125: Chapter 125 Undercurrents in the Ancient Village

Li Xin rested in a small seaside inn for two days. Mainly, the consecutive days of treasure hunting had left him mentally exhausted, so staying in the small town to relax for a few days was quite nice.

During the day, he would take walks by the beach and chat with the villagers. At night, he would binge-watch shows, sleep soundly, and wake up to eat seafood feasts while lying in bed. Life was quite comfortable.

Ali came to find him to hang out every afternoon.

The kid had gotten close to Li Xin recently; whenever he was free, he would run over, either bringing something to eat or just coming by to chat.

"Li, don't you get bored wandering around the beach every day?" Ali crouched on the steps at the inn's entrance, picking his teeth with a toothpick.

"Not at all. The sea is beautiful," Li Xin replied with a smile.

"What's so beautiful about the sea? It looks the same no matter how much you look at it." Ali spat out the toothpick. "You should go see the inland. Just staying by the beach is boring; the real good stuff is inland."

Li Xin leaned against the doorframe. "What kind of good stuff?"

"Treasure, of course. Like I told you, the legend of the merchant's hidden treasure." Ali stood up and brushed the dust off his pants. "My dad says the real treasure isn't by the sea, but in the desert to the north. There's an ancient village over there that used to be a base for a big merchant, but it got buried by sand later on. Most of the merchant's wealth is buried underneath it."

"Oh? How much property could a merchant have, and how does your dad know about it?"

"Hey... you're underestimating him. They say that merchant was a very wealthy noble who came here to escape his enemies. My dad heard this from my great-grandfather. When my great-grandfather was young, he was herding sheep over there and actually dug up some silver coins. He sold them later and married my grandmother." Ali laughed. "If it weren't for those silver coins, I wouldn't even be in this world."

Li Xin laughed too. "Oh? Since you guys know there's treasure, why don't you go dig it up?"

"Hehe~ plenty of people have gone looking for it, they just never found anything. Gradually, people started thinking it was just someone bragging." Ali gave a sheepish smile.

"Alright, now that you put it that way, I'm actually a bit interested. Do you know where that ancient village is?"

"I know the general direction, just haven't been there. We can follow that direction and look for it." Ali looked at him. "Are you coming or not? You aren't busy anyway. I'll take you to try your luck. Who knows, if we get lucky, we might find something good."

Li Xin thought about it. The shipwreck Extraction was finished, and he didn't have anything else to do for the time being. Going for a trip together would be fine; maybe he really could Scan something up.

"Alright. I'll go with you tomorrow to check it out."

"It's a deal, then. I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning."

Ali rode off on his motorcycle, putt-putt-putt.

The next morning, Li Xin went downstairs with his backpack. He saw Ali already waiting at the entrance, with a woven bag tied to the back seat of his motorcycle, filled with water and dry rations.

"Get on."

Li Xin climbed onto the back seat, and Ali started the bike and rode out of the village.

The road became increasingly desolate. The asphalt road disappeared after half an hour, turning into gravel and then a dirt road. Eventually, the dirt road was reduced to just two tire tracks winding through the desert.

Riding a motorcycle was murder on the backside; the constant bumping made him feel like he was going to die. Li Xin was almost thrown off several times, so he had to grip the rear metal frame with both hands.

"Ali, how much further?" Li Xin shouted.

"Almost there. We'll be there once we cross that ridge ahead."

After riding for over an hour, Ali stopped the bike on a high ridge. He got off, pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, and unfolded it to take a look. Li Xin also got off, his legs feeling sore and weak, and his backside refusing to cooperate.

"It's around here somewhere." Ali looked around. "Look over there—"

He raised his finger and pointed into the distance.

Looking where he pointed, there was a depression in the desert, surrounded by small sand dunes, looking just like a dried-up water pit. The ground was bare with no greenery, covered everywhere in grayish-white sand or gravel. In the distance, there was a pile of scattered stones, likely from a collapsed earth wall.

"This is the place," Ali said. "Everyone calls this Old Village Beach. It used to be a village, but then a massive sandstorm hit, and the yellow sand slowly buried the entire village. The villagers had no choice but to move to the coast."

"Hahaha, what are we waiting for? Let's head over."

A few minutes later, Li Xin jumped off the motorcycle and stomped on the ground to relax his tense muscles.

He took out his camera and snapped a few photos. Then, he took a walk around the depression.

This place was more spacious than he had expected. The ground was flat, sparsely scattered with some dried grass roots, and some smooth stones were buried here and there in the soil, looking like they had weathered many years of erosion.

"Ali, I'm going to walk around over there and take some photos."

"Alright, go ahead. I'll rest for a bit and then come find you."

Afterwards, he leaned against a dead shrub, took out water from the woven bag, and took a gulp.

Li Xin, carrying his camera, walked into the depths of the depression. He walked and snapped photos, appearing to be looking for angles, but in reality, he was using the system to Scan.

"AI System, Scan this area."

[Scanning... Scan complete. Detected a large 600-square-meter cellar cache about 6 meters underground. It contains a large amount of gold and silver utensils, ancient coins, jewelry, etc.]

"Oh? Let's see how much gold there is."

[Approximately 75 tons of gold. Contains a mix of gold ingots, gold fragments, and gold ornaments. Additionally, there are about 15,000 silver coins, 50 pieces of pottery, 20 silver household utensils, 3,000 copper coins, and about 120 pieces of pearl and turquoise jewelry.]

"Hahaha... Nice! This ownerless treasure is ours to take. Let's seize it!"

[Yes, must seize it all.]

"Start Extraction."

[Extraction in progress... Target: Ancient village cellar cache 6 meters underground. Estimated total time: about 30 hours. Maximum continuous Extraction for this session: 24 hours. Forced cooldown of 12 hours after exceeding limit.]

A pale blue light surged from the system and extended underground. The progress bar began to jump.

A few hours later, Li Xin stood up and walked back to Ali.

"Ali, you look pretty bored here. Why don't you go back first? I'm going to stay here a while longer and wait to photograph the sunset."

"Waiting until night again?" Ali laughed. "You're always like this."

"The light here is quite good. The photos turn out really well; it's a rare opportunity."

Ali looked at the sky. "Alright. I walked around a bit just now and there's nothing fun here. I have things to take care of at home, and it's not good if I go back too late. I'll head back first. You can ride my bike back. Just return it to me tomorrow."

"No need, I can walk back. You can come pick me up tomorrow."

"Just take it." Ali tossed the motorcycle keys to him. "It's a long way, and you're not familiar with this area; you won't be able to walk back without a bike. I can take a shortcut and it won't be far—I'll be home in an hour or two."

Li Xin took the keys. "But making you walk for an hour or two to get back, this..."

"Don't worry, I'm used to it. This distance is nothing. Otherwise, I'd be afraid you'd get too tired to walk; I could come here even without riding a bike. You look after yourself!"

Ali waved his hand and walked back along the tire tracks. After a few steps, he stopped, turned back, and shouted, "There's a village to the north where people live. If it gets too late, you can go there and ask to stay the night. Mention my name; they know me."

"Got it."

Ali's figure grew smaller and smaller until he finally disappeared behind the hills.

Li Xin waited until he couldn't see him anymore before returning to the open space in the middle of the depression. He took out a folding chair from his storage space and sat down. He took water and dry rations from his backpack and set them aside.

He stared at the panel as the progress jumped: 4%, 8%, 13%.

The afternoon desert was very quiet. The wind blew from the west, carrying the scent of sand and soil. The distant hills distorted in the hot air, like reflections in water.

Time passed bit by bit. The progress was 21%, 27%, 33%.

The sun slowly slid from overhead to the west. The light turned from blinding to soft, and the desert was dyed a golden red. The shadows in the depression were stretched long.

He stood up and stretched, then took a box of self-heating rice from his storage space. After eating, he continued to stare at the panel.

Progress was 39%, 44%, 49%.

The sky began to darken. He took a jacket from his storage space and put it on, then took out a flashlight and placed it to the side.

At 8:00 PM, the progress was 67%.

Suddenly, headlights appeared in the distance.

Li Xin raised his head abruptly, then quickly put the folding chair back into his storage space, retreated to hide behind a sand dune on the edge of the depression, and poked his head out to look.

Two vehicles drove over from the south: a white pickup truck and a black SUV. They stopped on the west side of the depression, about eight or nine hundred meters away from him. Four or five people got out, all wearing dark clothes and hats. Two of them were holding metal detectors, and another person was holding a tablet computer.

Li Xin's heartbeat accelerated. These were the treasure hunters from Tehran.

They started walking this way. The metal detectors swept back and forth over the ground, making beep-beep sounds.

"Walk this way, the signal is stronger here."

They were getting closer and closer to Li Xin. 700 meters. 650 meters. 500 meters.

Li Xin held his breath, crouching behind the sand dune, not daring to move.

They stopped about 450 meters away from him.

"The response is strongest here! Right here!"

"Start digging!"

Li Xin glanced at the progress bar. It was only at 71%.

"AI System, can you speed it up?"

[Current Extraction rate has reached the limit. Cannot speed up. Can adjust load distribution to prioritize extracting the core area.]

"How to adjust?"

[Focus on extracting the core area of the cellar cache first, and temporarily set aside the edge areas. Extraction time can be shortened by about 20%, but a small amount of gold and silver will be scattered.]

"About how much will be scattered?"

[3% to 5% of the total. It will not affect the main part.]

"Then adjust it. Just leave them some soup to drink."

"All right, adjustments are now complete. Extraction rate increased. Remaining time: approximately 5 hours."

The progress bar began to jump a bit faster. 74%, 80%.

Those few people were still digging. The sound of shovels became more frequent.

"Dig the pit deeper! We should be close to hitting it!"

"Boss, this soil is too hard!"

"Stop talking nonsense, dig hard!"

"Hahaha... Boss, I see something!" someone in the pit shouted.

Li Xin's heart sank. "They dug up the pottery jars!"

"Be careful! Don't break them, these are all treasures!"

Several people began to scrape with their hands. The sand and soil were pushed aside, revealing the rim of a pottery jar.

"Hahaha... There's another one! There are more next to it!"

Progress: 89%.

They successively dug out three pottery jars and placed them by the edge of the pit. They started digging for what was underneath again.

"Hahaha, another one came out! We're rich, we're rich!"

Progress: 95%.

Li Xin glanced at the pit. Five pottery jars were already lined up by the edge. Someone was using a flashlight to shine on them, while others were using brushes to clean the soil off the surface of the jars.

Progress: 97%.

"Are there any more?"

"The detector is still beeping. There should be more underneath."

Progress: 98%.

Those few people continued to dig deeper. The sound of shovels rang out again.

Progress: 99.5%.

Li Xin stared at the progress bar, his heartbeat accelerating rapidly.

"Ding— Extraction of the ancient village cellar core area complete. Obtained 75 tons of gold, 15,000 silver coins, 50 pieces of pottery, 20 silver utensils, 3,000 copper coins, and 120 pieces of jewelry. Approximately 2.1 tons of scattered gold and silver remain in the edge area, available for subsequent Extraction."

"Current accumulated gold: 2,915.1057 tons."

Li Xin did not hesitate. He quietly crawled out from behind the sand dune, walked a long distance, then took his motorcycle out of the space, and rode it far around that group of people.

Those few people were still busy at the edge of the pit and didn't notice him.

It was late at night when he returned to the hotel. He took a shower, lay on the bed, and stared at the ceiling.

That group from Tehran would come back again. There were still scattered items under that low-lying area, and he had to deal with them before they did; he didn't know if he would be in time. But the system needed a twelve-hour cooldown, and the earliest he could continue would be tomorrow afternoon.

He turned over and closed his eyes. Li Xin thought for a moment. There was quite a lot of stuff piled up in his space; he could take out a few hundred silver coins, some ordinary pottery, and copper coins. It would be fine to sell them locally for some cash, and he could give Ali more money then as compensation for showing him the way.

The next afternoon, Li Xin received a message from Ali.

"Li, you asked me to help you find an antique dealer this morning, and I've contacted one now. We're meeting in downtown Bushehr this afternoon, are you going?"

"Of course I'm going. Did they say what time?"

"Around 3 PM, I'll take you there on my bike."

At 2:30, Ali came to pick him up on his motorcycle. The two set off from the seaside village and rode for nearly an hour before arriving in downtown Bushehr.

The market was in the city center, set up under a series of sheds, selling everything imaginable. Ali led him through a few alleys and stopped in front of a shop.

The shop's storefront was small, and the sign was old, but a black SUV, which looked quite new, was parked at the entrance.

"This is it." Ali pushed the door open. "Uncle Rezahan, I've brought him."

Entering the shop, he saw a man in his forties sitting behind the counter. He had a round face, sported a Short Beard, and was wearing a gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He stood up and sized Li Xin up several times.

"You're the one Ali mentioned who does geology?" he asked in Persian, his tone neither warm nor cold.

"Yes, hello." Li Xin nodded.

"Please, sit."

Li Xin sat in the chair in front of the counter. Ali stood at the doorway and did not come in.

Rezahan took a tea tray from under the counter, poured two cups of tea, and pushed one over.

"Ali said you have some old items in your hands. Bring them here and let me see."

Li Xin took a small cloth bag out of his backpack, opened it, and poured it onto the counter. There were dozens of silver coins, a dozen small pieces of pottery, and some copper coins.

Rezahan picked up a silver coin, looked at it closely, and weighed it in his hand. He placed it on an electronic scale to weigh it. Then he picked up a piece of pottery and turned it over to look at the patterns on the bottom.

"Sasanian silver coins. Authentic. The pottery is also old, from the early Islamic period."

"How much?"

Rezahan thought for a moment. "300 million Rials."

Li Xin frowned. 300 million Rials was less than 7,000 USD. If these items were taken to Dubai to sell, they could fetch at least five times that. However, he needed to exchange them for pocket money now, and he wanted to give Ali some as well, so he didn't care about these small profits.

"500 million."

"350 million."

"400 million."

Rezahan stared at him for a few seconds. "400 million. Deal."

He took a stack of banknotes from the drawer, counted them, and pushed them over. Li Xin counted them once and stuffed them into his pocket.

"Do you have any more?" Rezahan asked.

"Not for now."

"Next time you have goods, come directly to me. No need to go through Ali." Rezahan pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it over. "My name is Rezahan."

Li Xin took the business card. It was printed in Persian, and at the bottom was a line of small text— "Some doors can only be opened with a key."

"Are you from Tehran?" Li Xin asked casually.

"I'm usually in Tehran. The Bushehr location is a branch, and I just happened to be here to inspect the store today." Rezahan leaned back in his chair and took a sip of tea. "Do you work in geology?"

"Yes. Collecting samples."

"Collecting samples? I'm afraid it's not that simple!" Rezahan laughed. "Can collecting samples get you silver coins and pottery?"

"Picked them up by the side of the road."

Rezahan stared at him for a few seconds. Then he stood up, walked to the door, and closed it. He walked back behind the counter and took an iron box out of the drawer and opened it.

Inside the box were a few items—a silver plate with exquisite patterns, a few gold coins, and a bronze object that looked like a lamp.

"These things... were they also picked up by the side of the road?" Rezahan asked.

Li Xin looked at those items. The patterns on the silver plate were in the Sasanian Persian style, and the gold coins bore the image of a Byzantine emperor. They were all authentic and in very good condition, much better than his own.

"Oh? Where did you get these?"

"You don't need to ask about that." Rezahan closed the iron box and put it back in the drawer. "I just wanted to let you know that I am not an ordinary small vendor. I can offer a higher price for your items. Can you tell me where you found those things?"

Li Xin was silent for a few seconds. Did he really take him for a child? "I just picked them up by the side of the road when I was wandering around, I was lucky."

Rezahan stared at him for a long time. Then he took out a piece of paper, wrote a few words, and pushed it over.

"I think you will be interested in this place. Have you heard of it?"

On the paper was a line of Persian text— "The Underground Royal City of Jamshid."

Li Xin shook his head. "Never heard of it."

"This is a legend from three thousand years ago. It is recorded in ancient Persian scriptures." Rezahan leaned back in his chair. "Jamshid was a king in Persian mythology. He had an Underground Royal City filled with gold, silver, and jewelry. Legend says it is in Fars Province, near Shiraz."

"You believe this?"

"I don't believe in the legend. I believe that people have dug things up there." Rezahan lowered his voice. "A few years ago, a shepherd found a few Achaemenid Empire gold coins in the mountains north of Shiraz. Later, people went to explore and discovered there were hollow spaces underground."

Li Xin didn't respond.

"I am interested in that place. But I can't handle it alone." Rezahan took out the business card again and twirled it in his hand. "If you are interested, you can go look for it. If you find something, I will buy it. The price will be higher than the market rate."

"I'm not a treasure hunter. I work in geology."

"It's the same for someone in geology." Rezahan laughed. "Isn't geological exploration just looking for things underground?"

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds.

Li Xin stood up. "Thanks. I'll contact you again if I have goods."

"Does he really take me for a fool, trying to trick me into being cannon fodder? No way. If that treasure is real, I'll clean it all out before you can," Li Xin thought viciously, walking slowly out of the shop.

Walking along the alley, not far out, he saw in the reflection of a shop window that a figure behind him had been following him.

He turned into another alley and quickened his pace. The figure also quickened their pace.

Li Xin took a turn, then another turn. He circled the market three times, confirmed he had shaken the person off, and then walked out from another exit.

Ali was waiting for him at the alley entrance. "Why did it take so long?"

"It's nothing. I was followed."

"Who?"

"Don't know." Li Xin got on the motorcycle. "Let's go, back."

Ali started the bike, and it chugged out of the city center.

Back at the seaside village, it was almost dark. Li Xin lay on the bed, took out the business card, and stared at that line of small text.

"Some doors can only be opened with a key."

This Rezahan is not simple. A small antique dealer who has Byzantine gold coins and an Achaemenid silver plate, and who is also interested in the "Underground Royal City." What is his background, anyway?

Li Xin put the business card into his space. He took out his phone, opened the map, and looked at the location of Shiraz. Fars Province, Persepolis, the tomb of Cyrus the Great. That area is the cradle of ancient Persian civilization.

The 3,000-year-old Underground Royal City.

The corner of his mouth curled up, and he turned over.

The system cooldown had a few hours left. Once the cooldown ended, he would return overnight to finish extracting the more than two tons of gold scattered in that low-lying area. Then, it would be time to consider going to Shiraz.