Chapter 381 - 258: Earth Pivot Tour: The Forbidden City’s Earth Vein, Profound Yellow National Guardian, and Vientiane Secret Pavilion (Part 2)
Chapter 381: Chapter 258: Earth Pivot Tour: The Forbidden City’s Earth Vein, Profound Yellow National Guardian, and Vientiane Secret Pavilion (Part 2)
Li Xiang and Jiang Cai’er had just inspected the Dragon Vein’s physical wounds, and they hadn’t seen any of those malevolent entities.
It was more of a spiritual and cultural trauma. The Century of Humiliation was not so easily healed. There were some profound aspects to it that Li Xiang and Jiang Cai’er, with their low cultivation, could only vaguely comprehend.
"Looks like it’s time for you to play surgeon again," Jiang Cai’er mused.
Li Xiang replied, "My time to shine. But I’ll still need you to draw up a detailed repair plan, Cai’er."
Jiang Cai’er quickly got to work. She powered up the Quantum Computer, running various simulations and creating models until she had designed three detailed repair plans. After discussing them with Li Xiang, they chose the most suitable one.
The most suitable plan wasn’t necessarily the best one, but it was the easiest to implement and still promised significant results.
The plan they selected was only the second-best of the three, but its raw materials were the easiest to acquire—they could be sourced locally. It would also take only eight to nine hours. While they couldn’t claim the Spiritual Dragon would be back to its full vigor immediately after the repairs, at least seventy to eighty percent of its injuries would be dealt with. As for restoring its original Divine Power, that was likely impossible for now; it would need time to rest and recuperate.
Li Xiang had performed a similar operation once before on the Qinling Ancestral Vein, so he had some experience to draw on. Now, the repair process went quite smoothly.
In the process of repairing the Dragon Vein, Li Xiang and Jiang Cai’er also identified the source of the crimson, glowing energy. It came primarily from two places: the "Star Fire" beneath the Hero Monument, and the "Power of Faith" accumulated from over seventy years of flag-raising ceremonies in Tiananmen Square. There were also smaller streams of energy converging from all directions.
At that moment, the flag-raising ceremony was likely underway in the outside world. As the solemn national anthem rang out and the crimson flag fluttered in the wind, the energy seeping into the subterranean Dragon Vein grew even stronger.
After eight to nine hours of hard work, by the time dawn broke in the outside world, all of the Dragon Vein’s fractures, wounds, and impurities—including some Dragon-slaying Nails and shell fragments—had been cleaned away. All the "severed limbs" were reconnected.
The Spiritual Dragon appeared once more. Although its divine form was still frail, its spirit was far more vigorous than before.
"Thank you for your aid, young friends. You have saved me more than a hundred years of hard work." The Spiritual Dragon brought its claws together in a human-like bow, its head bobbing three times as it spoke in a human tongue.
Li Xiang waved his hand dismissively. "It was our duty. I couldn’t restore you to your full strength, only speed up your healing process."
"I am grateful enough already. As a gift, I would like to offer you two treasures. Please, do not refuse them."
With a light tap of its claw, two supreme treasures rose from the Earth Vein, coming to a stop before Li Xiang and Jiang Cai’er.
"One is the Profound Yellow National Seal, the other is the Vientiane Secret Pavilion. My body is grievously wounded, so please forgive me for not staying longer." The Spiritual Dragon, as if fearing they might refuse, quickly made its excuse and vanished into the depths of the Earth Vein.
In truth, it really was exhausted and lacked the strength for idle chatter. It had slumbered for many years and had only truly awakened in recent times, spending most of its days in a state of dormancy.
It was like a grievously wounded patient who has to remain bedridden for most of their hospital stay.
Li Xiang was like a top visiting surgeon who had suddenly arrived. The dragon had been undergoing conservative treatment, but Li Xiang performed an operation that would allow it to recover much faster.
Li Xiang picked up the Profound Yellow National Seal and examined it closely.
Jiang Cai’er, with her encyclopedic knowledge, knew the origin of this supreme treasure and immediately began to explain from the side.
"The Profound Yellow National Seal. Legend says it was once a fragment of the Qin Dynasty Heirloom Seal of the Realm, hidden away in Dian Nan with Emperor Jianwen during the Jingnan Campaign. In the Sixteenth Year of Yongle, the Black-robed Prime Minister, Yao Guangxiao, used Purple Star Astrology to deduce its whereabouts. It was then reforged at the Nanjing Observatory, melted down with Star Meteorite Xuan Iron brought back by Zheng He’s Fleet, metal from the True Martial Copper Statue of Wudang Mountain, and twelve Hongwu Tongbao Back Armor Coins from the Hongwu Era."
"On the day the seal was forged, crimson lightning descended from the heavens and shattered the observatory’s dome. The Astronomical Bureau recorded, ’The seal manifested the qi of dragon and tiger; the night shone as bright as day.’"
"The seal is a square of 4.9 cun, corresponding to the Great Divination Number of forty-nine. The knob is fashioned from five intertwined dragons whose eyes are inlaid with Jingtai Blue (Wood), He Tian Yellow Jade (Earth), Cinnabar (Fire), Xuan Iron (Metal), and a Bohai Pearl (Water), secretly corresponding to the generative and destructive cycles of the five elements. It bears a Yang Engraving that reads, ’Having received the Mandate of Heaven, may my reign be long and prosperous.’ The Yin Engraving is the first Chapter of the *Ming Imperial Ancestral Teachings*. When an ink rubbing is made, a hidden message appears: ’Expel the Barbarians, Restore Chinese’."
Li Xiang asked, "What does it do?"
Jiang Cai’er shrugged. "That, I don’t know." After all, her knowledge came from libraries and didn’t cover the Extraordinary Domain.
Li Xiang nodded. In his experience, a treasure like this Profound Yellow National Seal, having been nurtured by the Dragon Vein for so long, was definitely a Divine Level artifact. It was just that he couldn’t activate it yet. For now, like the Bronze Giant Tree before it, he could only place it in his inventory for safekeeping.
"What’s that one you got?" Li Xiang asked.
Jiang Cai’er picked up the Vientiane Secret Pavilion. "It seems to be a kind of Library Pavilion. It’s filled with countless books—all rare manuscripts and secret texts. Huh? It even has the *Grand Ancestor’s Chronicles* and the *Yongle Encyclopedia*, whose thirty thousand volumes form a vast river of Literary Qi. They’re all Illusions, basically e-books."
"Oh, and there’s a lot of precious visual data in here too. Want to go inside with me and take a look?" Jiang Cai’er offered.
"Sure." Li Xiang was also very interested.
So, Jiang Cai’er took him by the hand, and the two of them entered the virtual Metaverse once again. The Vientiane Secret Pavilion materialized within the virtual space.
As Jiang Cai’er’s fingertip brushed across the gilded trigram lock of the Vientiane Secret Pavilion, the structure suddenly erupted in a seven-colored radiance. Its eighty-one Sandalwood grilles unfolded like a Folding Fan of space and time. The dragon-patterned gold foil of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the smoke-stained telegrams of the Republic era, and the crimson Star Fire of New China all intertwined into a spiraling column of light that dragged the pair into a torrent of historical consciousness.