137: Chapter 137 Solitary Journey in the Desert

The snow on the other side of the Caspian Sea is different from anywhere else.

It doesn't drift down in flakes; it slams down in clumps, stinging when it hits your face. When Li Xin left that village, it was still dark. The snow had been falling for half the night, leaving a thick layer on the car.

He started the car, turned on the heater for a while, and waited for the ice on the glass to melt before slowly driving out.

He glanced back at the village. In the snowy mist, nothing was clear, save for a few dim, yellowish lights. The young man was still sleeping; he hadn't woken him when he left, leaving twenty dollars under the pillow.

From Mazandaran to Khorasan, it was over a thousand kilometers. He drove for two full days.

The first day was mountain roads, with many curves and heavy snow, so he didn't dare exceed forty kilometers per hour. There were almost no cars on the road, only the occasional cargo truck coming from the opposite direction, kicking up snow that plastered his windshield. He rested for a night at a gas station by the road. The station's convenience store sold instant noodles and biscuits. The food he had brought from home in his storage space had run out, so he bought a bottle of water and a bag of biscuits, making do for the night in the car.

The second day, the road was easier to travel. He left the mountainous area and hit a straight road. The landscape on both sides changed from white to grayish-yellow, and the temperature rose from below freezing to over ten degrees. He took off his down jacket and changed into a T-shirt.

By evening, he reached Mashhad.

Mashhad is the largest city in eastern Iran; it was crowded, filled with cars, and dusty. He didn't enter the city center but found a small inn in the southern part of the city to stay in. The inn was a small three-story building with an old sign hanging at the entrance and several beat-up cars parked in the courtyard.

The receptionist was a young man, in his early twenties, thin, with greasy hair, looking at his phone. Seeing him come in, he looked up and asked in English, "Chinese?"

"Yes."

"How long are you staying?"

"Two days for now. We'll see."

"Twenty-five dollars a day."

Li Xin pulled fifty dollars from his pocket and handed it over. The young man took the money, handed him a key, and pointed to the stairs. "Second floor, third room on the left of the hallway."

The room wasn't big: one bed, one table, one chair, and a window facing the street. The street was noisy, with the sounds of horns and people mixed together. He put down his backpack, washed his face, and lay on the bed.

He took out his phone and opened the map.

Nader Shah. He had seen this name while researching: the ruler of the Afsharid dynasty of Persia in the 18th century, who had seized a massive amount of treasure from India, said to have been carried back by thousands of camels. Later, he was assassinated, and the treasure's whereabouts became unknown.

Legend has it that a portion was buried in the Great Khorasan Desert, hidden during his eastern expedition.

Li Xin searched online for a long time, but there wasn't much information. A few papers mentioned the general location—southeast of Mashhad, near the border of Afghanistan, a region of desert and Gobi, sparsely populated.

He circled three areas.

The first, on the edge of the Dasht-e Kavir desert, over two hundred kilometers from Mashhad. The second, the Gobi desert near the Afghanistan border, further away, three hundred and fifty kilometers. The third, sandwiched between the two, an area of dry riverbeds.

"Near first, then far," he muttered to himself.

Early the next morning, he went out to rent a car, mainly because his previous vehicle had been wrecked.

There was a car rental agency right next to the inn, a tin shed with several off-road vehicles parked at the entrance. The owner was a fat man with a full beard, wearing dirty work clothes.

"Friend, do you want to rent a car?" the fat man asked in Persian.

"Yes, boss. Do you have an off-road vehicle that can handle the desert? I need to rent one."

The fat man pointed to the white Toyota at the entrance. "Of course. Look at this four-wheel drive; it has new tires. Fifty dollars a day is fine."

Li Xin walked around the car. The body had scratches, the tire wear was acceptable, and the chassis wasn't too low. "Can you make it cheaper? If I rent it for a few days, can you give me a discount?"

"Alright, brother, brother, forty, that's the lowest."

"Fine. Renting it for seven days."

He pulled two hundred and eighty dollars from his pocket and handed it over. The fat man counted it, stuffed it into his pocket, and brought out a paper for him to sign. Li Xin looked at it; it was a rental contract in Persian.

After signing, the fat man gave him the keys and patted the car door. "The tank is full. Fill it up when you return it."

"Understood."

Li Xin went to the supermarket again and bought some water, biscuits, canned goods, and a bag of naan. He spent nearly a hundred dollars and put everything into his storage space.

At noon, he set off.

Starting from Mashhad, he drove southeast. The asphalt road ended in less than an hour, and what followed was all gravel road.

After driving along the gravel road for another half hour, the surface turned into a dirt road. The further in he went, the narrower the road became, and the houses on the side became increasingly sparse. In the end, neither people nor houses could be seen; there was nothing left but the vast desert all around.

He drove for two hours and reached the first area.

He parked the car by a dry riverbed, got out, and surveyed the terrain. The visibility in the desert was excellent; he could see several kilometers away. There were no people, no cars, nothing at all.

"AI System, Scan this area. Depth fifty to two hundred meters."

[Scanning… Please wait a few minutes.]

He leaned against the car door, took out his water, and took a sip. The water was warm from the sun.

He waited for about three minutes.

[Scan complete. No abnormal metal signals detected. No concentrated gold deposits within two hundred meters below the surface. Scattered signals are natural mineralizations, with no mining value.]

"Damn, another wasted trip."

He got in the car, continued driving ten kilometers east, and changed locations. He scanned again. Still nothing.

He drove another fifteen kilometers south and scanned again. Still empty.

The first day, he found nothing. It got dark, so he parked the car in an open area and slept in the car. The desert was cold at night, so he took out his sleeping bag, wrapped himself in it, and left a crack in the window.

The second day, he continued scanning. He changed six locations, from east to west, from south to north, scanning the entire area.

It was still empty.

Li Xin felt a bit irritated. The location mentioned in the data might be inaccurate. Or perhaps the range he circled was wrong.

In the afternoon, he drove toward the second area.

The second area was further east, near the Afghanistan border. The road here was even harder to travel. Some sections weren't even roads; they were dry riverbeds, full of rocks and potholes. It was difficult to keep the speed at twenty.

After driving shakily for three hours, he finally arrived.

This desert was different from the previous one; it had more rocks and less sand. The ground was covered with rocks weathered over the years, taking on strange shapes—some like mushrooms, some like stone pillars. In the distance, a few gray, low mountains could be seen.

He stopped the car on a stretch of Gobi desert.

"AI System, Scan."

[Scanning… It will take a few minutes.]

He waited for five minutes.

[Scan complete. Several underground cavities detected about 12 kilometers to the southeast. One of them, at a depth of about 22 meters, has an abnormal metal signal. The other cavities are natural caverns or old mine shafts with weak metal signals.]

Li Xin's eyes lit up. "Hahaha, finally, a harvest! Let's go, let's go check it out."

He got in the car and drove southeast. After driving for ten-plus minutes, he reached a dry riverbed. The tire tracks ended there, so he had to park the car by the riverbed and walk inside.

Less than a kilometer later, he arrived in front of several collapsed houses; there was a well next to the stone houses.

"AI System, Scan."

[Scan complete. The well is 22 meters deep, with a horizontal passage extending 15 meters to the west at the bottom, ending in a 30㎡ secret chamber. A large amount of gold detected, estimated at about 40 tons.]

"40 tons," Li Xin muttered. "Hahaha, that's good, didn't waste the trip. Although it's not a treasure of hundreds of tons, 40 tons is not a small amount either."

He stood up and looked around. No people, no cars, nothing at all. He didn't know how many years it had been since anyone had come to this place.

"Start Extraction."

[Extracting. Target: Ancient Well Secret Chamber Treasure. Depth: 22 meters. Estimated time: 2 hours. System load: 60%-65%. Current Extraction rate: 20 tons/hour.]

The progress bar began to jump. Five percent, ten percent, fifteen percent.

He sat on a rock by the well, took a bottle of water from his backpack, and took a sip. The sunlight shone on the Gobi desert, a vast, glaring white expanse that made his eyes ache.

He waited for two hours, and the progress bar reached one hundred percent.

[Ding—Extraction complete. This Extraction: 40 tons of gold. Including approximately 25 tons of gold bars, 10 tons of gold ingots, and 5 tons of gold coins. Additionally, about 5,000 silver coins and several fragments of a throne inlaid with gemstones.]

[Cumulative gold: 5853.1057 tons.]

Li Xin turned off the system panel and stood up, stretching his legs. He had been crouching for too long, and they were numb.

He glanced at the well. The mouth of the well was still the same, with rotten wooden planks and a black hole. Only now, there was nothing left below.

He walked back to where he parked, got in the car, and drove toward the third area.

The third area was to the northwest, over a hundred kilometers from his current location. He had to cross a stretch of Gobi desert and then climb over a mountain ridge.

He had been driving for nearly two hours, and the sun was starting to set in the west by the time he reached his destination.

"AI System, Scan this area."

[Scanning. It will take a few minutes.]

He leaned against the car door, drinking water while waiting for the results.

About three minutes later.

[Scan complete. Found a large amount of gold about 27 kilometers to the northeast. Estimated reserves exceed 300 tons. Distributed together, suspected to be an underground secret chamber or cache.]

Li Xin's heart skipped a beat. "Over three hundred tons?"

[Yes. However, this location is in a special area; please approach with caution.]

"What special area?"

[Detected metal fences, guard post buildings, and personnel activity in the vicinity. Suspected to be a military restricted zone.]

Li Xin frowned. He got in the car, drove forward for ten-plus kilometers, and parked behind a piece of high ground. He got out, took out his binoculars, and looked toward the northeast.

Sure enough.

Barbed wire. Gray-green barbed wire extended along the edge of the plain, stretching as far as the eye could see. Inside the barbed wire were several grayish-white buildings and two guard towers. There were people on the guard towers, holding guns and pacing back and forth.

Outside the barbed wire stood a sign, written in Persian and English—"Military Restricted Zone, No Entry."

Li Xin lowered his binoculars and cursed under his breath.

Over three hundred tons of gold were inside that restricted zone. Surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by towers, and patrolled by soldiers.

How could he get in?

He sat in the car for a long time, staring in that direction. It got dark, the lights in the restricted zone turned on, and the searchlights on the guard towers swept back and forth around the barbed wire.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Chen Hu: "A bit of trouble. I have a batch of gold inside a military restricted zone."

Chen Hu replied instantly: "Boss, don't force your way in. You won't come out if you go into a place like that."

"I know. I'll see how the situation is first."

"Should we think of other ways?"

"Over three hundred tons, there's no time."

Chen Hu was silent for a while. "Then be careful. If it really doesn't work, just retreat."

"Yeah."

Li Xin tossed his phone onto the passenger seat, leaned back against the seat, and stared at the lights in the distance.

The beams of the searchlights swept back and forth in the darkness, like a giant eye.

He thought for a moment, opened the system panel, and called up the Scan records. The location of that gold signal was inside the restricted zone, about two kilometers from the barbed wire. The system's scanning radius was twenty-eight kilometers; he could cover it from outside the restricted zone, without needing to go in.

But the problem was, he had to find a concealed location, neither too close nor too far. When the system extracted, would there be any abnormal movement? Could the instruments in the restricted zone detect it?

He didn't know.

But he knew one thing—he had to stay in this desert for a few days and observe the patrol patterns of this restricted zone carefully.

Li Xin took the sleeping bag out of his storage space, reclined the seat, and covered himself.

Sleep first. Talk about it tomorrow.

The wind outside grew stronger, blowing the car from side to side. The searchlight on the distant guard tower kept sweeping, kept sweeping.

He closed his eyes.

Those three hundred-plus tons of gold were right there inside that barbed wire.

He had to find a way to get it out.