Page 37 - creative spark 2020

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passed and they finally arrived at our second destination, The once
powerful kingdom known as khotan. Disestablished only 31 years
ago, the ruin of this kingdom still contains the essence of buddhism.
There are still many large temples with many buddhist statues, all
of them are slightly covered in moss and vines. Inside the hollow
kingdom are many groups of merchant and a small inn. All of the
merchants are selling silk and carpets, Khotan’s specialty. The
beautifully knitted carpets were designed carefully and precisely,
giving of the aura of humbleness, showing how much effort it took
to weave these carpets together. The city on the other hand is far
less populated than before, only merchants seem to be travelling
here in this once glorious kingdom. When they arrived, Ali rented
rooms inside the inn and quickly went to the bazaar to restock.
While Ali and Maya were buying medical supplies and even more
rations Zhēngqì decided to wander into the bazaar looking for
something “interesting” while he was walking through the place he
spotted a small camp with an old sign hanging on it, “THE GREAT
FORTUNE TELLER”, it read. Out of his own suspicion. Zhēngqì
decided to peak inside the tent and saw a small old lady sitting in
front of a crystal ball, before he could say anything, the old woman

suddenly spoke up, “Your fate is sealed, there is no escape from
the pit of hell, it has spoken,” As Zhēngqì was about to say
something the door suddenly slammed shut, pushing him out of
the tent. Zhēngqì walked away, confusion eating him from the
inside like swarms of maggots inside of a rotten apple. Shrugging
it off as a mere theory, Zhēngqì decided to go back to his room
and rest for the day. The rest of the weeks in the kingdom went by
smoothly, their trade with the locals were successful and the group