I started by watching videos, and I chose 10,000 combat power.

After Director Qin finished saying "1,500 tons," he sat quietly in his chair for a long time, as if waiting for the shock to subside within him.

He then stood up, walked to the door, opened it, and solemnly instructed his secretary in the corridor: "Notify the security department to send an additional squadron. Guard posts must be set up around the conference room, the courtyard, and all entrances and exits of the building. They must be armed and on guard. No one is allowed to approach the conference room area without my order."

The secretary turned around and quickly left, the "clack-clack" of her leather shoes on the floor fading into the distance.

Director Qin returned to the conference room and stood in front of Luo Fei, his expression now displaying the composure befitting someone long accustomed to high positions.

"Xiao Luo, where is the thing? Is it here, or somewhere else?"

Luo Fei replied, "Here. But we need to find a spacious place; a meeting room isn't convenient."

Director Qin glanced at the size of the conference room.

"There's a yard outside, which we usually use for parking. Is there enough space?"

Luo Fei said, "Let's go take a look."

The group walked out of the conference room, through the hall, and through the back door into an inner courtyard surrounded by buildings on three sides.

The yard is quite large, with a cement floor, and can park thirty or forty cars, but it's empty right now.

The gate was locked, and the sound of security personnel setting up a cordon could be heard outside.

Director Qin stood in the center of the courtyard and looked around to make sure there were no people, vehicles, or debris, that the ground was flat, and that the drainage ditch was properly covered.

"Let's do it here. This yard was built to helicopter parking standards."

Director Qin spoke with certainty.

Luo Fei walked to the middle of the courtyard, facing a blank wall. With a thought, he began to take gold out of his ring.

First came the system rewards and the gold bricks, gold bars, and gold coins collected from various channels, which were stacked on the ground in boxes and gradually covered a corner of the yard.

Sunlight shone on the golden bricks, illuminating the shadows on the walls with golden reflections, and even the cement floor was coated with a faint layer of gold.

Director Qin's gaze was overwhelmed.

The gold bars were stacked neatly, each one heavy enough to make an ordinary person's wrist ache.

But what made his breath catch in his throat was what Luo Fei took out of the ring next—gold and silver collected from the cave. The silver ingots appeared first, not brand-new industrial silver bricks, but traditional Chinese boat-shaped silver ingots.

Their gray-black surfaces bear the patina of time, and their bottoms have honeycomb-like pores left from the casting process. Some even retain the mark written in cinnabar – “Ministry of Revenue Treasury Silver”.

These silver ingots were piled up haphazardly on the ground, some standing upright, some lying down, and some leaning on top of other silver ingots.

Director Qin squatted down, picked up a silver ingot, wiped away the dust on the surface with his thumb, revealing the dull silver luster underneath.

The light was not dazzling in the sunlight, like the first layer of frost on a winter morning.

He turned the silver ingot over and examined the inscription on the bottom. Although the characters were blurred, they were still legible.

His hands trembled slightly, not because the silver ingots were heavy, but because what he held in his hands was not just silver, but a piece of history.

He gently placed the silver ingot on the ground beside him.

Then he picked up another one, wiped off the dust, looked at the inscription, and put it down.

Pick up another one and repeat the same action.

His eyes were a little red, and he squatted on the ground, picking up, wiping, and examining each one one by one.

He seemed to hear these silver ingots telling their stories: how they were cast, how they were stored in warehouses, how they were forced at bayonet point from the Dragon Kingdom's treasury onto military trains, how they sailed across the ocean to reach unfamiliar islands, and how they were stuffed into submarines and transported to dark, sunless underwater caves, where they lay for more than seventy years.

They have been waiting, waiting for someone to take them home.

Old Master Long stood aside, neither squatting down to pick up the silver ingots nor looking at the glittering gold bricks.

He put his hands behind his back, his gaze moving from the pile of silver ingots to the pile of gold bricks, then from the gold bricks to the wooden and iron boxes, and finally settling on the buildings around the courtyard.

He knew that there were many people standing around him at that moment—security personnel, secretariat staff, and staff on duty from other departments in the building.

Some of them were watching the courtyard, watching the mountains of gold and silver piled up inside.

No one spoke, no one took pictures, and no one whispered to each other.

There was no need to order secrecy regarding this matter, as it was already a top-secret secret.

Don't look at what you shouldn't see, and don't say what you shouldn't say. This is the most basic quality of everyone who works in this building.

Director Qin stood up, his legs feeling a little numb. He stamped his feet, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped the dust off his hands. He took a deep breath, turned to Luo Fei, and spoke in a heavy tone.

"Xiao Luo, these ingots with inscriptions cannot be recast, not a single one. Modern industrial production can produce large quantities of silver. The value of these ingots lies not in the silver itself, but in the history they represent."

"They came from the Dragon Kingdom's treasury, and each one has an inscription, a reign title, and the place of manufacture."

"These are witnesses to history, they are evidence. They should be preserved as they are, not a single piece should be melted down."

Luo Fei nodded without saying anything.

What to do with the gold and silver is a matter for the state; his only responsibility is to bring them back.

Whether it's deposited in the national treasury as a strategic reserve, smelted into industrial raw materials, sent to museums as exhibits, or kept as is the case, as Director Qin said, as a historical witness, he doesn't care.

He confirmed that the gold and silver in the ring had been removed.

"They're all here. You can decide how to handle them; I'm not getting involved."

Luo Fei clapped his hands, brushing the dust off his palms, and nodded slightly to Director Qin and Elder Long.

His tone was neither arrogant nor smug, like someone who had "made a great contribution." It was more like a deliveryman saying, "I've left the goods here, I'm off now."

Elder Long nodded slightly, and the muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, a small movement, but it was clear that it was a suppressed smile.

Director Qin stepped forward and shook hands with Luo Fei again.

His lips moved several times, but in the end he only managed to say "thank you".

Luo Fei nodded, released his grip, and with a thought, disappeared directly from the courtyard.

Director Qin stood in the open space, withdrew the hand that was still raised in mid-air, and stood there for several seconds.

A gust of wind blew by, and the gold and silver in the yard remained motionless, while his tie was blown askew and his safety pin swayed slightly in the wind.

He turned to Elder Long and said, "I suggest that this entire batch of silver be transferred to the museum. Some should be stored in a vault, and the rest should be exhibited at an opportune time. Every single piece is an artifact, and every single piece has a story."

Old Master Long neither nodded nor shook his head, still looking at the silver ingots with his hands behind his back.

The sunlight reflecting off the silver ingot dazzled his eyes, and he squinted slightly, saying nothing.

Sometimes, silence is the greatest affirmation.

Luo Fei teleported back home.

Zhao Lin was practicing her martial arts in the courtyard, wearing a T-shirt that Li Xiulan had found for her, with the sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, revealing her arms that were slightly red from the sun.

She was practicing the first movement of the third set, and it was already much more fluid than yesterday.

Although she is still a bit inexperienced compared to Chu Yue, her advantage lies in her youth and flexibility.

Some angles that Chu Yue needed to adjust repeatedly to achieve, she could do with a simple twist of her waist, like a boneless fish.

Chu Yue stood beside her, arms crossed, her expression focused. When Zhao Lin did the movements correctly, the corners of her mouth would turn up slightly; when she did them wrong, she would frown, but she wouldn't interrupt her. She would wait until Zhao Lin finished doing it once before giving her pointers: "Raise your hands a little higher" or "Lower your waist."

Luo Fei remained silent, stood at the entrance of the courtyard for a while, and then walked to the chair under the eaves and sat down.

Li Xiulan brought him a cup of tea from inside the house.

Luo Weidong observed the Spirit Gathering Grass in a corner of the yard.

The grass had grown taller than it had a few days ago, and the number of leaves had increased from two to four. The color had changed from light green to dark green, and the fine hairs on the surface of the leaves shimmered with a faint silver light in the sunlight.

The afternoon passed quietly as I practiced my skills.

After dinner, the lights in the yard came on, and the warm yellow light softly illuminated everyone's faces.

Chu Yue didn't rush back to the camp. Instead, she sat in the courtyard chatting with Li Xiulan about everyday things: whose vegetables were growing well, whose chickens had escaped, and so on.

Li Xiulan's laughter was clear and crisp, carrying far on the night breeze.

Zhao Lin didn't participate in the conversation. After resting, she continued practicing under Luo Fei's guidance, then took a medicinal bath and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Luo Fei opened his eyes in the sunlight.

The curtains weren't fully drawn, and light squeezed in through the gaps, falling on the pillow.

He rolled over, triggering the system.

[A divine choice has been triggered today.]

Options appear:

Option A: A future message. The content will be displayed after selection.

Option B: Information on stocks that hit their daily limit up today. Includes ten stock codes and names.

Luo Fei chose A.

[Future news: In one hundred days, the Calda civilization fleet will arrive in the solar system.]

This civilization is close to a level four civilization, and its fleet consists of thirty ships of various types, including main warships, supply ships, and reconnaissance ships.

Fleet's intention: to plunder untapped resources within the solar system—hydrogen and helium resources from Jupiter and Saturn, heavy metal resources from the asteroid belt, and water resources and habitable environments from Earth.

The plan of the Calda civilization was to enslave the native inhabitants of Earth—humans—for low-level labor such as mining and ship maintenance.

Those who disobey will be eliminated immediately.

Luo Fei leaned against the headboard, watching the text appear line by line on the panel in front of him, his eyes gradually narrowing.

One hundred days.

Not a hundred years, not a thousand years, but a hundred days.

The fleet consists of thirty spaceships and is close to a level four civilization.

His "Eternal Falcon" is also between the third and fourth classes, which means one ship is equivalent to thirty ships.

He recalled Xiao Wan's previous analysis of the probe—the receiver was 4,000 light-years away from Earth, and the probe had been traveling for 130,000 years.

If that civilization relied on its own development, it would take hundreds of thousands or even millions of years to go from level two to level three. Even if they had set off long ago, it would still take hundreds or even thousands of years to reach Earth.

But how long has it been? They're coming, and not just at level two, but close to level four.

This does not match Xiao Wan's deduction.

He asked himself, "System, is this Karda civilization the same civilization that launched the probe before?"

The system's answer was brief, seemingly unwilling to elaborate on the issue: "There is some relationship."

Luo Fei remained silent for a moment.

"There is some relationship." Not "yes" nor "no," but "there is some relationship."

He understood it as the civilization that launched the probe received some kind of external assistance at some point in time, allowing its technology to advance by leaps and bounds, leaping from level two to nearly level four, transforming from a slow-moving, toddler into a behemoth driving a faster-than-light engine across the stars.

Who helped them? How did they help? And why did they help them?