"Zhan Shaolang, you can open your eyes now."
The blindfold on Zhan Zhitong's face was taken off. He was in a small and dark wooden house with a wooden table and chairs on the opposite side. Behind him was a wall and above the wooden table was a flipboard.
"Zhan Shaolang, please take a seat here. My master will be here soon." The person who brought him in said in a deep voice.
Zhan Zhitong didn't ask any questions. He took two steps forward and sat down on the chair.
It had only been two months, but his image was very different from before. His eye sockets were deep, his chin was stubble that hadn't been trimmed for a long time, and his originally handsome face was full of vicissitudes.
This time, although Zhan Gong took the initiative to take most of the blame, because of Qiu Xueling's revelation, the matter of him secretly learning Zhang Yu's knowledge was exposed. Although the Commissar didn't take the father and son into custody, they were fined a huge amount of money.
He sold his house and antiques to barely gather the money.
Now he could only help people communicate with the natives and do business. In the past, he would have disdained this, but now he had to do it for a living.
But even so, some people in Tianxia knew that he was the middleman. They clearly refused, saying that they didn't believe in his character and were afraid that he would do something.
He couldn't refute and left silently every time.
But because of these experiences, he came into contact with many of the people at the bottom of Auspicious Light City and saw many things that he couldn't see before.
Just as he was sitting there silently, a muffled voice suddenly came from the opposite side. "Zhan Shaolang."
Zhan Zhitong looked up and saw the wall in front of him. The person on the other side should be hiding behind it to talk to him. He said, "What do you need to translate?"
The cover on the wall opened and a bark book was sent out. The person on the other side said, "Please translate the words on this book."
Zhan Zhitong leaned forward and took the bark book. He carefully flipped through it, but after a while, his hand paused slightly. Then he continued to flip through it as if nothing had happened.
He remembered very clearly that there were some sentences that he had translated before, but the person last time had deliberately extracted them. Moreover, there were only a dozen sentences and he didn't see this book.
The person behind the wall had been waiting. Seeing that he didn't speak, he asked, "How is it? Can you translate it? "
Zhan Zhitong said, "Sure, I need a pen and paper."
That person ordered, "Quick, give it to him."
Someone immediately handed over a pen and paper that had been prepared beforehand.
After Zhan Zhitong took it, he translated it word by word. Sometimes he would stop and think for a moment before continuing.
After nearly a summer's time, he finally stopped. He pushed the bark book and the paper forward and said, "It's done."
A hand reached out from behind the cover and took the book and paper back. After a while, that person said, "Zhan Shaolang, is it accurate?"
Zhan Zhitong replied, "I can guarantee that it will be the closest to the original idea."
The man said, "Very good. As long as your translation is accurate, we will look for you next time. Zhi … cough, give him the money."
The man from before walked over and threw a small bag of gold ingots on the table.
Zhan Zhitong glanced at it and took the gold ingot. Then, he was blindfolded and pushed into a carriage.
The carriage moved very steadily. After an unknown period of time, it finally stopped. A voice said in his ear, "Zhan Shaolang, get off."
But he was led down, and a man stood behind him, and put his hand on his shoulder, until the carriage was far away, when he let go.
After a while, Zhan Zhitong reached out and pulled off the blindfold. This was a deserted street corner in the west of the city. It was not far from where he lived now. The other party obviously knew where he lived. This might be a warning.
After he returned home, he first fed the bedridden Zhan Gong some porridge and got a basin of water for him to turn over and wipe his body. Only then did he come out and walk into a small room filled with books.
These books were the only things in the Zhan residence that had not been sold.
He sat down here and took a pen and paper to write carefully. Not long after, he had written down the entire content of the bark book.
In fact, the book looked thick and only had about three thousand words. For someone with an outstanding memory like him, he had memorized it all after flipping through it twice.
This book recorded in detail how to communicate with a strange god called the God of Balance, including how to make a sacrifice and how to find a doppelganger for him to entrust himself to. Furthermore, on the last page, there was a method to use the power of a sacrifice to strengthen oneself and obtain extraordinary power.
However, he guessed that the original owner of this book would not be able to understand the last page. This was because it was written in an extremely rare language called 'Gai Ruwen'. In the protectorate, probably only Qiu Xueling and him could translate it.
No … perhaps there was another person.
He looked at the paper. This was such an important thing, and the other party was actually so assured to let him read it?
He then looked at the small bag of gold ingots on the table and suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly. This was because he realized that the reason the other party trusted him was because he had a bad reputation. He was a person who valued benefits more than morals.
Now, he only needed to go through a certain sacrificial ritual. Perhaps he could obtain extraordinary power and escape the wretchedness and misery he had been in recently.
He stared at the paper for a long time. In the end, he put it in his pocket and pushed open the door to leave.
After returning from Xuanfu, Zhang Yu had spent the last few days accumulating Divine Yuan in his residence to study the True Embryo Seal because there was basically nothing going on in the Official Yamen and the spies had all been identified.
This seal needed to be continuously injected with Divine Yuan in order to gradually strengthen the small seals attached to the other main seals.
This time, the Profound Palace had once again imparted to him two seals. They were still the "Intent" and "Body" seals that were used for battle. As for the secret technique that Fan Lan spoke of, he had yet to see any news about it.
He was in no hurry to study it. Right now, one or two seals would not be of much help to him. It was better to put all of his energy into the True Embryo Seal.
On this day, he finished his meditation and came out. Li Qinghe came up to him and presented a letter with both hands. "Teacher, a letter from outside the palace."
Zhang Yu took it and opened it. He took out the letter and took a look. He found that it was written in an aboriginal language. There were also a few phrases that were obviously used for sacrificial rituals attached to the back. His heart stirred. After some consideration, he said, "I'm going out for a while."
He took the Xia Sword and put on a cloak. After going out, he walked all the way out of the academy and boarded a carriage. He headed straight for the southwest of Auspicious Light City.
Because the southwest of the city was close to the harbor, there were many night markets and underground gambling dens. However, it was still around the time of night, so it looked relatively quiet. He followed the letter's instructions and had the carriage stop at a street corner. He walked into an alley and stopped in front of a dilapidated courtyard door.
He lifted his hood and knocked on the door.
After a while, the sound of footsteps could be heard. The door creaked open and Zhan Zhitong appeared behind the door. He looked at Zhang Yu and stepped aside, saying, "If you don't mind, please come in."
Zhang Yu walked in. This was a front yard overgrown with weeds. There was a chicken coop in the corner where mosquitoes and flies would fly by from time to time.
Zhan Zhitong looked outside and closed the door. "This way, please." He led Zhang Yu to a small room at the side and handed him a stack of papers prepared in advance. "I think this thing will be useful to your Xuanfu."
Zhang Yu took it and flipped through it. "The God of Balance, huh …" He originally thought that this matter had come to an end. He did not expect to be involved with this EsGod again so quickly. He looked up and said, "Zhan Shaolang, have you seen the original book of sacrifice?"
Zhan Zhitong said, "Yes."
Zhang Yu thought about it. This was an important clue.
Every original book used for sacrifice was very important to the gods. If they could find it, they might even be able to summon the God of Balance to a pre-arranged place and then destroy it.
He said, "Zhan Shaolang, where did these things come from?"
Zhan Zhitong recounted what he had encountered and added, "Although this person has never met me before and his entourage had changed their clothes before coming out, I can tell at a glance that he is a merchant."
"Right, that follower should be a trusted aide. There's a 'Zhi' in his name. I don't know if that's his surname or first name."
He turned around again, took out a small bag of gold ingots from the cabinet, and handed it over to Zhang Yu, "This is what they gave me. I know that the Profound Palace has a lot of unimaginable methods, maybe you guys can use this to find some clues."
Zhang Yu reached out and took it. To the Xuanxiu, this kind of clue was actually more than enough. He said, "This is very important. Zhan Shaolang, do you want me to report your name?"
Zhan Zhitong shook his head and said, "I just want to live a quiet life now."
Zhang Yu nodded. He put the bag away and stood up. "You have no intention of holding a ritual to obtain extraordinary power. This is the right choice."
Zhan Zhitong looked up and said, "It's a lie?"
Zhang Yu said calmly, "This is the sacrificial method of the God of Balance. Put something on one end of the scale, and the other end will have the same amount. You will obtain power, but the price you have to pay will be so high that you will never be able to turn back."
Zhan Zhitong looked at him and said seriously, "I may have done many wrong things in the past, but as a citizen of Tianxia, I will never obtain power by praying to the EsGod."
Zhang Yu looked at him and nodded. He stretched out his hands and put on the hood before walking out with the Xia Sword.
He left the small courtyard and walked out of the small alley. It was close to evening, and the sky was filled with rosy clouds. He could see that the market ahead was gradually showing signs of bustling, and there were bursts of roasting fragrance wafting over with the wind.
Just as he was about to get into the carriage, he suddenly tightened his grip on the Xia Sword and looked in a certain direction.
…
…
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
