Sunlight spilled across the paths, every ray dancing like a sprite between the trees, off the water and on people.


    “Chieftain, did you sprain your ankle? You’re walking funny.” A woman with a gun across her back greeted Smy with a smirk.


    “Uh, yeah, I identally sprained my foot.” Smy blushed.


    “Chieftain, you pulled the muscles of some other foot too, didn’t you?”


    “You’re dead!” Smy flipped out.


    “Hahaha...” The group of womenughed.


    A little girl ran over with a look of concern on her face. “Big Sister Smy, you cried for a long timest time. Does it hurt?”


    Smy’s face grew redder. She red at the child but couldn’t bear to scold her; she was so embarrassed she could die.


    The women roared withughter again.


    They had not dared to joke with Dayetia like this when she was chieftain but Smy was different. Smy was the tribe’s most precious child and many of the women had watched her grow up, and this was why they dared to joke around with her.


    Xia Lei naturally became a target of their jokes too and the women teased him mercilessly, saying everything that could be said. He didn’t like this sort of teasing but he didn’t mind and wasn’t angry. He felt that the women of the tribe were simply acting true to their nature and it was nice.


    A short whileter, Xia Lei and Smy rode on their horses to the City of the White Horse of Tomorrow, apanied by some female warriors. Xia Lei did not need to build a hydropower station to get the permission to excavate after getting rid of the problem of Dayetia. He had actually got the permission that morning at breakfast in exchange for a sweet potato.


    The horses cantered between the trees, through mist dissipating under the sun.


    “The equipment will arrive in a few days. I’ll be able to build a hydropower station then,” said Xia Lei loudly. He wanted the warriors apanying Smy to hear him. “I’m also prepared to invest in your tribe, and you can all have prosperous days.”


    “Will we be able to eat mutton every day?” asked a warrior.


    Xia Leiughed. “Of course. Not just that - you can have beef, flour and grains too.”


    “Wow! Can I have some sanitary napkins too?”


    Puahaha...


    Xia Lei nearly fell off his horse.


    “Xia, you’ve already done so much to help us get the sword of Att back. We cannot keep taking your money,” said Smy to Xia Lei.


    Xia Lei gave augh. “I’m not spending it for nothing. You have to pay me back. I n to build a modern nt cultivation farm, a farm and sanitation building too. I also n to build a handicrafts factory here. You can produce traditional handicrafts and I’ll take you guys to have them sold. We split the profits. How about that?”


    How much could traditional handicrafts sell for? He did not care about this little bit of money but he did not want Smy and the people here to feel like they were receiving charity.


    “Great!” Smy was not a delicate woman and she didn’t think so much about it. Xia Lei’s ns filled her with anticipation. “Can we exchange it for guns when we get money? We’recking guns and ammunition.”


    “Yeah, exchange money for guns. We will be bullied by the other tribes if we don’t have guns and ammunition. We need to protect our territory, our people. We need better guns, and better ammunition,” said a female warrior.


    Xia Lei thought for a bit and said, “Why wait? I’ll make a phone call when I’m back tonight and get them to deliver some weapons and ammunition too when they airdrop the equipment.”


    “Really? That’s awesome!” Smy was so excited she squealed.


    The other warrior women were excited too and their eyes filled with respect when they looked at Xia Lei. He had brought their sacred relic back and be their chieftain’s man. He was also going to build a hydropower station, farms, fields, even sending them weapons and ammunition. He was undoubtedly an integral part of the tribe now.


    When they got to the ruins, Xia Lei whispered in Smy’s ear and she arranged to have the apanying warriors wait outside while she led Xia Lei in herself.


    Xia Lei had asked for this arrangement, of course. He did not want anyone to know what he was looking for. Smy was, of course, an exception. It went without saying that Smy was trustworthy, and she was also rather easy to dupe into doing something so he didn’t mind her tagging along in the treasure hunt.


    This was also another adorable aspect of the baby-faced H-cup Smy.


    Xia Lei took out the Ming dynastypass when they entered the ruins and walked in the direction it pointed to. This was his first time using thepass and he was shocked. It had noplicated systems or electricalponents and not even any satellite support but it could follow his every footstep and adjust itself to point in the right direction from beginning to end. It didn’t point north like a normalpass; it was more magically exquisite than that.


    “It’s like apass. I didn’t see that before.” Smy looked curious.


    Xia Lei spoke casually, “It’s not a maicpass. It’s an ancientpass which points me to where treasure is hidden. We’ll be able to find treasure with this.”


    “I like it,” said Smy. This was rather out of character for her.


    Xia Lei smiled. “What do you like it for?”


    “We’re together because of it. I know that you wouldn’t have sneaked into my house if it weren’t for it.” Smy seemed to be still smarting over that incident and wanted to throw a little tantrum at him.


    Xia Lei reached out to put his arms around her little waist and heughed as he said, “Don’t be angry. Be a good girl and I’ll bathe you tonight.”


    “Hee hee..” Smy giggled foolishly. “You look like an upright guy but you’re actually a wicked, wicked man.”


    Xia Lei’s arms left her waist as he smacked her on her perky buttocks. The smack rang out and the buttocks of the baby-faced H-cup Smy rippled as the smack echoed in the empty ruins; it was wonderful.


    Smy rolled her eyes at Xia Lei, then skipped towards a rock.


    “Why are you going there?” asked Xia Lei curiously.


    “To relieve myself. No peeking.” Smy squatted behind the rock.


    Xia Lei looked at her wordlessly and at the rock which was only a foot tall. He couldn’t help thinking, ‘Why doesn’t she go find a bigger rock? That small thing... and telling me not to peek? Is she kidding me?’


    The sunlight was shining and there were stones in the grass, as well as white legs. This was the site of an ancient and sacred ruin but there was no ominous air here; it was natural, beautiful and seductive. It had the elegant air of art.


    “No peeking!” Smy shouted, her baby-face red.


    Xia Lei shrugged and turned around.


    “Ah! Snake!” screamed Smy.


    Xia Lei rushed over to her, saying anxiously, “Where? Where?”


    “Hahaha... Fooled you!”


    Xia Lei abruptly recalled Dayetia saying that Smy was an expert at catching snakes and liked to put them in people’s beds. He’d forgotten this in his moment of panic.


    “No peeking! Shameless man!”


    The corners of Xia Lei’s mouth turned up. He lifted a leg and kicked her gently on her bare bottom.


    Smy ripped up grass and threw it at Xia Lei.


    They passed through some stone ruins and came to the centre of the City of the White Horse of Tomorrow. Before them was arge stretch of stone and some iplete statues. It spanned the area of over a thousand square metres and it was easy to imagine how majestic it had been though it was just pieces of stone now.


    The image of the map in the book surfaced in Xia Lei’s head and he quickly marked it down. The ruins before him was the pce. He looked at thepass in his hand again. The needle was still pointing east.


    “I’m not trying to discourage you or anything but countless treasure hunters havee here before you. They brought all sorts of weird machines and tools for treasure hunting but found nothing and they became our ves in the end. We went digging too but found nothing. Thatpass in your hand - what can it find?” Smy was not optimistic at all.


    Xia Lei said nothing. He held thepass and kept walking east. The needle trembled when he walked 20 metres forward and he adjusted himself left, right, backward. The needle was still again when he went out of the area and pointed only in that direction. He then returned to his previous position and thepass needle started trembling again.


    Xia Lei looked closely at the ground below him and his brows wrinkled. The foundation of the pce was below his feet and it was covered with huge bs of rock floor tiles, with arge amount of stone and rubble atop it. There was at least 1,000 cubic metric measurements of rock, surface and underground included. This was going to be a lot of work.


    “Discovered something?” Smy drew close and looked curiously at thepass in Xia Lei’s hand.


    “I’m not sure yet. Help me get the shovel, drill and tools from the horses. I’ll get ready to dig here,” said Xia Lei.


    Xia Lei had the tools prepared in advance for treasure hunting and had them on his horse.


    “I’ll get them for you now.” Smy turned and ran off to where they’d tied their horses.


    Xia Lei took out the satellite phone and made a call as soon as Smy left.


    “Boss Shi, I found it.” Xia Lei cut straight to the chase. “But there’s a lot of rock on top of it and I don’t know how deep we’ll need to dig. This is a big job. I’m afraid I’ll need more time.”


    “Hurry. It’s not safe for you there,” came Shi Bo-Ren’s voice. “What do you need? We’re all ready here in Pakistan. We can air-drop it to you tomorrow night at the earliest.”


    “Please note down what I need, Boss Shi,” said Xia Lei.


    “No problem. Speak.”


    “A generator for a small hydropower station, a hundred rifles, 100,000 rounds of ammunition, ten sniper rifles...”


    “Hold on, what do you need so many weapons and ammunition for?”


    “This is what the White Hun Tribe wants. Would they allow us to excavate their ancient ruins without these?”


    “All right, I’ll give it to them. What else?”


    “Tools for excavation - I want thempact and the most advanced, best if I can use it by myself. Plus, prepare 2,000,000 US dors in cash. Send it via air-drop too.”


    “Hah?”


    “Rest assured, Boss Shi. I’ll pick up the tab for the money. I’ll pay, not Bureau 101.”


    “No problem, then.”


    “Okay, I’ll contact you again.” Xia Lei hung up.


    Smy ran towards him with a shovel and a drill in her hands. Her breasts swayed as she ran and made one fill with worry that her bosom would fall at any moment due to their weight.


    “I’m back!” called Smy with the shovel raised.


    She tripped over a stone a secondter and she flew through the air beforending heavily on the ground. Her chest was the first part of her body to hit the ground.


    Xia Lei couldn’t bear to look. He held his hands over his eyes.