It was unclear whether Duan Yunyou had taken his words to heart, as he was still holding the torch and looking at the carved murals.
Gong Ziting, the Left Guardian, waited eagerly for a while. Seeing no response, he could not help but call out, “Gang Leader.”
Duan Yunyou finally reacted and replied softly, “It does not say that Qilin Ginseng can grow here.”
“Uh…” Gong Ziting was stunned, even somewhat unbelieving, and asked in shock, “Gang Leader, I could not have misheard this. You clearly told me that we seized this place to find the Qilin Ginseng.”
Duan Yunyou, moving the torch to look at the painting, nodded slightly, “That is correct.”
Gong Ziting widened his eyes, not understanding what the Gang Leader meant by these contradictory words, and had to remind him again, “Gang Leader, this place really does not look like an environment where Qilin Ginseng can grow.”
Duan Yunyou was silent for a moment, but eventually raised his chin towards the mural, “There might be clues about it here. What we are digging for is not the ginseng, but the carved patterns inside the divine temple.”
Gong Ziting was stunned again, and his gaze finally fixed on the carved murals on the wall. However, the traces of time were too obvious. The years had been far too long, and the stone carvings were already blurry, making it impossible to see clearly what the murals were depicting.
But he also grasped the Gang Leader’s meaning and asked in shock and doubt, “Gang Leader, do you mean that this mural records clues about the Qilin Ginseng?”
Duan Yunyou nodded, “There might be.”
Gong Ziting looked suspicious, feeling that the Gang Leader was not telling the truth and seemed to be hiding something from everyone. He immediately questioned, “Gang Leader, this divine temple has been abandoned here for at least a few thousand years, right? How long has the Qilin Ginseng been known to the world? Only about a hundred years or so. How could this mural possibly record things from thousands of years later?”
Duan Yunyou smiled, “Nothing is absolute in this world.”
Gong Ziting said, “Is the Gang Leader suggesting that the Qilin Ginseng was merely discovered late, but has actually existed in the world for a long time? I feel that even if it existed early, it could not be that early. A spiritual object that gathers the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, if it had truly cultivated for thousands of years, would have already dominated the world and would not flee in fear upon encountering humans.”
Duan Yunyou turned around, slightly narrowed his eyes, and stared coldly at the Guardian before him.
Gong Ziting felt a bit awkward under his gaze, avoided the other’s eyes, and lowered his head slightly.
Duan Yunyou stared at his subordinate for a long time, hesitating whether to tell him some things. He originally did not want to say it, at least not now, but some things could not be accomplished by himself alone. He still needed the assistance of these subordinates. If everyone did not see any benefits for a long time, he was afraid they would not be willing to work for nothing.
The gangs here in Tianji Mountain were not like those gangs in the outside world, where the Gang Leader could have the final say all by himself.
He at least had to gain the support of these core members in the gang. If even these core members became passive and slack in their duties, then the people below would naturally be even harder to command.
After hesitating repeatedly, Duan Yunyou handed the torch in his hand over.
Gong Ziting was puzzled but still took the torch.
Duan Yunyou reached into his clothes and slowly pulled out an oilpaper parcel. Opening the oilpaper, a sheepskin book was revealed inside. Under the firelight, the cover faintly showed the words “Tianji Mountain Map Making Notes”. Because the colour of the book was relatively dark, the handwriting was almost obscured.
Just by looking at the style of this item, one could tell it was definitely something from many years ago.
Gong Ziting was puzzled and asked, “Gang Leader, what is this?”
Duan Yunyou said, “I obtained this by chance a few years ago. It is probably the notes left by a mapmaker dispatched by some faction a long time ago to create a map of Tianji Mountain during a field survey. As for what year and month this record was left, I do not know either. There is no date written on it, but this thing should have existed in the world for many years.”
Gong Ziting’s eyes suddenly lit up, “Could it be that it records the Qilin Ginseng?”
Duan Yunyou shook his head, opened the sheepskin book, turned directly to a record in the middle pages, and handed it to him, with the obvious intention of letting him read it himself.
Seeing the Gang Leader trust him so much, Gong Ziting first bowed respectfully. Holding the torch in one hand, he then reached out with the other hand to take the book, and carefully examined its contents against the firelight.
Reading through this passage, the general meaning was as follows:
On the eleventh day of an unknown year and month, the person who left the notes and a person named “Zhuo” walked into the desert and suddenly encountered a gale. The sandstorm filled the sky, making it impossible to distinguish east, south, west, and north. The two of them actually enjoyed this coolness, sat back to back, and waited for the sandstorm to stop.
After the howling sandstorm lasted for a period of time, the two suddenly noticed some shadowy, abnormal figures appearing in the desert. So they got up to take a look, only to discover an abandoned divine temple, buried diagonally in the sand. It should normally be invisible, but this time it was revealed because of the gale.
Outside the abandoned divine temple, there was a Qilin stone carving on the left and right respectively. The plaque on the main gate of the divine temple also bore the three words “Qilin Hall”.
The two then entered the divine temple to shelter from the wind. They saw a majestic and towering statue of the divine lord that looked as if it were lying diagonally. The walls inside the temple were exquisitely carved with many bionic diagrams of the Qilin, seemingly recording the daily life of the Qilin in the immortal realm.
The two originally planned to leave once the wind stopped, but when the wind stopped, it was already dark, so they decided to spend the night in the divine temple first.
Who would have thought that in the middle of the night, it actually started to rain in this damned desert. There was a thunderstorm, and the rainwater dripped and dropped inside the damaged temple.
What was even more unexpected for the two came later. Suddenly, a powerful flash of lightning struck the divine temple, making the inside of the temple buzz.
An astonishing scene also appeared at this moment. A hazy radiance suddenly burst out inside the hall, and within the radiance appeared a huge and majestic divine beast, which was exactly the Qilin.
The majesty of the divine beast empowered by the radiance was truly terrifying. Its neck whiskers moved automatically without wind. With a glance of its eyes, that lofty and cold aura that looked down upon all living things scared the two of them half to death.
The two thought their lives were over. Who would have thought that when the Qilin stamped its hooves and roared at the sky, seemingly to fight against the thunder, it made the two realise something was wrong.
It was indeed roaring at the sky, and the momentum was also very astonishing, but the roar had no sound.
After calming down, the two then discovered that this divine beast Qilin was actually standing in a tilted posture, and the angle of the tilt was exactly the same as the skew of the divine hall.
The two suddenly realised it was an illusion of light and shadow.
The two tried to reach out and touch it, only to find that it was indeed empty and without substance. Just at this moment, the light and shadow dimmed, and disappeared together with the image of the Qilin.
Later, the two wanted to find out why such a magical scene would appear inside this divine temple. Who would have thought that they only stayed for one more day, because the rising sandstorm buried the divine temple again. Forced by the environment, the two had to leave first, planning to come back and explore later.
The records about the divine temple seemed to end here, with no further content. Gong Ziting flipped through the back pages again, only to find that the following pages were all blank.
He could not help but look around and saw the towering divine statue that matched the records in the notes, which looked as if it were lying diagonally. However, it had long been mottled beyond recognition and lost its majesty. One could only tell it was a standing statue, seemingly holding an alms bowl in its hand.
There were also the carvings all over the hall, which were no longer exquisite at all, but all blurry and unclear.
Furthermore, the so-called plaque of the Qilin Hall mentioned in the records had long gone missing, and the two Qilin stone carvings outside the hall were also gone, all having disappeared in the passage of time.
But one thing was certain. This place should be the very place mentioned in the notes.
Flipping through the notes unwillingly again, he finally looked up and asked, “Do the notes just end here?”
Duan Yunyou nodded, “They probably do.”
Gong Ziting looked at the blank pages at the back. It did not feel like a fake, and he did not see any traces of them being torn out. He felt quite strange and said, “How could the records just stop here? Weren’t they supposed to survey the terrain of Tianji Mountain to make a map?”
Duan Yunyou shook his head, “I have also pondered over this matter. I do not know exactly what happened to cause the notes to stop. Things from endless years ago are hard for later generations to fathom. I am afraid only the parties involved themselves know it best.”
Having finished speaking, he reached out and took back the notes, wrapped them in oilpaper again, and tucked them into his bosom.
Gong Ziting watched eagerly. He actually wanted to see what was recorded in the front of the notes, but he was embarrassed to ask for it and it was inconvenient to open his mouth. But he also remembered something, and with a look of finally understanding, he said, “No wonder after the Gang Leader established the Flying Eagle Gang, you liked to explore the desert. It turns out it was to find this divine temple.”
Duan Yunyou snorted self-mockingly, “I always thought this divine temple was still buried under the desert. I did not expect it to have been exposed long ago and even became the lair of the Scorpion Gang. The world undergoes great changes, which is beyond human power, and only heaven dictates creation.”
Gong Ziting asked strangely, “Aren’t the notes recorded all the way along the route?”
What he meant was that according to the records and calculating all the way, it should be very easy to lock onto the general location, and there was no need to search around blindly like before.
Duan Yunyou said, “It is a bit here and a bit there, with no route to speak of at all. The person who left these notes probably just wrote down what they felt should be recorded.”
Gong Ziting nodded slightly and could understand. It might just be recording some things they found meaningful or interesting. But he still frowned deeply and tried to ask, “Gang Leader, I read through the whole text and did not see what relationship this place has with finding the Qilin Ginseng. Are we wasting our effort by being a bit too wishful?”
In his opinion, it was just a waste of time.
Since the secret had already been revealed, Duan Yunyou no longer hid it from him and lightly reminded him, “When plant spirits transform into humans, it is naturally because they have been close to humans for a long time and have understood the human way. Now suddenly one pops up that has understood the way of the divine beast Qilin. Where do you say it would go to get close to the way of the divine beast Qilin? I thought about it over and over, and apart from here, I cannot think of anywhere else it could go to access relevant things, unless it descended from the immortal realm.”
Hearing this, Gong Ziting roughly understood, “So you want to find clues from the murals?”
Duan Yunyou nodded, “Since the records say there are carved bionic diagrams here, we should be able to judge a little about the living habits of the Qilin based on the carvings. The carvings above are blurred, but the ones buried below might not be. Let us clear away the accumulated sand and take a good look.”
Gong Ziting completely understood now, but was still doubtful. He looked around and said, “If it could understand the way of the Qilin here, then it must have grown here. But let alone ginseng, no plants are suitable to grow in this place.”
Just then, two people urgently burst into the hall. The Right Guardian An Tianyin brought in a person wearing the clothes of the Scorpion Gang.
If Yu Qing were to see him, he would naturally recognise this person as one of the personnel left behind by the Scorpion Gang.
The two also flew onto the slanted wall. An Tianyin reported urgently, “Gang Leader, Brother Tong has brought urgent news, saying that Xu Fengji has brought fifty or sixty men and is rushing over, preparing to launch a surprise attack on us.”
The man wearing the clothes of the Scorpion Gang was named Tong Zaitian.
Duan Yunyou frowned slightly and asked him, “Weren’t there only about twenty people left? Where did the fifty or sixty men come from?”
Tong Zaitian said, “Cao Dingkun went to Kuailai City and recruited a group of new members under the guise of looking for the Qilin Ginseng.”
“Qilin Ginseng?” Duan Yunyou and Gong Ziting exclaimed in unison.
Tong Zaitian said, “How would he know any clues about the Qilin Ginseng? He just made it up to trick people into joining.”
Duan Yunyou and Gong Ziting looked at each other, feeling speechless.