chapter xiii - royal antiquities

　　The next day, when Nalan Ruoshui was shocked to see Chen Nan again, she found that the man standing in front of her seemed to have changed. Cinnan's appearance was still as ordinary as ever, but the faint smile and deep eyes ...... seemed to have an additional, unspeakable aura. 　　"Have you recovered your powers?" 　　"No ah, why would you ask?" 　　Nalan Ruoshui Dao: "I feel that something has happened to you, it seems like you have an extra aura of something else, could it be that your power has not been restored?" 　　Chen Nan was startled and quickly internalized his power, laughing, "How could it be." 　　Nalan Ruoshui regained her calm color and said, "It could be my illusion, well, I'll continue acupuncture for you." 　　This time, the acupuncture lasted for an hour, and after Nalan Ruoshui left, Chen Nan hurriedly urged his entire body's true qi to flow within the hundred veins, but the effect was already far less than the first time. 　　He opened his eyes and let out a long breath, saying, "It seems that there really is no shortcut in martial arts!" 　　From then on, Nalan Ruoshui came almost once a day, but not every time for acupuncture, sometimes striking the acupoints all over Chen Nan's body in a bid to activate the true qi in his body. Slowly, the two gradually became acquainted, Nalan Ruoshui was no longer as cold as before, and would occasionally chat with him. 　　From the conversation, Chen Nan learned that although Nalan Ruoshui was a member of the Qi Shi Mansion, she seldom lived here and usually stayed at home. Her father was an official in the dynasty, and his position wasn't too low, and she herself and Chu Yue were friends from childhood, so she was able to frequent the Royal Canonization Room, and most of her medical skills were learned from there. 　　When he heard Nalan Ruoshui mentioning the Royal Tome, Chen Nan's eyes were glowing, he knew that there must be a lot of precious ancient books there, maybe there were records from ten thousand years ago, thinking about this, he was excited in his heart. 　　"Ms. Nalan you can truly be called a wizard, a highly skilled medical skill that most of it is self-taught, it's really admirable." 　　Nalan Ruoshui faintly said, "Actually it's nothing, as long as one is willing to work hard, anyone can do it." 　　Chen Nan sighed: "I can't do it, I'm a mountain man, I don't even know words, how can I learn those things in books." 　　Nalan Ruoshui was surprised, "You ...... can't read?" 　　"Yes, I don't know a single word, and I can't even write my own name." Speaking here, Chen Nan looked a bit forlorn, although it was a lie, it was partially true feelings. 　　"I was an orphan, abandoned in the deep mountains, a kind old hunter picked me up and adopted me. Due to the straitened circumstances of life, I did not go to the academy to read and write. When I was sixteen years old, my righteous father left me, and since then my sky has been gray ......" 　　"Besides raising me and giving me the warmth of a family, my righteous father also taught me some martial arts skills. But a sixteen-year-old boy can have much strength, I hunted in the deep mountains, time and again in the claws of wild beasts in shock and fled ...... winter snow is knee-deep, but I do not have shoes to wear, I can only wear thin clothes to hide in the cold wind raging in the humble hut shivering ...... " 　　"There was no warmth, no food ...... All I could do was to beg God to let the snow and wind stop soon ...... During the long winter months, sometimes I was able to eat food only once in six or seven days, and that was when kind neighbors saved from their own living rations and gave me charity ...... from their own living rations to give me a handout ......" 　　"In the midst of starvation and cold, I have fallen ill, and once when the neighbors did not see me out for a long time, they broke into the humble hut left by my righteous father. At that time I had been in a coma for many days, and the neighbors said that at that time my mouth kept crying out, 'Mother ...... mother ......' But I knew that in this life I would never have a mother, only ever had a righteous father ......" 　　Chen Nan wiped a handful of tears from his face and said, "I'm sorry Ms. Nalan, I've made you laugh, I was too excited, it was hard for me to stop myself for a moment ......" 　　A mist of water appeared in Nalan Ruoshui's eyes, and she softly said, "It should be me who says I'm sorry, I'm the one who reminded you of the sad past. I'm sorry, I didn't know you had such a rough past." 　　"It's nothing, a bitter past makes me cherish the happiness I have now even more." 　　Women were kind by nature, Chen Nan's "tragic past" filled Nalan Ruoshui's heart with a sour flavor, she softly said, "Do you want to learn to read and write, Mr. Chen? I can teach you." 　　"Really?" Chen Nan was overjoyed, this was what he was looking forward to, but he was more or less ashamed in his heart that he had used a lie to gain sympathy. 　　"Of course it's true, in the future, I'll help you with acupuncture in the morning and teach you to read and write in the afternoon." At this moment, Nalan Ruoshui's face was no longer the usual bland, cold face, replaced by a flowery smile. 　　Chen Nan did not expect that this beautiful woman with an indifferent appearance and a hidden dusty temperament would smile in such a charming manner. 　　Women are naturally kind and compassionate, Nalan Ruoshui was touched by Tatsunami's "unfortunate childhood", and in the following days changed the coldness of the past, carefully healing his body, trying to do everything possible for him to regain his strength, while carefully teaching him to read and write. 　　Chen Nan's heart was ashamed, and he gained more respect for this beautiful woman. 　　More than half a month has passed, Chen Nan's "condition" has not improved, which makes Nalan Ruoshui surprised, she looked through all the medical books, but still can not do anything. 　　During the period Chu Yue had come a few times, each time to comfort Chen Nan do not be anxious. 　　The little princess had also sneaked in a few times, of course every time she would not let go of making things difficult for Chen Nan, but probably felt guilty in her heart, she did not go too far, spare me, the little devil also made Chen Nan have a headache. However, seeing her sneaking around every time, Chen Nan was strange. Later, he heard Nalan Ruoshui recount the story and realized that the imp was hiding from the old witch who was researching magic. 　　The old hag once wanted to take the little princess as her disciple, but the little princess was unwilling to do so, and insisted on worshiping the martial arts master Zhuge Xifeng as her teacher. For this matter, the old hag was furious, almost looking for Zhuge Xifeng to fight. However, she did not give up on the idea of accepting the little princess as a disciple, every time she saw her, always have to "love, move to reason". The little princess was scared, every time to Qi Shi House are sneaky. 　　After listening to Nalan Ruoshui's words, Chen Nan laughed maniacally, he did not expect that this evil little witch also had the time to be afraid and defeated, it was simply a strange story. 　　Nalan Ruoshui's mouth also revealed a faint smile, can make such an indifferent woman like her smile, can imagine that the little devil in the imperial capital must be "infamous". 　　One day, the little princess's master Zhuge multiplied the wind suddenly returned with serious injuries, the imperial capital cultivation world was in an uproar. Cinnan was also surprised, he had seen the great cultivation of this grandmaster level martial arts master, Zhuge Xifeng and the giant snake's amazing battle, which was still fresh in his mind. 　　Zhuge Zhanfeng had indeed seen the legendary Qilin in the Falling Wind Mountain Range, and countless cultivators were frantically flocking towards the Qilin, all wanting to tame the divine beast. Even if they know that it is hopeless, but also have to go forward, want to push to kill the beast, so that they can get a scale and a half claw to go back to the refining medicine. 　　Zhuge Zhanfeng cold eyes, he knows the power of the beast, never ordinary people can deal with, a dragon failed to transform the sacred snake has already made him overstretched, not to mention the legendary beast. As he expected, the Qilin was not alarmed by the siege of hundreds of people, it opened its mouth and spat out a large area of flames, the temperature of the flames was frighteningly high, the first group of people just rushed up, and they were burned to ashes. 　　Zhuge Zhanfeng wanted to leave this way, but the Qilin was fixated on him, and the divine beast was also able to sense those strong people in the crowd. It was deeply hostile to these intruders who had broken into the ancient cave and awakened it, and with its feet on fire, it rushed towards Zhuge Zhanfeng at the first opportunity. 　　The battle between Zhuge Zhanfeng and the beast was a grueling one, and countless people who came for the Qilin were killed, pierced through by the heavenly sword qi, or burned to ashes by the raging flames, and countless people died. In the end, Zhuge Xifeng was unable to defeat him and escaped with serious injuries, escaping the Falling Wind Mountain Range in the midst of great danger. 　　Successful escape from the danger of the people but one or two, this incident in the continent caused a furor, more profound cultivators into the wind mountain range, want to unicorn taming as a mount. Especially the western continent of those dragon riders, after hearing about this matter, the interest in the qilin far outweighs the dragon, dozens of powerful dragon riders have since the countries to move towards the wind mountain range to rush. 　　Zhuge multiplied the wind only briefly talked about this matter, but the ferocity of it could be imagined, and that battle was definitely much more intense than the one with the giant snake. 　　The little princess was extremely dissatisfied with the matter, puffing her mouth and muttering, "I didn't even see such a good show, what a pity, it's rare for the old man to make a fool of himself, I actually didn't see his stinking face with my own eyes. Alas!" 　　Zhuge Zhanfeng came back to explain some things, then hurriedly left, anonymously healed, if let him hear his precious disciple's whining, will definitely be angry and spit out a mouthful of blood again. 　　After that, the unicorn incident in the continent boiled for more than a month, countless cultivators returned in defeat, until the unicorn since the fall of the wind mountain range disappeared, this matter only come to an end. 　　Since Chen Nan's family's Xuan Gong stepped into the third heaven, he could leave at any time, but at this time he was not in a hurry, he every day in addition to receiving "treatment", single-mindedly learning the continent's common words. 　　Time flies, in the blink of an eye two months have passed, his power or not the slightest sign of "recovery". However, he had already mastered the common words of the continent very well, which made Nalan Ruoshui amazed, not expecting him to have such a talent in words. 　　Chen Nan frantically read all sorts of history books, the official history and wild history ...... were all turned over by him. 　　Whenever he thought of the Divine Demon Mausoleum, his heart throbbed, he was resurrected from that ancient graveyard, he cared very much about its past, and desperately wanted to know all of its secrets. Chen Nan had an unusually strong feeling that the shocking secrets that were unknown ten thousand years ago had not been annihilated in history, and would sooner or later come out one day. 　　He vainly attempted to find traces of the historical facts of ten thousand years ago in the history books, but he was disappointed, all kinds of historical information were limited to the great events within five thousand years, and could not be traced back to ten thousand years ago at all. 　　Nalan Ruoshui was surprised that he was so interested in history, and couldn't help but open her mouth to inquire, "Why is Mr. Chen obsessed with history, there are so many poems and dictionaries in the Qi Shi Mansion, how come I've never seen you read them?" 　　Chen Nan smiled awkwardly and said, "This ...... poetry and rhetoric, although it has a far-reaching mood and cultivates one's emotions, I still feel that history is more immersive and makes one feel a tremor in one's heart. Before I can not read, did not read any books, never knew that the continent has had such a magnificent past, the rise of a powerful empire to the fall, the prosperity of an outstanding nation to the decline of ...... five thousand years of wind and rain, five thousand years of brilliant splendor ...... It makes people emotional and shocking!" 　　Nalan Ruoshui's eyes flashed with a strange look and smiled, "Duke Chen has a lot of emotions, it seems that the harvest is not small!" 　　Chen Nan was ashamed for a moment, not realizing that with a burst of babbling, he had uttered some seemingly rewarding sentiments. 　　"You've been literate for only two months and you're already able to read through the history of the continent, it's really admirable!" Nalan Ruoshui praised with a smile on her face. 　　Seeing that Nalan Ruoshui was still in a good mood at this time, Chen Nan spoke out what he had long ago calculated in his heart, "Miss Nalan, I have read all the history books in the Qi Shi Residence, is it possible for me to go to the palace's canonization room with you to have a look?" 　　Nalan Ruoshui gave him a surprised look and said, "Are you really that interested in history? The palace's canonization room is very tightly guarded, I was only able to get in because I'm good friends with Princess Yue, so I'm afraid it would be difficult to bring another person with me. However, one can try, if I can get Princess Yu to accompany me, things might be better." 　　The mention of the imp gave Chen Nan a headache, he hastily shook his head and said, "No need, I'd rather read poetry and rhetoric in the Qi Shi Mansion." 　　"It's fine, I'll go find Princess Yu tomorrow." 　　"No, no ...... I'm determined not to read anymore, after reading so much history, I have a headache." 　　"Oh ......" Nalan Ruohong level when not cold as ice frost, but also rarely show a smile, at this moment like a flower smile extraordinarily moving, as if the rippling spring water, let a person's heart ripples in strands. 　　Chen Nan was lost in thought for a while, Nalan Ruoshui's next words interrupted his reverie. 　　"Don't worry, I will never go looking for Princess Yu, that is, if I want to look for it, I will also go looking for Her Highness Princess Yue, Princess Yu is notoriously difficult to deal with, I don't want to find trouble for myself." 　　Chen Nan laughed dryly and said, "I didn't realize that Her Highness the Little Princess was notorious, I thought I was the only one who had a headache with her." 　　At night, Chen Nan lay on his bed and recalled his experiences over the past two months, everything was like a drama, he had actually become a hermit wizard of Chu. His biggest gain in these two months was that he had learned the common script of the continent here, and he had completely integrated with this society. 　　On the following day, Nalan Ruoshui, with a hint of a smile on her face, said to Chen Nan, "Princess Yue has already greeted the administrators of the canonization room, so after I give you acupuncture later, you can come with me." 　　Chen Nan was overjoyed, and after the acupuncture was finished, he followed Nalan Ruoshui out of the Qi Shi Mansion. A dozen warriors escorted around a luxurious carriage, Nalan Ruoshui greeted him and got on the car together, Chen Nan thanked him, smelling the intoxicating fragrance along the way, and soon arrived at the Imperial City. 　　Palace forbidden land, civil officials get off the sedan chair, military officials get off the horse, in addition to the royal family, no one can enjoy special treatment. Inside the palace, the halls and buildings were spectacularly majestic with their high and low heights. Chen Nan followed Nalan Ruoshui as he turned left and right within the palace and arrived outside a grand hall. 　　The person in charge here was a Hanlin scholar around forty years old, and since Chu Yue had informed him beforehand, he did not say much. 　　The hall was filled with a mountain of canonical books, but they were staggered, row by row, column by column, and neatly stacked. 　　Chen Nan skipped poetry, skipped astrology and divination, and skipped medicine in the ocean-like library ...... straight to the door of the library labeled History. Looking at the collection of nearly 10,000 books inside, he was dizzy for a moment, how many years and months would he be able to finish reading so many books, this was too much. 　　He patiently searched in the sea of books, each book he only read the first page, if the content is the history of the last five thousand years, all were "sent home". 　　In the following days, Chen Nan and Nalan Ruoshui traveled to and from the Qi Shi Mansion and the Royal Registry every day, and he looked through the history books every day in a boring manner. 　　One day, Chen Nan casually pulled out a book from the bookshelf, flipping it open to see that it was a modern font, he thought nothing of it and put it back where it came from. However, the words "Cultivation Level" on the cover caught his attention, and he withdrew his hand in the middle of the book. 　　He opened the book and tried to skim through it, but soon after, he was deeply attracted to it. This was a book about the division of cultivators' strength classes, although cultivators, magicians, oriental martial artists and western martial artists each had their own division standards, in order to compare their strengths, from low to high, they were all divided into five classes. However, the lowest rankers mentioned on it are also the masters among the masters, and those who are able to go up the ranks are those with strong strength, and the general masters are not within the scope of this book's division at all. 　　Through the book's introduction, he had a certain understanding of the strength of the present continent's highly advanced cultivators. 　　Cultivators are the most mysterious, due to the fact that they seldom make a move, the division of their strength by the outside world is quite controversial, and they only simply divide their cultivation realm into: Foundation Establishment, Qi Nurturing, Hua Condensation, JieDan, YuanYing. However, the book notes, there may be a higher realm above this, the legend of its highest realm through the realm of the Immortal Way, only that no one has seen this kind of people out of it. 　　Magician according to strength can be divided into: quasi-magician, middle-ranked magician, high-ranked magician, magician, magician. 　　Oriental martial artists can be divided by their cultivation realm into: refining essence and transforming qi, the realm of the innate, sword qi out of the body, refining qi and transforming god, and god condensing qi. In addition, it is mentioned in the book, there have been people beyond these five realms, all the world's power is unimaginable, a few can be said to be through the gods. 　　According to the strength of the western martial artists can be divided into: Swordsmith, Sword Master, Sword Kui, Sword Saint, Sword God. In addition, there is a special kind of practitioner in the western martial artists - Dragon Knights, strong martial artists and powerful dragons combined together, with a strong and terrifying destructive power, according to the strength can be divided into: Earth Dragon Knights, Flying Dragon Knights, Sub-Dragon Knights, Dragon Knights, Sacred Dragon Knights. 　　Different types of cultivators are divided into five classes, so their strength is comparable, generally speaking, the strength of the same class is similar. However, cultivators and magicians clearly had an advantage over martial artists, and when their opponents were weaker than them and lower than their rank, they could utilize their specialties to directly manipulate the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth to deliver a wide range of strikes, and carry out indiscriminate attacks on multiple opponents. 　　If the division of strength into equal ranks was carried out as described in the book, most of the people among the martial artists were blocked from the door of the rank masters. Although martial skills could be practiced by everyone, the vast majority of people were not able to cultivate them to a high level, and only a small number of people were able to be ranked as rank masters. 　　Although cultivators and magicians had higher requirements for their physique, resulting in a small number of these people, most of these people were ranked as rank masters, and it was clear that there was a strong correlation between a cultivator's physique and his or her future accomplishments. Overall, the four types of cultivators had similar numbers of rank experts. 　　Chen Nan closed the book and let out a long breath, finally figuring out the current power rank of cultivators in this world. However, he believed that the highest realm of cultivators was never more than the fifth order, as far as he knew, back then, his father, Chen Zhan's cultivation had far surpassed the fifth order of the Eastern martial artists' cultivation realm of Divine Concentration and Qi Solidification. 　　He objectively estimated his own strength rank, his family's Xuan Gong has stepped into the third heaven, just able to catalyze the sword qi outside the body, barely able to be counted as a third-order cultivator, in the continent, is already a real expert. 　　The book that he had found unintentionally made Chen Nan feel that he had benefited greatly. 　　In the next few days, he met a strange old man in the bookstore. The old man was unusually old, his eyes were cloudy and lifeless, his teeth had long since fallen out, his wrinkled skin was like a crumpled ball of paper, and there were dozens of hairs sparsely on the top of his bald head. 　　Chen Nan was shocked when he first saw the old man, and thought that someone had died and swindled out of the coffin. Out of politeness, he smiled and saluted the old man every time he saw him, but never spoke. 　　On this day, Chen Nan was boringly flipping through history books when an old voice suddenly sounded behind him, "Young man, so fond of history." 　　Chen Nan almost jumped up in fright, the strange old man came like a ghost, noiselessly coming less than a foot behind him, he secretly blamed himself for being too involved in reading the book. 　　"Yes, rather like it, but it seems like there are no special ancient books here, the earliest one dates back to just five thousand years ago." 　　"Oh, you like reading ancient books? Are you able to read the words on them?" 　　"Well, I still have some attainments in ancient writing, and I'm able to read pretty much any ancient book." He raised the book in his hand and said, "Look, this is the writing from four thousand years ago, although it's more complicated than the current writing, it's still recognizable." Chen Nan wasn't lying, he was indeed more sensitive to words, in addition, the current continent's common script evolved from the ancient script of the original Immortal Fantasy Continent, it wouldn't be difficult for him to identify these words that were in the middle of the excesses when he compared the two compartments. 　　Chen Nan had an illusion, as if he saw a green light flashing from the old man's cloudy eyes. 　　The old man asked, "Why do you like reading ancient books?" 　　Chen Nan said, "I'm more interested in ancient myths and legends, and I want to learn a thing or two from the ancient books." 　　The old man hemmed and hawed and Cinnan felt morose as he listened. 　　"Young man if you can really read the ancient books, let me lead you into another bookstore, there are the real ancient documents, far older than the books here." 　　Chen Nan was overjoyed, at the same time he began to speculate on the old man's identity, he could already tell that the old man was by no means an ordinary person, otherwise he would never have casually led him into another book vault. 　　Passing through the front hall, the two of them walked towards the back hall, which was extraordinarily quiet, pushing open the heavy door, rows and rows of bookshelves were presented in front of Cinnan's eyes, which were filled with ancient monumental books. 　　Ever since the first step into the ancient book library, Cinnan felt a subtle hint of a strange fluctuation, the fluctuation was like a trickle of water, like a light breeze, if there was anything, it was elusive. 　　"Dang it! Could it be that all the ancient books here have become refined, how could there be such fluctuations?" Now that Chen Nan's body's prohibitions had all disappeared and his spiritual sense had returned, his sense of the outside world was far sharper than that of a normal person. 　　The old man seemed to be oblivious as he said, "Look, this place is full of ancient books, most of which are valuable orphan books, if you are able to read them, this place is undoubtedly a treasure." 　　"Treasure?" Chen Nan was a bit puzzled. 　　The old man said, "Among these books are many writings on martial arts, magic, medicine, poison arts, and so on, and many of them are lost masterpieces. The Royal Family sent specialists to organize and compile these ancient books, but they could only translate a small portion of them. I just don't know how deep your attainments in ancient scripts are, if it's better than those Hanlin Academy bachelors ......" 　　Cinnan didn't wait for him to finish his sentence before he dove into the pile of books. 　　For several days in a row, he wandered through ancient history, which surprised Nalan Ruoshui, who opened her mouth wide in surprise when she inadvertently learned that Chen Nan was able to read ancient books. When Chen Nan presented her with a medical text that had been compiled from the ancient books, Nalan Ruoshui screamed shrilly in excitement, "Oh my god, the Medical Sage's Handbook, I'm not dreaming." She happily hugged Chen Nan at once. 　　Feeling that soft body, Chen Nan was mesmerized for a moment, he backhanded Nalan Ruoshui, but the delicate body quickly left him, and a light laugh was transmitted in the distance. Since then, whenever Chen Nan saw Nalan Ruoshui's smile, he couldn't help but feel a surge of heartbeat. 　　"Today is not the day to find another medical book to organize and give it to her." 　　"Kid, what kind of nymphomania is that, look at your unproductive appearance, it really makes my old man ashamed to be a man with you." The old poisonous monster's arm steaks on the courtyard wall, revealing his head, striking at the right time. 　　"Dead old man you are spying on me again, it's really perverted and disgusting. Be careful I'll buy a firecracker, light it up and throw it into your yard." As they became more and more familiar, Chen Nan and the old Poison Monster gradually joked around, to the point where they met and made sarcastic remarks about each other. However, all along, he didn't dare to banter with the old witch, who switched between his east and back yards, making him tremble with fear. 　　"Don't you dare! If you light a firecracker, I'll make you break your intestines in seven steps, break your soul in ten steps, lose your shape and flesh in thirteen steps, and turn your bones invisible in fifteen steps." 　　"Shit, you perverted dead old man." A chill ran down Chen Nan's spine as he quickly walked towards the outside of the Qi Shi Mansion. Today, Nalan Ruoshui did not provide him with acupuncture, saying that she would treat him after carefully studying the Medical Sage's Handbook. 　　After Chen Nan arrived at the Ancient Book Depository, the old man had long since arrived. 　　"Not bad young man, it seems that you really do have some attainments in ancient scripts and can really read those ancient books, today my old man is going to trouble you a bit." 　　"Oh, old man please speak, if I can help, I will definitely help." 　　The old man took out an ancient book with yellowish color from his bosom and placed it on the table, took over a pen and paper and started copying it with a brush, in a short while, the whole paper was copied all over. 　　"Here, can you help me translate what's on this piece of paper?" 　　Chen Nan took it and took a look, those words and sentences didn't make sense at all, saying, "Old man, these sentences don't make sense, you didn't copy them wrong." 　　The old man said, "Just translate it, you don't have to care if it doesn't make sense, every day you translate three for me is fine, right?" 　　"Yes, no problem." Chen Nan said in his heart, "This old man is really suspicious, he actually broke the sentences apart and asked me to translate them, he even wants to keep it secret like this, what kind of book is this?" 　　The little bit of goodwill he had for the old man earlier was gone, knowing that this eccentric old man had been hitting on him from the very beginning, and his fundamental purpose was to have him translate this book. 　　The writing on the paper, according to Chen Nan's estimation should be in a script from six or seven thousand years ago. There were only a few dozens of words, but they contained words that made Chen Nan sensitive, such as "god" and "corpse", which made him even more curious about the book.