Free Web NovelProfessor Ma returned to his office, rummaged through some things, and found relevant books and materials on Tuyuhun script. Without a moment's delay, he quickly returned to the laboratory.
Although Lu Yibei kept saying that there was definitely nothing unclean in his office, the attitude Lu Yibei displayed, refusing to move no matter what, made him feel uneasy.
That feeling reminded Professor Ma of the time in class during his student days when he was secretly reading a wuxia novel, and his deskmate discovered the homeroom teacher at the back door but didn't dare to tell him.
Professor Ma held the books and materials, paused in the corridor, looked back at the office door, and shivered slightly, unable to help but Spell.
"You little brat, I've used this office for over ten years, and now you've made me afraid to stay in it for long."
Because of Lu Yibei's words, he felt a chill down his spine while in the office, as if some twisted ghost or something was lurking in the shadows, spying.
It really messes with your mindset!
"Can't you be a little nicer to old people?!"
Returning to the laboratory and sitting down, Professor Ma didn't communicate much with Lu Yibei. He directly picked up the token and began to carefully study it, comparing it with the materials he had brought from the office.
Although he was occasionally a bit unreliable and didn't act like a proper middle-aged person, when it came to academic research, he was completely dedicated.
Lu Yibei knew Professor Ma's nature. Seeing him concentrate on studying the token, he obediently stepped aside and waited quietly, not disturbing him.
Time passed little by little. In the quiet laboratory, besides the sound of turning pages and the soft rustle of a pen scratching paper, there was only the sound of their steady, deep breathing.
About two hours later, Professor Ma, who had been hunched over his desk for a long time, finally sat up straight again. Holding the letter paper with writing, drawings, and many corrections in one hand, and adjusting his glasses with the other, he turned to Lu Yibei and said, "Although I can't guarantee absolute accuracy, I've pretty much figured out the main content."
"Engraved on the back of this token should be an imperial edict of enfeoffment. From the looks of it, this token is not only a credential for dispatching troops and generals but also a token similar to an iron certificate. Take a look yourself?"
Saying this, Professor Ma handed the letter paper full of writing to Lu Yibei.
Taking the letter paper, Lu Yibei furrowed his brow slightly. He lowered his head and focused his attention on the full page of elegant small characters. 【Under the Imperial Gate: The King rules over the universe, managing all affairs. There must be individuals with both civil and military talents, pillars of the state, whose presence brings peace to the people and whose arrival ensures strict military discipline. Those who build great mansions first require the talent of beams and pillars, and those who cross great rivers must rely on the use of boats and oars.】
Lu Yibei had just read the beginning when he frowned, put down the letter paper in his hand, looked up at Professor Ma, and cast a pleading look at him.
He wasn't completely unable to understand the content on the letter paper.
But people often like to rely on others, just as children never grow up when their parents are around, and students rarely summarize knowledge points themselves when the Teacher highlights the key points.
Within a short time, to extract useful information from this flattery, Professor Ma had to step in.
Professor Ma glared at Lu Yibei, pretending to be angry, and said, "You little brat, all you know is how to be lazy! How can you not have this much patience when doing academic research? This is the last time, don't let it happen again!"
Although he said that, he still doted on Lu Yibei very much.
Taking the letter paper, he began to analyze and explain it to Lu Yibei section by section, just like a Teacher explaining an example problem to a student. "You should have already read this large section at the beginning, right?"
"Mm-hmm!" Lu Yibei nodded.
"Well, it says here that the father of that Commander Long was from Yanqi, and the script used in Yanqi was Tuyuhun script," Professor Ma said. "So, did you understand what was written?"
"I understood, it's all flattery! But..." Lu Yibei asked, "Professor, why is this imperial edict written in Tuyuhun script? An imperial edict issued by the Tang Emperor should be written in Chinese characters!"
"Well..." Professor Ma pointed to a section of text on the letter paper and said, "It says here that Commander Long's ancestors were from Yanqi and had intermarried with a Great Tang princess."
"It's possible that some change occurred after the intermarriage, causing Commander Long not to deeply study Han culture, which is why he used Yanqi script, which is Tuyuhun script."
"It's also possible that there is more than one of these tokens, and there is also a token engraved with Chinese characters. The two tokens combined would form a complete token. I think this possibility is higher, after all, this is a military command token, similar in function to a tiger tally."
"Oh, oh." Lu Yibei responded twice, secretly noting Professor Ma's speculation, and then made a gesture of invitation, indicating for him to continue.
Professor Ma glanced at Lu Yibei and continued, "The beginning of this token is in the standard format for Tang Dynasty imperial edicts, which is to first sing praises to the Emperor and then praise the person being enfeoffed."
"And the actual content of the enfeoffment might only be less than half."
As he spoke, he pointed to the text at the end of the letter paper again, "These are contents like 'Minister of the Central Secretariat declared,' 'Attendant Official of the Central Secretariat respectfully presented,' which basically means the officials responsible for this document. I guess you're not interested in this either?"
Although he knew Lu Yibei wasn't interested, Professor Ma still explained it simply to him in this way. This could be said to be an occupational hazard, or it could be said to be the integrity of a Teacher.
Lu Yibei nodded again, gave a thumbs up, and said, "No one understands me better than Professor Ma!"
Professor Ma rolled his eyes at Lu Yibei and continued, "Then you should only be interested in the person being enfeoffed and the content of the enfeoffment, right? Look here."
He pointed to a section of text on the letter paper and said, "It says here that this 'Nangling Commander Long of Sha Province' is the person being enfeoffed, and it also says that he has a light-armored elite force under his command, skilled in combat."
He paused, moved his finger down, and pointed to another section of text, saying, "It says here that in the third year of Dazhong, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, a large number of monsters invaded the Western Regions, causing great suffering in Gua Province, Yi Province, and Sha Province. This Commander Long repelled the monsters invading from the Western Regions, and the Emperor was very pleased, so he decided to reward him."
"Although I don't know why it says 'monsters,' because it's in Tuyuhun script, I can't accurately distinguish the meaning of these few words for now. I guess 'monsters' is probably a derogatory term for a certain ethnic group in the Western Regions."
In fact, in ancient times, there were many derogatory terms for ethnic groups outside of the Central Plains, and being called "monsters" was not uncommon. Hearing this, Lu Yibei seemed to have thought of something and interrupted, "Wait! Professor,"
"Is it possible, and I mean possible! That the monsters referred to here are really monsters, that is, some kind of urban legend?" freewёbnoνel.com
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"I..." Professor Ma opened his mouth, just about to reprimand Lu Yibei for "talking nonsense," but suddenly realized that the young man sitting in front of him was a genuine urban legend, so he nodded, "That's also possible."
Hearing this, Lu Yibei nodded thoughtfully. He could roughly imagine a scene where a declining noble, a distant cousin of the Emperor, with extraordinary talent and powerful Spiritual Energy, repeatedly fought and repelled the Western Regions urban legend when they invaded.
After repelling a large group of urban legend that could have brought disaster, how could the Emperor not be happy? He definitely had to reward him!
Hmm, that makes sense now! The Masters of the Ancestor were very likely descendants of that Commander, which is why they possessed the methods of drawing Spirit Marks, various strange Spells, and Alchemy.
It's just, why did they flee, and where did they flee from?
Lu Yibei suddenly thought of the handkerchief with the few crimson characters "Exiles, finally return to their homeland" that he found in the dilapidated small Taoist temple, and he frowned.
Just then, Professor Ma continued, "However, from some details in this imperial edict, the Emperor's reward doesn't seem like a good thing. I'm afraid he didn't have good intentions!"
Although he had seen too much darkness of the feudal era when studying ancient texts, whenever he saw something similar, he couldn't help but Spell a few times.
"Oh?" Lu Yibei looked at Professor Ma, tilting his head.
"Look at the content of the rewards here. The beginning is ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) fine, common things like fertile land, fine horses, gold, etc., but at this point, something is wrong," Professor Ma took the token and compared it with the content on the letter paper as he spoke.
"The meaning here is probably that one thousand elite armored soldiers are to be dispatched to assist this Nanling Commander in rebuilding Yumen Pass, which was destroyed by monsters, and then to guard there to prevent the monsters from invading again. This token is for him to command those armored soldiers."
Yumen? Is this Yumen related to Yumen Sand Sea? Lu Yibei suddenly thought of many things but didn't speak, just quietly waited for Professor Ma to continue.
"Also, it says that to reward his achievements, his wife and children will be brought to Chang'an to enjoy happiness..."
"Enjoy happiness?" Lu Yibei interrupted sarcastically, "I think they want to take his wife and children as hostages so that the Commander will obediently listen, right?"
"That Nanling Commander is even related to the Emperor! How could he do such a thing?" That's why the saying that there is no kinship in the imperial family is not without reason.
Let alone a distant cousin, even biological brothers are not much better than this. Professor Ma thought about patting Lu Yibei's shoulder and said, "You still have learned too little. There were many such things in ancient times, just get used to it."
The ancient imperial family had far more cruel, chaotic, unbearable, and unbelievable things than this.
He paused and added, "However, there are some contents here that I don't understand the meaning of for now. For example, it is mentioned here that among the materials used to rebuild Yumen Pass, there is something directly translated as yuan dragon frame. This should be some kind of building material?"
Just like some building materials used to support shapes and fix structures are also called keel today. Lu Yibei, ""It's also possible that it's really the skeleton of a urban legend named "yuan dragon."
"And here..." Professor Ma pondered for a moment, "Perhaps my translation is problematic, 'make the God Kingdom eternal'..." "Huh!?"
Lu Yibei had been thinking about the fusion of the God Kingdom Prototype and Lingtai Pure Karma recently and was quite sensitive to the words "God Kingdom." Hearing Professor Ma mention the God Kingdom, he couldn't help but let out a surprised gasp.
Could it be that the Ancestor's Masters escaped from some God Kingdom? Lu Yibei thought.
"Is there anything strange about that?" Professor Ma looked at Lu Yibei and said, "At that time, the Tang Dynasty was in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, a ruler of restoration. Although it couldn't compare to the flourishing Tang Dynasty, it could still barely be called a heavenly kingdom. It's not strange to be called a God Kingdom. Oh wait, perhaps it should be translated as 'heavenly kingdom'?"
"Mm-hmm, I see!" Lu Yibei nodded, perfunctorily saying, "I understand."
After hearing the words "God Kingdom," his mind was no longer in this laboratory. He wanted to quickly go to the Night Watch to check for information about Yumen Pass, and of course, the more important information about Liao Zhai Tavern.
Looking at Lu Yibei, Professor Ma frowned and said, "Why do I feel like you're being perfunctory with me?"
"No,
I'm not! Absolutely not!" Lu Yibei said earnestly, "Professor, you know me, I love studying! However, it's getting late today, and I have some other things..."
As he spoke, he reached out to take the token on the table. Just then, Professor Ma reached out and pressed down on the back of his hand, a disturbing smile appearing on his face.
"Don't be in a hurry to leave. Since you love studying so much, I must satisfy your thirst for knowledge! Go back and look up some information, and write a short paper on the topic of this token."
Lu Yibei, "???"
I suddenly realized that I don't actually love studying that much. Is it too late to tell Professor Ma now? ---
Lu Yibei eventually agreed to Professor Ma's request to complete the short paper. The reason he did this was that he understood Professor Ma's desire for him to learn more, and he himself was quite curious about what happened to that Commander Long later.
Saying goodbye to Professor Ma and walking out of the Faculty of Arts Experimental Building, Lu Yibei got on his small motorcycle and headed straight for the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau.
Although the matter of the token was temporarily concluded, there was another matter lingering in his heart, constantly on his mind, and that was Liao Zhai Tavern.
There must be relevant records in the si ye book and the Night Watch archives, Lu Yibei thought.
Just as he was riding his small motorcycle towards Peony Street, a figure observing in the shadows watched his departing back and narrowed her eyes slightly.
""
I heard that guy spent a class this morning offending all the girls he had flirted with before)
As expected, scumbags are like this. When they like you, they are incredibly affectionate, but once they don't like you, they are more indifferent to women than monks.
Hmph, so strange, I want to see what you are up to! Hua Xieyu thought fiercely, slightly clenched her pink fists, and quietly followed Lu Yibei.
