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墨書 Inktalez
Brother, this artifact from the ancestor is too valuable to waste. By using it, we can also give him a chance to benefit future generations, so it’s not a waste of his two thousand years of wisdom! However, no matter how exquisite this positioning device looks, being an external object attached to the Bronze box makes it quite conspicuous. That black-clad man isn’t a fool; he would immediately recognize what it is.
Suddenly, my brother had a brilliant idea. He detached the dark red particle from the first positioning device and stealthily placed it on the eye of the Bronze box resembling a Longtail Chicken, allowing A Li to conduct a random test. To our surprise, the dark red particle from the second positioning device could indeed move along the groove towards my brother's location, and its function remained unaffected. However, if we placed the first particle on the back of our hand or inside our clothing and then moved our body again, the particle on the second positioning device would not react at all.
This confirmed that our earlier speculation was correct; the positioning principle of this device is indeed related to the interaction between particles and the Bronze. As for how exactly this relationship works and how it functions? My brother didn’t need to delve too deeply into it. It’s like solving a math problem; as long as you know how to use the formula, there’s no need to understand why it works—that’s for mathematicians to figure out. You do their work, and they won’t share their salary with you.
I found myself speechless at this, but it was typical of my brother's style. If I were to explain it, I might not be able to clarify anything either; instead, I would get caught up in my thoughts and struggle with it endlessly. In this regard, I truly couldn’t match my brother’s carefree attitude.
Suddenly, I recalled one of China’s four great inventions: the South Pointing Chariot. In "Gui Gu Zi," it states: “When a man from Zheng takes jade, he must use a South Pointing Chariot because it is infallible.” The Eastern Han philosopher Wang Chong also mentioned in his work "Lunheng": “The ladle of the South Pointing Chariot thrown on the ground will have its handle pointing south.”
Here, “ladle” refers to a magnetic ladle, and “ground” refers to the base plate. The gist is that under the influence of the Earth's magnetic field, the magnetic ladle on the disk can move freely; based on the principle that like poles repel and unlike poles attract, the handle of the ladle will automatically point south. People used this to determine direction.
I thought of this because the base of the South Pointing Chariot was also inscribed with twenty-four directions, very similar to what A Li described about the positioning device. Furthermore, both inventions were created around the same time during the Qin and Han dynasties. Could there be some connection between them? Based on this foundation, could my brother's theory about meteorites hold water?
As far as I know, meteorites are foreign objects that have detached from their original orbits in space and rapidly fallen to Earth or other planetary surfaces as cosmic debris or fragments. Most meteorites come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, while some originate from the Moon and Mars. They can generally be classified into stony meteorites, iron meteorites, stony-iron meteorites, and glassy meteorites based on their composition.
Currently, the largest iron meteorite preserved in the world is Namibia's Goba Iron Meteorite, weighing about 60 tons—equivalent to the combined weight of eight adult elephants.
My first close encounter with a meteorite occurred during my middle school years when I was around fourteen or fifteen years old. At that age, boys were either busy pursuing pretty girls or exploring the mysteries of space—dreaming of one day flying into space to discover new continents or seeking unknown life forms to save an increasingly deteriorating Earth and rescue humanity from its own ignorance! This was almost a common aspiration shared by all boys my age.
Perhaps due to my unique upbringing, while my peers could only open doors to lofty ideals through second-hand sources like television programs, science fiction magazines, museums, or libraries, I had the opportunity to delve deep into our country’s northeastern region with my brother—to visit the hometown of that world-shaking meteor shower firsthand.
JL City is located in the heart of Northeast China, adjacent to the Changbai Mountain Range and the banks of the Songhua River. Surrounded by water on three sides and mountains on all sides, it boasts excellent feng shui.
Historical records indicate that on the afternoon of August 8, 1976, a meteor weighing approximately four tons caught up with Earth from behind its orbital path at a relative speed of 15 to 18 kilometers per second. It landed in the plains near JL City and YJ County, resulting in a tremendous explosion. The meteor exploded at an altitude of 19 kilometers, followed by a series of continuous bursts, scattering large fragments and creating the largest meteor shower in the world. The grandeur of the scene, the immense power of the explosion, the weight and number of the meteors, as well as their peculiar shapes, have rarely been seen in centuries.
At that time, my junior disciple and I received a task similar to delivering goods. As soon as we arrived at Jiaohe Train Station, someone was there to receive the cargo, and everything went smoothly. Seeing that we had ample time, we decided to stay and explore the nearby mountains. Of course, our primary motivation was to see the legendary JL meteorite.
People like us generally prefer not to follow in others' footsteps. For instance, while others visit museums to see meteorites, we find that uninteresting; after all, we can’t touch them—just a piece of broken rock—what’s there to see? It’s better to delve into the original site. Although many years have passed since that meteor shower and the terrain may have changed significantly, with over three thousand meteorite fragments collected for museums, we might not even find a scrap now. Yet, that is where the joy of exploration lies; the more uncertain and uncontrollable the path ahead is, the more enticing it becomes.
That evening, my junior disciple and I settled into a budget hotel near Jiaohe Train Station. We had dinner at a place called "Good Again," where most diners were outsiders gathering from various places. When people got drunk, they would say anything; after all, once tonight is over, everyone would go their separate ways.
At that time, my junior disciple and I still looked like students. No matter how we dressed up, we still exuded an air of scholarly innocence—especially me; I hadn’t fully developed yet and was shorter than my junior disciple. We certainly didn’t look like adults. The owner of "Good Again" was rather meddlesome; she refused to serve us alcohol because her son was around our age and had been poorly disciplined, picking up bad habits from others.
We couldn’t persuade her otherwise and had to give up. However, because we hadn’t gotten drunk, we clearly heard about Yue Shan.
At the neighboring table sat two men in their seventies who looked far younger than their age. They sat upright with agile movements and sun-kissed skin. Later on, we learned they had been soldiers in their youth.
One of these old men drank quietly while the other chatted animatedly—a common sight in dining establishments like this one where everyone loves to share stories. However, strangely enough, when this old man began speaking, even those who had been lively around him gradually quieted down, captivated by his tale.
“Well… this story begins with a child without a mother; it’s quite long so let me think… it goes back to when I was fifteen and first went to Yue Shan…” My junior disciple and I missed part of his story due to our earlier argument with the owner about drinking but caught up when everyone else was listening intently. By then, he had already reached this point in his narrative.
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