Cold, hard air, heavy with the smell of dust and preservative, flooded their nostrils.
The low, regular beep of instruments sounded in their ears.
And... voices?
"She's awake! Awake! Su Wan's awake!"
"Doctor! Doctor! She opened her eyes!"
Su Wan painfully opened her heavy eyelids. The glaring white fluorescent lights made her squint instantly. What met her eyes was a snow-white ceiling, a metal stand with an IV bottle, and several familiar faces etched with extreme anxiety and wild joy—Professor Wang, Zhang Da Li, and a few other team members who had stayed at the camp!
"Hos... hospital?" Su Wan's throat was as dry as sandpaper, her voice a rasp.
"Temporary medical station! Right next to the camp! Thank heavens! You're finally back!" Zhang Da Li, this iron-tower of a man, now had red-rimmed eyes, his voice choked. "You vanished for three whole days! After the sandstorm stopped, the tomb entrance was half-buried by shifting sand. We dug like mad. Only found you five unconscious in a corner of the main burial chamber! All ragged, covered in scrapes and bruises, severely dehydrated, like you'd been trekking and fighting in the desert for days! Scared us to death!"
Professor Wang pressed Su Wan down as she tried to sit up, his eyes full of retrospective fear and curiosity. "What on earth happened? During the sandstorm, what did you experience in the main chamber? Why were you unconscious? And these strange injuries and dehydration..."
Qin Yuan, Chen Feng, Xiao Liu, and Xiao Wang also gradually woke up in nearby beds, equally weak, but their eyes filled with the daze of survival and an indescribable heaviness.
"We... went to the Ming Dynasty..." Qin Yuan's voice was hoarse and tired, yet carried an undeniable certainty. "We... personally... went back... witnessed General Huo Xiao's final battle..."
Over the next few days, in the isolation room of the medical station, the five took turns reporting their bizarre experience in detail to Professor Wang and the investigation team sent by higher authorities. Initially, no one believed it, attributing it to collective hallucination from the sandstorm or post-traumatic stress disorder. But as they described a great number of details of a Ming frontier military camp (including soldier uniforms, weapon styles, beacon structure, diet, even Eunuch Wang's mannerisms)—details that highly matched some extremely obscure surviving records from Ming border garrison archives—the skepticism began to wane.
The most compelling evidence was what they brought back:
1. Huo Xiao's Blood-Crystal Fragments: The fingernail-sized, dark-blood-stained strange crystal Su Wan had still been clutching tightly when unconscious. Modern instruments could not fully analyze its composition, but detected that it had once contained an abnormally active, unexplainable energy field, highly homologous with the anomalous magnetic fluctuations remaining in the tomb chamber. Its material completely matched the empty gem socket on Huo Xiao's knife pommel.
2. Sand Grains and Bloodstains: The sand grains mixed in their clothing and hair, upon analysis, had mineral composition and age consistent with samples from around the tomb, but some grains showed traces of... biological blood residue not belonging to modern times! Radiocarbon dating pointed to the Ming era! One blood sample matched the blood on Su Wan's crystal. DNA testing (though fragmented due to age) indicated they came from the same individual—a powerful male with certain ancient ethnic markers.
3. Detail Consistency: The five were questioned separately. Their descriptions of key figures (Huo Xiao, Shen Yan, Eunuch Wang, A Yi Sha), events (trade trap, Oirat ambush, details of Huo Xiao's death, A Yi Sha's appearance) were highly consistent, especially the location of Huo Xiao's fatal wounds (right rib penetration, left shoulder blade crack, left ulna old injury?—they had recorded the remains' injuries early in the tomb excavation!) and the characteristics of that knife (inlaid ruby), perfect match!
4. Su Wan's "Star Chart" and "Chant": The star chart Su Wan drew from memory and the few syllables she uttered were analyzed by top astronomers and linguists. The chart was indeed an ancient, extremely rare "space-time orientation map," and the syllables belonged to a long-extinct ancient Western Regions language, meaning "connection," "return path," "blood guide."
The evidence was overwhelming. Though the scientific community still couldn't fully explain the mechanism, the fact that the five had experienced "a space-time displacement event triggered by extreme geomagnetic anomalies and the energy field of an unknown ancient artifact (mirror, slab), transcending current scientific understanding" was secretly confirmed by authorities as a top-level real event! The value and significance of Huo Xiao's tomb were elevated to an unprecedented height!
Once mostly recovered, the five, with completely different mindsets, re-entered the main burial chamber of Huo Xiao's tomb. The sandstorm traces had been cleared. The cracked bronze mirror with the coiled dragon and star patterns and the inscribed slab still lay quietly in their original positions.
This time, their gazes penetrated the surface of the artifacts, seeing the flesh and blood of history.
"Look at this mural..." Su Wan pointed to a mural on the dome depicting a triumphant scene, her voice trembling. "Before, we only noticed the grand spectacle. But now look... in this corner, this blurry figure on a white horse, offering a hada scarf... doesn't it look like A Yi Sha? And this scholar standing behind Huo Xiao, with a humble smile... isn't that Shen Yan?"
"The burial goods..." Qin Yuan picked up an exquisite jade belt hook. "This style isn't standard Ming official issue; it has distinct Western Regions tribal characteristics... This could be a gift from A Yi Sha?" He pointed to the pile of weapons, at an inconspicuous, turquoise-inlaid dagger remnant. "This... could this be the dagger A Yi Sha finally placed on Huo Xiao's chest?"
Chen Feng, meanwhile, used his instruments to carefully scan the mirror, slab, and the now-dull blood-crystal fragment. "The energy residue trail shows... a deep-level resonance exists between the blood-crystal fragment and the mirror and slab. The immense spiritual energy and life information released at Huo Xiao's death were recorded by his blood and this strange gem fragment, and through some mechanism we don't understand, pulled our bodies across... And A Yi Sha's final appearance and placement of the dagger may have unintentionally strengthened some kind of 'anchor point' effect around Huo Xiao's body. Coupled with Su Wan activating the correct stellar energy, it allowed us to return..."
Professor Wang stroked the re-interpreted epitaph rubbing, tears streaming down his old face. "'Remains returned and buried here, soul guarding the frontier'... 'Returned and buried'! Before, we always thought it was done by the court. But now it seems... such a remote location, such high specifications yet secretive burial, why would the court bother? And this epitaph is vague about Huo Xiao's death but lavishes praise on his achievements... This is clearly deliberately avoiding the truth that he died 'due to court strife, exhausted reinforcements and strength,' while simultaneously rehabilitating his name! This tomb... this tomb was likely built secretly by A Yi Sha, or loyal remnants of Huo Xiao's forces, after the situation stabilized somewhat! They couldn't fight the court, so they used this method to let their General rest eternally where he sacrificed himself, forever guarding this frontier he protected with his life!"
All the clues fell into place:
• Shen Yan's betrayal (likely long since bribed by the Oirat or Supervisor Liu?), Eunuch Wang's pressure, and court corruption jointly led to Huo Xiao's "exhausted reinforcements and strength."
• A Yi Sha and Huo Xiao shared a deep bond transcending ethnicity (perhaps love?). Her appearance delayed Huo Xiao's death, and in the end, she tried to guard his dignity (placing the token dagger).
• After Huo Xiao's death, A Yi Sha and/or his loyal followers (perhaps there were survivors?) secretly retrieved his remains and built this tomb near where he fell (the tomb location), burying him with the highest honors they could give, inscribing his achievements, and implicitly condemning the injustice.
• The mysterious mirror and slab might be some ancient sacrificial or astrological instrument, placed in the tomb by A Yi Sha (or the tribe), entrusting it with the wish to guide the hero's spirit or protect the tomb, yet inadvertently becoming the "key" connecting space-time centuries later.
The mist of history was dispelled. The hero's lament and unfinished affections found their deepest interpretation through the cold artifacts and the bizarre experience. The blood-crystal fragment, like the final physical evidence of General Huo Xiao's unyielding will and his intense bond with that moment in time, fell silent after exhausting its space-time bridging energy.