Chapter 88: The Five Elements Initial Understanding

  Xiao Ziyang moved the porcelain away, revealing a small, unassuming ceramic bowl. As he turned the bowl, the stone slab on the floor automatically slid open again. It wasn't until he got closer that Xiao Ziyang realized the "stone slab" was actually a thick iron plate.

  Xiao Ziyang walked down the stairs and came to an underground stone chamber. After lighting the oil lamps on the wall, he found that the chamber was not large, only two feet long and wide; opposite the stairs was a black jade wooden frame.

  Ebony is pure black in color, grows extremely slowly, and has a very dense texture. It is the top material for making furniture and wood products. It also has another advantage: it naturally emits a unique fragrance that can kill mosquitoes and drive away mice and ants; things stored with ebony no longer need to worry about insect bites or rodent damage.

  On the shelf were placed many black wooden boxes of various sizes, all exquisitely crafted.

  Xiao Ziyang walked over to the shelf and examined it carefully for a while, then casually opened the wooden box on the bottom layer. The surface of this wooden box did not have a speck of dust, clearly it was the box that Wen Yuan and Third Master had just brought in.

  There was no gold, silver or jewels in the box, but a stack of golden silk paper. The golden silk paper is not a paper woven with golden threads, it looks almost the same as ordinary Xuan paper, just a bit thicker and finer in texture. However, if someone tries to tear this paper apart, they will find its uniqueness.

  It is a piece of paper that even an adult cannot tear apart with all their might. Moreover, this kind of paper is not easy to burn, and even if it is thrown into the fire, it will not catch fire in a hurry. It is a high-quality paper used by the imperial court or wealthy families to record important information, and one piece of three-foot-square gold-embroidered paper is worth one or two pieces of white silver.

  This stack of golden silk paper is the silver note of Dasheng Money House. There are countless money houses in Western Xia, but only the silver notes of Dasheng Money House can circulate all over the world and replace gold and silver transactions. Only Dasheng Money House can afford to use this golden silk paper, which is more expensive than silk, to make silver notes.

  The silver notes of Dasheng Money House are scattered all over the world, but no one dares to counterfeit them. Even in the turbulent years of changing dynasties, there has never been a force that dared to take advantage of Dasheng Money House. The reason is simple: this Dasheng Money House is a money house jointly established by the six major thousand-year-old sects.

  Xiao Ziyang carefully counted the silver notes in his hand, these silver notes were at least 5,000 taels each, and some were 10,000 taels and 20,000 taels. The total amount of silver notes added up to exactly 300,000 taels.

  Xiao Ziyang casually put the silver ticket into his pocket and found a very exquisite jade pendant at the bottom of the wooden box.

  The jade pendant is carved with the scene of nine divine dragons drilling in and out of a snow-white cloud; whether it's the cloud or the dragon, they are all carved to be almost real. These nine dragons are yellow dragon, black dragon, white dragon, red dragon... The colors of the nine dragons are not the same. A piece of jade with nine colors, the value of this pendant can be imagined.

  Xiao Ziyang recognized this jade pendant, it was the one that the astronomy official wore on his body that day, which made him frightened; he held the jade pendant in his hand, and that kind of heart-pounding feeling came again.

  Xiao Ziyang brought the jade pendant closer to examine it carefully, and found that within the nine dragon bodies, there was a faint glow flowing, seemingly, this was indeed a magical instrument without a doubt.

  Xiao Ziyang, since witnessing the fight between the Taoist priests at Mount Shangling's Mottian Ridge, has come to realize the vast difference between mortal martial arts and immortal magic. He now refuses to have any involvement with the world of cultivation; he immediately decides not to touch this jade pendant again.

  Xiao Ziyang put the jade pendant back in the wooden box, and then opened the other three boxes on the bottom layer one by one. The smallest of these three boxes was filled with about 300 purple gold coins; another slightly larger box contained a delicate necked jade vase carved from a single piece of pale green jade, exquisitely beautiful. The last narrow and long box surprisingly contained a treasured sword that could cut hair blown by the wind.

  In the middle layer there were also four wooden boxes, each containing calligraphy and paintings, jewelry, and the largest box contained an ancient zither carved with ancient flower patterns.

  These things are all worth a fortune, but strangely, in the smallest trunk there was only one book.

  Xiao Ziyang picked up the book from the box, its deep blue cover had turned yellow; on the upper right side of the book, the three characters "Xi Shan Ji" were written in a flying dragon and dancing phoenix style, giving people a sense of surprise and wonder, it was indeed a masterpiece of calligraphy that he had never seen before.

  Under the title of the book is the author's name: "Wu Zhen Shan Zhu".

  "Master Wuzhen! Could it be...?" Xiao Ziyang hastily flipped open the book. After carefully flipping through it once, he finally confirmed that this was indeed a collection of poems written by Li Wuzhen himself.

  Ly Th??c Tran was a great poet and calligrapher of the ??i Vi?t dynasty over a thousand years ago, known as the "Poetry and Calligraphy Sage".

  Xiao Ziyang had no experience in identifying antiques, but he believed that this book was absolutely the handwriting of Li Wuzhen, a great literary master.

  The reason is simple. When Xiao Ziyang was a young man, he loved Li Wuzhen's poetry extremely and could recite all of his extant works by heart; however, the poems collected in this edition of Xishan Ji are nearly twice as many as those in the current extant collection of Li Wuzhen's poems, and these additional poems must have been written by Li Wuzhen himself, because Xiao Ziyang believed that there was no one else in the world except Li Wuzhen who could write such good poetry.

  Li Wuzhen, apart from being a poet and a calligrapher, also has another identity - that of the greatest prime minister in history!

  Li Wuzhen, after passing the imperial examination and becoming a jinshi, started as the county magistrate of a small county in the northwest border; within ten years, he rose to the position of Left Chancellor. During these ten years, every place he governed was blessed with favorable weather, contented people, and peace. Whenever he left a post, the local people would try to persuade him to stay. Whenever he took up a new appointment, he would eliminate corruption and bring blessings to future generations.

  He ascended to the throne at the age of thirty-two and reigned for thirty years, bringing a storm-tossed ??i Vi?t dynasty to unprecedented prosperity.

  After his death, the ??i Vi?t dynasty welcomed one of the most infamous tyrants in history, who ruled for thirty years and did countless things to exhaust the people's labor and wealth. Nevertheless, he still didn't drain the country's power, which shows Ly Thuyên's ability to govern the country.

  Li Wuzhen can be said to be the first model of readers for thousands of years, Xiao Ziyang was also a reader, so he unhesitatingly put this book into his arms.

  The Wen family is indeed a prominent clan that has been passed down for generations in Chunan County, and the things they collect are all valuable treasures worth a city.

  However, when Xiao Ziyang opened the small box in the middle of the top layer, he didn't even glance at the things on the lower two layers; this box only contained a thick book; the cover was written with the six big words "Five Elements Taoist Techniques Initial Explanation"!

  Xiao Ziyang picked up the book with a slightly trembling hand, carefully flipped through it once, and then closed his eyes. This was a Taoist scripture that explained basic Taoist principles; the book contained all the cultivation methods of the initial stage of the Five Elements Taoist method, as well as systematically introducing some basic knowledge of cultivating immortals. For example, how to cultivate the five elements spiritual roots, taboos during cultivation, and so on... Each cultivation method was also accompanied by several spells.