Transmigration: of Mysteries and Songs

Chapter 80: The Maze

"Let's check it out for ourselves then." Situ lifted an eyebrow. "I assume you've talked to the villagers?"

"Of course! I've never messed anything up before." Zhang Xin grinned, and patted Cheng Shifei on the shoulder. "You can ask Shifei if you don't believe my words."

"Oh? You haven't? What was it last year when..." Zhang Xin had an arm over his mouth before Cheng Shifei could finish his sentence.

"Last year?" Situ turned back to Zhang Xin. "Are you hiding anything from me? If you can't do your job properly in Yunzhong Pass, you can swap places with Shifei and guard Yanmen Pass instead."

"Situ!" Zhang Xin roared.

Feng Luodi was surprised. What is going on? Situ turned away from them, a slight smile on his lips. Zhang Xin ran and knelt in front of Situ.

"I promise it wouldn't happen again! You know you can entrust Yunzhong Pass to me!"

Situ coughed. "On account of you finding the location of the Remembrance of the Desert, I'll let you off this one time. No second chances."

"Thank you, General!" Zhang Xin dashed out of the tent in joy. "I'll gather two thousand soldiers, and we'll head to the Remembrance of the Desert immediately!"

As soon as Zhang Xin left the tent, Situ and Cheng Shifei exchanged smiles and fist bumps. The confused Feng Luodi finally caught on to something, and widened her eyes.

"That was planned?"

Cheng Shifei smiled, and answered her doubts. "Zhang loves to ask for credits for the things he does, easily becoming arrogant and rash when he does so. Now that he has found the Remembrance of the Desert, we knew he'd be at it again."

"Oh..." Feng Luodi nodded in understanding. "But why do I feel that Situ just merely wants to deprive him of his reward? Did he perhaps...put you guys in a difficult position when he'd asked for his reward previously?"

Cheng Shifei turned to Situ, surprised, but quickly masked it with a cough. "I'll...go check on how Zhang Xin's doing."

Shaking his head, Situ smiled, left the tent as well. Confused, Feng Luodi could only follow behind him.

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It was two hours before they'd reached the place where Zhang Xin had found with the expedition. The scene that unfolded before their eyes was the stuff of legends and myths. The desert was calm, and not a single wisp of wind trespassed the area. However, it was a different story in the distance.  Winds howled and sand flew across the lands, pools of quicksand sifting with the force of the winds. One could catch glimpses of palaces beneath the sands, the stones old and worn, their carvings starkly different from those of the neighboring countries.

The old soldier that they'd picked out for his knowledge of the desert walked forward. "This is...stunning!  I've never seen anything like this in my 60 years of living in the desert. The sands..."

Zhang Xin quickly interrupted his reverie. "Can you estimate when the quicksand will stop? What is the window of time we have before it starts again?"

"Give me some time, General Zhang. I have never seen such a sight before, but all quicksand follow the same patterns."

The Generals and the troops kept quiet, as the old soldier slowly examined the quicksand. Finally, he spoke up again. "It looks very intimidating, but it is nothing but quicksand of the most ordinary kind. It will stop in three days, and it'll start again after the next three."

Suddenly, music floated from the direction of the palaces. It was light and mythical, as if it reached their ears across the seas.

"It's the sound of a zither." Feng Luodi exclaimed. "But it's not playing any melody nor score. It feels like someone is just playing the strings haphazardly." There's a zither in the Remembrance of the Desert! Could it be...Remembrance?