"These armor pieces are actually modern industrial replicas that only cost a few cents apiece?" Wang Xiyi looked at the specimen bag with some surprise, "I thought these were all excavated artifacts..."

"If you don't believe it, I can find an expert to appraise them for you." Candle Dragon said as he pulled out his phone.

"An expert? You don't mean those shady dealers at the Chunming City antique market, do you?" Sun Hang teased.

"Not at all, the guy I'm talking about is a bonafide expert - Mr. Du from the History Department at Chunming University, one of the top figures in Xiazhou's archeological field." Candle Dragon said as he took several photos of the armor pieces and dialed a number.

"Hello, Mr. Du? It's me, the Hunter from Dubhe Tower, Candle Dragon."

"I know it's you, damn it, I'm swamped today, so spit it out quickly!" Candle Dragon set the phone to speaker mode, allowing Sun Hang and the others to hear Mr. Du's voice.

This Mr. Du's voice didn't sound young, but he lacked the solemnity of an old professor, and his Chunming City-accented swearing was quite fluent.

However, this also indirectly proved that Mr. Du and Candle Dragon had a pretty good personal relationship.

"There are a few Han Dynasty standardized armor pieces, and I need your help to identify them." Candle Dragon said with a smile, "I've already sent the photos to your email."

"I know this Mr. Du," Yang Qi whispered to Sun Hang, "He's indeed an authority in the field of archeology, a lot of reference materials for my thesis came from his work."

"Han Dynasty armor pieces? You can't tell if they're real or fake? I don't believe it!" Although Mr. Du cursed, a series of mouse-clicking sounds could still be heard on the other end of the phone, "You're up to your usual tricks, you must have made some bet again and come to bother my old bones for fun!"

"Doesn't that make you the authority?" Candle Dragon responded in a polite tone to the professor's complaints.

"Next time..."

The word "example" in "next time" wasn't even finished when Mr. Du's voice suddenly stopped, and after a few seconds, he spoke again, his previous tone of friendly banter replaced with an incredibly serious one.

"Where did you get these armor pieces?"

"What's up? Is there something wrong with them?" Candle Dragon's playful expression disappeared, and he asked earnestly.

"Be honest with me, are these things anomalous artifacts?" Mr. Du inquired.

"Hey, your eyes are sharp as ever." Candle Dragon quickly responded, "These armor pieces are indeed anomalous artifacts, but as for their specific origins, I'd have to ask you to enlighten us."

"These things... you could say they're replicas, but they're actually quite old as well." Mr. Du slowly said, "Back in the early days... how early? Back when there were still many countries left on Earth, and those pale folks from across the Pacific hadn't yet fled to our side, there was a group in the Chang'an area specializing in counterfeiting Qin and Han Dynasty artifacts."

Mr. Du paused for a few seconds, faintly audible sounds of pages turning and a teacup lid clinking could be heard, and after taking a sip of tea to clear his throat, he continued, "Among these counterfeiting groups, there was one labeled 'Phoenix,' and the artifacts they forged were almost indistinguishable from genuine ones. In their circle, this group was known as 'Phoenix Factory,' and the counterfeit artifacts from 'Phoenix Factory' fetched the highest prices in the replica market."

"So these armor pieces came from this 'Phoenix Factory'?" Candle Dragon immediately asked.

"The Han Dynasty armor pieces counterfeited by Phoenix Factory have a very distinctive feature—for the new armor pieces to appear as if they've been buried for thousands of years, the counterfeiters would grind the edges with a file and soak them in various acidic and alkaline solutions to age them... At first glance, this aging process makes it hard to tell real from fake, but over time, as the armor pieces naturally corrode, these artificially induced aging marks become glaringly apparent," Mr. Du said.

"I remember that all the counterfeit antique artifacts undergo aging, is there anything different about Phoenix Factory's aging technique?"

"No difference, but to ensure they could instantly 'recognize' their 'works' among numerous replicas, the members of this counterfeiting group would intentionally leave a scratch pattern of three verticals and one horizontal when grinding the armor pieces' edges, resembling the character '卅,' though this scratch is so subtle that it's difficult to notice without a magnifying glass."

"There really are..." Yang Qi said as she examined the armor pieces in the specimen bag, "This piece has it, and this one too..."

"However... if they were merely an ordinary counterfeiting group, that would be the end of it..." Mr. Du sighed and continued, "I also forget which year it exactly was on the lunar calendar... Anyway, at that time, the Chang'an City Management Committee launched a large-scale crackdown on the manufacturing and selling of counterfeit antique artifacts, and from that time on, the Phoenix Factory disappeared... But just the year after they vanished, all those counterfeit antique artifacts they produced turned into anomalous artifacts!"

"Is that even possible?" Candle Dragon's eyes flashed with a hint of astonishment, "How come I've never heard of it?"

"Because the situation was quite complex at the time, so the Federation Government did their utmost to block the spread of information," Mr. Du explained, "Most of the counterfeit antiques made by the Phoenix Factory were gathered and destroyed, while the remaining 'samples' were kept by Dubhe Tower. You might want to ask those old guys at the tower about it next time you're there; they should still remember the incident."

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