028 Village

Finally, at around 3 PM, he arrived at his destination for this trip, Cork, the second-largest city in Ireland.

Although it is called the second largest city in Ireland, the actual population is not high, with a permanent population of around 200,000 people. If it were in China, the population of many county towns would probably be higher than this.

This is a city built at the estuary of a river, with the buildings mainly distributed on both banks of the River Lee.

Unlike the seemingly modern Dublin, Cork is a city full of classical charm. Most of the buildings in the city are three floors or lower.

As a city that retains classical charm and a distinctive Irish character, Cork naturally attracts a large number of tourists.

For example, when driving through the city centre, Leonard Ethan saw two huge cruise ships docked at the pier, as well as many tourists from all over the world who came here for the reputation.

After booking a room at an inn in the city centre, Leonard Ethan drove out of the city and headed for his destination in the southwest direction.

After driving along a double-lane tar road for nearly 20 minutes out of town, and continuing for five to six minutes along a road that was almost obliterated by wild grass, he finally arrived at his destination: Michael Village.

After parking the car on a patch of grass by the roadside, Leonard Ethan came to a small hill a dozen meters away from the parking spot and looked at the village ruins not far away.

Because this area is located on a plain, even a small hill five or six meters high offers a panoramic view of the entire village's ruins.

As the village has been abandoned for over a hundred years, what is now presented in front of Leonard Ethan is a village in ruins that have been almost completely swallowed up by nature.

Time has caused the wooden structures in the village buildings to decay. Only the stone walls have survived to this day. Those broken walls are the last remaining things of this village in the world.

No wonder the clue left by Jack De Brian pointed here. Both the short distance from the harbor and this small village not being much different from other villages make this place an ideal treasure hiding place.

After a brief observation of the situation inside the village, Leonard Ethan stepped on the soft grass and walked towards the largest architectural remnant in the village, which was the church in the past.

Just by looking at the layout of the village, you can tell that the only place in the whole village that fits the description of Holy Sanctuary is the church located in the center of the village.

In a country where almost the entire population has devout religious beliefs, every village in Ireland is built around a church as its core.

Now standing in the center of the village is the ruins of such a church, a small stone church with only a main hall and a bell tower, just like ordinary rural churches.

"It seems that this building has at least three to four hundred years of history," said Leonard Ethan, who majored in archaeology in university, quickly analyzing some specific details about the church after inspecting it once around.

Like other buildings in the village's ruins, the church has also become a ruin. Even the entire roof of the building has collapsed because the wooden beams have completely decayed, creating a huge pile of rubble inside the church.

It is also possible that the roof had collapsed to the ground in one go at the time, causing the walls of the church to collapse as well, with only half of the walls still standing there.

Perhaps due to the blessing of the deity, the pile of rubble in the direction of the pulpit isn't very large. After a simple estimate, he thought it would only take him an hour or two to deal with it.

Noticing there were still about three hours until darkness, Leonard Ethan retrieved various equipment from the trunk of the car and began cleaning up the ruins.

Following what he had learned in school, he first cleared the broken tiles overgrown with weeds, then sawed off the rotten and blackened beams under the tiles. Finally, he removed those beams.

Fortunately, not many fallen stones from the surrounding walls had landed near the pulpit, sparing him the task of clearing the human-head-sized stones.

As a result, the entire operation was much easier than he had expected. Just over an hour later, he exposed an approximately seven-to-eight-square-meter area on the pulpit platform.

Since it was called the Holy Sanctuary, the holiest place in the church would be this pulpit; not only would clergy deliver sermons here, but the tables bearing religious symbols were placed here as well.

In addition, interpreting the last "12" as a twelve o'clock direction, it also pointed directly to the pulpit.

After using a shovel to remove the final layer of dust and building debris, several slabs emerged from the construction waste.

Unlike the stones used for the church's outer wall, which were plainly treated, the paving stones here were made into uniform-sized rectangles and polished, even featuring some simple patterns.

These were small slabs similar in size to a palm. After observing closely, he noticed that the concrete around two of them was different, showing clear signs of being pried open and then patched up again.

After picking up a large iron hammer and chisel, Leonard Ethan began hammering at those two slabs.

It was not an easy job. Fortunately, these slabs were not too large, so after a little more than an hour, a few faint sounds of collision could be heard as the two slabs were successfully pried open by him.

However, contrary to his expectations, what was revealed beneath the slabs was compacted soil rather than a hidden cavity or containers filled with treasures, just compacted soil.

This was a hard blow to Leonard. Feeling somewhat bitter inside, he quickly took out a steel chisel and started probing the soil under the two blocks bit by bit.

After spending 20 minutes poking the small patch of land full of holes, he had to admit that there was probably nothing hidden below.

"Were the items taken away before, or did I misunderstand something?" A somewhat disheartened Leonard sat down on the freshly cleaned ground, lost in thought.

A few minutes later, he realized he had overlooked something earlier and stood up to examine the two slabs he had just pried open.

There was indeed a difference between the two slabs. One had a rough, uneven bottom surface, just like an ordinary paving stone; the other had a smooth bottom with numerous characters carved into it.

"Damn, was that Frenchman a designer of decryption games?" At the first sight of the carved characters on the slab, Leonard felt a rush of blood to his head.

At least in his view, someone who could design such a step-by-step treasure hunt plan clearly had a screw loose, as it made it impossible to tell if he wanted people to find what he had left behind or not.

Soon, he translated all the French on the slab, only to find that the content was about the history of the village.