Finding the dungeon

The next day early morning, after a happy dinner day, Chen Murong prepared himself to go to Mount Taiyuan.

What kind of place is Mount Taiyuan?

Mount Taiyuan was actually a very famous site for the people of Xia kingdom. Nobody in the kingdom would not know of this renowned historical place.

Following the fall of the Sheng dynasty 300 years ago, Xia kingdom was found by Xia family patriarch, Xia Guanzhou. At the end of the Sheng dynasty, the empire declined amidst famine, corruption, and feuding between royal families. There was a vast rift between the royal class and other classes like heaven and earth. The unrest by the lower class was happening everywhere in the empire. Under the chaotic situation, Xia Guanzhou rallied four other prominent families under one banner, overthrown the previous Sheng dynasty.

The newly founded Xia kingdom embraced the hereditary feudal clan system and the serfdom system. This reform greatly startled the other nations on the continent and gave an increase in the power of great families.

Goguryeo empire, one of the four other countries on the continent, declared the Xia kingdom's foundation to be illegal due to the lack of previous royal lineage and proceeded to invade the Xia kingdom, starting a war that lasted more than a decade.

The newborn Xia kingdom, however, did not yield. Rallying countless people under different families/clans, they met the invasion with similar appalling force. For more than twelve years, the blood-stained across the south-eastern part of the continent.

As the war last longer, the advantage of the war seemed to be shifting to the favor of Goguryeo's side due to the internal struggles among major Xia kingdom's families. Dong Juming, 157th king of Goguryeo empire, took the opportunity to march more than ten million elite soldiers to force the Xia kingdom to surrender.

However, in the end, the Goguryeo army was unexpectedly defeated by falling into the trap of Xia kingdom's great general, Ye Mingsi. The entire food stockpile of the whole army was burnt into ashes overnight at the peak of Mount Taiyuan. Dong Juming reluctantly retreated the army back to the Goguryeo empire due to the lack of provision. Goguryeo's army has been trapped on the way back and, most of them, have been annihilated.

Over the countless years of recuperation, Xia kingdom grew stronger while Goguryeo empire grew weaker due to the result of the famous final Taiyuan battle. Finally, Xia kingdom was able to force a peace treaty with Goguryeo empire, ending the last warring period between countries in the continent.

Nowadays, Mount Taiyuan has been preserved as a national park. To go there, Chen Murong needs to take the hyperloop train for about two hours to arrive at the area around the mountain and another 10 minutes' walk to reach the foot of the hill.

Chen Murong packed weapons, food, and camping necessity that he found in his family storage room. It was a sunny day. Nothing was more suitable for a significant departure than good weather. The sun was shining brilliantly on the bright blue sky, revealing a busy atmosphere in the early morning in a typical large city. He called the taxi to take him to the hyperloop train station.

This hyperloop train was a new way of fast intercity transportation that replaced traditional rail station five years ago. The hyperloop train used cylindrical pods to carry passengers to travel through tubes from which most of the air had been removed to reduce friction. Those pods were designed to float on air skis rather than utilizing wheels like a traditional train or car, using the same basic idea as an air hockey table. This allowed the pods to travel at a speed up to thousands of kilometers per hour.

After some time, the taxi that Murong called had already arrived. The driver was waiting comfortably, sitting with his chin resting on his fist and listening to the radio.

"Hello, good morning. Please get me to the hyperloop train station," Murong said while he was opening the car door and getting into this standard black taxi.

"Good morning, sir! Sure! It probably takes about 15 minutes in this traffic," the driver said.

"Do you want to listen to any music?" The taxi owner continued the conversation.

"Whatever. They are all fine with me," Murong replied to the driver.

As their car was moving, the traffic was louder and denser. Traveling in the city at this hour, you could see all kinds of the scene; schoolchildren were kicking a ball in the playground, individuals hurrying on a bike, people queuing longly for the bus, or even an old woman wrapped in dirty quilts, sitting on the floor, begging.

It was such a swift car trip, though. Not long, they arrived at the memorial park in front of the Xici hyperloop train station. Their heavy tires were swishing in the wet streets caused by morning sprinklers when they were parking. Murong got out of the taxi, paid the bill, and continued walking into the hyperloop train station. On the way, he noticed a painted sign in our Blue planet language (Pangean) on the pavement that said: "Welcome to Xici station."

At the hyperloop train station's lobby, Murong bought a train ticket from an automatic selling machine and went through a simple cursory security check.

"Your pod is on the third floor," the security officer told him, "You could take the escalator up and wait for the boarding time."

Murong said, "Thank you." to the officer and went to find the platform for the south-west line on the third floor as he suggested.

On the third floor, hanging from the roof, a large digital departure board was shown to all passengers. He upturned his face and saw his pod and platform number listed—to Mount Taiyuan. This information was confirmed by a voice on the loudspeaker, "Platform eight, for Kunming to Mount Taiyuan, Xinjiang, and Beidu." He then waited for the boarding time and got into his pod at around 7.15 am.

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*** Murong's point of view. ***

The pod that I boarded was full of people. There were only two other adult passengers, though. They seemed to be elementary school teachers since they came with about two dozen children. I sat down and drowsed until I was woken by a few beeping sounds on the closing door signals.

The pod was pulled out of Kunming city without ceremony. Turning slightly towards the window and leaning my back to the rest of the seat, I opened one little bottle of water that I purchased from the grocery store in front of the train track. It was not cold now, but it would do. I poured some water into a plastic cup, screwed the top back on, and slipped the bottle into my backpack.

The pod was quietly moving along. We whipped past the business area of the city in a blur of morning sunshine. From my pod, I got a glimpse of a bookstore I often went to, the playground that was turned into a large and modern department store, and the Changjun middle school, where my brother, Huilong, currently attended. Looking out the pod window, it was like gazing through a museum exhibition window of busy city life. However, one saw the picture but heard no sound.

After a hundred kilometers or so, we were rushing through a suburb and then along the banks of the Yangxi river, heading into the Pangea continent's inner land. For another 10 minutes passed, we rarely saw the city houses anymore in the scene. We only saw the compact small villages with farmland and bare trees. Some of the fields in the farmland had already been plowed and awaited planting. Cows and horses were also seen running around the grassy turf.

Seeing this beautiful and peaceful scene, I could not stop comparing it with my time in the apocalypse period. If I had not experienced the past life apocalypse myself, I couldn't believe all these wonderful open fields would one day become fierce battlegrounds for humanity to survive. These wide landscapes of civilization would be soaked in blood and thick with the graves of dead humans. A good school turned into a ruin, a river poisoned, a pond shrunk and filled with bones and blood. I had suffered a deeper pain of pondering closely in the past.

The closer we got to Mouth Taiyuan, the more anxious I felt. What if I couldn't find the dungeon? How should I proceed next? Fortunately, I didn't have to suffer from my thinking for too long. Less than two hours, we had arrived at Mount Taiyuan train station. It was a modern four-story building located on the right-hand side of the track. Personally, I loved the speed of this hyperloop train and the knowledge that it wasn't stopping anywhere but just making a straight line to Mount Taiyuan. The journey took only one hour and fifty-four minutes.

After arriving at the Mouth Taiyuan train station, I left the station and walked toward Mount Taiyuan. It took about 10 minutes' walk, and I reached the foot of the mountain. I looked at the surrounding. There were only two buildings in the area, a mom-and-pop grocery store, and a small ancient inn. I came directly to that inn and went in to ask about the direction.

It turned out that the inn was empty except for two women employees, wearing hunter leather coats and smoking.

"Do you want a room or dining service?" One of the women asked me.

"Wouldn't I be happier sitting in the cozy inn and having lunch before going through the uncomfortable forest?" I thought to myself, and I immediately told her that I wanted a dining service.

"What would you like to order?" The woman asked and pointed at the menu board on the wall.

"Have you served lunch set yet?" I asked.

"Sure, we serve anything you order," the server responded with a smile, "I will be right back."

Ten minutes later, the same brown uniform woman brought me a glass of orange juice and a lunch tray consisting of boiled broccoli, French fries, and a fillet of black peppered cod with a brownie as a dessert. This set was a usual western-style lunch found in the Laputa kingdom.

I amazingly enjoyed the ordinary food prepared by this small inn than I thought I should. Maybe because, technically, I have just come back from the catastrophe period.

After I was full, I asked for some information about the mountain from them. They told me roughly about the route that I should take and gave me a crude drawing map. I said "Thank you." to them, paid the bill, and left the inn. It was time to find this dungeon…