118: Chapter 118 Stealing Three Venerables During the Cooldown Break

Bamiyan is in central Afghanistan. Driving over from Ai-Khanoum, a distance of over two hundred kilometers, took Li Xin nearly six hours.

The road was still terrible. It wasn't just the pothole-ridden kind of bad; it was the kind of bad where there was no road at all.

There was a stretch that required crossing a mountain, a gravel road with a cliff wall on one side and a precipice on the other.

The steering wheel shook in his hands, and the tires slipped from time to time. He gripped it tightly with both hands, his palms covered in sweat.

He didn't arrive in Bamiyan until the afternoon.

He wasn't in a hurry to go to the Great Buddha ruins; he first found an inn in town to stay.

It was called an inn, but it was actually just a local's house with two rooms cleared out for guests.

There were chickens in the yard, firewood piled up in the corner, and the air was filled with the smell of livestock manure.

The owner was a man in his forties with a round face, a thick beard, and he could speak a few words of English.

"Chinese?" he asked.

"Yes," Li Xin said, putting down his backpack.

"Here for tourism?" the owner asked with a smile.

"You could say that. Just here to see the Great Buddha."

The owner nodded and didn't ask any more questions. He took twenty dollars from him and gave him a key.

The room was on the first floor, with a window facing the yard. The bed was made of iron, covered with a thin blanket, and a faded tapestry hung on the wall, its pattern no longer discernible.

Li Xin put down his backpack, washed his face, lay on the bed, and opened the system panel.

The cooldown time still had many hours left. He wouldn't be able to start the Extraction until tomorrow.

He hadn't eaten much all day, so he took a box of self-heating rice out of his space, tore open the packaging, poured in water, and waited for it to heat up.

The smell of the rice spread through the room, mixing with the scent of chicken manure from the yard, creating an indescribably strange atmosphere.

After eating, he turned off the light and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, Li Xin put on his backpack, grabbed his camera, and went out.

The Bamiyan Great Buddha ruins were outside the town, about a twenty-minute walk away.

It was still early when he arrived. There weren't many tourists, just a few scattered groups, mostly Europeans and Americans, carrying large backpacks and cameras.

There was a ticket booth at the entrance with an old man sitting inside, looking at his phone. Li Xin walked over, but the old man didn't even look up.

"Hello, how much is the ticket?"

"Ten dollars."

Li Xin took ten dollars out of his pocket and handed it over. The old man tore off a ticket for him and went back to looking at his phone.

Li Xin took the ticket and walked into the ruins.

Two massive niches stood on the cliff, the eastern one fifty-three meters tall, the western one fifty-eight meters.

The Buddha statues were gone, destroyed in 2001, leaving only two huge voids that looked like empty eyes staring forward.

Beneath the cliff lay gravel and dust, scattered with fragments of the Buddha statues—a foot, a piece of clothing, half a face. Weathered by wind and sun, they had turned gray.

Li Xin stood beneath the niche and looked up. The cliff wall was very high; his neck grew sore before he could see the top.

Sunlight shone down from above the niche, casting a shadow on the ground.

He raised his camera to take pictures while silently reciting in his heart.

"AI System, Scan."

[Scanning... Scan complete! A secret chamber was discovered 11-23 meters inside the Eastern Buddha, containing countless treasures such as pure gold, gemstones, and sacred relics. Among them are approximately 1.62 tons of gold, 0.8 tons of gemstones, and numerous cultural artifacts.]

[There is also a secret chamber inside the Western Buddha, but it is smaller in scale, about one-third the size of the Eastern Buddha's.]

[Additionally, although the 28-meter-tall Middle Buddha has been destroyed, there is still a sealed space about 8 meters beneath its foundation, containing countless bronze wares and gold-foiled artifacts.]

Li Xin's lips curled up. His research hadn't been in vain; he had found the right location.

The system was still cooling down, so he couldn't perform an Extraction today. He could only scout the location first, figuring out the tourist routes, security situation, and the best positions for action.

He spent the whole morning wandering around the ruins. He followed tourists, took photos, listened to tour guides, and occasionally chatted with locals in Dari.

By noon, he had roughly figured out the situation—the peak tourist hours were from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and after 3:00 PM, the number of people started to decrease.

There were no fences around the ruins, only a few local security guards patrolling.

At 3:00 PM, having learned enough, he returned to the inn.

He lay on the bed and opened the system panel.

[Cooldown time remaining: 8 hours. Extraction can begin tonight.]

He set his phone alarm for 4:00 AM and then fell straight asleep.

At 4:00 AM, it was still dark. Li Xin got up in the dark, washed up, put on his backpack, and went out.

The town was very quiet at this hour, with only a few stray dogs rummaging for food near trash cans.

He walked along the road toward the ruins, the beam of his flashlight swaying left and right in front of him, his footsteps the only sound on the empty streets.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the entrance of the ruins. The ticket booth was empty, and the gate was locked, but there was a gap to the side that he could slip through.

Without a word, Li Xin bent over and slipped through, entering the ruins.

Li Xin walked nervously under the Eastern Buddha, found a hidden corner to put down his backpack, and sat down against the wall.

"AI System, start Extraction."

[Starting Extraction of the Bamiyan Eastern Buddha's secret hoard.]

[Maximum continuous Extraction time: 24 hours. A 45-minute cooling period is required after each batch. Please follow the prompts.]

"Understood."

[First batch Extraction started. Estimated time: 45 minutes. Countdown: 44:59.]

A pale blue light, visible only to Li Xin, surged from the system and extended into the interior of the niche. The progress bar began to jump, very slowly.

He leaned against the wall, staring at the panel. Everything around him was quiet, save for the sound of the wind and his own breathing.

Forty-five minutes later, the first batch of Extraction was complete. The system popped up a prompt.

[First batch complete. Mandatory cooldown: 45 minutes. Countdown: 44:59.]

"Damn it," Li Xin muttered. Forty-five minutes of just waiting.

He took a bottle of Wangzai Milk from his space and drank it slowly. He also took out a pack of beef jerky, tore it open, and took a few bites. The moonlight shone on the pile of gravel, which looked gray and white, like a pile of bones.

Forty-five minutes later, the second batch began.

Just like that, one batch after another. Extracting for forty-five minutes, cooling for forty-five minutes, like a precision machine, running strictly according to the schedule.

The sky began to brighten, and tourists started to arrive one after another. Li Xin seized the opportunity, calmly walked out from behind the pile of gravel, and blended into the crowd.

With his backpack and camera, he took photos, checked in, and expressed amazement just like the other tourists.

"Wow, how spectacular!" he muttered to himself in Chinese. A few Chinese tourists nearby glanced at him, smiled, and paid no more attention.

The Extraction progress bar kept moving. When cooling, he would find a place to sit, pretending to rest. When extracting, he would stand beneath the niche with his hands in his pockets, looking just like a tourist.

No one noticed anything unusual.

He came to Bamiyan every day, arriving at 9:00 AM and leaving at 5:00 PM. In between, he would find a place to eat, rest, and wait for the cooldown to end. For seven days in a row, it was the same.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, the second-to-last batch of Extraction was complete.

Li Xin glanced at the system panel. Only one last batch remained; once it was extracted, it would be over.

He leaned against the stone beneath the niche, waiting for the cooldown to end. The countdown on the system screen was ticking down:

00:12:34... 00:11:33... 00:10:32...

Just then, a commotion came from the distance.

He looked up. A group of people walked in from the entrance, wearing uniforms and carrying instruments. Walking in front was an elderly white man with gray hair, wearing a khaki vest, gold-rimmed glasses, and holding a tablet computer.

Following behind were a few locals in camouflage, carrying guns. Behind them were several reporters carrying cameras.

Li Xin's heart skipped a beat.

"AI System, what's going on?"

[Looking at the situation, it should be an international archaeological team with military protection.]

"An archaeological team here at this time? They really came at a bad time."

Li Xin glanced at the countdown; there were still more than 3 minutes left.

The old man walked under the Eastern Buddha, raised his tablet, and some data appeared on the screen. He was beaming with joy and turned to talk to the person beside him. Li Xin heard him clearly:

"The instrument shows a large amount of gold inside the Buddha body."

The person beside him nodded, took out a handheld detector, and began to Scan. The detector made beeping sounds, each one feeling like a hammer striking Li Xin's heart.

Countdown: 00:02:12.

Gradually, the crowd grew larger. Tourists, reporters, and security guards all gathered around. Li Xin also squeezed into the crowd, craning his neck to look with a curious expression. He was just like everyone else around him: surprised, excited, and expectant.

The old man directed a few locals to start using tools to knock on the remnants of the Buddha body. Gravel fell, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The sound of the old man's detector became increasingly rapid, beep-beep-beep-beep, like a machine gun. The old man's eyes were very bright, and his voice trembled slightly.

"It's... it's right here! Right underneath! Dig quickly!"

00:00:30. 00:00:10. 00:00:03.

The moment the countdown hit zero, Li Xin immediately recited silently: "Extraction..."

Before long, the last batch of sacred relics was collected into his space.

Almost at the same time, the sound of the old man's detector stopped abruptly.

A deathly silence fell. The old man was stunned for a moment, patted the detector, and scanned again. No response. He frowned, changed the angle, and scanned again. Still no response.

"What's going on?" His voice turned shrill. "It was there just a moment ago!"

He acted like a madman, using the detector to Scan back and forth over the Buddha body. He probed carefully inside and out. Still, there was nothing.

"Impossible!" The old man was so angry his face turned red. "The instrument clearly showed a large amount of gold just now!"

He threw the detector aside and, still unwilling to give up, turned to the people beside him and shouted: "Dig for me! Keep digging! Maybe the detector is broken!"

A group of people began to dig frantically. Dust flew everywhere, gravel splashed, and one by one, they started to sweat profusely, covered in dirt.

Li Xin, however, stood behind the crowd, took out his phone, and snapped a photo of the old man losing his mind. His lips curled slightly.

He turned around and slowly walked out of the crowd and out of the ruins. The wind blew in from the valley, hitting his back, feeling chilly.

Back at the inn, he closed the door, sat on the bed, and opened the system panel.

[Extraction complete. The Bamiyan Buddha hoard has been cleared.]

[Summary of batches 1 through 7: 1.62 tons of pure gold, 0.8 tons of gemstones.]

[Top-tier artifacts: 17 Buddha bone relics, 300 volumes of Tang Dynasty palm-leaf manuscripts (complete), 108 pure gold Maitreya Buddha statues (each 15cm tall), and 78 Gandhara period gold Buddha plaques (inlaid with turquoise and rubies).]

[Total value of this harvest: 6.8 billion USD.]

[Current accumulated gold: 2784.2057 tons.]

[Continuous Extraction for 72 hours, mandatory cooling for 12 hours. No Extractions can be performed during this period.]

Li Xin stared at these lines and let out a long breath. 6.8 billion USD. Buddha bone relics, Tang Dynasty palm-leaf manuscripts, pure gold Buddha statues... each one was a priceless treasure.

And those archaeological team members were still digging under the Buddha body, covered in dirt, unable to find even a shadow of them.

He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Outside the window, it was getting dark. Chickens were clucking in the yard, someone was starting a fire to cook, and smoke drifted in through the window cracks, making him cough.

"AI System."

[AI System: Say what you have to say, spit it out.]

"Is it time to go to Band-e Amir Lake next?"

[11 hours and 42 minutes left until the cooling ends; you decide.]

"I know. It will be just right when I get there."

He stood up and began to pack his things. He stuffed the stones, magnifying glass, and notebook into his backpack, and rolled up his sleeping bag and put it into his space.

Walking to the door, he stopped and looked back at the room. The iron bed, the thin blanket, the faded tapestry. 6.8 billion USD had been hidden right here.

His lips curled, and he pushed the door open to leave.

The owner was feeding the chickens in the yard and looked up when he saw him come out. "Leaving?" "Yes. Thank you." "Did you find what you wanted to photograph?" "I did."

The owner nodded and didn't ask again.

Li Xin got into the car and started the engine. The pickup truck drove out of town and onto the dirt road. In the rearview mirror, Bamiyan grew smaller and smaller, finally disappearing into the dust.

He glanced at the system panel. Cooldown time: 11 hours and 08 minutes. Band-e Amir Lake, 150 kilometers away. It would be just right by the time he drove there.

He stepped on the accelerator, and the car accelerated toward the distance.