I changed the world.

Page 234

"Really!! It really is real!!!" Chadwick looked excitedly at the huge skull-shaped rock in front of him. It was more like a small mountain than a rock, as tall as a three-story building, covered with vines and other plants. As a result, Chadwick wandered around the area for nearly an hour before finally finding the rock.

The rock is oval in shape, with two symmetrical indentations on either side of the center, resembling the eye sockets of a skull. Combined with the mouth-like part below, it is quite similar to the description Chadwick saw in his suicide note.

Chadwick then put down his luggage and, carrying a machete and a pistol for self-defense, began searching around the "Skull Rock".

About twenty minutes later, Chadwick, who was wiping sweat with a towel hanging around his neck, suddenly noticed a scar on a huge tree about thirty meters away from Skull Rock.

As the old saying goes, people fear cramps, and trees fear being stripped of their bark. Once a ring of a tree's bark is peeled away, exposing the underlying wood, it is often very difficult for it to grow back. What Chadwick saw at that moment was precisely such a large, rather old-looking scar.

Chadwick went closer to examine it. After all, due to its age, the scars had faded considerably, and the marks carved on it more than a hundred years ago had been squeezed and twisted by the growth of the trees. However, after careful examination, he still found a faint horizontal arrow-shaped mark formed by two marks, one horizontal and one diagonal.

Chapter 435 Mysterious Cave

Chadwick took a deep breath. He felt his heart pounding and hot blood rushing to his brain. Suppressing his excitement, Chadwick followed the direction of the arrow and, after walking about fifteen meters, found a second tree with the same arrow mark.

This made him even more excited, so he quickened his pace without hesitation and followed the direction indicated by the mark. Sure enough, he soon discovered a third mark.

Some of these road signs are quite well hidden, concealed in the tree canopy, while others are even carved into the rocks. However, there is always one every ten meters or so. It is unknown how Lord Itzko managed to complete this task despite his illness and by avoiding his teammates.

Chadwick stepped forward through the layer of decaying leaves, carefully observing his surroundings while tapping the soil ahead with his stick to ward off snakes or venomous insects. The rainforest was home to a considerable number of highly venomous snakes, and although he carried snakebite medicine, a bite would still be extremely troublesome, especially since he was alone.

Suddenly, he stumbled, tripping over something hard. Chadwick used a stick to brush aside the layer of decaying leaves covering it, and his eyes lit up. He then squatted down and quickly dug away the surrounding soil, revealing the object buried beneath.

This was a stone structure carved with twisted patterns, buried deep in the soil. Chadwick had only unearthed a small portion of it. However, even this exposed part was enough for Chadwick to immediately recognize that it was definitely a man-made sculpture.

Furthermore, Chadwick could see traces of certain New World indigenous civilizations in the carved patterns.

Ruins! An ancient ruin lies buried beneath the rainforest here!

Chadwick quickly realized this. He swiftly took out his phone, switched to camera mode, and began filming the stone structure. With this discovery, no matter what was buried underneath, and no matter whether he could ultimately find the legendary golden city, as long as he successfully released the news of the ruins after returning, he could become famous overnight!

It's likely that Lord Itzko discovered the ruins here back then...

After taking several photos, Chadwick continued searching for the marks left by Lord Izko. After passing seven marks, he came upon an exceptionally large banyan tree. Its trunk was enormous, with buttress roots alone measuring over two meters in width, and its canopy covering at least two hundred square meters. Chadwick looked around and realized that this was definitely the largest banyan tree in the vicinity.

Banyan trees are not uncommon in rainforests; these plants with numerous aerial roots can occupy a large area on a single tree. However, trees as large as this are extremely rare.

Chadwick circled the massive banyan tree twice, carefully searching the trunk. Finally, after a meticulous search, he found the mark he had made in the suicide note: a swastika carved with a sharp tool. As a master's student in history at St. Hearst College, Chadwick naturally knew that this symbol held connotations of good fortune and eternity in certain religious contexts.

This is it. Chadwick took a deep breath. Next, he needed to find the mysterious cave mentioned in the suicide note.

He raised his hand, preparing to use the electronic compass to determine his location. However, when he raised his hand, he unexpectedly discovered that the electronic compass on his watch was malfunctioning, and not only the compass, but the satellite positioning system was also ineffective.

He quickly took out a small physical compass from his backpack, only to find that the magnetic needle in the center was spinning wildly and couldn't be stopped at all.

There might be an anomaly in the Earth's magnetic field here! Chadwick quickly made the judgment. He recalled that the last time he checked his location was about two hours ago, when everything was normal...

However, having already arrived here, he certainly couldn't let this small problem hold him back. Chadwick put away his compass and began to carefully observe his surroundings.

Soon, he noticed a particularly lush patch of bushes about ten meters away from where he was standing. So he took his machete and went over to it.

After using his machete to cut down some of the surrounding bushes, Chadwick dragged them aside. Immediately afterward, he felt a large gust of humid air rush towards him. On a whim, he quickly raised his machete and chopped a few times. Then, he used his hands to clear away the remaining bushes, revealing a dark hole.

The entrance to the hole was about the height of a person. If Chadwick were to walk in, he would have to bury his head. There were two or three large webs spun by spiders at the entrance. Seeing that their webs had been destroyed, several plump tarantulas hurriedly moved their hairy, fat buttocks and fled at high speed.

Chadwick pulled a flashlight from his backpack, bent down, and stepped into the cave. He shone the flashlight around him as he went. The path ahead was quite winding, descending downwards. Chadwick walked forward, holding the flashlight in one hand and taking out his pistol in the other, releasing the safety and holding it in his hand in case of any unexpected events.

After walking down the road for about fifty meters, Chadwick noticed that the surrounding space was gradually opening up. The moisture in the air became more pronounced, and he could hear the sound of flowing water ahead, indicating the presence of an underground river. At this point, darkness enveloped the area; the usual plants had disappeared, replaced by a fluorescent plant, somewhat resembling a long-stalked fungus. Its cap glowed with a blue light, appearing quite beautiful in the darkness.

As Chadwick carefully moved forward, he didn't forget to pick one of the fungi as a specimen, put it in a plastic bag and hide it. He judged that these strangely shaped plants were likely undiscovered species, which he could verify later after he got out.

Continuing forward, stalactite-like geological structures appeared around them, and unidentified insects crawled on the cave walls. Meanwhile, an underground river, resembling a stream, appeared on the ground, its murmuring water flowing into the distance. Chadwick took out his phone and quickened his pace, snapping pictures along the way.

After traversing a winding and twisting path, Chadwick suddenly noticed what appeared to be a person lying on the ground ahead! In the darkness, this clearly startled him, and Chadwick immediately and instinctively assumed a defensive stance, raising his gun and advancing.

Chapter 436 Underground Ruins

However, after a while, the man remained lying motionless on the ground. Chadwick had an idea, so he slowed down and carefully approached to take a look.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was a skeleton, with all the muscles gone, leaving only a skeleton.

The clothes on the skeleton looked quite old, indicating that it had been there for a considerable period of time. The skeleton wore long cotton socks that reached its calves, and trousers whose original color was no longer discernible. The upper body was clad in a filthy, military-style shirt, and a blouse could be seen underneath, but no bow tie.

In addition, a round-topped explorer's hat lay not far away. The hat was grass-green and looked to be from the same era as the corpse on the ground.

Chadwick wasn't an expert on clothing, but he could tell that the skeleton before him was definitely not from this era. Judging from its attire, especially the bowler hat, it was popular more than a hundred years ago...

As he thought this, Chadwick forced down his pounding heart, pulled out his knife, and began to search the skeleton's body and clothing. He wanted to see if he could find anything else.

When he turned the skull over, he was horrified to find a thumb-sized round hole between the eyebrows, and a portion of the skull at the back of the head was missing. This led him to conclude that the person had died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Chadwick quickly found a small satchel at the skeleton's waist. He rummaged through it and found some personal belongings, including a leather wallet. Opening the wallet, Chadwick discovered some currency inside. He examined it and found it consisted of rune pounds and some Toltec crowns issued by the Toltec Dominion of the Kingdom of Gasol.

Chadwick then discovered that these rune pounds were indeed not currently in circulation, but rather versions that had long been discontinued. The same was true of the Toltec crowns; Chadwick himself carried some, but they were completely different from the ones before him. On the Toltec crowns were the signature of the colonial governor, whom Chadwick carefully examined and recognized as "Barbero Sobrino."

Chadwick thought for a moment and finally took out a palm-sized handheld computer from his backpack. He had stored a lot of information on this computer before coming here, just in case. Thanks to breakthroughs in battery technology, this small computer could last for several months.

After consulting some information about the Toltec colony, he quickly found the information he needed. Barbero Sobrino was the governor of the Toltec Viceroyalty about 180 years ago. At that time, Toltec was not the autonomous dominion it is today, but the Toltec Viceroyalty directly under the Gasol royal family.

In addition, Chadwick also found a black and white photograph in the wallet, showing a smiling woman with curly hair, with a line of small print below that read "Dearest Peggy".

Upon seeing this, Chadwick suddenly had a rather chilling guess. The timeframe of this man's death, it seemed, was close to that of Lord Izko, who had left a suicide note. He believed that, apart from himself, no one else had seen Lord Izko's suicide note before, and that no one else had discovered this place during this period; otherwise, the news would have already spread.

It's highly probable that this person discovered the ruins alongside Lord Izko, and was likely one of his team members. It's quite possible that after the discovery, perhaps due to an argument, or perhaps to keep the secret, Lord Izko shot and killed him there before leaving himself. He later died of illness, leaving behind only a suicide note that has kept this secret hidden until now.

Was it to keep this place a secret? Chadwick suddenly gained a new understanding of the wickedness of human nature...

With mixed feelings, Chadwick continued forward. The road ahead widened, and soon, the view opened up before him. Almost instantly, Chadwick froze, stunned by what he saw. He immediately raised his phone, switched to low-light mode, and began filming everything. He wanted to document it; he believed that even if he found no treasure, this discovery would be enough to bring him fame and fortune.

This was a vast and empty cavern. Looking up, the highest point of the cavern was at least tens of meters high, and the cave walls were adorned with blue, luminous plants that looked like stars in the night sky. Judging from Chadwick's current visual estimation, this cavern was larger than any sports stadium or underground space he had ever seen before. However, in the darkness, Chadwick could not yet determine the true size of the cavern.

However, amidst the shadows, he could clearly see that numerous architectural ruins were scattered throughout this space.

He simply swept his flashlight across the space and could see a large number of collapsed buildings. These buildings were clearly not of any modern style he knew, but rather resembled the style of the ancient New World indigenous civilizations he had previously discovered.

At the heart of these buildings, a massive pyramid-shaped structure can be vaguely seen, and one can immediately tell that this is probably the core area of ​​this complex.

Without a doubt, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this should be the biggest archaeological discovery in recent years. Chadwick felt that all the hardships he had endured over the past few days had been worthwhile, and an excited smile appeared on his face.

Of course, if he were to turn back now, the discovery itself would undoubtedly bring Chadwick considerable wealth and even fame. However, Chadwick decided without hesitation to continue. Having come this far, how could he possibly turn back?

Because he was unaware that he would be entering underground, Chadwick did not bring any equipment for underground exploration, so he is currently using foot as his method of entry. Meanwhile, he has kept his pistol in his hand the entire time.

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The ruins were eerily quiet, clearly devoid of any trace of human habitation. However, upon entering, Chadwick discovered that the structures were exquisitely crafted, adorned with numerous abstract reliefs. Although many had collapsed due to the passage of time, the sheer scale of their construction spoke volumes. Almost all the buildings were constructed from single blocks of stone, each over a meter long; transporting these massive stones through the rainforest would have been an incredible feat.

Chapter 437 The Cry from the Pyramid