"Achoo!" Lu Siyun walked along the path leaving the dense forest, sneezing repeatedly. "Strange, who could be cursing me?" Siyun wiped his nose, muttering to himself.
"Right, I almost forgot the main task I came out for this time." Siyun returned to a clearing at the entrance to the remote mountains and, cupping his hands around his mouth, shouted to his surroundings.
"Wuhen! Wuhen!" There was no response after a few shouts. He hadn't been in contact for so long; surely he hadn't gone missing?
Siyun thought to himself and turned back, intending to head home, when he suddenly bumped into3 someone. Siyun looked up and was startled.
Beneath a black robe and hood, a deathly pale, mask-like human face was staring at him.
"Ah!" Siyun was so shocked he nearly lost his breath. "You... what kind of disguise is this? It's a wonder I didn't die of fright seeing this at night." Siyun pointed at the strange face.
"The previous wild boar skin was damaged. This is a human face mold; it is more durable than biological skin," Wuhen said with complete detachment.
"This disguise is way too scary. And next time you appear, please, make some noise!" Siyun shrugged helplessly. "Anyway, how have you been lately? Did you miss me?"
Siyun recovered his usual chirpy demeanor. "It's been a long time since we parted at Songbai Temple; I haven't seen you in ages."
"I watch you every day."
"I suppose so." Siyun reflected that Wuhen was actually protecting him from the shadows every day, and suddenly the feeling of longing didn't seem so strong.
"Wuhen, help me catch some wild game to satisfy my cravings. The food in the palace is so monotonous every day; my taste buds feel like they're withering away." Siyun's eyes brightened; at the mention of game, he nearly drooled.
"How many do you want? What kind?"
"Catch six large pieces of wild game each time—boars, wild horses, deer... anything will do. Bring them at intervals of one, one, two, three, five, and eight days. Doing this for three months will be enough."
"A Fibonacci sequence. Why arrange it this way?"
"You don't understand." Siyun leaned in. "In this era, one must be cautious; you always have to be on guard against being marked by others. Just a moment ago, deep in the thicket, I saw men in black. If someone finds that game mysteriously appears every day, they will inevitably become suspicious over time. By using these intervals, first, it's hard for ordinary people to figure out a pattern; second, as the intervals become sparser until they stop, everyone's curiosity will gradually fade."
"Understood. Anything else?"
"Nothing. I wish you could just openly stay by my side so we wouldn't have to keep playing hide-and-seek like this." Siyun felt quite emotional, as one would with an old friend not seen in a long time.
"My concealment is conducive to your survival in this world; it conforms to the settings."
"A logic that is terrifyingly programmatic, designed flawlessly." By the time Siyun looked up again, Wuhen had vanished without a trace, as if the whole encounter had been a dream.
......
In the period that followed, the palace attendants, as instructed by Siyun, were able to find fresh wild game at the entrance to the remote mountains at irregular intervals. These animals had not been slaughtered but were neatly "asleep" at the entrance to the mountains. Even if there were sounds, they would not wake, as if waiting to be picked up.
These intermittently appearing wild creatures would show up sometimes after a day, sometimes after several, with no discernable pattern, and the variety was quite diverse.
When Zhao Zheng heard the news, he was greatly shocked. These creatures were neither injured nor trying to escape; they simply lay quietly sleeping in the forest. It went against all reason. It seemed Lu Siyun truly could communicate with the mountain gods and make them respectfully offer these delicacies.
"Brother, your prayers to the mountain gods truly are efficacious." At the banquet, Zhao Zheng's appetite was greatly increased. As he gorged himself on the exotic delicacies, he heaped praise upon Siyun.
Siyun had missed these flavors for a long time too, sweeping through the feast of fish and meat. "My King, you overpraise me. The heavens are watching; they must have seen our sincere hearts." Siyun thought to himself that Wuhen's 3,000-volt high-voltage electric arc made catching wild game a trivial matter indeed.
"Brother, you brought me the Spirit Elixir, connected with the mountain gods, saved me from the brink of death, and bolstered me when I was failing. It is truly admirable." Zhao Zheng raised his wine goblet. "Your kindness is as a mountain; I toast you." With that, he drank it in one gulp.
"Before you presented the Spirit Elixir, you asked me to agree to find an ruin resembling the Ancient Bronze Tree in the front hall. What on earth is that object?" Zhao Zheng was in high spirits and began to chat casually.
"That object is called a Seeding Tower, a batch of ancient divine relics. Each one towers into the clouds, over a hundred fathoms tall. The Ancient Bronze Tree in the front hall was cast in the likeness of the Seeding Tower. If we can find the source where that tree was cast, we might have hope of finding the Seeding Tower," Siyun said as he returned the toast and slowly introduced the topic.
"These divine relics are now buried deep underground, no one knows where, which is why I need you to dispatch men to search for them. There is another clue: if a place appears to have large quantities of stone tablets inscribed with text, it indicates that we are not far from a Seeding Tower."
"I vaguely remember stories of stone tablets inscribed with text being dug up from underground. Although these are stories I heard from my late father when I was young—and my father had received them from his grandfather's generation through oral tradition.
It is said these tablets were very intricate, recording vast amounts of text and pictures. Each tablet seemed to have multiple layers stacked densely together. Most of these tablets went missing. The content on a small number of them was copied by monks at Songbai Temple, and those copies are stored in the Scripture Pavilion." Zhao Zheng recalled these wonders. "This so-called 'Seeding Tower' divine relic—why are you working so hard to find it?"
"Using it, I can contact the people in the sky, and then I can return home." Siyun looked out at the blue sky and white clouds outside the hall with a sense of loss. "I don't know if they are still there, or if they still exist at all."
"You actually know the Immortals in the sky? Could it be that you are a deity who descended to the mortal realm?" Zhao Zheng was surprised. "Did you perhaps learn this method of communicating with the Immortals when you were in danger in the Northern Territory? Can you teach it to me?"
"My King, you tease. I am merely flesh and blood; I received the protection of the Immortals and survived by pure luck," Siyun hurriedly found an excuse.
"You just said this was a batch of ancient relics. Are there many of them?"
"Ten thousand in total."
"So many! Since they are divine relics capable of contacting the Immortals, can they also be used to find a method for eternal life?" Zhao Zheng's eyes lit up. "Perhaps I could even beg the Immortals to ensure my Great Qin reigns for ten thousand generations?"
"If they are found, of course that is possible. As long as they are willing, all of your wishes could be fulfilled, my King."
"Then what are we waiting for? I will dispatch 50,000 laborers to start searching and digging right now, down to the last three feet of soil!" Zhao Zheng stood up excitedly.
Siyun shook his head.
"What? Are there not enough people? I will dispatch 100,000, how about that?"
Siyun still shook his head.
"Then 500,000 men to dig! That should be enough, right?" Zhao Zheng wiped off his sweat. "This number is equivalent to five times the entire army of the Qin State."
Siyun continued to shake his head. "It is far from enough. To find the Seeding Tower, it would take the entire Nine Provinces Land!"}