140: Chapter 140 The Last Legend

Ctesiphon is in southwestern Iran, less than thirty kilometers from the Iraq border.

It took Li Xin most of the day to drive there.

The road was difficult to travel; some sections had been bombed and were full of potholes.

Along the way, he could see military vehicles, checkpoints, and barbed wire.

The atmosphere was much more tense than in other parts of Iran.

He parked his car in a small town near the ruins and found a small inn to stay at.

The inn was a single-story building with an old sign hanging at the entrance and several motorcycles parked in the courtyard.

The receptionist was a middle-aged woman, plump, round-faced, and cheerful.

"Young man, are you looking for a room?" the woman asked in Persian.

"Yes. How much is it for a night here?"

"30 dollars a night, for a deluxe room with a large bed."

Li Xin took out 60 dollars and handed it over. "I'll stay for two days first."

The woman took the money and handed him a key. "The second room on the right side of the hallway."

Li Xin arrived at the room and felt it was passable; it had everything it needed, was quite clean, and the window faced the courtyard.

He put down his backpack, washed his face, lay on the bed, and opened the map on his phone.

The Ctesiphon ruins were to the east of the town, not far from here.

This site was a World Cultural Heritage site, with security patrols and tourists during the day.

He had looked up information online.

Ctesiphon was the capital of the Sassanid Empire, built in the 6th century AD.

The royal palace had a massive arch, the largest brick arch in the world, which was still standing today.

Legend had it that there was a national treasury underground in the palace, hiding thousands of tons of gold.

When the Arabs conquered Ctesiphon, they only found the treasures on the surface; they didn't find the ones underground.

Afterwards, no one knew where it was.

Early the next morning, he went out.

He didn't drive but walked eastward.

In less than an hour, he arrived at the ruins.

The ruins were on a plain, surrounded by farmland and villages.

The most conspicuous part was that arch, massive and semicircular, which could be seen from afar.

Below the arch was the main hall, which had already collapsed for the most part, leaving only the front wall standing.

There were a few cars in the parking lot, and there weren't many tourists.

Li Xin bought a ticket and walked into the ruins.

He first walked around under the arch and took a few photos.

While sightseeing, he searched secretly.

"AI System, Scan the underground of the Ctesiphon ruins. Within a depth of one hundred meters."

[Scanning. Current detection range: 27,990 meters in radius. Covering the entire ruins. It will take a few minutes.]

Li Xin walked and stopped, pretending to take photos.

He waited for about three minutes.

[AI System: Scan complete. At a depth of about 25 to 40 meters below, a large underground palace was detected. The total area is about 15,000 square meters. The underground palace is divided into five areas, distributed in a cross shape. However, only a few dozen kilograms of gold were detected inside.]

Li Xin was stunned for a moment.

"Why so little? Was it excavated by their country or taken by someone else first?"

[AI System: It is indeed too little. This is an ancient architectural ruin, possibly the underground part of the royal palace. Only these scattered gold nuggets and gold coins remain, along with a small portion of bronze fragments. There is no large-scale gold storage, so it is not worth the Extraction.]

"Damn, it was a wasted trip then."

[AI System: This is also normal. If there were treasures, they should have been taken away long ago. How could they be left until now? After all, this place is too obvious.]

He felt a bit disappointed at this moment. He had been promised thousands of tons of gold, but now there were only a few dozen kilograms; the gap in his expectations was too big.

He habitually patted the dust on his knees, muttering to himself: "Is the legend unreliable? Or was it emptied by later generations?"

He didn't know, but if the system said there wasn't any, then there wasn't any.

Li Xin didn't rush to leave; he walked around the ruins again, chatting with local residents and tourists, but still didn't find any useful information.

However, someone mentioned that there were other ancient sites around the ruins, and a few dozen kilometers to the east, near the border, there seemed to be some abandoned ancient villages.

Li Xin made a note of it.

The next day, he drove eastward.

Following the border road, he let the system Scan as he drove.

He stopped every dozen kilometers or so and changed locations to continue scanning.

The first day, he found nothing.

Deserts, farmland, abandoned villages; he scanned several areas, all of which were empty.

The second day, he continued eastward.

After driving more than forty kilometers, he was almost at the border line.

He parked his car on a Gobi desert beach, got out of the car, and opened the system panel.

"AI System, Scan this area. Within a depth of one hundred meters."

[Scanning. It will take a few minutes.]

He leaned against the car door, took out a chilled fruit juice, and drank it unhurriedly.

Looking out, it was all Gobi desert, gray-yellow, and endless.

In the distance, he could see a few low mountains, bare and bald.

There were no people, no buildings, nothing at all.

He waited for about three minutes.

[Scan complete. About 16 kilometers southwest of the current location, at a depth of about 35 meters, a large artificial structure was detected. The total area is about 8,000 square meters. The structure is intact, and a large amount of gold signals were detected inside. It is estimated that there is about 560 tons of gold. There are also a large amount of silver and artifact signals.]

Li Xin's eyes lit up.

"Perform a precision Scan on that structure."

[Precision Scanning. The structure is an underground palace, divided into front, middle, and rear halls. The walls are built of stone blocks, about 3 meters thick. The top has an arch structure and is well-preserved. Gold is distributed in the middle and rear halls, mainly gold bricks, gold ingots, and goldware. Silver is mainly in the front hall, mainly silver coins and silverware. There are also a large number of artifacts, including crowns, thrones, ritual vessels, religious sacred objects, etc.]

"Is there an entrance?"

[The original entrance has been sealed by a collapse. But the system Extraction is not affected and can be directly extracted from the current location. The current location is about 16 kilometers in a straight line from the treasure, within the scanning radius.]

Li Xin got into the car, drove a few kilometers to the southwest, and found a suitable location.

This was a gentle slope with a few dead trees on it, and a dry riverbed below the slope.

From the outside, it was very hidden, and no one would come here.

He parked the car on the top of the slope and got out.

He took out the tent, folding chairs, and table from the space and set them up under a dead tree on the top of the slope.

He also took out the barbecue grill, charcoal, lamb leg, and seasonings, and set them up one by one.

Then he sat on the folding chair and opened the system panel.

"AI System, start Extraction."

[Extracting. Target: Ctesiphon Palace Treasury (True Site). Depth: 35 meters. Current Extraction rate: 20 tons/hour. This time, about 240 tons can be extracted. Continuous Extraction limit: 12 hours. It needs 12 hours to cool down before continuing.]

The progress bar began to jump. Three percent, seven percent, eleven percent.

At this time, Li Xin wasn't idle either; he prepared to have a little barbecue in this desert, doing it as soon as he thought of it.

Then he took the barbecue grill out of the space, lit the charcoal to burn it, then put the lamb leg on it, brushed a layer of oil, and sprinkled cumin and chili powder. Before long, the fragrance rose up and spread across the Gobi desert.

He put on some music, picked up a can of chilled beer, pulled it open, and drank a can in one go with a "glug-glug" sound.

"Burp... refreshing, chilled beer is just refreshing."

Li Xin lay on the lounge chair just like that, looking at the Gobi desert in the distance, basking in the warm sun.

Enjoying the occasional breeze, carrying the fragrance of the barbecue and the smell of charcoal fire. That was called cozy.

This kind of life was what people should live.

He flipped the lamb leg, and brushed another layer of oil. The lamb leg was sizzling, the skin was charred and yellow, and it looked appetizing.

He took out a few skewers of mutton, a large kidney, and put them on the grill from the space. He also took out a plate of peanuts, a dish of smashed cucumber, and a box of stir-fried snails. The table was full.

"Damn, this is called life." Li Xin muttered to himself, picked up the beer, and took another sip.

The progress was thirty-one percent.

When the first batch of Extraction finished, it was already dark.

[First batch of Extraction complete. This time: 240 tons of gold. A 12-hour forced cooling period is required.]

[Cumulative gold: 6,583.1057 tons.]

Li Xin turned off the panel and took the lamb leg off the grill. It was charred on the outside and tender on the inside, and he tore off a piece, his mouth full of oil.

He opened another can of beer and ate while watching the stars. The night in the Gobi desert was truly beautiful; the sky was full of stars, and meteors kept streaking across the night sky, leaving behind extremely beautiful silhouettes. The dense stars hung high in the starry sky, like a handful of crushed diamonds, making people unable to look away.

After eating and drinking his fill, he crawled into the tent and slept, sleeping extremely soundly.

The next morning, he was woken up by the sun.

He crawled out of the tent and stretched. The Gobi desert in the distance shimmered with white light under the sunlight, and the hot air distorted the horizon.

He took out toiletries from the space, brushed his teeth, and washed his face. He also took out a pot, cooked a pot of porridge, and ate it with pickles and steamed buns, eating until he was full.

The system had two more hours of cooling. He lay on the folding chair, put on his sunglasses, and basked in the sun.

When the cooling ended, he continued the Extraction.

[Second batch of Extraction started. Current Extraction rate: 20 tons/hour. Remaining gold: about 320 tons. It is expected to take two more batches.]

The progress bar began to jump. Fifty-one percent, fifty-five percent, fifty-nine percent.

At noon, he roasted a few corn cobs, cooked a pot of Guizhou vegetable stew with beans, and ate it slowly.

In the afternoon, a pickup truck drove by in the distance.

It drove along the dirt road of the Gobi desert, from south to north, about a kilometer away from him.

The truck was carrying a few oil drums, looking like it was delivering supplies to herdsmen.

The pickup truck didn't stop and drove straight past.

He continued to stare at the panel.

In the evening, the second batch of Extraction finished.

[Second batch of Extraction complete. This time: 240 tons of gold. A 12-hour forced cooling period is required.]

[Cumulative gold: 6,823.1057 tons.]

Li Xin stood up and stretched, took out a chilled big watermelon from the space, cut it open, and scooped out a spoonful. Sweet, crisp, and thirst-quenching.

Sitting on the folding chair, watching the sunset. The sunset in the Gobi desert was particularly fast; from the sun hanging in the sky to it setting, it took less than ten minutes. The sky was golden, then orange-red, then turned deep purple, and finally it was completely black.

He crawled into the tent and went to sleep again.

The third day, the last batch.

Getting up in the morning, he specially made a little more food.

He cooked a pot of lamb soup, tore a few pieces of naan and soaked them in it, eating until he was sweating all over.

He also brewed a pot of tea, held the teacup, sat on the lounge chair, and started to enjoy himself again.

[Third batch of Extraction started. Current Extraction rate: 20 tons/hour. Remaining gold: about 80 tons. Estimated time: 4 hours.]

The progress bar began to jump. Eighty-one percent, eighty-five percent, eighty-nine percent.

At noon, the progress reached one hundred.

[Ding — Third batch of Extraction complete. The treasure of the Ctesiphon Palace treasury has been completely emptied.]

[Total amount extracted this time: about 560 tons of gold. Among them, about 400 tons of gold bricks, about 100 tons of gold ingots, and about 60 tons of goldware. About 1,108 tons of silver (about 800 tons of silver coins, about 308 tons of silverware).]

[Top-tier artifacts detected: 3 Sassanid gold-gilded crowns (inlaid with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires), 1 gold throne (weighing about 300 kilograms, inlaid with about 500 various gemstones), about 1,120 giant gold and silver vessels, about 11,240 rare treasures presented by various countries (from India, Byzantium, and various kingdoms of Central Asia), about 3,250 sets of court ceremonial vessels, about 1,588 religious sacred objects (gold foil and silver foil handwritten scriptures, statues, sacrificial ritual vessels).]

[Estimated value of gold: about 22.4 billion USD. Estimated value of silver: about 5.5 billion USD. Estimated value of artifacts and jewelry: about 20 billion USD.]

[Cumulative gold: 6,903.1057 tons.]

Li Xin stared at these lines of text, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

560 tons of gold, plus over 1,100 tons of silver, and those crowns, thrones, ceremonial vessels, and sacred objects.

Tens of billions of dollars.

He stood up from the lounge chair and stretched. Just as he was about to pack his things, he suddenly heard the sound of firecrackers in the distance.

"Hmm? Why are there firecrackers? No, that's not firecrackers; it's gunfire..."

Li Xin was puzzled at first, then exclaimed, "Damn... someone is exchanging fire... I must evacuate immediately."

Li Xin raised his head and looked to the west, "It's the Iraq border; someone is fighting over there."

Li Xin took out his phone and glanced at it. No signal.

He stood on the top of the slope and looked to the west for a moment. There were some lights on the horizon, flickering, not knowing if it was fire or something else.

There was no time to think too much, and he hurriedly put the tent, lounge chair, table, and barbecue grill into the space. The ground was cleaned up, and not even a cigarette butt was left.

He quickly got into the car and drove away.

The gunfire rang out again, closer this time.

He slammed on the accelerator, and the car sped eastward.

In the rearview mirror, there was fire on the western horizon, flickering.

He took a deep breath and gripped the steering wheel tightly.

The treasure vault was emptied, but the road was blocked.

Now he had to find a way to escape.