After his startled cry, Pei Buji strode forward and lunged toward the broken stele.
But just as his hand was about to land on it, he stopped himself. Instead, he turned to Yang Qing. "There shouldn't be any more hidden tricks on this now, should there?"
The Wordless Stele had, after all, been laced with Darkened Incense.
Yang Qing nodded. "The Cover Stele is ruined, and the Sky Worms are all dead. This broken stele should be safe."
"Good."
As Pei Buji spoke, he turned back, braced one hand against the stele, and examined it closely.
"Legend has it that when Emperor Zhetian fought his final battle to reclaim the realm, he wrote a proclamation with the spirit to swallow mountains and rivers."
Pei Buji spoke as he studied the broken stele. "That proclamation was later carved onto a stele for all the world to admire. But several hundred years ago, the stele vanished overnight. It is said that Emperor Zhetian left clues on the Proclamation Stele concerning the Treasure of the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom."
"To keep those clues from falling into villains' hands, he hid the Proclamation Stele before he departed. Who would have thought it would turn up here?"
Listening to Pei Buji, Yang Qing reached a different conclusion. "If that were truly the case, the Proclamation Stele should be intact. Yet only half of it remains. That means someone must have found it during the centuries that followed, and broken it..."
But halfway through his explanation, a strange feeling suddenly surfaced in Yang Qing's mind.
His reasoning was sound, yet something felt wrong.
Yang Qing fell silent, his brows slowly drawing together.
There was something odd about all this.
"Have you thought of something?"
Seeing Yang Qing abruptly stop speaking, Jiang Zhizhou could not help asking.