132: Chapter 132 The Secret of the Earthquake Zone

It was over six hundred kilometers from Yazd to Kermanshah.

Li Xin drove for a whole day.

He set off at eight in the morning and didn't arrive until evening.

The road was difficult to travel.

Half of it was mountain roads, with one curve after another, making it impossible to increase speed.

Some sections were under construction, causing a traffic jam for almost an hour.

He ate lunch in the car—self-heating rice; it tasted average, but it was enough to fill him up.

By the time he reached Kermanshah, it was almost dark.

He didn't enter the city but found a village north of the city to stay in.

The village wasn't large, with a few dozen households, and most of the houses were earth-yellow.

There was a small square at the entrance of the village, where a few old men sat chatting.

Li Xin parked the car by the square and got out.

"Hello. I would like to rent a house here for a few days, is that possible?"

The old men looked at each other.

One of them, a White-bearded Elder, looked him up and down.

"Where are you from?"

"China. I do geological research."

"Geological research?" The White-bearded Elder frowned. "What is there to research here?"

"Seismic monitoring." Li Xin pointed to the mountains in the distance. "This area is on a seismic belt, and I want to collect some data."

The White-bearded Elder thought for a moment and stood up.

"Follow me."

He led Li Xin to a row of houses behind the village.

The houses were not far from the center of the village, and there were a few mulberry trees planted at the entrance.

The White-bearded Elder pointed to the one at the very end.

"This one. An engineer who also did seismic monitoring lived here before."

Li Xin pushed the door open and looked inside.

The room was not big, but it was clean enough.

The window faced the distant mountains, allowing for a wide view.

"How much is it per day?"

"Ten dollars."

"That's fine. I'll rent it for half a month first."

Li Xin took one hundred and fifty dollars out of his pocket and handed it over.

The White-bearded Elder counted it, tucked it into his pocket, turned around, and left.

Li Xin put down his backpack, took out some daily necessities from his space, and arranged them in the room.

Then he sat on the bed and opened the system panel.

[Cooling finished. Extraction can begin.]

He didn't rush to start.

He first opened the map on his phone to find the approximate location of the cave discovered by the herdsman—it was north of the village, about fifteen kilometers away in a straight line.

It was within the scanning radius.

"AI System, Scan the northern mountain area. Depth one hundred to two hundred and fifty meters. Focus the Scan on underground cavern structures."

[Scanning. Current detection range: 27,990 meters radius. Target area covered. It will take a few minutes.]

He waited for about three minutes.

[Scan complete. Approximately fourteen kilometers to the north-northeast of the current location, at a depth of about one hundred and eighty meters underground, a large cavern structure has been detected. The cavern can be divided into two layers, with a total area of about eight thousand square meters. A large amount of gold signals detected inside.]

"How much gold?"

[Estimated gold amount is about six hundred tons. There are also a large number of bronze wares, silver wares, and sacrificial items. The structure inside the cavern is complex, with stalactites developed, and some areas have collapsed severely. Artificial traces detected—stone platforms, altars, and passageways.]

Li Xin tapped his fingers on the edge of the bed.

Six hundred tons.

Adding that to the previous amount, it was over five thousand five hundred tons.

"How is the stability of the cavern?"

[The cavern is located within a limestone layer with developed fissures. This area is on a seismic belt, and there has been small-scale seismic activity recently. There are signs of collapse in multiple places within the cavern, and the structure in some areas is unstable. Extraction may require a slower speed than usual, with an estimated time of about eight days.]

Eight days.

Twice as long as usual.

"Why so long?"

[The cavern structure is complex, the gold is distributed across two spatial layers, and some is wrapped by stalactites. More precise operations are required during Extraction to avoid triggering a large-scale collapse. If the speed is too fast, it may lead to the overall collapse of the cavern, causing the Extraction to be interrupted, and the remaining gold will be impossible to continue extracting.]

Li Xin frowned.

Eight days.

Plus the cooling time, at least twelve days.

It was a bit long, but there was no other way.

"Understood. Start tonight."

He stood up, walked to the window, and glanced toward the north.

In the distance were rolling mountains, gray and hazy, dyed golden-red by the setting sun.

That cavern was right underneath there.

Six hundred tons of gold.

And those sacrificial items and bronze wares, he didn't know what era they were from.

He withdrew his gaze and went downstairs.

There was only one restaurant in the village, located by the square.

He walked in, ordered a portion of lamb stew and a bowl of rice, and sat in the corner eating slowly.

There were a few other people in the restaurant.

Two middle-aged men and one young man.

They were talking about the earthquake.

"It shook again this afternoon. Magnitude 3.4, in the northeast."

"Small earthquakes haven't stopped these past few years. That 5.2 magnitude one in 2017 cracked the mountain."

"Indeed. There is still a crack over there to this day, a huge one, splitting from the foot of the mountain all the way to the top."

"I heard people from the Cultural Heritage Organization came and said there was an ancient tomb there, so they put up a few signs and didn't let anyone get close."

"An ancient tomb? Whose tomb?"

"Who knows. It must be from a long time ago. Didn't you find some bronze wares?"

"I did. I saw them at the foot of the mountain there, in a crack that appeared after the earthquake. There were quite a few pieces, and later I handed them all over to the people from the Cultural Heritage Organization."

Li Xin listened without interrupting.

After eating, he returned to his room.

He closed the door and sat on the bed.

"AI System, begin Extraction."

[Extracting. Target: Zagros Mountains cavern treasure. Depth: 170 to 190 meters underground. Two-layer structure. Current Extraction rate: about 3 tons/hour. Estimated Extraction for this batch: about 36 tons. Continuous Extraction limit: 12 hours.]

[Note: The cavern structure is unstable, and the Extraction rate has been reduced to one-third of the normal speed. Do not manually accelerate, otherwise, it may lead to consequences.]

Pale blue light surged out from the system, extending toward the underground to the north.

The progress bar began to jump, very slowly, waiting almost two minutes for every one percent.

He leaned against the bed, staring at the panel.

It was dark outside the window.

The village was very quiet, with the occasional sound of dogs barking.

The next morning, Li Xin was staring at the panel in his room when there was a knock on the door.

He stood up and walked to the door.

He opened it, and standing outside was an old man wearing a gray robe, his face full of wrinkles.

"Are you the one doing seismic monitoring?" the old man asked in Persian.

"Yes."

"The village chief asked me to take you over to take a look."

The old man pointed to the mountain in the north.

"I know the location you need."

Li Xin was stunned for a moment.

"What location?"

"The monitoring point. The village chief said you rented a house to do seismic monitoring and need to set up equipment on the mountain. I'll take you to find a suitable place."

Li Xin felt a tightening in his heart.

He had indeed said it casually; he didn't expect the village chief to take it seriously and even specifically find someone to lead the way.

"Alright. Wait for me a moment."

He returned to the room and took an old instrument out of his space—one he had bought in Kyrgyzstan before and hadn't used much.

It was just an ordinary seismic monitor that could record seismic waves, but it wasn't any high-end equipment.

He put on his backpack, took the instrument, and followed the old man out.

The two of them walked along the dirt road north of the village toward the mountain.

The old man walked slowly but steadily, each step landing on the gravel, making a rustling sound.

"Where are you from?" the old man asked.

"China."

"China." The old man nodded. "Are there earthquakes there too?"

"Yes. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, magnitude eight."

"Eight?" The old man frowned. "That is very powerful. Earthquakes here are at most magnitude five-something, and they crack the mountains."

"Indeed. Earthquakes are something no one can predict."

The old man lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

"I'll take you to a place. There is a crack over there, left by the 2017 earthquake. See if that location is suitable."

They walked for almost an hour and arrived at a hillside.

There was a crack on the hillside that extended from the foot of the mountain all the way to the top, at least several hundred meters long.

The widest part of the crack was over two meters, and it was bottomless.

The old man stood by the edge of the crack and glanced down.

"This is it. It became like this after the earthquake back then. People from the Cultural Heritage Organization came and said it was empty below, possibly containing an ancient tomb. Later, they put up a few signs here."

Li Xin looked down into the crack.

It was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.

He turned on his flashlight and shone it down—he could see the rock walls, but he couldn't tell how deep it was.

He squatted down and pressed his hand on the ground.

"AI System, Scan below the crack."

[Scanning. About forty meters below the crack, the edge of the upper cavern structure has been detected. It is about eight hundred meters from the main treasure area. There is a natural passageway between the crack and the cavern.]

Li Xin stood up and brushed the dust off his hands.

"This place will do. The location is quite good."

The old man nodded.

"Then you handle it yourself. I'm going back."

"Thank you."

The old man left.

Li Xin stood alone on the hillside, staring at the crack.

He knew why the Cultural Heritage Organization had put up signs here—they must have also detected the underground cavern but lacked the ability to dig deep, so they could only protect it for now.

But now, this crack was right under his feet.

If the earthquake got any stronger and the crack continued to expand, the cavern would be exposed sooner or later.

He had to empty it before that happened.

Li Xin set up the monitor next to the crack and secured it with stones.

It looked decent, just like a proper seismic monitoring point.

Then he set up a small tent on the hillside.

It wasn't big, just enough for one person to lie down.

From the outside, it looked like a temporary place for someone doing research to stay.

He returned to the tent and sat down.

[Extracting. Current progress: 12 percent. Load: 48 percent.]

There was still a long time to go.

On the evening of the third day, the village chief brought two people to knock on the door.

Li Xin opened the door and saw two people in uniforms standing behind the village chief—dark blue uniforms, caps, and highly polished leather shoes.

One of them was holding a folder in his hand.

"Are you the one doing seismic monitoring?" the person in uniform asked in Persian.

"Yes."

"Which organization are you from?"

Li Xin pointed in the direction of the tent.

"I came on my own. A geology enthusiast from China, interested in seismic monitoring."

The man in uniform stared at him for a few seconds.

"Do you have identification?"

Li Xin took his passport out of his pocket and handed it over.

The man in uniform flipped through it and looked at his visa.

"Are you here alone?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been staying here?"

"Three days."

The man in uniform handed the passport back and took a form out of the folder.

"We are recruiting seismic monitoring volunteers here; please register your information. We will send you the distribution of monitoring points in the entire area to facilitate your work."

Li Xin took the form and glanced at it.

There were a few blanks—name, nationality, document number, contact information, as well as the monitoring point number and location.

He filled in the basic information and handed it back.

The man in uniform took a look, took another piece of paper from the folder, and handed it to him.

"This is the distribution map of the monitoring points. There are twenty-three monitoring points in the entire area; you can choose the most convenient one, go to collect data regularly, and report it to our office."

Li Xin took the paper and scanned it.

The paper was a map marking the locations of twenty-three monitoring points.

One of them was right above the cavern—less than a kilometer from his current location.

"Which one do you choose?" the man in uniform asked.

Li Xin pointed to that point.

"This one. It's close to where I'm staying."

The man in uniform nodded.

"Alright. There is a sign over there; you should be able to see it. Go to collect data on the 15th and 30th of every month and report it to the Cultural Heritage Organization office."

"Twice a month?"

"Yes. Someone will go with you at that time to confirm the accuracy of the data."

Li Xin's heart sank.

Someone going with him?

He didn't show it and nodded.

"Alright. Understood."

The man in uniform closed the folder.

"Welcome to Kermanshah. If you need anything, you can come to the office to find us."

"Thank you."

The two people turned and left.

The village chief followed behind, nodded at Li Xin, and also left.

Li Xin closed the door, spread the monitoring point distribution map on the table, and stared at that red dot.

Directly above the cavern.

On the 15th and 30th of every month, someone would go with him to collect data.

That meant that when he went to that location, there would be eyes watching him.

He couldn't perform the Extraction there.

He had to change locations.

He opened the system panel, called up the Scan records, and found the precise location and orientation of the cavern.

The cavern was within the limestone layer, extending from northeast to southwest, about two kilometers long.

That monitoring point was above the middle section of the cavern, but it wasn't the only entrance or exit.

He found another location on the map—above the southwest end of the cavern, closer to the village, and also within the scanning radius.

There were no monitoring points there, so he could conduct covert operations.

Li Xin put away the map and lay on the bed.

A muffled sound came from outside the window again.

This time the sound was louder than the previous few days, and the walls of the room even shook.

He sat up and waited for a few seconds.

It didn't shake again.

He opened his phone to check the news—"A magnitude 3.8 earthquake occurred in the northern mountainous area of Kermanshah. No casualties reported yet."

Magnitude 3.8.

It was getting bigger and bigger.

He turned off his phone and lay back on the bed.

The earth's crust was moving.

The cavern was vibrating.

The structure would become increasingly unstable.

He only had a limited window of time.

Li Xin turned over and stared at the system panel.

[Current progress: 18 percent. Remaining gold: about 490 tons.]

There were seven more days.

He had to empty everything before the crack expanded and the cavern was exposed.