Chapter 503: Yinxu

Pei Mianman's face turned cold. "If you dare to defile my face, I will bite off my tongue and commit suicide. Then we'll see how you can use me to threaten Ah Zu into giving you the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra."

She had clearly guessed what the Mosquito Daoist was thinking and deliberately spoke to warn Zu An.

The Mosquito Daoist was startled. "Oh, little girl, you look so delicate, but I didn't expect you to be so strong-willed. It seems you care a lot about this face, so you'd better cooperate obediently!"

"Alright, alright," Zu An quickly said, worried that her hand might slip and injure Pei Mianman. "We'll go touch it, just release her first."

"You go and try first," the Mosquito Daoist said cautiously, clearly unwilling to risk any accidents.

Zu An shrugged and didn't argue. He walked directly toward the stone tablet, his cooperation throughout the process surprising the Mosquito Daoist.

He stood before the stone tablet and examined it carefully. The tablet was entirely dark, exuding an ancient and desolate aura. Carved vertically on its surface were two patterns, which he couldn't tell if they were characters or designs.

He looked at the somewhat familiar patterns, lost in thought.

"What are you dawdling for!" the Mosquito Daoist said impatiently, seeing him standing motionless. With the massive commotion caused by the falling meteorite, people could arrive at any moment, so she naturally dared not delay.

Zu An grunted in acknowledgment and reached out to gently touch the stone tablet. As expected, he encountered the same problem the Mosquito Daoist had just faced.

A transparent film separated him, preventing him from truly touching the stone tablet.

"Use some force!" the Mosquito Daoist frowned. Was her guess wrong? Was this not left by a Human Clan powerful figure?

Zu An had no choice but to brace himself and try to ram the stone tablet. However, having witnessed the Mosquito Daoist's miserable attempt earlier, he didn't use full force.

Sure enough, the moment he collided with it, the previously somewhat elastic transparent "film" instantly became incredibly hard, causing him to cry out in pain.

The Mosquito Daoist, who had been observing from a distance, thought to herself, "The force of this guy's rebound is clearly not as great as mine was. It seems this thing absorbs attack energy to fuel its counterattack."

"I can't open it either," Zu An said, rubbing his shoulder as he got up from the ground, displaying a helpless expression.

"Try sprinkling your blood on it," the Mosquito Daoist suggested, having traveled the world for many years and understanding that many restrictions required blood as a catalyst.

She wasn't worried about any "blood recognition" or similar magical bonding. After all, she had the large-chested woman as a hostage, and she was confident that, given the disparity in their cultivation levels, she could easily overpower him and seize it back later. While treasures recognized by blood generally can't change owners, if the original owner dies, they become ownerless again. Anyway, she planned to kill him after interrogating him for the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra. In an instant, she had formulated her entire plan.

Zu An didn't refuse. He had wounds all over his body anyway, so a casual wipe would produce blood.

He flicked a drop of blood onto it. The blood vanished on the transparent light film, but unfortunately, there was still no reaction.

"Is it not enough?" the Mosquito Daoist mumbled to herself. "Try a bit more blood!"

"You've already wounded me so badly, I don't have much blood left," Zu An grumbled, but still dipped his palm into the fresh blood on his body and smeared it onto the film.

The transparent film seemed to have a self-cleaning function. The areas initially smeared with blood were bright red, but the color quickly vanished, and the film returned to its transparent state.

"Did it absorb it or what..." the Mosquito Daoist wondered, then pushed Pei Mianman forward. "You, go and try too."

Pei Mianman was eager to get away from her. She went to Zu An's side and sent a vital energy message, "Ah Zu, what do we do now?"

Zu An's expression was a little strange. "Don't worry, there might be a turn of events."

"A turn of events?" Pei Mianman looked bewildered. She couldn't see any sign of hope. Was he really just hoping someone would arrive?

"What are you two whispering about? Hurry and try!" the Mosquito Daoist huffed. She didn't stand too close, concerned there might be powerful defensive mechanisms near such a rare treasure, but she also didn't stay too far, in case something unexpected happened and she couldn't react in time.

Left with no choice, Pei Mianman also tried Zu An's method. The film remained, and there was no reaction until she also smeared blood from her wound onto it. Suddenly, the stone tablet trembled, and the two patterns on it burst forth with a golden glow. The patterns seemed to come alive, flickering continuously.

Seeing this, the Mosquito Daoist rushed over to examine it. Unfortunately, apart from bright lines of light flowing over the two patterns, there were no other changes. The film was still there, and the stone tablet remained untouchable.

The Mosquito Daoist analyzed, "It seems the key lies with these two patterns. Do either of you recognize them?"

Zu An and Pei Mianman shook their heads in unison. "We haven't seen them before."

The Mosquito Daoist had merely asked casually. Since even she, with all her knowledge, hadn't seen them, she didn't expect these two young juniors to understand them.

She fell into contemplation. "Does this seal only require a woman's blood to trigger it, or does it require both a man and a woman to trigger it simultaneously...?"

As she was pondering, Zu An suddenly grabbed Pei Mianman, then looked at the two strange patterns on the stone tablet and read aloud, "Yin... Xu!"

The two strange patterns before them were not random doodles, but ancient Chinese characters from his previous life on Earth—Oracle Bone Script!

One of China's oldest dynasties, the Shang Dynasty, already had writing, which was typically carved onto turtle shells and bones for divination and sacrificial purposes, hence the name Oracle Bone Script.

Although Chinese scholars at the time had deciphered most of the Oracle Bone Script's meaning, to ordinary people, these scribble-like characters were like celestial writings, utterly unrecognizable.

Zu An recognized them because, in his previous life, he had watched a documentary about archaeological discoveries of Oracle Bone Script, and that documentary was titled "Yinxu."

Throughout its history, the Shang Dynasty moved its capital many times. The most famous capital was Yin, which is why the Shang Dynasty is also known as the Yin-Shang Dynasty. Later archaeological discoveries located the Shang capital, but after thousands of years of erosion, the once prosperous city had become ruins buried deep underground.

Thus, that relic site was also called Yinxu.

Zu An didn't understand why he was seeing these two characters in another world, and written in the Shang Dynasty's Oracle Bone Script no less. Logically, Yinxu was a name given by later generations to the Shang capital ruins; the Shang people themselves wouldn't have used it.

But at that moment, he had no time to ponder the reasons. Hearing the Mosquito Daoist say that the key lay in these two characters, and with the seal clearly triggered, he could only try.

As soon as he finished speaking, the stone tablet suddenly vibrated. The lines of the two Oracle Bone characters began to move, eventually flowing around the edges of the tablet. The entire stone tablet transformed into a human-height circle of light, golden on the outside and black within.

Zu An was no stranger to such light circles. In his previous life, he had seen similar wormhole gates in various science fiction works. The secret realm entrance behind the academy's mountain was also such a gate, though this one was much smaller in scale.

Without the slightest hesitation, he grabbed Pei Mianman's hand and jumped in.

"You brat!" The Mosquito Daoist had been lost in thought. The entire process—the stone tablet's protective barrier dissolving and then transforming into a light gate—happened almost instantaneously, leaving her no time to stop them.

Seeing the two jump into the light gate, she instinctively reached out, only managing to grab half of Zu An's pant leg. Unfortunately for her, Zu An was prepared. He drew his long sword and swung it at his pant leg, directly cutting it off.

The Mosquito Daoist grasped nothing. As Zu An and Pei Mianman entered, the light gate rapidly shrunk to the size of a bowl's rim, clearly no longer suitable for a person to enter.

She was instantly dumbfounded. She had seen secret realms before, but she had never encountered one whose entrance lasted for such a short time.

Having gone to such great lengths only to watch the rare treasure slip away, she was naturally unwilling to give up. She instantly transformed into a blood-winged black mosquito and, at the very moment the light gate closed, followed them inside.