"Mr. Zou?"
Tao Sheng looked at Zhang Yu and sighed. "So the young sir did not know where he had gone."
He recalled for a moment and said, "Mr. Zou was broadly knowledgeable and exceptionally learned, and he was humble and courteous besides. I greatly admired him as well. He possessed remarkable abilities, though many people did not know of them.
"As for where he went, I am not too sure either. I remember the last time I saw Mr. Zou was only a few days after you followed Mr. Xun to cultivate the Dao.
"At the time, he seemed to have received a letter and was in a hurry to leave and attend to some matter. It also seemed he did not intend to return anytime soon, so he gave away everything in his residence. He donated a batch of books to the town and entrusted some books to me for safekeeping, which was why he met with me."
"Books?" Zhang Yu asked.
"They were all old surviving copies," Tao Sheng said. "Most were bark-paper books concerning the natives. I looked through them afterward. The writing upon them resembled pictures; though vivid, their meaning was obscure. There were also some rubbings from broken stone tablets. The materials were extremely scattered and fragmentary."
Zhang Yu's heart stirred. "Do you know where these things are now?"
"Because the town relocated, I could not carry these things with me indefinitely. So I later had someone transport them to Taiyang Academy in Eastern Court, where they were kept on my behalf. Young sir, since you seek your adoptive father's whereabouts, you might as well look through those books. Perhaps you may find some clues within."
Taiyang Academy? Zhang Yu pondered.
Tao Sheng said at this moment, "Wait here." He turned and went deep