Professor Li deciphered the punctuation faster and faster. His three graduate students had arrived as well, taking rapid notes on laptops beside him.
"This passage..." Professor Li adjusted his reading glasses and pointed just right of the mural's center. "This passage describes what caused the war."
Chen Siyao leaned closer.
The text accompanied the mural. It depicted a parched, cracked land. Something that had once flowed above it had vanished, leaving only patterns like dried-up riverbeds.
Professor Li began to read.
"The spiritual veins of the Nine Provinces were severed..."
He paused, adjusted his glasses, and checked the next few characters.
"From that moment onward, the path of cultivation was cut off."
"The spiritual energy was cut off..." Chen Siyao repeated softly.
Professor Li was already reading on. He was much faster than before. Once he found his rhythm, the elderly professor displayed greater concentration than even the younger people.
"The spiritual veins of the Nine Provinces ran dry, leaving a million cultivators stranded. Their dantians cycled in vain, their cultivation techniques could no longer be sustained. The lineages of the various paths faced the danger of dying out."
He turned to Chen Siyao. "See? The spiritual energy was gone... all the spiritual energy in the Nine Provinces was gone."
"When did this happen?"
"Look farther back." Professor Zhou stepped twice toward the left side of the mural and pointed to an earlier account.
"There's a date here—'Year 37,400 of the Upper Origin Calendar: the spiritual veins of the Nine Provinces declined for the first time.' Then here—'Year 62,000 of the Upper Origin Calendar: the spiritual veins ran completely dry, and cultivation could no longer be sustained.'"
"More than twenty thousand years apart," Chen Siyao said.
"Yes. The spiritual energy didn't disappear all at once. It gradually ran dry. But