"What? Have you seen this kind of font? Where have you seen it? Do you recognize these characters? Tell me quickly, what do the characters on the jade piece mean?" Ma Xiaoyao asked.
"I saw this kind of writing in an ancient book. According to ancient books, this is an ancient writing. According to legend, it was created by immortals, so it is also called immortal writing. Because this writing is too profound and too complex.
It was complicated, difficult to remember and write, so later someone developed another simple script, which gradually replaced the Immortal script. After a few years, the Immortal script was completely forgotten by people," said Ouyang Zilan.
.
"Writings from ancient times? Created by immortals? What ancient book are you looking at? It even records such a long time ago? It can't be made up, right?"
"That ancient book is indeed very old. It is damaged in many places. I looked through it out of curiosity."
"Then do you know this kind of writing?"
"I don't know him. I just glanced at him briefly and didn't look at him carefully."
"Is that ancient book still there?"
"It should be there, right? I saw it from a bookstore. The book is so worn out that no one would buy it."
"Let's go, take me to find this ancient book quickly."
…
In this way, the two people hurriedly left the General Military Mansion, then turned left and right, and after spending half an hour, they walked into a fairly large bookstore.
"What kind of books do you two gentlemen want to buy?" A middle-aged man came up to me with a smile on his face.
"Let's just take a look." Ouyang Zilan said casually, and then pulled Ma Xiaoyao towards the bookstore. When he walked to a row of bookshelves, Ouyang Zilan stopped.
"What's wrong?" Ma Xiaoyao asked softly.
"That ancient book is missing." Ouyang Zilan pointed to the bookshelf: "That ancient book used to be placed here, but now it is gone."
"Could it be placed somewhere else?" Ma Xiaoyao and Ouyang Zilan searched the entire bookstore and couldn't find the ancient book.
"Shopkeeper, I saw a very shabby ancient book on this bookshelf before, why is it gone now?" In the end, Ouyang Zilan had no choice but to ask the shopkeeper, the middle-aged man who just came out to say hello.
"Oh, you said that ancient book was thrown away by me."
"Throw it away? Why did you throw it away?"
"That ancient book was so worn that no one bought it. I threw it away because it took up so much space."
"Where did you throw it? Find it quickly and I'll buy it."
"You buy it?"
"Yes, I'll buy it! Find it quickly!"
"Oh, let me think about it... I seemed to have thrown it into the garbage dump at that time... Well, yes, it was thrown into the garbage dump. I will look for it. I don't know if I can find it."
"You must find it. That ancient book is very important to me."
"I'll try my best."
…
After waiting for more than an hour, the shopkeeper came out, holding a dusty torn book in his hand: "You are lucky. If you had come one day late, this book would have been thrown into the stove and burned.
.”
Ouyang Zilan snatched it away, opened it and looked at it a few times: "Yes, this is it. How much does this book cost? I bought it."
"How much does it cost..." The shopkeeper rolled his eyes: "This book is an only one. It is estimated that there will be no second copy in the entire secret realm..."
"Okay, don't be nagging and hurry up and make a quote." Ouyang Zilan said impatiently.
"I don't want much, just the cost price." The shopkeeper stretched out a finger: "Just one thousand taels of silver."
"How much?" Ouyang Zilan's eyes widened: "A thousand taels of silver? This shabby book of yours is worth a thousand taels of silver? Why don't you go and rob it!"
"As I said just now, this is the only copy. There is no second copy in the entire secret realm. Since it is the only copy, it must be more expensive..."
"What a joke! Since this book is so precious, why did you throw it into the trash and prepare to burn it in the furnace? I think you clearly wanted to take advantage of it. Seeing that we wanted this book, so you
Asking for prices all over the place, shopkeeper, the most important thing in doing business is credibility, if you do this, aren't you afraid of going out of business?"
"I was kidding you just now. This book is an only copy and is very precious. How could I throw it into the trash? I was just afraid that it would be damaged, so I kept it..."
"Since it is collected, why is the book covered with dust?"
"I seldom clean it, so it's natural for it to get some dust."
"As expected of a profiteer, you can call white things black and black things white. I really admire you."
"Okay, I don't have time to chat with you here. This book is only a thousand taels of silver. Do you want to buy it or not? I am reluctant to sell it."
…
Ouyang Zilan was furious. This was the first time in her life that she had seen such a shameless person. She sneered, then pointed at Ma Xiaoyao: "Do you know who he is?"
"I don't care who he is." The shopkeeper said angrily: "Do you want to buy it or not? If you don't buy it, leave immediately!"
"Let me tell you, his name is Ma Xiaoyao, and he is the commander-in-chief of the White Tiger Banner." Ouyang Zilan said lightly.
"What is Ma Xiaoyao, what is the chief soldier, I... uh..." The shopkeeper suddenly changed his expression and looked at Ma Xiaoyao with horror on his face: "You... you are the chief soldier..."
Ma Xiaoyao nodded expressionlessly: "I am Ma Xiaoyao. If you don't believe me, I can show you my waist badge." At this point, Ma Xiaoyao took off a jade plaque from his waist and waved it in front of the shopkeeper.
The word "General Soldier" was written on the card.
"Oops... I'm so blind that I can't see Mount Tai. Please forgive me, Mr. Ma." The shopkeeper was frightened and hurriedly apologized. After all, he was just a common man. How could he dare to offend Mr. Ma?
"Shopkeeper, you have to pay attention to integrity when doing business. If you can't even do the most basic integrity, then there is no need to continue opening this store." Ma Xiaoyao said calmly.
"Yes, yes, the commander-in-chief taught me that I will remember the word integrity in the future and never dare to deceive customers again." The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly.
"How much is this book?" Ma Xiaoyao pointed to the ancient book in Ouyang Zilan's hand.
"It's an honor for me, Lord Commander, to come to my shop in person to buy a book. How can I ask for your money... This book will be given to Lord Commander," the shopkeeper said flatteringly.
"You have to pay when you buy something, even if I am the commander-in-chief." Ma Xiaoyao didn't appreciate it at all: "Tell me, how much does it cost?"
The shopkeeper's face twitched: "One...one tael of silver..." How dare the shopkeeper ask for Ma Xiaoyao's money, but he couldn't refuse, so in the end he could only quote the lowest price.
"This is ten taels of silver, which should be enough to buy this book." Ma Xiaoyao took out a handful of broken silver and threw it on the counter.
"Oh, I can't use this much. I really can't use this much." The shopkeeper waved his hand repeatedly.
"That's it. Just don't say that I took advantage of you later." After saying this, Ma Xiaoyao led Ouyang Zilan out of the bookstore.
When the shopkeeper chased them out again, Ma Xiaoyao and Ouyang Zilan had already gone far away. The shopkeeper stretched out his hand and slapped himself in the mouth: "I made you blind, made you greedy, made you ignorant, now it's better, I've provoked you.
Commander-in-Chief, you will definitely not have a good life in the future."
…
People were coming and going on the street, and the sounds of hawking were coming and going, making it very lively.
Ma Xiaoyao and Ouyang Zilan were chatting and looking at the surrounding scenery. When they saw something they liked, they would pay for it. After a while, their hands were full of all kinds of things. At this time, they saw that the two
Here comes the difference between people. Ma Xiaoyao was holding some books and weapons, while Ouyang Zilan was holding some jewelry and clothes.
"It's funny to think about it. When the shopkeeper heard that you were the chief soldier, he almost peed his pants." Ouyang Zilan said with a smile: "I followed you to show off your power today. It feels really good. I will have the opportunity in the future."
Still have to try it.”
"That shopkeeper really went too far." Ma Xiaoyao snorted: "Seeing that we were anxious to buy that ancient book, he charged an exorbitant price and treated us like fat sheep."
"You are not a fat sheep, you are a tiger." Ouyang Zilan said.
"If I were a tiger, then you would be a tigress."
"You are the tigress."
"Don't worry, let me reason for you slowly. You just said that I am a tiger. What is a tiger's wife? Of course she is also a tiger. Tigers are also divided into genders. I am a male tiger and you are a female tiger. Normally,
, a female tiger is called a tigress.”
"What a mess, Ma Xiaoyao, I'm warning you, don't call me tigress in the future!"
For women, the word tigress is not a good word. Generally speaking, tigress is used to describe a woman who is very irritable, domineering and unreasonable.
"Okay, okay, no more." Ma Xiaoyao said with a smile: "Let's go back quickly, and then study the words on the jade tablet carefully."
After the two strolled around the street, they returned to the General Military Mansion carrying large and small bags of things.
In the bedroom.
Ouyang Zilan put the jade piece on the table, then took out the ancient book and started to read: "I found it. It is indeed very similar to the writing on the jade piece... It should be the same writing."
"Let me take a look." Ma Xiaoyao leaned over and looked at it carefully for a while: "Well, it does look very similar..." Ma Xiaoyao counted and found that there were more than two hundred mysterious words recorded in the ancient books, and under each mysterious word
There are annotations, which are annotated in ancient Chinese characters. They are all in traditional Chinese characters, which Ma Xiaoyao can barely understand.
By comparing the words in ancient books, Ma Xiaoyao finally figured out the meaning of the words on the jade tablet.
The first four characters on the jade piece are independent, namely "Heaven", "Palace", "Earth", and "Picture". Together they are "Tiangong Map".
"Map of Tiangong?" Ma Xiaoyao had a trace of doubt in his eyes: "What a big statement, you actually call it Tiangong! It seems that this place is not simple? Zilan, have you heard of Tiangong?"
Ouyang Zilan shook her head: "I've never heard of it."
