Chapter 101

"At this moment, Chen Pi Ah Si wondered if someone had acted first and placed an Luo Han statue here to scare him."

"The more Chen Pi Ah Si thought about it, the more terrified he became, but now that he was nearly sixty, his experience and courage were naturally not something a young person could compare to!"

"After his fear, he steadied his mind and cursed the Luo Han statue a few times in his heart."

"Then, like lightning, he pulled out a few iron pellets, used his feet to steady his body, and with two pops, struck directly at the white-faced Luo Han statue!"

"I told you all before, Chen Pi Ah Si's iron pellet skill was more accurate than a gun!"

"The two iron pellets were fired with full force; two muffled thuds were heard, hitting the white-faced Luo Han statue's eyes directly."

"The Luo Han statue's eye sockets were completely shattered, and the iron pellets flew out and fell to the bottom of the Mirror Palace!"

"Everyone, think about it: if this were a person, they would have been blinded for real. You can see how ruthless Chen Pi Ah Si's skill was!"

"After the Luo Han statue's eyes were blinded, the empty sockets actually looked less terrifying than before."

"Chen Pi Ah Si breathed a sigh of relief, and the fear in his heart receded."

"Afterwards, he took a gecko claw from his bosom, hooked one end onto the curved wooden palace roof above, and tied the other end to his ankle with a single-strand rope made of walrus skin."

"He let himself down, extending the rope to its limit, but there was still a long distance to the palace floor!"

"But looking down from there, he could already see the outline of the things below."

"The base of the palace floor seemed to be made of white marble, and due to years of earthquakes and natural peeling, there were many unknown fragments on it."

"In the center of the palace floor sat a miniature white pagoda, made of either jade or ivory, covered by a translucent gauze canopy, so it looked hazy and white."

"Chen Pi Ah Si hadn't read many books, so seeing this, he naturally didn't know what was inside."

"But if it were me, I should have already understood what was placed inside!"

Zhang Lin's words made some of the audience frown.

Many people who were listening to the story for the first time felt that Chen Pi Ah Si was a master based on his methods.

For such a master, how could Zhang Lin's claim that he hadn't read books and didn't recognize treasures be convincing?

Moreover, Chen Pi Ah Si was an old tomb raider.

Even he couldn't tell what was below, yet Zhang Lin knew?

Seeing that the crowd had objections to his words, Zhang Lin smiled and then said, "Actually, let alone Chen Pi Ah Si, how much do you all here know about Buddhist pagodas and stupas?"

"There aren't many Buddhist pagodas with underground palaces left in the Xia country that are well-preserved."

"The most famous Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is said to have an underground palace according to surveys."

"But conditions don't allow it now, so the underground palace hasn't been opened."

"Current archaeological conditions mean that even those of you here who have been in many ancient tombs cannot know too much about Buddhist pagoda underground palaces."

"Am I right or not?"

This statement left the crowd with no way to refute.

Among those who came to listen to the story, there were quite a few private archaeologists who had been in many ancient tombs.

But their research on Buddhist pagodas was also very limited.

Even now, hearing Zhang Lin say this, they couldn't figure out what should be in the underground palace!

Seeing this, Zhang Lin didn't continue to show off.

Instead, he said to the crowd, "Actually, you don't know, but I can tell you a thing or two."

"There is an old saying that I guess none of you have heard, which is: 'A ten-thousand-household marquis is not as good as a stupa'."

"It means that the things in a stupa's underground palace are often even more extravagant than those in a marquis's tomb!"

"Under the miniature pagoda, there should be the Eight Treasures Layered Casket that holds the Buddha's bone relics!"

"Which is eight boxes nested one inside the other."

"This thing is exclusively for Buddhist use, and combined with the relics inside, it represents the concepts of the three thousand worlds and the six paths of reincarnation."

"Let's not worry for now about whether what's pressed below is a real Buddha bone or a jade shadow bone; the Eight Treasures Layered Casket alone is something of incalculable value!"

"Buddhist treasures have always appeared very rarely in archaeology, let alone well-preserved Buddha bone relics and Eight Treasures Layered Caskets!"

"Any one of these things, if taken out, would be a national treasure-level artifact!"

Hearing this, the audience below felt tears of greed flowing from the corners of their mouths.

No other reason, it was just too tempting!

Who in archaeology and tomb raiding doesn't hope to handle a national treasure-level artifact?

Although this national treasure wouldn't be theirs once it was unearthed.

But the country would give very generous rewards, and honor!

It was on par with the honor of a soldier receiving a first-class merit.

The situation Chen Pi Ah Si encountered now was what every archaeologist dreamed of.

At this moment, almost everyone started to get nervous.

Although Chen Pi Ah Si's character was poor, everyone didn't want him to miss out on such a national treasure-level artifact.

Even if everyone could only hear about the national treasure's emergence in a story, they would feel honored by it!

As Zhang Lin said this, Young Master Zhao, who had always presented himself as a playboy, suddenly frowned.

Everyone knew that Young Master Zhao was a playboy.

But in reality, the Zhao family also started out in archaeology and tomb raiding.

So Young Master Zhao had been influenced by this since childhood and was very interested in tomb raiding and archaeology.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have come to listen to Zhang Lin's storytelling for several consecutive days.

And been willing to be a sucker and buy the Luo Pan for one million.

When he heard this, he vaguely felt that this Eight Treasures Layered Casket sounded familiar.

Therefore, he immediately took out his phone and started searching in the Zhao family's internal database.

Hard work pays off; relying on his vague memory.

Young Master Zhao found an old newspaper from back then!