They searched the area and quickly found a sealed passage. The ancient Israelites had probably completely blocked this entrance. From the surface, it just looked like an ordinary depression overgrown with weeds, with a tree growing beside it.
Heather grabbed the chainsaw and started cutting. "Bzzzz!"
The way she gripped the chainsaw startled all four U.S. soldiers, including Sam. Pretty fierce!
Sam Winchester continued demonstrating his family's special skill, his shovel flashing up and down. Combined with the explosives Sam Wilson's team brought, eight people worked for three days before finally clearing a downward passage.
They dropped a glow stick and discovered the vertical descent was about twenty meters deep, with an extremely spacious area below.
Everyone looked mud-covered now. Bella's white athletic outfit had turned completely gray. She looked absolutely disheveled.
"Should I go first?" Barbara asked.
"Go ahead." Bella knew Barbara wasn't trying to claim credit, just concerned about safety.
She hadn't sensed any death threats. Her psychic powers had swept the area twice without detecting any life signs, so she nodded in agreement.
Barbara and Sam Wilson attached ropes to their bodies and slowly descended. Both reached the bottom and searched the area. A full thirty minutes passed before they called up that it was safe.
Everyone descended in groups to the hidden underground temple.
"This place is bigger than I expected..." Sam Winchester shone his flashlight around continuously.
A twenty-meter-high temple. Massive, rough stone pillars. A dome similar to later churches. This appeared to be a natural underground cavern that had been manually modified, though limited by the technology of the time, the renovations were crude. Even so, this site's historical value exceeded Bella's initial estimates.
"My God! It's freezing in here!" One soldier shrank his neck. The others felt the same.
This hidden site was unusually cold. Waves of chill wind blew past, seemingly able to freeze their bones.
However, precisely because of the low temperature, many items here were well preserved.
Ancient pottery, linen clothing, stone spears, primitive tools, slings that had rotted but still showed traces of their former appearance.
They followed the passage inward for over ten minutes before stopping at a narrow cave entrance.
At the entrance, they discovered three bodies lying face-down toward the opening, prostrated on the ground.
The bodies had long since frozen solid in the site's frigid temperature.
Even Bella, with her rich archaeological knowledge, didn't dare touch them carelessly. Who knew if they'd crumble at a touch?
"Everyone out! Don't disturb the scene. Our breath and body heat will upset the environment here. We all need to leave."
As the site's most professional archaeologist and team leader, no one would disobey Bella's orders. All eight people, including herself, retraced their steps and left the underground ruins.
She was unprepared. Forget about the Jordan Lead Codices—just the discovered cave ruins and those three bodies had tremendous scientific value, comparable to Ötzi the Iceman in historical significance. They required massive manpower for protection and excavation.
More importantly, there'd be political squabbling.
The land beneath their feet was undisputedly Jordanian territory. But the excavated items clearly belonged to ancient Israelites. So who did these things belong to?
Bella called home, consulting several Stanford professors who were favorable toward her. She wanted to know Stanford's position.
After confirming she wasn't high or hallucinating, the old professors stated: no need to argue—these were American artifacts! Leaving them in Israel risked destruction by extremist groups. Jordan even more so. So we'll protect them on their behalf.
This was straight-up robbery logic, but Bella didn't care.
She came to do archaeology, not play knight in shining armor or dispense justice.
The U.S. had economic aid programs for Jordan. Israel even more so—Israeli leadership probably wanted to use this opportunity to butter up America for more aid and weapons.
Bella just needed her name appearing in various newspapers, magazines, and online media. Prove these things were excavated by her. Make her name widely known. Then when ordinary people opened search engines and found her photo—"Wow, this woman is beautiful!"—her goal would be achieved!
But if they completely erased her name and replaced it with some unknown rising star, she'd lose it. Whether through civilized or uncivilized means, she'd fight back.
Stanford's influence was massive. Less than two hours after the calls, a U.S. military squad deployed in Jordan—twelve fully armed soldiers—rushed to the scene.
Accompanying them was a Jordanian Foreign Ministry official; his expression was sour. A bunch of Americans running into his country to excavate, and now the higher-ups who couldn't find their way out of a paper bag wanted him to assist?
Everyone sealed off the underground passage, waiting for scholars from various countries to provide support.
Bella naturally wouldn't be so compliant. With her abilities, deceiving everyone was too easy. Worried about missing magical items or divine artifacts, she'd already secretly checked everything inside.
The famous Jordan Lead Codices were only palm-sized, like a small booklet. Called "lead codices," they were actually mostly lead, covered in rust and corrosion, bearing ancient text and images. One page contained a young bearded man's portrait wearing a crown of thorns. Bella examined it but felt no divine energy. She couldn't confirm if this was the oldest image of Jesus.
No supernatural energy reactions existed at the scene, except for one thing...
Outside the camp, everyone had fallen into deep sleep. Only two U.S. soldiers remained on night watch. The surroundings were quiet.
Bella studied the brass key in her hand. What was this? What door did it open?
She sensed a trace of magical reaction on the key—very faint, with no special effects. It seemed like magical traces absorbed over long years.
How to use it specifically, which door it opened—she couldn't identify.
Without hesitation, she reverse-summoned it to her Angels' secret base, having Shaw store it. Carrying something this conspicuous openly would be too obvious.
The next afternoon, over a dozen professors from around the world arrived at the Sea of Galilee, travel-worn. They lacked Bella's combat capabilities and needed the military to secure the area first.
Nearby armed groups that didn't belong to either bank of the Jordan River also noticed the anomaly in this area. They wanted to collect tolls, but this time the U.S. military refused. Both sides engaged in fierce combat, making even the nearby Golan Heights tense.