Chronicles of Zhou He

It was still raining in Bai City.

There was no one at home.

His father was a history professor at Yuanzhou Academy, a pretty impressive one. He was neither especially busy nor especially free, had a wide range of hobbies, and specialized in losing money. His mother, Wei Yan, was a lawyer. She was much busier than his father, and it was common not to see her around. She was quite good at making money, though, which complemented his father perfectly.

It had long been rare to find either parent at home.

"Dinner..."

Chen Shu opened the fridge and looked inside. There was cabbage, eggs, milk, and a few jars and bottles.

He couldn't be bothered to cook, so he took out his phone and ordered delivery.

Half an hour later, the food arrived.

A steaming bowl of Soul-Stealing Rice Noodles sat before him. Fragrant lard enriched the clear broth, while a generous scattering of bright-red bird's-eye chilies brought fresh heat into perfect harmony with its savory flavor. A few slices of pork, stewed until meltingly tender, completed the many-layered assault on his taste buds.

The restaurant had thrown in a little toy, too—

A Squeaky Pig slightly bigger than his thumb, with a tiny whistle underneath. Squeeze the piglet, and it went squeak, squeak.

"Squeak, squeak..."

And so began the day's good mood.

After eating, he cultivated and worked on deciphering.

He kept happily busy.

The eighth day of the fifth month.

The rain in Bai City had stopped.

Sitting in Ning Qing's courtyard, Chen Shu gave her the Squeaky Pig that had come with his delivery order. He told her she could squeeze it to make a sound, and that it was great fun.

Ning Qing took it and squeezed it twice. Squeak, squeak. Without a change of expression, she tucked it into her pocket.

Chen Shu went to look at her flowers.

It had rained for ages, and roses were especially prone to black spot at this time of year. Fortunately, Ning Qing had kept up with preventive spraying, so the flowers and plants were still fairly healthy.

Chen Shu's favorite rose, a variety called Dawn and Dusk, had bloomed.

It was a variety developed only a few years ago, with rosette-shaped flowers and gradient coloring. In full bloom, it resembled the colors along the horizon at dawn, when the sky was not quite light, or at dusk, when it was not quite dark.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a cut-flower variety.

As he smelled the flowers, Chen Shu looked back and asked Ning Qing, "What are you doing over summer break?"

"Working. You?"

"I'm going to help open the Sacred Ancestor's cube and inventory the artifacts." Chen Shu smacked his lips. "Professor Chen is finally proving useful. It wasn't easy."

"Just what you wanted."

"Heh..."

"Why are you so interested in the Sacred Ancestor?" Ning Qing tilted her head and glanced at Chen Shu.

"None of your business."

"..."

Ning Qing turned away and stopped talking.

Just then, Chen Shu got a call from Professor Chen. As soon as he answered, Professor Chen said, "We're starting to excavate the Cube this afternoon. Want to come watch? Clearing away the soil and rock around it will probably take until tomorrow."

"Yeah."

"Where are you?"

"At Ning Qing's."

"I'll come pick you up."

"Okay."

Chen Shu stood and said to Ning Qing, "I'm leaving."

Ning Qing nodded faintly.

Mirror Sea was Yuanzhou's second-largest freshwater lake. Long and narrow, it stretched about forty kilometers, measured ten kilometers at its widest point from east to west, covered 260 square kilometers, and took 140 kilometers to drive around. Bai City's urban district sat at the foot of the mountains west of Mirror Sea; the opposite shore belonged to Swimming Dragon District. From the city to the foot of Beauty Mountain, the only route was the lakeside road. There was no highway, and the drive took about an hour.

Professor Chen drove by the book and absolutely refused to speed.

An hour later, they arrived.

Only standing this close beneath the mountain could Chen Shu grasp how terrifying nature's power was.

Earth and rock had collapsed from half the mountainside. At least a kilometer of the lakeside road lay buried, and the debris had surged into the lake with the force of ten thousand jun.

The Cube was embedded in the upper half of the mountain, with one corner exposed. Its dark-gray, almost black material radiated an ancient, weighty presence. It had just crossed five thousand years of history to meet the people of this age, giving the sight a fantastical sense of traveling through time and space.

Gazing at it, Chen Shu felt as though time had been compressed.

Chen Shu saw that the area had already been sealed off. Fully armed soldiers stood guard alongside armored vehicles equipped with spiritual-energy shields, and everyone who passed through had to prove their identity.

Large excavation machines were ready.

The archaeological team had arrived long ago, too.

There were plenty of officials as well.

In short, there were a lot of people.

However, Chen Shu hardly knew any of them, though he did recognize two historians:

Professor Shi and Professor Liu.

Chen Shu had read their books and watched their programs. The two held roughly the same standing in historical circles as Professor Chen, though each specialized in different dynasties.

Two others stood out as well—

One was a woman in a Daoist robe. She looked ordinary, without the air of a transcendent sage, and her robe differed from those of his previous life.

The other was a man in a yellow monk's robe. He had a fierce face covered in scars left by what might have been blades or swords, along with a blotch of burn marks. His eyebrows were thick, and when he looked at someone, he seemed ready to devour them. Surprisingly, he was from the Buddhist Order.

The Daoist Order and the Buddhist Order had both been founded by disciples of the Sacred Ancestor. They were enduring schools in the history of cultivation, and even now they wielded great power and had followers everywhere.

Of course, they still had to submit to government oversight.

The two had probably been called in to maintain security.

They had to be high-level cultivators at the very least, right?

The Sacred Ancestor's cube was tremendously important. It concerned the origins of Huaxia civilization and held many artifacts and treasures. Although no excavation of a Sacred Ancestor's cube in Yi Nation had ever gone wrong, the necessary safety measures still had to be taken.

"Hello, Professor Shi. I've read your lectures on the Great Sheng." Chen Shu then turned to the other man. "Professor Liu, I loved watching you on History Forum when I was little. The way you used humor to bring the history of each dynasty to life was wonderful. Really, you introduced so many people to history."

"Hello," Professor Shi said, reserved.

"Hello, young Chen. Thank you, thank you..." Professor Liu said. "Professor Chen told us you know more about Xia Dynasty history than he does. Heroes really do emerge young."

"Not at all. I'm just very interested in the Sacred Ancestor. You know how it is—almost every boy is interested in him as a child," Chen Shu said modestly. "I'll have to ask you seniors for guidance on the things I don't understand."

"Are you planning to go into history?" Professor Shi asked Chen Shu.

"Not at all. It's just an interest," Chen Shu answered honestly. "I'm planning to apply for Spell Principles Studies."

"Oh..."

Professor Shi paused.

When Professor Chen had said his son knew more about the Sacred Ancestor than he did and wanted to bring him along as an assistant, they had assumed he was paving the way for his son's future. It would have been perfectly normal for the child of a well-known historian to continue studying history.

Now it seemed that might not be the case.

Professor Shi then asked, "The big exam's over, right? Have the scores come out?"

"Not yet."

"Have a school in mind?"

"I'll see if I can get into Yujing Academy."

"Oh... Good, good."

Professor Shi said "good" twice, because he himself taught in Yujing Academy's history department.

Professor Liu said nothing. He taught at the academy next door.

Someone came to consult the three professors. Once they had their answer, the machines on the mountain started up immediately. The clanging carried far across the water; people on the opposite shore could probably hear it.

Chen Shu watched with his head tilted back, utterly absorbed.

Some people always compared tomb raiding with archaeology, but the two were plainly nothing alike.

Tomb raiders invaded graves for selfish gain, savagely forcing their way in to take anything valuable. They caused tremendous damage to the tombs and their contents. Many treasures were destroyed outright through their lack of expertise. What little survived was often sold overseas or hidden away in some collector's home.

Archaeology, by contrast, was usually reactive.

Most of the time, archaeological teams undertook rescue excavations only after a tomb or ruin had been exposed by natural causes, or showed signs of having been raided.

Of course, there had also been "brilliant minds" who initiated excavations. They were generally savaged for it afterward.

And what did archaeological excavations yield?

Some discoveries filled gaps in history; others mended cracks in the cultural record. All of that was immensely important.

Without history or culture, there could be no shared identity, and thus no great nation or civilization.

As for the physical objects, a few were put into storage, but most went to museums. Anyone in the country could admire the treasures left by their forebears, and many museums charged nothing or very little for admission.

Calling it "legal tomb raiding" was utter nonsense.

Even in this world, in this age, the value of objects unearthed from ancient tombs and ruins was largely cultural. Few had practical value. Ancient cultivation methods, spells, and technologies were not somehow more advanced than modern ones.

The Sacred Ancestor's cube, however, was different.

First, the way it appeared:

A Sacred Ancestor's cube always revealed itself of its own accord. Before that happened, no one knew where it was. No one could find it deliberately, or even stumble across it by chance. It might appear inside a mine already riddled with holes. The moment it materialized out of thin air, every tunnel would be blocked. It was astonishing.

Second, its value:

The contents of a Sacred Ancestor's cube had genuine strategic significance beyond their cultural importance.

Clang, clang, clang...

The cube's outline gradually emerged.

The gray-black Cold Star Stone was harder than steel and remained a strategic material even now. They could excavate boldly without worrying about damaging it.

That was another grand thing about the Sacred Ancestor's cube.

At an ordinary ruin, they would need little shovels, little spoons, little brushes, and little graduate students to dig it out bit by bit. It cost time, effort, and graduate students. Such delicate things.

"Whoosh!"

Water poured down, and the patterns on the Cube's stone wall gradually appeared.

A simple design of pine branches.

Every cube bore a different design. The one in Yujing had featured auspicious clouds.

As they dug farther down, the Cube's door came into view.

The side facing the lake was its western face. There were six doors in all—east, south, west, north, top, and bottom—and any one of them could be used to enter.

Apart from that outrageous "concealment mechanism," the Sacred Ancestor's cube had no other defenses or countermeasures. Only the doors required a little time to unlock.

The Sacred Ancestor had not wanted to kill thieves.

What a merciful fellow countryman.

The clanging gradually ceased. Then vast amounts of water washed the Cube's surface clean, revealing the outline of a huge arched doorway.

The sky slowly darkened.

More and more lights gathered at both ends of the blocked lakeside road as residents arrived to watch after hearing the news. Some even came by boat from the far shore.

Military personnel went up.

Unlocking the door would take time. After that, they would need to isolate the air, go inside to verify it was safe, and bring in equipment. It might take until midnight or the next morning.

Chen Shu would have to wait until at least tomorrow to enter the Cube with Professor Chen.

He had only come today to watch and broaden his horizons.

Midnight.

Chen Shu had long since returned home.

He had finished cultivating, too.

Despite his fatigue, he could not quite fall asleep. All sorts of jumbled thoughts came flooding in one after another, leaving his mind in turmoil.

Chen Shu studied the Crystal in his hand. After a while, he held it up to the light in his room. The light shone through, illuminating mist within that shifted between pink and pale purple.

He had once read a book called Chronicles of Zhou He.

Zhou He had lived in the early Xia Dynasty. He was the first court historian in this world's Huaxia history and normally stayed in the palace, where he was responsible for compiling the official histories. But beyond those histories, he had also gathered records of his daily work, occasional reflections, and things he had seen and heard that did not warrant a place in the official record into a book.

That book was Chronicles of Zhou He.

It had not been protected as carefully as the official histories. Later, when the Daoist Order took charge of recording history for dynasty after dynasty, it also neglected to preserve the book, leaving much of it damaged or missing. In modern times, however, a leading figure in the Daoist Order had restored these books together, and the contents should now match the originals.

The book was often used as a reference on early Xia history.

Chen Shu had come across these lines in it:

Moonlight lay clear over the deep palace; candle shadows danced along the winding halls.

The white-haired Sacred Emperor remained, sitting idly, turning a crystal in his hands.

It was hardly a poem, just a simple record of a small moment involving the Sacred Ancestor.

Zhou He had had a lot to do that day and worked late at the palace. When he finally left, he happened to see the Sacred Ancestor. The moonlight over the deep palace was cold and clear, and everything was quiet. Lanterns hung along the long corridor, their candle shadows swaying. His Majesty the Sage Emperor had grown very old, yet instead of resting in his chambers, he sat in the palace corridor, passing the time with a Crystal in his hands.

Had he been lost in thought?

What could His Majesty the Sacred Emperor have been thinking about then?

Zhou He found it interesting, so he hurried to write it down when he got home.

Most people believed the lines depicted the cold desolation of the deep palace and the loneliness of the aged Sacred Emperor sitting alone beneath the moon. So even the Sacred Emperor who had united the realm and founded Huaxia had a vulnerable side, needing companionship at night like any ordinary old man. Perhaps the higher a person stood before others, the lonelier he was in private?

Chen Shu looked down at the Crystal in his hand again.