Outside the Blue Sky Club, Qi Yun got into the car and lit a cigarette.

The connection has already been introduced to Zhang Dayong. Whether he can seize the opportunity depends on his own luck.

As for Li the Eighth, in the eyes of the working group, he’s nothing more than a big fly, with almost no chance to resist if they want to deal with him.

If the person behind him doesn’t want to die together, they’ll just watch silently.

"Brother Quan, to the National Cultural Heritage Administration."

"Alright," Brother Quan agreed, as the vehicle slowly started moving.

Qi Yun took out a small wooden box from his bag. When the lid was opened, a stone lay quietly inside the box—it was the other eye of Can Cong.

He had already scrutinized it with a magnifying glass but found nothing unusual.

The information said this stone could lead to the treasure buried by Can Cong, whether the stone itself held some information... or needed to solve some mystery or mechanism with them?

Qi Yun couldn’t figure it out.

The research on Ignacio’s side had also hit a bottleneck. Many documents only had a few words describing that part of history, so Qi Yun planned to take a dual approach and hand this other one to Hua Weiguo for research.

Hua Weiguo is an expert in archaeology and has extensive knowledge of ancient history. Perhaps he could offer a different perspective to unravel the mystery of this stone.

....

Inside the office of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

"You...you said this is the eyeball of the Ancient Shu King Can Cong?" Hua Weiguo, having heard Qi Yun’s description, was full of incredulity, as it clearly exceeded his understanding.

"How did you determine that?"

"A stone tablet. I recently saw a stone tablet at an ancient site of the Ailao Kingdom, which recorded that this stone is the eyeball of the Ancient Shu King Can Cong."

"There are two stones in total, the other one is with a foreign professor friend of mine."

Qi Yun couldn’t directly tell the reason, so he made up a plausible story.

Hua Weiguo snapped back from the shock and murmured as he looked at Qi Yun: "No wonder you asked me about the history of the Ancient Shu Kingdom last time; so that’s what it was about."

"Where did you say the stone tablet was? Can I see it?"

"The stone tablet...the stone tablet was taken and sealed by people from the National Cultural Heritage Administration. You probably won’t get a chance to see it."

Hua Weiguo listened with regret: "That’s really a pity."

However, he quickly adjusted his mindset and put on white gloves, carefully picked up the stone, and moved to the window to examine it in natural light.

"I also have some knowledge of the history of the Ailao Kingdom, which existed around 300 BC. According to unofficial history, this country was initially a small mountain state and later expanded during the pre-Qin period, claiming to span three thousand li from east to west and four thousand six hundred li from north to south."

"Its general location is from the southern part of Nanzhao in the east to the northeast of Myanmar in the west, the northern part of Thailand in the south, and the southeast of Tibet in the north."

"And the Ancient Shu King Can Cong should have existed in the late Western Zhou period, about three to four hundred years earlier than the Ailao Kingdom. The geographical activity ranges of the two countries are quite close, so theoretically, what’s recorded on that stone tablet does have a certain possibility."

"However..."

"However, what?" Qi Yun leaned in and asked.

Hua Weiguo carefully observed the stone again and spoke with a suspicious tone: "But I still can’t understand how this stone could be the eyeball of the Ancient Shu King Can Cong?"

"Could it have undergone some transformation that caused its surface to fossilize?"

Qi Yun felt a slight stir in his heart upon hearing this.

The possibility Hua Weiguo proposed had been guessed by Ignacio before. However, the stone’s composition is very peculiar, and even with advanced testing equipment, no anomalies could be detected.

"You mean, this stone could be some kind of... biological tissue that has been transformed over long ages?"

"That possibility cannot be ruled out," Hua Weiguo adjusted his glasses. "Under special geological conditions, organic matter can indeed mineralize, but what puzzles me is..."

He picked up the stone and rotated it under the light.

"If this is truly the result of an eyeball undergoing mineralization, then its internal structure is remarkably intact. Look at these lines—they are almost as if..."

Hua Weiguo suddenly paused, as if he’d thought of something, and quickly moved to the bookshelf to search.

Soon, he pulled out the book he had shown Qi Yun last time, which documented the bronze masks, and rapidly turned to a certain page.

"Indeed!" Hua Weiguo pointed at the image in the book, so excited that he was sputtering. "Look at these patterns on the Ancient Shu bronze mask—aren’t they very similar to the lines on your stone under ultraviolet light?"

Qi Yun leaned in for a closer look, and indeed, the eye part of that bronze mask, carved with peculiar spiral patterns, did bear some resemblance to the lines on the stone.

"What does this... signify?"

Hua Weiguo’s eyes glinted with excitement: "I have a bold hypothesis!"

"If this stone is truly the eyeball of the Ancient Shu King Can Cong, then it might not be a natural mineralization, but a product of some special craft from the Ancient Shu Kingdom!"

Qi Yun blinked, not quite understanding.

"You mean...the Ancient Shu King Can Cong died, and then someone dug out his eyeball and processed it?"

"That’s exactly it!" Hua Weiguo was so excited he waved his hands and feet.

"Historical records recount that the bronze smelting technology of the Ancient Shu Kingdom was very advanced at that time! This can be proven by the authenticity of the unearthed bronze sacred tree!"

"So, this stone might have been made using some kind of technology we are still unaware of."

Qi Yun felt this hypothesis wasn’t entirely impossible either. After all, the craftsmanship of the bronze sacred tree couldn’t be perfectly replicated even today, and its purpose remained a subject of much debate, with no one able to give a completely convincing explanation.