74: Chapter 74 Four Days, Nothing Gained

30,000 feet in the air.

The interior of the military transport plane was dimly lit, the low-frequency hum of the engines vibrating in everyone's chests.

Wang Hao sat on a folding seat by the window, the blue light from his phone screen illuminating his livid face.

A United Nations official statement read: "An 8.2-magnitude shallow earthquake occurred in this region on Month X, Day X..."

"An earthquake?"

The voice exploded within the narrow cabin.

"The sky cracked open, monsters fell down and tore people apart, and they told the whole world—it was an earthquake?"

Wang Hao's hand gripping the phone was trembling.

He had seen the sky crack open with his own eyes, seen the silver-armored Holy Knight raise a shield to block those deadly ripples, and even seen that person descend from the sky treading on flames, splitting the Giant Eye into ashes with two strikes.

"And the ceasefire agreement! It's temporary! Once the heat dies down, these people will just keep fighting! What about the people who died?"

Section Chief Han Zheng glanced at the screen, his expression unchanged.

"They won't believe it."

The voice was kept very low, half-drowned out by the engine noise, "You saw it with your own eyes, so you believe it. They haven't."

He paused for a beat.

"Admitting the existence of the extraordinary means admitting that humanity's current military, political, and scientific frameworks are all obsolete. No major power's leadership is willing to face that."

Wang Hao opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but closed it again.

Professor Zhou leaned against the cabin wall, holding a stack of documents in his hands.

"We've given all the warnings we could."

The old man's voice was not loud, "Next, focus our energy on the ruins."

Female researcher Zhao Xiaohe opened her laptop, suppressing her emotions.

"Based on the special energy fluctuations monitored after the Star Observatory ruin incident, there are only two suspected locations left globally. The one in Europe has been confirmed to have no Kindling-related remnants."

She pulled up a satellite map; a red marker landed within the territory of the Kingdom of Ha'rm in West Asia.

"Only this one in the Middle East remains. It is located about 240 kilometers south of the capital, in a mountain basin between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. Its alias is 'Rose Ancient City', with a history of about 2,300 years. The entire city was carved out of sandstone cliffs."

Section Chief Han Zheng took over.

"The environment is harsh, desert and Gobi, with a day-night temperature difference of over 30 degrees. The state has secured only one week of exploration time for us. Within seven days, we must find clues to the Kindling ruins."

The cockpit communicator rang.

"Section Chief Han, we are about to land."

Section Chief Han Zheng fastened his seatbelt.

"Everyone, grab your gear. We depart immediately after landing."

Everyone in the cabin replied in unison: "Yes!"

---

Kingdom of Ha'rm, Rose Ancient City.

The setting sun scorched the entire stretch of sandstone cliffs into a deep red.

Honey-colored, rust-colored, ocher-colored, layered one after another on the 2,300-year-old rock face, like the rings of the earth.

Passing through the narrow entrance of the canyon, the "Siq", the view suddenly opened up.

The facade of a giant temple protruded from the cliff, six Corinthian columns supporting a triangular pediment, the carvings on the columns polished by two thousand years of wind and sand until only vague outlines remained.

"Split into groups for exploration."

Section Chief Han Zheng stopped in the open area in the center of the ancient city.

"Professor Zhou, take Chen Yiming and Zhao Xiaohe, and be responsible for recording the text, totems, and murals of the surface building complex. Focus on any symbols related to 'flame', 'stars', or 'organization'."

He turned to look at Wang Hao.

"You come with me; we'll take the underground passage."

---

Day One.

Section Chief Han Zheng and Wang Hao crawled underground for four hours.

The passageways carved into the rock were so narrow that the two could only pass through sideways, the light from their headlamps hitting the sandstone surface, revealing chisel marks from two thousand years ago.

Every chisel mark was scanned repeatedly, and every texture on the wall surface was photographed and enlarged for comparison.

Three tombs.

Sarcophagi, burial objects, Nabataean inscriptions.

They all belonged to local ancient nobility.

They had absolutely nothing to do with Kindling.

Section Chief Han Zheng ran his fingers around the door frame of the last tomb, covering his hand in dust.

He crouched down and pressed the energy detector close to the tomb floor.

The needle did not move at all.

He put away the instrument and brushed the dust off his hands.

"Withdraw."

The surface team's results were the same.

Professor Zhou found a large number of Hellenistic relief decorations inside the temple, and Chen Yiming excitedly photographed an image suspected to be an "abstract flame pattern".

Zhao Xiaohe looked at it with a magnifying glass for three minutes and shook her head.

"This is a Nabataean sun god relief. Standard Hellenistic religious decoration, with no connection to Kindling."

Chen Yiming opened his mouth, then swallowed the second half of his sentence.

---

Day Two.

Section Chief Han Zheng changed direction, leading the team to explore horizontally along the cliff on the north side of the ancient city.

Wang Hao discovered a crack at the base of a cliff that was almost buried by sand and dirt, just wide enough for one person to squeeze into sideways.

The two took turns using entrenching tools to clear it for over an hour, and after squeezing in, they found it was a natural cave, less than ten square meters in area.

There was nothing inside.

Not even murals.

Only a pile of gravel and a few pieces of sandstone that had weathered down from who knows when.

Section Chief Han Zheng stood in the cave for three minutes.

The headlamp shone on the empty walls, the dust in the beam of light rising slowly.

He didn't speak.

He turned around and squeezed his way out.

---

Day Three.

Professor Zhou's notebook was packed with data.

Every page was written neatly—symbol numbers, coordinate locations, mural descriptions, estimated carbon-14 dates. The old man had spent his whole life in academia; his notes were never sloppy.

But the last column remained blank.

"Kindling-related" — blank.

Chen Yiming started muttering behind their backs.

"Could it be that this place never had it to begin with? Are the energy fluctuations natural phenomena, not necessarily meaning ruins?"

Zhao Xiaohe didn't reply.

She crouched in front of a stone wall, using a brush to clean the sand and dirt off the rock surface millimeter by millimeter.

She repeated this all day.

What she brushed away was still Nabataean text.

When they finished for the day, she shoved the brush back into her tool kit, having to pull the zipper twice to close it. Her hands were shaking; she was exhausted.

Section Chief Han Zheng had run out of cigarettes.

He never brought more than two packs of cigarettes during a mission, but this time he had made an exception and brought four.

Three days, and they were gone.

---

The evening of the fourth day.

The Gobi outside the camp tents was scorched deep purple by the setting sun.

Everyone had stopped talking.

Chen Yiming sat on an equipment case, biting the corner of a compressed biscuit wrapper, his eyes fixed on the ground.

Zhao Xiaohe sat huddled in the tent, hugging her knees, her head buried between her arms.

Professor Zhou was flipping through his notebook, page by page, and when he reached the blank "Kindling-related" column at the end, his finger lingered on the paper for a long time.

He closed it.

Section Chief Han Zheng squatted at the tent entrance, holding an empty cigarette pack.

His gaze was cast into the distance.

The silhouette of Rose Ancient City stood tall in the setting sun, the 2,300-year-old sandstone cliffs scorched a deep crimson, beautiful enough to not seem real.

But beauty had nothing to do with him. Whether there were ruins or not was what mattered.

Wang Hao sat on the folding stool nearby.

He looked at the bronze piece in his hand over and over.

The bronze surface reflected a dull light under the setting sun, the two characters for "Kindling" carved quietly there.

Motionless.

At the Star Observatory, it had glowed.

In the War Zone, it had glowed.

Now it was cold and silent, like a piece of old bronze scrap bought for nine-ninety-nine with free shipping.

The wind blew across the Gobi, carrying sand grains that hit the nylon surface of the tent with a rustling sound.

Section Chief Han Zheng crushed the empty cigarette pack.

"Perhaps this isn't it either."

His voice was half-carried away by the wind.

Wang Hao didn't reply.

He gripped the bronze piece in his palm, the metal edge digging into his flesh.

Section Chief Han Zheng stood up and threw the empty cigarette pack into the trash bag.

"The Star Observatory ruins are real, the exotic beasts in the War Zone are real, and that person is real."

He looked up at the sky.

The sky turned from deep purple to ink blue; the first star appeared.

"But we can't find any more."

It was quiet for a few seconds.

"Is it possible that humanity really... can only wait to be saved? Unable to carve out its own path?"

When he said this, there was a trace of exhaustion in Section Chief Han Zheng's voice that he hadn't even noticed himself.

Four days.

Seven people, eating and sleeping in the Gobi, enduring a thirty-degree temperature difference and mouths full of sand, having searched hundreds of caves and tombs.

Nothing.

Zhao Xiaohe inside the tent heard this and tightened her grip on her knees.

Chen Yiming stopped chewing his compressed biscuit, holding it in his mouth.

Professor Zhou's notebook lay closed on his knees, not opened.

Everyone waited for the next sentence. But Section Chief Han Zheng didn't say anything more.

Wang Hao looked down at the bronze piece in his palm.

He was silent for a long time.

Then he spoke.

"Don't give up."

His voice was hoarse but steady.

Section Chief Han Zheng turned to look at him.

"We have three more days."

Wang Hao put the bronze piece back into his chest pocket and patted it.

"Three days is enough to turn over a lot of stones."

He stood up, the folding stool creaking.

"Even if it's not here—there are so many ruins all over the world."

He looked into Section Chief Han Zheng's eyes.

"Even if we have to walk it step by step, we must finish it."

Section Chief Han Zheng was stunned.

He looked at Wang Hao.

A ride-hailing driver, an ordinary person whose seven fingernails had broken and grown back.

He had been swept into this storm for less than two months; he had a six-year-old son, and his wife was over four months pregnant.

This kind of person should be afraid, should shrink back, should regret ever getting into that car.

But at this moment, standing in the twilight of the Gobi, there was something in his eyes heavier than the seventy-three top-secret files in Section Chief Han Zheng's trunk.

Section Chief Han Zheng squeezed the crushed cigarette pack in his hand again and threw it away.

"Okay."

He stood up straight.

"Three more days."

Inside the tent, Zhao Xiaohe lifted her head from her arms.

Chen Yiming chewed the compressed biscuit in his mouth twice and swallowed.

Professor Zhou opened his notebook to a blank page.

He picked up his pen and drew the first line under the heading "Day Five Exploration Plan".

---

At the same moment.

On a road 120 kilometers away from Rose Ancient City.

A rented off-road vehicle bumped along the Gobi road.

Lin Xiaoman sat in the passenger seat, a lollipop in her mouth, her hat brim pulled very low.

A laptop was spread across her knees, the screen showing a 3D model of the ruins she had extracted from satellite images.

Henry was driving.

His gold-rimmed glasses bobbed slightly in the bumps, his driving posture even more standard than when he stood at the operating table.

The backpack was in the back seat.

Water, food, a first-aid kit, two masks.

"Professor Henry, what do you guess is really in the ruins?"

Lin Xiaoman chewed on the lollipop, her voice slurred.

Henry kept his eyes on the road.

"Something that could make the Chairman specifically send us to retrieve it must be very important. Secondly—"

He pushed up his glasses.

"It may be directly related to the two of us."

Lin Xiaoman turned her head to look at him.

"How do you know?"

"Logical deduction."

Henry's tone was as flat as if he were analyzing clinical data.

"Every step the Chairman takes has a precise purpose. If it were just ordinary supplies, it would be safer to let Liu Yuyan, with her Tier 2 combat power, retrieve it. Letting us two, who have just awakened, go on this road—"

He paused.

"Either the nature of the thing is related to us, or this itself is a test for us."

Lin Xiaoman stared at him for three seconds, then turned back to look at the screen.

"As expected of a Nobel Prize winner..."

The off-road vehicle rolled over a stretch of gravel road, the chassis clanking.

Henry steadied the steering wheel, his gaze never leaving the road ahead.

At the end of the road, the horizon of the Gobi was cut in half by the last sliver of the setting sun.

They had another 120 kilometers to go.

---

Section Chief Han Zheng's camp.

Wang Hao was just about to get up to go to the tent to get some water.

In his chest pocket—the bronze piece that had been silent for four full days, without warning, grew hot.

It wasn't intense.

It was just a few degrees higher than body temperature.

Wang Hao's movements froze.

He whipped out the bronze piece and spread it in his palm.

Under the last glimmer of the setting sun, deep in the carvings of the two characters "Kindling" on the bronze surface, a faint, imperceptible golden light shone.

Very faint, fleeting.

But Wang Hao saw it.

He stood up abruptly, rushed to Section Chief Han Zheng, and held the bronze piece up before his eyes.

His voice trembled with excitement.

"Brother Han! Look!"

"It lit up! It just lit up!"