stjorthotic Chapter 11 The Ancient City of Jingjue Finally Appears in the World
Chapter 11 The Ancient City of Jingjue Finally Appears in the World
The canyon was deathly silent.
The black-eyed serpent whose spine had been crushed by Lin Mu's two fingers lay quietly on the ground, its body still twitching slightly, but it had completely lost its life force.
The venom it spewed out still emits blue smoke and a pungent, sour stench from the pits it has carved into the hard, black rock.
Everyone stood frozen in place, as if under a spell, their brains still trying to process everything that had happened in those few short seconds.
too fast.
From the moment the strange snake suddenly appeared to the instant Lin Mu killed it, the entire process took no more than three seconds.
It happened so fast they didn't even have time to blink.
In the midst of this deathly silence, Ye Zhi Qiu's trembling voice broke the stillness.
"What...what kind of snake is this?"
She collapsed to the ground, staring in shock at the corpse of the strange snake, her voice still trembling with sobs: "How could it have grown such a huge growth on its head? And its eyes... its eyes were black, without even any whites..."
This is a question that everyone has in mind.
Professor Zhou forced himself to walk to the corpse of the strange snake, squatted down, and carefully shone his flashlight on it.
The snake was entirely black, and its scales gleamed with an eerie metallic sheen under the flashlight beam.
What is most striking is the fist-sized growth on its head and its pure black eyes with no whites.
"I've never seen a snake like this before..."
Professor Zhou muttered to himself. He had spent his entire life in archaeology and had seen countless ancient fossils and murals, but the form of the snake in front of him was completely beyond his comprehension.
"Professor, this snake's venom can corrode rocks...that's biologically impossible!"
Chen Wentao also came over, looking at the corroded pit with a look of shock and confusion in his eyes.
Just when everyone was at a loss, a clear, cold voice rang out from the front of the group.
"The Pure Vision Agama".
Lin Mu turned around and looked calmly at the corpse of the strange snake.
"What?"
Professor Zhou suddenly raised his head and looked at Lin Mu.
"This type of snake is referred to as the Pure Vision Agama in ancient texts."
Lin Mu's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.
"Legend has it that they are the guardian beasts of the Jingjue Kingdom, living year-round in underground rivers and rock crevices, feeding on carrion and small animals. Their venom is extremely corrosive; once bitten, the wound will quickly fester and become incurable."
Lin Mu paused, then added, "Moreover, this snake attacks extremely quickly, with a reaction speed far exceeding that of ordinary venomous snakes. In ancient times, very few people could survive its attack."
Upon hearing this, everyone gasped in shock.
Ye Zhi Qiu's face turned deathly pale. She looked at her neck, where it was less than twenty centimeters from the venomous fangs of the strange snake.
If it weren't for Lin Mu...
She didn't dare to think about it anymore.
"The Pure Vision Agama...that name..."
Professor Zhou muttered to himself, his mind racing through relevant literature, but to no avail.
"Lin Mu, this... this is also recorded in the ancient books in your family?"
Professor Zhou's voice was trembling.
Lin Mu nodded without saying anything more.
After a brief pause, the live stream chat exploded with comments again.
【The Pure Vision Agama? That name sounds really impressive!】
[A tomb guardian? Holy crap, that's way too hardcore!]
Just how much does the Forest God's ancient book record? It's practically an illustrated guide to monsters from the Western Regions!
I now strongly suspect that Lin Shen's family is the legendary family of tomb raiders!
Professor Zhou opened his mouth, wanting to ask Lin Mu the name of that ancient book, and what his family's origins were.
But he didn't dare ask.
Because he feared that the answer he received would completely overturn the scientific and worldview he had built up over his entire life.
Chen Wentao was completely numb.
He leaned against the rock wall, staring blankly at the corpse of the strange snake on the ground, muttering the same phrase over and over again: "Unbelievable..."
His faith has been completely shattered by Lin Muche today.
Su Nianwei supported Ye Zhi Qiu, who was slumped on the ground, her beautiful eyes fixed on Lin Mu's back.
This man has saved their lives more than once in just a few days.
And each time, he remained calm and collected, as if he had done something insignificant.
This extreme contrast stirred up a complex mix of emotions in Su Nianwei.
It was awe, curiosity, dependence, and a hint of something she herself didn't even realize... a flutter of the heart.
Amidst the deathly silence and shock, Lin Mu turned around.
His gaze calmly swept over the crowd, finally settling on Professor Zhou.
"Let's go."
Two words: aloof, indifferent, devoid of any emotion.
It was as if the thrilling instant kill and the explanation of the tomb guardian beast were just two small things he did casually.
Professor Zhou was startled, but quickly regained his composure and nodded repeatedly, "Okay, okay! Lin Mu, you go first, we'll follow you!"
This statement definitively established Lin Mu's absolute core position in the team.
From this moment on, Professor Zhou was no longer the leader of this team.
Lin Mu is the one.
The team set off again.
This time, everyone consciously followed behind Lin Mu, keeping a distance of about three meters, neither daring to be too far away nor too close.
The feeling was like a flock of lost lambs following closely behind the only shepherd who could lead them out of the darkness.
The canyon remains long and oppressive.
With Lin Mu leading the way, everyone felt inexplicably more at ease.
We walked for about twenty more minutes.
Ahead, a blinding light finally appeared.
That's the exit of the canyon!
"Almost there!"
Ye Zhi Qiu's voice changed from excitement.
The group quickened their pace, almost jogging as they rushed toward the light.
When they finally emerged from that seemingly all-consuming black canyon and basked in the sunlight once more, everyone couldn't help but take a deep breath, as if to expel all the pent-up air from their lungs.
However, when they looked up and saw what was in front of them, everyone's breath caught in their throats again.
It was a huge underground basin, half-buried by yellow sand.
In the very center of the basin stands a magnificent and imposing ancient city ruin!
Although most of the city wall has collapsed, its former grandeur is still evident.
The remaining city gate is over ten meters high, and the lintel is carved with dense, eerie totems that resemble eyes.
Inside the city walls, one can vaguely see the ruins of towering buildings, which gleam with an eerie dark golden luster under the sunlight.
Deep within the city, a massive, pyramid-shaped building, like a black mountain, stands silently, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.
That must be the palace of the Queen of Jingjue.
"This...this is...the ancient city of Jingjue?"
Professor Zhou's voice trembled, his eyes were red from extreme excitement, and tears were about to flow.
After a lifetime of archaeology, he finally saw with his own eyes the capital of this ancient Western Regions kingdom that existed only in legends and had disappeared more than two thousand years ago!
"It's spectacular..."
Su Nianwei was also stunned by the scene before her and was speechless.
Ye Zhi Qiu even took out his phone and started taking pictures like crazy, wanting to record every inch of the scene before him.
The live stream footage was captured, recorded, and frantically shared by countless people at that moment.
Holy crap! Is this real? This isn't movie special effects?
[The ancient city of Jingjue! It really exists! My God! This is absolutely the greatest archaeological discovery of this century!]
[Lin Shen is awesome! If it weren't for him, this team wouldn't have made it this far!]
I now strongly suspect that Lin Shen's family are descendants of the survivors who escaped from the ancient city of Jingjue!
However, just as everyone was immersed in this shocking scene, Lin Mu's brows furrowed slightly.
His gaze passed over the ruins and the pyramid-like palace, finally settling on a dark area deep within the city.
There, there is a huge, bottomless black hole.
Bottomless Ghost Cave.
Even from this great distance, Lin Mu could still sense an extremely ominous aura emanating from that black hole.
That aura was cold, evil, and full of malice, as if it could devour all life.
The beastly instincts granted to him by the system were frantically warning him.
There are extremely dangerous things there.
"Lin Mu, what's wrong?"
Su Nianwei noticed Lin Mu's unusual behavior and asked in a low voice.
Lin Mu withdrew his gaze and shook his head: "It's nothing."
He paused, then looked at Professor Zhou: "Professor, I suggest we set up camp outside the city first, make full preparations, and then enter the city tomorrow."
Although Professor Zhou wished he could rush in immediately, reason told him that Lin Mu was right.
It's already past four in the afternoon, and it will be dark in two hours.
Exploring in the dark in a completely unfamiliar ancient ruin, full of unknown dangers, is suicidal.
"Okay, I'll do as you say."
Professor Zhou took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his excitement, and ordered the camp to be set up.
The team set up tents and started a fire to cook on a relatively flat sandy area about 500 meters from the city gate.
Night falls.
The campfire flickered in the darkness, dispelling the chill of the desert night.
Everyone sat around the campfire, eating simple dry rations, but no one spoke.
Their gazes all turned to the ancient city of Jingjue, which appeared even more eerie under the moonlight, not far away.
Tomorrow, they will step into the city of death that has been sleeping for two thousand years.
What awaits them there?