10: The obsession of the Lieutenant General

His palm felt heavy as a cold, small bronze seal lay quietly within it.

It was about an inch square, with a crouching tiger as the seal's knob. The lines were incredibly vigorous, and a sense of the Han Dynasty's majestic and ancient power surged forth!

On the face of the seal, four ancient seal script characters were carved with flowing elegance—'protector army zhonglang'.

The moment he saw those four characters, Lin Feng's head buzzed!

Everything around him—the sound of the wind, the Fatty's shouting, the boiling bullet chat—all vanished! The world was put on mute.

In his senses, only the Twin Giant Rocks before him and the bronze seal in his palm remained, both emitting a terrifying resonance that spanned a thousand years!

The hallucinations were back!

And this time, it was no longer the blurry fragments from before, but an incredibly clear picture unfolding before his eyes!

...The scene shifted!

In a dim palace, flickering lamplight cast a tall shadow that was long and eerie.

The man wore a Tongtian Crown and luxurious robes; he was the Emperor of the New Dynasty—Wang Mang!

But at this moment, did he look anything like an emperor? His eyes were deeply sunken and bloodshot, and he looked like he had lost his soul, staring fixedly at a strange crystal emitting a faint blue light in mid-air, muttering neurotically.

"Why? On what grounds?!"

Wang Mang's voice was hoarse and pained, filled with resentment: "I equalized the land, suppressed the powerful, reformed the currency, and banned slavery... Everything I did was for the people of the world! Why do they all rebel against me? How can a straw-sandal seller like Liu Xiu obtain the Mandate of Heaven?!"

The strange crystal did not react, merely floating eerily as its light flickered.

Wang Mang's emotions spiraled completely out of control. He reached out to touch the crystal, only to pull back as if shocked by electricity. Finally, he clutched his head and let out a low, beast-like roar: "Tell me! Where did I go wrong? Is my attempt to defy heaven and change fate just a joke in the end?!"

Just then, a middle-aged general in heavy armor with a resolute face strode into the hall, knelt on one knee, and spoke with a voice as steady as Mount Tai:

"Your Majesty! Guanzhong has fallen. The Han army is less than a hundred miles from Chang'an. Please make a decision quickly, Your Majesty!"

He was the owner of this 'protector army zhonglang' seal.

Wang Mang's madness abruptly stopped. He turned around, the bloodshot veins in his eyes receding slightly as he regained a bit of clarity.

He looked at his trusted general, took a deep breath, and forced a smile that looked more painful than crying: "A decision? I have no path left. But the Great Xin must not perish; my life's work cannot be in vain."

He walked quickly to the Zhonglang General and thrust a heavy wooden box into his hands:

"Inside is my personal order. Take it and transport all the nine tripods of gold from the treasury! Take my most elite 'Boar-Rush Warriors' and hide it in the deepest part of the Qinling Mountains! I will hold them back for you!"

The Zhonglang General held the wooden box, his fierce eyes filled with tears: "Your Majesty! This general is willing to live or die with Chang'an!"

"Foolish!" Wang Mang barked. "Where there's life, there's hope! Remember this: this gold is the only hope for our Great Xin to make a comeback! You must live, hide it well, and wait for the right time!"

Wang Mang's gaze swept over the strange crystal, his eyes filled with extreme complexity, finally leaving only resolve.

He patted the Zhonglang General's shoulder heavily, his voice low as iron: "Go! Fulfill your mission!"

The scenes of the hallucination began to switch frantically.

Deep in the Qinling Mountains, amidst towering peaks.

The Zhonglang General, leading an exhausted troop and escorting the gold, finally arrived beneath the Twin Giant Rocks. The craftsmen who had been waiting there immediately used a set of incredible lever and roller mechanisms to send most of the gold into the grottoes within the mountain.

"General, why not hide all the gold inside?" a lieutenant asked, panting heavily.

The Zhonglang General turned back, looking toward Chang'an with a sorrowful yet determined gaze: "The Han army's scouts are biting at our heels like mad dogs. We must split our forces! I will take a small group and a small amount of gold in another direction to lead the pursuers away! This place is the secret we truly must protect!"

After saying this, he very carefully embedded the 'protector army zhonglang' seal into a slot in the boulder mechanism as a final safeguard.

"Remember, the mechanism here can only be opened by His Majesty's bloodline. If we all die in battle, let this treasure never see the light of day, waiting for the Mandate of Heaven to be renewed!"

The final image was a battlefield strewn with corpses.

The Zhonglang General and the 'decoy' unit he led were pinned down by Han forces several times their number. He was covered in blood, and his ring-pommel saber was chipped and dull, but his spine remained ramrod straight.

Looking at the surging tide of enemies, there was not a hint of fear on his face. He only let out a tragic, long howl to the sky and launched a final charge against the sky full of blade light.

Fighting alone against three thousand armored men, blood staining the yellow sands, a hero's end... "Brother Feng! Brother Feng! What's wrong? Don't scare me!"

Wang Dalong's strength was terrifyingly large, and his violent shaking finally dragged Lin Feng back from that tragic dream spanning two thousand years.

Lin Feng was drenched in sweat, his heart pounding wildly, and his chest heaving.

The resolve of the iron-blooded warriors and the tragic loyalty unto death were so real that his scalp was still tingling.

He looked down at the bronze seal in his hand, then up at the giant rock before him, and understood everything.

Wang Mang might not have been a transmigrator, but he definitely hid a shocking secret—that strange crystal was ironclad proof! And this protector army zhonglang General had used his life and loyalty to put a period on this secret.

[Ding! Hidden plot trigger complete!]

[Task 'Lost National Treasury' completion: 100%!]

[Task rewards being distributed...]

[Reputation: 50,000]

[Skill: Intermediate Treasure Detection (Passive). When lost while treasure hunting, you will receive divine guidance, with a chance to discover overlooked key clues.]

[System Mall function has been opened!]

A series of system prompts rang in his head, but Lin Feng had no time to pay attention right now. He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed his churning emotions, and his gaze became sharp once more.

"Fatty, call the police." He carefully put the bronze seal back into his pocket, his tone calm but carrying a power that brooked no argument.

"Huh? Call... call the police?" Wang Dalong was petrified on the spot. "Brother Feng, we... we finally found it, and now..."

"This belongs to the country, not us." Lin Feng looked at him with an incredibly serious gaze. "Our mission is to discover and protect, not to possess. Call the police immediately and send the location."

Seeing Lin Feng's determined look, although Wang Dalong was incredibly reluctant, he also knew this was the only correct path. He tremblingly took out the satellite phone and dialed the number he had only seen on TV.

"Hello? Is this 110? I... I want to report! No! Report a major discovery! Yes! In the Qinling Mountains! We seem to have... found Wang Mang's treasure! Really! It's absolutely true! I'll send the location right away!"

The livestream room completely exploded.

[Holy crap! They really called the police? Brother Feng's character is on another level!]

[Insane! Truly insane! Finding a legendary treasure and handing it over just like that? What kind of god-tier streamer is this? I'm moved to tears!]

[Although my heart is aching, I must give Brother Feng a thumbs up! This is the light of the righteous path!]

[It's over, we won't get to see the unboxing... so heart-wrenching...]

[The guy above knows nothing! This is ten thousand times more exciting than an unboxing! We're freaking witnessing history! Witnessing a living legend!]

After hanging up the phone, Lin Feng didn't go back to study the two giant boulders.

He knew that the remaining matters were no longer something he and the Fatty could handle.

He just quietly leaned against an ancient tree, lit a cigarette, and waited silently.

Waiting to hand this secret, which had slept for two thousand years, back to its true owner.