Chapter 308: Pre-Qin Qi Refiners
Pre-Qin refers to the historical era of ancient China before the Qin Dynasty, spanning from the emergence of primitive humans to 221 BC, when Qin Shi Huang extinguished the six states.
Bronze inscription script, also known as metal script, consists of inscriptions carved on Shang and Zhou bronze vessels. The era of metal script usage began in the early Shang Dynasty and ended with Qin's unification of the six states, with the Zhou Dynasty being its most flourishing period.
Inside the Daoist temple, rows of bronze inscription characters were carved on the mottled ancient walls—vigorous and majestic, with well-spaced lines and a solemn bearing.
Ye Fan focused intently, carefully identifying the characters. There were two hundred and fifteen ancient characters in total, written with forceful strokes, slender and sinewy, as if alive.
He recognized sixty-nine characters in total, while the remaining one hundred and forty-six were unknown to him. No matter how he pondered, he could not grasp their meaning.
Among the sixty-nine characters he did recognize, nine were deduced based on context. This ancient script was simply too archaic.
Even a true old scholar could not fully recognize bronze inscription script. On the other side of the starry sky, later generations could only identify a portion of such characters.
"Pre-Qin Qi Refiner..." Ye Fan's heart trembled. This was indeed a carving left by an ancient man from the other end of the starry sky.
He carefully read through these records. Although he could not recognize most of the characters, he still gained a preliminary understanding that this person undoubtedly belonged to the pre-Qin period of ancient China.
But who exactly this person was, and whether he held a prominent identity in ancient history, Ye Fan could not deduce—after all, nearly one hundred and fifty characters were completely illegible.
"Qi Refiner..." This was the first time he had heard such a term.
These three words sparked infinite imagination in Ye Fan, as if he could glimpse a mysterious era, with unknown secrets hidden in the ancient past.
He could identify sixty-nine characters, but they were not connected sequentially, making it difficult to piece together the meaning. After observing for a long time, he only vaguely understood a portion.
This Pre-Qin Qi Refiner had not crossed the void on his own to reach this end of the starry sky. The bronze inscription recorded the reason, but Ye Fan could not decipher it.
"Is this some kind of secret technique?" the big black dog asked impatiently from the side.
"No!"
"Kid, you're holding out on us. We discovered this together—hurry up and decode it," the big black dog urged.
Ye Fan ignored it and turned to Tu Fei, asking, "Outside this world, are there other worlds? Have you ever heard of such a thing?"
Tu Fei looked puzzled and shook his head. "Never heard of it."
"What do you know..." The big black dog seemed startled. "Are these bird characters about that?"
Ye Fan suddenly realized that this big dog was very mysterious and might know many unknown secrets. "Have you heard something?"
"I... have heard a little," Black Emperor replied, then eagerly pressed, "What exactly do these strange characters on the wall record?"
Tu Fei also looked over, wanting to know the origins of this Daoist temple.
"What's recorded is mind-boggling. It says that on the other side of the starry sky, there is another world..."
"What?!" Tu Fei exclaimed in shock. "Could it be that immortals really exist?"
The big black dog's eyes flickered as it pressed further, "Give more details. Translate all the characters so we can understand clearly."
"The people there call themselves Qi Refiners. This is a Pre-Qin Qi Refiner who crossed the endless starry sky and left these stone carvings after arriving here."
"This... how is that possible? Is it real or fake?" Tu Fei was filled with shock, almost dumbfounded. "Were Pre-Qin Qi Refiners that powerful? Could they rival a Great Emperor?"
Ye Fan replied, "He didn't come on his own. He followed the paths left by ancient people and inexplicably arrived in this world."
"Ancient people... what kind of beings were they? Did they travel among many star domains?" Tu Fei's mind churned with countless associations.
The big black dog's eyes shot out two sharp beams of light. "Where did this guy go? If we could catch him, we'd obtain a priceless treasure."
"Someone came to this world—wasn't anyone aware of it?" Ye Fan was disappointed, having hoped to glean clues from their words.
"Someone not from this world would certainly take care to conceal themselves. After so many years, if he's still alive, he'd already be comparable to the various Saint Lords," Tu Fei speculated. This Daoist temple was at least two thousand years old.
Ye Fan nodded. A person from the Pre-Qin period was at least over two thousand years old. If this person were still alive, he might even have become the Supreme Elder of some great sect.
"Kid, how do you recognize these bird characters?" The big black dog's eyes gleamed as it stared at Ye Fan with deep meaning.
Tu Fei had also been suspicious and looked over, full of confusion.
"I once read an ancient book that contained some of these characters with simple annotations, so I recognize a few," Ye Fan replied calmly.
"Teach me. This script is profound—I want to learn it," the big black dog said.
Ye Fan answered without hesitation: "Fine, no problem. I'll teach you one character, and you teach me one Dao pattern."
The big black dog immediately rolled its eyes, looking disgruntled. Dao patterns were its trump card, and Ye Fan had been eyeing them for days without ever getting anything.
"Black Emperor, you haven't answered yet. Have you heard anything about there being a world at the other end of the starry sky?" Ye Fan pressed.
"I know too little. In the past, a Great Emperor only mentioned a sentence or two. I don't know the specifics."
"Can you be more specific?" Ye Fan wanted to punch it.
"How can I be specific? I only know that Great Emperor often gazed at the starry sky late at night. Other than that, I don't know," the big black dog shook its head.
"Dead dog, are you deliberately hiding something?" Ye Fan pressed.
"Woof!" The big black dog bared its teeth, pretending to lunge and bite.
"Do you really not know?" Ye Fan was suspicious.
"If this Emperor knew, would I still be asking you? I only know it was the Great Emperor's secret, unknown to outsiders," the big black dog replied irritably.
Night fell, and the scorching desert grew increasingly cold. By midnight, it was bitterly frigid—an ordinary person would have frozen stiff.
Ye Fan looked up at the starry sky, searching for a way back.
"Ancient people could cross the void, and so can I. I will definitely return someday..." He felt that the ancient era of his homeland must have held many secrets.
"Kid, do you really think you're a Great Emperor?" Black Emperor, lying beside the Daoist temple, woke up and mocked him.
"Did the Great Emperors of the past gaze at the starry sky every night?" Ye Fan asked calmly.
"Not every night. Occasionally, they would be lost in thought, sitting for an entire night," Black Emperor yawned as it replied.
"How do you know so clearly?" Ye Fan suddenly pressed.
Tu Fei also woke up, leaning against the temple wall, opening his eyes. "This dead dog has many secrets but refuses to tell. All day, it just greedily snatches others' things and never shares anything."
"Woof!" The dog's bark pierced the night sky.
"Enough, stop biting."
"All this, this Emperor heard by chance. The secrets of a Great Emperor aren't so easy to know. Even if others begged me on their knees, I wouldn't tell them."
"Which star domains did that Great Emperor like to look at?" Ye Fan asked.
"Many—Ziwei, Taiwei..." The big black dog casually named a few.
Ye Fan returned to the Daoist temple and observed the rows of bronze inscription characters again. He traced them with his hand, carefully pondering, and eventually guessed two more characters—Ziwei!
The Pre-Qin Qi Refiner had mentioned these two characters in the bronze inscription, which stirred Ye Fan's interest. He then began to trace them on the wall.
"Rustle, rustle..."
Suddenly, the stone wall crumbled like dust, rustling down. All the characters vanished as a large section of the mottled wall peeled away.
Was it due to age, or another reason? Ye Fan's heart stirred. He lightly scratched with his finger, and stone chips flew. The entire stone carving disappeared, shedding a thick layer.
"Ding"
A soft sound rang out as a dim metal box was revealed from within the decayed wall—lusterless, old, and ordinary.
"We dug up a treasure!" the big black dog shouted, lunging forward with bared teeth, ready to fight Ye Fan for it.
Tu Fei grabbed its bald tail from behind, preventing it from advancing.
"Woof!"
Just as a tiger's rear end is untouchable, the big black dog's bald tail was definitely a forbidden zone. It spun around and started biting wildly.
Ye Fan split open the wall and retrieved the metal box. It was long and narrow, cast from bronze, about three feet long and a palm's width wide, tightly sealed without a gap.
The bronze metal box was heavy, with a faint chill emanating from it, carrying a weak divine power.
Ye Fan instantly understood. The wall had originally been a seal, but due to the passage of time, the divine power had leaked, causing much stone to fall away.
"Woof!"
The big black dog bit Tu Fei a few times before finally stopping. It quickly approached to examine the long bronze box.
"Stay put and don't snatch!" Ye Fan warned it.
"Don't worry, this Emperor just wants to look. How could I snatch something from my own people?" The big black dog replied, its bald tail standing upright.
"Damn it, dead dog!" Tu Fei cursed, a row of teeth marks on his calf as he limped over.
Both men and the dog were full of anticipation. This was, after all, something left by a Qi Refiner from the other end of the starry sky. Ye Fan, in particular, was even a bit nervous.
He took out the cauldron, suspending it above his head, letting strands of Mysterious Yellow Qi fall to protect his body, and then slowly opened the long metal box.
The bronze lid was lifted. No treasure light burst forth, no auspicious radiance swirled, and not even a trace of divine power fluctuation.
Inside the metal box lay a wooden whip—very ancient, carved with many Dao patterns, extremely profound, and increasingly captivating the more one looked.
It was over three feet long, with more than twenty segments. Each segment bore several complex patterns, clearly imprinted, natural and mysterious.
"A wooden whip from the other end of the starry sky. What kind of treasure is this?" Ye Fan was astonished.
Among known Pre-Qin figures, who wielded a wooden whip? He thought hard.
The big black dog was an expert. Seeing this wooden whip, comparable to an iron sword, it almost drooled, because each segment contained profound Dao patterns.
"Could this be a supreme treasure? But why don't I sense any divine power fluctuation?" Tu Fei asked.
"Hum"
The wooden whip trembled lightly, floating out of the metal box and flying toward the big black dog.
"Dead dog, are you really going to snatch it?!" Ye Fan said angrily.
"This Emperor sees at once that this treasure is fated with me. I'll give you all the Source I snatched from that Daoist priest—just give me this wooden whip!" The big black dog clutched the wooden whip tightly with its big paws.
"This greedy dog really snatches treasures on sight!" Tu Fei gritted his teeth.
"Oww..." Suddenly, the big black dog screamed in pain, throwing the wooden whip to the ground. It stood on its hind legs, hopping and jumping, clutching its head with its front paws, its mouth wide open in agony.
"Dead dog, what's wrong with you?" Ye Fan asked.
"Damn it, this Emperor's divine sense was attacked," the big black dog howled in pain.
"Serves you right for being so greedy!" Ye Fan felt no sympathy. Last time, it had convulsed from snatching the fruit cut from the stone mill, and today it had repeated its old habit.
"Is this some kind of rare treasure?" Tu Fei was suspicious. He didn't dare touch the wooden whip but circled around it, observing, yet found nothing unusual.
"Ah..." Suddenly, he also screamed, clutching his forehead.
"Tu, are you alright?" Ye Fan was startled.
"Don't probe it with your divine sense. This wooden whip attacks the spirit," Tu Fei said.
Ye Fan's heart stirred. He picked up the wooden whip and held it in his hand, muttering to himself, "Could this be a whip specifically for striking divine sense?"
The divine whip left by the Pre-Qin Qi Refiner, from the other end of the starry sky—such a treasure was likely left by a relatively famous Qi Refiner.