"Stone Rock Lady, a stone from between the Shang and Zhou dynasties, has been worshiped for countless years. Why did the soldiers of the Great Ming bring this stone from their ancestral land, Shenzhou?"
Chen Shi gazed at the distant dark clouds, lightning moving within them.
"The meaning of ’Rock’ is a stone standing by the water. Stone Rock Lady should be a statue of a woman standing by the water. What is her origin, and why is only her head left? Why did the True King place her head on the Treasure Ship?
"Is this stone related to the return to the ancestral land of Shenzhou? Why did my grandfather set up a talisman formation around the stone? Why didn’t he take the stone away?"
The wooden cart was rather bumpy, rocking his body from side to side, and the girl beside him holding a lute dozed off, unconsciously leaning her head against his shoulder.
Chen Shi smelled a fragrance from the girl, not knowing whether it was her body scent or the scent of rouge and face powder.
—In the morning, he had seen this girl applying some rouge and face powder to her face, which made her cheeks rosy and even more attractive, although she was beautiful already.
He sneezed because the girl’s hair tickled his nose, the girl on his shoulder did not wake up but stealthily opened one eye, glanced at him, and continued to sleep.
Of course, she was just pretending.
But as they rocked, she gradually fell asleep truly, woke up midway complaining of a sore neck, tilted her head, and took a while to recover.
After returning to Huangpo Village, Chen Shi didn’t travel far again.
He returned to his old routine, practicing daily, veneration, learning, but this time he had an additional task, which was rummaging through books in the east wing.
The east wing of the Chen Family was a place where miscellaneous items were stored, rarely visited, always dark and cold. Grandfather would place a few shocking and bug-repelling talismans there around the Spring Festival to ward off rats and bugs, then ignored the three rooms afterward.
Previously, Chen Shi had sneaked in to search for the "treasures" he had collected as a child.
He found that he had few toys as a child, mostly counting rods, inkstones, worn-out pen nibs, and notebooks, among other things.
There were also some old clothes that he wore as a child.
"I must have been a boring child," thought Chen Shi.
Other miscellaneous items included his father Chen Tang’s old things and things his grandfather had discarded in the east wing, varying greatly in quantity.
Chen Shi delved into the east wing to search and eventually found an old scroll. Unrolling it, he saw a painting of a family of four, with the grandfather sitting on a chair, a little boy on his lap, and a man and woman standing behind.
The man was very handsome, the woman also very beautiful.
"Is that Chen Tang and my mother? Chen Tang doesn’t deserve it."
Chen Shi looked for a long time, carefully rolled up the scroll, and stored it securely.
Outside the window, the sound of a lute came. Chen Shi looked up and through the window lattice, saw Dingding sitting under the eaves of the main house, holding a lute, presumably practicing her techniques.
The sound of the lute was slow, like the daydreams of a summer girl, filled with the beauty of a secret love, full of nervousness and anticipation.
Chen Shi couldn’t understand and continued to search.
"However, her playing has emotions in it, much better than before; she’s added something of her own," he thought.
But was this good or bad for the girl?
Chen Shi dragged a box out from the pile of old items, which at first glance seemed like an ordinary wooden box, tightly sealed, with no visible way to open it or lock.
The box was old, likely made from jujube wood, not painted, but it had developed a polished sheen, shiny and carrying the texture of red jade.
All six sides of the box were painted with different talismans, with a complex structure different from any talismans Chen Shi had seen before.
However, despite their complexity, they had no effect.
They were like decorative patterns, not real talismans.
"These talismans on the box seem like made-up symbols; they don’t have any power."
After observing for a while, Chen Shi gradually spotted a clue, so he moved the box to the courtyard, took out paper and ink, and meticulously copied down the talismans from all six sides.
Dingding put down her lute and came over to look, her hair flowing down Chen Shi’s neck, cool to the touch.
However, she didn’t know much about talismans, all was dark before her eyes.
Chen Shi finally saw the patterns, pondered, and said, "According to the structure of the talismans, it seems that a Projection Method was used..."
He set one corner of the box upright, arranged the six papers in the order of the six sides, and treated the six papers as one entity.
"No, not this corner."
He tried another corner of the box, rearranged the six papers, and a smile slowly appeared on his face, "This time it’s right."
Dingding still saw darkness, feeling like she should sit with the dog at the front door.
Chen Shi looked at the patterns on the six papers, which made sense when connected together.
He quickly mastered the extremely complex talisman, explaining to the girl, "This talisman actually contains the pattern of the twelve Chen, which means to open the box, you also need the corresponding hour... Black Pot, tell the time!"
A few dog barks came from the front door.
"Third quarter of the si hour," Chen Shi understood and said.
Dingding widened her eyes, not knowing how he understood.
Chen Shi found the talisman corresponding to the si hour, located the third quarter node, immediately activated his Qi-Blood, and swiftly tapped on the third quarter node.
The node for the third quarter lit up, then his fingertip landed on the node for the fourth quarter!