Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 37 Discovering the Cave
"Boss, this is where I found the gold jewelry." Li Ergou pointed to the waterfall in front of him.

"Everyone, spread out and see if there are any other clues nearby." After Chen Sen finished speaking, he took off his shoes first and walked into the small river under the waterfall. The thirteen sailors next to him immediately dispersed around the waterfall to look for clues.

The small river formed by the waterfall flows rapidly. Chen Sen carefully gropes along the river bank to avoid being washed away by the river.

"Boss, come here quickly, I found a cave." Chen Sen was walking forward. When he heard the shout, he immediately went ashore and followed the sound.

"Where is the cave?" Chen Sen ran to the place and looked at the dense bushes in front of him, but couldn't find the location of the cave.

"The boss is here." Li Ergou said as he walked to the foot of a bushy mountain about ten meters away. He used a machete to cut down the surrounding low trees, and sure enough, a dark cave entrance was revealed.

"Boss, I had to pee urgently, so I ran to the foot of the mountain to pee, and found this cave not far from where I was going to pee." Li Ergou said while standing at the entrance of the cave.

"This cave is so hidden, maybe the gold is inside. Come with me and clean up the cave entrance."

A dozen people started to clear the thorny bushes at the entrance of the cave, and soon they could see the full picture of the cave.

The cave is about two meters high and one meter wide. The walls are smooth and neat, and obviously have been artificially trimmed.

"Ma Ying, tell the prince about the cave we found. The others and I will check the cave first." After discovering an important clue, Chen Sen immediately gave instructions to his men.

"Understood." The sailor quickly put on his shoes and left.

"Boss, I heard from the elders in the village that there are traps in places where treasures are buried. We must be careful when we go in."

"Well, you have a point. Let's get ready outside and go back into the cave right away."

The cave looked pitch black from the outside. Chen Sen estimated that the area inside was quite large, so he ordered his sailors to chop down a small oil palm tree, cut it into thirteen wooden sticks for lighting a fire, tie them to clothes and light them. The thirteen people walked carefully into the cave.

The tent where Li Mingyuan temporarily lived was more than ten miles away from the waterfall. Chen Sen's sailors ran and rode horses for more than ten minutes to reach the camp.

"Report to the prince, the brothers outside have important information to report."

"Let him in quickly." Li Mingyuan put down the book in his hand and stood up immediately.

Li Mingyuan came to Lake Titicaca for the treasure, and anything that his subordinates could report as a major event must be related to the treasure.

Ma Ying entered the big tent and said directly, "Prince, we found a man-made cave next to the waterfall. This cave is likely related to the treasure."

"Take me there immediately. If you find the treasure, each of you will get a reward." As Li Mingyuan expected, an important clue was indeed found.

"Notify Captain Li and gather all the soldiers in the regiment to head to the destination immediately."

"Yes, sir."...

After the news that Chen Sen had found clues to the treasure spread in the military camp, the soldiers of the cavalry regiment immediately became excited. Under the command of their respective company and platoon leaders, they quickly assembled and headed towards the waterfall.

Chen Sen and his men entered the cave, and the firelight reflected on the walls, revealing strange murals, including Indians dancing around giant snakes, tall and magnificent palaces, and Indian priests with feathers.

"Boss, why do I feel like I've entered a mausoleum? The murals on the wall are for the dead to be buried with."

"I also feel that the cave is gloomy and spooky. I wonder if there are any monsters."

"Nonsense, there are no monsters in the world," Chen Sen scolded.

However, after they said this, Chen Sen also felt something was wrong.

The Incas were being invaded by Spanish colonists at the time, so it was impossible for them to spend a lot of effort to decorate the treasure site. The murals here would take a long time and could not be completed in a short time.

Chen Sen thought while looking at the murals on the wall, suspecting that he had come to the wrong place.

"Boss, what do you see in front of us?" Li Ergou's words interrupted Chen Sen's thoughts. Looking forward, a star-like light flashed in the cave.

Chen Sen and his companions walked forward for more than ten steps and saw clearly what the shining white object was. It turned out to be a silver mirror. The mirror weighed about five kilograms and felt very heavy in the hand.

"Boss, we are not in the wrong place. We found a silver mirror less than a hundred meters into the cave. There may be something more powerful inside."

When Li Ergou saw the silver mirror, his previous doubts immediately disappeared.

"Yes, that's a good start. Follow me."

After getting a silver mirror, Chen Sen and others became more curious about what was inside the cave, and they couldn't help but quicken their pace and walk inside.

After walking two hundred meters forward, Chen Sen and the others entered a wide stone chamber. There were more than a hundred large boxes in the chamber, all neatly placed in the center of the chamber.

"Boss, are all the gold in the big box?" Li Ergou asked excitedly with his eyes shining.

"Just open it and you'll know," Chen Sen said calmly.

The wooden box had been in the cave for hundreds of years and most of the wood boards had rotted. Chen Sen's sailors quickly opened a wooden box.

With a noise, the left board of the wooden box fell off. The sailors nearby immediately went over to have a look, but the contents of the box were disappointing.

"Boss, there is no gold in the box. It is empty."

"Open the other wooden boxes."

The sailors did not give up and opened ten wooden boxes in succession, but they were all empty.

"Boss, there is no treasure here. We have worked in vain."

Chen Sen walked around the stone chamber and found a coffin in the middle of the wooden box.
"Open this coffin."

The coffin that Chen Sen found was also made of wooden boards. It was difficult to be found when placed among more than a hundred large boxes.

The material of the coffin was much better than the wooden box, and it took more than a dozen sailors a long time to open it.

"Boss, there's a body in the coffin."

Chen Sen looked into the coffin and saw a skeleton dressed in gorgeous clothes, with a large gold necklace hanging on the body and a huge golden crown on the head.

Chen Sen picked up the crown from the skeleton, but as soon as he picked up the crown, the skeleton's head tilted to one side. Chen Sen handed the crown to the sailor beside him, and looked at the skeleton's neck carefully. He found that the bones in the skeleton's neck were dislocated, as if the skeleton had been hanged.

Chen Sen spent three years in a South American mine, and he often saw Chinese workers who had escaped and were caught. The mine owners would hang the captured Chinese workers in front of everyone, and then the dead Chinese workers were not allowed to be buried and were directly thrown on the mountain to become food for vultures.

Chen Sen secretly buried more than 20 Chinese workers who had turned into skeletons in the past three years. He had a deep impression of the bodies of those who died by hanging.

"Boss, there is a lot of gold on this skeleton. He must have been very rich before he died."

Li Ergou said while holding the crown.

"If my guess is correct, the owner of this body was an Indian king. When we captured Arequipa, we seized a crown like this one." Chen Sen said, looking at the corpse in the coffin.

"Boss, since this corpse was a king when he was alive, this should be his tomb, but why are there no burial objects?"

"Could it be possible that the treasure in the box was stolen by tomb robbers?"

"Impossible. If there were tomb robbers, the crown in the coffin would definitely be taken away." another sailor retorted.

There were many doubts in the cave, but Chen Sen was not in the mood to think about them. His purpose of entering the cave was to look for treasure, but he only found an empty tomb. The person who notified the prince had set out half an hour ago, and when the prince arrived here, he saw the empty boxes on the ground and had to return disappointed.

(End of this chapter)