Chapter 3: The Sheepskin Map Was Stolen

  Professor Zhou Tao saw that Liu Yi was listening seriously, and continued: "It is said that during the time of the Yellow Emperor, there were twelve nomadic tribes near Qinghai Lake. They took one of the twelve animals as their totem. Each tribe had a crystal beast head carved from crystal, such as the White Tiger Head or the Spirit Mouse Head. These twelve animals are the twelve zodiac signs we use today. This Seven-Star Crystal Sheep Head is one of them. Its full name should be 'Seven-Star Crystal Goat Head'. The twelve crystal beast heads were passed down through generations by the shamans of the twelve tribes, who jointly guarded a secret to eternal life. Whoever collects all twelve crystal beast heads can reach the place where the gods reside, obtain holy water, and live with the gods forever!"

  "Immortal?" Malacca burst out laughing, while Liu Yi frowned on the side, Professor Zhou's words were too shocking, and things seemed to be getting more and more complicated.

  In today's advanced medical technology, people's lifespan is getting longer and longer, which is possible, but the cycle of heaven and earth has its own rules for the growth of all things, and human birth, aging, illness, and death are inevitable.

  All the talk about longevity is nonsense. From Qin Shi Huang's pursuit of immortality to the present day, there have been many feudal monarchs who died in their quest for eternal life. Even a great emperor like Han Wudi was still obsessed with immortality until his death, and had made something called a "dew-collecting plate" in an attempt to move the gods in heaven, scattering holy water and drinking it to achieve eternal youth.

  Professor Zhou smiled and said, "The legend of immortality is not entirely believable, but through the hidden information in these twelve crystal beast heads, it can be deciphered whether the twelve tribes that guarded the beast heads back then are indeed the ancestors of today's Qiang people!"

  Liu Yi knew that his mentor had been obsessed with the study of ancient Qiang culture for the past five years, so he was extremely excited to see the crystal sheep head. He didn't care what the twelve tribes were about, but following this clue, it was very likely that he could find his father who had gone missing for four years.

  Thinking of this, he pointed to the crystal sheep head and asked Professor Zhou Tao: "Do you think there might be a map or something hidden inside this crystal sheep head? It seems that's what it says!"

  "This crystal is naturally formed, and it's impossible to have a map inside. Moreover, crystals are not good at grinding, and it's also very difficult to carve any patterns on the outside. So from the surface, this crystal sheep head can't possibly have a map!"

  Liu Yi heard the professor say this and suddenly felt disappointed, saying: "Then the crystal sheep head that Father mailed to me is also useless!"

  "Didn't your father go missing four years ago?" Professor Zhou Tao asked strangely.

  "This was sent to me by a private courier company that can send parcels to the future before he went missing, I just received it today and rushed to find you!"

  "Have you gone to that express company to ask around and see if your father left any other clues?"

  "I went there before, and that company was set on fire by someone!"

  Professor Zhou Tao felt strange, muttered: "Is there someone else also looking for the place where God is?", then asked: "Besides mailing you the crystal sheep head, did your father put anything else inside?"

  Liu Yi was shocked to receive the package from his father, and upon discovering the crystal sheep head, he didn't pay much attention to the piece of sheepskin that wrapped it. In his haste to find Professor Zhou Tao to unlock the secrets within the crystal sheep head, he had forgotten about the sheepskin. Now, with Professor Zhou's reminder, he vaguely felt that since his father had carefully wrapped the crystal sheep head in the sheepskin, perhaps the sheepskin was a map.

  Thinking of this, it's as if I've grasped something in my heart, and I let out a loud cry: "Not good!"

  "What's wrong?" asked Malacca beside him.

  "Do you still remember that piece of sheepskin wrapped around the crystal sheep's head?"

  "Ugh, it's filthy, I'd better throw it in the trash... " Malacca said this and seemed to understand something, excitedly shouting: "Could it be, could it be that sheepskin is a treasure map?"

  Liu Yi decisively pulled out his phone and dialed a number without caring what time it was.

  The phone rang for many times before the other party picked it up.

  "Old Wang, go take a look in my store, is there a piece of sheep head skin in the trash can?"

  Lao Wang, in his 40s, was Liu Yi's neighbor and ran an antique shop. He had never been married and lived in the store. It was he who handled the aftermath of the theft at Liu Yi's store and replaced the broken lock with a new one.

  Wang Daquan was woken up from his sleep, extremely unhappy, and scolded Liu Yi with a curse word "Tu Cai Zi", then grumbled and opened the door of his own shop. While opening the door for Liu Yi, he asked: "It's so late, you've disturbed me for a sheepskin, could it be a treasure map?" This guy had been engaging in illegal tomb raiding for years and was extremely sensitive to things like treasure maps.

  "It's not certain for now, you can study it after getting it!" After Liu Yi said that, Wang Dachuan became interested and hummed a tune as he walked into the dark cave-like shop, fumbling to turn on the pendant lamp.

  The whole market is particularly dazzling under this beam of light.

  Wang Dachuan spotted the sheepskin in the trash can at a glance, walked up and picked it up with his left hand, took a look, and said to Liu Yi on the phone: "You're talking about a piece of woolly blood clotted together Tibetan antelope skin, right?"

  Liu Yi excitedly said on the phone: "That's right, that's right, it's good that it's still there and hasn't been stolen by a thief. Turn the scalp over and see if there's any map or something drawn on the inside!"

  Wang Dachuan put his mobile phone on speaker and placed it on the table, then turned the sheepskin inside out. However, he found that the inner layer of the sheepskin had turned black due to the long time, but there were colorful thread-embroidered patterns on top. He excitedly shouted: "I've got it!"

  No sooner had he finished speaking than a gust of wind came from behind, and before he could turn his head, he was hit with a club, letting out a pained cry as he fainted to the ground.

  The one who knocked Wang Daquan unconscious was a man in black clothes with a mask, he threw the steel pipe on the ground, stretched out his right hand wearing white gloves, picked up the sheepskin, turned around and walked out of the store.

  The mobile phone on the table rang with Liu Yi's shouting voice: "Dachuan, Dachuan, what's wrong with you? Speak!" The only response was the howling wind in the dark night.

  Liu Yi slumped down on the bed, filled with regret. He shouldn't have rushed out so late to check if that sheepskin was a treasure map or not. He never expected that after the store was robbed, someone would still be lurking around waiting for an opportunity to strike again.

  Malacca did not expect that the extremely ugly sheepskin would have a map embroidered inside, and it was strange that they were careless and threw it into the trash can without careful inspection. Now it's good, although it was discovered in time, but it was snatched away by the enemy lurking nearby, and I don't know what kind of people they are.

  Professor Zhou comforted them, "Don't be discouraged, it's possible that the crystal sheep head still hides other information. I'll find someone to conduct a comprehensive professional analysis of this sheep head right away!"

  Liu Yi couldn't think of any other way, so he handed over the crystal sheep's head to Professor Zhou Tao.

  Professor Zhou Tao rushed to Qinghai University for Nationalities overnight and invited several scholars and experts to analyze and identify the crystal sheep head.

  This day had been through too much, Liu Yi didn't have the slightest sleepiness, so he went out of the hotel to a 24-hour convenience store to buy some cigarettes, wine and snacks, preparing to stay up all night waiting for Professor Zhou Tao's research results.

  Back at the hotel, Ma Liuji was staring at the computer while taking screenshots. Out of curiosity, he walked up and asked: "What are you doing?"

  Malacca smiled: "I hacked into the national aviation passenger information database, pulled out today's flights from Qinghai to Jinan and passenger information, took a screenshot of the list of people I thought were suspicious, and checked them out. Who knows, maybe we can catch the enemy hiding behind us."

  "We can't be certain that those people looting shops are from Qinghai or flew over here. What you're doing is like trying to catch a fish by climbing a tree!"

  Malacca shrugged and looked nonchalant: "A dead horse is a doctor for a live horse, I've always judged things based on my intuition!"

  Liu Yi smiled and said: "You know what? Sometimes your intuition is quite accurate!"

  Malacca made a V-shape gesture with his hand and continued staring at the screen organizing relevant materials.

  Intuition is like the inspiration that comes suddenly when creating, it's a special kind of sensory thinking, there's no logic to speak of, but Malacca caught the thief who stole from an antique shop in Jinan Cultural Market last year by intuition, so Liu Yi thinks his intuition is quite amazing.

  In fact, even Ma Liuji himself did not know that this intuition was actually the rapid reaction ability accumulated in his brain from many years of serving as a detective. Relying solely on his feelings, he could get close to the truth of the matter.

  Among the materials he has collected, there is indeed the culprit who stole their store and attacked Wang Dachuan to rob the sheepskin map. When organizing information in Malacca, Professor Zhou Tao and several white-bearded scholars determined through professional testing that the crystal sheep head was naturally formed and not artificially forged.

  At first, a professor did not believe that the crystal sheep head was natural crystal because the formation of crystal requires hundreds of millions of years, growing in the deep crust, and must also undergo natural changes such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

  During the growth of crystal, it will be affected by the surrounding substances and changes in color will appear, producing purple, pink, smoky gray and other types of crystals. This kind of 100% pure transparent crystal can only grow in places without radiation and other elements, extremely rare and precious, after being carved by ancient people into "Crystal Sheep Head", how valuable is the original material.

  After identification, they all exclaimed in surprise. However, they could not determine the age of this crystal sheep's head because crystals are not eroded or weathered and do not change with time, unlike large trees that leave annual rings to determine their age, so they were also powerless.