"What is it?" Su Xuan asked, looking at the smiling little girl.
In truth, he hadn’t known beforehand that Wei Junhao had hidden sothing beneath the stall; the little girl was the one who told him. After inhaling Wei Junhao’s Dark Smoke, she had developed a keen interest in him. She had been secretly following Wei Junhao amidst the chaos, hoping to gain more benefits, but then she stumbled upon sothing interesting.
In the beginning, Wei Junhao was indeed trying to escape. However, once he realized escape might be hopeless, he seed less keen on fleeing. Instead, he oddly started diving into remote corners—places that were of no help to his escape.
The attentive little girl finally discovered that Wei Junaho was hiding sothing!
"Go see for yourself!" the little girl said, pointing to a pitch-black corner beneath the stall. "He hid it in there."
"Alright."
Su Xuan bent down and crawled under the stall, using his phone’s flashlight to illuminate the area. Tucked between the stall’s planks, he found a cloth bundle.
He took out the bundle and unfolded it.
Inside was only a single item: an old piece of leather. It was difficult to tell whether it was sheepskin or cowhide, but it clearly had so age to it. Drawn on it were a series of lines, along with so text.
"I wandered north of the Imperial Capital and witnessed a corpse fall from the sky, plumting into a canyon. Yet despite my search, I found nothing, much to my regret. If any descendant with interest should seek it out in the future, they may find a great fortune..."
Su Xuan recognized the characters, his curiosity piqued. What did they an, a corpse falling from the sky? How could a corpse fall from the sky? This piece of leather definitely wasn’t modern. There wouldn’t have been airplanes back then to drop soone from, right? Could it be aliens?
Su Xuan’s curiosity intensified. At the sa ti, he realized what the lines were: a simple map marking the location where the corpse had fallen. A sudden understanding dawned on him. One of Wei Junhao’s primary reasons for coming here must have been to find the site of the fallen corpse. The text’s "Imperial Capital" must refer to *the* Imperial Capital, and this matter was clearly very important to him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to hide the map.
The last eight characters, in particular, made his heart race. *One can seek it out, and perhaps find a great fortune.*
Finding it could lead to a great fortune!
Su Xuan’s recent life experiences had been nothing short of extraordinary. He had obtained a wish-fulfilling staff and a Taoist robe of mysterious origin, weakening his resistance to such arcane matters.
"Back to the hospital," Su Xuan decided, securing the map before heading back.
Long Xiwén was still asleep, completely unaware of what had just transpired.
So of Zhong Huilan’s subordinates were also stationed silently inside the ward. When they saw Su Xuan, they greeted him with quiet, respectful nods, their eyes full of veneration. They soon exited, however, standing guard outside the room in a show of imnse trust.
Might as well try to find the location of the fallen corpse. Since he was just sitting idle in the ward, and it was highly unlikely anyone would cause more trouble that night, Su Xuan quietly took out the map and began to study it. He also took out his phone, opened a map app, and switched to the satellite view to try and pinpoint the location.
It wasn’t until daybreak that he vaguely identified a matching landscape in a mountainous area about fifty kiloters north of the city.
"Su Xuan, you’ve worked so hard. Go ho and get so rest," Long Xiwén said. She had just woken up, and seeing him still by her bedside, she was both touched and concerned.
"Alright. You focus on recovering. If you need anything, just talk to Director Ma."
Considering no one was likely to cause trouble during the day, especially with Zhong Huilan’s people on guard, Su Xuan left Kangnai and returned ho. He didn’t rest, though. With his constitution, staying up all night was nothing. He simply took his Charman, bought so mountaineering gear from an outdoor supply store, and borrowed a drone from Chen Yuesheng before heading north of the city.
He was completely captivated by the story of "a corpse falling from the sky" and the "great fortune" it supposedly concealed. He was also grateful for modern technology. Without it, he wouldn’t have had the confidence to find a location based on such an ancient sketch.
The road ended about five or six kiloters from the canyon, forcing him to continue on foot. Su Xuan simply abandoned his car and set off.
By noon, he had finally reached the lush canyon. Despite his extraordinary constitution, he was drenched in sweat.
"It’d be a miracle to find a body in a place like this!" Su Xuan muttered, wiping the sweat from his face. He scanned his surroundings. The canyon was filled with towering rock formations, and dense trees blotted out the sky. It would be hard enough to find an elephant in here, let alone a corpse. He was certain that even if Wei Junhao had co here, he would have left empty-handed.
"The corpse has probably been reduced to a skeleton by now," Su Xuan murmured to himself, sothing he had already anticipated. "All I can do is find those bones and see if anything was left behind."
A pessimistic thought crossed his mind: the skeleton might not even be here anymore. It could have been scattered by animals long ago.
WHIRR!
Su Xuan found a slightly elevated spot and launched the drone, watching the video feed on his phone. After twenty minutes, he had efficiently scanned the entire area depicted on the map. He hadn’t spotted any human remains, or even animal bones for that matter.
I was too impulsive, Su Xuan thought, scratching his head. His curiosity was rapidly fading. He was certain that if he told soone like Su Zimo about this, she would laugh at him for wasting his ti. After all, there was no way to verify the story’s authenticity. What if the person who drew the map had just been seeing things?
CRACKLE!
Just as he was about to give up and go ho, his phone suddenly emitted a burst of static. The video feed from the drone distorted as if it were encountering interference.
Su Xuan looked up and squinted. At that mont, the drone was flying over a rocky peak roughly the height of a seven-story building.
He maneuvered the drone back over the sa spot. The static and image distortion imdiately returned. The drone’s flight also beca unstable, as if buffeted by strong winds, yet the day was perfectly calm and sunny.
No doubt about it, he thought, there’s sothing strange about that spot.
Su Xuan imdiately unhooked the climbing rope from his waist and began ascending the peak. Reaching the top took him nearly an hour. It wasn’t a matter of strength, but a lack of mountaineering experience. He took every step with extre care, moving slowly and cautiously.
PHEW!
Standing on the relatively flat summit, Su Xuan let out a long breath. The summit had a few pine trees, several large boulders, and patches of wildflowers and grass, but nothing else.
Alright, ti to search, Su Xuan encouraged himself, beginning a ticulous, grid-like search of the summit.
He searched the small summit for over an hour and still ca up with nothing. Yet, the drone’s signal was still being disrupted by sothing.
Su Xuan’s gaze inevitably fell upon the large boulders. He suspected they were the source of the interference.
As he drew closer to examine them, he discovered sothing bizarre...
Reviews
All reviews (0)