Chapter 449: Seal Script Detention, Character-Splitting Method

After seeing Liu Tianxian off, the business came to an end, and I won't be doing it for the time being.

The Golden Immortal Dao who rushed over after hearing the news nearby had already completed their trades, and those from other places would need time to arrive, but they wouldn't make it in time.

Zhou You was cultivating his character at Guo Liuhe's manor, and incidentally, he toyed with that Martial Saint Private Seal.

The joy of researching metal and stone inscriptions lies in holding a physical object in one's hand and then searching through piles of old papers for the historical traces it left behind.

A seal is, by nature, intended for stamping, so it is bound to have left impressions that have been passed down to this day.

If one could find the corresponding documents, one might be able to deduce which Martial Saint the seal belonged to.

Guo Liuhe was also quite interested; this object was Liu Tianxian's treasure, which he had always kept hidden and refused to show others, so this was the first time in history it had passed into a second person's hands, and he took the opportunity to study it for a few days.

In reality, Zhou You had privately digested the few items from this haul that offered the best value for money.

The Dark Painting and the Heavy Talisman...

These two things were both treasures that utilized Seal Script in practice; since they dared to bring them out, they weren't afraid of them being deciphered.

After all, the structure of Seal Script is complex and ever-changing, and the final effect presented is vastly different from the original version, making it very difficult to reverse-engineer the source.

However, under the panel's scan, no matter how formidable the encapsulation technology was, it was as good as non-existent.

"Experience Points -10,000, 'Ge' character upgraded to Level 1 Seal Script, Seal Script 'Yin' has been mastered."

"Experience Points -20,000, Level 1 Seal Script 'Yin', Level 2 variant directions: No Light, No Sound. No Light: Ge, An, An; No Sound: An, Yin."

The Dark Painting analyzed a massive amount of information; it turned out this font was a variant of the source Level 1 Seal Script.

The skill Guo Liuhe prided himself on was merely one of the functions evolved from this Seal Script.

Before writing appeared, language was the most convenient and efficient means of communication, and some dialects in certain places even retain scattered syllables of ancient languages to this day.

Having mastered this Seal Script, one can use language to probe and deduce a more three-dimensional and comprehensive writing system.

Next was the Heavy Talisman! The panel began to analyze this talisman, deducing and correcting it stroke by stroke; the large character in the center was naturally the main body of the Seal Script, and the dense, small characters surrounding it were also content that corroborated the strokes of the Seal Script.

"Experience Points -12,000, through backtracking and reverse-engineering, Seal Script 'Ju' has been mastered."

To Zhou You's surprise, this Seal Script was not some acceleration function like "Godly Travel" or "Riding the Wind," but the "Ju" (detain/arrest) from "detain."

Another case of a crooked monk chanting the scriptures crookedly.

The Seal Script 'Ju' has the function of detaining any target object, whether sentient or inanimate, from the ends of the earth to right in front of one.

Why was it misinterpreted as an auxiliary function for traveling?

Because once the talisman is stuck on, one becomes the target of the detention, and no matter where one hides, one will eventually be brought before the user by a mysterious force.

Therefore, in essence, this talisman is an arrest warrant, not a free bus ticket.

It's too funny; I hitched a ride on a police vehicle used for escorting prisoners.

"Hahaha!"

Zhou You found it interesting; that guy in Caoshu Zhou who sold the Heavy Talisman was quite amusing, making others willingly buy arrest warrants.

Hmm, on second thought, that Golden Immortal Dao probably hadn't figured out the true power of the Seal Script either.

A complete Seal Script 'Ju' can designate the detention of a target to any location, but this Heavy Talisman allows the 'prisoner' to designate the destination, which clearly has a major flaw.

If it were written by Zhou You, he would definitely arrange it perfectly, guaranteeing you arrive exactly where intended.

"Hmm, that's better!"

After Zhou You mastered this Seal Script, he took up his brush and wrote a dozen or so, three of which had their destination set to the Fucheng Zhenxiong Yu; these three were meant to trap people.

Just imagine, someone full of ambition pulls out a Heavy Talisman (the modified version), sticks it on their back, and runs for their life. Only to find upon arrival that the final stop is the Fucheng Zhenxiong Yu, tsk tsk! The remaining time was spent organizing the tuopian and fragments obtained from the trade, sorting out the useful content.

Occasionally, he would stop to toy with that Martial Saint seal.

Seals are divided into two types: public and private. Official documents passed down to later generations bear public seals, while letters to old friends or seals left under calligraphy and paintings are usually private seals.

The difficulty in researching private seals lies in the fact that without comparative documentary evidence, it is hard to deduce who the original owner was.

The more status a person has, the more names they have—aliases, nicknames, elegant names, alternate names, and so on, a whole bunch.

The four characters on the Martial Saint Private Seal are clear at a glance: "Ji Ji Ran Yin."

In other words, this Martial Saint's nickname was... "Ji Ji Ran," which is hard to guess.

Historical records show no Martial Saint ever used "Ji Ji Ran" as an alternate name.

It couldn't be found in the literature; this seal was still good for toying with—the material was precious, the carving was superb, and it was perfect for practicing metal and stone inscription techniques, serving as a "stone from another mountain."

Guo Liuhe had also studied it for a period at first, but gave up after finding nothing special.

The preciousness of this object lay mostly in the fact that its owner was a Martial Saint; however, since it couldn't be determined which Martial Saint it was, its authenticity was greatly diminished. One day, while Zhou You was rubbing the surface of the seal, he discovered that the carving method of the four characters held great mystery.

It was normal for the depth of the strokes of each character to vary; in manual carving, the greatest taboo is "craftsman's air," and if the depth were truly uniform like a machine carving, it would actually be less beautiful.

Zhou You accidentally discovered that some strokes among the four characters echoed each other, as if they could piece something together. He took out a box of seal paste, made from precious materials like cinnabar, gold powder, and pearls; it was a top-grade seal paste.

Slap! The seal was pressed down, and a bright red impression appeared.

Zhou You took up his brush and traced along several strokes; a moment later, an archaic character appeared before him.

This was the truth.

Hidden within the strokes of this seal's characters was a Nine Tripod Character.

Zhou You thought this was truly an unexpected joy, but then he suddenly realized that this object had been in Liu Tianxian's hands for much longer.

Liu Tianxian was an old-timer of the Golden Immortal Dao with profound attainments in metal and stone inscriptions; it was impossible that he hadn't discovered this situation.

Sure enough...

After a long while, Zhou You let out a breath at this character; it was completely nonsensical.

At first glance, this character looked weathered and archaic, and both the brushwork and hooks conformed to the characteristics of the Nine Tripod Characters.

But upon careful study, he realized it wasn't a character at all; at best, it was a shell pieced together from various strokes, with no meaning and contradictory character shapes.

Sure enough, "picking up a bargain" simply didn't exist.

If there were really something good, wouldn't it have been squeezed dry by Liu Tianxian long ago? There was no way a good thing would fall into his lap.

Finally, unwilling to give up, Zhou You scanned it with the panel; even though the seal was small, who knew if something was hidden inside? The result of the scan was that this seal had no mechanisms and no secret compartments; it was a very pure seal.

But...

"Ancient script technique 'Character Decomposition Method' discovered. Record and analyze?"

"Yes."

"Experience Points -30,000."

So, the strange characters on the seal were not without value, but rather utilized a technique called the Character Decomposition Method.

This skill was mastered by ancient script experts, who would decompose and piece together characters, using fragments to supplement the incomplete, and even add strokes to perform multi-layered encryption; it was a highly sophisticated technique.

(End of chapter)