Smelling the Scent of Conspiracy

With the deal concluded, the entire venue erupted in celebration.

Quite a few people began to leave. The Rogue Cultivator who had first joined the bidding had also slipped away without a sound.

Huang Yuliang obtained the ancient painting, while Shang Qiujun looked at him from the side.

"What exactly is this? Tell me."

Huang Yuliang looked at Shang Qiujun. "Let's go. We'll leave first, and I'll explain it to you when we get back."

The two quickly left, soon arriving at Shang Qiujun's residence.

It was a magnificently decorated study. Huang Yuliang spread the drawing in his hands across the table.

His expression was slightly grave as he carefully examined the diagram.

At the same time, he took out a sheet of blank paper from the side and wrote down the two characters he had seen.

Watching this, Shang Qiujun found the two characters on the rice paper utterly unfamiliar.

"What characters are these?"

Huang Yuliang pointed at the two buildings and slowly said, "Look at the lines outlining these two buildings. There are some discordant patterns among them. Once extracted, don't they become these two characters?"

Shang Qiujun observed carefully for a moment, comparing the building lines on the map with the two characters. He said in surprise, "They really are the same!"

"What do these two characters mean?"

"They mean—ritual."

"Ritual?" Shang Qiujun's face changed in alarm. He naturally understood what those two words signified.

Any spell or event related to a ritual usually contained tremendous power.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. "You mean this drawing contains some sort of mysterious ritual."

"Exactly. And this paper is three thousand years old, yet it has been preserved so perfectly."

"Clearly, it was carefully kept."

"The hidden characters on it are from the Great Yu Dynasty,