Chapter 450: Splitting Characters to Complete Them; Leaving Chongguang

The art of character-splitting has long been lost in the vast expanse of history, with no written records to be found.

Zhou You had studied under Ceng Fuzi and had never heard of this technique, yet now he was seeing it on a physical object.

He could not help but sigh; Liu Tianxian sat upon a mountain of treasure without knowing it. Lacking a system interface, he could not deduce the secrets of the character-splitting art.

After mastering the character-splitting art, the speed at which Zhou You researched the tuopian and fragments accelerated sharply, advancing by leaps and bounds.

The tuopian traded among those of the Golden Immortal Dao were, for various reasons, all incomplete—either missing limbs or blurred and unclear.

The erosion of time and improper storage had caused irreversible damage to the images of the characters.

Thus, the Nine Tripod Characters are precious for their originality; their value drops significantly after multiple rubbings.

It is best to observe the Nine Tripods themselves directly, examining the characters on them at close range, to obtain the most authentic Seal Script.

Originally, with the help of the interface, Zhou You could only chew through the hard bones one by one, but with the character-splitting art, it was different.

The character-splitting art is most advantageous when facing incomplete characters.

The work Zhou You had to do was to categorize different characters, compare and reference them, and select those with the highest similarity to split and complete them.

The ultimate goal of his collecting so much data was to complete the 14 characters on the tree burl, of which 6 were whole and 8 were incomplete.

The power of the Seal Script, like a new world behind a great door, had already slowly revealed itself before him.

According to the practitioners of the Golden Immortal Dao that Zhou You had encountered one after another, the Seal Scripts they each used were different, but their power assessments were roughly uniform.

Single Seal Scripts have the greatest power and can derive different abilities, such as Kunpengzi's 'Delusion' or Liu Tianxian's 'Instant'.

Secondary derivative characters of the Seal Script are specialized products; while powerful, they lose further potential, such as Guo Liuhe's 'Darkness' or the 'A Thousand Miles in a Day' on the heavy talisman.

Zhou You had mastered several complete characters and gained new insights every day, but his greatest wealth remained the tree burl he had harvested from his hometown.

The 14 characters on the tree burl were a coherent sentence.

A single Seal Script is powerful, but what if they could form a phrase, or even a sentence? Zhou You estimated that the world is vast and full of wonders; somewhere in the world, there must be those of the Golden Immortal Dao who have mastered the power of phrases or even sentences.

His goal was to use the massive database of tuopian to complete the content of those 14 characters and master a higher level of Seal Script power.

"Split, combine, split, combine!"

The process of splitting characters was very tedious, and the combinations of character strokes were unremarkable. By the end, the initial novelty had vanished, leaving only a large amount of repetitive work.

On the other hand, his main body, far away in Fucheng, had taken up the hobby of the Tiger Tendon Pipa again since mastering the 'Sound' character.

This Seal Script granted his main body a talent for musical instruments, making the journey from novice to master on any instrument incredibly easy.

In just a few short days, Zhou You's main body could use the Tiger Tendon Pipa to play various styles—melancholy and sorrowful, clanging and iron-blooded, or desolate and resentful—leaving everyone around him feeling dejected and heartbroken.

This previously useless skill of playing the pipa suddenly jumped 10 levels, reaching the master level.

Sometimes, life just needs a little bit of seasoning.

His first avatar, Lu Zhigang, was currently having a harder time than his avatar Moyunzi.

He was trekking through the Zhaohai with Du Wuyao, searching for the entrance to the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop in the vast marsh.

According to Du Wuyao, the outline of the marsh was constantly changing, and only the core area where the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop was located remained stationary, which caused the entrance to be elusive; even sect disciples returning from outside could get lost.

He had been trapped in the Zhenxiong Yu for many years, and many things had changed; finding the entrance would take some time!

Sigh, keep looking, keep enduring! "Good, it's done!"

On this day, inside Guo Liuhe's manor in Chongguang Cheng...

Zhou You added a stroke to the incomplete character; it fit perfectly, and the frame of the character became complete in an instant, its charm emerging naturally.

This was a sign of character completion! "Seal Script 'Bless' has been completed. Do you wish to consume Experience Points to analyze and master it?"

"Not for now."

Zhou You's mind was currently full of character-splitting and completion, and he had no heart to master new Seal Scripts for the time being; after all, it was too time-consuming and mentally taxing. Of the 8 incomplete characters, he had completed 2 after this period of study, leaving 6 remaining.

After this period of "sea of questions" tactics, his Seal Script level had risen straight up, from Lv17 to Lv23.

He wanted to continue; after all, the environment was good, the people he interacted with were all high-minded scholars, and the atmosphere was conducive to researching Seal Scripts.

Liu Tianxian's arrival interrupted Zhou You's research plan.

"I've kept you waiting."

This time, he brought more trade goods than last time, wanting to exchange for more Hunger Pouches to redeem the Martial Saint seal.

Zhou You had already gained the greatest harvest by obtaining the character-splitting art, so he felt no attachment to the seal and handed it over readily.

"I admire you."

Seeing him so forthcoming, Liu Tianxian thought that if it were himself, he would never be willing to part with such a peerless treasure as the Martial Saint seal.

After counting the goods, the 15 Hunger Pouches previously mortgaged were all paid off, and he could still take away 6 more.

"I want the kind with 3 uses."

The Hunger Pouch 2.0 was very easy to use, and the function of being able to use it 3 times was far more versatile than a one-time use.

Zhou You nodded, handed the pouches to him, and then said to Guo Liuhe and the others, "I am leaving."

"Why not stay a few more days, fellow Daoist?"

Guo Liuhe was anxious; he wished he could provide for Zhou You's retirement and have him stay at his home for the rest of his life.

"My fate here ends; my pockets only have a few left for my own use. If other fellow Daoists come to trade, should I give them or not?"

Zhou You explained, "I will go collect materials to make another batch, and then I will come to bother Fellow Daoist Guo again upon my return."

Liu Tianxian had not yet left, and hearing that Zhou You was leaving, he was also anxious, "Fellow Daoist, leave a contact method!"

Zhou You thought for a moment and pointed in a certain direction, "Just use my original shop."

After speaking, Zhou You bid farewell to everyone and left.

On the day he finished speaking, the ground that had been bitten by the Snake King was rapidly backfilled, the house was rebuilt, and every brick and tile was restored to exactly how it had been.

The shops on both sides were cleared out; although people lived there, it clearly did not look like they were doing business.

"..."

Several days later, a dusty old customer stopped at the door, but he did not go in.

The shop was tightly shut, there was no one inside, and the atmosphere on this street was not quite right; although there were many passersby, they were all disguised.

A trap? Or something else? Zhou You felt vigilant, yet he pretended not to know and went up to knock, "Old gentleman, old gentleman, are you home?"

A head poked out from a shop to the side, "Stop calling, there's no one inside, they moved."

Moved? The regular customer had originally come holding hope, but hearing that Zhou You had moved, and seeing the strange atmosphere all around, he dared not linger.

He walked more than a dozen streets away and finally heard the old news that a giant beast had wreaked havoc in the city and bitten the shop away in one mouthful.

Sigh, in the end, he had missed him.

The regular customer could not help but feel a bit sentimental; he had originally wanted to invite the old gentleman to his own sect to participate in the proofreading and re-editing of fist technique classics, but it was a pity.

The sect he belonged to was a nascent sect from the neighboring prefecture, lacking deep foundations, and was just about to hold a grand ceremony for the compilation and verification of fist techniques, inviting Seal Script masters from all directions to carve steles and cast tripods to declare their momentum.

Originally, he had taken a fancy to Zhou You's craftsmanship, but it was a pity that he had missed him after all.

(End of this chapter)