After observing the explosion of the temple, Liang En instinctively thought that the other party was trying to hide their crimes. Seeing the corpses left in the treasure vault confirmed this suspicion for him.
As for the presence of a British corpse here, although strange, it wasn't entirely unacceptable. After all, such a large fortune could tempt lawless individuals to turn on each other.
Upon returning to the basement, Liang En and his team found that many of the remains and surrounding relics had been cleared out. The British corpse was identified through these relics.
"This is the British corpse," a senior servant pointed to a set of bones indistinguishable from the others. "We identified this person through the items found around them."
The servant then brought out a tray with some remaining metal pieces. In such a place, organic materials wouldn't survive, so these rusty metal fragments were considered lucky finds.
"Belt buckle, pocket watch, buttons, and a gold ring. It seems this person wasn't of low status," Liang En noted after a quick inventory. These items belonged to a ninth-century British middle-class individual.
Of course, the concept of 'middle-class' then was different from today. Back then, they were akin to today's senior white-collar workers, a rarity even in Britain.
Records show that middle-class individuals at the time could have 2-3 servants, own fine porcelain and silverware, and easily afford family vacations to places like Brighton or Margate.
In Britain, class and clothing were closely linked, making it easy to determine this person's status through these relics. The only question was why such a person died here.
"George Carter, 1870," Liang En read the only text found, engraved on the ring. However, finding any clues from just this was nearly impossible.
Most records from that era are lost, and considering these people were likely lawless, using fake names in India could erase most traces.
Apart from the ring, another valuable item was a completely broken silver pocket watch, identified as British-made from Manchester.
"This person was likely part of a criminal gang and offended them for some reason," Liang En analyzed to Jeanne after examining the two items.
"The gold ring and silver watch are not cheap. I think only a partial camaraderie between the parties allowed these items to remain with the deceased."
"But now, all we know is that the deceased was likely a wealthy British man named George Carter, with no other clues," Jeanne said, shaking her head in frustration.
"Trying to find the truth with so little information is very difficult. Even if you give it your all, there's no guarantee you'll uncover the circumstances behind this."
"Alright, then let's search a bit more. If we can't find anything, we'll have to give up," Liang En shrugged helplessly. "At least we've found quite a lot this time, not a wasted trip."
During this excavation, they found dozens of complete divine statues and more stone carvings, confirming this temple was significant in its era, filling an archaeological gap.
According to Mr. Verma, though this site wasn't large, the level of the gods worshiped here wasn't low, possibly built by the ruling family of the time.
Indeed, ancient Indians were often at the bottom of Asia's military prowess, unable to defeat their neighbors. But this didn't mean they were a peaceful people. Except for brief periods of centralized control, India was often fragmented with frequent battles.
In such repeated conflicts, many local rulers changed, like Mr. Verma's family, who gained their title 300 years ago through a chaotic battle.
Considering India's history is often orally transmitted, it's not surprising that such a remote temple was forgotten after 30 years of chaos.
Though the temple's location in the wilderness is odd, it's not incomprehensible. Religious sites often have great randomness, sparked by a glimmer of light, a flash of lightning, or someone's dream.
For this temple, Liang En inclined towards it being born from a ruler's dream, explaining its high status in such a remote place.
In Indian religion, the world is seen as born from the gods' dreams, giving great importance to dream omens. Building a temple based on a dream is reasonable.
However, such temples were often little known, forgotten in chaos until rediscovered by others many years later.
Mr. Verma was very interested in this site, seeing it as a good omen and contacting local archaeological officials.
"I will take these statues and restore them," Mr. Verma said seriously, watching the busy workers. "I'll have them placed in our family temple upon return."
For these rulers' descendants, they could do things normal people wouldn't imagine, like legally moving these precious artifacts to their homes.
Like now, reasonably placing these items in their family temple, even legally, no one could argue.
The local archaeological personnel's actions reflected this, obeying Mr. Verma's commands like his servants.
Indeed, they were Mr. Verma's servants, taking his orders as paramount, making the work easier.
At least these workers were faster than the average Indian, willing to follow Liang En's directions under Mr. Verma's orders.
This made the work much lighter, especially with professionals' guidance, allowing Liang En to focus on searching the site and uncovering its secrets.
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