Meanwhile, the archaeologists at the bottom of the pit were still hard at work.
"Be careful! Don't break that pottery shard!"
"This wooden furniture has such an intact shape! It's a miracle it could keep this shape after tens of thousands of years!"
"Come look at this! This bed's support structure is completely different from what we use today!"
Lu Chen watched them label the broken bed, cabinet, and stools he had once casually picked up, then carefully carry them out one by one.
Then a group gathered around to discuss the lifestyle of this "super-ancient person."
At the sight, Lu Chen really couldn't help speaking up.
"Um... maybe the owner of this place was just an ordinary person? These are all ordinary household items."
Hokuto immediately turned around and interrupted him excitedly.
"Mr. Lu Chen, you don't understand! These antiques are very important!"
"The patterns and shapes can all reveal the lifestyle of this tomb's owner while they were alive, as well as super-ancient cultural customs. They're all extremely important historical material!"
"This is an unprecedented discovery, a priceless treasure!"
The corner of Lu Chen's mouth twitched.
I'm not dead yet! Stop saying "while they were alive"!
Besides, those patterns and shapes aren't super-ancient in style. They're modern furniture I brought from another world...
Hokuto continued talking nonstop.
"We absolutely must study these ruins thoroughly in the future. This place might even become an incredible tourist attraction!"
Lu Chen's vision went dark.
Turn my own home into a tourist attraction?
Have people buy tickets to look at the broken bed I slept in?
Lu Chen took a deep breath, barely keeping his expression calm.
But Gengar, standing beside him, could clearly see the corners of Lu Chen's mouth twitching uncontrollably.
Watching the archaeologists' heated discussion, Lu Chen silently thought to himself,
Sorry, but you might have made this trip for nothing.
Before long, midnight arrived.
The archaeological team's camp quieted down, with only a few staff members on night watch sitting by the campfire, yawning.
The flashlight beams in their hands swept sporadically over the surroundings as their eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
In the darkness, a pair of red eyes silently appeared behind them.
It was Gengar.
It grinned and used Hypnosis.
The red ripples were almost invisible in the night. One after another, the staff on night watch slumped over and began snoring steadily.
Lu Chen stepped out from behind a tent. Looking at the archaeologists who had fallen into a deep sleep, he sighed helplessly.
"Sigh... I'm sorry all your efforts are going to waste, but I really don't want my home turned into a tourist attraction."
Lu Chen took Gengar back to that room from tens of thousands of years ago.
For Lu Chen, his last visit to this room had only been a little over half a year ago.
But for this world, tens of thousands of years had passed.
"Aerodactyl, come out."
Aerodactyl emerged from its Poké Ball and looked around after landing. Then it, too, froze.
Its blood-red eyes widened slightly, its wings unconsciously folded in, and its head turned back and forth as though confirming something.
It recognized this place.
This was its old home.
Aerodactyl had never imagined that, tens of thousands of years later, it would have a chance to return here.
Lu Chen patted the wall before him, sending up a cloud of dust.
"Bury this house. I don't want our old home becoming a tourist site for anyone to visit."
"Use Earthquake."
Aerodactyl nodded.
It flew into the air, folded its wings, and hurtled down toward the ground like a gray cannonball.
Boom-!
Terrifying force slammed into the ground, and a visible shock wave spread outward.
The ground shook violently, and the already tottering walls gave desperate creaks amid the tremors.
There was a thunderous crash.
The house that had stood for tens of thousands of years collapsed at that moment, becoming a pile of rubble.
Lu Chen looked at the collapsed house and sighed in relief.
But just as Lu Chen was about to take Aerodactyl to destroy the furniture that had been carried away as well-
Gengar suddenly tugged at his clothes.
Lu Chen looked in the direction Gengar pointed.
After Aerodactyl used Earthquake, the earth had trembled and the ground had split open.
And beneath one newly opened fissure, the ruins of a completely unfamiliar building appeared before Lu Chen's eyes.
The style of those ruins was completely different from Lu Chen's home.
Grander, more solemn, and seemingly newer as well.
Lu Chen was dumbfounded.
He was one hundred percent certain that when he built this house, there had absolutely not been any super-ancient ruins nearby.
Someone had built another layer over it some unknown number of years after he left.
Lu Chen couldn't help quipping, "Is my house some kind of feng shui treasure land? Why does everyone have to stop by?"
"Why is there an earthquake?!" someone cried out from the tents where the archaeologists were staying.
The commotion from the earthquake had woken quite a few members of the archaeological team.
Hearing the clamor of footsteps and startled cries in the distance, Lu Chen could only leave with Gengar for the time being.
Lu Chen circled around outside, then stepped out of his own tent, pretending the earthquake had just woken him.
Standing at the edge of the ruins, Hokuto looked at the "ruins" that had become a heap of rubble and screamed.
"Aaaah! How did the ruins end up like this?!"
The other archaeologists also rushed over, their faces turning deathly pale at the devastated scene.
Then someone peered down through a fissure opened by the earthquake.
"Wait!"
"Th-this is... down here!"
"Although the earthquake destroyed the first super-ancient ruin, it actually let us find an even bigger super-ancient ruin!"
Everyone gathered around.
Below the fissure, the grand structure that truly belonged to the super-ancient era lay silently slumbering.
Enormous stone pillars, orderly steps, and outer walls carved with intricate patterns loomed in the darkness.
Hokuto lay at the edge of the fissure, her eyes shining like two stars.
"Now this is a real super-ancient ruin! It's much bigger than the one before! And much more intact!"
The archaeologists erupted with excitement, their earlier dejection swept away.
Lu Chen stood behind the crowd, looking down at the ruins beneath the fissure that truly belonged to the super-ancient era, his expression complicated.
His own home had been buried.
But someone else's ruins had emerged underneath.
Lu Chen was curious about what might be inside these super-ancient ruins built after his departure.