Chapter 301: Totem Manifests, Guests Arrive at the Door

Zhou You circled outside the city a few times, confirming there were no tails behind him.

Even then, he was not at ease; he gritted his teeth and activated the panel, recalling the projection of this body and casting it to his home in the Inner City.

In this way, the final traces of this avatar were wiped away.

If anyone followed the clues to investigate later, they would only see the trail end on flat ground, as if the person had evaporated.

"Senior Brother Zhou, a few households in the Inner City had disturbances from charms just now, but they have been suppressed."

"It was some distance from our home, so the two elders were not frightened."

Zuo Shier knocked on the door to report the situation; he had just been out to check, and most of the charms had already been suppressed.

There was no way to round up the scattered stragglers for the time being, as the City Gate Guard, who were specialized for this, were all absent.

Zhou You nodded, "The food reserves at home are still sufficient; do not go out for these next few days."

The charm disturbance was only on the surface; deeper turmoil had already begun to show signs.

The Qi Family had lost their clan-protecting treasure and would inevitably make a big scene, which would also leave the Xu Family unable to stay quiet.

Once the two great clans moved, the martial arts halls and guilds in the city would also have to stir, which could be called a city-wide sensation.

Zhou You worried about his parents' safety, thinking his father should take leave and stay home for now, rather than going to work at the firm.

As it turned out, the firm was not opening for the time being either; the two great clans above had sealed the city gates to prevent entry and exit, claiming they needed to investigate something, so business could not be done.

They were not giving up, still thinking of finding the Baile Tianluo.

This treasure was currently lying in Zhou You's 'Armory', slowly repairing itself.

"Armory: 1. Void Face (Avatar 2); 2. Wuxiang Tongkui (calculating); 3. Baile Tianluo (repairing)."

Zhou You took out the Talisman Book of Senior Brother Ling to read, combining it with the memory fragments excavated from Kunpengzi's mind, and began to digest the content.

The things in this Talisman Book were very interesting.

Ceng Fuzi had once mentioned that the transmission of ancient knowledge was actually inseparable between pictures and text, and that characters also evolved from graphics.

After all, sometimes the information a single graphic could express was far richer than text alone.

But the advantage of text lay in modular combination, which was convenient and fast, eventually phasing out the information dissemination method of explaining with pictures.

Although the mode was phased out, it did not mean that graphics were phased out.

To this day, combining pictures and text remained an efficient way of carrying culture, widely used in various occasions.

Pictures were pictures, and text was text; the two were distinct and could not be lumped together.

Yet the Talisman Book in Zhou You's hand clearly carried a path of merging pictures and text, which actually had some shadows of the ancient Totems that Ceng Fuzi had mentioned.

"Kunpengzi didn't give the Disciple any real instruction!"

Zhou You guessed that Kunpengzi had kept a hand back from his apprentice and had not taught him genuine Seal Script.

Thinking about it, it was normal; for a pawn with a ticking time bomb buried in their body, what real affection could there be?

But this Talisman Book became more interesting the more he read it.

"Seal Script lv10 → lv11, Experience Points +10000."

"Seal Script lv11 → lv12, Experience Points +11000." Reading the content of the Talisman Book, the Seal Script level rose slowly like the tide, bringing in a large amount of Experience Points.

Then, with a 'ding' sound, a brand new item appeared: "Totem lv0."

"Totem lv1 → lv2, Experience Points +1000."

"Totem lv2 → lv3, Experience Points +2000."

"Totem lv3 → lv4, Experience Points +3000."

The panel decomposed the content of the Talisman Book; it turned out that the ghost-drawn symbols inside fused Seal Script with a carrier called a 'Totem'.

Totems, weren't those carriers that existed in the ancient era? Although there were still marks similar to totems on murals and antiques today, they were all just decorative patterns and possessed no power.

He hadn't expected Kunpengzi to have learned such a variety of things; besides Seal Script, he had also mastered Totems.

Zhou You was only slightly interested in Totems and had no intention of studying them in depth.

The Totems that history had phased out had a future far less bright than Seal Script; perhaps they could be used as an auxiliary tool for researching the Nine Cauldrons Seal Script.

Besides that... Zhou You's heart suddenly stirred; the Golden Immortal Dao involved the power of Totems, what did that represent? One must know that the extinction of Totems revealed the disappearance of a certain ethnic group in history.

This ethnic group was called the Witch.

From the pronunciation, there was really not much difference between Witch and Martial, and even their power systems were extremely similar.

However, martial artists rose abruptly to become the supreme power dominating the world, while the Witch Tribe disappeared into the long river of history.

Could it be that Kunpengzi had found the remnants of the Witch Tribe?

The question was, did Kunpengzi represent the Golden Immortal Dao or himself, and what was his relationship with the remnants of the Witch Tribe?

What was the purpose of Senior Brother Ling being ordered to Gongliang City to activate the pawn Qi Wu Guniang, and did it have any connection to the Witch Tribe? In an instant, he calculated countless possibilities; he needed more information to corroborate these speculations.

The Witch Tribe and Totems were ancient secret history; only Ceng Fuzi, who was skilled in academic research, might know something.

Zhou You immediately visited Zeng Fu; this time it was a coincidence that Ceng Fuzi was at home.

"The Witch Tribe, why are you asking about this?"

Zhou You laughed sheepishly, "I was reading recently and discovered that the characters for Witch and Martial have deep origins, so I became interested and started studying them."

"Hmm, not bad. The Witch Tribe is far removed from the present era; many things are far-fetched interpretations and not the truth."

"I have collected some records here; take them and read them."

Ceng Fuzi was very straightforward, handing Zhou You a large stack of materials, not forgetting to remind him.

"Witch Tribe Totems are mysterious and ancient; many high-ranking nobles collect and study them in private, but it is definitely not the orthodox path. You must not become obsessed and neglect your study of Seal Script."

Zhou You bowed and promised, "Master, rest assured, I am just looking into it."

He brought the materials home and found a magnificent carriage parked at the entrance, recognizing it as coming from the Qi Family.

Had Senior Brother Qi visited again? Zhou You stepped into his home, just about to greet his parents, when he suddenly realized something was wrong.

Zuo Shier and Tie Niu were standing in the courtyard, and standing opposite them were several family warriors from the Qi Family.

In the front hall for receiving guests, Zhou Laodie and his wife were politely entertaining the distinguished guest who had arrived today.

The distinguished guest came from the Qi Family, but it was not Qi Fengzhang; it was Qi Wu Guniang.

This concubine-born daughter of the Qi Family, who looked like a fairy, smiled gently and was speaking softly with Zhou You's parents, showing not a hint of arrogance.

Zhou Laodie had never seen such a noble young lady from a great family, and he was so nervous that his hands and feet were stiff, not knowing where to put them.

His wife was even more constrained; she lowered her head to glance at the tips of Qi Wu Guniang's shoes, then quickly looked away.

"Father, Mother, I'm back."

Zhou You stepped over the threshold holding his books and naturally nodded toward Qi Wu Guniang, "Miss Qi Wu."

Qi Wu Guniang stood up and offered a shallow bow, "Zhou You, may we speak in private?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhou You's parents nodded hurriedly, "Yes, go ahead and talk. You'er, this young lady has been waiting for you for a long time."

They left the living room without looking back, leaving Zhou You and Qi Wu Guniang alone together.

Outside the house, Zuo Shier, Tie Niu, and Qi Wu Guniang's guards stood several hundred meters away, able to vaguely see the two of them but unable to hear a single sound of their conversation.

Zhou You thought to himself that since she had taken the initiative to come to him, it was likely due to the impact of the Charm Chaos.

(End of this chapter)