51: Chapter 51 Ancient Runes

When I arrived at the Bookstore in the afternoon, Old Wu was repairing an old radio behind the counter.

Seeing Chen Zhen, he raised his eyelids: "You're here? There isn't much work today; just sort those few stacks of newly arrived old magazines over there."

"Okay."

Chen Zhen walked over to the stacks of magazines.

They were all Popular Cinema, People's Pictorial, and Lianhuanhua Pictorial from the 70s and 80s, with covers in the distinct style of that era.

As he organized them, he occasionally activated [Anomaly Perception] to scan.

Most of the magazines were ordinary, but when he sorted through a stack of Lianhuanhua Pictorial, he sensed a faint anomaly from one of them.

It wasn't energy, but more like a kind of "mark"—very faint, but it definitely existed.

He pulled that one out; it was Issue No. 6 from 1978.

The cover depicted workers, peasants, and soldiers holding high red flags—a very typical subject.

He flipped through it quickly. The content was all about revolutionary stories, production and construction, and heroic deeds; nothing special.

But when he turned to a certain page in the middle, the feedback from [Anomaly Perception] suddenly strengthened.

That page depicted the story of "Geological team members exploring for treasure in the deep mountains."

In the image, several geological team members were discovering glowing Ore in a cave, their expressions surprised.

A very ordinary comic strip plot.

But Chen Zhen noticed something in the corner of the image.

In an inconspicuous rock crevice, a tiny symbol was drawn: a circle with three dots inside, arranged in a triangle.

He had seen that symbol in Engineer Gu's notes.

Engineer Gu had labeled it as "Suspected Ancient Rune, meaning unknown."

He took the magazine and walked to the counter: "Grandpa Wu, take a look at this."

Old Wu put down the radio, took the magazine, and glanced at it, his brows furrowing: "This symbol... Old Gu seems to have mentioned it."

"What did he say?"

"He said he had seen similar marks on some Ancient Temple Ruins and ancient artifacts, and they might be some kind of 'signpost' or 'warning'."

Old Wu thought for a moment: "He once said something quite mysterious: 'The ancients understood more than we do; they knew how to leave marks on the earth to guide those who came later.'"

A signpost?

A warning?

Chen Zhen examined the symbol carefully.

It was very simple, but it had an indescribable archaic feeling, as if it had been drawn there intentionally.

"Where did this issue of the magazine... come from?" he asked.

"It's still from that batch of Engineer Gu's things," Old Wu said. "He seemed to specifically collect Materials with this kind of symbol."

Chen Zhen made a note of it.

There was one more clue.

[Discovered suspected Ancient Rune clue]

[exploration dimension experience + 35]

[Clue association network updated: New node 'Ancient Rune' added, not yet connected]

He couldn't see the connection for now, but he would keep it in mind.

...

The afternoon's work was finished quickly.

With an hour left before getting off work, Old Wu said: "If you have nothing to do, you can read some books. I recently received a few books on folklore and legends that you might be interested in."

Chen Zhen nodded and walked to the bookshelf dedicated to "miscellaneous books."

Sure enough, there were a few new books: Jiangnan Folk Oddities, Gleanings of Mountain Wild Tales, and Old City Stories. They were all second-hand books in average condition, but the content looked quite interesting.

He pulled out Jiangnan Folk Oddities and flipped through it quickly.

In the [Photographic Memory (Temporary)] state, his reading speed was astonishingly fast.

A page scanned by, and key information was automatically stored in his memory, like building a database in his brain.

When he turned to a certain chapter, he stopped.

The title of that chapter was: "Record of Dongshan Night-Glow."

The content described that before the liberation, when villagers in the Dongshan area returned home at night, they saw "will-o'-the-wisps" floating on the mountainside, gathering and dispersing, bluish-white in color.

Some bold people went to investigate and discovered an abandoned Ancient Temple Ruins, where a stone statue with a blurred face was enshrined in the temple.

There was a bottomless small hole at the feet of the stone statue, and the night-glow was shining out from the hole.

Later, during the "Destroy the Four Olds" campaign, the temple was demolished, the stone statue was smashed, and the hole was filled in.

But the older generation said that the place was evil; filling it in was useless, and what should come out would still come out.

At the end of the article, the author wrote: "The truth of this matter is hard to distinguish, but the Dongshan area has had many strange tales since ancient times; could it be related to geological anomalies?"

Geological anomalies.

Chen Zhen thought of Engineer Gu's "Earth Vein Node" theory.

If that Ancient Temple Ruins happened to be built on a node, could the stone statue and the deep hole in the temple be used by the ancients to "suppress" or "guide" the Earth Vein energy?

This speculation was bold, but not impossible.

He noted down the approximate location of the Ancient Temple Ruins.

The article's description was very vague, only saying "South foot of Dongshan, under three old pine trees."

When his exploration dimension is higher in the future, perhaps he can go and see it in person.

...

Before leaving the Bookstore in the evening, Old Wu gave him his wages and an extra five yuan: "You sorted quickly today; thank you for your hard work."

"It's my duty."

Walking out of the Bookstore, the sunset was just right.

Chen Zhen didn't go straight home but detoured to the second-hand market, wanting to hunt for some better jade.

The Spirit Gathering Array needed better Materials.

After walking around, he saw a few scraps at a stall, the texture was much better than the previous ones, and the price was not expensive.

He picked out five pieces and spent thirty yuan.

Just as he was about to leave, his peripheral vision caught a black object in the corner of the stall, the size of a fist, irregular in shape, with a rough surface.

[Anomaly Perception] provided a faint fluctuation.

Very weak, but it definitely existed.

He squatted down and picked up the object.

It felt heavy in his hand, like metal, but not quite.

"Boss, what is this?"

The stall owner was a middle-aged man who took one look: "Oh, that? Collected it when I was collecting scrap iron, don't know what it is. You want it? Take it for five yuan."

Chen Zhen paid the money.

After leaving the market, he walked to a deserted place and carefully examined this black lump.

In [Anomaly Perception], it emitted a very faint, cold energy fluctuation, not like Spiritual Qi, but more like... some kind of mineral radiation?

He tried to inject a trace of spiritual power.

Tiny, dark blue light spots suddenly lit up on the surface of the black lump, flashing and then disappearing.

Immediately after, Chen Zhen felt the temperature of the thing in his hand drop a little.

It wasn't getting cold; it was absorbing his spiritual power.

A mineral that can absorb spiritual power?

He carefully put it away.

The origin of this thing is unknown; he shouldn't mess with it.

Wait until he goes back to study it slowly.

...

When he arrived home, his mother had already returned and was cooking in the kitchen.

"Xiao Zhen, you're back? Wash your hands, we'll eat soon."

"Okay."

Dinner was simple:

Stir-fried shredded pork with green peppers, tomato and egg soup, and rice.

But his mother's cooking was as good as ever; home-cooked flavors are the most comforting.

"Your dad isn't coming back for dinner tonight; the factory has a training session and provides meals," his mother said. "Let's just eat simply."

"Hmm."

Mother and son ate quietly.

Outside the window, the sky darkened, and the lights of thousands of homes lit up one by one.

...

At night, Chen Zhen returned to his room.

He first stood in a stance for five minutes and ran the Simplified Microcosmic Orbit ten times.

In the [Internal Vision] state, he could clearly "see" that every time the spiritual power circulated, the meridians were nourished to be smoother, and the mass of spiritual power in the Dantian became a bit more solid.

Then, he took out the five pieces of jade he had bought today and the black lump.

The texture of the jade was good and should be able to withstand the Spirit Gathering Array for a longer time.

The black lump...

He didn't dare to touch it for now and put it into the Storage Space first.

The System classified it as an "item containing Spiritual Qi," which could be stored.

The Storage Space was empty, with only this black lump floating in the center, emitting a faint dark blue halo.

Wait until he understands it later before using it.

Then, he began today's spiritual power control training.

Five stones floated up, lined up in a straight line, with equal spacing, and rotating at different speeds.

This time it was much steadier than in the afternoon.

The smallest stone rotated quickly and steadily, while the largest stone was slow like a pendulum.

The five stones formed a dynamic, orderly System above his palm.

He persisted for twenty seconds before feeling the strain on his Mental Energy.

He stopped the technique, and the stones fell.

[Spirit Control training]

[Initial Glimpse of Spirit Control effect improved: Spirit control precision +3% (currently 10%)]

[Mental Energy increased slightly]

The effect was significant.

Chen Zhen nodded with satisfaction.

Make a little progress every day, and it will add up.

Finally, he summoned the system panel to summarize:

[Day 24 (Day 3 of Qi Refinement Stage) Summary]

[Cultivation gain: +12.88 (Morning run +0.68, Learning +1.05, Cultivate +0.28, Exploration +8, Other +2.87)]

[Current Cultivation: 108.71 / 500 (Qi Refining Stage 1)]

[Spiritual power value: 8.9 / 10 (Restored to 11.5 / 11.5 tomorrow)]

[Health Dimension: Lv.4 (21 / 500)]

[Learning Dimension: Lv.4 (640.7 / 800) close to leveling up]

[Social Dimension: Lv.1 (118 / 200)]

[Skill Dimension: Cooking 88 / 100, Organizing 72 / 100, Hand-drawing Lv.2 (150 / 300), Structural Drafting Beginner (60 / 100), Formation Beginner (1 / 100)]

[exploration dimension: Lv.2 (100 / 400)]

[Spell proficiency: Cleaning Spell (9 / 100), Water Condensation Spell (7 / 100), Eye-Brightening Spell (14 / 100)]

[Special status: Qi Refining Cultivator; Initial Glimpse of Spirit Control (10%); Runners Heart; Photographic Memory (22 hours remaining); Integrated Power Initial Success; Physical Optimization; Anomaly Perception; Literary Perception; Internal Vision]

[Storage Space: 1 cubic meter (Black lump × 1)]

[Main task: Qi Refining Stage 1 (108.71 / 500)]

The Learning Dimension was about to level up, only less than 160 points away.

The exploration dimension had also reached 100 / 400, one-quarter progress.

Qi Refining Stage 1 was more than one-fifth complete; at this rate, it should be reached in about half a month.

Everything was progressing steadily.

Chen Zhen lay on the bed and closed his eyes.

In the Internal Vision state, spiritual power circulated slowly in his body, nourishing his body and mind.

The shouzhong token was warm, echoing with the spiritual power in the Dantian.