Chapter 6: The Coiling Dragon Ring (Part 1)
The sun was setting in the west, and fiery red clouds filled nearly half the sky, even casting a red glow over the entire earth.
"The Ancestral Hall is really quite simple to clean."
Linley walked out of the Ancestral Hall, having to admit that he had overprepared. What he had expected to take an hour to finish was done in just fifteen minutes.
On the Yulan continent, a year consisted of twelve months, each month had thirty days, each day had twenty-four hours, and each hour had sixty minutes. Most nobles owned pendulum clocks to tell the precise time, while the extremely wealthy or those of high status even had exquisite pocket watches.
"The Ancestral Hall is cleaned every month. In just a short month, there's hardly anything dirty here. A quick wipe is enough. There's still nearly an hour until evening training. What should I do?" Bored, Linley looked around.
The ancient Baruch estate had a history of over five thousand years.
The front courtyard was cleaned daily, but the much larger rear gardens, aside from the Ancestral Hall, were covered in dust in the other rooms and courtyards, with cracks everywhere. Overgrown weeds and green moss filled the corners of walls and stone paths.
"Oh?" Looking at these ancient, decaying buildings, Linley's eyes gradually lit up. "So many places in the rear gardens haven't been cleaned in over a hundred years. Could there be some old, valuable things hidden inside?"
Thinking this, Linley's heart began to pound.
"If I can find something valuable and give it to Father, he'll definitely be very happy." Linley took a deep breath and immediately began walking toward the dilapidated rooms next to the Ancestral Hall. He moved cautiously, picking up a sturdy wooden pole to sweep away cobwebs and carefully examine if anything was there.
Stepping into the old house, Linley smelled a musty odor. In the corners were dense cobwebs, and he could see spiders crawling on them.
Many cobwebs covered the surfaces of some decorations. Looking closely, the decorations on the walls of the old house were extremely ancient. But those decorations had long since rotted away, barely retaining their shapes.
"If these decorations hadn't rotted and were new, they'd probably be worth a lot of money." Linley shook his head helplessly, then continued examining other things. Using the wooden pole, he cleared away layers of cobwebs, carefully inspecting every item.
On the floor, on wooden shelves, or checking the walls for hidden mechanisms.
"According to the books, hiding mechanisms in walls is very common." Linley tapped the walls cautiously, listening to the sounds.
Linley enjoyed this feeling of "treasure hunting in old houses." But he forgot—if he could think of treasure hunting in old houses, wouldn't his father, his grandfather, and the even older elders of the Baruch family have thought of it too?
The things in these old houses had long been thoroughly searched by the ancestors of the Baruch family.
Linley was only eight years old. Although his family education from a young age made him somewhat mature for his age, he was still far from an adult and didn't think things through completely.
"No treasure in this old house. Next one—" Linley stepped out of the first old house and headed toward the second.
There were many buildings in the rear gardens. After all, the front courtyard where Linley and his family lived was only a third of the entire estate. The rear area was much larger. If he wanted to search everything, Linley estimated it would take a whole day.
"Every decoration is rotting away. Not a single valuable one." Linley walked out of yet another old house.
He looked at the sky.
"Hmm, there's probably about fifteen minutes until evening training." Linley turned around and looked at a large old house in the distance. "Just that one. The biggest old house. I'll spend ten minutes searching it. If I don't find anything, I'll go straight to training."
Having made his decision, Linley ran toward the largest old house.
This old house covered an area even larger than the living room in the front courtyard. Stepping inside, Linley observed carefully: "Probably hundreds of years ago, this was where our Baruch family gathered for meals." From the layout of the decorations, Linley could tell this was a living room.
And a very spacious, grand living room.
"Search the floor first."
As usual, Linley lowered his head, widened his eyes, and carefully examined every spot. If he saw something, he'd poke it with the wooden pole and identify it. If it was just a pebble, he'd give up immediately. Since evening training was approaching, Linley sped up his search.
"Now search the walls and all the decorations. Sigh, last hope." Linley puffed out his cheeks and looked around. "Ancestors of the family, leave me just one or two things, even if it's just a little trinket."
Linley carefully examined every place, even looking behind the rotted decorations on the walls.
Against the wall of the old house was a wooden shelf with drawers. Linley immediately opened each drawer and looked inside, but the drawers were very clean—completely empty. If there was anything, it was only dust.
"Ah!"
After checking the last drawer of the wooden shelf, Linley felt a wave of disappointment.
"I've searched for so long, and there isn't a single valuable thing. I'm covered in sweat and a layer of dust." Linley looked at himself. He was indeed very dirty. This made Linley feel a bit frustrated.
Linley swept his gaze across the old house.
"Hmph, let's go." Inwardly annoyed, Linley angrily threw the wooden pole in his hand hard at the wooden shelf beside him, as if trying to vent the frustration of nearly an hour of wasted effort in that one throw.
"Crack!" The wooden pole slammed solidly into the shelf.
This wooden shelf had a long history. After over a hundred years of decay, it could barely hold itself together. The hard impact of the wooden pole made it creak and groan.
Hearing the noise, Linley turned to look and was startled: "Oh no, it's going to collapse!" While searching the previous old houses, Linley had accidentally knocked some decorations to the ground and broken them, so he was already experienced.
Linley quickly stepped back to avoid it.
The wooden shelf, twice Linley's height, finally fell. With a loud crash, it hit the ground and shattered into seven or eight pieces, kicking up a cloud of dust in the old house. In the swirling dust, Linley didn't notice—
As the shelf broke apart, a black ring, hidden in a compartment of the shelf for who knows how long, fell out and rolled onto the floor.
"Pfft, pfft." Linley spat two or three times and waved his sleeve to fan away the dust.
"What bad luck. I'm covered in dust. There's probably still a little time until training. I'd better go wash up quickly and change clothes." Linley waved his hand and walked toward the door of the old house.