Chapter 667: The Ancestor's Gift (56)

"Luo Qi." Liu Ziyi broke Luo Qi's train of thought. In a corner of the cabin, some objects were piled up; they appeared to be bronze artifacts, slightly crude, and completely out of place with everything else here.

Luo Qi walked over to take a look. With his superficial museum experience, he could only guess that they were early Shang Dynasty bronze styles. The craftsmanship was crude, but the shape of a bronze bird had already appeared among this pile of objects. Humans had always been imitating the form of this... spacecraft... only adding many romantic, imaginative elements.

Liu Ziyi pointed to a bronze mirror in the corner for Luo Qi to see. The mirror surface had already oxidized. She flipped the bronze mirror over; the carvings on the back were very similar to the crystal patterns that appeared on the interior hull of the spacecraft.

"Humans used their own ideas to imitate the technology of the Progenitor Mage," Luo Qi said. They wanted to carve the crystal circuits from the spacecraft.

"And this small culture dish—aside from the size, the other structures are similar to the ones we have seen. Why would they make a separate small jar? Unless this place is mobile, like a human airplane..." Liu Ziyi said softly, then gritted her teeth before changing the word, "Or a spacecraft? A space vehicle?"

Liu Ziyi's voice rang out in Luo Qi's mind. She had radiated her concentrated Yajian again. Luo Qi felt that Liu Ziyi seemed to have gotten used to using him as a receiving base station. 【There are so many landing pads here; this is a hangar, isn't it? The Progenitor Mage... whatever they were, they once drove hundreds of spacecraft to shuttle everywhere, flying to other planets at will? Tell me, am I crazy?】

【If my brain keeps ringing like this, I'm the one who's going to go crazy.】 Luo Qi replied.

After a pause, Luo Qi sent her another message, 【How do you know the entire Seal Land isn't a spacecraft itself? Doesn't this look like a mothership?】

Liu Ziyi's face turned even paler, and she fell silent.

"Be strong," Luo Qi said in a low voice, then turned and left the place.

In the next four cabins, only one was very special. They were taken aback when they broke in; the entire cabin had been invaded by humans. The human ancestors had arranged this place into a sacrificial site. In the very center of the cabin was an altar centered around a Bronze Coffin. In front of the coffin were placed bronze tripods, and the sides were piled with finely polished jade. Hanging above the altar was a bronze mask. It was not the same as the Sanxingdui bronze masks Luo Qi had once seen; these masks were more like beast faces, but they clearly had consistency in their craftsmanship and design.

"This looks like mask worship. Traces of human-face worship have appeared in many places—the beast-face human-faces on bronze tripods, the wild boar human-faces on pottery jars, and even the masks of Sanxingdui," Wusu suddenly said to Luo Qi. "I once thought about this before; humans seem to know a lot about us. They know that as long as a person puts on a mask, they can be a fierce beast, or they can be someone else."

Luo Qi did not answer. He knew there was no need for him to answer; Wusu had figured it out earlier than he had. The ancestors of humanity must have witnessed the channeling of the Progenitor Mage, and even seen the Progenitor Mage transform into other people.

Piled beneath the altar were some tortoise shells and animal bones, which looked like the remnants left after burning; they must have been tools for human divination.

Luo Qi picked up the largest piece of tortoise shell; simple drawings created by ancient humans still remained on it. A group of people were kneeling and kowtowing to a large bird descending from the sky, while another group of people were waving their arms and dancing gracefully. Far above the large bird, three stars were exceptionally bright. He wondered if humans believed that by performing these rituals, they could summon back the Progenitor Mage who had already left. In the eyes of humans, the Progenitor Mage must have been gods.

"Orion. Rigel." Liu Ziyi looked at the object in Luo Qi's hand and said gloomily.

"The Destined Mysterious Bird descended to give birth to the Shang, settling the vast Yin lands. The ancient Emperor commanded Wu Tang to govern the four directions," Wusu said in a low voice.

"What does that mean?" Liu Ziyi asked.

Wusu interjected, "It means that Heaven commanded the Mysterious Bird to descend to Earth, giving birth to the ancestor of the Shang Clan, and from then on, the Shang Clan settled on these vast Yin lands. The ancient Emperor commanded Wu Tang to govern the four directions. There are a few more lines after that, all speaking of the Shang Clan pacifying the four directions, their descendants flourishing, and their lives being prosperous. This is the 'Shang Ode: Mysterious Bird,' a eulogy for the descendants of the Shang to sacrifice to their ancestors. Human historians believe the Shang tribe used the bird as a totem; now it seems it was these birds."

Liu Ziyi's expression was somewhat gloomy, "That part isn't wrong; humans are indeed flourishing in descendants and living prosperous lives."

Luo Qi coughed and said hesitantly, "Don't be so narrow-minded. Don't you like Guan Xinyue?"

"That's a different matter," Liu Ziyi said vaguely.

"You see, it's easy to share hardships, but hard to share wealth."

"Nonsense, what does that have to do with anything?" Liu Ziyi said.

"That's true, it wasn't phrased accurately. To put it another way: one fears their brother lives in poverty, yet also fears their brother driving a Land Rover," Luo Qi said without changing his expression, walking around the bronze tripod to begin observing the Bronze Coffin behind it.

If he wasn't mistaken, that should be a Bronze Coffin; at least the form was very similar to the coffins of later generations, and the size was suitable for holding a person. The patterns on the bronze surface were desperately imitating the paths of the crystal circuits on the spacecraft. From the perspective of modern humans, this looked like a crude version of a bronze crystal board, the periphery of an integrated circuit.

"I do not!"

Luo Qi pondered and touched the Bronze Coffin; there were no traces of Magic, it was a genuine human product. If he had to push it, he certainly wouldn't be able to push it open, and if he used Magic, he might blow the coffin apart.

"Luo Qi, do you not have any emotional setbacks? Do you not feel hurt? Great Mage Wusu, you also feel very painful, don't you? And you, Zhao Mage, you are really strange."

"The setbacks and hurts the Mage World has given me are far greater than this; I was already immune to all poisons," Luo Qi said casually, pondering a problem on another level, and only glanced faintly at Leader Zhao, who seemed not to have heard Liu Ziyi's question.

"But where you come from is a fundamental question, a question involving your own existence. As long as one is human, it is hard to avoid this," Liu Ziyi said.

"You saying that reminds me that Du Zhengyi doesn't exist in this cabin yet, and we have to find a way to leave before the radiation level rises into a Curse. Hurry up, you two truly existing Mages. Which one of you will help me open this coffin?" Luo Qi asked, turning his head.

"Open the coffin?" Liu Ziyi only then realized what that large bronze cabinet was. She blinked, hesitating somewhat strangely, "That's not good, I don't want to do it."

"Watch fewer human movies and literary works, and be a Great Mage with dignity who persistently pursues the origin, Junior Sister Liu. Do you still think the corpse of a human ancestor can reanimate? Hurry up and open it for me, let me see what's inside," Luo Qi said.

"I'll do it," Wusu said.

Luo Qi immediately stepped aside. Wusu's Magic Ability was stable and just right; the upper half of the Bronze Coffin slid open like a drawer, finally landing safely on the ground beside it, and the inner layer of the bronze coffin was subsequently opened as well.

"Thanks," Luo Qi said politely, stepping forward to lean over the coffin and look inside.

Sure enough, a skeleton lay plainly inside the coffin, with turquoise, shells, agate, and ancient jade scattered over the body; these must have been the jewelry the deceased wore during their lifetime. As time passed, the deceased failed to return from the dead, and even the strings holding the jewelry had rotted and disappeared.

Liu Ziyi could not suppress her curiosity and slowly approached as well, following Luo Qi to look inside. "This is someone's coffin; what did you find?"

"I found that everything is very normal," Luo Qi said.

Liu Ziyi was somewhat speechless.

"Then could this person be... someone created by the Ancestor? The first Shang Clan ancestor mentioned in the sacrificial poem?"

"A good son burying himself in the hut where he was born?" Luo Qi shook his head, "Who he is is not important. I think he just wanted to be resurrected. But that's not important; we should go."