Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Haha, Hahaha…” Dealing with the Taoist priest’s accusation and Li Xiusheng’s urge to kill, Zhao Yu suddenly burst into laughter. He laughed for a few seconds, then said maliciously, “Master Li, when did I say that the treasure must be hidden next to the corpse? Aren’t those your guessings?”
“You?! Cough cough….” Li Xiusheng was so hot with emotions, that he started coughing vigorously again.
“The reason why I brought up about the reasons as to why the dying corpse climbed to a higher ground, was to remind everyone!” Zhao Yu said, “The dead person was holding onto Qiu Cheng’s death note, or will, and he climbed all the way up, so why was that?”
Zhao Yu asked this, leaving everyone confused, looking at him blindly.
“Guarding!” Zhao Yu wanted to clap his hands, but both of his hands were handcuffed behind his back. He could only shake his head and say, “The descendants of Qiu Cheng died at such a high ground, wanting to safeguard the treasure, to protect the last bit of the Qiu family!”
“Humph!” The Taoist priest snorted.
“You, this is getting a little ridiculous!” Li Xiusheng shook his head continuously too.
“Ridiculous, how is this ridiculous?” Zhao Yu said with full confidence. “Let me ask you, if the descendants of Qiu Cheng really ran into the mountains to run away from the war, why didn’t they enter any other mountain caves, except for this particular one? You thought it was chosen immediately?”
“That… That mountain cave is located halfway up the hill…..” Professor Tian Dongmin couldn’t help but cut in. “The cave entrance is more hidden, and it could avoid being noticed by the enemy and wild beasts!”
“Tian, are you okay?” Wang Taiming heard Tian Dongmin going against Zhao Yu, and immediately panicked and nearly scolded him.
Zhao Yu’s face grew dull, and he pointed at Tian Dongmin when he said, “Correct, the old man said it! The entrance of the cave is well-concealed. In other words, it wouldn’t be easily discovered!” Zhao Yu suddenly spoke, as though he had just discovered something, “That cave is big, deep, and well-hidden. If I were Qiu Cheng, I would definitely consider hiding the treasure there!”
“This…”
What Zhao Yu said gave people a strange feeling. It sounded like it was made up randomly, but there was no way to refute it.
“There are only a few variations of situation,” Zhao Yu continued. “When war broke out in Luya, the descendants of Qiu Cheng thought of going into the mountains to look for the treasure. So, according to the clues on the treasure map, they found the mountain cave!”
“Then, the Millennium pine tree was definitely there, and the mountain cave must be found that much easier!”
“But, after looking through the mountain cave, there are two possible outcomes. First, there was something wrong with their treasure map, they lost it, or it was incomplete. So, they only managed to find the mountain cave, but not the treasure. Second, they found the treasure, but, as they were at a difficult times, there wasn’t any use to bringing the statues out. On the contrary, it might even court their own destruction. So, they didn’t touch the treasure.”
“Anyway, they lived in the mountain cave then! To hide from the war, and to guard the treasure! Unfortunately, there was an epidemic, and everyone died! So, the person who was holding onto Qiu Cheng’s death letter, climbed onto a high ground before he died. He held the death letter, maybe to pass down the secret of the Gold Buddha statues.”
“Humph! Nonsense,” the Taoist priest gritted through his teeth. “There wasn’t any Crescent Moon Pit nor Raindrop Stone. Besides the underground river, there was nothing else!”
“Mm…..” Li Xiusheng thought, then supported, “The Taoist priest does make sense. The treasure can’t be hidden in the underground river, right? No matter how silly Qiu Cheng was, he wouldn’t hide the treasure at a place that would be flooded! They are Gold Buddha statues! And, if your speculations were true, that treasure was most likely moved, right?”
“Humph!” Zhao Yu pretended to be angry, as he told Li Xiusheng, “Master Lee, believe it or not! I told you, I know where the treasure is! I said I know it, and that means I know it! I am not stupid. If I were to tell you everything now, I would have no more cards to play! You could just kill me, ain’t that it?”
“This…” Li Xiusheng sent a glare at Zhao Yu and said, “Alright. As you are so sure, I will believe in you this time! Let me make this clear, I am not a kind man. If you were to lie to me, I will make sure you die miserably!”
Zhao Yu’s hands were handcuffed. He could only shrug his shoulders and consider the matter answered.
So, the troop started moving forward again, towards the mountain cave where the ancient corpse was found. After the rain stopped, the sun finally broke through the clouds and showed itself. The forest was filled with noises of cicada’s shrill droning and bird’s chirping, all full of life.
Although Zhao Yu remained calm, the pressure he felt was imaginable. Only he knew that everything about the treasure was made up, and that there was no similarity or coincidence. So, on the way there, he was still looking for a chance to escape. But Li Xiusheng’s underlings kept their guards up the whole time, with no intention of letting up.
Originally, Zhao Yu even considered an idea, which was to cooperate with the Taoist priest to break through a tight encirclement. However, the careful Li Xiusheng kept the Taoist priest under watch himself, not letting Zhao Yu have any chance to get close to him.
Actually, there was another important reason why Zhao Yu wanted to delay for so long, which was that, ever since the system gave a “Gen Qian” hexagram, it had been one and a half days, but the system didn’t send out any ending notification. That had never happened before.
So, Zhao Yu was looking forward, wondering if the miracle adventure were to be completed, would he then be able to get an amazing tool? He didn’t need anything else but an invisible invisibility cloak. Then he might be able to solve the problem!
But, Zhao Yu waited for a very long time, and the system in his mind was completely quiet. Worse still, the whole way through was very smooth, and they even found the well-concealed mountain cave located halfway up the hill within two hours!
Tsk tsk….
It was getting closer to the moment where he lay his last card on the table, so Zhao Yu was feeling even more pressure. But, in order to not let Liu Xiusheng and the rest find any flaw in him or his plan, he pointed at the forest before the mountain cave and said,
“Look! Take a good look, all of you! Aren’t these pine trees before the mountain cave? Let me tell you, the millennium pine tree on the treasure map must have been here back then! Look at these pine trees, they are all so tall and straight. They would turn into millennium pine trees after a thousand years too. Hehe…”
As the Taoist priest and the old experts had just come to the mountain caves not long ago, they knew the place well and guided everyone into the cave with ease. It was really like how the old experts had described. The entrance of the cave was filled with plants, and it was really hard to see from the bottom of the hill with the naked eye. Also, after entering the mountain cave, there was really a huge space that could contain three to four basketball courts!
“No!”
After entering the cave, the Taoist priest pointed above, and everyone quickly saw that the connection between the high cave wall and the top of the cave was really a deep concave. If only seen from the bottom, one would really have thought that there was another hidden cave!
But, as the Taoist priest said that they already searched through the place, it was naturally unnecessary for Zhao Yu to have them climb up there.
“Alright! Police officer!” Li Xiusheng told Zhao Yu cooly, “We have arrived at the mountain cave! Next, it’s your turn! I can guarantee with my reputation that, if you could really find the Gold Buddha statues, I would let you take a good look at it and send you to death directly! How about that?”
“Okay!” Zhao Yu nodded and said, “That’s great! Then…..” He looked around and beckoned to the depth of the mountain cave with his chin, and said, “Follow me! The moment to witness a miracle is soon to be here!”
“Hey! How many times do I have to tell you for you to believe me?” The Taoist priest was very angry, “We have already ransacked the entire underground river that was connected below the cave! You are wasting time, just kill the two policemen already!”
“Arrrgh!” Zhao Yu spat. “You looked it through? You really looked it through thoroughly? Master Lee,” Zhao Yu turned around and said, “You think about it. If Crescent Moon Pit and Raindrop Stone could be easily found, why would it be called the hidden treasure?”
“But… Water…” Li Xiusheng seemed to hesitate, as he didn’t know who to believe.
“Oh please, use your brains. You only look at what is before your eyes, but have you thought about the past? Mm?” Zhao Yu opened his eyes wide and said, “Did you forget about how Qiu Cheng got the Gold Buddha statues?!”
“Huh? What… How?” Everyone was confused.
“Pray… Pray for rain…” Then, Tian Dongmin couldn’t help but cut in again, “It was a draught! To pray for rain, Prefect Qiu united with the local rich businessmen, to make Gold Buddha statues to pray for blessing!”
“Yes!” Zhao Yu puffed and said, “Draught! In other words, when Qiu Cheng hid the treasure, there wasn’t any water, so there wasn’t an underground river!”
“That… That’s not right?” Li Xiusheng shook his head, “Even if there wasn’t any water then, Qiu Cheng should know that there would be water sooner or later. He wouldn’t have hid at such place, right?”
“Why not?” Zhao Yu shook his head, “Generations after generations. Why did Qiu Cheng hide the treasure? Let me tell you why! He did it for himself, to cater to his possible future need, to keep for himself a backup plan! Why would he think about a few centuries in the future?”
“Think about it, everyone! To fill his selfish desire, Qiu Cheng could have swapped the Gold Buddha statues that were used to pray for the people’s blessings. From the standpoint of criminology, this person was extremely selfish! Such a selfish person could only think about himself! Just like… the two of you, the same!”
Then Zhao Yu pointed at Li Xiusheng with his chin, and then to the Taoist priest, Yuan Shucai. Suddenly, the entire mountain cave was in silence, everyone stunned by Zhao Yu’s impassioned but reasonable inference.
“Alright!” Li Xiusheng nodded and said, “You are right, I am a selfish person! Let’s go! I would like to see if what you said was true, to see if the Gold Buddha statues are inside?!