Chapter 39

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The appraisal work continued until the afternoon of the second day, when it was about to end, before a truly meaningful counterfeit appeared.

Several experts took turns examining this two-handed sword from the Crusades period; due to its exquisite craftsmanship and perfect preservation, it was one of the most precious artifacts in the entire batch, the only flaw being a slightly damaged hilt.

Even after Professor Lang looked at it, they all remained silent, in a state of careful thought.

Lu Zai Yuan rubbed his lips hard with his hand, and after a long while asked Chen Yi, "Are you sure it isn't a knight's sword from the 12th or 13th century?"

"Definitely not the middle part of the hilt," Chen Yi shrugged, thinking to himself that it was at least an 18th-century product.

"Why does the Vatican keep producing these kinds of tricks," Lu Zai Yuan cursed in his hometown dialect. These past two days he had followed the whole process and quite believed this young man's judgment; although he was young, his ability to judge the age was more accurate than a cat's whiskers.

Furthermore, after Chen Yi raised the question, the professional and slow instrument appraisal strongly supported his guess. The entire heavy sword, both upper and lower parts, were from 900 years ago, only the part connected to the hilt was an 18th-century forgery.

In other words, it was church members hundreds of years ago, or some noble, who forged it first, and then it was included in the collection.

Even the German professor shook his head in disbelief: "If they had systematic artifact restoration in the 18th century, there shouldn't be no records at all, but forging something at great expense in that era is too contrary to common sense. Restoring it with the technology of that time is truly not easy."

He turned the knight's sword over and over in his hands; as a descendant of the Germanic people, Karl really liked knightly weapons, even though they once used them to attack the Papal State.

Professor Lang said as usual: "Forging is human nature."

He waited for another instrument report, then turned the sword over and over again, saying: "On the bright side, besides this heavy sword, the other artifacts are all genuine; whether to report it is up to Hall Master Lu himself."

Some items they found earlier were inconsistent in age or style, but all within understandable changes; only this knight's sword fluctuated too outrageously. An 18th-century restoration and a perfectly original 12th-century knightly heavy sword are essentially different, and their insured price figures will clearly distinguish them.

However, Lu Zai Yuan was not too worried, just helplessly said: "Another pile of paperwork; I guess the higher-ups will pretend they never heard of this."

That said, he still had to write the report.

The gentlemen who had been in this line of work for a long time all understood and smiled; after a short rest, everyone continued appraising the remaining antiques, while Chen Yi glanced absentmindedly, glanced again, and then casually tossed them aside...

Lu Fan looked on enviously with shining eyes, thinking: How can people be so different? He doesn't even need to look carefully and makes no mistakes, while no matter how I look, I can't make heads or tails of it.

At 5:30 PM, before closing, the management of Jiangning Museum all appeared to formally receive the artifacts from the Vatican, and among the other side's delegation members, a handsome foreigner happened to appear.

Chen Yi smiled strangely at Stanik, then whispered to Professor Lang: "Professor, I want a fossil from the Archaeopteryx era; Hall Master Lu promised me earlier, you need to help me make it happen."

"No problem, a fossil, what do you want?"

"Something closer to Archaeopteryx within the scope?"

This request made Professor Lang scratch his head instead; he shifted his body to avoid the gaze of the representatives who were in the process of handing over, and after thinking for a long while said: "Logically, pterosaurs are closest in biological form, but the era is further away, and such fossils are also quite precious..."

"How precious?" Hearing the word pterosaur, Chen Yi instinctively felt it was useful.

"Several hundred thousand or over a million, but Lu Zai Yuan cannot decide on fossil sales." Professor Lang saw through Chen Yi's thoughts, then said: "Internationally, fossil collection prices aren't high; already named fossils have little research value. If you're interested, you can completely buy one from some institutions. How about I get you an ordinary fossil? The kind worth tens of thousands; he can't be stingy."

Chen Yi wanted a fossil because the paper slip he picked up in the subway had traces of Archaeopteryx; he wanted to see if there was anything special about it. Whether any random fossil could achieve the purpose was truly hard to say.

He pondered for a moment, then said: "How about this? We talk to Hall Master Lu about an exchange. First, I pay to buy a similar pterosaur fossil, then he uses money to buy a collection of equal value; that way it wouldn't be considered a purely transactional act, right. Keep the total value within 500,000, how about that?"

"You really are impatient." Such an operating method was certainly not pioneered by Chen Yi. For someone else, completing it would take some effort, but for Professor Lang, as long as he was willing, it could be achieved very simply.

He didn't shirk it, nodding and agreeing.

When the handover was nearing its end, Professor Lang told Lu Zai Yuan, and the latter hesitated only briefly before nodding in agreement.

But the handsome foreigner had sharp ears; from afar he seemed to have heard words like "fossil," and for some reason, he fixed his gaze on Chen Yi's face.

Chen Yi didn't care; so what if he knew? There were many people with fossils in this world, but probably only he could reach the Magic World.

10:30 PM.

Chen Yi was like he was moving house; he carried a person-tall large pack on his shoulders, held a person-tall wide box in his left hand, and a person-tall wide box in his right hand—nearly 500 jin of stuff—which he dragged and pulled into the subway.

Only after looking inside did he spread the things out, open the box, and lean it against the door, planning to wait until they reached Holy Qiao to say more.

Unexpectedly, this subway train was unusually slow; Chen Yi even thought he had boarded the wrong car.

At this moment, his backpack suddenly lit up, and the subway door at the very front was also flashing with light.

Fossil!

Thinking of this, Chen Yi quickly untied his backpack. The only somewhat special thing he carried was the 15-kilogram pterosaur fossil he had just gotten his hands on.

It seemed the 270,000 yuan wasn't wasted.

Pterosaurs varied greatly in size; the smallest Forest Pterosaur was comparable to modern birds, while the largest Hatzegopteryx had a wingspan of 12 meters. The fossil he chose was mainly for completeness; it originally looked somewhat gray and dim, making the skeleton hard to find, but now it glowed all over, vividly displaying a dinosaur on the outside.

Without needing to think too much, Chen Yi held the fossil and came to the glowing subway door; as his hand moved slightly forward, he felt a huge suction.

The pterosaur bones on the fossil actually gradually detached, reassembled in midair into a flying posture with head held high, and then slowly moved forward and attached.

At the same time, a line of text appeared on the glass of the subway door: 10 times 110% Satisfaction Transaction, 1% Gene Completion, Second Stage Activation.

The first part, Chen Yi understood; not counting this time, he had traveled to the Holy Qiao Empire exactly 10 times, so the so-called 110% Satisfaction Transaction roughly explained the satisfaction level of both parties.

But what were Gene Completion and Second Stage Activation?

Just as he was thinking, the subway door had already sucked in all the detached pterosaur, leaving some rock fragments scattered inside the subway.

Chen Yi subconsciously looked at the ground, and when he raised his head again, the subway door in front had completely vanished, as if it had never existed.

He unconsciously thought: if thieves had such ability, getting rich wouldn't be a problem.

In front was another unobstructed subway carriage.

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