"What, you knew what it was?" The old man raised a brow.
"Uh..." Gongshu Feng realized he had misspoken and hurriedly patched things up. "No, I just thought it looked like it was hiding some profound mystery."
"Of course. It uses ten-year-old yellow blackwood as its base, with hollow whitewood fitted inside and carved, then wrapped in copper foil to keep out damp and moisture. Calling the design ingenious would not be an exaggeration." The man chuckled, unable to conceal the pride in his voice. "This is the kind of good stuff only the Bureau of Military Affairs has. In the whole camp, only this old man can repair it."
"You seized it from the Bureau of Military Affairs?"
"Not quite." Old Hu curled his lip. "These were gifts from people who passed through before—there are quite a few similar lost items out in the Shenzhou wilderness. See that big thing over there? That came from Shenzhou too."
So that was it... Gongshu Feng immediately understood what he meant.
These had all been left behind by the Ten-State War!
Even though the rebels had chosen to remain in Liuzhou, those sent across the Shen-Liu border had not forgotten them. They supported them of their own accord, with everything from books to magical artifacts... perhaps money and food were included as well. That explained how they had managed to hold on despite using caves as their base.
"Try channeling qi into it," Old Hu continued. "I can't teach you this, but since you've awakened the ability to sense qi, you should naturally know what to do."
Gongshu Feng nodded and guided qi into the cylinder.
It soon began to emit a faint glow.
"Good. Looks like it's working properly." Old Hu rubbed his hands together. "Before, if we wanted to test