On New Year’s Eve there was no moon. The ancient city of Loulan already appeared incomparably dilapidated. This dilapidation didn’t mean there were ruined walls everywhere, but rather referred to the thick dust—the entire city was covered in dust. Some tumbleweeds were blown by the night wind and moved across the ground, the rustling sounds making the entire city seem even more quiet and desolate.

The starlight couldn’t illuminate the marketplace, nor could the bonfires. Orange-red flames dyed people’s faces red. Di Renjie held a scroll in his hand, with a cloak draped over his body—white bear fur. But in the darkness of night, his bear fur cloak seemed to have turned black, creating a strange phenomenon of appearing half white and half black.

He occasionally switched hands, bringing the hand holding the book close to the bonfire to warm it. Sitting across from him, Xu Jingzong took a sip of wine and said to Di Renjie, “Little Jie, are you certain that on a moonless night like this, Huang Shu can find the entrance to the underground passage? What kind of principle is this? He can’t see it in broad daylight, can’t see it when there’s a moon either, but only on a night like this can he discern the clues?”

Di Renjie put down the book in his hand and said to Xu Jingzong, “Teacher, what we should have looked at we’ve all looked at, what we should have searched for we’ve all searched for. The result is we found nothing. The people in this new city are still nowhere to be seen.”

“Uncle Cheng has thoroughly investigated the border troops here—it’s only short of torture. This student believes they haven’t lied. The disappearance of the people in Loulan City has nothing to do with them. Since we’ve already finished looking and listening, now we’ve reached the investigation stage. Sunlight and moonlight provide not the slightest help to our investigation—they’ll only disturb our inherent thinking.”

“Since we’ve already begun investigating, we might as well blindfold ourselves and re-acquaint ourselves with Loulan, going over everything again with our own hands. What day could be better than New Year’s Eve, such a pitch-black night?”

Xu Jingzong raised the wine flask in his hand toward Di Renjie to show his respect, took a big drink, and said again, “You’re exactly like your master. Sometimes I wonder whether you master and disciple are both so calm and unhurried when killing people.”

“Killing people is actually a mentally and physically exhausting matter. Ever since we developed the concept of family and nation, we recognized that we cannot casually kill our own kind, and we use the most severe punishments to restrain ourselves.”

“Ever since we had these punishments, our methods of killing had to become concealed and mysterious, deceiving everyone’s eyes. Only this way can we enjoy alone the pleasure that killing brings.”

“My master once said that he most loved the ancient era when everyone just wrapped animal hides around their waists, held wooden clubs in their hands, and upon seeing someone disagreeable would club them to death with one blow. Upon seeing a pleasing woman, they’d club her unconscious with one blow and take her back to the cave to have children. There weren’t so many fancy moves, no need for painstaking calculations, no need for three matchmakers and six engagements—simple. Everything was spoken with the wooden club. What a wonderful era.”

After hearing this, Xu Jingzong laughed heartily. Not only did he laugh loudly, even Cheng Chumo, who had his eyes closed pretending to nap, also laughed heartily. Cheng Chumo drew the horizontal blade from his waist and thrust it into the sand, saying, “I, Old Cheng, also love that era. However, if your master went there, he’d probably be the type to get knocked down by someone with one club. Your small frame wouldn’t work either. But if I, Old Cheng, went to that era, I’d definitely live flourishingly.”

The three men chatted and laughed happily, their voices carrying far into the distance. Loulan City seemed to gain a bit of vitality because of their presence. Houses with no one living in them quickly fall into ruin, but houses with people living in them are vastly different. Even a broken cave, if someone lives in it, will appear full of vitality. This is a law—only with people does the world appear vastly different.

The fierce soldiers of the Great Tang were almost fearless. On the road to Loulan, they encountered many strange and unusual animals—salamanders racing across the sand, scorpions hiding in rock crevices. These things weren’t strange, but encountering a giant lizard over one zhang long was extraordinary. (Reference: Records of Ming Dynasty Anecdotes—a General killed a giant lizard that was said to be a dragon.)

When these fierce soldiers saw the giant lizard, their first reaction wasn’t to turn and flee, but to cheer and charge forward, with Cheng Chumo running the fastest. The lizard wanted to run but it was already too late. An overwhelming barrage of javelins and crossbow bolts had already flown over. By the time Cheng Chumo caught up, he was jumping and cursing loudly at his fierce soldiers—that giant lizard had already become a porcupine, its body covered entirely with javelins and arrows. A perfectly good dragon hide was thus ruined.

The Academy never wasted anything. Those who enjoyed making specimens removed all the lizard’s skin and flesh, picked out the bones to make a specimen. The lizard meat wasn’t wasted either—it was eaten by Cheng Chumo and those soldiers. Reportedly it was somewhat sour and didn’t taste good.

While talking and laughing, time passed quickly. Di Renjie stood up, held up a torch and looked around, then said to Xu Jingzong with some concern, “Teacher, Huang Shu has been down there for a very long time. Why hasn’t he come up yet? This student is somewhat worried.”

Xu Jingzong shook his head and said, “Huang Shu’s ancestors for generations have all eaten from this rice bowl. Digging tunnels and burrowing through earth is a small matter for him. Wait a bit longer—perhaps he’ll come up soon.”

Just as they were speaking, a pitch-black human hand drilled out from the sand. Several soldiers quickly grabbed this hand and pulled upward. Amid flying sand and dirt, the thoroughly soaked Huang Shu drilled up from underground. He tossed aside the shovel in his hand, poured a large mouthful of clear water into his mouth to rinse out the sand, then in two or three steps bounded to the bonfire and began removing his clothes. Only after stripping completely naked did he take a dry cloth to wipe his body dry. Di Renjie quickly draped his own cloak over him and asked repeatedly, “You found the water vein?”

“Found it. That’s not a water vein—it’s an underground river. This river is clearly an artificially built water channel. The water volume is very abundant. I tasted it—the water is very sweet, drinking it presents absolutely no problem.”

As he spoke, he retrieved a water flask from his pile of wet clothes and handed it to Di Renjie. Di Renjie poured a little into a cup and by the firelight carefully observed it for a while, saying, “The water is very clear, with no strange odor. The cup is silver—there are no acidic poisons. Whether there are other toxins, we still need to conduct further tests. Huang Shu, in the future don’t casually drink water of unknown origin. All the people of Loulan City have disappeared. We’re currently investigating the cause. I suspect water is one of the contributing factors.”

These words frightened Huang Shu until his face turned pale. He hastily stuck out his tongue for others to look and see if his tongue had changed.

Master Jin Zhu, who had been sleeping in the carriage, descended from it and said, “The two major elements of human survival—water and grain—are both not lacking. We’ve also looked at the farmland. The soil moisture is acceptable. Look how those tall poplar trees can all survive—there’s no reason crops couldn’t be grown. The great marsh nearby has vast misty waters. This is a treasure land! Where did the tens of thousands of Loulan people go?”

Di Renjie shook his head, also expressing incomprehension. Cheng Chumo walked up to a junior officer and said, “If this truly was done by you all, just say so. We’re all from the military branch—everything can be discussed. The people who came are also teachers from the Academy, all with countless connections to our military. If you speak out now, we can still think of ways to remedy the situation. But if His Majesty sends someone else and once they investigate and discover the truth, you’ll die without a burial place. It won’t be to punish you for the crime of killing people, but to punish you for deceiving the sovereign. Think clearly.”

“Commander Cheng, the matter of Loulan truly wasn’t done by the brothers. If the brothers had done it, we would have confessed on your first day here. After all, those missing people are Loulan people, not Great Tang people. If they were our Great Tang people, this humble officer wouldn’t have enough heads to be chopped off even with a hundred. Since they’re Loulan people, as long as the General speaks a few good words, it would just be a matter of a beating with military rods. This humble officer can still endure that.”

“But these miscreants disappeared without a trace, and it truly has nothing to do with the brothers. We can’t take the blame for others, right?” That border army junior officer spoke earnestly—he was only short of swearing an oath.

But Di Renjie heard the implications in his words. He handed the wine flask in his hand to the junior officer and said, “You are the garrison troops stationed locally, so naturally you know the situation here is extremely complex. Tubo people, Rouran people, Kuche people, and also Tuyuhun people—all are desperately trying to expand their own ethnic groups. Having children one by one is too troublesome and takes too long. Plundering is actually the best method.”

“If these people weren’t taken by us, tell me, who is the most likely culprit?”

The junior officer’s face was reflected bright red by the firelight. His eyes revealed an indescribable eeriness. After hesitating for a long while, he finally said, “There are some very strange things in the desert. In the desert we see great lakes, even immortal realms. We also hear ghosts crying and gods howling in the great desert. When luck is bad, we’ll encounter yellow dragons dancing. If we’re even more unlucky, we’ll encounter black sandstorms.”

“To say something that could cost me my head—this humble officer truly cannot continue staying here. Even if you gentlemen take this humble officer as a prisoner and escort me back to Guanzhong, I don’t want to stay here a moment longer.”

“There’s something I must tell you gentlemen. This place is legendarily a cursed land. Back when Fu Jiezi killed the King of Loulan, that King Loulan Changgui said before dying that his ghost would return. When that time comes, he’ll take away all the Loulan people, and no one can stop him.”

Master Jin Zhu unhesitatingly cut off the junior officer’s words, “Fu Jiezi’s execution of King Changgui was a matter from the fourth year of Yuanfeng during Emperor Zhao of Han. It has been seven hundred years until now. Are you trying to say that a person who has been dead for seven hundred years took away all the Loulan people?”

The junior officer didn’t answer Master Jin Zhu’s question but continued saying, “There are also sun tombs here. Previously some brothers wanted to dig open the sun tombs to find some treasures. The result was that the brothers who went down into the tomb chambers all died. Not a single one survived.”

Di Renjie saw that Huang Shu, who was drinking wine, suddenly shuddered. It wasn’t appropriate to ask what exactly happened in front of everyone. Yawning, he said it was getting late and everyone should sleep early. Tomorrow they still needed to go look at the Loulan people’s burial ground—there was no reason these Loulan people would even abandon their ancestors, right?

Returning to the tent, the thin layer of cowhide was insufficient to block the cold wind of the desert. Before Di Renjie crawled into his sleeping bag, Gou Zi and Xiao Tie also entered the tent. The order they received was that no matter what, they must ensure Di Renjie’s safety, so the two of them never left Di Renjie’s side even for a moment.

Huang Shu also walked in carrying his own sleeping bag. Not knowing what foolishness possessed him, his eyes stared fixedly at Di Renjie and said, “Don’t touch the sun tombs. Absolutely don’t go…”