Chapter 1110 – Human Scourge

“How could there be such a large range of quicksand? If the underground water is abundant, it should be able to form an oasis!”

Zhuang Rui was scratching his head a bit, he didn’t know if that ancient temple back then, was covered by this quicksand, if that was the case, even if he had great skills, it would be difficult to uncover the secrets in the ancient temple.

Just Zhuang Rui did not know, this area, just at the junction of the desert and the North Gobi, due to the increasingly serious desertification, the wind and sand eroded this place for decades, making the original soil structure also changed, although there is the existence of underground water, it is also difficult to change the fate of this piece of land being desertified.

“Hm? This is soil?”

Just when Zhuang Rui was a little anxious in his heart, he suddenly felt that the aura in his eyes seemed to have left those yellow sands with a hint of aura, and he could not help but rejoice, and after gazing and feeling for half a day, he finally determined that there was a field presence in this quicksand area of roughly one thousand two hundred meters.

Happy, Zhuang Rui increased the aura survey range, just let him some disappointment, even if he released the aura out of ten kilometers away, also failed to find the existence of the ruins of the ancient temple, which shows that the ancient temple from this quicksand area there is a distance.

However, it was good that Zhuang Rui didn’t sense the existence of any more quicksand terrain in front of him, and the only thing that needed to be resolved now was how to bypass this area and head towards the road leading to the North Gobi.

“Xiao Zhuang, what are you doing?”

Just as Zhuang Rui wanted to use his aura to survey in the left and right directions, a voice suddenly rang in his ears, scaring Zhuang Rui, the released aura retracted into his eyes in a quicksilver cascade.

Zhuang Rui turned around and looked, it turned out to be Professor Man, he couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile and said: ”It’s Mr. Man ah! You …… your voice, almost didn’t scare my soul out.”

As the saying goes, people scare people to death, Zhuang Rui had just immersed himself in the aura outreach and was not even a little bit on guard, he was really startled by Professor Man.

Prof. Man smiled and handed Zhuang Rui a cigarette, said: “Cough, you play archaeology, all day with the dead bones to deal with, still afraid of this?”

Zhuang Rui took the cigarette, gave Professor Man and himself a light, took a deep breath and said, “Hey, I say, Mr. Man, this archaeology doesn’t have to live in the graveyard all day long, right? Seeing ghosts is as scary as ever.”

“Zhuang Rui is right, those of us who deal with the dead every day are more afraid of those unclean things coming to our door!”

Along with a voice, Dr. Ren also drilled out of the tent, thinking that tomorrow he would survey this area of quicksand, which was called the “Devil’s Forbidden Zone” by the locals, Dr. Ren didn’t have a sound sleep either, and when he heard Zhuang Rui’s conversation with the two of them, he simply put on his clothes and walked out.

“Come on, thanks to the fact that both of you are still associate researchers, you’re talking about feudal superstitions here!” Prof. Man smiled at his words, these two teachers and brothers dealing with him alone, it was still a bit too much to handle.

“Mr. Man, this is a problem of ideology, if the quicksand was put in 100 years ago, it is not the devil eating people ah! There wouldn’t be anyone talking about feudal superstitions then.”

After Zhuang Rui and Professor Man made a joke, his face became serious, and then said, “Teacher Man, please teach you a question, if according to the information said, here in eighty or ninety years ago, there are still people living, just a few decades of time, why would it become so deserted, this original oasis of water, there is no role in blocking the wind and sand? ”

Just after checking that area of quicksand with his aura, Zhuang Rui had been harboring doubts, right now Professor Man happens to be an expert in desert management, so he asked.

“Xiao Zhuang, the vegetation that grows in this soil is different from the plants in the desert, after those plants are buried by the yellow sand, they will die very quickly. Coupled with the evacuation of the people living here, over time, the original water source, was also covered up by the desert, which should also be the main reason for the formation of the quicksand area.”

Prof. Man took a drag on his cigarette and then said, “Xiao Zhuang, you are studying archaeology, do you know the reason why the ancient city of Loulan disappeared?”

“Of course I know this, the reason for the disappearance of Loulan Ancient City has many different opinions, but it should also be because it was located on the edge of the desert at that time and was desertified, right?”

In archaeology, Loulan archaeology is listed as a single class, but Zhuang Rui’s main direction is not here, just a slight understanding.

“Yes, but the reason for the desertification, do you guys know?”

The long night was long, since he couldn’t sleep, Prof. Mann gossiped with Zhuang Rui and the two of them, he dealt with the desert all day long, and the things he talked about were naturally related to the desert.

“I don’t know.” Zhuang Rui shook his head.

“Actually, many places are desertified, and man-made disasters are also very important.”

Prof. Man once participated in an archaeological team of Loulan archaeology in the nineties, and personally went there, recalling an ancient city that once had a glorious history of five hundred years disappeared in the desert, Prof. Man was also a little saddened.

According to Prof. Man’s statement, the disappearance of Loulan has a lot to do with people destroying the ecological balance of nature. Loulan is located at the key point of the Silk Road, Han, Xiongnu and other nomadic countries, often in Loulan land to provoke war.

Countries for the sake of the interests of excessive cultivation, so that water conservancy facilities, good vegetation has been seriously damaged, Loulan people blindly cut down indiscriminate logging resulting in soil erosion, sand attack, river diversion, climate anomalies, coupled with the plague is rampant, the legend said called “hot nest disease”, a disease of a village, a death of a family.

In the end, the Loulan people chose to flee, so that the glorious ancient city of Loulan also forever from the history of silent faded, the original ancient city in today’s excavation, but as if the ghosts, leaving a lot of unanswered questions.

“The reason why this territory formed quicksand and was eroded by the desert, also has a lot to do with people’s living habits, maybe it’s not this generation’s fault, just tasted the bad consequences in our generation.”

Professor Man shook his head, in the increasingly serious desertification today, China is still exporting a large number of timber, and even some places actually cut down windbreak forests for export, which makes Professor Man sad and full of helplessness.

“A good chat turned into me whining, okay, no more, tomorrow the workload is huge, all rest early!”

Professor Man smiled to himself, after venting his heart’s dissatisfaction, his heart was much more comfortable, he actually stood up and waved his hand to go back to his tent, leaving Zhuang Rui and Dr. Ren to look at each other in dismay.

Although the day is riding on top of the camel, people are also very tired, Dr. Ren yawned, also can not hold out, looking at Zhuang Rui opened his mouth and said: ”Teacher Man is also a man of nature ah! Zhuang Rui, go to bed early! I have a premonition, if we can find that ancient temple site, we will definitely make a significant discovery.”

“Sleep, sleep.”

Zhuang Rui bristled, “How refreshing! As if I’m the one pulling you guys to chat, interrupting my buddy to survey the quicksand hasn’t said anything about you guys yet!”

As for the major discovery, Zhuang Rui also have this premonition, he always felt that the young and old Zhongchuan, came to China will not be so simple as exploration.

And this “adventure” word connotes the meaning of a wide range, when the Nakagawa’s grandparents Yoshikawa went to Dunhuang when the identity, is not also a Japanese explorer?

Early in the morning in the desert, the rare appearance of a trace of fog, shrouded in that piece of quicksand area above, surrounded by a silence, in addition to Zhuang Rui and other people to pack up the sound of the tent, the desert and then there is no sound.

However, when the early riser Erdan and the others were looking at that piece of sand surface, their minds couldn’t help but recall the scene of the camel being swallowed up, and all of them subconsciously retreated a few more steps backward.

“Erdan, you guys stay here to guard the camels, Xiao Zhuang, let’s split into two groups, each surveying in both directions, remember, if you fall into the quicksand, don’t struggle for a thousand times, the quicksand can only be engulfed up to the waist at most and then it will stop.”

After the crowd had eaten something, Professor Man assigned the tasks, he didn’t bring some professional tools with him, so he could only use stupid methods to conduct the survey.

“Okay, Prof. Man, I’ll go to the north!”

Zhuang Rui nodded and agreed, “Brother Ren, Peng Fei, you guys just don’t wander off and wait here, Teacher Man and I will go and survey the terrain first.”

“Brother Zhuang, that won’t do, I’m going to follow you.”

Peng Fei shook his head, yesterday he heard Erdan say so thrilling, he is not assured to let Zhuang Rui go alone, this in case of falling inside the quicksand, there is a person beside him that is rescue that is also too late ah!

“Success, then you follow me!” Zhuang Rui thought for a moment and nodded, not letting this kid follow, he will not stop.

In fact, the real danger is not Zhuang Rui, but Prof. Man, last night after Zhuang Rui returned inside the tent, he measured the entire longitudinal depth of the quicksand and the longitudinal width of the two sides.

This is the local people called the devil forbidden area of quicksand area, the depth of more than 1,000 meters, longitudinal width also reached four hundred meters, in Zhuang Rui thought, here before must be oasis lakes, will form such a large area of quicksand area.

Now where Zhuang Rui is, just at the edge of the longitudinal width of quicksand, as long as to the north on more than forty meters, can bypass the quicksand area, safe forward march, so in order to avoid wasting time, Zhuang Rui is the initiative to choose to be to the north of the survey.

“Shit, now I kind of know the origin of the name Quicksand River, dare I say it came out from here!”

Peng Fei followed behind Zhuang Rui and couldn’t help but be staggered when he saw the pebbles that Zhuang Rui casually threw out as if they were thrown onto the water and sank directly into the body.

The weight of a stone couldn’t even withstand it, so one could imagine what kind of situation it would be if a person stepped on it.

“Hm? Brother Zhuang, that’s not quicksand.”

After walking out thirty to forty meters along the edge of the quicksand, the sharp-eyed Peng Fei finally saw a pebble that Zhuang Rui had thrown out and left on the surface of the sand.