One hundred meters beneath Albert's island residence—
hidden beneath reinforced steel and layers of rock—
was a laboratory unlike anything Li Wen had ever seen.
The elevator doors opened slowly.
Blue lights illuminated long corridors filled with advanced servers, research terminals, and massive screens displaying streams of encrypted data.
Arun stared in disbelief.
"This place…"
"…is bigger than most research institutes."
Albert smiled slightly.
"History requires resources."
As they walked deeper into the lab, another elevator door opened from the opposite side.
Bilal Ahmed stepped out.
He wore a simple black jacket and carried a tablet filled with diagnostic reports.
Albert spread his arms slightly and greeted him warmly in Arabic.
"أهلاً بك يا صديقي."
(Welcome, my friend.)
Bilal smiled.
"سعيد برؤيتك يا ألبرت."
(Good to see you, Albert.)
Albert gestured toward Li Wen.
"Bilal, this is Professor Li Wen."
Bilal turned respectfully toward her.
"تشرفت بلقائك."
Li Wen responded instinctively in Chinese.
"很高兴见到你."
(Nice to meet you.)
For a moment, Bilal looked confused.
Albert chuckled.
"Relax."
"She speaks Chinese."
Bilal raised his hands slightly.
"Ah—sorry."
"We can use English."
Li Wen nodded.
"That might make things easier."
They walked toward the main control table.
The ancient data extracted from the Egyptian chamber had already been transferred into Albert's laboratory systems.
Lines of symbols appeared across the main screen.
Arun leaned forward.
"It's still decoding."
Bilal tapped rapidly on his tablet.
"The system is trying to interpret multiple language layers."
Li Wen looked closer.
"These aren't just symbols."
"They're instructions."
Suddenly, Arun pointed at the screen.
"Wait."
"There are linguistic structures here."
Bilal looked up.
"How many?"
Arun zoomed the screen.
"Three primary languages."
Li Wen leaned closer.
"Let me see."
The symbols reorganized themselves slowly.
Arun read them aloud.
"German."
"Arabic."
"And Chinese."
Albert crossed his arms thoughtfully.
"A code built from three civilizations."
Bilal looked intrigued.
"Interesting security design."
Arun frowned slightly.
"So the system expects input from all three language structures."
Li Wen looked at the screen.
Then she understood.
"It's not just translation."
"It's collaboration."
Albert nodded slowly.
"Exactly."
The screen displayed three input prompts.
Bilal looked at Albert.
"So we speak the commands together?"
Albert smiled.
"Looks like it."
He stepped forward first.
Speaking in German.
"System öffnen."
Li Wen spoke immediately after, in Chinese.
"系统启动."
Bilal followed in Arabic.
"ابدأ التشغيل."
Arun hesitated.
"What about English?"
The screen displayed a final prompt.
Arun cleared his throat.
"Begin access."
For a moment—
nothing happened.
Then the system responded.
The lights across the laboratory dimmed slightly as the ancient program activated.
Data began scrolling rapidly across the screen.
Maps.
Coordinates.
Strange diagrams.
Then—
the system stopped.
One image appeared on the main screen.
A single location.
Green.
Dense.
Covered in forest.
Arun stared.
"That's…"
Li Wen leaned forward slowly.
"The Amazon."
The system zoomed in further.
Deep inside the rainforest.
A single red point blinked on the map.
Bilal looked at Albert.
"So the next location is in Brazil."
Albert remained silent.
Because one thing was clear now.
The mysterious architect who helped build the Qin Empire…
had also left a secret buried in the Amazon rainforest.
And whatever waited there…
had been hidden for thousands of years.