Chapter 399: 154. Classic of Bai Ze, Fangxiang Mask

154. Classic of Bai Ze, Fangxiang Mask

Rong Zhen was in a good mood.

Besides discovering that the progress of the East Forest Great Buddha, which she hadn't asked about for many days, was good when she went to inspect the Xunyang Grottoes at Twin Peaks Point this morning—and consequently looking more favorably upon a certain handsome Long-term Official—

it was also because of this golden treasure book right now.

It was called the "Classic of Bai Ze."

Ancient pre-Qin records state that in the ancient mythological era, the Human Emperor toured east to the sea, climbed Mount Huan, and obtained the Bai Ze divine beast on the seashore, which could speak and understand the feelings of all things.

Because he asked about the affairs of ghosts and gods in the world, from ancient times, essence becoming objects and wandering souls becoming changes, there were 11,520 types in total. Bai Ze spoke of them, and the Emperor ordered them to be depicted in a book to show the world, thus the "Classic of Bai Ze" was created.

The original first edition of the legendary "Classic of Bai Ze" recorded 11,520 types of "essence becoming objects and wandering souls becoming changes," almost encompassing all five-insect living beings in the world.

However, later, Great Yu controlled the floods and cast the Nine Tripods, ending the ancient mythological era. Most mythological creatures and strange monsters and ghosts disappeared from the land of Shenzhou or fled to the North Sea. Right now, perhaps they could only be found in some overseas immortal mountains.

Right now, the strange monsters and ghosts luckily remaining in the world certainly did not number 11,520; they were far fewer.

Therefore, most of the secret knowledge revealed in the "Classic of Bai Ze" about demons, spirits, ghosts, and monsters had become useless hidden learning, and very little could be used.

Moreover, ancient strange classics are vague and long-lasting, passed down to later generations, and most of them have been damaged or lost, only leaving some blurred collective memories mixed in the misty legends.

The original copy of the "Classic of Bai Ze" was the same. After a thousand years, it had long been lost without a trace. The most recent record of its appearance was in the Zhou Storage Chamber a thousand years ago.

The "Classic of Bai Ze" that Rong Zhen applied to the Si Tian Jian to read by using her status as a Colorful Garment Female Official was a replica imitation from the time when the trend of compiling books was prevalent in the Wei and Jin dynasties.

Compared to the original "Classic of Bai Ze" which recorded 11,520 types of monsters, it could only be considered a remnant scroll.

But even this replica imitation of the remnant scroll would not exceed the number of one hand in existence today.

The Imperial Observatory keeps one such volume in its collection; one can see the difficulty of inheriting this secret knowledge just from the strict measures currently in place, with layers of protection and dedicated guards at the Imperial Observatory...

An afternoon passed, and the cold, palace-dressed girl finally slowly stopped flipping the book, closed it, and let out a light breath.

This remnant scroll of the "Classic of Bai Ze" looked thick and had many pages, but the content recorded was not much.

Because on each page, the record for each corresponding mysterious monster was concise and comprehensive.

Simple and straightforward text, but it already contained the most important information: the name of the monster, its shape and ability, its habitat, and its harm or function.

Rong Zhen clenched her jade hand into a fist, pressed it on the golden book, and nodded lightly.

She somewhat understood why the replica imitations of the remnant scroll of the "Classic of Bai Ze" were so rare, and why this treasured remnant scroll in the Si Tian Jian was made of gold to be fireproof, waterproof, rot-proof, and lightning-proof, while simultaneously warding off evil and avoiding disaster. It was difficult to inherit this secret knowledge...

If she were one of the monsters or ghosts above, walking in the world and seeing this book, even if she didn't have the habit of being cruel and evil, she would definitely try every possible way to destroy it, or at least tear out the page about herself.

Her bottom line had been stripped bare.

The cold, palace-dressed girl closed the book and pondered, suppressing the corners of her lips.

At this time, it was near dusk. She rose gracefully, put the "Classic of Bai Ze" back into the thick sandalwood box, locked it layer by layer, and finally covered it heavily.

Rong Zhen held the box with both hands and walked out of the main hall.

The doorway was quiet, with eight people standing on the left and right, half male and half female, all with vermilion hair and white clothes.

Among these eight people with vermilion hair, the leaders were a pair of man and woman, both expressionless, with a touch of vermilion between their eyebrows. The two stepped forward to meet Rong Zhen.

The male official with the red dot between his eyebrows took the sandalwood box from Rong Zhen's hand.

The female official with the red dot between her eyebrows said to Rong Zhen:

"Rong Zhen, the Great Siling asks you, while supervising the construction of the East Forest Great Buddha and the movements in Xunyang, why on earth do you need the 'Classic of Bai Ze' and the Fangxiang Mask?"

Rong Zhen's expression did not change: "Investigating a case."

"Just for that small case of the theft of fifty ink sticks from the Hanlei Lei Mozhai?"

"Female Official Mistress Miao Zhen is quite diligent in complaining."

Rong Zhen nodded, her joy and anger not showing on her face:

"Is this case small? This move by the Li thief gang in the southwest, buried in Xunyang in advance, seriously threatens the construction of the East Forest Great Buddha. If we can follow the vine to find the owner of the Butterfly Loves Flowers, we can eliminate this trouble and ensure that the major event is safe. It is not small at all."

The female official with the red dot between her eyebrows frowned and asked:

"The Hanlei Lei Mozhai case was done by the owner of the Butterfly Loves Flowers? This person has accomplices of the strange monster and ghost type, and you want to follow the vine?"

Rong Zhen was noncommittal, "I am responsible for the affairs of Xunyang; it is not within your scope of authority."

The female official with the red dot between her eyebrows had a thin anger in her eyes.

Rong Zhen did not care, stretched out a fair and tender palm from her sleeve, and signaled something to them.

The female official with the red dot between her eyebrows exchanged glances with her companion. The doorway was quiet for a moment, and the group of people who had stored the "Classic of Bai Ze" took out another sandalwood box.

The female official with the red dot between her eyebrows took out a golden mask from the new box.

The mask had a fierce appearance with four eyes on it.

"Wearing the Fangxiang Mask, do not look in the mirror, do not look at the water, do not look at the moon; consequences at your own risk."

The female official with the red dot between her eyebrows placed the golden mask in Rong Zhen's hand, gave a cold instruction, and was sparing of words.

"No need for you to teach me."

The cold, palace-dressed girl put away the golden mask, and her back went far away.

After the Autumn Equinox, until the Winter Solstice, the days became shorter and the nights longer.

The night of late autumn was exceptionally long.

The moon was high in the sky. Near the city gate of Starry Workshop, a shop named "Hanlei Lei Mozhai" had long since closed for business.

The stewards and shop assistants had long since gone off duty to rest, leaving only two or three doormen to take shifts to guard the shop at night.

On the side of the inner treasury, the doorman guarding the night was also old. After patrolling for a while, he had already started to feel sleepy.

However, the old doorman quickly shook his gray head, gathered some spirit, went to the inner treasury where the ink stick inventory was kept, used a key to open the layers of locked doors, walked in, patrolled a circle with a lantern, and only then turned around with peace of mind, closed the door, and left.

Not long ago, the incident of fifty precious-grade Hanlei ink sticks disappearing into thin air had caused a huge stir, and the proprietor had been furious. These shop assistants and doormen had also suffered and been scolded.

Naturally, they did not dare to be negligent in guarding the night right now.

It was just that the investigation had caused such a huge stir in the past few days, and everything had been checked from top to bottom. The old doorman felt that regardless of whether the little thief was an insider, he probably had to be honest for these days.

How could there be serial crimes against the wind? And stealing ink sticks, too unpromising...

Thinking of this, the old doorman holding the lantern left with peace of mind.

As for where the lost batch of precious-grade ink sticks had gone, no reason had been found yet.

The constables of the Judicial Cao of the Jiangzhou Main Hall, and those palace female officials who were supervising the East Forest Great Buddha and looked noble, had come in batch after batch, and interrogation had been conducted one after another.

Such a fuss over a small matter.

In the end, even the matter of a certain shop assistant embezzling two copper coins dropped by a customer at the shop counter on a certain year, month, and day had been found out, but the ink-stealing thief had not been caught.

Fifty ink sticks had simply disappeared into thin air.

In the last few days, the constables and female officials had come less often. Today, they had even withdrawn completely. The figure of that cold, palace-dressed girl who seemed to be in a high position had also not been seen for many days. I don't know if she was tired of investigating the case and was too lazy to come over.

When the old doorman was getting his meal at dusk, he heard the stewards whispering to each other that this case would most likely be treated as a cold case. The proprietor of Hanlei Lei Mozhai had specifically gone to find Army Supervisor Yan in the afternoon to discuss whether the case could be withdrawn and left at that.

It wasn't that they didn't want to catch the thief, but mainly because the investigation had been going on for a long time, and people were coming and going in the shop, delaying the ink making and sales. Most customers and passersby would be suspicious and worried when they saw people in official clothes appearing frequently in the shop, and rumors would fly everywhere.

Therefore, this case had gradually faded in recent days, and no one was investigating it anymore. Inside Hanlei Lei Mozhai, everything had returned to the right track, except that the layers of door locks on the inner treasury door had all been changed,

and at the same time, the ventilation skylight had been opened smaller, and after being blocked, only a ventilation hole about the size of a fist remained, because the preservation of ink sticks required ventilation to remove moisture.

The old doorman shook his head and continued his night patrol...

Behind, in the ink storage treasury, it was pitch black.

Borrowing the moonlight leaking in from the ventilation hole at the top, one could vaguely see rows of wooden shelves in the inner treasury.

On each layer of the wooden shelves, boxes of ink cases were neatly placed.

Over a hundred Hanlei ink sticks, famous throughout Jiang Nan, were all carefully packed into these ink cases.

The ink cases were made of ebony, with carvings on the box body, and were exquisitely made. They not only played the role of storing and protecting the Hanlei ink sticks, but also, good ink matched with good cases, could increase their value.

Just not long after the night patrol figure disappeared.

The light in the treasury suddenly dimmed. It was the ventilation hole the size of a fist in the center of the roof being blocked by something, obscuring the silver moonlight. A moment later, the treasury returned to its original state.

Squeak—squeak—squeak—

In the quiet air of the treasury, some faint sounds suddenly rang out.

On a certain wooden shelf, there was a heavy ink case that seemed to have awakened life and had feet, moving slowly toward the edge of the wooden shelf.

Looking from afar, the ink case moved like a slow earthworm, arching and moving.

Finally, it reached the edge.

Clatter—!

In the darkness, a sound of a hard object hitting the ground rang out, accompanied by a cracking sound as the box hit the ground and broke open.

It was the ink case falling,

and by the way, it also revealed the well-preserved pine-scented ink stick inside.

At the same time, on the wooden shelf directly above the fallen ink case, a small black shadow was crouching on the edge, looking down cautiously.

It turned out that the ink case hadn't become a spirit just now, but this small black shadow had used all its strength to push the ink case.

Inside the treasury, a pine ink fragrance permeated.

The small black shadow disappeared on the wooden shelf.

After a series of rustling sounds.

"Gurgle gurgle..."

Inside the pitch-black treasury, a series of faint chewing sounds of a mouse gnawing on rice rang out.

It was just unknown whose mouse it was, not going to the rice treasury but coming to the ink treasury.

This chewing sound lasted for a long time, until the moon outside rose to the highest sky, and a beam of cold moonlight falling on the pitch-black floor through the ventilation hole at the top moved slowly, finally shining on a sneaky little shadow.

Vaguely, one could see it was only the size of a child's palm, smaller than the ink stick it was holding in its arms.

The small black shadow was like a mouse, crouching on the ground, gorging itself, eating with great relish, and it seemed to have the habit of smacking its lips when eating.

One could see that a whole Hanlei ink stick, larger than its volume, was almost finished in less than a stick of incense.

Truly a hungry ghost reincarnated; I don't know how long it had been fasting, but it finally had a full meal tonight.

"Urp"

The small black shadow let out a satisfied burp.

Just at this moment, a cold female voice rang out from the side:

"Are you full?"

In a shadow against the wall of the inner treasury, a figure of a palace-dressed girl with long sleeves walked out.

The small black shadow was so scared that it jumped a full half-foot high on the spot.

Crackle—!

Rong Zhen heard a series of sounds of rummaging through boxes and cabinets ringing out from all directions.

It was the rows of ink boxes neatly stacked on the shelves, all falling to the ground spontaneously without wind.

After this commotion, the inner treasury returned to silence.

The small black shadow had already disappeared, possibly escaping in the chaos, leaving only ink sticks scattered all over the ground.

Rong Zhen's expression was as usual. She didn't chase, but walked with long sleeves to the position where the small black shadow had just been gorging on ink sticks.

She lowered her eyes and looked at the pile of messy ink sticks on the ground around her.

The palace-dressed girl let out a light "snort," didn't buy it, and took out a golden mask from her sleeve and put it on her pretty face.

The mask on her face had a fierce appearance, with four deep eyes, like black holes that could absorb all the light from the outside world. At this moment, the four eyes were staring straight at the pile of ink sticks on the floor.

Before she could speak, among this pile of messy ink sticks, a certain ink stick that was playing dead suddenly melted into a small black shadow, and after being restored, it moved like a fly—running away on all four feet in a hurry.

Rong Zhen's figure was like a phantom, flashing close, and she stepped on this small shadow. Her pink lips parted slightly:

"Do you think you can run away?"

The little guy under her feet begged for mercy in a hurry, actually speaking human words, pitifully:

"Li Xianzi, please spare my life. I was wrong, I was really wrong. I will never dare to steal your ink again. Wuwuwu, please lift your noble foot. Ouch, my hair is messy, it hurts, it hurts. Li Xianzi's feet... Jade, jade feet, be gentle."

Hearing the pitiful, begging girl's voice coming from under her feet.

Rong Zhen loosened her sole slightly and looked closely.

This black shadow, the size of a child's palm, was actually a little person wearing a lotus Daoist crown, like a female Daoist. She was originally fair-skinned and beautiful, but there was a circle of ink oil left around her mouth from gnawing on ink, like a circle drawn with an ink pen on white paper, which was quite funny.

But after looking closely again, she discovered that besides wearing a lotus Daoist crown, she was also wearing an ancient Confucian robe of ink black, holding a golden alms bowl for a monk to beg for food in her hand, and simultaneously holding a snow-white whisk.

She was neither a Daoist, nor like a Confucian scholar, and certainly not a nun. She was a mix of all three religions. Falling into Rong Zhen's eyes, she was neither fish nor fowl. She frowned slightly:

"Get up."

The ink-clothed little female Daoist climbed up from the ground in a sorry state, straightened her crooked lotus Daoist crown, and then squatted down to pick up the whisk and the golden bowl, blew off the dust, and carefully checked for battle damage, her expression very distressed.

"Hand over your true name first." Rong Zhen suddenly ordered coldly.

"Can I not say it." The little female Daoist lowered her head and asked weakly.

She didn't dare to look directly at that golden mask that made her feel deep and terrifying. The invisible majesty pressed her so she couldn't lift her head.

Rong Zhen was amused, thinking whether this little monster's brain was broken, still bargaining.

Was this just becoming a spirit, never having been beaten before?

Rong Zhen suddenly felt that it was a waste to specially apply for a taboo object from Luodu this time to use on this little monster in front of her.

Just based on this little female Daoist's mere cultivation, with a pair of big eyes revealing a clear stupidity, and her brain not working very well, she could clean her up with a wave of her hand. Preparing so much was making a fuss over a small matter.

Rong Zhen took off the Fangxiang Mask casually, revealing a cold face:

"You can try."

The little female Daoist waved her hand, her eyeballs rolled around, and she answered sonorously:

"I won't try, I won't try, Li Xianzi. Huang Xuan, my name is Huang Xuan!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 400 =====