198: Chapter 198 Rumors

The car turned into the alley just after noon.

The sun in Thiruvananthapuram was fierce, baking the asphalt road until it softened, and the tires rolled over it with a sticky, faint sound.

The alley was narrow, flanked by high walls covered in vines, some of which hung down, obscuring half the wall surface.

Liu Mo drove slowly and stopped in front of an iron gate.

The security guard came over to open the gate, glanced into the car, and stepped back to push it open.

The car drove in, and the courtyard was larger than expected.

A gravel path wound its way inside, lined on both sides with coconut trees and a few unidentified trees with broad leaves that provided plenty of shade.

The air was humid, mixed with the scent of leaves and soil; it was stuffy, but not unpleasant.

Li Xin got out of the car and looked around.

The courtyard was kept clean; there was no debris on the gravel path, and a few potted plants were placed by the flower beds, trimmed and clearly well-tended.

The main building was made of stone, two stories high, with white-painted exterior walls covered in patches of lush green vines.

The roof was made of red clay tiles, old and darkened in places, as if moss had grown on them and then dried out.

A middle-aged man walked out of the main building, pressed his hands together, and bowed slightly.

"Mr. Li, welcome. My name is Ravi, and I am the housekeeper here."

Li Xin nodded. "Hello."

Ravi straightened up, wearing the gentle smile locals used when hosting guests.

"The courtyard has been cleared according to your team's requirements, and both bedrooms and the study in the main building have been prepared; the water and electricity have all been checked. You may stay here as long as you like, and no outsiders will come in to disturb you."

Liu Mo took the luggage out of the car trunk and carried it toward the main building.

Two security guards stood guard at the courtyard entrance, while one made a round of the courtyard, checking the walls and corners.

"Please, this way." Ravi stepped aside and led Li Xin inside.

The main building's foyer was small, with polished stone floors, and a local-style painting of coconut groves and beaches hung on the wall.

Walking through the foyer, the living room was on the left, the dining room on the right, and further in was the staircase leading upstairs.

Li Xin did not enter the living room and went straight upstairs.

The study was at the end of the corridor; pushing open the door, one could see the view outside, directly facing the direction of the temple.

The window was open, and hot air poured in from outside, carrying the faint, distant sound of bells.

The study contained a long table, a few chairs, and a bookshelf against the wall, which was empty and held no books.

There were no decorations on the walls; it was simple but clean.

"This room has the best view." Ravi followed him in and pointed out the window. "That over there is the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, less than a kilometer away as the crow flies. Whether you are reading or working here, no one will disturb you."

Li Xin stood by the window and looked out.

The temple's gilded tower top reflected the sun, blindingly bright, and was surrounded by coconut trees that obscured a large area.

Liu Mo placed the luggage in the bedroom and walked over to stand at the doorway.

"Boss, I've already had the team check the courtyard walls. The nearest residential houses are thirty meters away, and none face our windows. There is a small path on the west side where people occasionally pass by, but they cannot see the second floor."

"What about security?" Li Xin did not turn around.

"We have two shifts. One guard at the courtyard entrance during the day, two at night, rotating shifts. We will also have people watching the four corners of the courtyard wall at night, so there will be no blind spots."

Ravi listened from the side without interrupting. Only when they had finished speaking did he open his mouth.

"Mr. Li, there is one more thing. During your stay here, I will not arrange for any servants to approach the main building. Cleaning and meal deliveries will follow your schedule; if you do not call for anyone, no one will come up."

Li Xin turned around to look at him. "Are there any visitors usually?"

"No outsiders, really." Ravi thought for a moment. "Occasionally, local police officers come by for inspections, random checks to see if tenants have brought any detection equipment or the like. However, since you are renting legally, they are just going through the motions."

Liu Mo took over the conversation. "What about during the festival? Is the inspection strict?"

Ravi nodded. "It will be stricter. There is a large-scale prayer event across the city these days, with people gathering to chant every night. Police and cultural relic inspectors will increase their patrols, and rented courtyards along the street may be subject to random house checks."

Li Xin said nothing and walked over to the desk to sit down.

Liu Mo glanced at him and turned to Ravi. "We don't have any detection equipment here, so we aren't afraid of checks. Tell outsiders that the boss is here to study ancient architectural stone carvings, is staying for the long term, and doesn't travel around."

Ravi nodded repeatedly. "That's a good explanation, reasonable and plausible. Foreign scholars often come to the area to study ancient sites and stay in quiet courtyards like this; no one will suspect anything."

After he finished speaking, he asked if they wanted tea. Li Xin said no, so he retreated and closed the door behind him.

The room fell quiet.

Liu Mo stood by the desk and handed over the tablet in his hand. "This is the information on the temple. Would you like to take a look?"

Li Xin took it and flipped through it. There were five secret chambers under the temple, all of which were opened and cleared in 2011; the treasures were registered, cataloged, and taken away, so they were now empty. Only the B chamber on the lowest level was permanently sealed by court order; no one was allowed to touch it, not even for detection.

"This information is all public." Liu Mo pointed to the red text on the screen. "The official records are very transparent; the treasures from the first five secret chambers were listed one by one and can be found online. But why the B chamber was sealed, no one can say clearly."

Li Xin placed the tablet on the table. "What about those European teams?"

"They are still at a hotel in the city and haven't left. They brought high-precision underground scanners and go to the temple perimeter every day to collect data, with a very clear goal: they are aiming for the B chamber."

"The equipment is actually quite good," Li Xin asked.

Liu Mo thought for a moment. "Much better than those people on the black market, but it has nothing to do with us..." He paused. "They can only rely on external equipment to Scan, and no matter how high the precision is, they can only Scan a rough range. It's different on your end."

He didn't elaborate. Liu Mo didn't know about the System, but he knew Li Xin had ways to bypass all detection methods; this was something he had seen with his own eyes.

Li Xin didn't ask any more questions, stood up, and walked to the window.

The hot wind outside was still blowing, and the temple bells in the distance rang a few more times, muffled, as if coming from underwater. He stood there, a thought flickered in his mind, and the System background silently activated.

A fifty-kilometer detection range instantly spread out. There was no light, no sound, and outsiders could not detect it at all.

The structural diagram of the temple's underground unfolded layer by layer in his consciousness. Chamber A, empty; Chamber C, empty; D, E, and F were all empty, with clean rock strata and no precious metal signals, matching the official records.

Down, further down, to the B chamber.

That area of energy was incredibly dense. Golden, heavy, pressing into his consciousness like an immovable stone. It wasn't just a simple metal signal like an ordinary Treasure Trove, but wrapped in something else, heavy, as if it were alive.

The System popped up data, flashing across his consciousness.

[Detected SSS+ Dual Ancient God Domain: Naga the Serpent God, Vishnu dual Restriction coverage]

[Global Extraction efficiency permanently suppressed by 50%, cannot be removed, cannot be avoided]

[Total Treasure Trove reserves: 2,850 tons of high-purity Ancient God gold, countless treasures.]

[Extraction rules: Maximum single continuous duration of 12 hours, followed by a mandatory 12-hour cooling period]

2,850 tons.

Li Xin looked at the line of numbers, unmoving. His hand rested on the windowsill, his fingertips feeling the coolness of the stone.

This number was larger than he had expected. There had always been rumors about the treasures of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, but no one knew exactly how much there was. The batch officially cleared in 2011 was shocking enough; who knew there was such a massive foundation still buried underneath.

But the 50% suppression in efficiency was troublesome.

Originally, he could Extraction 50 tons an hour, but now only 25 tons remained. 12 hours would net 300 tons at most, and it would take eight rounds to clear it out, with seven cooling periods in between, taking at least half a month in total.

He withdrew his gaze and turned to sit in the chair.

Seeing that his expression hadn't changed, Liu Mo continued his report. "Regarding the European team, our people have inquired. The leader is named Oliver, who previously did archaeological exploration in North Africa, and the equipment was shipped from Germany, with a precision that can reach eight hundred meters underground."

"Do they know there is something under the B chamber?"

"They must know. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been squatting here for so long." Liu Mo paused. "But they can only Scan the abnormal energy field and cannot distinguish exactly what it is. Moreover, the B chamber has interference, so their equipment often malfunctions, and the scanned data is intermittent."

Li Xin nodded.

The bells started ringing again outside, this time several times in a row, louder than before. There were faint voices in the distance, as if believers were starting to gather toward the temple.

Liu Mo glanced at his watch. "It's almost time for the ritual. There are activities every night these days, and there will be more and more people."

"What about those people on the black market?" Li Xin asked.

"Still hanging around outside. Yesterday, they tried to climb the wall but were chased away by security. Today, they changed locations and are squatting at the west intersection, watching the back door of our courtyard."

"Don't worry about them," Li Xin said. "They won't be able to watch for long."

Liu Mo didn't ask why.

There was a knock on the study door, and Ravi walked in with tea. Black tea, with milk and sugar, served in a white porcelain cup, with a small plate of biscuits on the side. He placed the tea on the table, softly said "Please enjoy, Mr. Li," and retreated.

Li Xin picked up the teacup and took a sip. Sweet, hot, a bit more refined than the milk tea from Indian street stalls, but the taste was about the same.

He put down the cup and glanced out the window again.

The temple's tower top reflected the sun, blindingly bright. The System background was still running, and the energy of the B chamber pressed heavily into his consciousness, like a sleeping thing, not knowing when it would wake up.

Ravi had said one thing before leaving. Local elders passed it down from generation to generation: the things under the B chamber are guarded by deities, and if they are touched, retribution will follow.

Liu Mo had also said it. Ten years ago, someone tried to dig a tunnel to get close, but before they even touched the wall, they all fell into a high fever and lost consciousness; the hospital couldn't find the cause, and they fled overnight and never came back.

The European team had been squatting for half a month, but no matter how advanced their equipment was, they couldn't Scan accurate data.

The black market group could only circle outside the wall, unable to even touch the door.

Everyone was staring at this place, everyone was scheming, but no one could do anything.

Li Xin leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a while.

The line of data popped into his mind again—2,850 tons, 50% suppression.

Eight whole rounds, half a month, with risks present the entire time; he couldn't make a single mistake.

He opened his eyes and looked out the window.

The bells in the distance stopped, the courtyard quieted down, leaving only the rustling of coconut leaves in the wind.

He picked up the teacup and took another sip.

The tea had cooled down a bit and was no longer as hot.