Akhtava untied the straps around himself and, with great solemnity, took out something wrapped inside, cradling it carefully in his hands.
Chen Chuan took a look. It was a scroll of bluish-yellow bamboo slips bound with crimson silk thread. The style felt vaguely familiar to him. It seemed to be... a Xuan Sect scripture?
As Akhtava handed it over, Chen Chuan reached out to accept it. Opening it, he saw densely packed golden-red talismanic script across the bamboo slips.
His heart stirred. "A Golden Talisman Book?"
The ink had been mixed by a Fighter using his own blood, cinnabar, and other materials. The red was actually cinnabar, while the gold was blood.
Golden blood was precisely one of the manifestations found only among certain Profound Cave Observation Fighters. This was especially true of Old Sects practitioners; those with profound cultivation often displayed such traits.
He asked about its origins, and Akhtava answered that the priest who had presided over his blood-drinking ritual had given it to him. It was said to have been left behind by a Profound Scholar from the Eastern Continent long ago. Its age seemed extremely ancient; it had been passed down for more than thirty generations in that priest's hands alone.
Chen Chuan nodded slightly. This should have been left behind by a Profound Scholar who had come to Ying Land in the past.
In ancient times, Ying Land had maintained some contact with the outside world, but most people from the Eastern Continent looked down on this territory.
The main reason was that local Fighters were generally subject to dynastic rule. Their own lands contained vast developed Convergence Zones, making resources relatively easy to obtain, and there was still much left unexploited. Even if they wished to expand their territory, there was plenty nearby, and