Chapter 439: Chapter 435 Tom is Rescued Chapter 439: Chapter 435 Tom is Rescued Tom shook his head, “Princess Your Highness, I’m fine. The explosion was so powerful that when the building collapsed, the vault was affected and the neatly stacked gold inside was shaken down, accidentally hitting me a few times with gold bricks.”

At that, Tom revealed a wry smile.

Being hit by gold bricks–what a niche kind of misery that others couldn’t even dream of. Yet, Tom had genuinely experienced it firsthand, and more than just once.

At the hospital, the doctor asked, “What caused the injuries?”

Tom: “I was hit by gold bricks…”

The doctor thought he was bragging.

Hearing Tom’s story, Fang Xiaocao couldn’t help but snicker, almost laughing out loud.

Her face turned even redder from holding back her laughter.

Tom looked at Fang Xiaocao with a grievous expression.

“Giggle, giggle…”

Fang Xiaocao covered her mouth and chuckled quietly.

She then passed a bottle of water to Tom.

“Cough, take a sip of water first.”

“I’ll rescue you right away.”

Fang Xiaocao finally managed to stop laughing.

Tom took the water bottle, twisted off the cap, and chugged it with loud gulps.

He downed the 500 ml bottle in one go.

“More!”

Tom handed out the empty bottle, saying eagerly.

The poor kid was really thirsty.

Anyone would suffer in the sweltering heat if trapped inside an airtight metal container.

Thirst was inevitable; not fainting was already a testament to Tom’s exceptional physical condition.

Any ordinary person would have been knocked out by now.

Fang Xiaocao immediately handed him another bottle of water.

Tom took the water bottle and drank greedily again.

In that moment, with his vigorous actions while drinking water, Tom seemed possessed by Taotie.

After downing three bottles of water, Tom finally stopped drinking, but his eyes lingered on the water with a wistful hopefulness.

Noticing Tom’s gaze, Fang Xiaocao picked up another bottle of water. “Another one?”

Tom shook his head: “I can’t drink any more.”

Slapping his belly,
he twisted his waist,
and a sloshing water sound emerged.

Clearly, he had drunk too hastily.

The water had yet to be absorbed.

Seeing this, Fang Xiaocao laughed.

Now Fang Xiaocao was sure that Tom wasn’t faking it; his injuries really were nothing serious.

“You rest for a bit. I’ll have them hurry up with prying open the door to get you out,” she said with a smile.

Tom nodded, “Be gentle. The gold inside is piled unstably. If you’re too forceful, it might move the vault and I could get buried by the falling gold bricks.”

Tom whispered.

Hearing Tom’s words, Fang Xiaocao’s eyes lit up, and she whispered through the door crack: “Really? How much gold is in there?”

Tom blinked and replied in a low voice, “By my estimate, no less than three hundred kilograms, plus there are many ancient gold artifacts. The actual price is definitely far more than the weight of the gold.”

Saying that, Tom also displayed a golden scepter to Fang Xiaocao, which had a fist-sized gem, though it was unclear whether it was red agate or ruby, embedded at the top.

Looking at the golden scepter in Tom’s hand, Fang Xiaocao nodded earnestly, “This thing looks very expensive.”

Tom whispered, “Princess Your Highness, there are things inside even more valuable than this. This desert journey really paid off.”

“But now that we’ve hit the Pawnshop and taken such a large batch of gold, we’ve made some serious enemies. It’s a fight to the death now. We must always be vigilant and ready to go to war.”

Fang Xiaocao nodded, “That makes sense.”

“We really have to fight it out.”

“Let’s prepare to strike first when we get back.”

“First, we’ll take out a few of their branches for fun.”

A murderous gleam flashed in Fang Xiaocao’s eyes.

“Princess Your Highness, everything needed to pry the door is ready, we can start now.”

The rescue team captain came up and reported.

Fang Xiaocao nodded, “Let’s get cracking!”

Tom immediately leaned on the Golden Scepter, hobbling inside, keeping a relatively safe distance from the vault door and the piles of gold inside.

The rescue team’s method was straightforward and rough.

A steel cable was tied to the handle of the vault door, the other end linked to countless ropes, with hundreds of people pulling the ropes to force the door open.

Crowbars were jammed into the crack of the door, the remaining people pushing hard to pry it, attacking from all fronts. Just expanding the gap enough for a person to slip through sideways would be considered a victory.

If that still didn’t open it, they would have to have Jiang Xinyan send over a fleet of vehicles.

By then, using vehicles to pull the door would surely work.

It just meant that Tom would have to spend a few more days inside the vault.

“Unhappy, Black Tower, you two go help pry the door too.”

Fang Xiaocao saw too few people prying and simply had Unhappy and Black Tower join in.

The two top-tier masters, just in terms of explosive power, were worth several men, which was a safer bet.

“One, two, three…”

“One, two, three…”

Echoes of the count rang out in the desert.

With hundreds of people exerting their strength together, the force was immense.

The vault door resisted desperately but still could not hold firm.

Initially, the gap was the size of a fist but under the collective effort, it slowly widened.

Three hours later!

Tom, leaning on the Golden Scepter, walked out of the torturous, life-threatening vault.

Seeing Tom finally rescued, Fang Xiaocao was overjoyed to tears, and she hugged him tightly.

“Oh my god, finally rescued.”

“I was terrified, I thought you were going to be buried along with my billions in gold.”

Fang Xiaocao said with tears streaming down her face.

Hearing the start of Fang Xiaocao’s speech, Tom was moved…

But after hearing the latter part, the emotion vanished, and he said with a touch of sarcasm, “Princess Your Highness, you could have left that last part out.”

Fang Xiaocao gave a “hee-hee” and gently punched Tom’s chest, “Don’t mind the details too much. I’ve arranged for a helicopter to take you back. First, let Xinyan take you to the hospital for a full body examination while I stay here with Unhappy and Black Tower to supervise them packing the gold.”

Tom shook his head, “I’d rather stay here with Princess Your Highness. It’s possible that the Black-robed Person isn’t dead, or rather, the Black-robed Person isn’t just one person. The one I saw was a type of Mechanical modified Experimental Body. I suspect he was just one manipulated by, or directly controlled by, an Artificial Intelligence thinking like his owner. He himself said he had successful Experimental Bodies, and I don’t feel comfortable leaving Princess Your Highness alone.”

Tom finally had the chance to report the information he had gathered from the Black-robed Person to Fang Xiaocao.

Hearing this, Fang Xiaocao furrowed her brow slightly, showing a look of surprise.

“Artificial Intelligence?”

“Mechanical Experimental Body?”

“Does this guy want to mechanically ascend?”

Fang Xiaocao was stunned.

She knew that this world possessed many black technologies and also knew how powerful future technology could be, including some people having technologies to communicate across time with the past and future, like her own future version, Hot Noodles.

But the situation of the Black-robed Person was still somewhat beyond the norm, overturning Fang Xiaocao’s worldview.