I can find treasures in my dreams.

Berkshire.

Located in the southern part of the Blue Lion Kingdom, this county is one of the oldest counties in the kingdom.

Some time ago, a global earthquake and a global volcanic eruption occurred on the planet Canglan.

Although the Blue Lion Kingdom was not greatly affected by the volcanic eruption, the coastal areas were hit by several waves of tsunamis.

The kingdom has suffered more than 100,000 deaths, with up to two million houses submerged by the raging sea, and more than eight million civilians affected.

Berkshire, located west of London, is inland and was fortunate enough to escape the tsunami.

Nevertheless, the county was also affected.

Night had already fallen.

Yang Fan and Miss Jia Na walked side by side through the streets of Blake City, where they saw densely packed refugee houses.

The so-called "refugee houses" is how the Blue Lions refer to them.

More precisely—makeshift refuge.

These are houses that the Blue Lion Kingdom purchased equipment and materials from the Great Xia after joining the Pioneer Alliance, and were quickly built in large quantities.

The main structure of the building is a reinforced steel frame structure, and the entire assembly and welding process is completed by engineering robots.

Once the framework is complete, another type of engineering robot will appear, spraying a new material similar to a "polyurethane foam" around the framework. This material turns into foam when it comes into contact with air, filling the framework to form walls.

Traditional polyurethane materials, while possessing properties such as good adhesion, waterproofing, sealing, heat insulation, and sound insulation, have relatively low hardness.

Even rigid polyurethane foam can be easily cut open by a child with a small knife.

But the new materials are different.

This material was created after the era of superpowers. Not only are its waterproof, sealing, and heat-insulating properties improved, but its hardness is also close to that of ordinary grade cement.

Moreover, the spraying by robots results in a very smooth wall surface, so smooth that the unevenness is almost invisible to the naked eye.

When the Blue Lions first encountered the cutting-edge construction technology from the Eastern Dragon, they were all quite shocked, because it was enough to put ordinary construction workers out of work.

According to the building construction specifications of Daxia, a layer of high-density material should be covered on the outside of the foam layer.

Because foam is still foam, it ages faster when exposed to the sun, wind, and rain for a long time.

But the Blue Lions simply omitted that.

They hastily installed doors and windows in the houses, and that's how millions of disaster-stricken civilians moved in.

Media outlets in the Blue Lion Kingdom also published articles praising these as "high-standard" houses prepared for disaster-stricken civilians.

All of this made things rather difficult for the people of Daxia.

“I sensed a lot of dangerous gazes; it seems the Blue Lions here aren’t very friendly.”

Miss Jia Na suddenly said something.

Actually, "not very friendly" is just a euphemism. A more accurate description would be robbery, kidnapping, or even murder!
Yang Fan replied, "Since the arrival of the Age of Natural Disasters, various violent crimes have been rampant in the Blue Lion Kingdom."

"Especially now, at night, many desperate refugees are capable of anything."

Miss Jia Na changed the subject: "I can sense that many people here have a thirst for plunder in their souls. They are not like the people of Da Xia who are willing to work hard to build their homes."

Yang Fan smiled and said, "When the Blue Lions rose to power hundreds of years ago, it was through war and plunder. This is something ingrained in their souls."

Miss Jia Na pondered: "Groups like the Blue Lions only increase internal friction within a civilization. I understand why the Great Xia allows natural disasters to weaken certain ethnic groups."

Yang Fan said softly, "Yes."

at this time.

The Blue Lions, who had been eyeing them covetously, finally took concrete action.

Six burly men with blue lions, armed with daggers, baseball bats, and two pistols, surrounded them from both the front and back.

Further away, many more Blue Lions were looking in this direction, but none of them stepped forward to stop them or report it to the police station; they all seemed to be watching indifferently.

This is clearly not the evil of a few individuals, but the evil of a group.

The reason why cultural relics expert Chamberlain wanted to leave the Blue Lion Kingdom was because he knew the situation there all too well and knew what would happen there in the future.

The leader, a burly man with a hooked nose, whispered, "This yellow-skinned monkey must be from the Great Xia. The Great Xia is not to be trifled with now. Kill the yellow-skinned monkey and then destroy the evidence, otherwise we will all be in big trouble."

The man with the hooked nose looked at the mermaid: "This girl looks pretty good. We can grab her and sell her. Everyone, be careful not to ruin her face."

The mermaid used a secret technique to conceal her stunning beauty, so to outsiders she was just a pretty woman with moderate looks.

Yang Fan sighed and took Miss Jia Na's delicate hand: "Let's go."

He quietly activated the shuttle and disappeared with the mermaid.

The burly men were stunned.

After a while.

Several dim points of light appeared where Yang Fan had been standing.

The hook-nosed man felt an extremely strong sense of crisis just from seeing a spot of light.

The guy yelled, "Run!"

But it's too late.

The flashes of light disappeared in an instant, each striking one of the burly men.

A horrifying sight unfolded. Their bodies aged rapidly, turning into mummies in the blink of an eye.

"Whoo~"

The cold wind howled past.

The mummified corpse turned to ashes and vanished completely.

Those Blue Lionmen who witnessed this scene were affected by some inexplicable force, their eyes becoming blank.

A few seconds passed.

They recovered from their dazed state and completely forgot what had just happened.

*
One block away.

Yang Fan and Miss Jia Na appeared in front of a somewhat dilapidated small manor.

In the Blue Lion Kingdom, most people who can afford to collect antiques are quite wealthy, and therefore can afford to live in manors.

He stared at the gate of the manor, a glint of light constantly flashing in his eyes.

Five seconds later.

Yang Fan murmured softly, "This is really interesting. The penultimate owner of the Warhorse Shield before it was collected by the Royal Museum, Sir Lambert, has not appeared for some time now."

He had previously visited the last owner, who was also a collector, but it turned out that this person had also disappeared.

Miss Jia Na nodded and said, "Both collectors have disappeared, and the time of their disappearance seems to be around the same time. This should not be a coincidence."

The mermaid glanced at him and asked, "What was your purpose in killing those villains just now?"

Yang Fan replied, "When I traced back the events of the two collectors, I could only see their experiences the day before they disappeared. Their experiences on that day seemed to be obscured by some force."

“I think if there’s something strange about the manor and supernatural forces have appeared nearby, the manor might undergo unexpected changes due to the stimulation of these forces, which could give me some clues.”

Miss Jia Na said "Oh": "You mean to stir up trouble? But judging from the results, there were no snakes in the manor."

The mermaid gazed at the manor, her beautiful eyes rippling with layers of pale blue light before the ripples subsided.

She shook her head: "My Divine Eye of Mika detected nothing unusual."

Judging from her attitude, she seems to believe that there is no problem with the manor.

At this point.

The path to finding the ultimate treasure seems to be shrouded in a thick fog.

The third person who collected the warhorse shield had passed away more than a decade ago, making the chances of obtaining clues even smaller.

Further back, there is an ancient castle where the first warhorse shield was unearthed.

According to information provided by Chamberlain, after the Warhorse Shield was made by Baron Mowbray, it was too old to verify who owned it. It was finally discovered more than 160 years ago in a hidden basement of this castle.

The person who discovered the warhorse shield has long since passed away, so it is impossible to know whether the full armor was discovered at the same time as the warhorse shield.

Therefore, the two collectors are the most valuable clues, but unfortunately, they have both disappeared.

Yang Fan stroked his chin and muttered softly, "Perhaps the fact that we can't find any clues in the manor is itself an important clue."

Miss Jia Na thought for a moment and agreed with the assessment: "If the manor is concealed by some kind of high-level power, something must be found by investigating the manor."

She thought to herself, "But the possibility seems slim, after all, Azure Star has only been around for four years."

Miss Jia Na asked, "Would you like to go inside the manor and take a look?"

Yang Fan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Forget it. If there really is some unknown force inside, it's best not to rush in before we figure out the situation."

The collector has mysteriously disappeared, and he certainly doesn't want to disappear.

The mermaid wanted to say, "Aren't you being overly cautious?" but being a clever person, she said instead, "Caution is a virtue."

Yang Fan immediately had an idea: "Now we can only use the old-fashioned method: visit each person who is related to this manor. Perhaps we can get more clues from them."

Miss Jia Na volunteered: "Let's split up and go our separate ways."

After half an hour.

The mermaid gave Yang Fan a surprise.

She parted her red lips slightly and blew a breath, and a mist condensed, forming a water mirror.

It shows the face of a middle-aged woman, her eyes half-open and half-closed, seemingly in a hypnotic state: "I once overheard Sir Lambert calling a psychiatrist while working at the manor."

"He said that recently, when he was sleeping at night, he often heard heavy footsteps in his bedroom, but when he woke up, he found nothing. He also found nothing when he checked the surveillance footage."

The mist rippled again, revealing an elderly white man wearing glasses, his eyes also half-open: "I can't remember... no, I seem to have a vague recollection. The gentleman mentioned something to me about sleep... but I seem to have forgotten the specifics."

This is the end.

The image disappeared.

Miss Gana said, "The middle-aged woman is a part-time worker and doesn't have much contact with Lambert. The psychologist often talks to Lambert, and his memory has been interfered with by external forces. I don't want to touch that force, so I can't get more information from the psychologist."

The mermaid paused for a moment, then said seriously, "Your intuition is very sharp. It seems that there really is some kind of power in the manor."

She didn't think there was anything wrong with the manor just now, she just hadn't said it out loud.

The evidence she had now obtained completely changed her original thoughts. (End of Chapter)