Richest Rag-picker

As evening fell, everyone in the clearing before the stone gate was staring at Fang Chenyi as if he were some kind of monster.

’The boss is way too strong, isn’t he? That thing was huge and buried so deep, but he just picked it up so easily with a trash grabber??’

"Ahem. Alright, everyone, stop staring. You’ve all worked hard today, go get some rest. Xiaotian, arrange for everyone to pull back. It’s just a deep cave. There’s nothing down there but a pile of dust."

Qi Xiaotian quickly acknowledged the order and went to make the arrangements. Fang Chenyi, meanwhile, returned to the stone gate. He made a show of reaching the trash grabber into the large hole, and then, when no one was looking, he tossed it into his woven bag space.

Back on the cruise ship, Fang Chenyi went straight to his room to shower and change into clean clothes. As he relaxed, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

The day had been filled with rappelling and rock climbing, and it had taken quite a toll on him.

Now that he finally had some downtime, he flopped onto his bed and called Bai Menghan.

After chatting for a while, sleepiness overtook him, and he dozed off.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already the next morning.

He got out of bed, pushed open the door from his bedroom to the deck, and stretched lazily.

"*Yawn*... Ah, that feels good."

As he limbered up, his gaze fell upon the Diamond Mine before him. He thought back on the previous day’s events, and the corners of his mouth curled into a smile.

’My goal for this trip is pretty much accomplished. I’ve secured ownership of the Diamond Mine and even got an unexpected bonus. What could be better than this?’

Suddenly, Fang Chenyi paused in the middle of a leg stretch and couldn’t help but slap his forehead.

"Damn it, how could I forget about the Compass!"

’That strange Compass of mine is still embedded in the stone gate.’

At this thought, he rushed back to his room, changed into a set of camouflage fatigues, and hurried down to the flight deck.

He radioed Liu Yishou, who was on duty in the command room, then took off in a helicopter and flew toward the mountain.

A few moments later, the helicopter slowly landed on the edge of the pit. Hopping out, he saw that the construction site was now bustling with countless workers, everywhere except for the large, cordoned-off pit.

As the propeller blades slowly came to a stop, Fang Chenyi pushed open the cockpit door and jumped down.

His feet had barely touched the ground when he saw Billson running toward him.

"Oh, Boss! I heard you broke open the gate yesterday! Is there a Sea God’s Relic down there? I want to go down and see, but they won’t let me get close."

As he spoke, he couldn’t resist complaining to Fang Chenyi.

’I’m the Boss’s most loyal subordinate,’ Billson thought, ’but these guys won’t even let me get near. Isn’t this a total slap in the face!’

Fang Chenyi found this rather amusing. He was sure of the man’s loyalty, but it was perfectly normal that Qi Xiaotian and the others didn’t trust him.

He started walking toward the edge of the pit and said to Billson,

"Alright, come with me. I went down there yesterday. I didn’t see a single trace of any treasure. There’s nothing down there but a pile of dust. Absolutely nothing."

Billson was taken aback. Nothing? ’That can’t be right,’ he thought. ’Could the Cobra Organization’s analysis have been wrong?’

’Then again, it’s not impossible,’ he mused. ’After all, you can never be sure with these things.’

A dozen or so tents now stood around the edge of the pit. It seemed these men had been guarding the spot all night.

Following closely behind Fang Chenyi, Billson wasn’t stopped this time and walked right up to the edge of the pit.

"Brother Fang, no one has been allowed near this place since yesterday afternoon."

Fang Chenyi nodded at Qi Xiaotian. "Follow me down."

Taking a pair of rappelling gloves from his pocket and pulling them on, Fang Chenyi immediately began to descend into the pit.

Qi Xiaotian already had his gloves on, so he followed right after him.

Billson, watching from the side, felt a headache coming on. ’I didn’t bring any rappelling gloves! If I just slide down, my hands will be completely raw!’

He looked around and spotted a crewman nearby wearing gloves. Putting on a fawning smile, he sidled up to him.

But no matter what he babbled on about, the man simply ignored him. Eventually, Billson reached into his pocket, pulled out a wad of cash, and tried to shove it at the crewman, only to be met with the dark, gaping muzzle of a gun.

Finally out of options, Billson gritted his teeth. ’Raw hands it is, then,’ he decided. ’Better than not being able to go at all.’

With that, Billson grabbed a rope, hooked it with his feet, and began to slide down bit by bit.

By the time he reached the bottom, even though he had controlled his descent speed, his hands were still red and burning.

Seeing Fang Chenyi and Qi Xiaotian already standing before the stone gate, Billson quickly shook his stinging hands and hurried over to them.

However, because he had been busy trying to find gloves up top, he hadn’t seen Fang Chenyi pause halfway down, reach out to a spot that looked no different from the surrounding rock, and pry off a palm-sized stone disk.

This stone disk was none other than Fang Chenyi’s strange Compass.

By the time he reached Fang Chenyi and Qi Xiaotian, Fang Chenyi had already put the Compass away.

But at that moment, Billson’s attention was completely captivated by the large hole in front of them.

"Boss, this stone gate is incredibly thick!"

He ran over to examine the heavy stone gate, which was well over a meter thick, and couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.

Fang Chenyi completely ignored him and instead said to Qi Xiaotian, who was beside him,

"Below us is a very long, smooth tunnel sloping downward at nearly seventy degrees. It’s about fifteen hundred meters long. Have the workers build a simple lift and run some electrical wiring down there. Then we’ll go down again for a more thorough search."

Hearing Fang Chenyi’s instructions, Qi Xiaotian immediately picked up his radio to make the arrangements.

An hour later, a long electrical cable had been lowered down the tunnel entrance.

This time, Fang Chenyi didn’t plan on going down alone. He intended to take more people with him, equipped with shovels and other tools. They would rummage through the area thoroughly; it wasn’t impossible that they might find something else.

"Alright, Brother Fang, everything’s ready to go. I’ll head in first."

With that, Qi Xiaotian was the first to climb into the tunnel entrance...