Chapter 271: Abandoned Factory
After the brief episode involving robbery, Liang En and Joan of Arc quickly got onto the truck and left the area. Everyone wanted to get away from this lawless land as soon as possible.
Once out of the chaotic area, Liang En immediately told Fan Meng where they were heading next. However, after driving for about ten minutes, the target location on the map that was supposed to be a factory turned out to be nothing but ruins.
"Do you really think there's something hidden in this place?" Fan Meng looked uncertain as he gazed at the factory ruins in front of him, with only remnants of walls left.
Fan Meng's doubt stemmed from the fact that the entire factory seemed to have been deliberately dismantled. The metal components that used to serve as pillars and roof structures, as well as the doors and windows of the rooms, had all been removed. What remained was just a dilapidated structure due to weathering.
"I believe whatever we're looking for should be here," Liang En nodded as he got off the truck. "When the group of robbers stored their belongings here, the place was already like this. It's deteriorated now only because of the passage of time."
According to the information Liang En had obtained earlier, these buildings were a temporary ammunition factory built during World War II. After the war ended, this factory, lacking orders, was quickly shut down.
After all, the factory was purely for wartime service. At the time of construction, there were some issues with both site selection and building quality due to the rush, so when it became unnecessary, it was naturally shut down.
After closure, the machinery in the factory, the metal structures on the buildings, and even the doors and windows were cleared out, leaving the remaining parts of the buildings to deteriorate over time.
After all, the United States is a vast country with sparse population density. So, after the demolition of this poorly located factory, the land lay abandoned for half a century, preserved as it was until today.
But for Liang En, the current situation was favorable. Because this emptied-out factory site wouldn't attract anyone's attention, the treasures hidden here by the robbers could remain preserved until today.
After bypassing several ruins of buildings, they arrived at the location of the former boiler room of the factory. Like those factory buildings, this boiler room only had a few empty walls left.
"According to the information I found just now, those treasures should be hidden in this boiler room or around it. So let's split up and search. If you find anything suspicious, notify the others immediately."
"No problem, but we only have one metal detector with us, so..." Fan Meng took out a metal detector from the truck, which looked no more than sixty percent new.
"You can use this. Honestly, using a metal detector in a place like this requires special training, and neither Joan nor I have undergone such training," Liang En said, shaking his head.
Old factories like this often contain a large number of metal parts. So, without professional training, using a metal detector to scan the area would only result in hearing a lot of noise.
After making the plan, the three of them began to act separately: Fan Meng took the metal detector and entered the room surrounded by crumbling walls, while Liang En and Joan each chose a direction and started searching around the boiler room.
"Look here!" About ten minutes into the search, Liang En, who had found nothing, was about to flip over a pile of construction debris to see what was underneath when Joan suddenly exclaimed from the other side of the boiler room.
Hearing the sound, Liang En immediately ran over and saw Joan using a pry bar to lift a piece of wood from a pile of trash and dragging it aside.
"What did you find?" Liang En asked as he walked up to Joan, looking at the pile of debris, which turned out to be the construction waste left behind during dismantling.
The pile of rubbish mainly consisted of some metal cement blocks and rotten wood. In the center of this pile was an extremely dilapidated crawler bulldozer.
The surface of the bulldozer was covered in rust, the glass was missing, the front of the vehicle was empty, and the engine on top seemed to have been removed a long time ago.
"It seems like there's a metal door underneath." Joan bent down and pointed under the trash, saying, "Because this place is flat, I didn't find anything noteworthy after looking around, so I focused on this pile of garbage."
"As I was lying on the ground, I saw through the gaps in this industrial waste a cement platform on the ground, and on top of the cement platform was a door mostly devoid of paint, covered in rust."
"Let me have a look." Hearing Joan's explanation, Liang En didn't mind the dirt on the ground as he crawled over, then looked inside through the cracks between the steel pipes and cement blocks.
Because of the bright sunlight today, Liang En easily saw under the bulldozer a dark red iron door fixed to the ground. It was a sliding iron door. From the remnants of paint on it, it seemed that the door had originally been painted black, but now most of the black paint had peeled off, leaving only rust in a brownish-red color.
Realizing that the door on the ground was indeed suspicious, Liang En began to help Joan clear away the pile of rubbish. Shortly after, Fan Meng also joined them.
After about an hour of clearing, they removed the pile of rubbish, then used the truck and the steel pulley system in the truck to move the broken bulldozer away from the iron door on the ground.
"This might be a subsidiary underground structure of the boiler room." Fan Meng looked at the square manhole cover, which was similar to an ordinary sewer cover, and then used a pry bar to drag the cover to the side.
"Makes sense, because this platform seems to have been built at the same time as the entire factory," Liang En nodded, then brought down a blower from the truck and started blowing it into the hole.
Boom—clatter—
As Liang En and the others chatted while waiting for the smell inside the underground space to dissipate, they suddenly heard a loud noise not far away.
"What's happening?" Hearing the noise, Liang En and the others, who were chatting in the car, immediately stopped and jumped out of the car, then rushed to the source of the noise.
The place was on the other side of the boiler room. Liang En had checked there just now, but all he saw was a flat area covered with layers of decayed wooden boards and some broken cement blocks.
But now, a whole section of the cement floor had disappeared, revealing a large hole with a diameter of about three meters. In the sunlight, Liang En could see another underground space beneath the hole.
Approaching the edge of the hole, Liang En could feel the wind blowing out of it, and at the same time, the sound of the blower also came from the cave.
Obviously, this hole was connected to the one they had found earlier, and the sudden collapse of the camouflage covering the exit was likely related to their previous actions.
And when the air inside had changed enough, Fan Meng, armed with a pistol, was the first to climb down the rope from the sudden collapse and into the cave.
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 272: Underground Treasure
"Everything's normal down here." Because the cave wasn't deep, Fan Meng quickly reached the bottom of the underground space and turned on his headlamp to inspect and confirm the surroundings.
"There's a passage leading to another underground room here, but it seems there are some shelves on either side of the passage, with bottles and boxes on them."
"Bottles and boxes?" Hearing Fan Meng's description, Liang En furrowed his brow because it was completely different from what he had anticipated. So, he instructed Joan to stand guard above while he followed the rope down.
Descending about five meters and landing on the ground, Liang En found himself in a roughly 50-square-meter underground space. Perhaps due to long neglect, the entire area was filled with empty dust, which billowed up as Liang En descended, shimmering golden in the sunlight at the entrance.
After surveying the surroundings, Liang En realized that this place looked like a private underground warehouse dug by someone, and he was at one end of the warehouse aisle.
The aisle was about seven to eight meters long, with a wall on Liang En's side and another entrance on the other side of the space.
The previously fallen cover had turned into a pile of debris on the ground. Upon examination, Liang En discovered that the cover was actually a camouflaged trapdoor made of cement on a wooden board.
However, after enduring the passage of time, rainwater had seeped through the cracks in the cement, causing the wooden board underneath to gradually rot. Thus, it broke during the airflow disturbance caused by the blower earlier.
On each side of the aisle were three rows of shelves, each piled high. Although covered in thick dust, it was evident that the shelves held boxes and glass bottles.
"It's actually Calvados." After picking up a bottle from the shelf and gently wiping off the dust, Liang En discovered that the label on the bottle was in French.
After a brief examination of the label, Liang En found that it was a bottle of Calvados from the Calvados Province in Normandy, produced in the 1950s.
Similar to Champagne produced in Champagne, Calvados apple brandy is also a protected designation of origin product and one of the three major brandies in France.
However, due to its location in the renowned Normandy region, Calvados brandy's popularity waned significantly after the bleak periods of World War I and II, overshadowed by the other two major brandies.
Nevertheless, despite its lower profile, Calvados brandy was not cheap. For example, the bottle Liang En held with the "Crude Cambremer" logo could sell for at least 500 euros.
After a brief inspection, Liang En discovered over 1,100 bottles of brandy in the warehouse, half of which were Calvados, with the rest being various other brandies.
According to the information found, most of these brandies were brands from the mid-20th century, but their prices today were definitely not low.
Considering the circumstances, smugglers would typically opt for mid-range spirits that were easy to sell and liquidate.
"Are these brandies what we're looking for?" Watching Liang En retrieve bottle after bottle of brandy, Fan Meng asked from the side. "To be honest, this is quite a haul. These brandies should fetch around 30 to 40 thousand euros."
"30 to 40 thousand euros? No, it'll be much higher." Liang En shook his head with a smile after completing a basic inspection of the room's contents.
"These brandies have been preserved very well over time, with a loss rate of no more than 1%. So, everything in this room could easily fetch around 500,000 to 600,000 euros, and if we find a client who truly appreciates these items, it might even increase to 700,000 euros."
"More importantly, based on the information I found in that bar earlier, the robbers who raided the Pennsylvania Archaeology and Anthropology Museum were actually a group of bootleggers."
"So, if that information is accurate, what we're looking for should be behind that door ahead, right?" After Liang En's explanation, Fan Meng pointed to the exit at the end of the passage.
"Yes, that should be it." Liang En nodded, calming his excitement, and then entered the other underground building with Fan Meng.
Different from the clearly makeshift space dug out by the bootleggers, this room was about four to five times the size of the previous one, with cement applied to the surroundings and some pipes and valves present, indicating it was part of the factory's facilities.
Considering the location and structure of this underground space, Liang En believed it was likely a water tank used to soften water for the boilers.
After all, the local water rich in minerals could easily cause mineral deposits in the boilers, leading to pipe blockages, so an additional settling tank was necessary to treat the water.
However, since the factory closed down, this tank had not been filled with water again, making it a perfect hiding place for items, such as the dozens of wooden crates currently stored here.
"Let's open this one first." After examining the wooden crates, Liang En immediately called Fan Meng to a crate that was roughly two meters long and wide, and about 60 cm in height, then used his tools to pry open the lid.
As expected, the crate was filled with a large amount of sawdust for cushioning. When Liang En and Fan Meng gently cleared away the sawdust, a relief carving measuring over 2 meters wide and 1.7 meters high appeared before them.
The main part of the relief depicted a group of prancing horses, fully equipped with various horse gear. On the left was an ancient warrior in armor standing in front of a horse, pulling out the arrow stuck in the horse's chest with his hand.
"This should be it—this should be it—" Liang En muttered excitedly under his breath, then he and Fan Meng opened another wooden crate of similar size to reveal another relief slab almost the same size, but this one depicted only a prancing horse with raised hooves, yet equally adorned with various horse gear.
"It seems we've found our target this time." Liang En suppressed his excitement, rubbing his hands together, "The items missing from the Huaxia Circular Hall back then should be here."
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 273: Contact
Over the next two days, Liang En meticulously inspected the artifacts stored in the emptied pool. Just as he had imagined, all these artifacts were originally Chinese treasures that had been housed in the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Apart from the two stone slabs engraved with the second of the Zhaoling Six Steeds that Liang En initially saw, which were transported to the United States by the art thief Lu Qinzai, there were also a large number of very valuable artifacts here.
These large sculptures included the Liao Dynasty Sancai Luohan statue from Bayifula, Yi County, Hebei Province, the Jin Dynasty carved wooden statue of Shuiyue Guanyin, and two Tang Dynasty limestone statues of Bodhisattvas.
There were also three intact Buddhist statues from the Northern Qi Dynasty's Xiangtangshan Grottoes, two Bodhisattva head statues from the south niche of the central pillar of the Beixiangtang Dabeidong, and a Yuan Dynasty statue of Avalokitesvara.
In addition to these, many large boxes contained multiple artifacts. For example, one box contained three Tang Dynasty tri-color horses and a Tang Dynasty tri-color camel.
Another box contained even more items, including more than ten Han Dynasty green-glazed pottery items such as pots, covered jars, lamps, dog figurines, pigpens, and pottery tower models.
The most conspicuous among them was a three-layered pottery tower model standing at 70 cm tall. Everything on top of it was meticulously crafted, vividly reproducing the architectural style and structure of the Han Dynasty.
Of course, the artifacts here were not only made of stone and wood materials. For example, in three smaller wooden boxes placed against the wall, one contained a dozen jade artifacts including jade pendants and jade discs.
The other two boxes contained traditional bronze wares known as "heavyweights," such as pots, covered jars, goblets, and pots, as well as a copper-gilded Maitreya statue from the Eastern Wei Dynasty.
The most conspicuous among these bronze wares and jade artifacts was a bronze square pot with rings on both sides of the shoulders and square feet, standing at 37.2 cm tall. The surface of the pot was intricately decorated with deformed dragon and phoenix patterns within squares, and inset with turquoise.
This square pot was called the Chen Zhang Square Pot, which was a war trophy plundered by Chen Zhang when he attacked the capital of the Yan Kingdom in the fifth year of King Xuan of Qi (315 BC). The inscription on the pot proved the authenticity of the record in "Records of the Grand Historian" about Qi's attack on the Yan Kingdom and the plundering of heavyweights.
However, during the inventory process, Liang En also learned that the more than thirty missing artifacts recorded by the police were actually referring to the number of these boxes, which far exceeded the actual number.
For example, in those boxes containing jade, bronze wares, and Han Dynasty green-glazed pottery, one box might contain several or even more than ten artifacts, but they were only counted as one box during registration.
Because this underground pool not only avoided light but also maintained a constant temperature and humidity, coupled with the fact that most of the artifacts were made of corrosion-resistant materials and wrapped in layers, the inspection results showed that apart from a few artifacts with minor repairable issues, these things were overall well-preserved after more than half a century.
After cleaning up all these artifacts, Liang En obtained a total of ten cards: one gold, one silver, two bronze, and six black cards. It could be said that it was a great harvest.
"I have to say, we've found a treasure trove this time." Looking at the list Liang En had organized, Fan Meng's face showed a feeling of emotion. Although he only had half of Chinese descent, he was educated to consider himself Chinese since childhood, just like Liang En.
Therefore, after Liang En stated the goal of this operation before, he was quite interested in searching for information about these stolen artifacts, and he understood the historical value of these things after seeing them, hence the sigh of emotion.
"That's right, these are indeed some fantastic artworks." Joan of Arc also nodded beside him. Although due to cultural differences, she did not have a high level of understanding of these things, she could still feel the beauty from them.
"Of course." After hearing Joan of Arc's words, Liang En nodded proudly. Obviously, the beauty of many things could transcend the differences between civilizations, just like the batch of fine artifacts stolen from the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Although most of the museum's collections were plundered from other ethnic groups and countries like bandits, it had to be admitted that this group of bandits probably had a good eye for picking things due to the large number of things they had stolen.
However, when Liang En and the others spent two days checking all these artifacts and woke up from their excitement, they realized that they were facing a huge problem now:
Most of the artifacts in this pile were very heavy behemoths. For example, the two stone slabs engraved with the Zhaoling Six Steeds II alone weighed more than four tons, making it extremely difficult to move them.
They even suspected that the reason why those people abandoned larger stone carved mythical beasts, Qiansi Farong lions, and famous murals in the circular hall back then was probably because the volume of the stone beasts and murals was too large, and they couldn't take them away even with preparation.
However, even if they gave up those high-difficulty targets, those robbers still spent a lot of time and effort moving these things from the museum.
According to the information Liang En obtained earlier, after reconnaissance, those people made a series of boxes similar to the original ones, then, under the cover of the two security guards who were bribed, they switched these boxes filled with sandstones with the boxes containing artifacts.
And the reason they did this was that the weight and volume of those things were too large, so only this method could take out as many artifacts as possible from the museum.
On the other hand, those robbers also spent a great deal of effort hiding the artifacts here. Judging from the iron pipes, ropes, pulleys, and hand trucks piled up in this corner of the water pool, they should have used pulleys to lower them from the large hole in the room just now, and then used hand trucks to pile them up here.
But this also caused a huge trouble for Liang En and the others. In the current situation, it was not a simple matter to move these artifacts from their hiding place, especially with only three of them now.
"I suddenly realized that we don't actually need to move these things out." On the night of the inspection, as they hid the entrance to the basement and drove back to the city as they did two days ago, Joan of Arc suddenly spoke up.
"No need to move them out—right, I could have saved myself some trouble." Reminded by Joan of Arc, Liang En suddenly realized that he had been foolish. Since he didn't intend to claim the treasures for himself, he could completely hand over the next job to someone else.
Thinking of this, he immediately picked up the maritime satellite phone in the car and dialed the number left by the ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in Ireland last New Year's. Soon, the call was connected.
"I'm sorry to disturb you at this time." Considering the time difference, it should be around 11 o'clock in the evening in Dublin now, so Liang En quickly apologized as soon as the call was connected.
"It's okay, I'm still working." The voice of the ambassador came from the receiver. "What's the matter?"
"I have some—very important artifacts that I want to donate. These artifacts are with me in Philadelphia, so I want to ask how to contact reliable people from the U.S. consulate here."
"Hold on a moment." Because Liang En deliberately emphasized the words "important" and "reliable," the ambassador quickly understood what he meant and gave him a phone number.
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 274: Handover
The next day at noon, Liang En, carrying a backpack, walked into the New York Consulate from Philadelphia by bus. Due to a prior appointment, he quickly met with the person in charge in a secure room after exchanging a few words with the front desk.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Liang." The person in charge shook hands with Liang En and then said, "This place is a safe house of the consulate, absolutely secure, so you can speak freely here."
"I have quite a few things to donate, and some of them are quite tricky." Liang En said, picking up the bulging backpack at his feet, unzipping it, and taking out a bronze pot.
"This is one of the things I found, the Chen Zhang Square Pot."
"What!" Upon hearing Liang En's words, the person in charge immediately widened his eyes. As the staff member specially dispatched today to negotiate with Liang En, he naturally knew what this cultural relic represented.
"Yes, just as you imagined." Liang En smiled and took out two similarly wrapped jade cong from the backpack and placed them on the table. "We found that batch of things."
"If you are willing to accept this donation, then these things will be anonymously returned to you. But if you do not accept them, please let me know, and I will return them to the University of Pennsylvania Museum."
"These things were illegally looted from China and should rightfully belong to us, so I am very grateful for your help in bringing these things home."
Because of the various implications in Liang En's phone call yesterday, preparations had been made here for the trouble behind the origins of those things. However, they absolutely did not expect Liang En to find something so explosive this time.
However, after adapting to this mental shock, they quickly adjusted their mindset and asked Liang En if there was anything he needed help with now.
"Those things are located in an underground water pool in an abandoned factory. The largest of those things weighs four tons, so I think it's best for you to be fully prepared when you go to collect them." Liang En reminded after a moment of thought.
"I understand, thank you for the reminder." The person in charge nodded and then said, "I mean, do you have any personal requests?"
"I just hope these things can go home." Since he had already made the decision to donate, Liang En felt it appropriate to show his demeanor at this time.
"Of course, there are two requests. One is that if these things can be smoothly repatriated, it's best to return them to where they originally belonged. Second, you also know the background of these things, so I hope this donation can be anonymous this time."
"Don't worry, we can definitely handle these requests." After hearing Liang En's two requests, the person in charge grabbed his hand and shook it firmly. "Although I know this is far from enough, I still want to thank you on behalf of the country."
After agreeing on how the handover should be conducted, Liang En left with an empty backpack. And after he left, the person in charge quickly picked up the secure phone on the table and made a call to contact someone domestically.
Obviously, there were speculations at home about the cultural relics that Liang En wanted to donate, as his previous treasure hunting records proved his expertise in searching for lost treasures.
"I think we should show him our friendliness in the future." A middle-aged voice came from the handset. "After all, for scholars like him who have a bottom line and a good impression of us, we should also show our friendliness—"
Liang En didn't know what was happening in the consulate. After returning to Philadelphia by Greyhound bus and resting in the hotel until the next day, he and Fan Meng and Joan drove the truck back to the abandoned factory.
"How do you think those people will take these things away?" Joan asked Liang En while feeding water and finely chopped raw meat to the three ravens that had stayed here overnight.
"There are many ways. The power of the country can easily solve the problems that are very tricky for us." Liang En said while caressing a raven that had nestled into his arms.
"For us, rescuing French nationals from the war zone or taking away certain things from there during my service was not an easy task. The reinforcements we could obtain in such situations were far beyond what ordinary individuals or even organizations could do."
After Liang En and Joan discussed this issue, Fan Meng also joined in. For the foreign legionnaires like them who had helped the French government with some dangerous tasks before, they had done this kind of last-minute rescue many times, so they had a deep understanding of the power of the country.
Sure enough, when they waited until around 10 in the morning, Liang En received a call from the person in charge yesterday informing them of the number of people coming to pick up and what kind of vehicles they were driving.
And half an hour later, one of the three ravens saw a convoy consisting of a container and two pickups, as notified earlier, coming down the road and driving over.
Soon, these three vehicles arrived at the gate of the factory area and stopped. Then two people got out of the car and walked towards where Liang En and the others were.
"Are you Mr. Wang?" Seeing the leader, a man in his fifties, Liang En asked according to the contents of the phone call just now.
"No, I'm Mr. Li, sent by the family to receive the goods." Seeing Liang En, the two men stopped about five or six meters away, then answered Liang En's question.
"Welcome!" Seeing that the agreed content matched, Liang En immediately stepped forward to shake hands with the middle-aged man who approached him and then pointed to the entrance he had covered up before. "The things are down there."
"I understand, thank you!" The middle-aged man nodded to Liang En and then said a few words into the walkie-talkie. Soon, the three cars outside drove over, and then a group of people jumped off the car.
Soon, this group of people split into two waves. One wave of people with bulging waistlines set up a cordon around them, while the other group unloaded a series of tools such as winches and steel pipes from the car.
Liang En noticed that these people were either Han Chinese like himself or mixed-race with Han Chinese blood like Fan Meng.
Soon, the transportation work began, and Liang En and the others drove away from here after the other side helped them move the white wine out of the cellar. For them, their work was over at this time.
"We have done a great thing, helping those stolen things return to their hometowns from afar." On the way back to Philadelphia, Fan Meng suddenly said.
"Yes, it's a good thing, correcting past mistakes. I believe this is also an act blessed by God." Listening to Fan Meng, Joan also said beside him.
"Don't worry, I've gained a lot this time, so I really didn't feel uncomfortable donating these things." Hearing what they said, Liang En suddenly realized that they might have misunderstood something. "I'm just thinking about other issues."
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 275: Cards and Skills
Although they had returned the antiques to their rightful place before, Liang En and his companions did not leave empty-handed. The over 1,000 bottles of brandy, valued at over 500,000, would undoubtedly earn them a tidy sum.
However, upon returning to the hotel, Liang En did not immediately contact Pierce or the owner of the bar they had met last time, Carlos. Instead, he half-laid on the bed and began inspecting the ten cards they had acquired earlier.
Liang En knew that almost everything he had came from these cards, so he wasted no time after settling those matters to check them.
Six of the black cards were common, including three Identify (N), one Detect (N), one Repair (N), and one Legendary Power (N). As for the two bronze cards, both were Detect (R).
"It looks like we hit the jackpot this time." After organizing all the common N and R cards, Liang En began inspecting the relatively rare cards. When he saw the first silver card, he knew he had struck gold.
Rock Mastery (SR): Human tools have always been closely related to stone, starting from the direct use of stone, then using crafted stone tools, polished stone tools, and finally extracting metal from ores. Even now, the majority of industrial materials come from stone. It can be said that the use of stone permeates the entire history of human civilization and will not change in the foreseeable future.
Skill Card (Permanent) (Incomplete): With this skill, you can prepare casting props in advance and turn them into cards by consuming Legendary Power, allowing you to use this skill to change the appearance of stone.
Obviously, obtaining this card should be related to the stone carvings obtained this time, once again proving that the types of cards obtained are related to what Liang En was doing when he obtained the cards.
"If an SR card is this good, then an SSR card will definitely be amazing." After reading the effect of the new Rock Mastery (SR) card, Liang En turned to the golden card.
Way of Protection (SSR): When faced with various historical items, whether cheap or priceless, everyone will make their own choices. Some choose to adhere to their conscience, protect these artifacts and monuments, and make history known to all, allowing everyone to understand what happened in ancient times. Others choose profit above all else, plundering everything they can find and turning them into various forms of enjoyment and steps towards climbing higher.
Now, as a historical explorer, you have made your choice and can gain your own power because of it. Please accept this power, may your path of protection lead you even further.
Skill Card (Permanent) (Passive): As long as the user does not fundamentally change their current alignment, they will have a chance to replenish Legendary Points once a day.
"This card should be a faction reward." After reading the effect of this SSR card, Liang En muttered quietly. "But to be honest, it's quite practical, effectively doubling the number of times you can cast spells every day."
Although things like faction rewards may restrict a person's actions, Liang En didn't see anything wrong with it. After all, a person's actions are closely related to their principles, and Liang En believed that his principles as an adult were basically formed and unlikely to change much.
Therefore, Liang En didn't find it difficult to abide by rules that completely matched his principles; in fact, he felt that adhering to these rules was as simple as eating and drinking.
Liang En was very satisfied with the cards he obtained this time, especially the last SSR card, which helped him determine his direction for future efforts, making it a perfect harvest.
After checking the cards, Liang En immediately went to the store to buy various items in order to quickly activate Rock Mastery (SR).
Fortunately, compared to the last Greek Fire (R) card, this card required more everyday casting props, and it was only around 3 p.m. So, Liang En quickly bought the necessary items in the store.
These items not only included chisels, hammers, and other masonry tools but also modern electric tools such as high-temperature torches, small anvils, as well as spatulas and trowels for pottery.
Obviously, Rock Mastery (SR) covered a range of solid inorganic materials, not just stones. Hence, the need for so many tools to deal with potential future targets.
Interestingly, these tools included not only ancient hand tools but also many modern electric tools. Apparently, the card believed that in the application of this skill, modern tools only improved efficiency but did not cause a qualitative change.
Then he parked the car in a safe parking lot and entered the carriage to communicate with the Rock Mastery (SR) card through his will, while infusing it with Legendary Power.
As Legendary Power entered the card, Liang En began following the instructions that emerged on the card, placing his hands on the things that needed to be transformed, and guiding the power generated by Legendary Power into these objects.
Ten minutes later, all the tools he had just bought in the truck carriage disappeared. The Rock Mastery (SR) card was successfully activated and entered the available state.
Rock Mastery (SR): Human tools have always been closely related to stone, starting from the direct use of stone, then using crafted stone tools, polished stone tools, and finally extracting metal from ores. Even now, the majority of industrial materials come from ores. It can be said that the use of stone permeates the entire history of human civilization and will not change in the foreseeable future.
Skill Card (Permanent) (Active): By consuming Legendary Power and turning those casting props into cards, we now have a skill that can change the appearance of certain items.
This skill can be used on all solid inorganic objects not owned by others, but the change is limited to the appearance of the target and does not include other parts.
When the skill is activated, the user needs to visualize the desired appearance of the target in their mind and then cast the spell, causing the target to become the predetermined shape.
When not in contact, this skill can only affect targets within the user's field of vision; if unseen, it cannot be activated. If the user touches a stone, they can perceive the internal conditions of the stone, regardless of visual range limitations.
However, this perception is limited to structural details such as cracks, density, etc., and cannot specifically perceive internal components or material information.
There are no restrictions on the maximum range of this skill, but for every meter the target is away from the user, the required Legendary Points will increase by one, rounding up if less than 1m.
At the same time, for every additional meter of target volume, one Legendary Point will be added. If less than 1m, the calculation will still round up to 1m.
"Huh? This skill seems to have much more functionality than I imagined!" After reading the description on the card, Liang En fell into thought.
Previously, when he looked at the description on this card, he always thought it was just a skill for carving with extraordinary power. But now it seems that the potential for this skill is far greater than his previous speculation.
For the simplest example, if he consumes 8 Legendary Points, he can instantly create a batch of stone spikes totaling 1m in distance from himself. Although the operable range is slightly reduced, the effect is still very powerful when used
properly.
Of course, in addition to being able to use this skill to create effects similar to the magical skill Earth Spike in games, this skill also has great practicality in everyday life.
At least compared to the Greek Fire (R) skill, which is only useful for performing magic unless you're a magician, Rock Mastery (SR) can be used to sculpt or repair many things in everyday life, making it much more practical.
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