Chapter Seventy-Ninth: The Imperial Seal of the State

  Stifling the shock in his heart, Long Teng took out a filtered mask from his bag and put it on, leading the way into the tunnel. The three people behind him also took out similar masks from their bags and followed him into the tunnel.

  The inside of the cave is relatively dry, with a height that's just over one person tall, and there isn't a single drop of seepage. It seems like the drying measures were done very well. However, the stench of rotting corpses in the air here is exceptionally thick. According to the four people's guesses, if they had come here without taking any precautions and rashly entered, it would have been a dead end.

  Long Teng walked at the forefront, discussing with Long Ji about the possible situations that might occur inside the cave, and he was also extremely cautious in his steps. Meanwhile, Long Xing followed closely behind Su Rui, protecting her as she carefully made her way forward.

  The cave became more spacious inside, and the passages became more numerous. Finally, the four of them stopped in front of a three-pronged cave entrance, looking at it with some confusion.

  In the end, Long Xing and Long Teng decided to let Su Rui and Long Ji guard the entrance of the cave, while they themselves entered a different cave to explore the situation first. If either of them found an easy path, it should be the only way to enter the treasure trove.

  Then, Long Teng and Long Xing walked into a cave, with Long Teng choosing the entrance on the far right and Long Xing entering from the left.

  As he walked through the dark and gloomy passageway, which was over a meter long, Long Xing used all his senses to their limits, carefully taking each step forward. Suddenly, it seemed like he heard the sound of something swinging, so he quickly dodged to one side as a long knife came cutting towards him. After that, he saw in front of him a large turntable-like thing, except that on every direction of the turntable was tied a long knife. As the turntable spun around, the knives followed one by one, cutting towards him. Long Xing only saw this and felt a wave of emotion in his heart - if an ordinary person were to come here, they would probably be cut into several pieces by these swinging knives.

  However, Long Xing suddenly appeared in the turntable and pulled out two of them with a hard pull. Then he inserted his long knife into the gear of the turntable, completely stopping its movement. After that, he drew out the handle of the long knife and walked inside.

  After going in, apart from a round of rifle bolts coming down, there was nothing else. Walking to the end, apart from seeing a dead end, I didn't see anything else.

  He sighed and said, "It seems that the Japanese army in those days was also exhausted at the end, even setting up traps and things were gone, long knives and long guns were all used up, I don't know if the road to Longteng is correct or not." Long Xing only thought for a moment before rushing back.

  As soon as they came out of the passage, Long Teng was already waiting at the entrance. Judging from his expression, he didn't seem to have discovered anything either. It seemed that this path in the middle was indeed the direct route leading to the treasure.

  After a brief discussion, the four of them suppressed their inner excitement and walked into the tunnel. The entire tunnel was just as wide as before, only over one meter wide, barely enough for two people to walk side by side. Long Teng and Long Ji led the way, with Long Xing following behind, protecting Su Rui, cautiously moving forward.

  As soon as they walked out of the passage, a large open space appeared in front of them. There were no decorations on the open space, but many torches lit up around it, illuminating the entire area. At the same time, what was revealed to everyone's eyes was an extremely large number of dry bones, more than twice as many as those at the entrance. In the farthest corner against the wall stood a giant statue over five meters tall, holding a long sword and with its head and feet exposed. The person depicted on the statue seemed to be a Japanese samurai, and judging from his attire, he should have been the Emperor of Japan.

  Looking at the vast empty space, several people were a bit uncertain, wondering if there would be any traps or mechanisms here. However, Long Xing relied on his abnormal defense to walk in step by step. After circling around, he didn't find any traps or mechanisms. It seemed that the Japanese wouldn't turn this place into a slaughterhouse at the last moment either, after all, the probability of their own people coming here to search for treasure was higher than others entering.

  It's just that the withered bones on this land should be enough to understand that the Japanese people buried their treasures and then committed suicide for their country, after all, the people of that country are still quite stubborn, thinking back to when the Japanese surrendered, how many people took their own lives, it's a number that can't be imagined.

  Several people turned around the surroundings for several rounds, but still couldn't find the place where the treasure was buried. After turning around for several rounds, everyone felt a little disappointed, after all, they had come here, but hadn't found the treasure that they had been searching for with great difficulty.

  Longji was still somewhat puzzled and circled the statue a few times, first raising a question: "If there is no treasure here, why would that group of dwarves from Japan come to build a statue in such a place? Are they bored after eating their fill?" With this question, Longji naturally began searching for a mechanism based on this problem. He simply didn't believe that the numerous dry bones on the ground were only for suicide; if one wanted to die, it would be the same anywhere, so why come to this particular place.

  Longji then circled around the statue several times, and finally found a question at the hilt of the knife in the statue's hand. The entire height of the statue was about five meters, and the long knife in its hand was also about two meters high. After Longji climbed up the statue, he discovered that there seemed to be a button-like thing on the handle of the long knife in the statue's hand. Finally, he couldn't help but press it...

  Just as Long Ji pressed the button, the entire statue began to move towards the edge, and Long Ji was shocked to jump down from the empty space above. The statue was then moved to the other side, and afterwards, a hollow appeared behind the statue, although it was not as large as the previous one, but it was not small either. However, these were not what everyone expected, what everyone expected was the things inside the hole.

  Only inside this cave, about 10 meters long and wide, were neatly arranged gold bricks the size of bricks, filling the entire cave, almost as high as the sculptures outside.

  None of the four were as thrilled as they had imagined, nor did they cheer or celebrate; instead, they all silently walked up to the gold, stroking it, sighing in amazement at the shocking amount that had been plundered - this was once China's wealth.

  According to Long Xing's analysis, there are at least over a hundred tons of gold here. Sighing at all this, the eyes of several people became moist. To plunder such wealth, how many people must have been killed and how many places looted to accumulate so much gold?

  Su Rui felt like something was missing, so she turned around a few times to look for something. Finally, relying on her keen senses, she dug out a brocade box from a small pit. When she opened it, she was stunned. As she had expected, the imperial jade seal was indeed among this batch of treasures. It seemed that the real treasure wasn't the gold, but the jade seal in her hand.

  Su Rui's actions quickly startled the other three, and they naturally gathered around. When the three saw the box in Su Rui's hand and the jade seal inside, their jaws almost dropped.

  Only then did Su Rui see the eight seal characters "Mandate from Heaven, Long Life and Prosperity" on the jade seal in the box, and at this moment, the three people of Dragon Line finally realized that the true meaning of the treasure was actually referring to this jade seal, the Heirloom Seal of the Realm.

  Heirloom Seal of the Realm: The imperial seal passed down through generations of emperors after Qin, carved under the order of Qin Shi Huang. It is four inches square with a knob in the shape of five dragons intertwined, and on its front side are inscribed eight characters written by Li Si: "Mandate received from Heaven, may (the emperor) live forever and prosper." This served as proof that the imperial power was divinely ordained and legitimate. Later generations of emperors regarded possession of this seal as a symbol of their legitimacy, treating it with reverence as a precious national treasure. Possession of the seal symbolized "receiving the mandate from Heaven," while losing it meant "the end of one's destiny." Those who ascended to the throne without possessing the seal were ridiculed as "bare-board emperors," appearing lacking in prestige and being despised by the people. This led those seeking to seize power to fight over the seal, causing it to change hands repeatedly for over two thousand years across the divine land of China.

  One stroke, the realistic Heirloom Seal of the Realm is lost, becoming a regret for China.

  Well... let's just imagine him coming back. Found her. Ah, a true national treasure! Today I will finish updating this volume, and next there is still one more chapter.... Wait until the second volume, then there will be countless more plot twists for book friends to see... Hmm, the second volume is even more imaginative than the first...