Road to becoming the wealthiest: Starting From Treasure Hunting in the Cabinets
Chapter 255 - 222: The Secret in the Ancient Books

Chapter 255: Chapter 222: The Secret in the Ancient Books

Sean Knight didn’t immediately buy the villa. He merely thought it was well decorated and had a convenient location.

Although he already owned several villas, Sean Knight didn’t mind having one more. Spending some money was safer than leaving it in his account.

Of course, it could also be seen as a kind of investment. However, Sean Knight thought that this investment might probably lose money.

Mr. Hawkins, having learned his lesson, didn’t charge an exorbitant price. Sean Knight didn’t agree to buy it right away either. He needed to discuss it with someone first.

That someone was naturally Kathy Lewis.

After returning to the villa, the ancient books had been moved there, and Kathy was overseeing the workers installing the humidity and temperature control equipment.

Sean had asked Kathy to order the equipment beforehand. Since they had money, the equipment was delivered quickly and installed with great care.

Sean handed the details of the villa to Kathy and asked her:

"I’m somewhat interested in this villa. If we can buy it... could you help me with some advice?"

Kathy nodded in agreement.

That afternoon, after the equipment was installed and the items were stored, Sean took a look around and nodded in satisfaction.

The most important of these items were the bamboo slips. Although he called them a batch, there were actually only 34 slips, seven of which were damaged.

However, each slip had writing on it, which was hard to decipher even with Sean’s Sky Eye ability. He couldn’t recognize some characters due to his limited expertise.

Sean thought about it and used his mobile phone to take three photos of the bamboo slips and sent them to Professor Reynolds.

After helping Sean with the restoration of the "Yongle Encyclopedia," Sean and Mr. Reynolds had established contact. Although Mr. Reynolds was old, he was proficient in using his mobile phone. He used WeChat and occasionally updated it, so Sean could easily send him the photos.

After sending the pictures, Sean left a message:

"Mr. Reynolds, I recently acquired some bamboo slips and would like to find someone to restore them. Do you know anyone who can help me with this?"

Sean left it at that and moved on to examine the ancient books.

He skimmed the Xixia script book and put it aside as he really couldn’t understand it.

The same went for the books in Mongolian.

However, he could recognize quite a few characters in the ones written in Chinese.

As Sean was reading, he noticed something strange—many of these Chinese books were not actually books but documents!

These were documents from the early Yuan Dynasty or rather the period before its establishment, about the correspondence and commonly used documents within a Mongolian army and the city of Karakorum.

Since this army had not only Mongolian cavalry but also a large number of Han soldiers, both Mongolian and Chinese characters appeared in the paperwork.

Upon realizing it was all just documents, Sean was somewhat disappointed.

It seemed there wasn’t much value in them.

Perhaps he could use them to conduct more specific historical research, but it would be impossible to resell them at a good price.

Finding they weren’t of much worth, Sean casually picked up a vacuum bag, removed a book from it, and began to read.

Even though it wasn’t considered a precious item, Sean still wore gloves while handling it.

The book was about a Mongolian army’s journey south into the Jin territory, plundering and abducting people along the way, conquering cities and towns, and sending the stolen gold and other valuables to Karakorum.

The Great Khan of Mongolia at the time was Möngke, who had not yet been killed in the explosion at Fishing City. The simple content of the book made Sean feel as though it was filled with the blood and tears of real lives.

He casually put the book away, sealed the bag, and picked up another.

After reading two books, Sean had the impulse to burn them all, as the lives written in them were treated like mere numbers.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up!

The last book mainly described how the confiscated goods from various cities and towns were sent to Karakorum and how one shipment never made it, due to a sandstorm 150 miles away.

The team transporting the valuables sent a messenger to Karakorum, saying that they had temporarily taken shelter from the storm in a cave in the mountains and would continue to Karakorum after the storm ceased.

However, when the wind died down and the team still hadn’t arrived, the messenger went with a search party, only to find that the cave had been filled by the sandstorm, leaving no trace.

The records included a few more sentences, but they were all about subsequent follow-ups and efforts, with no success in the end.

Sean was feeling a little excited now.

This could be real!

After all, it would be quite costly to forge so many documents from over a thousand years ago and mix them with such information to deceive him.

Moreover, Sean had heard some of the legends.

At the time, every time the Mongol cavalry conquered a city, people in the city were either killed or driven out to the next city. The gold and other valuables from the cities were sent to Khan City, and then the Great Khan awarded them to the heads of various tribes.

At that time, the entire Eurasian mainland was being trampled down by the Mongolian cavalry. How much gold did they collect?

Where did all that gold end up?

Had much of it been buried underground, just like this shipment?

Sean put this book in a bag and grabbed it before leaving the collection room.

He needed to review the information about the Khan City of Mongolia at that time in depth.

In any case, with nothing else to do, he might as well find something to keep himself busy.

His research continued until evening, and he was able to find some valuable information.

Karakorum was located within present-day Mongolia.

And the lost shipment of gold was most likely still in Mongolia.

As Sean was studying the route, Kathy called him down for dinner.

After dinner, Sean contemplated if he should learn Mongolian.

After all, it was improbable for an instant translation system on a website to translate the Mongol script. At the time when Möngke was still the Great Khan, the script of the Mongolian ethnic group was in Mongol.