131: Chapter 131 Night Escape

The car sped along the highway for nearly an hour.

The evening breeze poured in through the gaps in the windows, carrying the chill of the desert, and Li Xin's taut nerves finally began to relax.

His trembling hands steadied completely, and the heart that had been pounding in his chest slowly returned to its normal rhythm.

He looked at the rearview mirror to look behind him; the direction of Shiraz had long since blended into the boundless night, leaving only a mass of deep darkness, with not a single light to be seen.

He imagined that group of treasure hunters was currently drilling into the hollowed-out tunnel, full of joy and dreaming of getting rich overnight. Thinking of this, a faint arc appeared at the corner of Li Xin's mouth.

He had no extra energy to immerse himself in the joy of the harvest; the most urgent thing right now was to completely distance himself from this place of trouble.

Although those people were busy digging now, once they discovered the tunnel was empty, they would definitely realize that someone had beaten them to it. Would they call the police then? Would they look for someone to investigate?

He didn't know. But he knew one thing: he couldn't stay here and wait.

Li Xin thought for a moment and didn't go directly onto the main road. Instead, he circled around the suburbs, found a small road, and drove toward the northeast.

He marked a point on the map—Yazd, more than four hundred kilometers from Shiraz. He would get there first and then decide.

The small road was difficult to travel. The asphalt road was tattered, and some sections didn't even have streetlights, relying entirely on the car's headlights.

On both sides was the pitch-black desert, and occasionally, a few lights from distant villages could be seen.

After driving for almost two hours, a checkpoint appeared in front.

Li Xin's heart tightened. He slowed down and rolled down the window.

A man in uniform walked over, holding a flashlight. He glanced at the license plate and then at Li Xin.

"Where are you going?"

"Yazd."

"Driving so late?"

"It's too hot during the day. It's cooler at night."

The man in uniform shone his flashlight inside the car and looked at the trunk. Inside, there were only a few pieces of photography equipment and a mountaineering backpack. He nodded and returned the passport.

"Be careful on the road. There is a section of road construction ahead, drive slowly."

"Thank you."

Li Xin closed the window and slowly drove through the checkpoint. He saw the man in uniform still staring at his car in the rearview mirror, but he didn't chase after him.

He let out a breath and pressed the gas pedal.

Another half hour later, there was indeed road construction ahead. The asphalt road surface had been dug into a large ditch, leaving only a dirt road on the side to detour.

The dirt road was bumpy, the car swayed left and right, and the steering wheel shook in his hands.

Li Xin gripped the steering wheel tightly, and the speed dropped to twenty.

Just then, his phone vibrated.

He picked it up and saw a message from Wang Lei: "Are you still in Shiraz?"

Li Xin thought for a moment and replied: "I left. Going to Yazd."

"So sudden? What happened?"

"Nothing. The work here is done, changing places."

Wang Lei was silent for a while and then sent another message: "Just heard from people in the department that something happened north of Persepolis. It seems like someone was illegally excavating there and was reported. The Revolutionary Guard has already gone over."

Li Xin's fingers paused.

"When did this happen?"

"Just now. Less than an hour ago."

"Do you know the specific situation?"

"Not clear. They didn't say much, just said they received a report of suspicious activity in the northern mountainous area and have sent people to investigate."

Li Xin stared at the screen, his brain spinning fast. Reported? Who reported it? Was it a herdsman nearby? Or did that group leak the news themselves?

No matter who it was, the Revolutionary Guard had already gone over. That group must have been caught red-handed now.

He glanced outside the car window. Everything was pitch black, with only the car headlights illuminating a small section of the road ahead. In the distance, there were outlines of a few houses, looking like a small village by the road.

He parked the car on the side of the road and turned off the engine.

After thinking, he replied to Wang Lei: "Thanks. Stay safe."

"You too. Send me a message when you get to Yazd."

"Okay."

Li Xin threw his phone onto the passenger seat and leaned back against the seat. His palms started sweating again.

The Revolutionary Guard. Not a normal Patrol Team, but military personnel. If that group was caught, they would definitely confess—that they were looking for underground treasure, that the tunnel had already been opened, and they were preparing to dig.

Then the Revolutionary Guard would go down to check. Then they would find that the tunnel was empty.

Then they would start investigating. Investigating who had been in this area, investigating who might have been active nearby.

As a Chinese national, he had stayed in Shiraz for several days and often ran into the mountains to the north. Although he was very careful every time, he might not be able to withstand an investigation.

Li Xin took a deep breath and restarted the car.

Must leave. Leave now. The further, the better.

He didn't continue driving toward Yazd but turned into an even smaller road, detouring to the southeast. He wouldn't go directly to Yazd; he would first find a remote place to stay for a few days and see how things developed.

The small road became narrower and narrower, with farmland and orchards on both sides. The road surface was full of gravel and sand, and the car wheels slipped as they moved forward.

After driving for almost an hour, a date forest appeared in front. He drove the car deep into the date forest and stopped under a large dead tree. He turned off the engine and turned off all the lights.

Everything was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything. Only the sound of the wind passing through the date forest, a wooing sound, was a bit eerie.

He leaned against the seat and closed his eyes. His mind was a mess, one moment thinking of the scene where that group was caught, the next thinking of the possibility of the Revolutionary Guard investigating him.

Couldn't sleep.

Took out his phone and checked—4:00 AM.

He flattened the seat, lay on it, and stared at the car roof. After a long time, he drifted off into a hazy sleep.

At daybreak, he was woken up by the chirping of birds.

He opened his eyes, and sunlight shone in through the gaps in the date tree leaves, casting broken gold on the windshield. He sat up and exercised his stiff neck.

He picked up his phone and looked at the news.

On the website of local media in Shiraz, there was a short report: "Illegal archaeological excavation activity discovered in the mountainous area north of Persepolis, the Revolutionary Guard has intervened to investigate. 7 suspects were arrested at the scene, and several pieces of professional exploration equipment were seized. The case is under further trial."

7 people. That whole group was caught.

Li Xin put down the phone and thought. That group was caught, but would they confess other things? For example, how did they find that location? Was there someone who provided them with information?

He didn't know. But he knew one thing: he couldn't stay in this area anymore.

Started the car, drove out of the date forest, and got onto the highway. Drove toward Yazd.

On the way, he didn't drive fast, keeping the speed at around eighty, not speeding, not violating traffic rules. When encountering checkpoints, he honestly stopped, handed over his passport, and answered questions.

Passed three checkpoints, and no problems occurred.

In the afternoon, he arrived at Yazd.

He didn't enter the city and found a small hotel in the suburbs to stay in. The hotel was a two-story mud house, with a few date trees planted at the entrance and a few dilapidated pickup trucks parked in the courtyard.

The front desk was an old man with gray hair and reading glasses. He looked at Li Xin's passport and asked in Persian: "Chinese?"

"Yes."

"How long are you staying?"

"Staying for two days first. See how it goes."

"Twenty dollars a day."

Li Xin took forty dollars out of his pocket and handed it over. The old man took the money and handed him a key. "Second floor, at the end of the corridor."

The room was small, with a bed, a table, and a chair, and the window faced the courtyard. The sheets were white and looked reasonably clean. He put down his backpack, took a shower, and lay on the bed.

Opened the system panel.

[Current Accumulated Gold: 4953.1057 tons.]

[System Load: 62%. Stability: 37%.]

[Cooldown Time Remaining: 4 hours.]

He stared at these numbers, his mind thinking about where to go next.

Couldn't go back to Shiraz. Couldn't go further south either, that was the Persian Gulf, and he had already been to Bushehr and Qeshm Island. East? To the east was the desert, there was nothing.

West. Kermanshah.

He had checked information about that place online. Kermanshah was deep in the Zagros Mountains and was the largest city in western Iran. There were several ancient ruins there, and legend had it there was treasure.

More importantly, it was not far from the Iraq border. If the situation wasn't right, he could leave the country at any time.

Li Xin closed the panel and closed his eyes.

Sleep first. Decide after waking up.

When twilight stained the world, Li Xin finally woke up.

He got up and went downstairs, finding a small street shop next to the hotel for a simple meal. Tender roasted lamb paired with rice and local naan bread; the taste was mediocre, but it was enough to fill his stomach.

After dinner, he returned to the guest room, picked up his phone, and carefully read the information about Kermanshah.

There were very few records about it online, with only a few travel platforms mentioning it. It retained stone carvings and ancient ruins left by the Sassanid Empire, but the location was remote and secluded, with few tourists setting foot there.

A piece of local news instantly caught his eye, describing how, after an earthquake several years ago, local herdsmen went into the mountains and accidentally picked up quite a few ancient bronze artifacts.

Li Xin read the news content word for word.

At the end of 2017, Kermanshah suffered a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. After the mountain shifted from the shaking, herdsmen accidentally found several entrances to suspected ancient caves deep in the mountains, with bronze vessels and broken pottery shards scattered around.

The local cultural heritage department immediately sent people to the site for investigation and preliminarily determined that this was very likely an ancient ruin from the Sassanid Empire or even older.

However, limited by various conditions, the specific origins and deep secrets of the ruins were never explored, and no further news was released afterward.

Li Xin took out his phone, wanting to check the place where the herdsmen found the ruins; it was deep in the mountains north of Kermanshah, about fifty kilometers from the urban area.

Li Xin pondered to himself. His system search range was a full twenty-eight kilometers, so he didn't need to go deep into the remote and dangerous mountains at all. As long as he settled down near the urban area, he could easily explore the entire mountain forest.

Putting away his phone, he lay flat on the bed.

Suddenly, the ground shook inexplicably, and muffled sounds came one after another. Deep underground, a giant existence was slowly pushing up the ground.

Li Xin's body stiffened, and he instantly straightened his back. The room window shook gently, and the water in the cup on the table rippled.

"Damn it~ Did an earthquake happen?"

He held his breath and waited for more than ten seconds, but there was no more shaking around. He got up and walked to the window to look outside. Pedestrians on the street walked as usual with calm expressions. An old man was quietly leaning on the roadside smoking, showing no panic or fear, clearly having long been accustomed to this.

Li Xin walked downstairs to the front desk to ask about the reason.

The white-haired old man was focused on watching the TV news. The screen was playing a real-time bulletin: a 3.2 magnitude minor earthquake occurred in the middle of the Zagros Mountains, with the epicenter about forty kilometers northeast of Kermanshah. This tremor was weak and did not cause any casualties or property damage.

"Old man, do earthquakes happen here often?" Li Xin asked softly in Persian.

The old man nodded slowly, his tone flat: "The entire Zagros Mountains are located in an earthquake-prone zone. Small tremors never stop, and it's only occasionally that one encounters a strong, major earthquake."

"The northern mountainous area has never been stable?"

"It has never been peaceful." The old man shook his head slightly with emotion.

"That 5.2 magnitude strong earthquake back then destroyed several surrounding villages. Many roads deep in the mountains collapsed and broke, and to this day, many areas are still difficult to traverse."

"It sounds heartbreaking. The ordinary people in the mountains really have it hard, and it's especially inconvenient to go in and out."

"Sigh, isn't that the truth? But there really is no other way." The old man shook his head and sighed.

Li Xin also nodded in understanding, chatted with the old man for a while, and then went upstairs, subsequently lying on the bed, with countless clues continuously intertwining and circling in his mind.

All signs indicated that there were many secrets hidden in this deep mountain.

Li Xin looked at the system panel; there were still two hours before the system cooling was complete, and at that time, he could perform Extraction on the treasure again.

It's just that the situation in the mountainous area is still unknown, and everything needs to be dealt with on the spot after arriving.

Li Xin turned over and closed his eyes.

At this moment, another muffled sound came from outside the window. This time it was lighter than the last, like an aftershock.

He didn't move.

Listening to the sound of the wind outside the window, he slowly fell asleep.