Cheng Luo remembered that she still had a blanket in her backpack. Tianmiao looked so fragile, she should cover her with it as it was too cold at night.
She went to the pile of supplies by the door to find her backpack, and with effort found it in the corner using the faint firelight. When she was about to reach for it, she noticed something protruding underneath, stark white.
Cheng Luo’s heart suddenly tightened inexplicably. She gently moved her backpack aside, then let out a scream and sat down on the ground.
Que Qiu was the first to unzip his sleeping bag and asked, "What’s wrong?"
Then the drowsy group was startled awake by Cheng Luo’s scream. They all sat up and looked at her, asking what happened.
Cheng Luo pointed tremblingly at the corner of the supply pile and said, "There’s... there’s a skeleton!"
Que Qiu’s expression remained calm and casually said, "The desert is full of skeletons. Don’t be afraid, it’s normal."
Indeed, who knows how many people die in the Irel Desert every year; it’s not surprising, sometimes even a bit of sand can reveal a desiccated corpse. Cheng Luo was still a student and hadn’t seen many corpses in real life, so her surprise was understandable.
Suddenly having a dead person’s skeleton appear in the house made the group of living people in the room uncomfortable about sleeping. Some of the bolder ones crawled out of their sleeping bags, heading towards Cheng Luo.
As expected, the sandstorm was strong earlier, and everyone was too busy escaping to notice. Now looking closely, there was indeed a piece of white bone and half a skull partly exposed, with sandy black eye sockets staring ahead—you couldn’t tell how many years it had been here, but at first glance, it was indeed quite frightening.
Assistant Xiao Wang squatted down and said, "Better bury it, otherwise it’s creepy."
Several people nodded, preparing to gather some sand to cover it up on the side, showing respect for the deceased.
No one knew how thick the sand covering this area was because moving the sand away as it blocked the door revealed the skeleton. So now that they gathered sand, everyone stopped in shock.
After a silent few seconds, they quickly brushed aside the sand with their hands, and the few men could no longer maintain their composure.
Under their touch, a thin layer of sand was cleared aside, unveiling a mass of human bones.
"Why are there so many?" Assistant Xiao Wang was sweating, and when he reached for the area behind, as expected, it was all white skeletal remains.
At this point, no one could sleep, not knowing how many human bones lay beneath them—how could anyone dare to sleep?
"Is this... is this some kind of burial site?" asked an assistant with glasses. Considering they have more archaeological experience with the professor, such scenarios usually involve burial pits used for sacrifices to deities or something similar.
Professor Wu also climbed out of his sleeping bag and used his flashlight to carefully inspect the room. He crouched to examine the intermingling bones, shook his head, and said, "I don’t think so. This stone house seems more like a shelter. Given that most nearby structures have collapsed, only this large stone house remains standing. The era is also not very definite, it might have been built as a shelter by people at the time. We can’t make a detailed excavation or draw conclusions lightly right now. As for these remains, perhaps those people migrated away and someone passing through here got caught in a sandstorm. Or it might be that an expedition team later sheltered here but ultimately never escaped, perishing here."