They soon arrive at a different scroll, but… what's on it, is it another painting?
It looks as if someone would have splashed black ink on it and then used his worn-down brush to smudge the spots with forceful plunges.
Looking at it Tour Guide Guy pauses for a moment, his face is full of misery. He lets out a sigh before explaining:
"I'm sure you all know the very recent, but popular theory that some ancient beings used certain phrases for communication."
Oh, yeah. Lai Wen had to write an essay about what verses they might have used for arrays. To be honest, he found this assigment a bit pointless and hated every minute of it.
But his professor loves that, look how eagerly he nods as he breathes every word on the topic.
"Rumors spread," Tour Guy continues, "that if anyone could solve the puzzle on this scroll… The mighty Red Supreme can be summoned."
At that prospect, the adventurous part of classmates stir.
"But… so far…" Tour Guy grits his teeth as if he's struggling to get the words out, "linguists, historians, cryptographers—no one could decipher its meaning."
An excited murmur seems to wash over them as a few of the crowd throw their ideas at him.
"No way! Hold on, let me do a reverse search… I think I've seen something like this before."
"Haha, sure now /you/ will solve something even researchers couldn't with ten seconds of scrolling…"
"Oh wait, this is interesting! I looked it up and it says that apparently someone made a bet with the Red Supreme. And if a mortal can solve the riddle he has written here, he will grant him power and luck.
"Oh," Tour Guy sweat-dropped, "people seem to know about this too, huh"
"So cool, I want to give it a shot now!"
"The plate says there's no native language translation yet. Maybe it's in an ancient, lost language!"
"I doubt that," Tour Guy whimpers as if the assumption itself would leave him mortified.
The professor turns to him.
"My question is… why did the Red Supreme leave this behind?"
"For fun," Tour Guy's answer is immediate, "He's quite the mischievous type."
Lai Wen looked at the scroll again… No wonder no one can read it… a powerful, mysterious Red Supreme—
—who makes bets and does pranks… Just imagine what kind of secret password he uses!
Eventually, he simply shrugs.
Sometimes the universe holds its secrets and it's for the best.
DAY 5 END - TO BE CONTINUED 🏛️
Here's the link to the art with REAL characters that INDEED have MEANING and could be Hua Cheng’s communication array password!!! 💗
Feel feel to try to guess it or anything 👀
Many thanks to my favourite Yings for indulging me 💞
"It's already the third round, gege is being insatiable," Hua Cheng says, but he readily accepts whatever Xie Lian wishes to do to him. "Or is it that you can't get enough?"
It's not Xie Lian who answers his teasing, but a metallic 'clang'.
Sparks fly when blade meets blade, reflecting in his dark eyes, half-lidded with concentration and something that always lurks inside him when facing Hua Cheng.
Hua Cheng strides forward with his scimitar—it's different from Eming, who tends to get either overly excited or balky with Xie Lian around, thus, it gets
banned from the armory whenever the pair indulge themselves in sparring.
Book 4, Wuming POV + bonus #hualian (#wulian) 800 years later
The stomped-over petals of the white flower were scattered across the floor. A miserable beauty thoroughly trampled—It reminded Wuming of his god.
Wuming just stared, a horrified expression hidden behind his mask as his beloved, pierced himself through with the same damned black sword that caused him so much suffering already, jumping down to land flat on the cold Lang'er Bay ground.
He admittedly hated the way His Highness resulted to do this, but he had a hunch why he's still trying so hard.
After all, he said what he said: His Highness will forever be His Highness.
Besides, Wuming understood it like no one else what it meant to feel one person enough.
"A-And this is the newest piece of our collection," The plain-faced tour guy says, nervously correcting his glasses, "What at first appears to be a pair of regular stone statues..."
"... But it has been discovered that if the light falls on them from a different angle… "
He pushes a few buttons on the console that he clutches in his sweaty palms.
A blinding flash of light and a few of the visitors gasp.
Within the glass box, the statue of the Scrap Collecting Immortal shines brilliantly.
There are small and big ones, some with bamboo hats, some without it, some in fighting stances, some draped over divans or altars. Some are playing instruments, dancing, carrying a basket of fruits or doing house chores.
Only one thing do they have in common: they are sculpted with the utmost care, their details exquisite.
Lai Wen knows this and that about art, but when faced with these statues the more he looks at them, the more he starts to feel how an unmistakable air lingers in the room.
The round room was the largest one so far, full of hanged paintings, both modern and ancient, decorating the walls.
In the middle there's a huge banner: [Love Through The Ages: Origin Myths of The Red String of Fate]
While Tour Guide Guy waits for the whole group to gather around the first scroll that seemed to be the oldest one, Lai Wen took his time to look around: many paintings featured characters connected by the titular red string of fate.