Chapter 164

Therefore, there is only one possibility—trade.

Their advantageous geographical location gave them the possibility of becoming wealthy through trade.

After Wuyou explaining his deductions, the members of the scientific expedition team, who had gathered around at some point, began to applaud.

"Perfectly reasonable! A brilliant deduction," said the Gaul leader. "Truly worthy of the people of Cathay."

Wuyou awkward half-smile and waved his hands repeatedly, "I was just making this up, I wouldn't dare take it seriously."

"Your deduction is very valuable," the Gaul leader said enthusiastically. "Please come with us; we will consider your opinion in the upcoming scientific expedition."

Wuyou repeatedly declined, his tone naturally very sincere and polite, and his manners were quite impeccable.

Seeing that his intentions had failed, the Gaul team leader's smile faded slightly. His gaze swept over Leμian and Fiammetta before he gracefully departed.

"Ugh, this is such a hassle..."

Once all the Gaul had left, Wuyou plopped down on the ground and opened his folding fan to fan himself.

"Mr. Wu, as an observer, wouldn't it be more appropriate for you to travel with the team leader?" Leμian asked with a probing smile. "Why must you travel with us in Albion?"

"The reason is quite simple."

Wuyou smiled and took three copper coins strung together with red thread from his waist, holding them in his hand.

He suddenly lowered his voice. "If I may ask, are you both 'apprentices'?"

Leμian and Fiammetta nodded.

They had long sensed the apprentice-like aura about Wuyou.

Wuyou nodded without any surprise. "Indeed. Then I can tell you two that the path I follow belongs to the Lamp's Principle, so 'divination' is my old profession in the martial world."

As he spoke, he threw copper coins onto the ground.

Each time it was thrown, Wuyou drew broken lines on the ground.

After repeating this process six times, a relieved smile appeared on his face, as if to say, "Just as I thought."

"To be honest, before I was recruited by the Cathay Social Security Bureau and came to Western Europe, I consulted a divination for myself. The divination result was 'Unfavorable expedition, defeated army and dead generals'... It can be said that there is no chance of survival, certain death, which is extremely unlucky."

"Having come this far, I was still not giving up, so I cast another divination. And guess what?"

Wuyou raised his head, his voice low and somber. "It's a 'Water over Thunder' hexagram. Movement will lead to danger and a predicament... However, as long as the target is identified, there is still a glimmer of hope. Considering both the changing and reversed hexagrams, it will eventually change from Water over Thunder to Mountain over Water."

"Mountains above, springs below. A wise man forges ahead without hesitation and can overcome any predicament."

"We are deep in the Peloponnese Peninsula, walking among the mountains, while Albion have come across the sea, carrying water with you. My life and fortune depend entirely on you two."

240 We are stepping into history and myth.

Water over Thunder, Mountain over Water...

These divinations were incomprehensible to the people of Albion, and even after Wuyou's explanation, Leμian and Fiammetta only had a vague understanding of them.

But when he switched to plain language, everyone understood.

I thought it was something serious, but it turns out it's a dead end, haha.

That being said, the first thing that came to mind for Leμian and Fiammetta was not the perilous road ahead, but the disaster they had encountered at the border, Cape of Birds, which was the most dangerous situation they had ever faced.

As night fell, the joint archaeological team arrived at their destination.

After consulting with Wuyou's advice, the Gaul revised their itinerary.

They invited Wuyou again during their journey, but naturally, he refused again.

After being rejected this time, the Gaul never came again.

When she got off the bus, Leμian saw the members of the United States Federation already coming and going with the Gaul.

The archaeological team had been subtly divided into two smaller groups, and whenever the Gaul passed by, they would cast veiled and cold glances at them.

There is a small village at the foot of the mountain.

Coincidentally, the village is also named "Mycenae".

Leμian went to the village to buy a case of drinks and, while chatting with the villagers, received a shard of pottery with some unusual patterns on its surface.

She took the pottery shard back to her camp, took a picture of it with her phone, and sent it to her sister.

Soon, a reply came from the other end of the phone.

"It's so beautiful!" Remuel typed while lying in bed, her eyes Gilgamesh. "Sis, are you guys doing archaeology again? Where is this artifact from? The pattern on it looks like a ship... Can we get it closer?"

"Is it a ship? It looks more like a whale to me."

Leμian replied, but still held the phone even closer.

"Now that you mention it, it really does look like a whale..." Remuel examined it for a while, then her eyes lit up again. "By the way, sis, when are you guys going back to London?"

Leμian tidied her pink hair that was hanging down. "About a week or two? Maybe a month. Anyway, I'll have a full fifteen days off after this archaeological expedition. How about I bring some food back for Xiao Le then?"

"Yay!"

The two sisters whispered to each other for a few more minutes through their phone screens before saying goodbye. Leμian turned off her phone screen, looked up at Fiammetta standing not far away, and Wuyou further away.

They must have something important to say if they come here at this time.

"You just went to the village?" Fiammetta asked. "Did you find anything?"

"Here." Leμian placed the pottery shard in her hand on the table.

Wuyou's gaze was instantly fixed on it. "It really is Mycenae..."

This pottery shard would be worthless at an antique market, but the fact that it was dug up on a mountain proves that this place is indeed part of the Mycenae ruins.

"Besides that?" Fiammetta asked in a low voice, "Don't you think the villagers here seem... a little strange?"

"Strange?" Leμian pondered. "Now that you mention it, it does seem a bit—"

As she chatted with the villagers, she noticed that all the elderly people in the village were holding water cups in their hands.

Holding the water glass isn't the problem; the issue is the water inside. It's not clear, but rather has a faint golden hue.

Leμian also doubted that she was seeing things, until she saw that the villager she was talking to also had this sweet and fragrant liquid in his cup.

That was definitely not ordinary water.

In addition, these villagers seem to retain a strong faith outside of the Orthodox Church.

As for other suspicious points, Leμian has not yet discovered them.

But to be honest, as a former member of the Special Inspection Department, these two points alone are enough to constitute inconclusive evidence.

What do 'divination masters' think?

Fiammetta habitually touched her chin, then suddenly remembered that they weren't just headless flies; they also had an observer from Cathay.

"Ladies, please don't mock me." Wuyou looked away. "Sometimes, what you see with your own eyes is more reliable than what you can see through divination. I think if our Gaul leader isn't a fool, he'll probably start gathering villagers to break ground tomorrow. You all need to be clear-headed about what will happen then."

That evening, the archaeological team recruited nearly two hundred workers, most of whom came from nearby villages.

Although the local unemployment wave was partly to blame, Leμian felt that these people had arrived too quickly.

Fiammetta, however, still had the leisure to press Wuyou: "Didn't you say the team leader would be recruiting people tomorrow?"

Wuyou his eyes half-closed, just kept wielding his shovel and digging.

The team leader might not be stupid, but it's a bit unlikely that the team leader isn't stupid.

Since ancient times, only tomb raiding and excavation have required working at night; but they are now conducting archaeological excavation in a respectable manner, so what's wrong with doing it during the day?

Putting aside these metaphysical influences, the problem with these uninvited villagers is much bigger... This is not like Cathay. It would take at least two or three days to gather so many workers. How could they all arrive as soon as night fell?

He sighed again, almost imperceptibly.

If there are no problems, he'll go back and eat canned food for a whole month.

The next morning, more workers were recruited, and these silent and robust villagers obediently began working under the leader's instructions.

Soon, a continuous low wall appeared in the sunlight, and beneath this wall was a square doorway.

The gate is 3.5 meters high and wide, large enough for cavalry to drive through. The lintel above the gate is a huge boulder, while the door frames on both sides are built from separate boulders.

Above the massive stone lintel, there is a triangular corbelled arch used to support the weight of the upper layer.

"Corrugation is a construction method in ancient architecture. It requires bricks, stones, and sometimes wood to be stacked layer by layer to project outwards or inwards. When projecting outwards, it has to bear the weight of the upper layer." Fiammetta checked the information on her phone. "Corrugated vaults are vault-like structures that use this construction method to reduce the load."

"This is probably one of the earliest corbelled arch buildings in the world..."

Leμian found it a little strange. "When did you become so interested in archaeology?"

Fiammetta didn't respond, but just kept walking downstairs.

Following her movement, Leμian and Wuyou both turned their gazes toward the triangular corrugated vault on the city gate.

It was a huge relief, with a main column in the center that looked like a Doric column, and on both sides were lions with their front paws on the altar, looking down and staring at the outsiders.

Lion and pillar...

Leμian lunged forward and grabbed Fiammetta by the back of her collar, dragging her back.

The latter immediately shivered, his face filled with disgust.

"What's wrong?"

The changes in this area have drawn the attention of others.

Wuyou in time and waved his hands repeatedly. "It's nothing, it's nothing, they just slipped and fell without noticing."

After everyone had left, Leμian began to ask what had happened.

Fiammetta pressed her forehead. "I... I think I just had a 'Spiritual Vision'."

Spiritual Vision? This usually only occurs to apprentices on the path of the Lamp's Principle.

Wuyou frowned deeply. "If I may be so bold, Ms. Fiammetta, could you please tell me which principle you are following?"

"Cast," Fiammetta replied.

Fire and forging are always so closely related, which is why, when they decided to invoke the power of the Celestial Flint at Cape of Birds, Fiammetta was the first to hold the torch.

"This... doesn't make sense."

Wuyou to sigh about.

Leμian also found it strange. Lions are often associated with the Blade Principle, so how could Fiammetta trigger Spiritual Vision phenomenon?

But now was not the time to dwell on that question; they pressed Fiammetta on what exactly she had seen in her Spiritual Vision.

"I see an endless sea." Fiammetta frowned. "This mountain is actually an island... and, there are Golden Tree that can blot out the entire sky. Oh, look at that pillar in the relief, that's not actually a pillar, it's Golden Tree."

"Trees must have been part of the Mycenae faith," Wuyou added. "It was probably a form of nature worship, and trees represented family and blood ties."

"Indeed, at least it proves that in that era, families bound by blood were the rulers of Mycenae, just like citizen families in Roman times."

The three of them took turns talking and "analyzed" the situation quite thoroughly.

The archaeological work progressed quickly; they crossed the Lion Gate, which was over three meters high, and began excavation work inside the city.

At a location approximately twelve meters from the city gate, many stone slabs with relief carvings were unearthed.

The faces of these reliefs are blurred, but it is still possible to tell that the figures carved on them are probably women.

These women's actions can be divided into three categories: first, holding weapons similar to flags or spears; second, wielding swords and driving chariots; and third, holding bottles and standing by the water.

The archaeological team tentatively considers these three types of women to represent three different types of people.

"Nobles, warriors, and priests," the Gaul leader said. "Clearly, the people of Mycenae would have these reliefs carved on their tombstones to prove their identity."

Indeed, the relief stone slabs they unearthed here are actually tombstones.

This is a cemetery.

But then again, why did the Mycenae place their tombs inside the city?

"This is very simple," Wuyou said. "Friends who frequently raid tombs... well, those who frequently do archaeology know that the plans of the ancients often cannot keep up with changes. Obviously, the Mycenae initially built their cemeteries outside the city, but as the city expanded, they built a wall around it, thus enclosing the previous cemeteries."

The archaeological excavation is still ongoing, and when they dug the third ash pit, they even found pottery shards from the Egyptian lands.

The pharaoh's name, "Amenhotep III," was written on it in red ink.

Either this was a product of trade, or it was a gift from the Egypt mission to Mycenae in the past... In any case, when this pottery shard was unearthed, the expedition team was overjoyed, and even the Gaul, with whom they had previously had a rift, came to congratulate them with celebratory wine.

Leμian and Fiammetta were also very happy.