Непревзойденная наследница

Глава 5

The carriage returned to silence. Qin Wen leaned out the window, gazing at the distant horizon, wondering if Xiao Li had received the brooch she had asked someone to bring. She hoped that the police would come to rescue her quickly. She had a premonition that this tomb raiding trip would be extremely dangerous, even more terrifying than the tomb of Princess Zhaoling half a month ago!

"Ding ling ling, ding ling ling." Suddenly, a clear bell sound rang in her ears. She was startled and saw a graceful woman dressed in Western Region dance clothes dancing on a distant sand dune. Her slender legs leaped continuously, and a string of jade bells adorned her ankles. With her elegant and graceful dance, the clear and melodious sound continued to fill the air.

She was stunned, blinking hard. The sand dunes were still sand dunes; where was the beautiful dancer? Filled with doubt, she rubbed her temples. Could it be a mirage?

After driving for an unknown amount of time, the sky gradually darkened, and dark clouds spread across the distant horizon. Manra seemed somewhat surprised: "Young Master, there may be a sandstorm tonight."

Caesar was startled and looked at the dark cloud: "How is that possible? I checked the weather forecast, and there's absolutely no chance of a sandstorm in the next month."

Upon hearing this, Qin Wen revealed a smug smile: "Heaven has eyes! You went to rob tombs, even the heavens won't tolerate you."

She had only intended to mock the arrogant Caesar, but to her surprise, the handsome man's face turned extremely ugly. He glared at her fiercely and turned back to ask Manra, "Uncle, how strong is the sandstorm tonight? Is it dangerous to spend the night in the car?"

“Young Master, this is not a good idea. Tonight’s sandstorm might even sweep our car away,” Manra said with concern. After a moment of silence, Caesar said reluctantly, “It seems we have no choice but to spend the night there.”

"Where?" Qin Wen interjected.

"Devil City".

The Devil City, also known as Urho Wind City, is located in the Urho mining area downstream of the Jiamuhe River on the northwestern edge of the Junggar Basin, 100 kilometers southwest of Karamay City. It is a unique wind-eroded landform with bizarre shapes. The local Mongolians call this city "Sulumuhake," and the Kazakhs call it "Shaytankersi," both meaning Devil City.

The Devil City stretches from northwest to east, spanning over 5 kilometers in length and width, covering an area of approximately 10 square kilometers, with an elevation of around 350 meters. From a distance, the Wind City resembles a grand medieval European castle. Castles of all sizes stand in a dense, varied landscape. Over millions of years, wind and rain erosion has sculpted the ground into deep and shallow ravines, and the exposed rock layers have been sculpted into bizarre shapes by the fierce winds: some bared teeth resemble monsters; others rise precariously, their ramparts clearly defined, resembling ancient castles; some resemble pavilions and towers with distinct eaves; others stand proudly like magnificent palaces. Truly a thousand shapes and forms, inspiring endless imagination. The undulating hillsides are dotted with pebbles of various colors—blood red, azure blue, pure white, and orange-yellow—like jewels left behind by a witch, adding to its mystique. Located in a windy area, the Wind City experiences strong winds year-round. Whenever the wind rises, sand and stones fly, the sky darkens, and eerie shadows appear. The air currents, like arrows, weave and swirl among the strange rocks, emitting sharp sounds like howling wolves, roaring tigers, and wailing ghosts. On a pale moonlit night, when the surroundings are desolate, the scene becomes even more terrifying.

Dark clouds obscured the blood-red twilight, with wisps of crimson peeking through the gaps, casting an eerie glow upon the Devil City. Qin Wen gazed at the approaching City of Decay, a strange feeling welling up inside her, as if she had been here long ago. A wave of sorrow and anger washed over her. She clutched her chest. What was happening? Had she, like Xiao Li, returned to the place of her past life?

But... Xiao Li's past life was that of a princess, so it's understandable that she's buried in a princess's mausoleum. But this is a rock formation that has been weathered over millions of years. Could she have been an insect living in the desert in her past life? That would be too tragic for her.

Manra drove the car behind a huge rock, where there was a massive cave, like a natural parking lot. As soon as they entered the cave, Qin Wen's expression changed drastically. Outside the car window, more than a dozen dark gun barrels were pointed at the three of them. If the other side pulled the trigger, the three of them would be riddled with bullets in less than five seconds.

"Get out of the car." A cold voice rang out. Caesar's lips curled into a sinister smile. He winked at Manra, who had already taken out a bamboo box from her clothes. The sorcerer immediately put it back. Qin Wen could guess with her knees that the box contained poison used for casting spells.

If Caesar could easily capture these desperate criminals, why did he stop him? What was he planning?

The three got out of the car and were surrounded by a group of tall men dressed in Uyghur ethnic clothing, holding either AK47s or M16s. Judging from their appearance, Qin Wen knew that they must be disguised Europeans and Americans.

“They’re mercenaries,” Manra whispered, rolling her eyes. Tomb raiders, mercenaries, kidnappers, and black magic—her Silk Road journey was truly bizarre.

“It seems I’ve disturbed you all,” Caesar said in fluent American English. Qin Wen thought to herself with a touch of smug satisfaction that she was lucky she had focused on learning English for four years in college and had passed the TEM-8 (Test for English Majors-Band 8). If it were that good-for-nothing Xiao Li who couldn’t even pass CET-4, she would definitely be standing there dumbfounded.

Whether they understood or not, they could only stand there dumbfounded.

"Who are you?" a blond man with a scar on his chin asked coldly. He looked like the captain. Caesar still smiled like a nobleman. "I'm just a tourist, on a self-guided road trip. I didn't expect to run into a storm here, so I came in to take shelter."

"Are you just a tourist?" A magnetic voice pierced the air, vibrating Qin Wen's eardrums. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man dressed in blue Uyghur ethnic clothing walk out from behind the crowd. He looked exactly like an East Asian.

Qin Wen's pupils dilated immediately, staring at him dumbfounded, almost drooling with desire. She never expected that a man could be so beautiful. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was stunningly beautiful. He was just like a beautiful woman, but his eyes and brows had a more heroic air than a woman's, and his facial features were more defined. Such a man... was simply a masterpiece.

If the timing hadn't been so bad, she would have pounced on him and asked for his autograph.

The beautiful man seemed to sense her burning gaze, but perhaps he was already used to it and didn't care. He just looked at Caesar and sneered, "Judging from the way you walk, you must be a martial arts master. Facing my mercenaries, you can remain calm. I really find it hard to believe that you are just an ordinary tourist."

These words made Qin Wen overjoyed. This person was not only beautiful, but also very thoughtful. He was the best of the best. She should doubt him, doubt him, and she hoped to beat this villain into a pig's head to relieve her hatred and save her from her suffering.

Completely seduced by his beauty, she didn't even consider whether this man was more evil than Caesar.

VI. Bronze Taotie Ding

"Then what do you think I am?" Caesar looked at the woman-like beautiful man with great interest. Qin Wen glanced at him sideways, not expecting him to have such a hobby. How vulgar.

The man's lips curled into a faint smile, his eyes as cold as snow-capped mountains: "I think you are more like—" He paused, then slowly said, word by word, "a tomb raider."

"You guessed right!" Qin Wen couldn't help but clap her hands in praise, but then she caught a glimpse of Manla's fierce gaze, so she could only roll her eyes, suppress her excitement, and take a step back.

But as she retreated, a soft cracking sound suddenly came from the ground. She knew something was wrong and tried to jump away, but it was too late. Her foot slipped, and she plummeted downwards. Caesar was startled and quickly grabbed her wrist. Hanging in the cave, she felt as if her arm was about to be torn off, and she gasped in pain.

"Don't move," Caesar said coldly. "I'll pull you up."

Qin Wen gritted her teeth, remaining silent, and stretched out her other arm towards him. Just then, her face suddenly froze as she felt something grab her ankle and pull her downwards forcefully. She screamed in fright and looked down to see many decaying hands reaching out to grab her from the depths of the seemingly bottomless cave.

"Witch!" She heard countless clamorous voices rising from the cave, filled with pain and rage. "You witch, you killed us! Give us back our lives! Give us back Sakaar!"

The sounds were like a curse, piercing her eardrums and rampaging through her brain, almost causing her head to explode. She screamed in agony, kicking the foul-smelling hands desperately.

Suddenly a hand reached out, grabbed her other arm, and pulled her out of the cave. The moment she emerged, all the noise disappeared, and her mind became clear.

She clutched her head, her brow furrowed, still reeling from the shock, when a soft voice whispered in her ear, "Are you alright?"

She looked up and saw the handsome man smiling at her. The smile was beautiful, but cold: "I...I'm fine."

"Did you see something in the cave just now?" he asked. Qin Wen's heart skipped a beat, and fear flashed across her face. "Hands, I saw many hands, all rotten. They said I was a witch and made me pay for their lives... It's so inexplicable!"

"Oh?" His smile grew even colder. "Then you'd better be careful. This Devil City has always been very sinister. Maybe you did something heinous in your past life, and they're coming to seek revenge."

A past life? Qin Wen's heart suddenly turned cold. Strange images seemed to flash through her mind, but they were blurry and indistinct. Caesar felt inexplicably displeased when he saw the two talking. He pulled Qin Wen behind him roughly and said coldly to the handsome man, "Thank you very much for saving my girlfriend. You don't need to worry about anything else."

“Take good care of your girlfriend; she seems to be able to see things we can’t.” The man smiled meaningfully. “I don’t care who you are; I hope we can live in peace in this Devil City.”

The mercenary captain's expression changed: "Mr. Min!"

"Just do your job, Captain Miller." His voice was still gentle and magnetic, but his eyes held an intimidating authority. Miller stopped talking, gave his men a look, and they all put away their weapons and followed the man surnamed Min to the corner. It was then that Qin Wen noticed two military off-road vehicles parked there.

He suddenly turned around, smiled at Qin Wen, and said, "My name is Min Enjun. I hope you can remember me."

Min Eun-joon, Qin Wen silently murmured the name. It sounded so Korean. Was he Korean?

"How much longer are you going to watch?" Caesar's cold voice came from behind. Qin Wen turned around angrily, glared at him fiercely, jumped into the car, grabbed the potato chips from the refrigerator and started to eat them like crazy. She always liked to turn fear into food.

The storm began, and a powerful wind whipped up yellow sand, raging outside the cave as if to sweep away the entire desert. The wind blew across the scarred Devil City, emitting howls like ghosts and wolves, as if countless wronged souls were wailing.

The atmosphere in the carriage remained heavy. After a long silence, Caesar finally spoke: "You really saw the undead in that cave?"

Qin Wen replied dismissively, "How could this be fake?"

Manra took out a string of Buddhist prayer beads from her bosom and counted them one by one, seemingly chanting Buddhist scriptures. After a long while, she said, "Young Master, there is an evil aura in this Devil City. Something terrible may happen tonight."

“I am quite concerned about that cave that appeared out of nowhere,” Caesar said thoughtfully. “It doesn’t look like it was formed by natural weathering.”

"Whatever it is." Qin Wen unceremoniously found her sleeping bag and claimed the soft bed. Caesar's head started to ache again. He had been sleeping on the floor for several days, and it seemed he would have to continue today.

As night deepened, the wind outside grew even more piercing, like the cries of millions. Qin Wen heard a series of bell sounds in her sleep, and as if summoned, she suddenly opened her eyes.

It was dark all around, and Manra and Caesar were fast asleep. She opened the car door and saw the girl again. She had long, black hair that reached her waist, and was wearing a light gauze dance dress. Her neck and waist were adorned with beautiful jewelry. A semi-transparent red veil covered half of her face, but her beauty was still evident.

Qin Wen was almost speechless. Her beauty was beyond description. Compared to her, even the most stunning princesses in Princess Zhaoling's tomb were like pheasants compared to phoenixes, or plain women compared to Xi Shi. Her skin was as delicate as cream, like the pure snow on the Tianshan Mountains, and her eyes, when they sparkled, seemed to make the whole world lose its color.

She saw one after another bright red flowers blooming behind her. These were flowers Qin Wen had never seen before, like lotuses, but as red as blood, swaying gracefully in the wind, full of eerie and alluring power.

“The world is in chaos…” she suddenly spoke, but her throat seemed not to belong to her, uttering a name she had never heard before. Deep in her consciousness, there seemed to be a memory of that flower, but it was still as blurry as if it were seen through a frosted glass.

She got out of the car and walked toward the dancing woman. Suddenly, the walls on all sides began to ripple, as if something was struggling to come out. But she ignored it and just followed the beautiful dancer step by step into the depths of this huge cavern that was like a hall.

Over thousands of years of weathering, the cave has been eroded into a maze of intertwined structures like a honeycomb. She walked into a secluded path, where the dancers smiled broadly, each of their movements captivatingly beautiful. Qin Wen thought to herself, "Such a beautiful woman must drive every man who sees her crazy."

The narrow path was like a tomb passage within a tomb, growing darker and darker the further one went, until it was pitch black. A faint glow emanated from the dancers, making them appear like elves dancing in the darkness.

I don't know how long we walked, but suddenly the space in front of us opened up into a cave that was even larger than the hall we had just been in. It was square and looked as if it had been carved out by man.

The moment the dancer entered, a huge fire suddenly burst into flames in the center of the cave with a loud bang, startling her so much that she quickly took a few steps back. She then saw that it was actually a large bronze cauldron, more than a meter tall, with flames leaping wildly inside, illuminating the cave as if it were daytime.

The dancers let out silvery laughter and began to dance around the giant bronze vessel. Qin Wen stared in disbelief at the enormous bronze vessel. This was the Devil City deep in the desert, how could there be a bronze cauldron here? Could it be a gimmick used by some tour company to attract tourists?

She walked over and touched the bronze body, quickly pulling her hand back from the heat. My God, it was genuine bronze! A horned monster was cast on it, its shape rounded, with two symmetrical, thick, upright ears cast on its straight mouth, and three evenly distributed columnar feet beneath its full belly. A surge of excitement welled up in Qin Wen's chest; this solid and steady style was remarkably similar to Shang Dynasty bronzes.

Could it be... that this ding (a type of ancient Chinese cooking vessel) is actually an artifact from the Shang Dynasty?

A national treasure!

Since a Shang Dynasty ding (a type of ancient Chinese cooking vessel) appeared in the Western Regions, it shows that cultural exchanges between the East and the West had already reached a considerable scale at that time. This was an epoch-making discovery! Her legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground. She was the one who discovered this ding, and she was about to become famous!

If she hadn't been so scared that her legs went weak, she would have jumped for joy right now.

A silvery laugh rang out. She turned around and saw the dancer smiling sweetly at her, performing her final dance steps in front of a wall. The flames cast her shadow on the wall, leaving a dark mark.

As the music ended, she bowed slightly, stepped into the wall, and disappeared. Qin Wen was startled and quickly chased after her, touching the wall—it was hard and cold. A chill ran down her spine; had she really seen a ghost today?

A deafening roar suddenly struck her chest, jolting her awake. She turned around abruptly and saw the surrounding walls surging as if something terrifying was struggling to break free.

A chill ran down her spine. Forget about the bronze cauldron, she turned and ran towards the cave entrance. She hadn't gone far when a rotting body jumped out of the wall, followed by a second and a third.

More and more corpses were appearing, blocking her way out. She stood by the cauldron, goosebumps rising all over her body, her face deathly pale. What were these things? Were they alive? Or dead?

"Witch..." Their voices were low and hoarse, their murky, lifeless eyes devoid of any sign of life, their bodies covered in withered, decaying muscles, and they wore tattered burlap clothes. They slowly approached her, step by step. "Witch, you bewitched the king, instigated war, and turned tens of thousands of my citizens of Saka into demons. You are utterly wicked, even the Demon Queen Daji is not a fraction as evil as you!"

Qin Wen had no idea what they were talking about. She assumed a Taekwondo attack stance and said urgently, "You've mistaken me for someone else! I'm not some kind of witch! I'm just an ordinary tourist! This is my first time in Xinjiang!"

"You vixen, Kui Ji! Stop making excuses!" they roared. "Even if you turn to ashes, we'll still recognize you! Today is your death day, and we will avenge the tens of thousands of people of Saka!"

The rotting corpses stretched out their withered hands, their nails long and sharp, some even holding bronze halberds, and lunged at her. She kicked one of the corpses away, her ankle slightly aching. Damn it, they looked so thin, yet they were so heavy.

The air was thick with the smell of rotting corpses. Qin Wen desperately tried to suppress the urge to vomit, but she could only hold on for a short time. No matter how high her Taekwondo rank was, it was impossible for her to escape from such a sea of people.

Suddenly, her scalp tightened, and someone grabbed her hair. The rotting corpses surrounded her, and all she could see were countless withered and decaying hands. Despair filled her chest in an instant. Was she going to die?

Was she destined to die here under mysterious circumstances?

A hand suddenly reached out, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up forcefully. She screamed and shuddered violently. The scene before her changed as if a camera had switched. Countless rotting corpses disappeared, and the huge cave was empty, with only the flames in the bronze cauldron still burning fiercely.

"Are you crazy?" Caesar grabbed her wrist, looking at her strangely. "How did you get here?"

Qin Wen was completely bewildered. She looked around in surprise and saw Min Enjun and his mercenaries standing at the cave entrance, their gazes at her somewhat strange.

"What happened?" Qin Wen's mind went blank. "Where's the corpse? Where's the dancer? They've all disappeared!"

Caesar frowned: "What corpses and dancers? When we came in, all we saw was you lying on the ground, trembling uncontrollably, like you were having a seizure. Are you possessed?"

Possessed by an evil spirit? Qin Wen was stunned. She used to not believe in ghosts or being possessed, but after experiencing such bizarre things along the way, perhaps there really are things in this world that science cannot explain.

“She’s possessed by an evil spirit.” Manra walked over, took out an incense stick, lit it, and waved it in front of her. The bluish smoke rose gently in the air, drifted into her nostrils, and almost made her vomit up what she had eaten yesterday.

"Take it away, I'm fine!" She roughly slapped the incense stick away. Caesar's eyes flickered, he released her hand, and said coldly, "What an unreasonable woman."

“How interesting.” Min Eun-joon walked over with a cold smile. “This weathered cave is like a maze, and you actually managed to find your way here without getting lost. Miss Qin, I’m becoming more and more interested in you.”

Caesar's cold gaze swept over him, but he didn't seem to care at all, and continued, "We've been following you since you came in. It's so dark in the cave, how did you find your way? Can you tell me?"

Qin Wen frowned: "A dancer from the Western Regions led me in. She was dancing in front of me the whole time. Didn't you see her?"

The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, and Min Eun-joon's gaze toward her became even more complicated: "We only see you; we've never seen any Western Region dancers."

VII. The Divine Tree Ruomu

Sure enough, she frowned; those things were only visible to her.

“It seems you really have seen a ghost.” Min Enjun laughed, walked towards the bronze cauldron, circled it once, his eyes full of surprise. “A good thing, a really good thing. Cast at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, it is even taller than the Simuwu Ding. The discovery of such a bronze artifact in Xinjiang will probably shock the whole world.”

"Wait a minute," Qin Wen interrupted him, "Isn't this ding (a type of ancient Chinese bronze vessel) from the Shang Dynasty?"

"The style is indeed from the Shang Dynasty, but it incorporates casting techniques from the Qin and Han Dynasties," Min Enjun said. Qin Wen glanced at Caesar in surprise and saw that he also looked surprised. What does it mean that a Shang Dynasty bronze ding incorporates casting techniques from the Qin and Han Dynasties?