Peering into Antiquity and Exploring the Present

Chapter 16: Peering into Antiquity and Exploring the Present

Ye Qin couldn't bother with anything else. He quickly crawled through the gap in the window. Before leaving, he didn't forget to hook the handle on the window with his tail and restore it to its original position.

However, the books on the ground couldn't be put back.

After all, to be honest, it wasn't difficult for a snake to knock these books to the ground, but it was indeed asking too much to put them back in their original places intact.

The librarian opened the door and began to tidy up. Most people were well-behaved and didn't leave any trash in the library. He only needed to clean the dust, and then organize and categorize some books.

Walking to the end of the bookshelf, he saw a pile of books on the ground and was dumbfounded. "What's going on?"

He clearly remembered that these books were all in place and none of them had been borrowed. How could they suddenly be scattered on the ground?

"Could they have been blown down by the wind?"

The librarian looked around at the windows. They were all closed, so there was no way wind could have gotten in.

"How strange."

The librarian scratched his head, unable to figure it out. After putting the books back, he just assumed someone had accidentally knocked them over and didn't think much of it.

As night fell and the library was locked, Ye Qin, familiar with the routine, sneaked in again.

During the day, he found a spot in the shade of the trees next to the library and rested with his eyes closed. He would come back at night.

After the first time, he quickly found his spot on the second night. Like a large sponge, he absorbed knowledge from his surroundings frantically.

Ye Qin was the only cultivator, and these ancient texts didn't provide explicit cultivation methods. They only offered a general idea and a broad concept, so it all depended on his own comprehension and continuous exploration.

This meant he had to pool his wisdom. Only by constantly enriching himself and gaining enough knowledge and insight could he forge a cultivation path that best suited him.

Of course, not all ancient texts were useful to him. After all, the thoughts of many ancient sages were nonsense. They weren't true cultivators. Some of their ideas were insightful and stemmed from their own experiences, but others, in the eyes of Ye Qin, who was now an "expert," were pure guesswork.

Therefore, he needed to sift through them, discarding the dross and retaining the essence.

Ye Qin raced against time, reading at an astonishing speed. His gaze paused slightly, and he was soon captivated by an ancient book.

"Therefore, when the divine object is born, the sage follows it; when Heaven and Earth transform, the sage imitates it; when Heaven displays signs of fortune and misfortune, the sage models it; when the River produced the 'Diagram' and the Luo produced the 'Scroll,' the sage followed them."

"This is—the 'River Diagram and Luo Scroll'!"

Ye Qin's interest was immediately piqued, and he used his tail to turn the pages.

"The River Diagram merges, the Luo Scroll divides; the square and the round hide within each other, yin and yang embrace, and mutually serve each other."

Legend has it that in ancient times, a dragon-horse emerged from the Yellow River in Mengjin County, northeast of Luoyang, carrying the "River Diagram" and presented it to Fuxi. Fuxi derived the Eight Trigrams from it, which is the origin of the "I Ching."

During the time of Yu the Great, a divine turtle emerged from the Luo River in Luoning County, west of Luoyang, carrying the "Luo Scroll" on its back and presented it to Yu the Great. Yu the Great successfully controlled the floods based on it and divided the land into Kyushu.

The dragon-horse carried it on its body, and the divine turtle arranged it on its back; thus, the "River Diagram and Luo Scroll" came into being.

The appearance and records of these artifacts are filled with mythical colors, giving them an indescribable mystery, and people still debate them to this day.

Some say they originated from Daoist alchemy and health preservation techniques, while others believe they are observations of celestial phenomena. There are various theories, each with its own explanation.

The "River Diagram and Luo Scroll" appeared very early, completely defying the developmental patterns of that era. Some even believe these books are extraterrestrial in origin, products of another space-time dimension.

Later generations discovered that the Luo Scroll uses the North Star as a reference point, and the brightest stars in the nine directions indicated by the Big Dipper's handle are its markers. Its numbers and positions are completely consistent with the Luo Scroll.

Undeniably, its origin is a mystery, and there is still no definitive explanation, unlike the previous ancient texts like the "Dao De Jing" and "Yi Jin Jing," which have traceable origins.

The content within the book appears chaotic, yet it seems to contain infinite variations. The origins of Chinese culture, yin and yang, and the five elements are all encompassed within it.

Unlike other ancient texts, in addition to written characters, the "River Diagram and Luo Scroll" also contains many diagrams, embodying the Great Way of Heaven and Earth, the Eight Trigrams, and the I Ching. Ye Qin found it more difficult to read.

Because he also had to comprehend the meaning contained in the diagrams, neither could be neglected. It was enough to make one dizzy.

Fortunately, Ye Qin had plenty of patience and a whole night ahead of him to carefully ponder the content.

In modern times, the "River Diagram and Luo Scroll" is hailed as a Tesseract. It is said that if one can unravel the profound mysteries contained within it, one will understand the ultimate secrets of the universe.

While there is some exaggeration in this claim, it is not entirely baseless.

The wisdom of the ancients was very special. They might not have understood modern physics, but consider the astronomical masterpiece of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the "Ganshi Star Classics," which perfectly mapped the arrangement of star regions light-years away. The star regions detected by modern astronomers' telescopes are not as standard or detailed as those compiled in the "Ganshi Star Classics." They even have to consult the ancient "Ganshi Star Classics" for learning and research.

What kind of wisdom is this?

Therefore, Ye Qin never dared to underestimate the ancients and benefited greatly from them.

"No wonder they say this is a miraculous book; it truly lives up to its reputation. It's no wonder the I Ching originated from the River Diagram and Luo Scroll, and it also has close ties to the Twenty-Eight Mansions and the Twelve Zodiacs."

"The path of cultivation is also closely related to Tai Chi, Eight Trigrams, I Ching, Six Jia, Nine Stars, Feng Shui, and so on. All of this can be traced back to the River Diagram and Luo Scroll."

Before he knew it, another night had passed. Ye Qin left filled with emotion.

He had used his head to push the books down from the shelves, but he couldn't push them back, so they remained piled on the ground as usual.

Ye Qin could only offer a silent apology in his heart.

And that morning, when the librarian came to work, he saw the pile of books on the ground again and was completely bewildered.

The librarian stared in disbelief. "What on earth is going on!"

Although the scattered books were different this time, they were still in roughly the same area, as if they were particularly fond of the spot.

If someone had accidentally bumped them, how could they make the same mistake repeatedly? And after what happened yesterday, he had paid special attention, and no one had come here at all.

So what's the reason these books are spread out here?

The first time could be a coincidence, but the second time is inexplicable.

Could it be a thief?

The administrator checked the inventory. All books were accounted for, except for those checked out. None were missing.

Furthermore, he'd roughly observed that the books scattered on the floor yesterday and today were all ancient texts in classical Chinese, obscure and difficult to understand. Even if someone wanted to steal them, they wouldn't steal these.

Besides, these were all later reproductions, not originals. They looked antique, but they were artificially aged and weren't worth much.

It couldn't be that the library had suddenly become haunted, could it?