Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting. - Chapter 903 Halo

Lin Shen found the core of the space-time rift, where a huge crystal device floated, with patterns similar to Mayan symbols engraved on its surface. He entered the code he had cracked from his grandfather's diary into the device, and the crystal began to emit a dazzling light. As the light spread, the distortion of space-time gradually subsided, and the wreckage of the planes trapped in the loop began to dissipate. At the last moment, Lin Shen seemed to see his grandfather's figure. His grandfather smiled and nodded at him, then turned into a ray of light and merged into the torrent of space-time. As the rift closed, the sea surface of Bermuda returned to calm, and the purple lightning and black vortex disappeared without a trace. After returning to land, Lin Shen wrote a report on this magical experience. But few people believed his story. Only in the dead of night, when he looked at the starry sky, could he still feel the mysterious power of Bermuda. He knew that in the vast universe, there were still countless space-time puzzles like Bermuda waiting for humans to explore, and his bond with his grandfather across time and space would be forever engraved in this mysterious sea. In the late spring of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, the wind wrapped the gravel caves, rubbing the mottled murals with tiny sounds. Su Yan squatted in the corner of Cave 285, his knees against the cold bricks and stones, and the cuffs of his protective suit had long been stained with earthy brown by the wall dust. The cold light flashlight in his hand swept across the dome covered with caissons. Wherever the beam reached, the streamers of the flying goddess faded to pale, and the musicians playing the pipa were left with only a broken outline. Only the twenty-eight constellations on the edge of the murals still stubbornly retained a little indigo color under the erosion of time. This was his ninety-seventh day stationed in Mogao Grottoes. As the youngest master's and doctoral student in the Department of Archaeology, when Su Yan took the initiative to apply to join the "Dunhuang Mural Astronomical Elements Research" project, his mentor patted him on the shoulder and said, "Young man, every grain of sand here may hide the secret of rewriting history." At this moment, he looked at the dense star map data in the record book, and his pencil made a heavy ink dot under the entry of "Spica offset" - for three months, he compared all the existing Dunhuang star map documents, but still could not find the historical data corresponding to the trajectory of some stars in the murals. "Xiao Su, it's time to call it a day." Lao Chen's voice mixed with coughs came from outside the cave. The gray-haired archaeologist was wrapped in a camel-colored windproof coat, and the thermos cup in his hand was steaming. Su Yan responded, his knees were numb from squatting for a long time, and he accidentally knocked over the surveying instrument at his feet when he stood up. The crisp sound of metal parts hitting the ground echoed in the cave, startling the bats on the beams to flutter and fly, and the airflow raised by their wings rolled up the wall dust and fell down. Just as he bent down to pick up the instrument, the residual light of the flashlight swept across an extremely inconspicuous crack on the edge of the mural. The crack was as thin as a hair, hidden between the faded cloud patterns. If it weren't for the right angle of light, it would be difficult to find it even if he waited for another three months. Su Yan's breathing suddenly became rapid, and his heart was beating wildly in his chest. He gently put down the instrument, took out the microprobe from the tool kit, and carefully probed the tip of the needle into the crack - the touch was a little strange, not like an ordinary mud wall, but as if there was something hard embedded in it. The sound of Lao Chen's urgent footsteps came from outside the cave, but Su Yan seemed to be nailed to the spot. He trembled and picked it lightly with the probe, and the peeling wall skin fell off, revealing a yellowed silk edge. "Could it be..." He held his breath, put on white gloves, clamped a corner of the silk with tweezers, and slowly pulled it out. The ancient fabric made a fragile rustling sound, as if the secret that had been sleeping for thousands of years was awakening. The moment the entire scroll of silk was completely pulled out, Su Yan took a deep breath. The unfolded silk was about two feet square, and it was covered with dense star maps. Unlike any existing star maps in Dunhuang, these stars were arranged in a strange way, and the lines were like snakes. Some stars were even decorated with gold powder, and they glowed faintly under the cold light flashlight. What made his scalp tingle was the line of small cinnabar characters next to the star map. Although the handwriting was blurred due to the age, it was still clearly legible: "Those who seek the star ladder, knock on the gate of heaven." "Xiao Su! What are you hesitating about..." Lao Chen's voice suddenly rose, followed by the muffled sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. Su Yan hurriedly stuffed the silk into his backpack. When the zipper was halfway pulled, there was a crisp sound of glass breaking outside the cave, mixed with the terrified shouts of the staff. He grabbed the flashlight and rushed out. The dazzling beam of light split the twilight, and he saw several masked men in black confronting the guards on duty. The leading black-clad man was wrapped in a long black windbreaker, and the scimitar hanging from his waist shone with a cold blue light in the moonlight. "Who is it?" Old Chen stood in front of the crowd, and the thermos cup in his hand had been smashed to pieces. The black-clad man did not answer, but his scarlet eyes swept through the crowd and finally fell on Su Yan. That look was like a poisoned dagger, piercing his heart, and Su Yan felt that the blood in his body was instantly solidified. At this moment, the siren of the scenic area security patrol car came from a distance, and the black-clad man suddenly whistled sharply. Everyone disappeared in the wind and sand like ghosts, leaving only the mess on the ground and the shivering staff. "Are you all okay?" Old Chen asked with a pale face, but his voice was trembling that could not be concealed. Su Yan subconsciously touched his backpack and could clearly feel the edges and corners of the silk against his palm. He looked at the direction where the black-clad man disappeared. The wind and sand gradually smoothed the footprints on the ground, but could not wipe out the bloody smell remaining in the air. Those people were obviously coming for something, and the fragments of the star map in his backpack might have already drawn him into a secret vortex that spanned thousands of years. Returning to the makeshift scientific expedition tent, Su Yan locked the door and tremblingly took out the silk. Under the dim light of the desk lamp, the gold powder on the star map seemed to come alive, flickering with his breathing. He carefully spread the silk on the analysis table and turned on the multi-spectral imager - this was a cutting-edge device he secretly brought from the laboratory, which he intended to use to detect the composition of the mural pigments. When the instrument was turned on, something incredible happened: the dark patterns on the silk that were originally invisible to the naked eye emerged, and it turned out to be a three-dimensional star model, and the lines connecting the stars formed a ladder to the sky! "This is impossible..." Su Yan's voice echoed in the tent. Modern astronomical knowledge told him that such a precise three-dimensional star model requires at least radio telescope-level observation equipment to draw, and this scroll of silk was obviously made by ancient people thousands of years ago. His fingers unconsciously slid across the cinnabar characters of "Star Seekers, Knocking on Heaven's Gate" and suddenly discovered that there was a tiny symbol at the beginning of each character, like some kind of encrypted astrological code.