Beneath the blue skies and white clouds was a cargo s.h.i.+pping heading to Egypt.

Qian Jun was still reminiscing. “I don’t know what a crystal skull was but I knew your father wanted it. I began to pay extra attention to Professor Mark’s research, remembering to take pictures of important information. Your father wanted me to take it slow and have some patience, he wanted me to stay beside Professor Mark longer. Though I may be the professor’s a.s.sistant, he did not trust me a great deal. I wasn’t able to get my hands on the vital core…”

“So your father scripted an incident. He hired a few criminals to attack Professor Mark’s granddaughter. I was destined to appear at the right time. Before his granddaughter was harmed, I rescued her. But of course, I killed off the hired criminals after it to keep it under the wraps. But after that, I received Professor Mark’s utmost trust…”

“One night, after Professor Mark was done with the day, we decided to drink and chat. He asked some really weird questions. He asked where I had been one minute ago. I answered that I was still here. But he said that was merely the me of this minute, not one minute ago. I could only chuckle awkwardly, I seriously thought that this man was out of his mind…”

“He remarked that the human’s concept of time was shallow. One minute equates to sixty seconds. One hour equates to sixty minutes. One day equates to twenty-four hours while there were three hundred and sixty-five days in a year. Judging from certain perspectives, time was just a keepsake to remind mankind of important dates like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, important occasions and times for work. Other than that, it played no function. But time is actually…” Qian Jun paused, his eyes blank. The man was deep in memories that dated back to ten years ago.

Xia Lei urged, “What is it?”

“Let me think…” Qian Jun closed his eyes, only blinking it open after a minute. “He said time was actually a door, a portal.”

“Door? Portal?” What did he mean? Can you be specific?”

“I asked him the same question and he told me that nothing in this world would truly disappear. A stone after hundreds and millions of years of weathering would turn into sand. Another hundred and millions of years later, the sand grains would become rocks again. Time was like such. The previous minute, hour, year, and century would not disappear. They are just right beside us. As long as we find the right door or portal, we would be able to visit the past and see ourselves a minute or year ago. He mentioned that he was eager to find out what the world in the past had looked like and that if people were moving or stationary.”

Xia Lei immediately thought of the ancient alloy box. He had conducted relevant experiments. Everything he threw into it had all come out weathered, almost as if it had gone through thousands of years. Shock settled into his heart and he mused to himself, “Could the ancient alloy box be the portal and door Professor Mark is referring to?”

“He followed our conversation with more topics on time but I wasn’t interested in those. It took awhile for him to talk about his research. He mentioned that his research was actually based on a topic that the Mayans were studying in the past. The crystal skulls made by the Mayans were reproductions. The real crystal skull was not an art piece but a genuine human skull. It existed in this realm, hidden within a triangular-shaped tomb. The ancient Mayans had deduced that finding the crystal skull would solve all their queries about the origin of mankind and the secret of time. He even said that the concept of time grasped by the ancient Mayans during the stone ages was equivalent to our modern understanding of time. It was unbelievable…”

A pa.s.sage Xia Lei had read before manifested in the back of his mind.

The Mayans were the first tribe who found ‘0’, they had utilized it eight hundred years and one thousand years ahead of China and Europe respectively. The Mayans were able to estimate that the orbit of Earth had taken 365.2420 days. The current accurate number was 365.2422 days, the deviation was only 0.0002 days. For a calculation made five thousand years ago, the error was merely one day off. The Mayans had even used the decimal system and that their largest number was four billion. All of their calculation techniques could still be applied four million years later. The Mayans had used a method similar to an abacus that involved two symbols- the Tzolk’in system. Tzolk’in operated based on a 260-day calendar but no scientist of modern times could point out which planet in the solar system was a great fit for such calculation…

There were many secrets that surrounded the Mayans but Xia Lei wasn’t at all interested. The reason why he had so much information on them was that the Mayans had created the crystal skull!

The ancient alloy box, the prehistoric chosen one and his armour, Zhu Xuanyue, the black-robed man…

They kept resurfacing in his mind without warning, trapping his sanity like a fis.h.i.+ng net. The addition of a crystal skull to the mix of thoughts tormented his brain.

“Professor Mark said that the Mayans had never once given up on searching for the real crystal skull. Professor Mark had achieved success primarily because he had obtained a confirmed location. He said that as long as he gets the crystal skull, he would be able to solve the mysteries about time and the human origin…” Qian Jun’s sentence fell in silence.

Xia Lei turned to look at him. “Did he mention who the crystal skull could belong to?”

Qian Jun shook his head. “No, it made no sense for him to know everything. If he had the knowledge, he wouldn’t have needed tens of years to find the pyramid within the mountain. After that night, Professor Mark proceeded to hire a few workers to investigate the area. All of their detection equipment went haywire because of some odd magnetic field that enveloped the terrain. It kept directing those in search elsewhere…”

Something clicked in Xia Lei’s heart.

Could the magnetic field have something to do with the crystal skull? But if it was able to release energy that interfered with modern technology, why is the cargo s.h.i.+p cruising normally? If not the crystal skull, what then?

“It took months of hard work for Professor Mark to finally find the right location. His workers tore the stone wall apart and found an entrance to a tunnel. I was there with him on that particular day. I have to admit, the sight shocked me to my core. Professor Mark had even noticed the skulls that lined the top of the pyramid along with the crystal skull. He sent two people above but before they had even gotten to it, they were shot dead. He paid their families a handsome compensation fee to keep this under the wraps and took care of the bodies personally. Thanks to that, the whole issue remained hidden…”

Xia Lei interjected, “Mark is merely a normal university professor. Where did his fundings come from?”

“I was curious about it too but I never once asked Mark about it. I only planted a hearing bug on his phone. The answer came fast. The sponsors of this project were the Americans. Professor Mark had kept it a secret from everyone, including me.”

Xia Lei had a feeling that Qian Jun would touch on the subject of the AE capsules soon. The one thing that he desperately needed answers to.

“The deaths made Professor Mark cautious and no one had dared to attempt the climb again. He s.h.i.+fted everyone’s attention to the sarcophagus within the pyramid. He even joked to me about how Prometheus’s body might be inside since he was the G.o.d that created humans. If he had not mentioned it, I wouldn’t have understood why he decided to call this place The Grave of Prometheus. It was then that I realized Mark had placed all of his faith on the crystal skull…”

“With all the equipment working incorrectly, nothing could detect the contents of the sarcophagus. So Professor Mark contracted the Americans and they sent over two of their best archaeologists. While waiting for their arrival, Professor Mark instructed the workers to pry a gap in the sarcophagus. It was meant to be a gift of grat.i.tude…”

“I had an idea when the sarcophagus would be opened but when the day had arrived, Professor Mark instructed me to return to school. He had even tried to comfort me, making a promise that he would tell me of his solved mysteries. I knew that the Americans had requested this and he was just working based on their orders. I told everything to your father and he dispatched some manpower to me…”

“When the two Americans arrived at the mountain and entered the opening, I calculated the time and don the human face mask your father gave me. I invaded the site, killing everyone in the process. I found an amber inside the sarcophagus but I didn’t know what it contained. The only thing I knew was that your father wanted it…”

“I had the best person on my team to climb the pyramid and grab the crystal skull. He avoided all of the other skulls but all it took was a touch to the crystal skull and he came tumbling down like a rag doll. The fall over a hundred metres turned him into a squashed pile of meat. I realize things weren’t that simple. I stepped outside and made a call to your father. I told him the situation and he decided for me to ignore the crystal skull. I asked him why but all he answered was that someone would retrieve it later on. We settled on a meeting time and place where I would pa.s.s him the amber…”

“I blasted out all the tunnels and killed everyone who knew about this place. I left Israel and travelled to Rome. But I wasn’t aware that the Americans had laid a trap in silence. I fought a gruesome battle and while I managed to send a signal for your father to escape, I was captured. The Americans obtained the amber and I was imprisoned in the Guantanamo prison. They tortured me, eager to force out an answer to where I had gotten the amber from but I kept mum. Eventually, Israel and America settled on a deal. It was then when I got transferred to Mossad’s underground dungeon…”

This was Qian Jun’s story.

What happened next did not require his narration.

Xia Changhe’s prophecy was realized. Indeed, someone had entered the pyramid and took away the crystal skull. It was none other than his own son, Xia Lei. But what Xia Changhe did not foresee was that Xia Lei would rescue Qian Jun from the grasp of Mossad.

Realization sunk in and Xia Lei finally realized why his own father had kept the ident.i.ty and whereabouts of the snake a secret! His father had really acted his part to its fullest.

After a beat of silence, Xia Lei uttered a question. “You have sacrificed yourself greatly. Was it worth it?”

Qian Jun only answered with a smile. “If it wasn’t for your father, I would’ve died long ago under that bridge. Was it worth it? Yes, it was. But I can say that compared to your father’s style, I like yours better.”

In other words, Qian Jun was trying to say that compared to serving under your father, I much rather work under you.

Xia Lei flashed him a toothy grin. “You and Professor Mark were the one who found the crystal skull but you didn’t have the luxury of inspecting it up close. I’ve already removed it from the pyramid, would you like to take a look?”

Qian Jun nodded with antic.i.p.ation.