147: Chapter 147 The Cave

He changed into waterproof pants, put on his life jacket, and stored his phone back into the System Space. Then, he jumped down from the boat's gunwale, his feet landing on the rocky reef. As the waves surged, the water washed over his ankles, and a chill traveled straight up from the soles of his feet.

The rocky reef was covered in barnacles, making it painful to walk on and easy to slip. He carefully stepped on the relatively flat spots, inching his way toward the ox-shaped rock.

Upon getting closer, the rock looked even larger than it had from the boat. Hu Tian stood beside it, his head barely reaching the highest point of the stone.

The rock leaned against the cliff face, leaving a gap about half a meter wide between them. It was dark and damp inside, piled high with loose rocks and debris. Some had fallen naturally from the cliff, while others looked as if they had been placed there by human hands. They varied in size, with the largest being the size of a washbasin and the smallest only the size of a fist. Mixed together, at first glance, they looked like the common pile of rubble found at the base of a cliff, completely inconspicuous.

Hu Tian crouched down, pushed his waterproof bag to his back, and began to clear the rubble.

The first few pieces were relatively light, so he simply picked them up and tossed them to the side, where they landed on the rocky reef with a crisp clatter.

The deeper he cleared, the larger the stones became. He had to use both hands, exerting considerable effort. The sharp edges of the rubble scratched shallow marks into his palms, oozing fine beads of blood. As the seawater washed over them, the salt caused his wounds to sting sharply.

He ignored them and continued digging.

After clearing away nearly thirty centimeters of rubble, a gap appeared before his eyes.

The gap was not wide. It was hidden behind the right side of the ox-shaped rock, obscured by the stone's curvature. It was difficult to spot from any side angle; only by crouching directly in front of it could one see it clearly. The entrance was just high enough for a person to pass through while sideways and bent over, and it was no more than forty centimeters wide. The sides were made of native granite, which had been carved to be relatively flat. It did not look like a naturally formed crevice, but rather like something that had been artificially chiseled.

Hu Tian took a powerful flashlight out of his System Space, turned it on, and shone the light into the gap.

The beam of light extended into the crevice, revealing its rough outline. After about two meters in, the crevice seemed to turn downward at an angle, making it impossible to see further inside. However, the naked eye could determine that the gap did not narrow quickly, suggesting it extended deep into the rock formation.

Holding the flashlight, Hu Tian bent his waist slightly and squeezed into the gap.

The space inside was slightly more spacious than it had appeared from the outside. After taking two steps in, he could basically stand up straight and no longer needed to hunch over.

The rock walls were damp and cold, with a thin film of water that he could feel when he touched them. The air was thick with the heavy scent of the sea and the earthy smell unique to rock. There was also a musty, decaying odor that had accumulated over the years. It wasn't exactly foul, but it was oppressive—the kind of atmosphere unique to a place where no one had set foot for many years.

Hu Tian turned on his flashlight and walked deeper along the crevice.

After turning a corner downward, he went back up a few rough steps that had been manually chiseled out. An interesting design.

The height of the steps was not uniform; some were high and some were low, requiring extra caution while walking. However, this irregularity itself indicated a certain level of ingenuity—first descending, then ascending. This rise and fall created a natural "return" structure. Even if the outside waves flooded over the rocky reef during high tide and poured into the crevice, the water would accumulate at the downward turn. By the time the water level rose high enough to pass that depression and continue upward, the volume of water required would far exceed what could be poured in by the lapping waves. In this way, the inner space was isolated by this depression and remained almost entirely unaffected by the waves.

Hu Tian steadied himself at the top of the steps, looked back at the path he had come from, and couldn't help but offer a low word of praise.

The person who designed this entrance was no simpleton. Someone who didn't understand water or the patterns of the tides could never have conceived of this structure. Descending first and then ascending utilized the principle that the head pressure of the surging waves would be dissipated at the depression. It was simple, yet extremely effective.

From the outside, this was nothing more than an inconspicuous gap at the base of the cliff, with no exposed artificial traces. The ox-shaped rock happened to block most of the view. Combined, the two hid it seamlessly.

He turned around and cast the flashlight beam forward again.

However, the direction of the crevice became somewhat unexpected. It did not continue to extend into the interior of the island but instead began to slope slowly downward. The ground changed from a flat rock surface into rough, step-by-step stairs chiseled from stone. Their edges had worn smooth, clearly having been there for quite some time.

Above the stairs, the crevice had noticeably widened, enough for Hu Tian to spread his arms without touching the rock walls on either side. The rock overhead also rose, relieving the oppressive feeling. The air circulation improved somewhat; although it still held a long-sealed, musty odor, it was much better than the stifling atmosphere at the entrance.

The ground was chiseled flat. His footsteps produced a solid, echoing sound, not a hollow one, indicating that the ground beneath was solid rock with no secret passages or mezzanine layers.

Hu Tian slowed his pace, the light from the flashlight slowly sweeping over the four walls.

There were marks on the rock walls—not left by natural weathering, but carved by people. The lines varied in depth and age, as if added intermittently by different people in different periods. The content was indistinguishable. A few places looked like Chinese characters, but they were severely weathered, missing strokes and parts, so only a few scattered radicals could be identified. The rest looked more like some kind of symbol or mark, with no obvious pattern.

Hu Tian walked down the steps, one by one. He counted seventeen or eighteen steps before the ground under his feet became flat again, and the space in front of him suddenly opened up.

The flashlight beam swept across, and he clearly saw the general outline of this space.

This was a naturally formed cave, but it had clearly been manually renovated. The ceiling arched upward, with the highest point being about three meters. The ground had been chiseled flat, and the area was roughly equivalent to two or three ordinary rooms combined. There were clear chisel marks on the surrounding rock walls. In some places, there were traces of rusted iron brackets, which were likely originally used to hold oil lamps or torches. They had rotted over the years, leaving only the rusted bases embedded in the rock walls.

On the floor of the cave, several rows of wooden crates were neatly arranged. The wood had severely decayed, and the side panels of many crates had collapsed. White mycelium grew on the edges, and the iron locks on the lids had rusted shut, but the overall frames remained intact and had not completely fallen apart.

Hu Tian stepped forward and crouched beside the nearest wooden crate. He brushed away the dust and mycelium on the surface with his hand and brought the flashlight closer to shine on it.

On the lid, there were faintly discernible characters—Hebrew script carved into the wood. The writing was shallow and almost completely worn away. He tilted the flashlight, using the angled light to barely make out a few characters, which looked like some kind of serial number or product name.

Fortunately, possessing Language Mastery, Hu Tian could vaguely recognize the general meaning on the wood.

He was in no hurry to open the crates and first scanned the entire cave.

Besides these rows of wooden crates, there were a few larger objects deep in the cave, covered with coarse burlap. The burlap had rotted and turned dark brown, with large patches of mildew at the edges, but the shape of what was covered was vaguely discernible. The outlines were square, looking like several large artifacts or cabinets covered by cloth.

On the right side of the cave wall, there was an even smaller gap, deep and dark. The flashlight could only see a few meters inside, and it was unknown where it led.

Hu Tian stood up and slowly walked around the cave.

The scale and layout of this place basically matched the description in the notes he had previously seen next to that silk map. Hao Yulin had written in the notes that the hoard here was divided into two batches: one batch consisted of gold and silver artifacts, and the other consisted of calligraphy and books left over from the former ming dynasty, totaling one hundred and thirty-seven items. Because of the humidity, the books were stored in a separate inner chamber.

That small gap was very likely the entrance to the inner chamber.

He first walked toward the rows of wooden crates, found one that had collapsed slightly less than the others, and used the multi-tool he carried with him to pry open the rusted-shut lock. The lid let out a dull cracking sound and was slowly lifted.

The flashlight beam fell into the crate.

The crate was lined with a layer of hay or rice husks that had rotted into dregs. Most had turned into fine powder, with the remaining fibrous tissue mixed with dust and stuck to the bottom of the crate. The items inside were half-buried in this layer of decaying bedding, gray and dusty, their original colors indistinguishable.

Hu Tian reached in, carefully brushed away the powder on the surface, felt a circular object, took it out, and gently wiped it with the corner of his clothes.

It was a bowl.

Hu Tian held the bowl in his hand and brought the flashlight close to it. After wiping away the floating dust, the glaze gradually revealed itself: white background with Blue and White, the color steady and deep. The pattern was a lotus spray with flowing lines and delicate brushwork. The rim of the bowl was slightly flared, the foot ring was regular, and the entire vessel had a dignified shape with no deformation. The glaze was rich and oily, with a restrained luster—not the kind of glassy shine that floats on the surface, but a warm, gentle feeling that seemed to emanate from within the glaze layer.

Hu Tian's fingers traced the bottom of the bowl, and he turned it over to look at the mark. Under the angled light of the flashlight, he could vaguely see a few seal characters within a Blue and White double circle. He identified them: "Made in the xuande Year of the Great ming dynasty."

Hu Tian stared at the mark on the bottom of the bowl for a moment, and a pure yellow halo radiated in ripples from his eyes.

Consciousness fluctuations suddenly lit up in his mind, and the Treasure Hunting Radar activated silently. A light screen unfolded in the depths of his consciousness, and lines of information appeared at an extremely fast speed.

[Item Name: Blue and White Lotus Spray Pattern Bowl]

[Year: ming dynasty xuande period, fired at an Official Kiln between approximately 1426 and 1435 AD]

[Origin: Produced by the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory, originally a piece of imperial court ware. It flowed out of the court during the chaos of war at the end of the ming dynasty, changed hands several times, and was secretly hidden here by a Jewish descendant, a Fujian merchant surnamed Pu, during the reign of Yongzheng Emperor.]

[Condition Rating: Good. The glaze is intact, with no chips, no cracks, and no traces of repair. Only surface dust and grime are present; it can be restored to its original appearance after cleaning.]

[Estimated Market Value: Referring to recent auction house transaction records, the transaction range for a xuande Official Kiln Blue and White bowl of the same condition is between 10 million and 15 million RMB. The color of this piece is particularly pure, so the upper limit of the valuation can reach 18 million.]

[Spiritual Value: +1800 points]

The light screen paused for a moment at the last line of numbers, then slowly retracted and sank back into the depths of his consciousness.

He held the bowl in his hand, held his breath, and stared at it for a full dozen seconds.

xuande Blue and White.

Hu Tian lowered his head and looked at the bowl in his hand again, his gaze lingering for a moment on that circle of jade-like, warm glaze.

An estimated value of 18 million, and this was just the first item he had casually pulled out of the crate.