Three days later, although Mount Fuji's eruption continued, its intensity had significantly weakened.
Just as Fang Er was considering whether to add some fuel to the fire, the aircraft's radio suddenly beeped.
Xue Rengui, who had been resting with his eyes closed on the seat, instantly sat up, put on his headset, and took out a notebook to record the telegraph code.
Soon, he deciphered the telegram and handed it to Fang Er.
"Target location, no trace of pyramids found. Request instructions, Duke. Zhou Yanxi."
Looking at the content of the telegram, Fang Er couldn't help but frown.
Zhou Yanxi had gone to the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, Egypt. He had clearly marked the location on the map. Although there was no GPS positioning, such a large structure would be easily visible from the air.
Yet now, not even a shadow could be found?
What in the world was going on?!
"Reply to him, expand the search range to five hundred kilometers around the original location!"
Fang Er returned to his seat, holding the telegram. He didn't take the matter too seriously, perhaps the location was slightly off.
But as if heaven was playing a joke on him, Ge Luoyang, Li Da, and Lu Benwei also quickly sent telegrams, similarly reporting no trace of pyramids at their designated locations!
This left him utterly bewildered.
Where were the promised thousands of pyramids?
Not only him, but Wang Xuance and Xue Rengui were also completely confused.
In their impression, their Duke had never been wrong.
With four teams and twelve helicopters dispatched at once, he must have been confident when issuing the orders, it couldn't have been a shot in the dark!
So, where had the pyramids gone?
Just as Fang Er couldn't figure out the reason, Xue Rengui suddenly asked from the side, "Duke, how did you know about places with...?"
But before he could finish, Wang Xuance interrupted him.
"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask!"
"It's fine!" Fang Er understood Xue Rengui's intention.
"The locations of those pyramids were something I saw in some ancient books when we visited Daming before."
Two heads are better than one. Things like conjuring objects out of thin air weren't hidden from them, so there was no need to hide the matter of the pyramids, although he attributed the information to the Ming people.
Seeing that he had actually answered Xue Rengui's question, Wang Xuance relaxed and pondered Fang Er's words for a moment before saying, with a look of confusion.
"But the Ming Dynasty was only a few hundred years ago, and the pyramids we saw clearly looked ancient. There's no reason they would exist in the Ming Dynasty and not now."
"Hmm~ Your subordinate has a guess, Duke. Do you think there's a possibility?"
Xue Rengui slapped his thigh and confidently voiced his idea.
"Duke, could it be that those Westerners from the Ming Dynasty accidentally discovered the pyramids we visited before?"
"And then, based on their appearance, they replicated other pyramids themselves?"
"Why would they do that?" Wang Xuance was even more puzzled.
Fang Er also didn't quite grasp his wild theory. He gestured, signaling him to continue.
Seeing them both staring at him, Xue Rengui quickly continued.
"Duke, look at it this way, those barbarians in the Western Regions are like beggars compared to our Central Plains dynasties."
"Since you saw records of pyramids in the Ming Dynasty, it means there was trade and exchange between the West and the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty."
"If others are resplendent while their own homes are so poor they live in dog kennels, anyone would feel uncomfortable."
"Therefore, your subordinate believes that those pyramids are fakes, created by Westerners to glorify themselves!"
"That's why Old Ge and Old Xi'er came back empty-handed, because the one who was mistaken wasn't you, Duke, but those face-saving Westerners!"
"Hiss~~~~~~" Fang Er gasped in disbelief.
This idea, it was truly...
He thought of a problem, a problem he hadn't figured out before.
That was, why he had seen pyramids left by the Yanhuang people here, but in the main world, in the same locations, there were no discoveries of pyramids in later generations!
The world he was in now was merely a parallel world. Destroying that pyramid would have no impact on the main world.
Combining this with Xue Rengui's words, a guess also formed in Fang Er's mind.
If fakes were rampant, then the genuine articles would inevitably stand out from the fakes!
To make the fake appear real, the Egyptians might have dismantled the genuine ones!
In that case, without the genuine ones for comparison, those fakes would naturally become the real ones!
And the pyramids in other regions could also have been replicated by people from other countries who saw the imitations in Egypt!
Fang Er had seen photos of pyramids in other locations. The appearance of pyramids in each country differed.
This also indicated that they were not created by the same person!
The pyramids seen by people in later generations were merely products of Westerners glorifying themselves, appearing during the period between the Song and Ming dynasties.
Moreover, with the architectural level of the West in the 15th and 16th centuries, building a pyramid did not seem to be an insurmountable task!
As soon as this guess arose, it lingered in his mind. He felt as if he had stumbled upon the truth!
To verify this guess, he had Xue Rengui send a telegram back to Ge Luoyang and the others, expanding the search range again, centring on the original destinations, and searching for traces of pyramids within a thousand-kilometer radius.
Even if there was an error in the map's marking, it shouldn't have deviated this far.
If they still couldn't find anything after this, it would only mean that his and Xue Rengui's guess was correct!
The orders were transmitted via radio waves from the islands of Japan to Africa and Europe.
After receiving the telegrams, Ge Luoyang, Zhou Yanxi, Lu Benwei, and Li Da immediately expanded their search according to Fang Er's instructions.
Searching from the air was much easier than searching on the ground. Such large pyramids would be conspicuous even from a thousand meters up.
"Duke, they've replied. They found nothing."
After a series of beeps from the radio, Xue Rengui reported to Fang Er with the latest telegram.
"Bang!"
Fang Er punched the seat, wishing he could curse the Westerners!
Although his guess had been proven correct, he would have preferred to be wrong!
Because he wanted gold-mining ships, countless gold-mining ships!
Only if those pyramids truly existed and were created by the Yanhuang people would he be able to obtain the gold-mining ships!
But reality told him that he had been overthinking it.
Greatly disappointed, he waved his hand at Xue Rengui: "Alright, tell them all to return to Lin'an."
He pushed open the cabin door and stepped out, putting on a gas mask and looking towards Mount Fuji through the lenses. The lava's momentum had lessened considerably again.