The Affairs of the Martial World - Vol 2: Chapter 10

The next morning, Fuying, Shui Mingyue, and Mu Qingshui watched the camels while Zhu Que, Mu Qingshan, and the monks of White Horse Temple continued the search and buried Feng Yichuan.

Passing through three courtyards, they arrived at a relatively large bedroom chamber. Next to it was a study room.

In the study room, there were several huge bookshelves, most of which were filled with books made of paper or silk that had rotted away, leaving only a pile of bamboo slips inscribed with scrolls.

Zhu Que flipped through several scrolls, most of which were written in incomprehensible characters, but still found a bamboo slip inscribed with Chinese characters.

The characters on the bamboo slips were inscribed by an envoy of the Tang Dynasty, recording the events during the reign of Emperor Wu, when vassal states came here to announce their tribute. It turned out that this city was actually a small country called Jingjue.

It was not a desert at that time because it was written that the Tang envoys rode horses along the main road. Later, for some unknown reason, it was buried by wind and sand, and from then on, this place was forgotten by the world, and its people vanished without a trace.

That being said, the place they were in now was the palace of the former king of Jingjue. Wherever there was a palace, there must be a water source, but could a water source that had been buried under the desert for hundreds of years still exist?

Zhu Que couldn’t be certain, but at least it saw a glimmer of hope.

The monks of White Horse Temple, Yin Nian and Yin Chang, came out of the sleeping quarters next to them. Yin Nian was holding a black jade box, which had a lock on it. The lock was arranged using the heavenly stems and earthly branches (1), and there was no keyhole; it seemed that only someone who knew the correct sequence could open it. According to Yin Nian, it was found under the bed in the sleeping quarters.

Mu Qingshan asked, “Can’t we just split it open with a sword?”

Yin Nian said, “This jade is extremely hard. I tested it with my sword, and it didn’t even leave a mark. Unless we know the order of arrangement, there is no other way.”

Zhu Que said, “Let’s take it with us first; we can try to open it on the way. If that doesn’t work, we can bring it back to the Central Plains to find a craftsman to carve it open. Have you found anything like a well?”

Yin Chang said, “There is a dining room in the backyard, and in front of it, there is a well, although it was long ago filled with sand.”

Zhu Que and the others searched the entire chamber again but found no other useful items. After some discussion, they decided to dig out the sand from the well to see if there was any water underneath.

Two hours later, they gave up; they had dug over ten feet deep, and the sand at the bottom was still dry.

Fuying, out of breath, and gasping for air, said, “Staying in this godforsaken place is pointless. We might as well leave quickly and see if we can find any water along the way.”

Suddenly, Zhu Que felt a stir in his heart and said, “The person who is secretly harming us must have a lair not far from here. If we can find it, the problem can be resolved.”

Fuying’s eyes lit up at the thought, but after a moment of reflection, he felt disheartened again and said, “The problem is that we don’t know where their mouse hole is. How do we find it?”

Zhu Que said, “We can come up with a way to lure that person out in secret.”

Then, lowering his voice, he shared his idea. The others exchanged glances, all feeling it was too risky, but there was really no other way, so they had no choice but to give it a try.

Back in the hall, after regrouping, they decided to leave immediately.

Due to the limited amount of water carried, everyone maintained the minimum drinking quantity. However, under the scorching sun of the desert, the little water consumed seemed to evaporate instantly. The water pouch at the waist felt like a tantalizing temptation that made one’s heart race, requiring immense willpower to resist the urge to open it and drink again.

By evening, they had already traveled twenty to thirty miles away from the ancient city of Jingjue, and the sunset began to sink into the desert.

(1) heavenly stems and earthly branches – The sexagenary cycle, also known as the stems-and-branches or ganzhi, is a cycle of sixty terms, each corresponding to one year, for a total of sixty years for one cycle. It was historically used for recording time in China.