Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

He calmly returned the box to Yamamoto. "Well done. Abdul, is the route finalized?"

The older Bedouin stood up, the desert winds etched deep wrinkles on his face. “It takes five days to get from Siwa to the target area, with two oases along the way for resupply. But the last day is the journey.”

He shook his head. "That's a land of death. Even my people don't dare to set foot there easily."

“That’s why we’ve prepared so much equipment,” Ivan said, looking around at everyone. “This mission is very risky, but if we can find the dragon ruins, it will be a breakthrough in our understanding of dragon history for both hybrids and humans. You can ask any questions now.”

A few seconds of silence followed before Lyra asked softly, "Captain, do you really think we can find a living dragon?"

Ivan looked westward, towards the Sahara, where the sun had already sunk below the horizon.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly, “but we’ll never know the answer if we don’t try.”

The last palm trees in the Siwa Oasis gradually shrank in the rearview mirror before being swallowed by the endless yellow sand.

Ivan drove his modified off-road vehicle, feeling the transformation from hard ground to soft sand beneath his wheels.

They officially entered the Sahara, which means "great desert" in Arabic.

“Temperature 52 degrees Celsius, wind speed 15 kilometers per hour,” Mark reported from the back seat, his shirt already soaked with sweat. “Better than expected.”

Leila checked the GPS and map, "At this speed, we can reach the first campsite before dark."

Ivan nodded and adjusted the position of his sunglasses.

Even for people of mixed race, the Sahara sun is too intense.

He glanced at the two vehicles behind him through the rearview mirror. The entire archaeological team was traveling in three off-road vehicles, each towing heavy equipment.

"Captain," Yamamoto's voice came through the communicator, "I have a problem with the tire pressure in the right rear tire of my car. I may need to stop and check it."

Ivan pressed the call button. "Attention all personnel, stop for a rest in five minutes."

The vehicle stopped, and a wave of heat immediately enveloped them.

Ivan walked over to Yamamoto's car and found a sharp piece of obsidian stuck in the tire.

“Strange,” Abdul crouched down, picked up a fragment, and examined it against the sunlight. “There shouldn’t be any rocks like this around here.”

Ivan took the fragment and instantly felt a sharp pain from his fingertips; the obsidian contained a faint dragon blood reaction.

He tried to remain calm. "It was probably brought here from afar by a sandstorm. Yamamoto, change the spare tire. Let's hurry."

While everyone else was busy, Ivan quietly placed the obsidian fragments into a specially made lead container.

This level of reaction suggests the remains may be closer than initially thought.

After resuming their journey, Ivan noticed that the shape of the sand dunes began to change.

The originally gentle, wavy sand dunes gradually became steeper and more irregular in shape, as if they had been twisted by some enormous force.

“Geological changes,” Mark exclaimed excitedly into the communicator, “could be traces of ancient geological activity!”

"Or perhaps it's traces of dragon activity," Ivan thought, but didn't say it aloud.

As evening fell, they arrived at their designated campsite, a small basin surrounded by wind-eroded rocks.

The team members quickly set up sandstorm-resistant tents and activated solar panels to charge the equipment.

“I’ll be on the first watch tonight,” Ivan announced.

As a mixed-race individual, he needs far less sleep than the average person.

After everyone else had fallen asleep, Ivan sat on a rock, gazing up at the brilliant Sahara sky.

The starry sky here is clearer than anywhere else in the world, and the Milky Way stretches across the sky like a luminous river.

He took out the obsidian fragment and examined it closely in the moonlight. Faint red lines were visible inside the fragment, like congealed blood vessels.

"Can't sleep?" Leila's voice came from behind.

She held two cups of coffee and handed one to Ivan.

"Thank you," Ivan said, taking the coffee and quickly putting away the obsidian. "You should rest more; tomorrow's journey will be even more difficult."

Laila sat beside him, also gazing at the stars. "You know what? The ancient Egyptians called the Sahara a place of testing for the gods. They believed that souls that crossed this desert would be reborn."

Ivan took a sip of his coffee. "Your family is from Egypt. Do you believe in these legends?"

“My father was an archaeologist,” Leila said, her voice lowering. “Twenty years ago, he led a team into a desert in search of a lost city, and never returned. The official explanation was that they were caught in a sandstorm, but…”

She paused, "His last telegram mentioned the discovery of non-human architectural traces."

Ivan felt a chill.

Twenty years ago, the Secret Party began its systematic investigation of the Dragon Clan ruins.

"So you joined the archaeological team because..."

“Find the truth.” Lyra looked directly into Ivan’s eyes, her pupils unusually bright in the moonlight. “Just like you, Captain. Although I don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, I know it’s not just historical relics.”

Ivan didn't answer; Leila was more perceptive than he had imagined.

The two sat in silence until Leila yawned.

"Go to sleep," Ivan said softly. "There's a long road ahead tomorrow."

After Lyra returned to the tent, Ivan took out the Dragon Blood Detector.

The instrument readings are slowly rising; they are indeed approaching a source.

He looked northwest, in the direction indicated by the probe, and in the direction they would be heading the next day.

The Sahara night wind grew fierce, carrying sand that lashed against Ivan's face.

The wind carried sounds, like distant whispers or the echo of flapping wings.

Ivan gripped the silver pendant hanging around his neck, a gift from his grandfather, engraved with ancient dragon script: "Guided by blood, never straying from the path."

Chapter 127 Sahara Adventure (Part 2)

The fourth day's journey was more difficult than expected.

A sudden sandstorm forced the archaeological team off course, resulting in the loss of a drone and some supplies.

“We only have enough water for three days,” Amina reported anxiously. “If we don’t find the ruins by tomorrow, we must consider returning.”

Ivan checked the readings of the dragon blood detector; the pointer was almost jumping off the scale.

"Just one more day," he insisted, "we're very close to our goal."

Abdul squatted on the ground, gently stroking the sand with his fingers. "The sand here is different. It's older and heavier."

He grabbed a handful of sand and let it flow through his fingers, “like it had been baptized by fire.”

Ivan noticed tiny crystals shimmering in the sand.

He crouched down and felt the ground temperature with his palm; it was at least five degrees higher than the surrounding sand.

This is not normal.

"Mark, scan this area with ground-penetrating radar," Ivan ordered.

The geologists set up their equipment, and an unusual image quickly appeared on the screen: "There's a large structure about 20 meters underground! It looks like the top of a pyramid? But it's older than any pyramid in Egypt!"

The archaeological team instantly erupted in excitement.

Lyra quickly flipped through the documents. "If this really is a dragon ruin, then according to the records, the entrance should be here."

She turned northwest, "The direction of sunset!"

Ivan felt his heart race.

He directed his team to place markers in the suspicious areas in preparation for a detailed exploration.

Yamamoto exclaimed in surprise, "Captain, look at this!"

Japanese technical experts unearthed a shard of pottery from the sand, which was engraved with intricate patterns.

Ivan took the pottery shard and instantly felt a surge of heat rush from his fingertips to his arm. The dragon blood residue on the shard reacted so strongly that it almost made him dizzy.

“This is…” Leila leaned closer to examine it. “Dragon scales! This pattern has never appeared in ancient Egyptian art, but I’ve seen a similar description in a Sumerian clay tablet, representing the mark of a dragon!”

Ivan carefully placed the pottery shards into the protective box. "This means we've found the right place. Everyone, search for more clues within a 50-meter radius of this location."

Over the next few hours, the archaeological team discovered more astonishing evidence: a fragment of a stone tablet inscribed with unknown writing; and several oddly shaped metal pieces, whose composition analysis revealed the presence of an alloy rarely seen on Earth.

Mark spotted a tunnel entrance leading to an underground structure on the radar.

“The entrance is buried in sand, but the structure is intact,” Mark reported excitedly, “if we can clear away the surface sand.”

“Too dangerous,” Abdul interrupted. “After sunset, this desert is no longer for humankind. I hear the warning in the wind.”

Ivan looked westward; the sun had become a blood-red disc, slowly sinking into the sea of ​​sand.

Sunsets in the Sahara are always surprisingly fast, with darkness rolling in like a tide.

“Abdul is right,” Ivan decided. “Tonight we’ll record the coordinates and fortify the camp. We’ll start digging after sunrise tomorrow.”

As night fell, the archaeological team sat around the campfire to share their discoveries.

Excitement spread among the team members, but Abdul remained silent, glancing warily at the dark desert from time to time.

“These characters,” Lyra said, pointing to the symbols she had copied from the stone tablet, “are unlike any known ancient language, but several symbols resemble the legendary dragon script.”

"The alloy ratio of the metal sheet is very special," Yamamoto added, "with a melting point of over 5000 degrees Celsius, which is difficult to smelt even with modern technology."

Ivan listened quietly, his blood surging with increasing restlessness as the night deepened.

As a special hybrid, he can sense changes that ordinary people cannot perceive, such as the sounds of the desert night, subtle changes in the wind, and almost imperceptible vibrations from deep underground.

"I'm going to patrol the area around the camp," Ivan said, getting up from the campfire, actually wanting to check his senses on his own.

After walking about 100 meters, Ivan stopped.

The ground temperature here is significantly higher than the surrounding area, and the sand sparkles with more crystals.

He crouched down, placed his palms flat on the sand, closed his eyes, and concentrated.

His hybrid's sensory abilities allowed him to "listen" to faint vibrations underground.

At first, there was only the sound of sand grains rubbing against each other in the wind. Then, almost imperceptibly, a regular pulsation, like the beating of a huge heart, or the rhythm of a machine in operation, appeared.

Ivan suddenly opened his eyes. There was indeed something underground, and it might be alive!

A piercing alarm sounded from the camp.