Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared
Chapter 123: The Past

Chapter 123: Chapter 123: The Past

Ruins, damaged buildings, stretching as far as the eye could see, Gu Fan and his team went round and round in circles, looking and looking again, bursting with excitement. They were sure of one thing: this was absolutely not a village, but rather, a city.

"We found it, we found it." Professor Luo shouted in uncontrollable excitement. The city buried beneath sand and eroded into ruins must indeed be the southeastern small city of the ancient Qianye Kingdom according to the map. Coupled with the oasis that matched the lake to the east on the map, it meant that they had finally managed to reconcile the ancient map with the modern one.

Ouyang Jin quickly got to work, marking their current location on the modern map. Then he started to compare the ancient map with the modern one, his eyes blazing with anticipation.

Two thirds of the ruined city was still buried in the desert, but that was enough for Gu Fan and his team. They were running around, taking photos for keepsakes. After all, they needed something to present at the press conference when they got back.

Lu Yi climbed a section of the city wall that hadn’t crumbled. Looking around, he could see many ruins. Overwhelmed with emotion, he sighed, "After a night’s sleep, to wake up to such a major discovery. This luck is simply indescribable."

"Lu Yi, you have a good vantage point from up there. If something seems off, shout," admonished Gu Fan.

"Ok, got it." As soon as Lu Yi finished his sentence, he felt something was wrong. He had somehow become a sentinel.

Professor Luo, Teacher Liu, Qin Jia, and Xu Haowen were carefully observing every single building, even those half-destroyed, to make sure they didn’t miss a thing. Who knows, they might find valuable clues in these ruins.

The others didn’t really care for the severely damaged buildings, a mere cursory glance was enough. Particularly Su Hui, who opined, "If we really want to study this, we’d probably have to thoroughly excavate the site."

Gu Fan agreed with this sentiment. The key point was, they could finally put both the ancient and modern maps side by side. This meant they were drawing closer to finding the capital of the Qian Ye Kingdom.

The closer they got to success, the more uneasy Gu Fan felt. He carefully surveyed the surroundings, fearing a sudden unexpected surprise.

Not long after, Professor Luo returned empty-handed, sighed, "These ruins are no more than civilian houses, with no research value. Unless we can find something from the official residences of the city, there might be some records."

"That place is likely more severely damaged. After being buried in the sand for so long, even if there’s anything worth researching, it’s probably mostly ruined by now." Gu Fan’s prediction seemed likely, causing Professor Luo to nod and abandon the idea of exerting effort into finding the official residences and digging around.

The primary objective was to find the capital of Qian Ye Kingdom. Professor Luo was very confident about this, especially since his confidence was boosted by Ouyang Jin’s nod of affirmation. Ouyang Jin was certain that he could find the location of the capital of the Qian Ye Kingdom and complete the exploration that even his father could not accomplish.

"Alright, let’s get ready to move. We are going to look for the ruins." Ouyang Jin was ambitious at this moment. He was the first one to mount his camel, regardless of whether others could keep up or not, he advanced forward.

Lu Yi hurriedly jumped down from the city wall, all the while shouting as he ran, "Bro, why are you so eager today? Given your demeanor, how could you miss an easy chance to raise the price? Wait for me, you can increase the price then consider leaving."

With an austere expression, Ouyang Jin replied, "Living requires a goal, a motivation, not money. I only realized this today."

"Why are you suddenly acting so philosophical? Aren’t you going to give us a heads up?" Lu Yi, despite the hustle, finally managed to get on the camel.

Under Ouyang Jin’s leadership, everyone marched on. They moved along while observing the surrounding ruins. Around half an hour later, they exited the area. The city wasn’t large. No one knew why it was forgotten in the vast desert.

According to Professor Luo, after the capital of Qian Ye Kingdom disappeared overnight, other smaller cities of Qian Ye took several years to fade away. Some say that the other countries in the region, resenting the oppression of the Queen Qian Ye, vented their dissatisfaction on these cities. Others speculate that due to the formation and expansion of the desert, living conditions in the cities worsened, causing the residents to move away eventually.

However, looking at the state of the ruins, the extent of the building collapses led everyone to believe that something drastic must’ve happened there, which led to the city’s demise.

Two hours after Gu Fan’s team left the ruins, Leng Le and Hai arrived at the site with their team. Seeing the scene, they couldn’t help but sigh, "My God, we actually found the place. Are they lucky, or unlucky?"

"Unlucky. They couldn’t have found this place. Lucky. They shouldn’t have encountered so many dangers," Hai replied.

"So, it’s hard to say anything about luck." After finishing, Leng Le signaled his subordinates to take photos and send them to their boss.

Next, Leng Le didn’t rush to move. Gu Fan’s phone was fixed with a tracker after all, so no matter how far Gu Fan went, it wasn’t a problem. The most important thing right now for Leng Le was to know what was happening on the other side.

At this time, a subordinate reported through the walkie-talkie: "Sister Leng, a team of approximately twenty-five people has been spotted to the south."

"Report to Sister Leng, another team has been found to the east, twenty members in total."

"This is bad, Sister Leng, there’s another one to the southeast, roughly thirty people."

Hearing the reports, Leng Le’s face turned serious, "What? Three teams have shown up and found this place, just like us. Is that a coincidence?"

No matter the circumstance, Hai had his men keep watch on the approaching strangers while the others under his lead began hiding. Hiding over fifty people in this small area wasn’t very difficult.

Besides directing his subordinates to scatter and hide, Leng Le also had people installing pinhole cameras in every corner. He wanted to control and monitor what the three enemy teams would do or say once they entered the ruins.

The three teams were dressed in three different colored uniforms, suggesting that they were not from the same group. Somehow, their uniform style also indicated that they were united.

As expected, the three teams quickly met up. Since they didn’t expect any surveillance, they started conversing openly.

Like Leng Le, the three teams admired Gu Fan’s luck. They also contemplated whether to follow him immediately or wait for the other groups to regroup.

Knowing this, Leng Le exclaimed, "You have more teams? How many of you are there exactly?"

The leaders of the three groups huddled together for a brief discussion before deciding to tail Gu Fan’s party. They agreed to maintain contact with other teams to coordinate a multi-directional ambush for Gu Fan’s team.

Hai was nervous. He could sense these people had ill intentions which could potentially harm Gu Fan and consequently, harm Jie as well.

But what took Leng Le’s concern was a conclusion derived from their conversation, that there were no other groups rushing over here. This meant that these groups were probably split and were converging from all sides centered around Gu Fan’s team, making it impossible for them to escape.

After waiting for a long time, they finally stepped out. Only when they had moved far did Leng Le reveal herself, no longer hiding.

A person at her side asked: "So, Sister Leng, should we follow them?"

"Have you heard of the mantis stalks the cicada, while the oriole is behind? If Gu Fan is the cicada, and these people are the mantis, we have to be the oriole. So, let’s delay our departure a bit, ensuring there are no hawks behind the oriole." Many subordinates agreed with Leng Le’s statement, however, Hai was still worried.

To this, Leng Le reassured, "Don’t worry, maybe these people only want to use Gu Fan’s group to find the ancient Qianye Kingdom and bear no harmful intentions. As long as Gu Fan doesn’t act foolishly and start a confrontation, he should be safe. Besides, they outnumber Gu Fan’s team so if Gu Fan tried anything rash, they could easily take him down."

"I hope so." Hai could only pray in response to the situation and admitted his worries, saying, "Back then, I accompanied the boss into the wilderness three times and found no clues. It is surprising that Gu Fan’s team could venture this far on their first trip. It seems some things truly can’t be forced."

Leng Le frowned: "You’re not suggesting that all this is fate or destiny, and nothing can change it, are you?"

"How else would you explain all this?" With a bitter smile, Hai sat down to rest, saying: "Since Sister Leng, you plan on playing the oriole, we should leave a bit later. So, I guess, we might as well rest here."

"Alright then, let’s rest." After she finished speaking, Leng Le watched her subordinates sit one by one to rest. The ruined structures provided some shade from the sun.

Having nothing better to, do Leng Le walked around. Like before, she found nothing but severely damaged relics of no research value. However, when she reached a certain spot, a sudden gust of wind blew away the sand revealing a partial part of a stone tablet buried beneath.

"What’s this?" With her curiosity piqued, she reached out to dig out the tablet. The moment her hand touched the stone, a jolt as if from an electric current passed through her body.

Incredible visions filled Leng Le’s mind— a city engulfed in flames, people running in panic, and the air filled with screams of despair.

Disturbed, Leng Le couldn’t understand why she was seeing this. A chill ran down her spine as she heard a cold voice, "You wished to protect the secrets of the Qian Ye. Then you will be buried with her."