In the biting cold wind, a wild and gorgeous heavy-duty off-road RV drove along a wet, old road.
Perhaps because of the heavy rain yesterday, the weather today was also very gloomy. The sun was deeply hidden by the clouds, and the color of the sky had changed from the previous blue to the color of water soaked by a dirty rag.
A gray and cool wind lingered among the lonely leaves and weeds, swaying back and forth.
On the desolate road, dust flew, and there was only loneliness and sparse weeds and rocks. Loud, powerful songs could be heard from the car's stereo, pumping up one's adrenaline.
Surprisingly, there was no one in the driver's seat, but the car was driving strangely along the road.
Inside the car's reception area, the decoration was high-end, elegant, and warm. The floor was paved with top-grade marine teak flooring, polished with vegetable oil and rubber anti-slip strips to create a cozy home atmosphere.
In a car seat, Amy, wearing a blue turtleneck sweater, jeans, and white slippers, hummed along to the exciting song while leisurely wiping the car's interior. In reality, with her strong psychic power, she could have used psychokinesis to clean it, but she was long accustomed to cleaning by hand.
As for Li Xiang, wearing a gray turtleneck sweater, he sat on the sofa, drinking hot black tea while leisurely flipping through his favorite classic suspense novels.
The car was driving itself because it had an automatic driving function, 33 auxiliary built-in observation cameras, super artificial intelligence assistance, and the combination of the three, along with the Madrid Port's current research on launching satellites. This allowed the couple to travel without having to drive themselves.
Of course, under normal circumstances, the couple would still drive themselves. After all, the driving process was also a way to appreciate the surrounding environment. People who couldn't calm down would find it very boring, but those who liked this process enjoyed it very much.
The husband and wife weren't driving themselves now because this long road was too desolate, and there was nothing to see. So they simply let the auxiliary intelligent system drive the whole journey.
"Believe me, dear, you've wiped the photo very clean."
"This is my favorite photo; it will be our eternal memory."
Amy shook the photo she had just wiped clean and placed in a frame. The photo showed her father and mother, herself and Li Xiang, Leon, two little babies, and two big dogs all together.
The warm sunshine, grass, and houses and trees that could be vaguely seen in the distance showed a bright smile.
This was the happiest photo of her life, apart from her wedding photo.
It must be preserved forever.
"You know, we can extract the memory of that moment and save it."
"No, no, no, memory is memory; this is a treasure, just like the one-to-one gold armor toy that you specially customized."
"Uh, okay." Li Xiang immediately stopped talking. No man could refuse that kind of gorgeous, elegant, and noble armor.
He didn't have the original gold armor, so he customized a replica.
"Sir, Madam, we still have three kilometers to reach our destination."
At this moment, a gentle female voice sounded in their ears. It was the artificial intelligence, Veronica. Veronica was a strong AI developed by the top computer team recruited by headquarters. In this era, it was an invention that was absolutely ahead of its time.
A large server was specially built at the Port of Madrid at a huge cost.
With the support of this large server, the performance of the strong artificial intelligence was definitely in the top tier of the world in terms of computing power.
"Thank you, Veronica."
"You're welcome, sir."
"Okay, leave the rest of the driving to me." Li Xiang put down the suspense novel in his hand, walked toward the driver's seat, and, after sitting down, switched from the automatic driving function to manual driving.
Amy washed the cup Li Xiang had used for his coffee, put it in the tableware storage box, and sat in the co-pilot's seat. She looked out the window at the environment, where a drizzle had begun to fall, and watched with interest.
This picture of drizzle, a deserted road, and gloomy weather also had a unique sense of loneliness and quietness.
As if catching Amy's thoughts, the originally powerful music in the car was automatically changed to a melodious song that matched this dark tone and drizzling environment.
It added to the feeling of loneliness and desolation.
After a while, Amy suddenly said, "I like this feeling."
"Yeah... I feel good too. Reading in such an environment must be very comfortable," Li Xiang agreed.
The two chatted for a while and came to the destination along the highway. There was a small road at the kilometer mark. Li Xiang turned the steering wheel and drove along the smaller road.
After driving for more than ten minutes, they arrived at their destination.
There was a small town in the winding, bumpy area. This town was called Bodie Town.
Bodie Town, located in northern California, was influenced by the American Gold Rush in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was once a prosperous town with a population of up to 10,000. However, in the early 20th century, as gold mines were discovered in other places, people left one after another.
Today, this town was isolated from the outside world and seemed to have few people.
The couple came here purely because they were passing by. Before this, such a place was in Veronica's database. Since they were traveling across the country, they might as well come here to take a look and see the once prosperous town.
The area was covered with shrubs and weeds, and you could see the original buildings left over from the gold rush.
The common feature of these buildings was that they were made of wood.
At that time, people liked to use a kind of pine called Jeffrey pine to build houses, so they were particularly afraid of fire.
Most of the buildings had a gable roof structure to prevent snow in winter, and some had domes, which made the whole town look like a typical American town from the 1860s. These buildings were now dilapidated.
When the town was most prosperous, it was a thriving gold mining center with the facilities of a large town, including a Wells Fargo Bank, four volunteer fire companies, brass bands, a railway, miners' and mechanics' unions, several daily newspapers, and a prison.
Bars, brothels, gambling halls, and opium dens were all available.
At its peak, 65 saloons lined the main street, which was a mile long.
Murders, gunfights, bar fights, and post station delays were regular occurrences.
There was a Chinatown in Bodie Town, and its main street was at right angles to the town's main street, with hundreds of Chinese residents at one point, including a Taoist temple. There must have been a lot of opium in this area.
The gloomy weather and drizzling rain gave the town a veil of mystery and horror.
The arrival of the couple in their off-road luxury RV broke the loneliness and tranquility of the town.
In an empty area, Li Xiang stepped on the brakes and stopped. He looked at Amy in the co-pilot's seat, left the driver's seat, picked up a coat from the hanger and put it on, took an umbrella, opened the door, and got out. The door then closed automatically.
The couple strolled along the road in the town, looking at the buildings. It seemed that through these house furnishings and the long river of time, they could see the town's former prosperity.
However, the two did not see a single person.
From the observed details, although the town had lost a large number of people, there should have been traces of life, but now there was no sense of human presence and no sound of human activities.
The couple came to travel and didn't use their psychic power to detect the situation. After all, although it was convenient, it would make them lose the excitement of exploring the unknown.
"Veronica, you said that ten years ago, there were more than 300 people living in the town, right?"
"Yes, sir."
Veronica said gently through the micro-earphone.
"I seem to smell a rotten odor." Amy suddenly frowned and turned her head to look at one of the houses in the distance to the left.
Both of them had been injected with an iteratively optimized version of the super gene serum. Their physical fitness was no longer that of ordinary people. Their senses were optimized, including their sense of smell.
Li Xiang nodded and walked toward the house with Amy in his arms.
They felt no fear. The couple had an excellent son. The pendants on their necks contained Leon's power. On Earth, any demons and monsters who wanted to attack them were essentially seeking death.
Even ordinary people could be dealt with by the couple's powerful psychic power.
Therefore, at the beginning of their tour, the factor of safety was not even considered.
When they arrived in front of this old retro-Western-style house, they gently pushed open the unlocked wooden door.
A ray of light fell from the window, allowing the two to see the scene inside.
On the sofa and the ground in the empty living room, there were several bodies that seemed to have died and rotted a long time ago.
Furniture was covered with thick dust, along with old pancake frying pans, embroidered cans, and tattered kerosene lamps.
There was also furniture that had been pushed aside and some messy traces, which seemed to indicate a struggle.
The rotten stench made people sick. Amy frowned slightly but didn't feel any discomfort.
Li Xiang walked over, looked around, and took a look at the moldy medicine on the table. He recognized it, shook his head, and said, "It's been a long time since they died. These are all smokers."
"It seems that they died because of a fight for some reason."
"Shall we look somewhere else?"
Amy suggested. Li Xiang nodded, and the two left the house and looked one by one. There were no other bodies, but in the wide cross street in the center of the town, they saw ten bulging mounds on the ground and a metal object similar to a cross inserted in the center.
"Is this a cross vajra?"
Looking at the object inserted in the center of the earthen mound, Li Xiang was a little surprised. Then he heard Veronica's voice.
"Yes, sir. According to the data database, this is one of the instruments of Tantric Buddhism, the cross vajra. According to the analysis, there were hundreds of Orientals here, and they should have brought related items and books."
Li Xiang and Amy looked at each other and remembered that they had indeed found a lot of items and books related to Buddhism during their previous search.
Now it seemed that it should have been handed down from that time; otherwise, it would be impossible for things related to Buddhism to appear here.
"It seems that these people died, and someone buried them."
"The rest of the people should have left too."
Amy didn't feel sad or anything like that. She was still very young. As her vitality grew stronger and she became healthier, without any burdens or worries, she became more lively and cheerful.
Besides, these people had already been buried, so what reason was there to be sad?
As for the extremely rotten corpses, she didn't care about a few smokers.
She never liked drugs because she had a brother who loved her but who died of an overdose. She was sad for a long time at that time.
She had settled in the small town of Sedona because there were no drugs or drug addicts. It was the best place for children to grow up safely. She swore that if her children ever lived in a gambling den in Chicago and took drugs with drug dealers...
She would definitely become the craziest mother in the world and kill all those drug dealers with a shotgun.
"Let's go. I don't want to spend the night here."
Amy and Li Xiang had witnessed this historic town and planned to leave. However, not long after they started walking, the couple suddenly stopped and looked at each other. "Did you hear that?"
"There's someone else?"
The two were a little surprised to hear footsteps, which were very light and a little messy. The couple smiled at each other, then walked toward the direction of the sound with their umbrellas.
Walking down a street, past several wooden houses, on a raised piece of land full of weeds, a small figure seemed to be carrying something and walking with difficulty. He came over, as if sensing the couple's gaze, and raised his small head to look at them.
Although the distance was several hundred meters, Li Xiang and Amy still saw the child clearly. He had messy blond hair wet from the rain, was about 1.4 meters tall, and wore old clothes that had been cut and patched, and a pair of shoes that were too big for his feet.
His skin was sallow, and he held a fishing net and a bucket in his hands.
What surprised the two most was that the child's eyes were very calm when he saw the strangers, without a ripple. He had a unique temperament that was hard to describe.
(End of Chapter)
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