The Tarim Basin is China's largest mobile desert basin, with a total area equivalent to five Koreas. It has been desolate for eternity and no one dares to go deep into it.
My name is Lu Tao, a native of Bazhou. I have been exploring on foot for twenty-three years, entering Lop Nur seven times and the ancient city of Loulan three times. I think I have seen through this sea of death.
This time, six top expedition members and I went deep into the no-man's land in the northeastern part of the basin, but on the seventh day we encountered a terrifying phenomenon that went against common sense—a moving mirage, slowly pressing in like a wave.
Passing through the weird water shadow, we broke into the endless weird red willow beach. There is no water but a sea of red willows. Bone fragments and bloody sand are buried underground. There are always sights locked on us in the dark.
In order to find my missing teammates, I stepped into a strange door made of four tamarisk trees, stepped out in three steps, and stepped directly into an ancient loess castle that had been sealed for thousands of years.
The city is not filled with wind and sand, but an ancient bazaar from the 1960s and 1970s. Pedestrians come and go without eyes and souls, like immortal puppets. On the city wall, ancient Loulan texts flowed with a bloody curse: Outsiders, die.
History books say that Loulan died in the wind and sand, and local chronicles record that it disappeared overnight. But I saw with my own eyes that the ancient demon god Nephew occupied the palace and fed on Loulan's soul.
It turns out that Loulan never died, but was forcibly sealed in the cracks of time and space.
The red willow gate is closed, the whole team is trapped, the puppets surround and kill, and the demon god wakes up.
When I uncovered the truth behind Loulan's disappearance, I understood——
Anyone who steps through this door will never come out of the desert alive.
