Chapter 321: Visitors From the Cultural Heritage Bureau, Another Ancient Tomb Discovered?

That morning, Ning Fei turned on his live stream as usual. At this very moment, he was out on South Lake, feeding the fish.

Every time he tossed a handful of fish food down, a school of fish would swarm the surface. The water looked as if it were boiling, bustling with lively activity.

Bai Yi was sketching by the lake.

She majored in fine arts, having scored high enough to enter the Huaxia Academy of Fine Arts the previous year. She loved painting landscapes, and her greatest dream was to hold her own art exhibition.

Xiaoxiong sat not too far away from her.

When Xiaoxiong first saw Bai Yi, he acted completely terrified, hiding behind a tree and quietly peeking over at them.

It took Ning Fei calling him a few times before the bear slowly approached.

Ning Fei couldn't understand it. How could a perfectly good black bear be afraid of a little girl?

He was an utter disgrace to bears everywhere.

After a long winter, the fish in South Lake had grown quite a bit.

By the looks of it, Ning Fei would have to sell a batch of them in a few days, otherwise it would negatively impact the lake's ecosystem.

The two were relaxing by the lake when the village chief came rushing over in a fiery hurry.

"Village Chief, what's wrong? Another water monkey?"

Seeing Qin Zheng, Ning Fei rowed his wooden boat over, drifting lightly back to the shore.

Qin Zheng glanced around South Lake. Now surrounded by a wooden fence, it looked quite proper. The water was much clearer, and the surrounding environment had grown beautiful.

There was even a young girl painting by the shore.

Not far away, a black bear was hiding behind a tree, staring at him. From the looks of it, the bear was actually quite frightened.

Qin Zheng couldn't help but marvel to himself. The people of Qingfeng Temple were truly something else.

"It's not village business. The people from the Geological Bureau are looking for you."

"Looking for me?" Ning Fei asked, puzzled.

Ning Fei had made massive contributions to the Qincheng Geology Bureau, and even to the Huaxia General Administration of Geology.

Setting aside the stalactite cave from hundreds of millions of years ago that he had discovered, just donating that Cretaceous Cicada Fossil was enough to drive the people at the Geological Bureau crazy.

Of course, Ning Fei had reaped plenty of benefits as well. The Qincheng government had awarded him hundreds of thousands in bonus money, and the Huaxia General Administration of Geology had even bestowed him with an honorary title.

"Yes." Qin Zheng walked up to Ning Fei, glanced at the drone, and gave him a meaningful look.

Ning Fei immediately piloted the drone away and muted the audio, ensuring his conversation with Qin Zheng wouldn't be broadcasted.

"I heard that when that group was studying the stalactite cave, they found something incredible," Qin Zheng said, lowering his voice.

"There's a cave under that waterfall. Inside, there seems to be someone's tomb, or maybe some kind of map."

Hearing Qin Zheng's words, a trace of interest gradually appeared on Ning Fei's face.

He was the one who had discovered that stalactite cave in the first place. It was situated at the peak of a massive mountain, hollowed out deep within.

When Ning Fei explored the stalactite cave, he had also found an underground waterfall inside the mountain.

At the time, the cave was crawling with salamanders, lizards, and similar creatures. Ning Fei didn't have any diving gear on him, and the pool beneath the waterfall was incredibly deep, so he hadn't rashly plunged in.

Who would have thought a whole other world lay hidden beneath it!

"What do the people from the Geological Bureau want with me?" Ning Fei asked.

"It's not just the Geological Bureau. It's the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau, too. They're putting together a research expedition and they want you to join," Qin Zheng said. "They're waiting at the village committee office. You can ask them for the details."

"Alright." This news came as a pleasant surprise to Ning Fei.

Qinshan was, after all, Huaxia's largest dragon vein. Countless royals and nobles had been buried here in the past, yet their tombs had never been discovered.

To think he now had the chance to go "tomb raiding" alongside the government. This was getting interesting.

"This is Bai Yuanche's daughter, right?" Qin Zheng asked, looking toward Bai Yi.

Ning Fei nodded. "Yeah. You've got a sharp eye."

Qin Zheng sighed. "They always say daughters take after their fathers. The two of them have the exact same eyes."

Hearing the village chief's sigh, Ning Fei sensed a sudden shift in the atmosphere.

Just then, Bai Yi walked over and greeted Qin Zheng, "Hello, Uncle Qin."

"Good, good," Qin Zheng replied, smiling kindly.

After that, they left South Lake and headed to the village committee office.

The visitor was a young civil servant from the Qincheng Geology Bureau named Sun Yuan. When he saw Ning Fei, he was exceptionally polite.

"Temple Master Ning, we've finally been able to catch you."

Sun Yuan said with a smile.

"Hello," Ning Fei replied courteously.

"Have you heard the news? We've made a massive discovery in Qinshan. We're putting together a research team to head into the mountains, and everyone is really looking forward to a master like you joining us." Sun Yuan grinned, acting as though they were already old friends.

"Of course, we won't ask you to do this for free. The bureau has prepared a generous commission for you, complete with the absolute best treatment."

Sun Yuan's manner of speaking and facial expressions were extremely flattering. But then again, people working within the system were generally like this.

They were either incredibly silver-tongued—maintaining great relationships with their superiors, doing things flawlessly, and buttering up their bosses until they were dizzy with praise, ensuring they were well-liked...

...Or they just put their heads down and worked hard, rarely mingling with their superiors, which naturally meant they were passed over whenever benefits were handed out.

Sun Yuan was clearly the former.

"What exactly is the situation?" Ning Fei asked directly.

"We'll go over all the details once we get to the bureau. It involves some classified information, so I can't talk about it openly right now," Sun Yuan replied, still smiling.

Ning Fei was quite intrigued.

Whether it was ruins or a tomb, openly entering alongside an official expedition team would spare him a lot of trouble and restrictions.

"Yiyi, wait for me at home this afternoon. I'm taking a trip to the city and I'll be back tonight," Ning Fei told Bai Yi before heading down the mountain with Sun Yuan.

It was only when they arrived at the Geological Bureau in Qinshan County that Ning Fei finally learned the whole story.

The pool beneath the stalactite cave's waterfall was teeming with extremely rare salamanders, which was already quite peculiar.

The government had sent an expedition team down to investigate, and they were astonished to find a tomb hidden right inside the mountain.

The walls of that tomb were covered with something resembling a map.

At this very moment, that map was displayed on the large screen in the conference room.

"This is a map of the Qinshan Mountain range!"

Ning Fei said in astonishment as he stared at the wall footage captured by the expedition team.

"Judging from the flow of the mountains on this map, it must have been drawn sometime during the Zhou Dynasty!"

"The Zhou Dynasty again?"

Hearing Ning Fei's murmured conclusion, the experts in the conference room exchanged glances, their eyes filled with shock.

They had taken several rock samples from the cave and spent a massive amount of effort studying them before finally concluding that the tomb belonged to the Zhou Dynasty.

Yet Ning Fei had merely taken one glance at the map on the wall and deduced its Zhou Dynasty origins based solely on the general layout of the mountains?

No wonder the professors at the Huaxia General Administration of Geology kept recommending Ning Fei. This man's depth of knowledge was truly unfathomable.

"Temple Master Ning, if I may ask, how could you tell it was from the Zhou Dynasty?" one of the experts inquired politely.

"Look right here. There's a massive river. Historical records state that a rare earthquake struck the mountains during the late Zhou Dynasty, completely burying this river. Since the river is still present on this map, we can deduce it was drawn before the end of the Zhou Dynasty."

"Furthermore, the culture of lavish burials only began to flourish during the Zhou Dynasty. Royals and nobles liked to have various patterns and murals drawn in their tombs. To a certain extent, this practice influenced the later Qin Dynasty, which is why the Terracotta Warriors were created."

In the conference room, Ning Fei looked at the image on the screen and explained it all matter-of-factly.

There were several experts from the Jingdu geological headquarters in the room, along with leaders from the Qincheng Geology Bureau and officials from Qinshan County. Hearing Ning Fei's words, they all nodded repeatedly.

"Temple Master Ning, you have truly opened my eyes."

"I am the leader of this research expedition, Zhang Ke. Welcome to the team."

A middle-aged man wearing glasses walked up to Ning Fei and shook his hand.

"I have no problem joining the team, but I'd like to ask: can this expedition be live-streamed? As you know, I work as a streamer," Ning Fei asked.

"Of course you can. The headquarters said this is a fantastic promotional opportunity. We're bringing reporters along, and they'll be broadcasting live as well."

Zhang Ke replied with a smile.

"You probably don't know this, but because you've gotten so popular, a lot of TV shows are jumping on the live-streaming bandwagon. It's fast becoming an industry trend."

"Even a guy like me who studies geology all day knows that the highest-rated shows right now are all live broadcasts."

Ning Fei was slightly taken aback by Zhang Ke's words.

But it was exactly as Zhang Ke had said.

In this world, live-streaming had evolved into a whole new format of entertainment.

The viewership ratings for live-streamed variety shows were absurdly high.

Thinking about it carefully, live-streaming really was an excellent medium. It allowed the audience to experience the show's impact in real-time, making it perfectly suited for outdoor activity-based variety programs.

"I see. That's great then."

Ning Fei nodded.

He turned his attention back to the map.

On the map, two locations were marked with sword-hilt-like icons. The one at the stalactite cave was rather small, while a much larger sword-hilt icon marked a mountain deep within Qinshan Mountain.

The tomb beneath the stalactite cave was just a small one—it functioned more like a burial vault for a retainer.

After conducting their analysis, the people from the Geological Bureau and the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau had concluded that there was an even larger tomb hidden within the Qinshan Mountain range—the main tomb.

It was just like the heavenly palace of the Kunlun Mountains. Designed in accordance with the Bagua Diagram, it utilized the layout of Kunlun, employing eight stone tombs as supplementary graves to fulfill some kind of grand ritual.

The Qinshan Mountain range shared a similar layout.

This certainly matched the burial style of the Zhou Dynasty.

"Both the Kunlun Mountains and Qinshan are dragon veins. Kunlun is the ancestor of all dragon veins, while Qinshan is the largest."

"The ancients' understanding of feng shui far surpassed that of modern people."

"So not only does Kunlun have the Bagua Heavenly Palace, but Qinshan is also home to a mysterious tomb."

"Now this is getting interesting."

"Looks like I'll be live-streaming a tomb raid!"