“Hey, everyone, we've found a metal box!"

Liu Xiaojuan shouted towards the stone chamber where Professor Chen and the others were. Upon hearing Liu Xiaojuan's call, Professor Chen and the others immediately stopped what they were doing and rushed to the stone chamber where Liu Xiaojuan was.

The large stone chamber where Liu Xiaojuan was located was empty, with no coffins. There was only a marble platform in the center of the room. The marble platform was over a meter high, and symmetrical patterns were carved on it, resembling plant vines and lightning fire patterns, exquisitely crafted.

On the marble platform was placed an old metal box, a cube with sides of more than thirty centimeters. Judging from the rust on the box, it was probably some kind of copper-iron alloy.

There was a lock on the metal box that had already rusted. Fatty pulled hard, breaking the lock core. The entire lock broke into two pieces. Professor Chen felt extremely distressed upon seeing this.

Professor Chen walked to the metal box. Fatty consciously made room for Professor Chen, who stroked the outer shell of the metal box.

Duan Pengfei urged from the side, "Professor Chen, open it, don't have any worries."

Professor Chen thought it was a good idea, so he planned to open the metal box as Duan Pengfei suggested. Perhaps because of the rust, the lid of the metal box wouldn't open no matter what. Professor Chen joked to himself that perhaps it was because he was getting old and couldn't even open a small box.

Professor Chen didn't dare let Fatty open it due to his cautiousness. Firstly, he was afraid that Fatty, a rough man, might accidentally damage the cultural relic with excessive force and affect their research. Secondly, he was afraid that Fatty would secretly pocket the precious cultural relic after seeing it.

Duan Pengfei and Wang Tienan each grabbed a corner of the metal box and lifted it upwards with force. After a burst of intense metal friction, a small opening finally appeared in the lid of the box, and a faint green fluorescent light emanated from inside the box.

"A night-luminescent pearl?" Fatty wondered.

Professor Chen said, "Ordinary night-luminescent pearls don't glow on their own; they need to be illuminated first to emit fluorescence. This kind of luminescence is obviously weaker during the day and stronger at night. Of course, there are also self-luminous night-luminescent pearls, which are even rarer in nature than ordinary night-luminescent pearls because they don't need any external energy to be excited, but rely on the radioactive isotopes they contain to self-excite and emit light. If the thing in the metal box can still glow now, and if it is a night-luminescent pearl, then it must be a self-luminous night-luminescent pearl."

Duan Pengfei and Wang Tienan exerted force to continue widening the opening. It looked exceptionally difficult, and the sharp, ear-piercing friction between the metal seams grew louder and louder. After a period of time, with a "click" sound, the lid of the metal box was finally opened, and a spherical object emitting green fluorescence appeared before everyone's eyes.

Everyone gathered around for a look. This... this spherical object was clearly a skull, a skull emitting a faint green fluorescent glow.

This kind of strange thing made Fatty and Rou Yi consciously distance themselves, while Professor Chen and the other four were particularly interested in this fluorescent skull.

Wang Tienan took out a pair of white coarse linen gloves from somewhere, put them on, and reached into the metal box to take out the skull. Professor Chen said from the side, "Gently, gently, don't bump it..."

Wang Tienan slowly took the fluorescent skull out of the metal box, feeling that the skull seemed a little hot. Wang Tienan tremblingly held the fluorescent skull in his hands, looking very strained.

There was no other free space on the marble platform besides the metal box to place this fluorescent skull, so Wang Tienan could only hold it in his hands, and Wang Tienan's forehead was constantly sweating.

Professor Chen, Duan Pengfei, and Liu Xiaojuan carefully observed the skull and found that it was made of completely transparent crystal. The reason they could see the outline was entirely due to the effect of the fluorescence.

"This is too rare." Professor Chen exclaimed, "I've been engaged in archaeological research for so many years and have never seen such a rare treasure."

"Yes," Duan Pengfei added from the side, "This skull, just from the carving alone, can already be considered a treasure, not to mention it's made of such a rare fluorescent crystal, which is even rarer. If this cultural relic were to enter the black market, then the price could definitely sell for an astronomical figure."

Hearing Duan Pengfei say this, Fatty thought to himself that this fluorescent skull was so valuable. Even knowing that there might be danger, Fatty gradually approached Professor Chen and the others under the influence of curiosity, wanting to explore the true appearance of the fluorescent skull.

At this moment, Wang Tienan suddenly cried out "Ouch" in pain, and then the fluorescent skull fell from his hands. Duan Pengfei was quick-witted and wanted to catch it, but the moment his hand touched the fluorescent skull, the skin on the part of his finger that made contact felt like it had been pricked by a needle, extremely painful. In a startled reaction, he quickly retracted his hand that was trying to catch the fluorescent skull. The fluorescent skull fell to the ground with a "thud" and rolled a short distance forward.

The fact that the skull fell on the ground startled Professor Chen. Professor Chen was both distressed and angry. He was just about to blame Wang Tienan for being careless and saying how could he drop such a precious thing on the ground when he was interrupted by Duan Pengfei's moaning. Professor Chen glanced at Duan Pengfei's finger and panicked.

Duan Pengfei's two fingers were as red and swollen as if they had been roasted by a raging fire, and his fingers were covered with blisters.

Wang Tienan's forehead was covered with dense beads of sweat. Suddenly, he couldn't hold on any longer and knelt on the ground in pain, while crying out, "Ah, save me, save my hands, my hands... my hands have no feeling."

Wang Tienan's painful wails echoed throughout the stone chamber.

Liu Xiaojuan quickly helped Wang Tienan take the gloves off his hands. With a gentle pull, even a layer of dry skin was pulled off Wang Tienan's hands along with the gloves.

Liu Xiaojuan screamed "Ah—" and retreated repeatedly, covering her eyes and squatting in front of the wall behind her.

Liu Tienan's hands were as if they had been scorched by something, completely blackened and atrophied, presenting a charcoal-like color, turning into two chicken feet burned into black charcoal, as disgusting as it could be, as terrifying as it could be.

No wonder Liu Xiaojuan was so frightened.

It turned out that Wang Tienan wasn't sweating and trembling because the fluorescent skull was heavy, but had been silently enduring the heart-wrenching pain coming from the fluorescent skull from his palms. He initially didn't realize that the pain in his palms was coming from the skull, so he endured it.

Professor Chen hurriedly took care of the injured Duan Pengfei and Wang Tienan. After Liu Xiaojuan calmed down a little, she also came to take care of them.

Fatty was stunned in place by the sudden incident. However, the matter was not over. Rou Yi pointed to the fluorescent skull that had fallen on the ground and said, "That skull... is moving..."