Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared-Chapter 114 Major Discovery

Everyone walked out of the tunnel onto the hill to find that all the man-eating ants had indeed retreated. They scarcely dare believe that they had survived this ordeal.

As the sun rose, its fiery glow illuminated the sky with a brilliance that symbolized a new day, a fresh beginning.

Facing the sunrise, Ouyang Jin couldn’t help but shout, "We’re alive! We made it! Long live life, it’s great to be alive."

Seeing Ouyang Jin’s excitement, everyone could empathize with his feelings. However, his next words implicated a change in tone, "As a guide, I have led hundreds of expeditions into the wilderness, yet I have never encountered such a perilous journey as this one. I never imagined that such thrilling events could occur one after another. My God, have I done anything wrong, or are you trying to warn me not to continue, or is it something else..."

Hearing this, Gu Fan looked disdainful, then gently patted Ouyang Jin’s shoulder and said earnestly, "It’s our fault; we insisted on coming here and caused you trouble, Brother Ouyang!"

Ouyang Jin quickly replied, "It’s okay, it’s okay. Since you’ve already paid, I’m happy to help. As long as you feel what you’ve paid is worth this journey."

This time, Gu Fan understood, and nodded, "Without Brother Ouyang, we probably wouldn’t have survived last night. Your value for money is really high. But Du Jun is the financier, you should ask him."

Lu Yi sighed and shook his head, "So, after all this emotion, he just wants a pay raise."

Du Jun immediately spoke, "Last night was indeed too thrilling. We owe our survival to Brother Ouyang. So, as long as we all return safely, I will increase the fee to fifty thousand."

"Deal!" Ouyang Jin quickly shook hands with his benefactor, then solemnly added, "I’m not trying to raise the price at will, nor am I greedy. I just believe that risk should balance with reward. If the risk is higher, the reward should be higher too. Otherwise, wouldn’t the market be in chaos?"

"Well put, makes perfect sense," Gu Fan, Lu Yi, and Jie clapped and agreed. But they all thought the same thing: what an eloquent way to ask for a raise. This guy clearly knows his way around the business world.

However, an additional twenty thousand is nothing to Du Jun. The most important thing is everyone’s safety. He can spend a little more for peace of mind. And it is crucial that Ouyang Jin knows who the real financier is, and who should be prioritized if something happens.

At this moment, standing on the hill, Gu Fan looked around at the barren landscape, exactly as mentioned in Ouyang Jin’s father’s notes.

"My God, this might be the place," Ouyang Jin whooped and quickly marked it on the map.

As they watched the sunrise, everyone suddenly felt exhausted. After the life-and-death ordeal last night, no one had slept well.

Therefore, Gu Fan decided to rest on the spot to regain their strength before setting out. He didn’t want anyone to fall off their camel out of exhaustion without anyone noticing.

Everyone started setting up their tents, too tired to do anything else but sleep.

Noticing Professor Luo and his team were missing, Gu Fan returned to the underground tunnel and found them studying something in the spacious cave.

The cave showed signs of artificial excavation and contained several items produced in the wilderness: grain racks, weapons, books and various bottles and jars.

Unsure of the cave’s original purpose, Professor Luo speculated it might have been a secret base for covert operations. But who could have used this place?

Most of the books and letters had rotted away over time, making them impossible to read. Yet, Professor Luo remained undeterred, flipping through each book to find any useful information, perhaps a written record related to the ancient Qianye Kingdom.

Gu Fan admired Professor Luo’s diligent spirit and felt compelled to join in. He picked up a torch and started looking around. After all, who knows if he might stumble upon something valuable.

"God, I am so tired!" Gu Fan’s eyelids drooped as he struggled to stay focused. However, as he lazily shone his torch around, something caught his eye and jolted him awake. He quickly directed his torchlight back.

"My God, Professor Luo, come and take a look," Gu Fan gasped, as if he had made an incredible discovery. His shout immediately drew the attention of Professor Luo and Teacher Liu.

Everyone shone their torches together, fully illuminating the cave wall. Painted on it was a woman with a crown and mask, wielding a commanding presence with people kneeling at her feet. ƒreewebɳovel.com

The next painting showed those people seemingly imprisoned and gripped with fear, as if they had endured something terrifying.

The third painting depicts those people turning into monsters with sharp claws and ferocious faces.

The fourth painting shows those monsters obeying the queen’s commands, bravely attacking an army, and wiping them out completely.

Gu Fan said he didn’t understand, but Professor Luo remarked, "There’s a rumor that Queen Qianye’s army was invincible because they were not humans, but demons."

Hearing this, Gu Fan twitched his mouth, "Demons, isn’t that joke taking it too far?"

"I hope it is a joke too." Professor Luo had barely finished speaking when he heard the excited voices of Xu Haowen and Qin Jia. "Teacher, come over quickly, this one is still intact, there are many words on it, come take a look."

Professor Luo was ecstatic. He took it and went through it carefully. Being proficient in foreign history and culture, he could understand some of the text.

However, even the learned Professor Luo took a long time to read it, his brows furrowing occasionally, as though even he had encountered some problems.

After waiting for a while, Gu Fan started losing his patience. Thus, he urged, "Professor Luo, what does it say? Tell us quickly."

Professor Luo answered, "I can only understand part of it. Generally speaking, this should be a secret gathering place established by the Great Night Country. Here, they secretly assembled an army and deceived Queen Qianye’s spies."

Teacher Liu couldn’t help exclaiming, "It seems they took some actions, probably against the ancient Qianye Kingdom, right?"

Professor Luo nodded, "In the back, what I can decipher is, ’the day of immortality, the day of Qianye’s destruction.’

Upon hearing this, Gu Fan and Teacher Liu were stunned. They didn’t understand what this sentence meant. Was it an operational slogan?

Gu Fan once heard from Teacher Liu that Queen Qianye needed twelve live sacrifices to obtain eternal life. Coupled with this sentence, Gu Fan’s perceptions began to be challenged. Perhaps there truly was the power of immortality in this world.

Professor Luo was also puzzled. According to records, no foreign country at that time was a match for Queen Qianye. Why would the ancient Qianye Kingdom perish once Queen Qianye obtained immortality? It made no sense.

At this moment, Xu Haowen and Qin Jia made another discovery. It was a tattered letter. Even though only a part was left, the remaining records might provide significant information.

This time, Professor Luo understood much more. The general message was that the sacrifices would leave the town for the capital the next day and must be intercepted, and the sacrifices replaced.

"What does this mean?" Gu Fan said he was puzzled again. Then Teacher Liu explained, "Queen Qianye needed twelve sacrifices to obtain immortality, and these twelve sacrifices definitely had special requirements. She had people scour the entire outside world to find these twelve sacrifices. I think the mission of these people was to attack the team transporting the sacrifices, and then replace the sacrifices that met Queen Qianye’s requirements. When the time comes, there will be deviations during the rituals, perhaps that’s what ’the day of immortality, the day of Qianye’s destruction’ means."

At this, Professor Luo nodded in agreement, finding the inference reasonable.

However, when Gu Fan heard it, he had a different feeling. The twelve sacrifices had specific requirements. What about the twelve missing classmates? Gu Fan remembered the data on the twelve classmates that Su Hui had gathered. For some reason, Gu Fan felt that the conspiracy here was greater than he had imagined.

Despite roughly conjecturing the purpose of this cave, it still had no help in locating the ancient Qianye Kingdom. Just as Gu Fan and Professor Luo felt that nothing else could be gained and wanted to leave, suddenly Gu Fan remembered something and quickly took out the ancient blueprint to browse through it.

Seeing Gu Fan’s action, Professor Luo felt that he might have discovered something and watched him closely.

"Here, and here!" Gu Fan pointed at a few city signs on the ancient map and said, "Professor Luo, you just said that the people hiding here planned to attack a team that was going to leave the town and escort the sacrifice to the capital of Qianye Kingdom."

"Yes, to intercept midway, they must be near a town. Looking at the ancient map, this town could very possibly be the one southeast of Qianye capital. The location where we are now might actually be southeast of Qianye capital."

Gu Fan added, "The content mentions that the team escorting the sacrifice will depart tomorrow. Therefore, the one who delivered the message must have traveled for most of the day to deliver this information here, or else they wouldn’t have had enough time."

"Yes, learning about the departure of the sacrifice tomorrow, then rushing to this secret location to inform the people here that the sacrifice would be departing tomorrow. That means we’re not far from a town in Qianye Kingdom."

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