This reminded Rou Yi of her adventures in the Himalayas and the Bermuda Triangle. Faced with life and death, she might hesitate, but she wouldn't regret it.

The three chatted idly as they walked. Before they knew it, the sun was setting again. The dunes the camels climbed were dyed orange by the red sun on the horizon. Fatty told Duan Pengfei and Rou Yi that after climbing this dune, they needed to quickly find a place to shelter from the wind and set up camp, or it would be difficult to find one after dark.

After climbing the dune, Duan Pengfei seemed to have discovered something. Before Fatty could speak, he pointed into the distance and asked Rou Yi and Fatty, "What's that?"

Fatty, with his good eyesight, looked in the direction Duan Pengfei was pointing and saw a brown rock in the distance. He said to Duan Pengfei, "Just a brown rock. What's the big deal?"

Duan Pengfei shook his head and said, "It's not just a rock. This is a special landform in the Lop Nur area, a typical wind-eroded landform, a yardang."

Having said that, Duan Pengfei frowned and fell into thought: "That's not right. This light brown mudstone is characteristic of the ancient Loulan Kingdom's rock formations, but we're not heading in the direction of the Loulan ruins!"

"No, no, the ruins of the ancient Loulan Kingdom aren't here."

Duan Pengfei tried his best to find relevant memories in his mind, and finally confirmed: "I did a lot of research on the Loulan ruins with Professor Chen before. I can be sure that this area is not the site of the ancient Loulan Kingdom, but..."

Duan Pengfei hesitated for a moment: "But it really does look a bit like the Loulan ruins from the outside..."

"Could it be a mirage?" Rou Yi asked.

Fatty and Duan Pengfei observed for a while, feeling unsure.

In the end, Fatty made the decision: "Let's go take a look."

As the distance closed, the three determined that the Danxia landform in the distance was not a mirage, but actually existed.

At the same time, it was getting dark, and the moonlight was dim, with almost no light. In the pitch-black conditions, Fatty took out a high-powered flashlight from his toolbox to light the way.

The light from the flashlight had a very limited effect in the dark night of the boundless desert. Fatty and the others could only see the road conditions two or three meters ahead.

"Eh?"

A spark of light suddenly appeared in the darkness ahead, like the glow of a firefly flickering not far away.

"That is..." Duan Pengfei stared at the glow in confusion.

The glow did not flutter and scatter, but remained steadily concentrated at one point. This point was exactly on the route Fatty and the others were traveling, and should be near the ruins.

Fatty reminded, "Be careful. This desert is a bit strange."

The three continued to move towards the glow. The glow gradually grew larger, and from a distance they could see that it was slightly moving.

When they were less than a hundred meters away from the glow, Fatty and the others realized that the flickering light was the flickering of flames. Someone had lit a bonfire – there were people inside the suspected ruins of the ancient Loulan Kingdom!

Fatty, Rou Yi, and Duan Pengfei's hearts jumped to their throats. The sudden appearance of human traces in this vast desert always made people feel uneasy.

Duan Pengfei swallowed and his palms were covered with sweat. He said, "It can't be that some backpackers are spending the night in the no-man's land, right?"

Rou Yi offered another explanation: "Could it be people from a camel caravan?"

Duan Pengfei thought, if the others in the camel caravan hadn't gotten lost, they should have already gone deep into Lop Nur. How could they appear here? He had already delayed his journey by more than a day due to his coma. Could it be that someone else had also delayed their journey like him?

The more Duan Pengfei thought about it, the more frightened he became. The temperature dropped sharply in the desert at night, and the eerie wind, combined with the dim glow, made people feel scared from the bottom of their hearts.

Fatty pulled out a Glock from the gun holster in his clothing layer, held it to his side, and said, "I don't care what kind of monsters there are, I, Fatty, will beat them all to pieces. Let's go. I'll take the lead."

Fatty could always remain calm when others were afraid. As an atheist, Fatty always felt that his muscles and a pistol made him invincible. He could deal with the mysterious "Zambiga" and giant pythons, so what was there to be afraid of?

No matter what was in the desert, it couldn't be that monsters would appear again, right?

Fatty and the others came to a place about ten meters away from the bonfire and saw that several people were surrounding the bonfire. These people looked a little nervous and seemed wary of Fatty and the others' arrival.

In fact, the people by the bonfire had seen a light in the distance from afar, and the light source was moving towards them. At first, they thought it was an unexplained "ghost fire" in the desert. Later, they discovered it was a camel, and there were people on the camel. It was easy to make people feel defensive about the bizarre event of someone traveling in the uninhabited desert area at night.

Duan Pengfei came closer, saw the appearance of the people clearly through the firelight, quickly jumped off the camel, and ran towards those people, shouting as he ran: "Professor Chen, classmates, it's me, Duan Pengfei! It's me! Duan Pengfei!"

The people by the bonfire saw that the person who came was really Duan Pengfei, and they swarmed up and hugged Duan Pengfei tightly.

"Teacher Duan! We thought you weren't coming back!" Several students said, sobbing as they hugged Duan Pengfei.

Professor Chen, who looked haggard, patted Duan Pengfei on the shoulder: "Xiao Duan, it's good that you're back!"

Professor Chen looked to be in his sixties and was a thin, little old man. He had white hair and wore a pair of black, thick-rimmed glasses. Perhaps because of the black sandstorm, there was a crack in the lens of his glasses. He had heavy bags under his eyes, and his eyes were red and swollen, as if he had suffered a lot on this trip and had been battered by the wind and rain.

Duan Pengfei nodded to Professor Chen, responding to Professor Chen's concern.

Duan Pengfei brought Fatty and Rou Yi to everyone and introduced them to everyone: "This is Mr. Peter, and this is Ms. Anna. They are security personnel sent by the United States. Their team was also scattered by the black sandstorm. I was buried in the sand and lost consciousness in the desert, and almost died. These two saved me."

When Professor Chen heard Duan Pengfei say that Fatty and Rou Yi were Americans, his face suddenly darkened, but then he heard that Rou Yi and Fatty had saved Duan Pengfei, and the expression on his face became complicated. It was difficult for Fatty and Rou Yi to understand what Professor Chen was thinking.

But after all, it was an international cooperation, and Professor Chen still walked towards the two of them politely, extended his hand and shook hands with them, saying, "Nice to meet you."

Fatty was quite surprised, thinking that his current identity was American, so it was no surprise that Professor Chen spoke English. Fatty didn't care that much. When shaking hands, he said, "Professor Chen, I've admired you for a long time. We both can speak Chinese. We can communicate in Chinese!"