Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 230 Phoenix Factory

"These pieces of armor are just modern industrial imitations that cost only a few cents each?" Wang Xiyi looked at the pieces of armor in the specimen bag with some surprise. "I thought these things were excavated cultural relics..."

"If you don't believe it, I can help you find an expert to identify it." Zhulong said as he took out his mobile phone.

"Experts? Could they be those black market dealers in Chunming City's antique market?" Sun Hang teased.

"That's not the case. The person I found is a serious expert - Professor Du from the History Department of Chunming University, one of the top experts in the field of archaeology in Xiazhou." Zhulong said as he took several photos of the armor scales and then dialed a number.

"Hello, Professor Du? It's me, the hunter from Tianshu Tower, Zhulong."

"I know it's you. Damn it, I'm so busy today. If you have something to say, say it quickly!" Zhulong set the phone to speakerphone so that Sun Hang and the others could also hear Professor Du's voice.

Professor Du sounded quite old, but he did not have the seriousness of an old professor at all. He spoke fluently with curse words in the Chunmingcheng dialect.

However, this also indirectly confirms that Professor Du and Zhulong have a very good personal relationship.

"I have a few armor plates of the Han Dynasty. I need your help to identify them." Zhulong said with a smile, "I have sent the photos to your email."

"I know this Professor Du." Yang Qi whispered to Sun Hang, "He is indeed an authority in the field of archaeology. When I was writing my paper, a lot of reference materials came from his writings."

"Han Dynasty armor? Can you tell whether it's real or not? I don't believe it!" Professor Du cursed, but a series of mouse clicking sounds came from the other end of the line. "You must have made a bet with someone to make fun of me!"

"Doesn't this show that you are the authority?" Facing the old professor's complaint, Zhulong responded in a friendly voice.

"I won't do that..."

Before Professor Du could even utter the word "never again", his voice suddenly paused. After a few seconds, he spoke again. His tone changed from the previous laughter and scolding between friends to become extremely serious in an instant.

"Where did you get this armor?"

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this thing?" Zhulong also put away his teasing expression and said seriously.

"Tell me the truth, is this thing a weird thing?" Professor Du asked.

"Hey, you really have a keen eye." Zhulong responded quickly, "This armor piece is indeed a strange object, but I'd like you to tell me its specific origin."

"This thing... is called a replica, but it's actually quite old." Professor Du said slowly, "In the early days... how early was it exactly? At that time, there were still many countries left on the earth, and the white people on the other side of the Pacific Ocean had not yet fled to us. In Chang'an, there was a group of counterfeiters who specialized in replicating Qin and Han Dynasty artifacts."

Professor Du paused for a few seconds. He could vaguely hear the sound of pages turning and teacup lids colliding on the other end of the phone. After taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat, he continued, "Among these counterfeiting gangs, there is a group labeled 'Phoenix'. The artifacts they imitate are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. In their circle, this gang is called the 'Phoenix Factory', and the fake artifacts produced by the 'Phoenix Factory' are also the ones that sell for the highest price in the counterfeit market."

"So, do these armor plates come from that 'Phoenix Factory'?" Zhulong asked immediately.

"The Han Dynasty armor pieces imitated by the Phoenix Factory have a very distinctive feature - in order to make the brand-new armor pieces look like cultural relics that have been buried in the soil for thousands of years, the counterfeiters will use files to grind the edges of the armor pieces, and then pass them through various acid and alkali solutions to make them look old... This aging method is difficult to distinguish at first glance, but as time goes by, when the armor pieces begin to rust naturally, these traces of artificial aging will appear very abrupt." said Professor Du.

"I remember that those imitation antiques are all made to look old. Is there any difference in the aging methods used by the Phoenix Factory?"

"There is no difference, but in order to be able to 'identify' their own 'works' among many imitations at a glance, the members of this counterfeiting gang deliberately left three vertical and one horizontal scratches when polishing the edge of the nail plate, just like the Chinese character '卅'. However, the scratches are very subtle and difficult to notice without a magnifying glass."

"Really..." Yang Qi said as he flipped through the scales in the specimen bag, "This one has it, and this one has it too..."

"However...if they were just an ordinary counterfeiting gang, that would be fine..." Professor Du sighed and continued, "I also forgot the exact year in the lunar calendar...Anyway, the Chang'an City Management Committee launched a large-scale crackdown on the manufacture and sale of fake antiques and fake cultural relics. Since then, the Phoenix Factory has disappeared...But in the second year after they disappeared, all the fake antiques and fake cultural relics produced by them turned into weird objects!"

"There is such a thing?" Zhu Long's eyes flashed with surprise, "Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Because the situation was quite complicated, the federal government blocked the spread of the news to the greatest extent possible." Professor Du said, "Most of the fake antiques produced by the Phoenix Factory were collected and destroyed, and the remaining few 'samples' were stored in the Tianshu Tower. Next time you have time, you can ask the old guys in the tower. They should still remember this incident."

"Then these armor plates..."

"Didn't you take these armor pieces from the Tianshu Pagoda?" Professor Du asked.

"No."

"I knew that the Phoenix Factory produced so many fake antiques in those years, and there must be some that slipped through the net among the people... It's good that you can find this thing, so that it won't be lost in the world and cause harm to the world." Professor Du's tone slowed down a little, "By the way, where did you find these armor pieces?" "In an underground ruin in Tianfu City." Zhulong told the truth.

"Tianfu City? Underground ruins?" Professor Du was stunned. "Why haven't I heard of any underground ruins in Tianfu City? Are there any new archaeological discoveries?"

"I'm afraid this matter has nothing to do with archaeology..." Zhulong said, "By the way, please keep this matter confidential and don't spread it to anyone. In addition, I need the most complete and detailed information about this Phoenix Factory. Please send it to me after you have sorted it out... As for the labor fee, Tianshu Tower will transfer it to you later."

"Why are you asking me for money? Do I need that little money?" Professor Du said angrily, "Don't worry, I will get it done for you. I know what to say and what not to say... Since it's related to strange things, there is no such thing as a small matter... If there is nothing else, I will go and organize the relevant information for you now."

"Okay, thank you very much then." Zhulong said respectfully, and then a busy tone came from the other end of the phone.

"Phoenix Factory..." Ye Xuan said thoughtfully, "I seem to have heard of this... It should have been something that happened during my grandfather's generation."

"All the fake antiques made by this counterfeiting gang have turned into weird things... So there is a high probability that there is a 'source of infection' in this gang." Yang Qi analyzed, "I even suspect that they make fake antiques not for financial gain, but to spread these fake antiques that will transform into weird things after a period of time..."

"When you think about it this way, don't you think that this 'Phoenix Factory' is not like a counterfeiting gang, but more like a cult organization... Don't you think so?" Sun Hang continued.

"You don't mean to say that the Phoenix Factory fled to Tianfu City after disappearing in Chang'an?" Yang Qi took a deep breath, "And this place is their secret base in Tianfu City?"

"It's very likely." Sun Hang nodded, "But the details still depend on the information from Professor Du... I just don't know if anyone from Phoenix Factory was arrested during the anti-counterfeiting campaign that year..."

"Even if someone is caught, you will hardly find any clues in their transcripts." Zhulong sighed, "There were too many counterfeiting gangs operating in the Chang'an area back then, and the crime of counterfeiting antiques is not very serious. At most, you will be fined and imprisoned for a few months before being released... It is rare for the sentence to exceed one year. By the time all those fake antiques have become weird objects, the arrested people have already served their sentences and been released."

"So what should we do now?" Wang Xiyi asked, "Should we wait for the old professor's information, or continue moving forward?"

"Let's keep going." Zhulong said, "Those materials are old, and many are still recorded in paper documents. It will take at least half a day to sort them out... I always have a hunch that since this underground ruins has reappeared, we should hurry up and search it, otherwise something unexpected will happen... I don't know why I have this hunch, and it may be irresponsible to say so, but in previous operations, my intuition has always been very accurate."

"I feel the same way." Wang Xiyi nodded, "I always feel like if we continue to delay, something will escape."

"In that case, let's move on." Yang Qi rolled up the specimen bag containing the scales and put it away. She subconsciously wanted to reach out and pat Sun Hang on the back, but her hand froze in place as soon as she stretched it out. She glanced at Sun Hang, then at Wang Xiyi next to her, and finally took her hand back and said, "Let's go."

The group continued to move forward along the main tunnel. Not far after passing the place where the battle had just taken place, Sun Hang once again felt a very faint aura of something strange.

This time, the source of the eerie aura was an eternal lamp embedded in the wall of the tunnel. The lamp was made entirely of bronze, and the lamp base was a kneeling human figurine with bent feet buried in the rock. Its hands, raised above its head, held a plate for lamp oil, and a flame the size of a grain of rice flickered gently on the edge of the oil pan.

"Eternal lamp..." Sun Hang glanced at Zhulong from the corner of his eye and said in a half-joking tone, "It is said that the oil used in the eternal lamp in ancient times was the oil of Zhulong... How about it, do you smell a 'familiar' smell?"

"Using the oil of the candle dragon to make an ever-burning lamp is a story from ancient times. The shape of this lamp should be from the Qin Dynasty. There was no story of hunting candle dragons during the Qin Dynasty." Zhulong said, "In the tombs of the Qin Dynasty emperors in Chang'an City, the oil used for the ever-burning lamps is solidified whale oil... But even whale oil is only a little more durable than ordinary lamp oil. In fact, it is impossible to make it burn forever."

"There is only one reason why this light can stay on all the time." Ye Xuan pulled the slide of the pistol, "It's a spooky object."

"Can you tell whether this is a genuine Qin Dynasty artifact or a replica?" Sun Hang asked Zhu Long, "Do you need to get closer?"

"No need. You can tell at a glance that it's a replica...it's just the style that's imitated, not the standard form." Zhulong shook his head and said, "All of these figurine lamps that have been unearthed are either table lamps or standing lamps. Wall lamps like this have never appeared before."

"Sun Hang, don't you think that the posture of this terracotta warrior looks awkward?" Wang Xiyi squinted her eyes and stared at the lamp, muttering, "Its limbs seem a little twisted, and the body proportions are strange..."

"The proportions of the human body in handicrafts are probably exaggerated..." Yang Qi suddenly changed the subject, "Strange, why do I feel that this figurine is very strange... Is it because I know in my heart that it is a strange thing, so I have some preconceived ideas?"

"There's nothing to be preconceived about. It's just weird." Sun Hang said, "Because this figurine was not originally modeled after a normal human, but an infected person... Judging from its posture, it's most likely an infected person who is being tortured."

"Hiss... Now that you mention it, it seems like it really feels that way!" Yang Qi's eyes lit up. "The two feet were built into the wall, forcing them to keep kneeling, and the hands were nailed to the oil pan with copper nails, and they could never let go... Just thinking about it is enough to make one's back cold... But I'm a little curious, do human figures like this have any symbolic meaning? Or do they serve as a punishment or intimidation?"

"His hands were nailed to the oil pan... If I remember correctly, the saint of Christianity was also nailed to the cross with his hands, right? This is connected to the cross marks in Cave No. 13!" Sun Hang snapped his fingers, "Hey, I'm really a genius."

"Isn't this... a bit too far-fetched?" Ye Xuan glanced at him and questioned.

"It's not far-fetched at all." Zhulong suddenly said, "Professor Du sent me some of the information he had sorted out. In the anti-counterfeiting operation that year, six people from the Phoenix Factory were arrested... According to the interrogation, these six people were all Christians."

(End of this chapter)