Chapter 2: Nine Stars in a Row

  "Hey, brother, good news! There's a piece of news online that says around 11 o'clock tonight, there will be a rare and strange celestial phenomenon that occurs once in a thousand years. You must be interested." The fat guy's excited voice came over, clearly in a good mood.

  "Oh? Come on and tell me." Yang Tianwen's curiosity was piqued, and he was still very interested in astrology.

  "I don't know what it is, the news didn't say, it's all mysterious and stuff. Although I'm not interested, I know you like this kind of thing, so I'm telling you specially." Fatso replied.

  "Oh, okay, I know." Yang Tian sighed and hung up the phone. His interest in reading was gone, he folded the page of the book carefully and put it back on the shelf, picked up the stone slab by his bed, took out a magnifying glass, and began to study it.

  Formed naturally? Just now on the stall was a distant view, but now carefully examined, surprisingly found that this thick half-inch palm-sized stone slab, the compass pattern on it did not have any human traces. This discovery made Yang Tianwen marvel at the greatness of nature and the ingenuity of the gods.

  After careful study, this compass seems to be not the modern compass used today, but rather an ancient compass used by people in ancient times to observe feng shui. Although it has some similarities with modern compasses in terms of function, its composition is still different.

  The compass consists of three main parts:

  I. Heaven Pool: Also known as the sea bottom, it refers to the compass. The heaven pool of a compass consists of the top needle, magnetic needle, sea bottom line, cylindrical outer box and glass cover, fixed in the center of the inner disc. On the bottom surface of the round box is printed with a sharp head on top of the needle, and there is a recessed hole in the center of the bottom surface of the magnetic needle, which is placed on top of the needle. The direction indicated by the arrowhead end of the compass is south, while the other end points to the north.

  There is a red line drawn on the bottom surface (sea floor) of Tianchi, called the sea floor line. On both sides of the north end, there are two red dots. When in use, the north-pointing end of the magnetic needle should coincide with the sea floor line.

  However, the Tianchi on this stone slab does not have a pointer and so on. It is just a small circle to distinguish it, and there is nothing inside.

  Two, inner plate: is the rotatable circular plate adjacent to the outside of the compass. The surface of the inner plate has many concentric circles printed on it, and each circle is called a layer. Each layer is divided into different equal parts, some layers have more grid cells, and some have fewer, with the fewest being divided into eight grid cells, and the most having three hundred eighty-four grid cells. Each grid cell has different characters printed on it. There are many types of compasses, with some having more layers and others having fewer, the most having fifty-two layers, and the fewest having only five layers.

  But this stone slab, which is only three layers thick, is quite strange. However, it subtly reveals the heavenly stems and earthly branches, as well as the five elements and eight trigrams.

  Three, foreign disk

  The outer disc is square and serves as a tray for the inner disc. On each of the four sides, at the midpoint of the outside edge, there is a small hole through which a red thread passes to form the Tian Xin Shi Dao (Heavenly Heart Ten Lines), used to read the contents on the surface of the inner disc.

  But on this stone slab, the outer plate only has some strange tadpole-like and symbol-like things that are different from the compasses sold outside.

  Unconsciously, the whole afternoon had passed. Yang Tianwen raised his head to check the time, calculated for a moment, and casually put the stone plate in his pocket. He bought some food and took out his phone to leave. At a convenience store, he purchased a pack of cigarettes and a few bread rolls, heading towards the small hill behind the school. Although not high, this hill was indeed the highest point in the area. With a practiced motion, he lit the cigarette and took a deep drag - this time, he had bought good quality cigarettes, unlike the cheap ones that cost only a few dollars per pack that he usually smoked.

  It was almost nine o'clock when he climbed up the mountain slope, walking a bit slower, but it didn't matter about this little time. Looking at the night view below from the mountain slope had its own flavor. Moreover, sitting here overlooking the night view was one of Yang Tianwen's few hobbies. Because being here could make him more quiet and conducive to broadening his mind.

  Before I knew it, more than an hour had passed. At this time, Pangzi's phone opened: "Ask Ge, I forgot, we can't see the weather here because that's a news from Northeast China. Our southeast is completely unreliable."

  Yang Tianwen didn't get angry or anything, he just slightly stunned for a moment, and replied: "Oh, it's nothing, I'll just come up to blow the wind, you should hurry up to find a buyer, sell that piece of jade, we won't have to worry about it for at least a year." After finishing speaking, he hung up the phone, took out the stone plate compass, and adjusted it under the starry sky and the bright moonlight. Then put it under his feet, then put the bread on top, took one out and slowly ate it.

  At the dead of night, without burying myself in books, I always feel especially lonely, feeling that I and the whole universe are so out of harmony, feeling that I and the luxurious city are so incompatible.

  Half an hour had passed, the bread brought was also finished, and the sky was late. Although there was no class tomorrow afternoon, it was time to go back. Standing up, picking up the stone plate, just about to leave, looking up at the sky, suddenly nine bright starlights appeared, I don't know if it's an illusion or it's always been like this, these nine stars are shining with nine different colors, extremely mysterious. Standing out from the many stars and slowly moving.

  Yang Tian asked rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn't seeing things wrong, they were slowly moving. Yang Tian asked was stunned, and didn't notice the stone plate in his hand, the originally calm stone-quality Luo Pan on the surface of the Tian Chi which had nothing on it also flickered with nine different lights, but very faintly, flashing by in an instant. Yang Tian asked looked up at the sky, this kind of heavenly phenomenon had deeply attracted him, and he didn't have time to care about anything else.

  Nine twinkling stars, slowly aligning with the moon in a row. Yang Tian didn't know whether to call this celestial phenomenon "nine stars in a row" or "ten stars in a row", but one thing was for sure, it was a rare spectacle that came once in a lifetime. Yang Tian's eyes were glued to the sight, afraid to blink and miss any detail.

  At this moment, the changes in the compass became even more bizarre. The various markings and symbols on it floated out of the compass. Originally a stone compass, it gradually transformed into a pale blue concave-convex genuine compass, but its shape remained unchanged from before.

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  It's over for today, tomorrow Xiao Shui is going to Hejiang and will be away for two days. Hmm, also someone else will update... won't stop updating...