At last, we saw the Li Si Stele of Qin.
The stele was little more than a small fragment of gray-green stone, its edges broken and uneven, its surface pitted and weathered. Most of the writing was illegible.
Only a few characters in small seal script could still be made out.
Pan Ling stared at the stele, eyes wide with shock.
She kept saying,
"This stele... it's so strange. I can see waves of unusual energy coming off it."
"Waves of energy?"
The rest of us stared at Pan Ling in surprise.
Pan Ling nodded.
"Yes. It's very strange. I've never seen anything like it."
At that, we all began examining the stele in earnest.
But no matter how closely we looked or tried to sense it, none of us could see or feel the "waves of energy" Pan Ling had described.
That only confirmed what she had said: there was something extraordinary about this stele.
Something had to be hidden within it.
Since we could not decipher the inscription, we had to try sensing it another way.
With that in mind, I said,
"Li Si carved this stele when the First Emperor performed the fengshan rites on Mount Tai, after Qin conquered the six states and unified the realm. If it's giving off strange energy, there must be something inside it.
"But this is a national treasure. We can't open it, much less damage it.
"Let's sit here and meditate on it for a while.
"Maybe we'll gain something..."
Everyone nodded.
The stele held immense significance and had survived for more than two thousand years. If there was something unusual about it, it might well be an opportunity.
Without another word, we sat cross-legged around it.
Fortunately, there were not many tourists here, and even fewer had come specifically