Chloe’s blood dripped just a centimeter away from Leo’s. They waited for two or three seconds, but nothing happened.
“Try the dagger sheath,” Leo suggested.
Chloe squeezed her finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the dagger sheath.
Their hopes were dashed as nothing happened again.
Just as Chloe was about to retrieve the dagger, Leo suddenly exclaimed, “Look at the surface of the dagger!”
Chloe quickly pulled back her hand and looked at the surface of the dagger. The two drops of blood on the dagger’s surface began to move!
The drops slowly merged into one and then seemed to be absorbed by the dagger, disappearing before their eyes.
The same change occurred on the dagger sheath.
Next, red lines appeared on the surfaces of both the dagger and the sheath, as if etched in blood.
This transformation left them staring at each other in nervous anticipation.
The red lines quickly vanished, and the dagger and sheath on the lab table rotated in one direction.
Then, with a click, like opposite poles of a magnet attracting, the dagger automatically slid into the sheath.
After waiting for two or three minutes with no further changes, Chloe was astonished. “Leo, what’s going on?”
Leo shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know.”
He picked up the dagger for a closer look. “Songbane Dagger! Look!” Leo handed the dagger to Chloe.
Chloe examined it and saw that the words “Songbane Dagger,” previously only visible under magnification, were now clearly etched on the sheath, each letter one centimeter tall.
Chloe tried to pull out the dagger but couldn’t. She quickly took it to an instrument and began a series of operations that Leo couldn’t understand.
Leo stood by and watched. After more than ten minutes, Chloe pressed Enter on a nearby computer keyboard.
“Leo, look at the image on the screen. Do you see anything?” Chloe asked.
Leo examined it closely and shook his head. “What did you find?”
Chloe moved the mouse and circled a tiny gap at the end of the dagger’s hilt. “Look here, there’s a small gap that wasn’t there before.”
“You mean… this part can be opened?”
Chloe nodded and took the dagger from the instrument, trying to twist the end of the hilt.
It didn’t budge. “Let me try,” Leo said.
He took the dagger from her, held the sheath with one hand and the hilt with the other, and used his Spiritual Power to twist it forcefully.
Click!
It moved!
Chloe’s face lit up with excitement. Just as Leo was about to open it completely, Chloe suddenly shouted, “Wait!”
Leo was startled. “Don’t open it yet. Give it to me.”
Leo handed her the dagger, puzzled. Chloe took it to an operating table and placed it in what looked like a glass cabinet.
She pressed a button, and a pump started humming.
“The dagger might contain a treasure map, possibly a piece of paper. After all these years, if it’s suddenly exposed to air, it could disintegrate,” Chloe explained.
“So you need to operate in a vacuum?”
“Yes.”
Soon, the vacuum reached its limit. Chloe used a joystick to control a small mechanical arm inside the cabinet to fully open the end of the dagger’s hilt.
A camera inside the cabinet provided a clear view of every side of the dagger on a screen.
The hilt was indeed hollow, containing something rolled up like paper.
Chloe controlled the mechanical arm to extract it carefully. It looked like an old piece of paper, slightly yellowed. The nimble mechanical arm slowly unrolled it.
A perfect map appeared on the large screen.
Chloe controlled her excitement and focused on the map. “It’s in Black Tiger Mountain!” she exclaimed.
Black Tiger Mountain was located in the southwestern borderlands.
“No wonder we couldn’t find any clues within Western Xia’s territory. Emperor Lee hid the treasure in enemy land!”
Chloe’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she jumped up and hugged Leo around his neck.
Her coat fell off in her excitement, leaving her in just her nightgown as she clung to Leo, oblivious.
Feeling her warm body squirming like a live fish in his arms, Leo quickly removed her arms from around his neck. “The map doesn’t specify the exact location of the treasure. Black Tiger Mountain is huge. Isn’t it too soon to celebrate?”
“Too soon? Do you know how much effort we’ve put into finding Emperor Lee’s treasure?” Chloe retorted. “What you saw in Old Sam’s office is less than one percent of our entire project.”
“We made no progress because we were looking in the wrong place, focusing on Western Xia.”
“Now that we know roughly where it is, we can compare it with current maps and pinpoint the exact location!”
Chloe regained her initial confidence and pride.
“Oh? If you figure out where it is, can you let me know?” Leo asked.
“Why?”
“So I can go get some treasures. I’m your partner. Now that we’ve cracked the secret, shouldn’t I get a reward?”
Chloe spat playfully. “Dream on! The artifacts belong to the state!”
“I’m kidding. But I do have a favor to ask,” Leo said seriously.
“Go ahead, as long as it’s not about the treasure’s exact location,” Chloe replied gratefully. Without Leo’s help, she would never have cracked the secret.
“Once the treasure is unearthed, can you send me an inventory of the artifacts?”