Richest Rag-picker

"Yishou, what’s the situation? Have you found anything?"

That was right. The call was from Liu Yishou, who was organizing the excavation at the mine. Fang Chenyi was extremely concerned about the situation over there.

Seeing the call come in, Fang Chenyi’s spirits immediately lifted.

After Fang Chenyi asked his question, Liu Yishou’s voice came through the phone:

"Brother Fang, we’ve dug down almost another five meters. We still haven’t unearthed that big rock, but on the eastern side, we’ve hit something that looks like a stone gate. The excavation is still ongoing. Do you think you should come take a look?"

’A stone gate? What’s going on? There’s a gate on the rock? Could there be a space inside this rock?’

As he thought about it, Fang Chenyi’s mind began to race. Soon, a bold idea formed.

’Considering the shape of the rock, combined with Liu Yishou’s discovery... could this rock be a tomb?’

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Fang Chenyi flipped over and jumped out of bed, then threw on some clothes and left his room.

However, Fang Chenyi didn’t wake Qi Xiaotian. Instead, he walked over to the Apache and climbed in himself.

It was no joke; Fang Chenyi’s piloting skills were worlds better than Qi Xiaotian’s.

With a ROAR of its propellers, the Apache quickly ascended into the sky. At that moment, the noise woke Qi Xiaotian, who ran outside.

When he saw it was Brother Fang piloting the helicopter, there was nothing he could do. After all, he was responsible for staying behind and guarding the cruise ship.

The straight-line distance between the cruise ship and the mine wasn’t far to begin with. The Apache had barely taken off before it was already preparing to land.

After landing the Apache inside the mining area, Fang Chenyi headed straight for the large pit.

He found the spot that Liu Yishou had cordoned off with his men and saw the massive stone gate, nearly three meters high and five meters wide.

But the gate wasn’t fully exposed yet. A portion of it was clearly still buried in the earth. As for its total height, it was impossible to say.

"Brother Fang, we originally thought the stone gate wouldn’t be very deep, but now it looks like there’s at least another three to five meters below. The rocks at the bottom are getting bigger, and the workload is increasing. Without heavy machinery, we can’t even dig half a meter in an hour now."

Fang Chenyi understood the problem, but there was nothing to be done about it. Here, even with all the money in the world, he couldn’t buy heavy machinery.

As for bringing the local workers over to help dig, that was out of the question. If word of this got out, there was no telling what kind of trouble would follow. Who knew if the local authorities would come after him?

"Alright, Yishou. Halt all other excavation work for now. From now on, we’ll focus all our efforts on this stone gate."

With Fang Chenyi’s command, Liu Yishou immediately picked up his radio and relayed the order.

Soon, all one hundred men were concentrated in this one area. They divided the labor, with some digging and others hauling away the dirt.

With this, their speed more than doubled.

Finally, just as dawn broke, they had dug down nearly another five meters in front of the stone gate.

Standing at the edge of the pit and looking at the colossal gate, Fang Chenyi knew this couldn’t be a human tomb. After all, not even the Yellow Emperor Mausoleum used a gate this large.

Of course, that was just in comparison to Huaxia. He had no idea if foreign customs included building gates of this size.

He picked up his phone and called Billson, who had gone to rest. He told him to stop the workers who were supposed to come in at daybreak, pay them their wages, and tell them to take two days off. As for the reason, he was to say that the new boss needed to take over completely to inspect and take inventory of the mine.

The only reason Fang Chenyi came up with an excuse for the workers was to avoid unnecessary trouble.

As the sky brightened, three amphibious armored vehicles arrived. Over a hundred fresh crew members jumped out to relieve the exhausted ones.

The addition of these fresh forces increased the digging speed several times over. Qi Xiaotian was now standing by Fang Chenyi’s side.

At a little after ten in the morning, with a sudden cheer, the entire stone gate was finally exposed.

Everyone was utterly shocked as they stared at the massive stone gate, five meters wide and ten meters high.

"Brother Fang! A gate this huge... how do you think it was built?!"

How could Fang Chenyi possibly answer that question? Looking at the two stone doors, a single one must have weighed over a hundred tons. Heaven knew how they were constructed.

He slid down a rope used for hauling dirt and stood at the base of the colossal stone gate, tilting his head back to gaze up at its bare surface.

After a moment, Fang Chenyi stepped forward, placed his hands on the stone gate, and then, clenching his jaw, pushed with all his might.

But no matter how hard Fang Chenyi pushed, the gate in front of him didn’t budge an inch.

Seeing this, Qi Xiaotian and a dozen other crew members beside him rushed forward to help.

But even so, the two stone doors remained completely still.

He relaxed his arms and looked up at the two sealed stone doors again, his brow furrowed tightly.

"Brother Fang, how about we go back to the cruise ship and get some explosives? That Yishou kid is really good with controlled demolitions."

Hearing Qi Xiaotian’s suggestion, Fang Chenyi was actually tempted. But when he thought about the unknowns that lay within, he became hesitant.

Placing his hand on the stone gate again, he ran his fingers over its surface while turning to ask Qi Xiaotian:

"Give me a rough estimate. How thick do you think this stone gate is? How much explosive would we need? And would it make too much noise?"

After hearing the questions, Qi Xiaotian didn’t answer right away. Instead, he carefully examined the stone gate before him.

He reached out and knocked on the stone gate, but it didn’t make a hollow sound. Instead, it sounded like he was hitting solid rock.

For a moment, Qi Xiaotian really couldn’t determine the gate’s thickness.

He had no idea how its builders had done it, but the seam between the stone doors was so tight you couldn’t even slip a single strand of hair into it.

This made it even more impossible to probe the gate’s thickness.

Of course, it was precisely because of this that Qi Xiaotian gave his answer:

"Judging by the sound, this gate is at least a dozen or so centimeters thick. As for the exact thickness, it’s impossible to know. It’s not out of the question that it could even be half a meter thick."