senses. After getting up, he sincerely thanked Mo Mo. After all, the snake looked very dangerous, and it seemed that most of these people had been bitten to death by it.

Just then, Fatty Wang Kaixuan, looking terrified, told Hu Bayi not to move. As soon as Fatty finished speaking, a crisp gunshot rang out, and the fire snake that had been coiled behind Hu Bayi flew out.

Just as everyone was marveling at Mo Mo's marksmanship, Shirley Yang walked over nervously and carefully examined Hu Bayi. She was relieved to find that he hadn't been splashed with venom. Then everyone was even more amazed by Mo Mo's marksmanship, because Mo Mo not only accurately hit the snake's head as it pounced, but also didn't get either of them covered in venom or snake blood.

Fearing further danger if they stayed, the group hurriedly left the area and traveled for about five or six miles before finding a sheltered sand dune to rest.

As the crimson sun slowly rose above the horizon of the vast desert, the outline of an ancient and magnificent city ruin gradually came into clear view under its golden light. Shirley Yang, looking at the scene exactly like the one in the photograph in her hand, exclaimed with tears in her eyes, "Finally found it!"

Looking at the city ruins before him, Mo Mo thought to himself, "This is the ancient city of Jingjue! We've finally arrived."

After bidding farewell to Anliman, who refused to go any further, the archaeological team entered the ancient city of Jingjue. Upon entering the city, they found it filled only with fine sand and gravel.

Faced with everyone's doubts, Shirley Yang explained, "This city was originally captured by the Allied Forces, but it was buried by the Black Desert as the war was nearing its end."

Upon hearing this, Fatty Wang was overjoyed and exclaimed, "Then there must be many treasures down there!"

Upon hearing this, Hu Bayi couldn't help but retort, "So what if there's treasure? This place is all buried in sand. How would you know where the treasure is? And even if you knew where it was, how would you dig it out?"

Just then, Shirley Yang came over and told Hu Bayi that she had been having that strange dream again these past few days. In the dream, there was a dark hole with a coffin hanging at the entrance.

Hu Bayi felt something was off, so he pulled Shirley Yang aside to ask Mo Mo about the situation and discuss their next move.

After listening, Mo Mo thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it has something to do with your family. Otherwise, your father wouldn't have traveled thousands of miles to find out about the Jingjue Kingdom. Moreover, I've noticed that you always manage to find the most accurate path subconsciously. So I'm certain that you, or your family, are connected to the Jingjue Kingdom."

"So what do we do next? Although we've found the Jingjue Ancient City, our supplies are running low, so we must finish this quickly," Hu Bayi said with some worry.

"Don't worry, I still have some compressed rations, enough for our team to eat for a week. As for water, I think we should be able to find it in this ancient city. After all, according to human nature, cities will definitely be built in places with or near water sources," Mo Mo said with a smile, patting his blanket.

"Master Mo, it's our honor to have you join this team." Shirley Yang smiled and gave Mo Mo a big hug.

Professor Chen also said, "Generally, there is groundwater under the temples in ancient cities, and I think this ancient city should be no exception."

So everyone began to search for the temple.

Suddenly, Hu Bayi stared at the stone pagoda not far away and said, "Look at the stone on top of that pagoda, doesn't it look just like an eye?"

Aside from Mo Mo, everyone else said that Hu Bayi was hallucinating because he was too tired lately.

Hu Bayi insisted on his opinion, so he led everyone to run to the other side. When they looked closely, they found that the stone on top of the stone tower was embedded in the broken Zaglama mountain range behind it, and it really looked like a giant eye.

Then Hu Bayi recalled the murals he had seen in the tomb of Prince Gu Mo. After repeated analysis, he guessed that the stone tower was the tomb of Queen Jingjue.

Just then, everyone discovered that the steps beneath their feet were buried in yellow sand. Professor Chen pointed to the other side of the sand dune and said with delight that this should be the entrance to the temple.

After crossing the small sand dune, everyone except Mo Mo was pleasantly surprised; they had actually managed to enter the long-sealed Jingjue Temple.

Inside the gloomy temple, several lifelike stone pillars stood on both sides. As they continued to walk in, they discovered that the place where the stone pillars symbolizing the highest rank should have stood was empty.

While everyone was puzzled, Hu Bayi boldly proposed the hypothesis of imaginary space, that is, the emptiness here actually represents the unknown space, and the eyes of the Queen of Jingjue actually control this space.

Just then, everyone noticed a huge eyeball on the stone platform directly in front of them. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was a priceless piece of naturally formed jade. Shining their flashlights upwards, they discovered another huge eye totem directly above the jade eye. Professor Chen, extremely excited, exclaimed in a trembling voice, "This eye is the totem of the Ghost Cave Clan!" Meanwhile, the greedy fat man, Wang Kaixuan, secretly tried to pull the jade stone off.

Mo Mo smiled upon seeing this; "Tell me in a low voice, take out your family heirloom jade and try pressing it into that groove."

Upon hearing this, the fat man's eyes lit up. He quickly took out the jade stone, pressed it against the eye, and with a click, the jade stone was lifted up. Hearing the sound, everyone turned to look at Mo Mo and his companion. Trusting Mo Mo, the others did not allow the fat man to put the jade eyeball back.

Just then, a fire snake suddenly darted out from the stone platform, but it was shot dead by Mo Mo, who was prepared. The jade eyeball was then placed in Mo Mo's backpack.

Just as everyone was about to continue their search, a ball of fire snakes fell from the eye totem above. Everyone immediately opened fire, while Mo Mo told everyone to turn around and close their eyes. Then he threw a flashlight into the snakes. With a flash of light, the fire snakes immediately retreated to the area below the stone platform.

After escaping danger, Shirley Yang discovered that the stone platform was now taller than before and should be able to rotate. Hu Bayi studied the positions of the sixteen stone pillars and deduced how the platform could rotate. Mo Mo had already deduced it when he came in, since he knew the plot from the beginning, so he just compared it with the calculations after entering and figured it out.

Then, Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang prepared to risk starting to rotate the stone platform, but Mo Mo stopped them and had Shirley Yang take her place. After Mo Mo and Hu Bayi finished rotating the stone platform, the entire hall was silent for a few seconds. Then, the floor tiles in the center of the hall all sank down to form steps, creating a secret passage leading underground.

Mo Mo and his group finally entered the tomb of the Queen of Jingjue. Walking in the damp and dark passage, Mo Mo smiled and said, "Kunlun Divine Tree, Corpse Fragrance Devil's Flower, Queen of Jingjue, it seems that this harvest will be quite substantial!"

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 96 Capturing the Queen of Jingjue

After descending into the secret passage, the group, led by Hu Bayi and Wang Kaixuan, with Mo Mo providing support in the middle and Shirley Yang bringing up the rear, ventured deeper into the damp and dark passage. Upon reaching the end of the stone steps, a passageway, five meters high and three meters wide, suddenly opened up before them.

The passageway was covered with strange and brightly colored murals. Mo Mo thought this must be the so-called Heavenly Brick Secret Passage. The Heavenly Bricks were made of rammed earth, cow dung, cool sand and other materials. They were dry, strong and durable and would not crack over time. The murals were mostly about eyes.

While admiring the murals on the Heavenly Brick Secret Passage, they continued forward and soon arrived at the end of the passage. However, they found nothing but a stone pillar. Hu Bayi examined the stone pillar for a while before his eyes lit up. He called Mo Mo over to assist him and used the Shaking Dragon Technique from the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Manual to open the passage of the Heavenly Brick Secret Passage and enter the underground palace.

Unfortunately, most of the things in the underground palace were destroyed. Following the sound of water, they turned around the back hall and finally found the underground river. The thirsty group was about to rush to the river to drink, disregarding the potential dangers, but Shirley Yang stopped them, saying that it might be stagnant water. Hu Bayi was completely relieved after seeing a few small fish in the distance, and he rushed to the river to drink. After drinking, everyone rested on the side and then witnessed an amazing scene, which almost made him vomit his bile.

Just after the blue-green phosphatid molted on the island in the middle of the lake, swarms of gerbils rushed in, jumped into the lake without hesitation, swam to the island, and greedily grabbed the newly molted worms and put them into their mouths. Seeing how skilled these rats were, it was clear that they often came here to feast. The group of people who had just drunk water couldn't help but vomit up all the water they had just drunk.

No one wanted to stay there any longer, so they continued forward and traveled several hundred meters before finally arriving at the underground river.

Upon arriving, Hu Bayi noticed a massive sluice gate on the opposite bank of the underground river. However, the water was too deep to cross. Based on common sense, Hu Bayi guessed there must be a mechanism there. So, the group split up to search. Mo Mo, with his amazing eyesight, had already spotted the hidden bridge, but he didn't say anything after seeing Fatty walk towards it. Sure enough, a minute or two later, while everyone was still carefully searching for the mechanism, Fatty Wang Kaixuan suddenly shouted. Everyone rushed over and found a stone hidden bridge in the water in front of Fatty. Because it was made of black bricks, it was not easy to spot unless you got close.

For safety's sake, Hu Bayi called Mo Mo to cross the stone bridge first to check. After crossing the river, the two found that the stone gate had been blown up. Hu Bayi speculated that it was very likely done by the owner of the notebook decades ago, and that this was very likely the tomb of the Queen of Jingjue.

Just as Hu Bayi was about to go back, Mo Mo stopped him and said, "What do you think of Shirley Yang? I think you two are quite a good match, both in terms of personality and profession."

"What do you mean, Master Mo? After spending some time with her, I've found her to be quite good. If I could, I'd really like to marry her. But what do you mean by profession? We're in the business of tomb raiding, while she's a reporter. How could we possibly be a good match?" Hu Bayi asked, somewhat puzzled.

Mo Mo smiled slightly upon seeing this, "Don't you find it strange? Why is she so skilled? And her father is a very wealthy man, so why would he come to such a dangerous place? And that notebook, don't you find it strange? With such a notebook and such knowledge of tombs, who else in this world could it be?"

"The tomb raiders!" Hu Bayi gasped.

"Good to know, that's why I said you two are a perfect match!" With that, Mo Mo stepped through the door, leaving Hu Bayi still somewhat lost in thought.

Only when Hu Bayi realized that Mo Mo had walked far away did he come to his senses and quickly follow.

Although the original series didn't mention any traps here, who knows if there might be? After all, this is a real world, and even though most things follow the plot, there are still many differences. So the two of them proceeded cautiously, but the tomb passage seemed to have no end.

After walking for nearly ten minutes, Mo Mo and Hu Bayi finally reached the end of the tomb passage. Mo Mo estimated that, based on their pace, the passage was at least a hundred meters long. When they reached the end, they found that the path had been blown up. Mo Mo speculated, "This must have been blown up by those tomb raiders to block their pursuers when they were escaping."

Hu Bayi nodded in agreement, then threw a flare downwards. By the light of the flare, the two saw that beneath their feet lay thousands of gold and silver treasures. Hu Bayi initially wanted to go down and investigate, but Mo Mo stopped him and instead told him to bring everyone over.

After Hu Bayi left, Mo Mo smiled slightly, jumped down, and began his looting spree. Apart from the little bit they had just seen, Mo Mo collected all the other treasures. Although these treasures seemed like a lot, they were nothing more than a wave of his hand for Mo Mo.

After collecting the treasure, Mo Mo quickly rushed forward and arrived at the ghost cave a dozen seconds later. When he looked up at the stone pier above, Mo Mo's pupils shrank. The Corpse Fragrance Devil's Flower, which was supposed to bloom after Hu Bayi and the others entered, had already quietly blossomed. What surprised Mo Mo even more was that the Queen of Jingjue, who should have been lying in the Kunlun Divine Tree, was standing on the stone pier.

Feeling the tremor in his mind, Mo Mo was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected that the Corpse Fragrance Devil's Flower could actually affect his mind. Moreover, Mo Mo even felt as if he were falling into an illusion. However, this level of temptation was still too weak. After calming his mind a little, these disturbances had no effect on Mo Mo.

Seeing that her tricks were useless against Mo Mo, the elegantly dressed Queen Jingjue revealed a playful smile on her crystal-clear red lips that were exposed beyond her mask. With a wave of her hand, a transparent wave appeared directly in front of Mo Mo. Seeing the transparent crescent moon that appeared directly in front of him, Mo Mo seemed to be stunned and stood motionless as he was directly knocked away by the crescent moon.

Mo Mo, who had been knocked away, smiled slightly. "It really is the power of space, and it even contains a trace of spiritual power. This so-called ghost cave must be a spatial rift." However, Mo Mo sensed something unusual, so he abandoned the idea of entering another space.

After knocking Mo Mo away, Queen Jingjue seemed somewhat disappointed, a hint of disdain appearing on her lips. She then turned and walked into the Kunlun Divine Tree.

However, at that moment, Mo Mo moved, as if teleporting, and instantly appeared behind Queen Jingjue. By the time Queen Jingjue sensed something was wrong, it was too late, because Mo Mo's hand chop had already landed on her neck. Queen Jingjue let out a soft groan, and although unwilling, she still closed her crystal-like eyes.

He caught the collapsed Queen Jingjue, then lifted her up and placed her in the coffin made of Kunlun Divine Wood. The Corpse Fragrance Demon Flower that tried to attack Mo Mo was slapped away by Mo Mo and then stored in his storage space. After placing Queen Jingjue in the Kunlun Divine Wood, he also stored her away. Less than a minute had passed between when Mo Mo put away the treasures and when he put Queen Jingjue into his storage space.

Judging that there was still some time, Mo Mo jumped into the Ghost Cave. It wasn't that Mo Mo wanted to enter the space on the other side of the Ghost Cave, but rather that Mo Mo sensed the dense spatial power here. Moreover, according to the legends of Jingjue Kingdom, this place had existed for thousands of years and must have condensed spatial crystals. Those were naturally formed by pure spatial power and were extremely rare. Since this place had existed for nearly a thousand years, there should be several of them.

After jumping down into the ghost cave, Mo Mo activated his full divine sense and searched downwards for nearly 500 meters. The harvest from this 500 meters far exceeded Mo Mo's expectations. He obtained nearly 20 spatial crystals, almost four times more than the five or six he had anticipated. Moreover, there were more than a dozen more within Mo Mo's divine sense range, but Mo Mo did not take them. These were all a few meters away from the spatial rift, and this place was clearly abnormal. Mo Mo would not risk it for a few spatial crystals.

After collecting the items, Mo Mo flew back up and quickly returned to the broken bridge.

At this moment, Hu Bayi and his group finally arrived late.

After everyone gathered, they lowered the rope and descended to the place piled with a large amount of gold and silver treasure. The greedy Fatty Wang, taking advantage of everyone's inattention, slipped a string of pearls into his pocket. However, Professor Chen happened to see this and angrily reprimanded Fatty Wang for doing such a thing. Hu Bayi also angrily accused Fatty Wang of ignoring his words. Fatty Wang, however, looked surprised and insisted that the pearls were stuck to his hand and that he hadn't intended to take them. Everyone shook their heads helplessly, but they didn't make Fatty Wang put the pearls back. After all, they had been together for so long and knew Fatty Wang's personality; even if they made him put them back now, he would still take something else when no one was looking.

The matter with Fatty Wang quickly passed. After marveling at the astonishing amount of burial goods belonging to the Queen of Jingjue, everyone continued on their way. However, only Hu Bayi was somewhat puzzled, as he vaguely remembered that the treasure here was actually more than just this much.

After passing through the dark and gloomy tomb passage, they stood before a broken wall. Beneath their feet lay a bottomless abyss-like cave. They realized that this must be the sacred site of the Jingjue Kingdom, the legendary Ghost Cave.

The deep, mysterious cave exudes an irresistible urge to explore it. Just as the archaeological team was captivated by their surroundings, Professor Chen suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "This should be the entity connecting to the imaginary space. If someone falls from here, they won't die from the fall, but will simply disappear and enter another space."

Perhaps because Mo Mo had taken away the Queen of Jingjue, Shirley Yang did not sense the stone platform above. So the group walked forward along the narrow path on the cave wall, one after another. After the view opened up, they saw the stone platform, but it was empty. There was nothing on it, since Mo Mo had taken everything away.

Shirley Yang felt a sense of familiarity upon seeing this scene. Suddenly, she remembered the dream she had been having. In the dream, she walked along the stone pier and eventually stood in front of the sacred wooden coffin. However, Shirley Yang was puzzled because the Kunlun sacred wooden coffin from her dream was no longer on the platform in front of her.

With that thought in mind, Shirley Yang resolutely continued walking forward, but unfortunately, she was destined to gain nothing, as Mo Mo had already taken the items first.

Just as everyone was about to continue their search, a landslide began to occur. In a panic, the group fled the collapsed cave and hid in another cave.

After calming down, Shirley Yang recounted her bizarre dream and expressed her doubts. Fatty Wang laughed and said, "Maybe you were the Queen of Jingjue in your past life, and you were just revisiting the place. As for why the Queen of Jingjue's coffin was gone, well, a thousand years have passed, and it was on a stone platform in the Ghost Cave. Maybe it fell down there." Fatty Wang even showed a regretful expression after saying that.

After listening, everyone agreed that it made sense, so they stopped worrying about the Queen of Jingjue and began to look for a way out. After all, they really didn't have much supplies left, and if they were trapped in the tomb for three or four days, they wouldn't have enough to get back.

Just as everyone was searching diligently, Hu Bayi's voice came. Mo Mo knew that Hu Bayi had found the prophet's tomb. In fact, Mo Mo had already started searching with his divine sense when he came in, but he found that a mysterious force was suppressing his divine sense, preventing him from finding the prophet's tomb. After all, his divine sense had not yet recovered and was still quite weak.

"Prophet! You can foresee events a thousand years from now. I wonder if you foresaw my arrival? I'm quite looking forward to it!"

I have to go out tomorrow, so the update might be delayed until tonight. But I'll guarantee at least one update, though I'm not sure if I can finish the second one.