There Had Been Pioneers Before Them

He Chunhua added, "I read in an ancient text that Chipa Plateau was the Double-Layer Plain, meaning two layers of plain stacked on top of each other, with the second higher than the first. The soil on the second layer, where Ancient Coiling Dragon City stood, was fertile, and it caught the meltwater from the mountains, creating a dense network of waterways. It was a rare highland oasis across the entire Coiling Dragon Wilderness!"

Of course. Without a steady supply of water year-round, Coiling Dragon City could never have survived.

"How should we proceed?" Nian Songyu asked the state preceptor. "It'll be dark soon."

In no more than half an hour, the sun would sink below the distant mountains. The light in the ancient city was already fading fast.

"First, we'll establish a base camp and set up defensive wards." Sun Fuping had already made plans. "Dismissed. Everyone, go find a suitable spot."

"Dismissed?" He Lingchuan said, "Wait a second. This ruin is enormous, and we haven't even ruled out all the dangers!"

"No need." Sun Fuping was confident. "At least the outskirts of the city are relatively safe. You didn't think we were the first people to enter Coiling Dragon City in over a hundred years, did you?"

That was exactly what I thought. Was I being naive? He Lingchuan chuckled. "So there were pioneers before us. Too bad they all came back empty-handed."

If they'd found any treasure, why would they have come to Coiling Dragon City?

"Not necessarily. They might not have been looking for the Great Square Pot. Ruins like these often attract treasure hunters. They've also recorded what they saw here, which we can use as reference." The mutated creatures and Three-Corpse Insects in the Coiling Dragon Desert were terrifying, but honestly, as long as you did your homework beforehand, they weren't insurmountable problems.

So the Coiling Dragon Ruins had long had visitors, each arriving with their own agenda.

Just like this group.

Over two hundred people searched for a while before finding an open space to settle in.

It looked like a market in Coiling Dragon City. Two neat rows of buildings stood alongside the riverside road, packed tightly together, none more than two stories high.

Of course, the fronts of most buildings had been damaged, and at least a third had clearly been ravaged by fire. But a few still had signs hanging above their doors, and the writing on the most intact one had blurred beyond recognition.

The script was a little different from modern writing, too. It took He Lingchuan a while to make out two characters: "Frost... Wine."

Probably a tavern.

The buildings here were low and short, all clustered together, making them ideal as a temporary camp. The group settled in, and Sun Fuping ordered them to rest for two hours. Zeng Feixiong hurried off to assign rooms. The leaders claimed the tavern, which had the best view and was the most sheltered from the wind, and began discussing their plans.

After two days on the road, everyone finally had time to wash their faces and freshen up.

In the heart of the desert, where every drop of water was precious, that was a privilege reserved for the leaders. He Lingchuan raised his waterskin and took several satisfying gulps, then poured the rest over his face. "What a miserable place! It's hot enough to kill you during the day, and cold enough to freeze you at night!"

The desert's typical climate brought huge temperature swings between day and night. A place that reached over forty degrees at noon would be covered in frost by nightfall. The sun had set, and the temperature plunged. Even in their padded coats, the group was still freezing, so they had to pull apart wooden fixtures from nearby to burn for warmth.

He shook his head like a dog shaking off water. Nian Songyu frowned and dodged the droplets flying his way.

"Time is precious. We can't afford to waste the night, either. But these ruins are enormous. Even if we split up, it'll take at least several days to search them. State Preceptor, do you have a plan?"

They weren't here for a pleasure trip. The group had brought only a limited supply of food and water, so they needed to make every minute count.

After brushing off the yellow sand and tidying himself up, Sun Fuping had regained the bearing of a state preceptor. He spoke at length.

"The allied forces of Baling and Xianyou dug through everything and turned the earth over. Later treasure hunters did the same. We can't do a better job than they did, so there's little point searching the buildings in the city."

After Coiling Dragon City fell, it was subjected to a massacre. People and livestock were killed, and all the valuables were looted. It had taken the enemy kingdom more than thirty years to bring the city down. They'd hated it like a thorn in their side, and unless they'd plundered it to their hearts' content, they wouldn't have been able to vent their rage.

What's more, they'd had plenty of time. They must have stripped even the ground bare, yet the Great Square Pot had still not been found. So it couldn't be hidden in either a grand mansion or an ordinary home.

Hearing this, He Lingchuan breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good." There were too few of them, and Coiling Dragon City was too large. Searching it would be like looking for a needle in the ocean. "Does that mean you already know where the pot is, State Preceptor?"

Everyone before them had come away defeated. If Sun Fuping hadn't been absolutely certain, why would he have traveled a thousand miles to come eat sand here?

"I don't know its exact location, but I can narrow down the search." Sun Fuping pondered for a moment. "I visited Grandmaster Zhu Gen of the Baling Kingdom. He came to Coiling Dragon City four times, the first sixty years ago and the last forty years ago. You could say that his was perhaps the most thorough search of the Coiling Dragon Ruins since the allied forces."

"His?" He Chunhua seized on the key word.

"In my view, the Baling Kingdom has always had its doubts about the Coiling Dragon Ruins. Grandmaster Zhu Gen himself was deeply fascinated by them. The last time he came to investigate, he was already seventy-five. He stayed the longest then, a full fifteen days, and brought the largest party—supposedly over a thousand people."

The more people there were, and the longer they stayed, the more thoroughly they could search Coiling Dragon City. It was hard to imagine how they'd kept them all supplied.

Indeed, such a large-scale excavation required support from the government and the army.

Everyone understood now: the allied forces and Grandmaster Zhu Gen had already done the groundwork and cleared the traps for them. There was no need to conduct another exhaustive search.

"Nearly a thousand people, and they all came through unscathed? Nothing happened to them?" He Lingchuan cut in. "That's strange in itself."

He Chunhua suddenly said, "It's dark already, but I still haven't seen any Three-Corpse Insects."

He could still see the three flames on other people's bodies, which meant the Soul-Suppressing Powder hadn't worn off yet. This state was similar to what people commonly called "opening the heavenly eye," and it allowed him to see the Three-Corpse Insects as well.

But from the moment they crossed the bridge until they entered the city, he hadn't spotted a single Three-Corpse Insect.

That was strange in itself, wasn't it?

"That's right. There are no Three-Corpse Insects inside the city, nor any other evil creatures. That's what all the previous treasure hunters have agreed on. So as long as we don't cause a huge commotion, we should be safe here, too." Sun Fuping took out a military flatbread and held it over the fire to toast.

Military flatbread was made from unleavened dough. Some loaves were as big as a basin, and when dropped on the ground they went "clang." They were incredibly hard. Their only virtue was that they filled you up and didn't spoil easily. Even when toasted soft, He Lingchuan found the bread coarse and dry, and swallowing it whole would scrape his throat. He could only eat it after soaking it in hot water, but Sun Fuping simply broke his into small pieces and chewed them without changing expression.

The state preceptor was equally at home amid fine clothes and rich food or plain tea and coarse flatbread.

"Much of the information I've collected came from Zhu Gen. After studying the matter for half his life, he told me personally that no one had ever found the Great Square Pot. It was quite possible that everyone had gone at the wrong time."