"Liang Qian frowned slightly and said to me, 'Actually, I don't know the details clearly. It’s just that when we were in Heizhugou, I found the Ghost Eye before you did. After your grandfather found the Ghost Eye, he became rather abnormal. He took several scientists down into it, and when he came back out, he was the only one left. The scientists guarding the Ghost Eye entrance were all knocked unconscious by your grandfather. Later, he even tricked you into going to rescue those scientists; in truth, he wanted to lure you there and take you into the Ghost Eye. As for those two pieces of yellow paper, I truly don't know what they are, because Old Man Ting snatched most of them away. All I can tell you is that they are some kind of ancient seal.'"

I had already learned what the yellow paper was from Boss Wu. Hearing Liang Qian say this now, while it was the truth, clearly meant she was deliberately hiding a lot, because if Liang Qian hadn't understood the content of the yellow paper, she wouldn't have come to Lop Nur.

Liang Qian paused, then continued, "There's a reason I said your grandfather is no longer human. Our clan has dealt with the Ghost Eye long ago. What crawls out of the Ghost Eye are all monsters from the Yellow Springs. Our clan was a noble family before the Tang Dynasty, but we were wiped out by the evil fire from the Ghost Eye, which is why we’ve fallen to our current state. That long-necked monster we saw in the Heizhugou cave also came from the Ghost Eye. You can imagine, if your grandfather could enter the ghost cave and emerge unscathed, he must no longer be human either."

Since she had promised to tell the truth from the start, I didn't doubt her description, but whether she was holding anything back remained unknown to me.

At this moment, Da Xiong interjected from the side, "Then let me ask you, are you a descendant of the Wei Kingdom people?"

Liang Qian nodded and replied, "That's right. I imagine you’ve also read the will of King Wei. Back then, King Wei wanted to kill all his clan members as sacrifices to the Ghost Eye, but his sister was still young. To preserve the remnants of the Wei lineage, he secretly let his sister go. I am a descendant of King Wei's sister. Now, there are only a few people left with Wei blood." She then held up two fingers playfully. "Alright, that’s the second question."

Looking at Liang Qian’s playful gesture, I wanted to punch Da Xiong. It was such an obvious question that he could have guessed the answer, yet he wasted one of my chances to ask a question!

Da Xiong opened his mouth to ask again. I knew, following his logic, he would ask Liang Qian why she went to Heizhugou, but that question was actually unimportant now. Since she was a descendant of the Wei people, there were countless reasons for her to return to her ancestors' ruins, and they certainly wouldn't concern us.

So, I quickly cut off Da Xiong's words and asked preemptively, "Why did you follow us here?"

Da Xiong was startled and looked at me. I stared back at him with an expression reserved for idiots, and he immediately understood. He grumbled irritably, "Yeah, why!"

Liang Qian hesitated, her delicate brows tightly furrowed. After some thought, she stood up and looked at me seriously: "Do you really need to know?"

Both Da Xiong and I nodded. Da Xiong spoke up, "Hurry up and confess! Confession will bring lighter treatment!"

Liang Qian hesitated for a moment before speaking, "You all know the Wei Kingdom was destroyed by the spectral fire flying out of the Ghost Eye. This seems like a natural disaster, but it’s not. I believe it was premeditated. In fact, my ancestor, King Wei, had already suspected this. At that time, the Wei Kingdom was at the height of its power, protected by the Torch God and the Giant Viper. If they rebelled, it would have been a massive threat to the imperial court. Furthermore, since the Wei people were not descendants of Yan and Huang, possessing extremely long lifespans and peculiar appearances, they stood a very real chance of establishing a separate regime. After witnessing King Wei's formidable power, the Emperor would absolutely not feel at ease about him and would surely try every means to destroy the Wei Kingdom."

I frowned and asked, "Are you saying the fall of the Wei Kingdom was premeditated? But who could control the Ghost Eye?"

Liang Qian shook her head, biting her lower lip, "I don't know. I didn't find any clues in Heizhugou. Now, I can only start from the Ghost Eye. That’s why I infiltrated Boss Wu's team and followed you all here. When you were attacked by the giant lizards, I did fire to help you, but there were too many lizards, and they were too fast; there was nothing I could do. After entering this place, I thought you might not believe me, so I didn't reveal myself."

Hearing her say this, I thought carefully; her words seemed to have no flaws. I squeezed the bronze token in my pocket, wondering if I should show it to her, but then I realized I couldn't fully trust her yet, so I dropped the idea for the time being.

After Liang Qian finished speaking, she unhooked her canteen, took a sip, and told us, "Alright, I’ve answered the three questions. There’s one more thing I need to tell you: this tunnel dug by the Russians very likely connects to the Ghost Eye, which is why they dug up these strange things. We must be very careful here."

Da Xiong grumbled, "Hold on, girl, don't start giving orders. We haven't completely accepted you as a comrade-in-arms. You better behave later."

Liang Qian let out a cold laugh and ignored Da Xiong, saying to me, "Come on, I’ll show you something."

With that, she picked up her miner's lamp and pushed open a door, leading the way out. I followed behind her, while Da Xiong remained seated, looking unconvinced, muttering, "You say go, and I go? I refuse to move!"

I walked over and gave him a kick, saying, "Can you be a bit more mature, Comrade Wang Chunxiong? Hurry up and stop dawdling!"

Da Xiong reluctantly stood up and said, "You guy, you must be completely bewitched by this girl's beauty to trust her so much. Just wait until you regret it."

I ignored Da Xiong and followed Liang Qian through the hall lined with containers to a door at the far end. This door was made of iron but was unlocked. The ground was littered with rust flakes, clearly indicating Liang Qian had been in there recently.

Liang Qian didn't open the door but turned back to glance at us and said mysteriously, "Take a look at your phones now, and you'll notice something unusual about this place."

Phones? I was slightly perplexed. What did turning off my phone have to do with anything?

I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the applications; nothing had changed. I paused, then flipped through the contacts, wondering if a mysterious new number had appeared, but there was nothing. Finally, I even opened a game to see if the in-game gold coins had increased, but still no change.

I looked up at Liang Qian, who was just watching us with a half-smile. While I was still puzzled, Da Xiong beside me suddenly yelped as if he had stepped on his own tail, pointing at his phone and stuttering incoherently, "Xiao Chuan, look here! Damn... this is utterly unbelievable!"

He was pointing at the information bar at the very top of his phone, shaking it non-stop in excitement. Impatiently, I snatched it over and looked closely, finding nothing abnormal.

He had one unread message, sent five days ago, from someone named "Brother Chun," a beer promoter we met at a bar who always sent advertisements. Nothing strange there.

I thought for a moment and said, "Could it be... Brother Chun is hitting on you?"

Da Xiong spat and pointed at the battery icon in the information bar, "It's the battery level! Look, it’s 100%!"

At his exclamation, I was greatly shocked. I thought, No way, how is this possible? I checked my own phone—it was also fully charged.

When I left the camp, my battery level was definitely below fifty percent. Since arriving here, my phone flashlight had been on constantly for at least five or six hours, yet the power had automatically recharged to full. This was incredible.

Recalling the electric lights and the recorder from before, I understood. At first, we guessed it was wind power generation, but now it seemed that wasn't the case. This place seemed to possess an inexplicable power capable of supplying energy to all electrical devices, without even needing wires.

Da Xiong said to me, "We’re rich now! After we get out, if we just get the government to run wires here, then what's the point of the Three Gorges Dam or the Gezhouba Dam? They can all be demolished! Then the state will be happy and give us a few beach villas... and maybe find us a couple of Filipino maids..."

I ignored him as he started rambling again and asked Liang Qian, "What exactly is going on here?"

Liang Qian shook her head and replied, "Actually, I’m not sure either. But the secret should be inside this door."

Using Liang Qian's miner's lamp, I examined the iron door. It had a very faint lightning bolt symbol on it, and all the surrounding wires passed through small holes into the space behind the door. It looked like some kind of power distribution room.