Hearing from Da Guozha that he had seen something ghostly, Liu Dashao felt another jolt of alarm, thinking to himself that this place really was full of strange things. First Fan Debiao disappears, then Da Guozha runs into something odd—just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine.
Da Guozha waved his hand, signaling everyone to come see what had happened, and took the lead back along the path they had come. Cai Qingchong glanced at Liu Dashao and Fan Debiao before turning to follow Da Guozha.
Seeing Da Guozha and Cai Qingchong leave, Fan Debiao turned to Liu Dashao and said, “Brother, since those two are gone, I’ve got to grab a couple of treasures. Wait for me, okay?”
Liu Dashao shot Fan Debiao a look of exasperation, said nothing, and simply motioned for him to hurry.
Fan Debiao rummaged around in the pile of treasures for quite a while but couldn’t find anything he liked. Liu Dashao started to grow impatient: “Fan Debiao, for crying out loud, are you done yet? Just grab a couple and let’s go. We need to find out what weird thing Da Guozha ran into.”
While still digging through the relics, Fan Debiao replied, “Damn it, these things are all national first-class treasures. I’m trying to find a couple of slightly lower-grade ones, otherwise it’ll be hard to sell them later.”
Just then, Fan Debiao seemed to find something in the pile. He reached deep into the relics and after a while pulled out a small bronze chime bell. Before Liu Dashao could even get a good look, Fan Debiao had already stuffed the chime into Liu’s waistband—fortunately not into his pants…
Shaking his head, Liu Dashao said to Fan Debiao, “Alright, let’s go already! Otherwise Da Guozha will get suspicious.”
With that, Liu Dashao turned on his flashlight, aimed it down the path they had come, and ran toward the exit. He hadn’t gone far when he spotted Da Guozha and Cai Qingchong standing in a daze in front of a stone wall.
Running up to Da Guozha, Liu asked, “What’s going on, Da Guozha?”
Liu Dashao then turned to look at the stone wall himself. Water was seeping steadily from the stone, and now it was much worse than when Liu had first seen it.
Da Guozha looked puzzled and said, “The relics inside that cave were so well preserved, the environment must have been dry for a long time. Judging by the current level of humidity, in less than ten years, all those relics would be ruined.”
Hearing this, Liu Dashao looked confused, thinking to himself that this was really strange—could it be some kind of monster messing things up again?
“What are you two staring at?” Fan Debiao called out as he ran over. “You two grown men standing here staring at a broken stone wall, what’s wrong with you?”
Liu Dashao looked at Fan Debiao and asked, “Why did you take so long to get here?”
Fan Debiao gave a sheepish grin and shook his head: “Nothing, I just tripped over a rock and did a faceplant.”
No sooner had Fan Debiao finished speaking than Da Guozha shouted again: “What are you dragging your feet for? Hurry over here and help me with this thing!”
Cai Qingchong’s expression changed, and without even bothering to examine the stone wall further, he quickly ran off.
Liu Dashao muttered to himself, “Has Da Guozha found something valuable again? I hope it’s not another ancient monster.”
Seeing Liu Dashao standing in front of the wall lost in thought, Fan Debiao walked up and patted him on the shoulder: “Boss, what’s wrong? Why are you spacing out? Let’s go help.”
Snapping out of his thoughts, Liu Dashao followed Fan Debiao as they both ran toward the river.
As soon as they exited the cave, Liu Dashao shone his flashlight toward where Da Guozha was and saw a glowing object floating on the river surface, about five meters long. Da Guozha was trying to grab it with one hand while covering a wound with the other. But every time he touched it, he pulled his hand back in pain, curling into a ball holding his wound. Despite trying several times, he couldn’t get it. On the final attempt, as soon as he touched it, he tumbled into the river with a loud cry.
Seeing Da Guozha fall into the water, Liu Dashao rushed over immediately. At first, he couldn’t find him because the river bent in an S-shape. After running for more than a minute, he finally reached where they had rested earlier, where Da Guozha had already been pulled out of the water by Cai Qingchong and Su Yougui, and Fan Debiao was tending to his wound.
Muttering as he worked, Fan Debiao scolded, “Da Guozha, really, you shouldn’t be moving around with an injury like that. Look at what happened—you’re making it worse. If this gets infected, you’re done for.”
From a distance, they hadn’t been able to see clearly what the object was, but now that they were close, they could finally make it out.
Floating on the river was a wooden boat, very crudely made, clearly hastily constructed. The entire boat was divided into two sections. At the rear, about a meter long, sat a large bag filled with items, and beside it lay two military shovels. At the bow was a miner’s lamp, the source of the light Liu Dashao had seen earlier. The second section was where people would stand, seemingly capable of carrying four to six people.
Da Guozha and Cai Qingchong had already pushed the boat to shore. Da Guozha shook off some water after climbing out and said, “Look at all this gear—only grave robbers would use stuff like this.”
Hearing this, Liu Dashao’s heart skipped a beat: “So someone else has broken into this old bastard’s tomb? But if the boat came out, where are the people?”
Hearing Liu Dashao’s words, Da Guozha relaxed slightly and said, “That must be their mistake. They were probably too excited after looting the coffin and forgot to stabilize the boat, so it floated out. It looks like they’re still trying to find a way out. We need to get in there fast before they escape with the relics.”
Fan Debiao retorted不服气地, “You yourself are a grave robber. Why are you trying to stop your own kind now?”
Da Guozha angrily replied, “You don’t know what you’re talking about! Do you know why I quit being a treasure hunter? Back in the old days, the tomb raiders only took one or two items to make a living, then left. But now, tomb raiders have become corrupt. They only care about money. They take everything, even things worth just a penny. That’s no better than robbery. I refuse to work with people like that, so I went solo.”
Fan Debiao was left speechless by Da Guozha’s scolding and ran over to Liu Dashao, whispering, “Boss, help me save face here!”
Liu Dashao thought to himself that this wasn’t the time to argue. He turned to Da Guozha and said, “Forget about being angry for now. Let’s check out their equipment first, so we’ll be ready if we run into them.”
Da Guozha grunted in agreement and called Liu Dashao over to open the bag. Liu Dashao stepped onto the boat and examined the bag closely. It was of excellent quality. After searching for a while without finding an opening, he gave up and simply took out his knife to cut it open—but even after cutting for a while, he barely made a dent.
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