"What does this plaque say?"
As Qian Xin examined it curiously, she asked Wu Ying, who stood on the same side as Lu Feng.
Wu Ying replied, "There are two characters on it: 'Xie' and 'Ji.'"
Qian Xin froze, then pointed to the center of the plaque. "The writing may be excessively scrawled, but I can still make out that there are three characters in total, can't I?"
Wu Ying laughed. "This is not scrawled writing. It was a style of script popular in that era, renowned for its free-spirited wildness. Every ruler and royal minister loved it."
As he spoke, he wrote the character for "righteousness" on a stone slab beneath his feet, then drew a slanted stroke across its center.
The result no longer looked like a character, nor like a symbol.
Only then did he continue, "This is the standard form of the cursive character in the middle of the plaque. It is not any particular word, but a mark the Xie Dynasty made whenever it won a battle."
Qian Xin stood there, utterly bewildered.
Having heard Wu Ying recount his past experiences beforehand, Ning Xiang could not help asking skeptically, "This plaque bears such a symbol, along with the characters 'Xie' and 'Ji.' Does that mean the Xie Dynasty defeated the Ji Dynasty?"
"Taken literally, that is indeed what it means." Wu Ying nodded, though he did not sound entirely confident. Puzzled, he said, "Whether it was Xie Tianjun or Evil Ghost King Butcher, neither should have been the sort to flaunt their achievements. Why would they go to such lengths to deliberately establish a 'separate residence'?"
Lu Feng spoke in a deep voice, "If they wanted to show off, they would not have built it in the unfathomable depths underground."
Wu Ying nodded in agreement.