029 Gold

According to the stone tablet, the village had a history of six or seven hundred years. The village was named after an angel because there were said to be signs of miracles around it, which were believed to be related to the Angel Michael.

"I see, I must have misunderstood before." After examining the inscriptions on the stone tablet, Leonard Ethan quickly realized his mistake.

When he first arrived at the ruins of the village, he instinctively thought that the third word, "Holy Sanctuary," in the four words he had found in the book referred to the church in the village.

In fact, such a judgment cannot be considered wrong, as the only thing related to sacredness in an ordinary village might be the church.

However, if there was something related to miracles in this village, then the "Holy Sanctuary" would naturally refer not to the small church in the village but to the place where the miracles appeared.

After confirming this new clue, Leonard Ethan checked the setting sun in the west, packed up the tools he had brought with him, and continued down the path by the village.

Although it was getting dark, he decided to go and see for himself rather than return to the city, as the target location was only a few hundred meters away.

Since the entire area, not just the village, had been abandoned, the small path that could barely be discerned disappeared soon after leaving the village, leaving only knee-high grass.

Fortunately, there were no dangerous snakes or predators on Irish Island, and Leonard Ethan had dressed appropriately for outdoor activities, so this situation did not cause him much trouble.

Twenty minutes later, after taking several wrong turns and finding himself facing steep cliffs three or four meters high, he eventually arrived at his destination.

It was a small hill about five or six stories high, surrounded by flat land, with only a few sparse bushes dotted around.

On the top of the hill, there was an old stone cross, about the height of a person. It was very dilapidated, with both arms having fallen off and lying nearby.

The hill was quiet, with only the occasional chirping of birds and the rustling of the wind blowing through the grass, accompanied by Leonard Ethan's heavy breathing from intense exercise.

After a quick survey of the area around the cross, he found no other landmarks, just two or three boulders the size of car tires scattered around.

Perhaps because the people living nearby had once prayed or made pilgrimages here, Leonard Ethan found some carved cross symbols on the stones.

But apart from that, there were no traces of human activity in the area.

"Now only the last 12 remains to be solved." Sitting on a rock, Leonard Ethan looked at the dilapidated cross, which had turned into a stone pillar, and began thinking.

If the information in the book had led him here, it certainly could not be just for the sake of giving him a hard time.

With the three previous clues all pointing to a specific location, the 12 should also not be an exception. It should indicate the specific location where he was looking for something through some means.

At that moment, the sun began to slowly set on the horizon. As the sunlight shone directly on his face, Leonard Ethan turned to avoid the glare and saw the shadow of the cross falling beside him.

"Shadow – right, shadow!" The shadow of the cross immediately reminded Leonard Ethan. If he treated the dilapidated cross as a sundial pointer, the 12 might refer to the position of the cross's shadow at 12 noon.

Thinking this, he examined the broken part of the cross, only to find that its arms break are due to human destruction rather than natural falling.

From the situation of the cross's breakpoints, this cross had been damaged for over a century. Considering the power of religious forces at that time, deliberately damaging the cross was obviously not a normal occurrence.

The deliberately damaged cross naturally confirmed from another angle that there was something unusual here, so Leonard Ethan took out his probe and slowly began exploring towards the north of the cross.

Since this was the northern hemisphere, the shadow would always be on the north side of the objects at 12 noon, so the area he needed to search was not very large.

Soon, the probe he was holding struck something hard about one and a half meters from the base of the cross. Realizing that it was only about half a meter from the ground, Leonard Ethan immediately took out his shovel and started digging.

Fortunately, the top of the small hill was made of loose soil, so the digging was not difficult. Soon, he had cleared the dirt away, revealing a 1m square stone slab below.

"Finally found it." Seeing the stone slab, Leonard Ethan immediately put down his shovel and took photos of the hole and the slab with the camera he pulled out of his pocket.

Ever since a photo of a pistol he once sold increased its value, he started consciously documenting his excavation process for future use.

He did not recognize the emblem engraved on the stone slab, but it probably belonged to Jack De Brian's. At that time, French nobles who had 'de' in their middle name usually had their coats of arms, so it's not surprising.

He forcefully lifted the stone slab, revealing a black box. The box was placed in a small pit the same size as the slab, with a considerable amount of fine sand purposely filled around it.

The box itself was not very large, looking like a square box with a side length of 50 cm. Upon clearing the surrounding sand, Leonard Ethan discovered that it was a flattened box, only as thick as an adult's palm.

"Hmm?!" After finally clearing out the box, he tried to pick it up. However, its weight was far beyond his expectation, and Leonard Ethan almost strained his back without prior preparation.

Supporting his back for a few seconds, Leonard Ethan prepared himself to move the box again, only to find that he could only drag it along, unable to lift it.

While moving the box, he gradually realized that the weight of the box probably exceeded 100kg.

"It's so heavy – could it be gold?" There are not many things in the world with such a dense mass, so Leonard Ethan immediately guessed what might be inside the box.

Realizing the contents of the box probably wouldn't oxidize, and with no possibility of getting the box off the hill by himself, Leonard Ethan began to pry it open with his crowbar.

He first scraped off the layer of asphalt on the outside of the box with his carry-on knife, revealing the iron-covered box inside. Then, he inserted the flat end of the crowbar into the gap in the box and pried it with force.

"Clang—" The already decaying box cover was instantly pried to one side, and the contents of the box sparkled gold in the sunset's afterglow.