Road to becoming the wealthiest: Starting From Treasure Hunting in the Cabinets
Chapter 1452 - 697: This is my Great Han ancestral land!_2

Chapter 1452: Chapter 697: This is my Great Han ancestral land!_2

No words were spoken that night. Two days later, Viola left Tomsk in an off-road vehicle, heading towards her hometown. Accompanying her were three female team members that Sean Knight had specially transferred to act as bodyguards.

Meanwhile, Elijah Hastings and his team were quickly ready. The following day, two off-road vehicles and two motorhomes set off with Sean Knight and four others, along with Sam Baker and six team members, to Tanu Oolonghai.

"The ancient city we’re going to is located at the center of the lake. It’s a rather secluded area, and to be honest, there might not be anything of interest there. However, we still need to make a trip there to see for ourselves and put our minds at ease."

During a break along the way, Sean Knight said to Elijah and the other two:

"That place was originally an ancient city, but it was later occupied by Russians who drove away the Han merchants of the time, and it eventually became a deserted city. The deserted city is located right on Lake Heart Island, so we’ll need to cross the water to get there—

Although there aren’t many villages nearby, we still need to be a little careful."

Elijah Hastings and his team were actually aware of this situation, so Elijah said:

"Boss, don’t worry, we have rubber assault boats in our truck. Once we get to the site, we’ll inflate them, attach the engines, and we can cross the lake to Lake Heart Island."

Sean Knight nodded.

It took the group more than a day to reach their destination—a place truly sparsely populated, with 160,000 square kilometers housing a total of over 300,000 people, averaging two people per square kilometer...

They set up camp in a deserted area by the lakeside and didn’t take immediate action. Instead, they began surveying the terrain and searching for nearby villages.

Drone reconnaissance revealed that the nearest village was more than ten kilometers away. The occasional human presence in the area was mostly deer herders, although there was no shortage of wildlife.

However, it was winter now, and animal activity was not very prominent.

Seeing no apparent danger in the vicinity, Sean Knight decided to head to the lake’s center the next night. Once on the island, they could move around during the day without worrying about being discovered.

"Tomorrow during the daytime, let’s scout around the area to see if we can hunt anything, to stock up on meat," Sean Knight suggested. "If we happen to encounter deer herders, we can also buy a deer."

Living off the land was a natural part of survival in the Siberian wilderness, and eating game was perfectly normal.

That very day, Elijah Hastings led his team members and returned with a roe deer that weighed over 300 kilograms, its massive size and intricate antlers giving it a majestic appearance.

Lincoln Harrington also brought back two small roe deer with his team, and Douglas Cooper had caught a Yellow Sheep.

They had no worries about meat.

The team member doubling as the cook processed and smoked these meats, preparing to take them as dry rations to Lake Heart Island.

That night, two inflated assault boats were launched into the lake. Two team members stayed behind to watch the cars while the others split between the two boats and set out for Lake Heart Island.

Lake Heart Island had long been devoid of human traces, hosting only some birds and the occasional small animal; the island was too small to support large wildlife.

Upon reaching the island, Sean Knight and the others unloaded the supplies and then stored away the boats, choosing a flat and concealed spot to pitch their tents.

"We will start our operation tomorrow," Sean Knight declared in the tent. "This place isn’t large; I estimate it’s no more than 100,000 square meters. We aim to finish within three days and then evacuate."

In fact, Sean Knight knew that this operation was a bit rushed and impulsive. But thinking about the piece of news he had received, he could hardly bear the thought of others excavating the site and displaying the cultural relics in someone else’s museum.

He had been helpless before with both the British and the French holdings. Now that he could do something about it, he decided to at least try to stop this one.

For safety, the three tents pitched here did not light fires or use lights. Although there were hardly any people around, they had to be cautious.

At the break of dawn the next day, they ate self-heating food and then proceeded to the old city ruins.

The ruins of the old city were rectangular, surrounded by walls. The buildings inside had long crumbled into heaps of soil, and broken walls stood amidst the wind.

Although winter had arrived, there was no snow yet, which was precisely why Sean Knight was eager to come here.

As the days passed, it would become challenging to excavate the site.

The team members, each equipped with tools, spread out to dig around the ancient city. Sean Knight, with his spade, opened the "sky eye" to observe.

At the city gate entrance, there were some decaying fragments of weapons underground—blades, spearheads, and the like—that held no value.

Thinking back to when the Raksha people expelled the Han merchants, using just the word "expelled" seemed to suggest that those people would have taken all their belongings with them.

So, Sean Knight’s trip here was more about fulfilling his obligations; to be honest, he didn’t hold much expectation in his heart.

Moving further inside, the "sky eye" revealed that under the dust, there were quite a lot of scattered items. These items were strewn about haphazardly, it was unclear if they were discarded hurriedly or thrown away deliberately as trash.

It seems that the Raksha people drove away the Han merchants and claimed this place as their own, but they were not skilled in managing it, and the city fell into ruin before being abandoned.

Therefore, when the Raksha left, they must have plundered everything inside the city.

So when Sky Eye looked over, there really wasn’t anything of value inside the houses near the city gate entrance. The collapsed buildings contained only some household goods, and they were the discarded kind.

This old city was not large, and Sean Knight quickly moved forward. In his view, at this rate, not to mention three days, they might be able to head back after just one day.

Although there wasn’t anything of value, he had done what he could, but Sean Knight still felt a bit disappointed.

Finally, when he reached the largest ruin in the city, he discovered something.

By that time, it was almost noon.

"Take a break, get ready to eat!"

Elijah Hastings shouted from less than fifty meters away from Sean Knight. The terrain there was flat and open, and he had already laid out a bunch of self-heating food, along with sliced dried meat.

At this point, there was no need to fuss over the refinement of the food—just filling the stomach was enough.

Sean Knight glanced at his find and then estimated the workload before deciding to dig in after eating.

Then he made his way over to where Elijah Hastings was.

A meal like this did not match Sean Knight’s status, but he didn’t mind. When working in the field, you couldn’t be too picky—having something to eat was already quite good.

After quickly finishing their meal, the team members cleaned up the site, and Sean Knight, carrying a pointed shovel, arrived at the large pile of earth he had stopped at earlier. After examining the terrain, he was ready to start digging.

At that moment, Elijah Hastings came over with a walkie-talkie.

"Boss, the people left behind say there’s a situation!"

"What’s the situation?" Sean Knight sensed something was amiss.

"A group of people has appeared on the highway side. Our convoy is quite far from the highway, and those people are not nearby—they drove off in a different direction and seem to be planning to stay as well,"

Sean Knight suddenly thought of the extra message the Director had given to Alyosha, saying:

"Could it be... government archaeologists coming over?"

If that were the case, he had to speed up the pace!

"Have one of our team members keep an eye on them, be careful not to be discovered, and report back to us quickly if anything happens!"

Elijah Hastings immediately went to convey this to the team members.

Sean Knight stopped his work and, holding the pointed shovel, began to walk around the city.

He wanted to see the entire city’s conditions and then decide what was important.

In this old city, there wasn’t much worth the effort, but time was even more pressing. Hence, choices had to be selective.

If those people were preparing to come here now, then they would have less than an hour left!

Of course, if the other party planned to stop and come tomorrow, then they should still have a bit more time. But in any case, their plan had to be changed!

With these thoughts in mind, Sean Knight neared a rather inconspicuous small mound near a wall.

This must have been a house belonging to an ordinary person; it was small and probably wouldn’t have any retained valuable objects.

However, after a glance from Sky Eye, Sean Knight was somewhat surprised.

There was actually a hidden cellar beneath!

And the burial was quite deep!

Now Sean Knight was a bit worried.

Which one should he dig up first?