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墨書 Inktalez
"Yes, Earth." Ouyang Zixin nodded seriously, this was the first time she had mentioned the place where she once lived. Looking back now, it seemed very, very distant. Not just in terms of distance and space, but also something else that was hard to explain, lying in between.
On Earth, Tai Chi Bagua was a mysterious existence. In Ouyang Zixin's memory, this enigmatic concept had once caught her attention. She recalled that during an interview, an entrepreneur had specifically mentioned Tai Chi Bagua.
Nameless had returned from in front of the pattern, sitting cross-legged like Ouyang Zixin, looking like a curious child, waiting for her explanation.
"Tai Chi Bagua explains the process of the universe evolving from Wuji to Taiji, leading to the birth of all things. The Taiji represents the state before heaven and earth were opened and chaos had not yet separated Yin and Yang." It seemed like she was reciting from memory; Ouyang Zixin tilted her head as she recalled. It had been so long since she learned this that if it weren't for her exceptional memory now, she wouldn't have remembered any of it.
She extended her finger to illustrate the position of the dual fish. "The two instruments refer to the Yin and Yang of Taiji. There is a saying that the two instruments give rise to the Four Symbols, and the Four Symbols give rise to Gossip. This means that everything and every phenomenon in the vast universe contains both Yin and Yang, as well as two sides: the surface and the essence." At this point, she paused deliberately and turned to ask Nameless if he understood.
Nameless nodded as if he understood but then pointed not at the dual fish but at the position of the fish eye. "What you mean is that they are in a relationship where they both oppose and support each other, right?"
Ouyang Zixin looked at Nameless with some appreciation; he hadn't wasted his time following her around. Although he often disappeared mysteriously, his mind could still keep up with the rhythm.
"The source of generation and destruction is said to lie within this Tai Chi Bagua." Standing up and brushing off the dust from her clothes, Ouyang Zixin no longer worried about anything. Since all things followed this principle, thinking too much would only be self-torment.
"Master, what about Gossip?" Nameless only heard Ouyang Zixin mention Yin Yang Fish, but what did Four Symbols give rise to Gossip mean?
Gossip was too troublesome; Ouyang Zixin only remembered that she had completely zoned out at that moment. She couldn't recall exactly what that entrepreneur had said. At this moment, she could only cough lightly and give Nameless a roll of her eyes. "Exploration requires a spirit of exploration; if I have to tell you everything, where's the fun in that?"
Nameless thought it sounded reasonable and stopped asking further questions. He just planned to pay more attention in the future to see if he could discover the meaning of this Gossip. The place called Earth that his master mentioned seemed quite impressive; even a single diagram contained so many profound meanings. He wondered if he would have a chance to see it in the future.
Aside from the exposed part revealing this pattern, Ouyang Zixin and her servant had not made any special discoveries yet. After all, they didn't know what mechanisms were hidden within these Millennium Ruins; these seemingly stacked stones of the Underground Palace might conceal some dangers. Moving recklessly would only bring trouble upon themselves.
The Underground Palace has a stone pillar in each of the four cardinal directions, seemingly carved with some kind of patterns or totems. Ouyang Zixin couldn't make sense of it, but the shape on top resembled flames. It seemed like she had seen something similar in a magazine, where certain ethnic groups worshipped flames or something like that. Could it be that the Yuhai Continent had such beliefs a thousand years ago?
"Nameless, does the Yuhai Continent have any religious worship?" In her memory, it seemed there was none; this continent valued martial prowess above all, where the stronger one was, the more respect they received, and conversely, the weaker one was looked down upon.
Compared to Ouyang Zixin, who came from another world, Nameless wasn't in a much better situation. Most of his memories were stuck in the secret realm; even when he occasionally recalled fragments, they were incomplete. After staring at the stone pillar for a while, Nameless sighed as if giving up and said, "I still can't remember."
This implied that he seemed to have some recollection but just couldn't bring it to mind.
Ouyang Zixin didn't pay much attention to him; after all, Nameless wouldn't deceive her. So she decided to wait until he remembered; if he couldn't recall it, then so be it. Not everything in this world has an answer or conclusion.
"Look over there," Ouyang Zixin pointed to the southwest, southeast, northwest, and northeast directions, where smaller stone pillars stood either horizontally or vertically.
In terms of specific distribution, Ouyang Zixin felt less confident than Nameless because Nameless could float while Ouyang Zixin didn't dare climb onto any building or sculpture to overlook the Underground Palace. So when Nameless got a clear view, he shared what he saw about the main orientations of the Underground Palace with Ouyang Zixin.
"Could this be what you referred to as the Four Symbols and Gossip?" Based on numerical analysis, this possibility wasn't out of the question. However, Nameless couldn't discern any Gossip patterns from these stone pillars; compared to the horizontal bars in those designs, it felt like an insult to that sense of mystery.
Whether it was indeed Four Symbols and Gossip was unclear to Ouyang Zixin; her earlier statement was merely a forced analogy. She knew nothing about such profound concepts.
To divert her curiosity, Ouyang Zixin ran over to a smaller stone pillar and exclaimed in surprise, "This is a Snake Totem!" However, this tactic clearly had no effect since Nameless had no idea what a totem was.
Yet one thing Nameless said caught Ouyang Zixin's attention—he remarked that it resembled the Howling Twin-headed Serpent.
Indeed! She remembered that Howling Twin-headed Serpent had caused quite a stir before; how could she have forgotten it? At that time, she even obtained a Snake Gallbladder but had it swapped by Yun Tianmo.
Ouyang Zixin walked around the stone pillar several times, almost seeing through the totem. Although the totem primarily depicted a serpent's head, it was evident that it resembled the Howling Twin-headed Serpent almost exactly, wrapped in dark red scales. It was unclear what kind of paint was used; although it had faded considerably, the colors could still be clearly distinguished.
If one looked closely at the stone pillar, another hidden serpent's head could be found. Both serpent heads were spitting red tongues; even though one was in the light and the other in shadow, it still reminded Ouyang Zixin of the bloodshed that night at Lingchi Peak.
It was clear that this totem was meant to represent a transcendent Xiaoshen. At that time, no one would have dared to confront it; instead, it became a symbol of some kind of deity or belief. Fortunately, things were different now; otherwise, if it had destroyed the Howling Twin-headed Serpent, people on the Yuhai Continent would not have easily let her go.
"Master, look here." Nameless's voice sounded somewhat distant. When Ouyang Zixin turned around, she found he had already run over to the stone pillar diagonally across from her. She hurriedly called out to him, "What did you find?"
Since there was a Howling Twin-headed Serpent here, there must be other Mystical Beast totems as well. For example, a White Bear.
As Ouyang Zixin expected, the eight small stone pillars here represented eight different Mystical Beasts' totems: Xiaoshen, Black Bear, Xuan Wolf, Xuan Eagle, Xuan Tiger, Xuan Yang, Xuanma, and Mystic Monkey. Among them, the zodiac signs should be represented by the snake, tiger, sheep, horse, and monkey. However, the Xuan Snake Totem was clearly different from the other zodiac totems; thus, this Xiaoshen likely represented an existence from the Yuhai Continent, while the other four zodiac totems might represent aspects of Earth.
This was bad. It might really involve Gossip now; what if something like Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches came up? That would be disastrous! This wasn't something just any Earthling would know; was Heaven playing tricks on her?
Ouyang Zixin could no longer face her current speculations. She covered her face with her hands for a long time and ignored Nameless's calls.
Did she regret it? Back when she interviewed people about Gossip and the Four Symbols, she should have listened better!
Indeed, one only realizes how little they know when they need it most... The ancients—no, Earthlings—were not deceiving her!
————————————
Unlike Baike's easy abandonment of their quest, Yun Tianmo had no intention of letting go of Cicada Jade. What a joke; after searching for so many years!
Since sixty to seventy percent of the strength was not enough, he decided to increase it until it was sufficient.
Yun Tianmo walked back and forth along the stone wall, calculating the number of Cicada Jade on it. He had initially worried about accidentally damaging something and not knowing where to find it again. However, upon closer inspection, he realized there was no need for concern, as the stone wall was genuinely covered with Cicada Jade, not just an illusion caused by light refraction.
With that in mind, he had no reservations. He stepped back three paces. Yun Tianmo flipped his palms, and Black Qi surged from his palms, quickly gathering together. Under his continuous compression, it gradually transformed into a small black sphere of Mysterious Energy, about the size of a marble.
The area of Mysterious Energy intersected with the Mysterious Energy sphere, which needed to be larger; thus, the force distribution point was also greater. The two marble-sized Mysterious Energy spheres emitted a faint glow under the reflection of Cicada Jade. It wasn't until Yun Tianmo forcefully pushed them toward the stone wall that they tore through the air like a dark arc, causing the brilliance on the stone wall to dim significantly.
"Boom—crack—"
First came the loud noise from the collision between Mysterious Energy and the stone wall, shaking the basement slightly. Then came a series of crackling sounds as if something was shattering.
This crackling continued for quite a while. Yun Tianmo did not retract his Mysterious Energy; instead, he kept shooting it toward the stone wall until he felt that a large dent had formed in front of him before finally stopping.
Although it seemed like he had deformed the stone wall, Yun Tianmo was not merely attacking. The stone wall had regenerative properties; although he did not know its exact recovery cycle, he controlled another stream of Mysterious Energy to collect during his attack just in case.
Cicada Jade would not easily detach from the stone wall; once it did, it would weather and turn to ash. It seemed that only certain components within the stone wall could preserve it intact. By the time Yun Tianmo realized this, he had already wasted quite a bit. Fortunately, there was an astonishing amount of Cicada Jade here, so while stripping away Cicada Jade, he thought of corresponding methods.
Finally, he discovered that at the moment Cicada Jade detached from the stone wall, if he used Mysterious Energy to directly crush the part that had fallen off and immediately wrapped it around Cicada Jade, it could prevent its deterioration. However, this method consumed both time and Mysterious Energy and limited the amount of preserved Cicada Jade. That was why he stripped down the entire wall to its current state.
"Collect!" Seeing that he had gathered enough, Yun Tianmo softly commanded and collected the Cicada Jade wrapped in stone powder. This spatial ring had been given to him by Rong Yi years ago but had never been used until now. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known where to store so much Cicada Jade wrapped in powder.
Satisfied, Yun Tianmo left with his hands behind his back, leaving behind a mess and a wall that was no longer presentable.
"Eh, how did this wall get smashed like this?" The next person to arrive here was Nangong Tuo, the unfortunate one. After wandering around for a long time, he felt like he had been stuck in this basement, surrounded by empty rooms or seemingly endless corridors.
Now that he finally saw some signs of people passing through, how could he not be excited? He searched around a few more times, but finding no one, he refused to give up. He shouted for a long time, but in the end, no one responded, and he finally quieted down.
Feeling somewhat dejected, Nangong Tuo squatted in front of the large pit that was indented into the ground, absentmindedly tracing patterns with his fingers while mumbling to himself, "I should have rushed in right after Ouyang Zixin. It’s all because my father insisted on dragging me along. Now look at this; not only can I not find Ouyang Zixin, but I haven't even seen a living person."
In his eyes, any treasure in the Millennium Ruins was not worth comparing to the girl who smiled at him after patting him on the shoulder on the street. If it weren't for Ouyang Zixin, he wouldn't have come to this ridiculous ruin; it was suffocating.
"Hey, is anyone there? Hey, open the door! Hey, where's Ouyang Zixin?" Initially indifferent as he wandered aimlessly, he soon realized something was wrong—the hole in front of him was shrinking, and it was happening faster and faster.
"What’s going on?"
Could this be a way out? Did someone go through here?
It must be said that Nangong Tuo's imagination was rather misguided. However, there was no one else here to enlighten him, so he whimsically opened his mind—if he broke through this wall, he could escape! He wouldn't be trapped in this empty basement anymore!
Nangong Tuo, oh Nangong Tuo, are you really going to waste your energy and Mysterious Energy like this? Does your father even know?
(To be continued.)
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