114: Chapter 114 Unclaimed Treasure in the Fog

September 18th, mountainous area southeast of Issyk-Kul Lake.

Li Xin rested in the small town for two days, waiting for the system to cool down. The continuous running around and secret gold Extraction was a significant mental drain. Lying on the bed, he didn't want to do anything; he just ate and slept.

The landlady was a woman in her fifties with a round face and a ready smile. Seeing him not leave the room all day, she brought up a bowl of mutton soup.

"Are you sick?" she asked in Kyrgyz.

"No. Just tired." Li Xin took it and drank two sips; it was hot, but very fragrant.

"It's no wonder you young people are tired after traveling so far to play." She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed. "Where are you from?"

"Sister, I'm from China."

"Where in China?"

"Shenzhen. In the south."

"Shenzhen?" She thought for a moment. "Never heard of it. I've been to Urumqi; that place is huge."

"Urumqi is very far from Shenzhen; it takes over four hours by plane."

She nodded and asked again: "You should be careful when you're out in the wild alone."

"Hmm? Why?"

"In our mountains, there are Tien Shan brown bears. They even bit a sheep to death a while ago."

Li Xin was stunned. "Brown bears?"

"Yes, but they rarely come to the lakeside; they stay deep in the mountains." She smiled. "You're lucky you haven't run into one."

"...Thank you for the soup."

"Drink it and get some sleep early. The weather will be good tomorrow; you can go out and look around."

She left. Li Xin drank the soup clean and lay back on the bed.

On the morning of the third day, he set the navigation and headed straight for the mountainous area eighty-five kilometers to the southeast. On the satellite map, there were no roads, only gray-green ridges and white snowy peaks.

After leaving the town, he drove more than forty kilometers along the lakeside highway and turned onto a side road. This was no longer an asphalt road, just a bumpy dirt road. After driving shakily for another twenty-plus kilometers, the dirt road disappeared, leaving only two tire tracks extending into the mountains.

Li Xin had to slow down to twenty and drive slowly along the tire tracks. The hillsides on both sides were covered with wild grass and shrubs, and occasionally he could see a few marmots standing at the entrance of their burrows, pricking up their ears to watch his car pass by.

After driving for nearly an hour, a dry riverbed appeared in front. The riverbed was not wide—a dozen meters—and covered with pebbles. The tire tracks stopped after crossing the riverbed and did not continue forward.

He parked the car by the riverbed, turned off the engine, and got out.

"AI System, are we there yet?"

[The current location is about 19,500 meters from the target. You need to cross the mountain ridge ahead and enter the depths of the canyon to enter the optimal Scan range.]

"Need to climb again?" Li Xin looked at the ridge in front of him. It wasn't high, but the slope was very steep and full of loose stones.

[The canyon terrain affects the search. It is recommended to get within 10 kilometers.]

"Fine." He put the car into the space, shouldered his backpack, and started to climb. The slope was covered in loose gravel, and for every step he took, he slid back two. He grabbed onto shrub branches and inched his way up.

Climbing to the mountainside, he stopped to catch his breath. He looked back—the road he had come from stretched out under his feet, and in the distance, he could see a corner of Issyk-Kul Lake, blue and deep.

"AI System, it feels like no one has been here for a long time."

[AI System: It's overgrown with weeds, and the road is barely visible; isn't that obvious!]

"There seem to be a lot of wild goats over there."

[There are wild ibex distributed in this area. But I cannot detect the specific quantity.]

"You can't detect sheep?"

[I am a Gold Search and Refining System, not a wildlife census system.]

"...Fine."

As time passed, he finally reached the ridge, and the view suddenly opened up. On the other side of the ridge was a long, narrow canyon. The mountains on both sides were steep, and the bottom of the valley was a dry riverbed winding toward the distant mountains. There were no trees, no grass, just loose stones and weathered rock walls. It was very barren.

Li Xin walked down along the ridge and entered the canyon. The rock walls on both sides became higher and narrower, and the wind poured in from the canyon entrance, whistling.

After walking for nearly an hour, the canyon took a turn, and a relatively open flat area appeared in front. It was surrounded by rock walls on three sides and open on one side, making it invisible from the outside.

"This is the place. System, start the Scan."

[Scanning... It will take a few minutes.]

Li Xin found a place to lie down and waited quietly for the result.

[Ding... Scan complete. Gold discovered, located about 4,600 meters to the southeast. This gold mine has not yet been discovered and belongs to an ownerless gold mine. Reserves are about 22 tons. Full Extraction is possible. Extraction time is about 1 hour, system load is estimated at 60% - 70%, and it will not overload.]

"Hahaha..., 22 tons, that's awesome." Li Xin laughed. "System, start the Extraction."

[Extracting... System load gradually rising... 38%, 52%, 65%.]

Light blue light surged out and extended into the depths of the canyon. The progress bar began to jump: 4%, 9%, 14%.

Li Xin took a folding chair out of his space, set it on the ground, and sat down. He took out his thermos and poured a cup of goji berry tea. The goji berries were bought in China, and the tea leaves were bought in Tokmok; it was local green tea with a slightly astringent taste, but that didn't matter. For him, drinking tea was just about setting the mood; he couldn't tell if the tea was good or not anyway.

Sunlight shone in from the canyon entrance, casting light and shadow on the mountain wall. At this moment, there was no wind, but pleasant birdsong could be heard from time to time. Li Xin lay there in a relaxed "Ge You" sprawl, humming a folk song to himself; it was so relaxed and comfortable. Anyone who didn't know better would really think he was on vacation, but in fact, he was a massive gold thief.

"This place is really nice."

[AI System: ...]

"If I could build a house here..."

[If you're not afraid of being a snack for a brown bear, it's not impossible to consider.]

"I was just saying." Li Xin said sheepishly.

"Hmm...?" He suddenly paused; something seemed to be moving in the distance. He turned his head and saw a group of wild goats standing on the rock wall of the left hillside. There were five or six of them, grayish-yellow in color, hiding behind the rocks; if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't see them at all. The leading ram had large, curved horns and was staring at him.

Li Xin didn't move. The wild goat stared at him with disdain, then lowered its head and continued to gnaw on the grass in the rock crevices.

"AI System, will they rush over?"

[Wild goats generally do not actively attack people. Unless you are an idiot who goes to provoke it.]

"Alright, I can't afford to mess with them with my small physique; I'll stay away from them."

[You are about 150 meters away from them now, it's fine.]

"That's good."

The canyon began to fog up. It wasn't drifting in from the outside; it was slowly rising from the bottom of the valley, a damp white mist, bubbling up bit by bit, as if someone were boiling water at the bottom of the valley. In less than ten minutes, visibility dropped to less than fifty meters.

Li Xin looked at the fog all around and said with some resentment: "This fog came at a really bad time; such a good afternoon is just gone like this."

The white fog soon engulfed Li Xin. The wild goats in the distance could no longer be seen; only the sound of hooves stepping on rocks could be heard, "clop... clop...", getting further and further away.

He leaned back in his chair and put the thermos at his feet.

"AI System, what's the progress?"

[Forty-eight percent. Load 64%.]

"Looks like it's stable for today."

As he spoke, he took a pack of hand-torn yak jerky out of his space, tore it open, and began to chew it with relish.

The fog became thicker and thicker, and visibility dropped to less than twenty meters, so that even the rock wall opposite could not be seen. Li Xin took out his phone and glanced at it; there was no signal and no positioning. If he didn't know where he was, he would have thought he had arrived in another world.

"AI System, no one has been to this place before, right? The scenery here feels so natural."

[According to the surrounding situation, only herdsmen and wild animals occasionally pass by here.]

"Logically speaking, this gold mine should have been detected. How could it not have been discovered?"

[It may have been discovered, but it was too scattered and the technology was insufficient, so people felt it had no mining value and didn't take it. Only this system can detect the enrichment zones that exist deep underground.]

"Hahaha, then this is really my gain."

[Yes, congratulations.]

"Can you show some emotion when you say 'congratulations'?"

[Congratulations! That's awesome! You are invincible and super amazing!]

"Eww... you'd better just speak normally." Li Xin couldn't help but shudder.

Progress: 65%.

The canyon was a vast expanse of white at this time. The thick fog covered the sky, mountains, and vegetation. The damp white mist hung on his clothes and hair, feeling cold.

Li Xin pulled up the hood of his hoodie and shrank into his chair.

"AI System, how much longer?"

[About 20 minutes. Current progress 78%.]

"Hmm, that's fast."

The sound of sheep hooves came from afar. Those few wild goats walked out of the fog, less than fifty meters away from him. The leading ram stopped, tilted its head to look at him, then lowered its head and continued to walk forward. The flock followed it, slowly passing through the canyon, and disappeared into the fog on the other side.

"Damn... that scared me just now; I thought they wanted to fight me. Where did they go?" Li Xin said with some fear.

[They might be going to a water source. There is a seasonal stream deep in the canyon.]

"Is there water this season?"

[How would I know. But they have their own routes.]

Progress: 89%.

The fog began to dissipate, slowly retreating from top to bottom. A piece of blue sky began to appear overhead, followed by the outline of the ridge and the rock walls.

The stones on the ground slowly revealed themselves, wet and covered with water droplets.

Progress: 94%.

[Ding—Extraction complete. Obtained 22 tons of gold. Purity 99.99%.]

[Cumulative gold refined: 2643.3257 tons]

Li Xin stood up and put the folding chair and thermos into his space. He glanced around—the fog hadn't completely dissipated, and the valley was gray.

[Still about 357 tons away from breaking 3000 tons. Keep up the good work.]

"Alright, then let's keep looking."

He shouldered his old backpack, swayed to the foot of the mountain, took the car out of the space, and started the engine.

The system suddenly popped up a prompt.

[AI System: There are many gold mines in Jalal-Abad Region to the southwest. You can go there next.]

Li Xin opened the map and swiped his finger across the screen. Jalal-Abad Region was in the southwest of Kyrgyzstan, more than four hundred kilometers from his current location.

"AI System, what is the largest gold mine there called?"

[Jeruy Gold Mine. It shares the same name as the Jeruy in Chuy Region, but it belongs to a different mining section of the same mineral belt. The Jalal-Abad mining section is larger in scale and has not yet been mined on a large scale.]

"Not mined?"

[Proven, waiting for development. There is mineral rights ownership, so it is an owned mine. But the mining area has not yet officially started production, and the peripheral control is relatively loose.]

"That's easier to deal with than Kumtor."

He didn't hesitate anymore and stepped on the gas. The car drove back along the lakeside highway.

Next stop, Jalal-Abad.