Luo Yue's spiritual consciousness held its breath and focused, carefully "looking" into the deepest reaches of her sea of consciousness.
Sure enough!
After bringing her across worlds, they had not disappeared. Instead, they had taken up residence deep within her sea of consciousness, becoming a part of her.
A chart and a book rested silently at the center of her sea of consciousness.
The Yellow River Chart was woven from countless points of black and white starlight, while the Lo Shu was covered in dark tortoiseshell patterns. Profoundly mysterious, they presented a spectacle as majestic as the creation of heaven and earth. Who knew how many ages this chart and book had existed?
"This is... the river yielded the chart, the Luo yielded the book, and the sages took them as their models!"
"The ancients truly did not deceive me!"
Luo Yue gazed inward at the chart and book floating amid the sea of stars in her consciousness, unable to contain her excitement.
And these two objects had finally revealed their true forms, utterly unlike the two crude stone slabs she had first picked up!
The Dragon Horse bore the chart upon his body; the Divine Turtle carried the book upon its back!
These two diagrams were treasures hailed as the beginning of Chinese civilization. Legend held that the Fuxi Trigrams had been derived from them, so for century upon century, they had remained cloaked in mystery, universally recognized as an age-old enigma at the source of ancient Chinese culture.
"These two things actually exist!"
In her previous life, as a diligent underground archaeologist-by her own reckoning-she had spent plenty of time running all over the country.
To trace her ancestors' footsteps, she had even spent ages digging away at the edge of the Yellow River basin in the Ancient Shu Kingdom. She had thought the two stone slabs she unearthed were worth little, but she had actually dug up the real thing.
Come to think of it, the mushrooms in that fragrant soup she had eaten had been picked off these two stone slabs...
"If I remember correctly, the Yellow River Chart's ten numbers govern constancy, and the Lo Shu's nine numbers govern change. Numbers run vertically and horizontally, odd and even alike. Nine crowns the head, one rests beneath the feet; three stands left and seven right; two and four form the shoulders, six and eight the feet, with five at the center."
"Huh? Why have the five elements reversed? No, no, that's wrong. Wait, wait, it's right, it's right. Hmm... let me think. How did that transformation work again?"
Luo Yue had majored in this field in her previous life. Although the need to make a living had later forced her to join the ranks of "archaeologists" after graduation, spending her days excavating cultural relics and managing antique sales...
She had never neglected her research into the mystical arts of the Fuxi Zhouyi.
She had no choice but to study more. Otherwise, the slightest lack of preparation when entering a tomb would have been enough to kill her a thousand times over.
With the Yellow River Chart and the Lo Shu, won't every tomb under heaven be mine for the picking? Luo Yue secretly rejoiced.
She still could not forget her old trade.
Protecting all the world's cultural relics from harm was one of her life's guiding principles.
But using the Yellow River Chart and the Lo Shu for that would be like using a mighty timber for a trifling task.
On a smaller scale, they could turn misfortune into good fortune and lay out formations. On a grander scale, deducing the Heavenly Dao or even evolving a universe was no mere fancy.
I'm all set!
"I suppose this counts as 'fortune leaning upon misfortune.'"
Luo Yue stretched, then lay quietly, her waist-length, icy silver hair spilling across the bed as her thoughts gradually settled.
She was not particularly attached to the past. Since the grandfather who had raised her passed away, there had been no one left on Earth worth longing for.
"Becoming an immortal, founding a lineage, living forever..."
Luo Yue murmured softly.
Since she was already here, she wanted to see the sights that stood above all living beings.
The night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, Luo Yue left the Jiang Family's territory with Jiang Wei and his party.
Their destination was the Luo Family of Qingyun Province, hundreds of thousands of li from the Jiang Family-the family of Luo Yue's father in this world.
On the deck of the Jiang Family's warship, Luo Yue looked down at the boundless, desolate land beneath them and could not help muttering to herself.
"The Northern Region really is barren..."
The endless land below was utterly empty. Everywhere she looked was desolation, with only a scattering of bare, reddish-brown rocks and hills dotting the wasteland.
Not a soul could be seen for a thousand li. Everything was deathly still.
Reddish-brown barren mountains, cracked earth, the occasional speck of green... the poverty and vastness of this land far exceeded her imagination.
Of the Five Great Regions of the Eastern Wasteland, the Northern Region was the most sparsely populated. Most of it lay barren, and oases were scarce resources.
Perhaps it was because the Northern Region had so many source mines.
Luo Yue stood quietly by the railing, her ice-blue eyes surveying this unfamiliar Northern Region.
Recalling how the original novel described the Northern Region-source mines everywhere, great sects and ancient families standing in abundance, bandits running rampant, countless brigands, a blood-soaked land of endless strife-she silently grew wary. This was no peaceful world.
"Uncle Wei, at this speed, how long will it take us to reach Luo City?" Luo Yue asked, looking at the white-robed young man beside her.
Hundreds of thousands of li was an enormous distance. By the standards she had known before, it was comparable to flying from Earth to the moon...
"Aboard this warship of mine, even a journey of hundreds of thousands of li takes only a day, even if we slow down," Jiang Wei replied with a faint smile, an indefinable pride in his bearing.
It was clear that he was very pleased with this warship, which belonged to him alone.
Even Luo Yue secretly marveled at that speed. Who knew how many times faster it was than the Boeings of her previous life?
"Brother Jiang Wei, you truly spare no expense. This warship must be worth enough to buy an oasis hundreds of li across in the Northern Region, wouldn't you say?"
The speaker was none other than the woman in green who had shown such concern for Luo Yue yesterday. There was a hint of flattering admiration in her words.
Though everyone enjoyed praise, Jiang Wei merely nodded slightly at the green-robed woman's flattery. His expression retained the reserve and distance of a disciple from a Desolate Ancient Family, and he offered no reply.
He stood at the bow with his hands clasped behind his back, his cloud-patterned robe snapping in the fierce winds stirred by their high-speed flight. His gaze swept indifferently over the red earth flashing past below.
Having offered warmth only to meet a cold shoulder, Luo Qingluan felt awkward. A trace of humiliation and helplessness crossed her eyes, and her expression turned resigned.
As the eldest young lady of the Luo Family in Qingyun Province, she would have flown into a rage long ago if anyone had dared ignore her like this in the past.
But now...
Ultimately, their status was unequal. These disciples of Desolate Ancient Families were each more arrogant than the last. They likely thought nothing of the Luo Family of Qingyun Province.
"Auntie."
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Luo Yue had to speak up to ease it, her voice carrying the clear ring unique to a seven-year-old child. "How are things in Luo City?"
She needed to learn more about her father's family, especially those so-called relatives.
After all, the mere scraps of memory left by this body's original owner were of no use at all.
At her question, her aunt's somewhat sour expression instantly brightened. She looked at Luo Yue with a gentle smile.
"I received a message from your third uncle yesterday. Things there have mostly stabilized, and the crisis in Luo City has largely been resolved."
Perhaps that cold shoulder had helped Luo Yue's aunt come to terms with things. Since all her bowing and scraping could not earn her a pleasant look, she would no longer make a fool of herself.
For the rest of the journey, Luo Yue's aunt resumed her usual bearing as the Luo Family's eldest young lady. Treating the Cloud-Robed Young Man beside them as thin air, she held Luo Yue's hand and chatted idly with her niece.
Seeing how completely different Luo Yue's aunt was from moments ago, the Cloud-Robed Young Man, who had remained at the bow with his hands behind his back, actually glanced their way.
Perhaps this was simply the baseness of human nature. If you constantly treaded carefully and apologized, the other person would ignore you and inevitably look down on you. Yet once you changed your attitude, their curiosity began to itch.
"A divine physician from the Jiang Family went to Luo City yesterday. The old patriarch has fully regained consciousness. The first thing he did was purge those petty vermin scrabbling for scraps, and while he was at it, he gave a few of the neighboring minor families a thorough thrashing."
"If you ask me, the old patriarch went far too easy on them. He no longer has the fire he had in his youth. He should have dragged those masterminds into the street too, ground their bones to dust, and scattered their ashes eighteen times over. Wiping out a few minor families won't deter anyone."
A hint of ruthlessness edged Luo Qingluan's words.
The old patriarch she spoke of was Luo Yue's great-grandfather in this life, the Luo Family's only remaining mighty expert, the very pillar holding up the clan.
But looking at the beautiful green-robed woman before her, whose lovely eyes were brimming with murderous intent, Luo Yue did not know what to say.
Should I say that's just what you'd expect from someone in Shrouding the Heavens? They're either slaughtering someone's entire family or on their way to do it...