Five years later, in Shu Capital, Huaxia, a massive museum rose in the western suburbs of the city. A grand unveiling ceremony was held, presided over by a group of important figures.
At the entrance stood a traditional Huaxia-style screen wall, above which five large golden characters were inscribed: "Jinsha Museum."
"This museum is finally completed," Liang En said to Jeanne, as they watched the crowd enter the museum from the 16th floor of the adjacent hotel, which had been constructed simultaneously with the museum.
"This must be the longest it has taken to build a museum among all the projects we've been involved in. My private museum only took a year to complete," Jeanne replied.
"The construction abilities of Huaxia are indeed commendable. When they know what needs to be housed inside, it doesn’t take long to build a museum, especially if the funding is sufficient," Jeanne shrugged. "The reason it took so long here at Jinsha is purely because, in the beginning, no one realized how vast this site was. The more they excavated, the larger it grew, and it wasn't until now that the first phase of cleaning work was finally completed."
"You're right. If it weren't for the constant discovery of new relics, which kept the archaeological work going, the construction should have been completed at least three years ago," Liang En nodded in agreement.
"After all, my private museum even houses an entire ancient Egyptian temple, yet the construction was completed in a very short time."
The temple Liang En mentioned was the Temple of Dendur, one of several structures relocated in the 1960s when Egypt was building the Aswan Dam.
At that time, due to the rising reservoir waters, many famous cultural relics were at risk of being submerged, prompting several countries and UNESCO to assist in relocating these relics out of the flood zone.
Among the relocated relics, the most famous was the Abu Simbel temples, carved into a mountainside with four colossal statues at its entrance. It remains one of the most iconic representations of ancient Egyptian temples.
However, not all relics were so fortunate. The 2,000-year-old Temple of Dendur, for instance, was gifted to the United States and placed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art after Egypt, in another world, lacked the resources to save it.
In this world, although the temple was successfully dismantled, the Egyptian government never had enough money or energy to rebuild such small temples. Therefore, two years ago, the temple was gifted to Liang En.
This was done because Liang En had deciphered ancient Egyptian texts, greatly contributing to the understanding of ancient Egypt, which was a significant boon to modern Egypt.
After acquiring the temple, Liang En accelerated the plan for his private museum. After carefully comparing several potential sites, he chose Shu Capital in Huaxia as the location.
The local government was naturally enthusiastic about such a high-caliber museum, so with mutual agreement, a sizable museum was erected in the city within three years.
There's no doubt that Huaxia is a nation rich in cultural relics, but large-scale exhibitions of foreign artifacts are not very common. Therefore, when Liang En expressed his willingness to build a museum primarily showcasing foreign relics, it was naturally well received.
This museum was able to fill a gap, bringing a more diverse cultural experience to the local population, which was undoubtedly a good thing for the region.
In short, the completion of this museum signified that Liang En's plans in Huaxia were now firmly established, marking the gradual conclusion of their global expansion efforts.
While the Jinsha Museum was being inaugurated, thousands of kilometers away in Paris, France, an art exhibition was successfully held. Most of the exhibits were Liang En's works.
Over the past few years, in addition to continuing his global travels and unearthing lost civilizations, Liang En also pursued his artistic creations, with Marie primarily handling these works.
As his experience grew and his artistic techniques were continuously honed, Liang En's creative abilities also improved, leading to a steady increase in the value of his works. Although typically, the works of living artists are less valuable, Liang En's steadily rising market acceptance was an exception.
As for Marie, being surrounded by artworks brought her great joy, especially as the extraordinary powers she had gradually acquired over the past few years made handling these artworks even easier. Moreover, her work with these pieces also fed back into enhancing her extraordinary powers.
Elizabeth was now incredibly busy as well. Ever since achieving a significant victory in the financial counterattack five years ago, the rapid expansion of their enterprises had occupied most of her time and energy over the past few years.
Fortunately, the extraordinary powers she had acquired were also related to her work, allowing her to enhance her abilities while managing her enterprises, thus achieving a balance between professional success and personal growth.
Jeanne, on the other hand, had been even busier. According to the plan they had discussed earlier, over the past few years, she had devoted almost all her time to improving her powers, apart from accompanying Liang En on global expeditions.
Although the death of Mr. Duris, which led to Jeanne inheriting the title, had made her much busier than before, the well-established inheritance and trust systems in Europe allowed her to manage everything smoothly, easing her burden.
It made sense; after all, Mr. Duris had been seriously ill for years and had little energy to manage those industries, yet they still operated smoothly, which said a lot.
As a result, compared to the other followers, Jeanne now possessed far superior extraordinary powers, especially in combat. It could be said that even in worlds with extraordinary powers, she would be one of the strongest beings.
"I think it's finally time for our plan to begin," Jeanne mentioned during a meal after they returned to their Scottish residence following their work in Huaxia.
"Our enterprises are doing well overall, so we don't have any worries. Our mastery of extraordinary powers has also reached the expected level. To break through the bottleneck, we may need to explore other worlds."
For the past few years, Liang En and his team had been tirelessly excavating around the world, primarily to gain enough extraordinary power. Thanks to the cards and knowledge from another world, their actions were very successful.
In the process, their extraordinary powers and knowledge had undergone a profound transformation compared to five years ago. At this point, they felt they could continue with the plan they had conceived five years ago.
Over the past few years, they had successfully located several worlds likely to possess extraordinary powers, and after secret reconnaissance, they had identified three worlds they could travel to and formulated a series of action plans.
"Yes, we should definitely visit those worlds now," Liang En said after a brief reflection. "Call Marie and Elizabeth; I think we can depart today."
The END