The box did not have any lock. Instead, it was designed with a magical system. There was no one who was able to create this kind of thing in the modern carpentry.
Nowadays, superglue was widely used in wooden products; those old handicraft techniques had been gradually lost. With the skillful hands of an experienced carpenter, home furniture would not need any nails to be a.s.sembled.
As soon as w.a.n.g Xu opened the box, his eyes immediately lit up. Inside that box, there was another box, which was even more precious than its container. It was made of amber. Under the lamplight, numerous colorful beams of light appeared on the box as if there were many translucent clouds floating on the surface of a lake. That image made him bewildered for a while.
After he calmed down, he saw a line of words gradually appeared on the surface of the box, which looked like someone was using a brush to draw on water.
w.a.n.g Xu couldn"t read those words, but still, he could identify those to be Chinese scriptures. They looked square and as delicate as a flowing stream; clearly, they belonged to an ancient calligraphy style. Even though he was not a rotter, he only knew that much. There was nothing as a brilliant young man who could possess ma.s.sive knowledge these days.
"Agh, it would be good if I could understand them" w.a.n.g Xu spoke to himself.
Then, the words on the box suddenly faded and disappeared like rippling waves on water. Right after that, the ink gradually gathered once again and turned to be simplified Chinese!
w.a.n.g Xu"s eyeb.a.l.l.s almost fell out in astonishment. He a.s.sumed this to be some kind of high-technology product, which belonged to a developed civilization.
"There are seven objects like this in the universe, offered to the predestined ones. I will feel joyful if you master one technique in each volume."
It was difficult to understand that sentence thoroughly. It seemed that someone wanted to say that he had hidden seven boxes like this one in different places. Each of them would belong to the one who found it. And if someone could learn what was inside the box, he would be very satisfied. Plus, according to the message, the object inside the box was the knowledge of only one subject, and it was very "lucky" to be able to learn it thoroughly.
w.a.n.g Xu didn"t know whether to laugh or cry. That predecessor was not only arrogant but also a little crazy.
[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]
Then he eyed down to the signature at the bottom left corner, trying to find out about this predecessor"s origin. However, once he glanced at the place where the forebears usually left their signatures, he was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood.
The name was w.a.n.g Xu.
"Good, that"s good. Very brave, very brave… Hey, cameraman, where are you hiding? Is this the game show "talented actors" of the TV Channel? Where are you, mister director? Come out and answer me!"
Of course, there was no one replying him. Thus, he made up something to convince himself to stop babbling and continued to open the amber box.
There was a bamboo book, which was wrapped by a worn-out piece of sheepskin in the box. Three words "Devil Subduing Journal" were written on the sheepskin.
w.a.n.g Xu did not understand these words. The amber box immediately turned into dust right after he took out the bamboo book. w.a.n.g Xu did not bother, opened the book, nodding as he was looking at it. His face was very excited.
"d.a.m.n it, I cannot understand a single word. What the h.e.l.l is it?"
w.a.n.g Xu started to feel tired. He began to think about strange things happening continuously during the past few days, yet still, he had no clue. Then, he stopped thinking, took a shower and went to bed right away. It was 4:30 a.m. He had slept all the way until the afternoon. It was already 3:00 p.m when he checked the time on his cell phone.
As usual, he washed his face, ate instant noodles and continued the daily work of a homebody. He a.s.sumed that he had already found out the root of that strange sound, so this problem had been solved. Regarding the thief who left his business card the previous day, as he was detected, he would not dare to come back again. With that cursory thought, he was really a standard homebody. However, the consequences always developed in a bad way.
4:00 p.m.
The sky was gray, the northern wind growled violently. w.a.n.g Xu was searching for information about Devil Ravine Man online. Even a person who had been using the Internet for many years would unlikely search for his name online. This sometimes brought us surprises. For example, w.a.n.g Xu had discovered his name was the same with Devil Ravine Man"s.
Devil Ravine Man"s family name was w.a.n.g and his first name was Xu; he was a citizen of Wey [1], lived in the Spring and Autumn Period [2]. Since he was born until he entered a hermitage, he had lived in the Devil Ravine all the time. That was why people called him the "Devil Ravine Man". This man used to take on the grand councilor position of the Chu state. He was also a genius who was adept in everything from the art of warfare, martial art, eight divinatory trigrams to the invention of weapons, astronomy, geography, etc. There was nothing that he did not know. The way he spoke or dressed, his behaviors, his gestures… were all outstanding. Even there were some things that he was not very good at, his "primary" knowledge was already at the miraculous level.
[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]
Devil Ravine Man was a politician with expertise in diplomatic art as well as military strategies. Besides, he was a master in yin yang theory as he was also a prophet, a well-known prophet. That was why people considered Devil Ravin Man an almighty genius.
Moreover, he was very open in receiving disciples. As long as they wanted to learn, he would accept them immediately.
However, not everyone could learn from him, not to mention those who only studied one small part instead of studying all what he had known. Some of his famous disciples can be named: Sun Bin, Pang Juan, Su Qin, Zhang Yi, Mao Sui, Xu Fu, Gan Mao, Yue Yi, Zou Ji, Li Si… After Li Kui died, Shang Yang also followed Devil Ravine Man.
Among his disciples, some studied the art of warfare, some studied eight divinatory trigrams, some were interested in martial art, others learned magical power, and some of them studied political strategies, which were actually the diplomatic art. Actually, mastering only one of those subjects was enough for a person to surprise the world.
w.a.n.g Xu felt very excited. He was more and more interested in the bamboo book. His first thought was this was only a joke. However, he did not expect that the predecessor whose name was same with his was such a genius. Now, the message on the amber box seemed to make more sense.
"I am indeed the "predestined one". Oh la la, if I can master everything in this book, will I be able to charm thousands of girls, secure the society"s atmosphere, and protect the world"s peace? Not to mention I will become a famous powerful and wealthy homebody in the world".
While w.a.n.g Xu was so deep in his thought that his mouth was watering. The computer screen suddenly turned black. Right after that, there was a b.l.o.o.d.y red hollow emerged on the screen; it looked like someone"s mouth opening little by little. Two white holes arose on that mouth. Finally, a smiley face gradually appeared.
"Oh, is this a new kind of virus? Trying to threaten me eh? You are not old enough to play with me." w.a.n.g Xu effortlessly pulled the drawer opened, took out an instruction book on formatting the system. After putting that book on the table, he stretched his leg kicking on the Restart b.u.t.ton. However, regardless how many times he kicked on that b.u.t.ton, that peculiar face still existed on the screen. More than that, it seemed like it wanted to jump out of the screen. The feeling was exactly like watching a 3D movie.
"Ah, you insolent really want to compete with me eh?"
w.a.n.g Xu pulled out the power plug and gloatingly said: "Hehe, at worst, I will detach the HDD hard drive".
When he sat up in front of the computer screen again, he realized the face did not have the peculiar smile anymore; instead, it became fierce and protruded the head out of the screen.
w.a.n.g Xu"s Adam"s apple ran up and down. The banshee"s fangs were about to bite his neck. If it were someone else, they might have fallen down unconsciously or been frozen without any reaction. Quite contrary, w.a.n.g Xu jumped up aggressively like he was in the dead end.
He kicked forcefully straight to screen, then continued trampling on the computer until it was crumpled. When he stopped, blood was all over his feet, might be because he stepped on shards of gla.s.s. Luckily, he was wearing a pair of flip-flop so the wound was not very serious.
At this moment, w.a.n.g Xu did not notice the pain. He grabbed the chair, folded it and then continued to pound the computer screen.
Actually, when w.a.n.g Xu broke the screen into pieces, the ghost face had disappeared. However, the word "eradication" hovered in w.a.n.g Xu"s mind.
After smashing in the whole two minutes until the computer screen was crushed so badly that it could not be ruined more, w.a.n.g Xu finally stopped.
"I cannot stay in this lodging house anymore. Tomorrow, no, right now, I have to move out".
w.a.n.g Xu"s thought completely changed. As things had turned out like this, he finally admitted that there were supernatural things existing in this world.
After rolling the bamboo book and tucking it on his chest, w.a.n.g Xu quickly stuffed his luggage with a bundle of necessaries, several sets of clothes, then ran downstairs. On the way out, w.a.n.g Xu saw the business card he had thrown away this morning. After hesitating a bit, he picked it up and stormed out of the house.
However, as soon as he stepped out, he witnessed a creepy scene that sent him goose b.u.mps.
In front of him, there were some people gathering. Deep inside, he knew those were not human. Their clothes belonged to different eras. There were men, women, old, young… all of them were expressionless. As soon as w.a.n.g Xu saw them, they all turned around and looked at him. Although their gesture was slow, their speed was extremely fast. They already moved more than ten meters in no time.
They almost came to the door.
After bewildering for two seconds, w.a.n.g Xu closed the door forcefully. The cold sweat rolled down uninterruptedly on his face.
[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]
"It"s not going well. This is Resident Evil in the legend. If this continues, I will be tricked to death".
He didn"t even finish his exclamation when two hands of a banshee suddenly grabbed his neck. That banshee appeared in front of him from nowhere and wanted to kill him now.
w.a.n.g Xu suddenly recalled the mysterious words from Mister Mao: "If you don"t go to the detective office before 4:00 pm, you will… haha, I will not say more. You should watch out."
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[1] Wey: was an ancient Chinese state that was founded in the early Western Zhou dynasty and rose to prominence during the Spring and Autumn period [2].
[2] Spring and Autumn Period: was a period in Chinese history from approximately 771 to 476 BC, which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou Period. The period’s name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 479 BC (Wikipedia)