128: Chapter 128 The Missing and the Spying

Li Xin went out to roam around for a bit before coming back; there really wasn't anything fun to do around here. Back in his room, he lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. His mind kept turning over the white off-road vehicle, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. He thought to himself,

"Maybe I could ask Wang Lei. He's in this circle; he might know more details."

He immediately picked up his phone and sent a message to Wang Lei: "Are you asleep?"

A few minutes later, Wang Lei replied: "Nope. Writing a thesis. I'm going bald."

"Asking you something. Do you know about that Frenchman who went missing north of Shiraz a few months ago?"

"Yeah, I know. Professor Durand—an archaeologist from the Sorbonne University in Paris. Everyone in our major knows him." Wang Lei called him via voice chat immediately, his voice lowered, "Why are you suddenly asking about this?"

"Saw it in the newspaper today. Just curious."

"This professor is quite famous in the circle. Last year, he spent several months digging at Tillya Tepe in Afghanistan, and rumor has it he made a major discovery. After returning to his country, he wasn't quite himself. He spent every day in the library looking up ancient texts, saying he was looking for something." Wang Lei paused,

"Then, he suddenly went missing. His family reported it to the police, and the authorities here in Iran investigated, but to this day, there's no sign of him—dead or alive."

"What was he looking for?"

"Not sure. Some say he was looking for that Underground Royal City mentioned in ancient Persian scriptures. You know how it is—those of us in this line of work, who doesn't keep that legend in mind? But most people just listen to it as a story and leave it at that. He, however, seemed to take it seriously."

Li Xin didn't reply.

Wang Lei continued, "Before he came to Iran, he sent an email to a professor in the department, saying he was going to 'find the sleeping place of Jamshid,' and also saying something like 'the truth is right north of Persepolis.'"

He sighed, "After that, no one could reach him. Everyone thinks he probably met with some accident. The terrain in those mountains is complex; it's perfectly normal for something to happen."

"Didn't they send people to look for him?"

"They did. Even the Revolutionary Guard was deployed. They searched for several days, but didn't find a trace, and eventually, the matter just fizzled out."

Wang Lei lowered his voice, "Some say he might have been 'taken care of.' That area isn't just archaeological sites; some places are military exclusion zones. It's possible he stumbled into one and saw something he shouldn't have."

Li Xin thought about it, "I think that's possible. So, before he went missing, where was the last place someone saw him?"

"The newspaper said the mountainous area to the north, but it didn't specify the exact location. But I heard from a teacher in the department that it was roughly northwest of Persepolis, not far from the Valley of the Kings." Wang Lei paused, "Why are you interested in this?"

"Nothing much, just heard the hotel owner mention it in passing earlier, so I was curious and thought I'd ask you."

"You're really curious." Wang Lei laughed, "I advise you not to go too deep into those mountains. Forget about a Frenchman having just gone missing there; the terrain alone is enough to give you trouble. I'm not joking."

"Got it. Thanks."

After hanging up, Li Xin lay on the bed, running everything Wang Lei said through his mind.

Tillya Tepe.

He had only just come out of that place a few days ago. Durand had spent several months digging there last year, and after returning home, he became "not quite right," spending every day checking ancient texts, and then ran to Iran to find some "sleeping place of Jamshid."

This couldn't be a coincidence.

Durand must have found some clue at Tillya Tepe that made him conclude there was something hidden north of Persepolis. What was that clue? How much did he find? Did he tell anyone else?

Li Xin took his computer out from his space, opened the browser, and searched for the name "Jean Durand." Not much information came up—a few papers he had published, all regarding archaeological research on the Kushan Empire and the Greco-Bactrian period. There was also a news article about the archaeological excavation at Tillya Tepe last year, accompanied by a photo. In the photo, Durand was standing in front of the ruins, wearing a straw hat, smiling very happily.

The news said this excavation "achieved a major breakthrough," but didn't specify what the breakthrough was.

He couldn't find anything.

He put the computer away and turned off the light. In the darkness, he stared at the ceiling for a long time. The last location where Durand appeared before he went missing was somewhere north of the Valley of the Kings, likely not far from his stone house. If Durand really found clues to the Underground Royal City, could the people in that white off-road vehicle also be here for this?

At 4:00 AM, the system cooldown ended.

Li Xin got up in the dark, washed up, shouldered his bag, and went downstairs. The front desk light was on; the old man was sleeping face down, snoring. He didn't make a sound and tiptoed out of the hotel.

He drove north. When he left the city, there were almost no cars on the road. Both sides of the road were pitch black, with only the headlights illuminating a short stretch of asphalt road ahead. After driving for over an hour, he turned onto a side road and got onto a dirt road. The horizon began to turn white, and the silhouette of the mountains slowly emerged.

When he was close to the stone house, he slowed down. He didn't turn directly into the valley, but parked the car behind a slope outside the valley, got out, and walked over on foot.

Everything at the valley entrance was normal. No tire tracks, no footprints, no signs of anyone having been there. He walked into the valley, scanning the gravel and bushes on the slopes on both sides as he went. Only after confirming there was no one nearby did he enter the stone house.

He sat down and opened the system panel.

[Current Cumulative Gold: 3395.1057 tons.]

[System Load: 58%. Stability: 39%.]

[Current Extraction Limit: 12 hours.]

"System, continue Extraction of the Underground Royal City."

[Extracting. Third batch starting. Current Extraction rate: approx. 20 tons/hour. Estimated Extraction for this batch: approx. 240 tons.]

Pale blue light surged toward the underground in the southeast direction. The progress bar began to jump.

Li Xin stared at the panel, but his mind was on Durand. He always felt something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Progress at 11%. 19%. 27%.

The morning passed quickly. The sun slowly rose, and the sunlight spilled into the valley, feeling warm.

He lay on a reclining chair to rest, took out some snacks and juice, and enjoyed himself leisurely. Occasionally, he would get up to stretch, but his gaze remained fixed tightly on the panel in front of him, not looking away for a single moment.

Near noon, the system suddenly popped up a notification, red and flashing.

[Warning: Metal detection equipment signal detected. Location: South-southeast direction, approximately 2.5 kilometers away. The other party is using professional underground detection equipment and is currently moving slowly.]

Li Xin sat up abruptly.

Metal detectors. Not the Patrol Team, not herdsmen. Someone was using professional equipment to Scan the ground.

"Can you determine how many people there are?"

[Based on the signal, it can be determined that there are at least two people, each carrying a detection instrument. Their search route is organized, systematically checking area by area. They are clearly experienced treasure hunters.]

Li Xin's heart began to race. He stood up, walked to the bend in the valley, and poked his head out to look toward the southeast. It was a gentle slope with some bushes and withered grass, but he couldn't see anyone. However, if those two people continued searching in their current direction, it wouldn't be long before they entered the valley area.

"Calculate the distance and time for them to reach the valley entrance."

[Current distance to the valley entrance is about 1.8 kilometers. Based on current search speed (approx. 500 meters per hour), they will reach the valley entrance in about 3.5 hours. They will enter within 500 meters of the stone house in about 4.5 hours.]

Li Xin glanced at the progress bar. 31%. Still more than eight hours left.

He couldn't stop. If he stopped, all his previous efforts would be wasted. But he couldn't let those two people run into him either. Although there was a rock crevice behind the stone house where he could hide, while he could hide inside, the car was parked outside—it was so conspicuous, it couldn't be hidden at all.

He thought for a moment and put the car into his space; he couldn't let the car be exposed to those two people.

Progress at 38%.

He sat in the rock crevice, with only half an eye exposed, staring in the direction of the valley. The dry riverbed wound in from the south and made a turn at the valley entrance. From that angle, he could just see a stretch of the dirt road outside the valley entrance.

The sun hung in the sky, slightly west of center, its rays baking the stones in the river valley with intense heat. He huddled inside a crevice, his back pressed against the cold rock while his front was scorched by the sun—a feeling of ice and fire combined.

Progress: 43%.

Just past two o'clock, two figures appeared outside the mouth of the river valley. Li Xin held his breath, shrinking himself into the deepest part of the crevice.

The two figures stopped at the mouth of the valley. He could see their silhouettes—two men, both wearing dark outdoor clothing and hats. One man held a long pole with a circular disk at the front; that must have been the probe of a metal detector. The other man carried a backpack and held a tablet computer in his hand.

They stood at the valley mouth for about five minutes, saying something. Li Xin couldn't hear the content clearly, but judging by their movements, it looked like they were checking data on the screen.

Then, they walked into the river valley.

Li Xin's heart leapt into his throat.

The two men didn't walk fast, scanning the ground with the detector as they went. The probe of the detector swung left and right over the sandy ground, occasionally stopping. One of them would crouch down, look at the data on the small tablet, and then jot something down on paper.

When they were still over four hundred meters away from the stone house, they stopped.

Li Xin could see their faces through the gap in the crevice. Both men were in their thirties; one of them had a Short Beard and wore sunglasses. The other was thinner, with little flesh on his face and high cheekbones. Their equipment looked very professional, and he could tell at a glance that the detection instrument was by no means an ordinary object; it could detect dozens of meters underground, and the price of a single unit alone would be tens of thousands of US dollars.

Short Beard crouched down, picked up a stone to examine it, then stood up and glanced in the direction of the stone house.

Li Xin didn't move. He knew the other party couldn't see him; the crevice was too deep, appearing only as a black crack from the outside, making it impossible to see anyone inside.

Short Beard turned his head and said a few words to his companion. Li Xin pricked up his ears to listen. The valley was quiet, and the wind was light, so he could barely hear them speaking.

"...The signal isn't strong. It might be shallow, scattered debris."

"Should we keep going forward?"

"No need. The signals in this area are all scattered, not concentrated. Let's go, head back."

The other man hesitated for a moment. "Keep going a bit further? There's a bend over there that isn't marked on the map."

"Forget it, we need to be back before dark. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

The two men really turned around and headed back. The detector was still scanning, but it didn't stop again. When they reached the mouth of the valley, their figures disappeared around the bend of the dirt road.

Li Xin waited until he couldn't hear any footsteps at all before emerging from the crevice. His legs were numb from squatting, and he walked with a limp. He walked to the mouth of the valley and looked out for a long time, confirming that no one was nearby, before returning to the stone house.

He plopped down on the ground, his back drenched in sweat.

Progress: 51%. Load: 61%.

There were still several hours left.

He didn't continue the Extraction, checking the surrounding traces first. The car had already been put into his space, but the footprints on the ground were the most troublesome. He crouched down and checked everywhere he had walked; fortunately, most of the ground in the valley consisted of gravel and hard dirt, so the footprints weren't very obvious. Still, he cleared them away one by one.

For the rest of the afternoon, he stayed huddled in the crevice. The system was extracting automatically, and he stared at the system panel, not daring to blink. Fortunately, no one else came, and the valley was so quiet that only the sound of the wind remained.

When it turned dark, the system popped up a notification—the third batch of Extraction was complete.

[Third batch of Extraction complete. This Extraction: 236 tons of gold.]

[Current accumulated gold: 3631.1057 tons.]

[Mandatory cooling time required: 12 hours.]

Li Xin closed the system panel and crawled out of the crevice. He stretched his stiff legs and feet, took a bottle of water from his space, and took a big gulp.

He didn't stay in the stone house for long. After cleaning up the traces, he walked out of the valley. Once he reached a hidden spot outside the valley, he took the car out of his space, started the engine, and drove back along the dirt road.

After driving less than two kilometers, as he passed a dry riverbed, he noticed a car parked by the side of the riverbed.

It was a silver pickup truck with Tehran license plates, parked on the gravel by the riverbed, less than fifty meters from the dirt road.

Li Xin slowed down and glanced at it. The cargo bed of the pickup was covered with canvas, and a GPS navigator was placed on the inside of the windshield in the driver's cab. There were footprints beside the car, scattered and extending toward the direction of the river valley.

He didn't stop. He continued driving forward, watching in the rearview mirror as the silhouette of the pickup grew smaller and smaller, finally disappearing behind the hillside.

After driving several kilometers, he parked the car in an inconspicuous spot on the side of the road, turned off the engine, got out, and walked back on foot.

It took him nearly twenty minutes to get back to the pickup truck. It was already completely dark, and there were no lights around, so he turned on his flashlight and shone it inside the car.

There were a few items thrown on the driver's seat—a pair of gloves, a bottle of mineral water, a pack of biscuits, and a folder. On the passenger seat sat a black backpack with its zipper not fully closed, and he could see several rolls of blueprints stuffed inside.

He tried pulling the car door. It was locked.

He took a thin wire from his space, poked it into the keyhole, and fiddled with it a few times. This door lock wasn't anything high-end, and it opened in a few dozen seconds.

He sat in the driver's seat and opened the folder.

Inside were several A4 sheets of paper, all printed with satellite maps. On the first map, he saw the mountainous area north of Persepolis, with several coordinate points marked on it, as well as a few circles drawn in red ink.

Three red circles.

One of them was less than a kilometer away from his stone house.

The other documents were nothing special. He took out his phone, took pictures of the maps and documents, put everything back in its original place, closed the car door, and backed away.

Standing next to the pickup, he stared at the GPS navigator inside the car for a few seconds. The screen was black, but there was still a bit of dust stuck to it, and it was quite clean, indicating it had been in constant use.

He circled around the area, didn't find anything else, and then left.

He returned to his car, started the engine, and drove back.

His mind was a mess on the way back. The two people with the detector were definitely with this pickup truck. They had marked three red circles on the map, one of which was so close to the stone house, meaning they had already locked onto this area.

But he couldn't figure it out—how did they find it?

Professor Durand. This thought popped up again.

Durand had discovered clues at Tillya Tepe, deciphered part of the ancient texts, and learned the approximate location of the Underground Royal City. He brought these clues to Iran and then disappeared. Those clues might have fallen into someone's hands, or perhaps Durand was still alive but being controlled.

Regardless of the situation, there was now a group of people who possessed information about the Underground Royal City and were narrowing down their search area.

Li Xin took a deep breath, stepped on the accelerator, and the car sped back into the night.

When he got back to the hotel, it was already nearly eleven o'clock at night. He took a shower, lay on the bed, pulled up the photos he had taken on his phone, and looked at them one by one.

The three red circles marked on the satellite map were not deep; they were all on the periphery of the Underground Royal City. The one closest to the stone house was still some distance from the main structure of the Underground Royal City, but it had already entered the system's scanning range.

He calculated in his mind.

At the current Extraction speed, he still needed two more batches, nearly two hundred and forty tons of gold. Including the cooling time, it would take at least three more days.

Three days.

He didn't know when those people would come back, nor did he know if they would discover the stone house. But he knew one thing—he had to empty the Underground Royal City before that group dug up anything.

Lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, he thought for a long time.

Then he turned over and closed his eyes.

He still had to get up at four in the morning.

After daybreak, those people might come again.