55: Zhuo Jinxing's guidance

Lin Feng stared at the paper covered in symbols, his brow furrowed so deeply it could have crushed a fly.

The flow of the rivers on the mural didn't match modern maps at all. This either meant the terrain had undergone cataclysmic changes over the centuries, or... "El Dorado isn't on the surface at all."

The moment this thought surfaced, Lin Feng himself was momentarily stunned.

Wang Dalong, listening from the side, was completely lost. "Brother Feng, what do you mean it's not on the surface? Did it fly up into the sky or something?"

"Not the sky." Lin Feng shook his head, his finger lightly tapping the paper. "It's underground."

"Underground?" Wang Dalong's eyes widened. "Then... how are we supposed to find it?"

Lin Feng didn't answer, merely staring at the mural in deep thought.

Drones and space satellites existed now; logically, the Amazon Rainforest should have been scanned countless times already. Yet El Dorado remained a mystery, which only left a few possibilities: either El Dorado was small and had been completely swallowed by the jungle, leaving no trace of a city from the air, or the entrance to El Dorado wasn't out in the open at all.

"An underground city..." Lin Feng muttered to himself, suddenly remembering something. "No, the entrance must be on the surface."

He looked up abruptly at Wang Dalong. "Pack your things. We're going to the library."

"Huh?" Wang Dalong was baffled. "Aren't we going to the Rainforest? Why the library again?"

"We go once we find the entrance." Lin Feng shouldered his bag and strode out. "Otherwise, going in would be a waste of time."

The Manaus Municipal Library was slightly more modern than the archives, or at least it didn't smell as strongly of mold.

Lin Feng headed straight for the archaeology section and began flipping through literature on the maya civilization.

Wang Dalong set up his camera nearby, boredly filming the bookshelves and Lin Feng's back while muttering, "Brother Feng, would you say we're treasure hunting or doing archaeology?"

"Shut up." Lin Feng didn't even look up.

He quickly scanned through one book after another.

Due to the barbaric actions of the early colonizers, a vast amount of maya literature had been destroyed. What is known of maya history today is pieced together from archaeological excavations and colonizers' diaries—essentially nth-hand information.

But Lin Feng patiently continued reading.

An hour later, he flipped to a monograph on maya architecture, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

"The maya were masters of astronomy; they planned their city layouts and architectural orientations based on celestial observations. Some known pyramid complexes are arranged according to the positions of the stars in orion..."

Lin Feng's finger stopped on that line.

Astronomy.

Constellation layouts.

A flash of inspiration struck him. He immediately pulled out his phone and brought up the manuscript of the mural he had photographed earlier.

The glowing city in the center of the mural was surrounded by winding rivers and dense forest, but at the very edges, there was a ring of strange symbols.

Lin Feng had previously thought they were decorative patterns, but looking at them now... "This is a damn star chart!"

He stood up abruptly, startling Wang Dalong. "Brother Feng, what's wrong?"

"I found a clue." Lin Feng lowered his voice, his eyes flashing with excitement. "The maya hid the location of El Dorado within a star chart!"

He continued reading and soon found another key piece of information.

"The maya legends say they came from Zhuojin Star and arrived on Earth because that planet exploded. A year on Zhuojin Star is 260 days, which is why the maya calendar is also 260 days..."

Lin Feng's breathing quickened.

Zhuojin Star.

The origin and final destination of the maya.

As the most sacred place of the maya civilization, the entrance to El Dorado must correspond to this star!

He immediately took out his phone and dialed Jiang Wanqing's number.

"Hello? Lin Feng?" Jiang Wanqing's voice came through the receiver. "What is it?"

"Help me look something up," Lin Feng said quickly. "Based on maya legends and their calendar calculations, where should the Zhuojin Star be located?"

"Zhuojin Star?" Jiang Wanqing paused. "Wait a moment, let me check..."

The sound of typing came from the other end of the line.

Two minutes later, Jiang Wanqing's voice returned. "Found it. According to modern astronomical conjectures, the Zhuojin Star the maya spoke of likely refers to a planet between Earth and Venus. But there's no planet in that position now, only the asteroid belt."

"The asteroid belt..." Lin Feng murmured, his eyes growing brighter.

"Lin Feng, why are you looking for this?" Jiang Wanqing asked curiously.

"To find the entrance to El Dorado," Lin Feng replied briefly. "Thanks, gotta go."

He hung up and immediately opened his laptop, pulling up a satellite map of the Amazon Rainforest.

Then, he located the three most famous pyramids of the maya civilization—Chichen Itza, Palenque, and Tikal.

The positions of these three pyramids corresponded exactly to the three main stars of orion.

Lin Feng took a deep breath and began marking points on the map.

Using these three pyramids as benchmarks and following the relative position of the asteroid belt in the solar system, he outlined an area within the Amazon Rainforest.

When the final line was drawn, Lin Feng's heart was nearly leaping out of his chest.

An irregular triangular region appeared on the screen.

Though the area was still vast, compared to the entire Amazon Rainforest, it was a massive leap forward.

"Found it..." Lin Feng said softly, his voice trembling slightly.

Wang Dalong leaned over to look, blinking. "Brother Feng, this area is still huge... how do we search it?"

Lin Feng didn't speak, just stared at the screen, his mind racing.

The area had been narrowed down, but finding an entrance hidden for centuries in this Rainforest was still like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Unless... Lin Feng suddenly remembered something and immediately pulled up the photo of Pedro's notes.

"At the entrance of the tributary, there is a giant rock shaped like an eagle's head..."

He quickly marked the location of the Eagle Head Rock he had found earlier on the map.

Then, he sucked in a sharp breath.

Eagle Head Rock was right on the edge of that triangular region!

"It's here!" Lin Feng slammed the table, his voice so loud it startled the people reading nearby.

Wang Dalong also grew excited. "Brother Feng, you found it?"

"Found it." Lin Feng nodded, his eyes shining with an unprecedented light. "Tomorrow, we set out."

He saved the coordinates, shut down the computer, and shouldered his bag to leave.

Just as he reached the library entrance, Lin Feng's footsteps suddenly paused.

A man in a black jacket was leaning against a pillar outside smoking, his eyes casually scanning over them.

Lin Feng didn't change his expression and pulled Wang Dalong along.

Once they were out of the library, Wang Dalong whispered, "Brother Feng, is that guy tailing us?"

"Yeah," Lin Feng said indifferently. "He's been following us since yesterday."

"Then what do we do?" Wang Dalong was a bit panicked.

"Don't worry about it." Lin Feng's gaze turned cold. "They can follow if they want. Once we're in the Rainforest, it won't be up to them anymore."