That was a simple, yet exquisitely crafted bronze plate.

Wei Yuan took in the details of the bronze plate.

The main body had a recessed portion used to hold water, and the plate was engraved with words of sacrifice and prayer, the whole thing covered in taotie纹 (taotie patterns).

Merchants revered gods and ghosts and often had large-scale sacrificial activities.

Before the sacrifice, there was the wo guan (ablution) ceremony, where those performing the sacrifice would wash their hands with clean water. By the time of the Western Zhou dynasty, in addition to the plate, there was also a matching yi (ewer). The yi poured water, and the plate received the used water. Later, as large-scale sacrifices became less frequent, this ceremony was instead seen in more solemn Chinese weddings.

The brief memory ended quickly.

Whether it was the bronze ware or the old man at the stall, they slowly disappeared.

All that remained before him were An Xuyang and the pale woman in red.

…

A moment later.

Wei Yuan and Jue bid farewell to the elderly couple and left.

Walking down the road, Wei Yuan was still recalling what he had seen in the old man's memories.

Taotie patterns appeared in the later period of the Shang dynasty.

When he was dealing with the matter of the Wu Xian medicine, he had seen through the small cauldron inhabited by Wu Xuan that during the reign of King Di Xin of the Shang dynasty, five special bronze wares were cast. Now he could vaguely perceive that this bronze plate and the Shang Dynasty bronze jue (wine cup) should be the same kind of thing, both cast by Di Xin back then.

Recalling it now.

Of the five bronze wares, he already knew of the plate, the cauldron, the jue, and the short sword.

Among them, the taotie bronze plate represented the wo guan ceremony, a ritual before the sacrifice.

The dan ding (cinnabar cauldron) contained the Wu Xian medicine, and in the Age of Gods, the shamans of the Wu Xian kingdom represented the special position of transmitting the divine will to humans, representing the connection between humans and gods.

The jue was a wine vessel, also a very precious sacrificial object.

Heaven ordered the mysterious bird to descend and give birth to Shang.

And on Su Yu'er's short sword, there were patterns of the xuan niao (mysterious bird) flapping its wings, obviously a ritual object. The Shang dynasty was full of ghost and god sacrifices, with a considerable number of fierce and barbaric blood sacrifices, and these blood sacrifices required the use of weapons as ritual objects to complete the final step.

The four bronze wares each represented a certain link in the sacrifice.

So, what would the fifth bronze ware be?

Wei Yuan couldn't help but ponder, but it was difficult to be sure whether his guess was correct. The last bronze ware was likely to represent the sacrificial offering itself, or it could symbolize a certain 'Di' (deity) revered by the merchants, an object symbolizing that ghost or god.

Both possibilities made sense and could cooperate with the other four bronze wares to form a system.

It seemed that without finding the last bronze ware, there was no way to guess.

Wei Yuan regretfully gave up the idea of guessing the last bronze ware and turned his attention back to the old man at the stall. In this period, he had 'seen' this old man twice in a row, once in the memories of the little boy who bought the mirror spirit, and once just now with the white-haired old man.

They had both encountered this old man on their way home from school, and the old man's appearance and demeanor were exactly the same.

But there was a full fifty years between them.

Was it that he was a highly cultivated individual with a long enough lifespan to maintain his appearance, or was it that the old man at the stall was not human at all? Humans were affected by lifespan, but for most demons, living for fifty years without changing their appearance was not difficult. It was more likely some kind of transformation spell or illusion.

Just like the 'Immortal in the Painting' just now.

Even if she always retained the appearance in the painting, she could use 'illusion' to grow old with An Xuyang, so that others around her would not see anything unusual. From this point of view, it was normal for the 'old man' not to have changed for fifty years.

Twice selling things containing spirituality that could breed evil spirits to children.

The mirror spirit need not be mentioned.

Even if An Xuyang had not nourished the painting with qi, and the spirituality in the painting had developed naturally, there would have been a high probability that it would naturally absorb the essence of the people around it and transform into a demon rather than a spirit. So the old man at the stall was definitely problematic.

Plus, the old man had one of the five bronze wares cast by Di Xin in his hand.

For both emotional and rational reasons, Wei Yuan had to find him.

But how to find him?

Call the police?

No, ordinary action team members may not be able to detect this guy, and the degree of danger was uncertain.

Wei Yuan's thoughts fluctuated, and he decided to do a divination tonight first.

In order to prevent being detected by the other party, he had to enter a dream and rely on the inherent divinity of Wuzhiqi to eliminate interference.

Wei Yuan pondered, sorting out his thoughts. Jue next to him asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"

Wei Yuan came back to his senses and replied with a smile, "Me? I was wondering where that ancient painting came from."

"The person who sold him the painting that could breed spirituality should not be simple either."

"That's true."

Jue nodded in agreement:

"I rarely saw such things below Kunlun Mountain."

In other words, there were actually many on Kunlun Mountain?

The corners of Wei Yuan's mouth twitched, and he once again had a full understanding of Kunlun's wealth. He looked at the girl next to him. Just now, he had actually thought of an idea, which was to have Jue come up with six numbers, and then use these six numbers as trigrams, and then Wei Yuan himself would interpret the trigrams.

In this way, the process of 'divining the secrets of heaven and obtaining instructions' would be completed by Jue, who was a celestial maiden.

Wei Yuan only needed to solve the trigrams obtained by Jue like solving a problem.

In this way, the trigrams would definitely be extremely difficult to be interfered with and affected, almost equivalent to cheating.

But after thinking about it, Wei Yuan still gave up this idea.

This would make him form a habit and dependence, and make him ask Jue for help in the future. Forming a habit was not terrible, but the point was that, under normal circumstances, most beings had no way to interfere with Jue's divination, but once interference was detected, it meant that the other party was stronger than Jue.

In fact, Jue was not as powerful as Wuzhiqi.

Wei Yuan's gaze fell on the black hair of the girl next to him.

Now it was already dark, and the street lights were lit one by one. The night was mottled by the light, falling on the girl's black hair, like a layer of shimmer.

Even if there was only a little bit of possibility, Wei Yuan didn't want to involve her in that kind of unknown danger.

He thought.

As for Wuzhiqi…

The corner of Wei Yuan's mouth twitched.

Danger?

In this era, who could beat that monkey?

Even if there were a few, Wei Yuan didn't think he would directly provoke such a high-level existence. At most, he would disturb cultivators who were related to him but not as strong. Among these existences, there might be some who surpassed Jue at this moment, but it was absolutely impossible to be stronger than Wuzhiqi, the Water Ape of Huai River in the Primordial Era.

That was a guy that even Yu the Great had to bring a group of people to seal.

No, maybe there was…

Wei Yuan's thoughts paused slightly, and he thought seriously.

Power outages and internet outages could probably count as two.

Jue gently tossed the khaki detective hat in her hand, wearing modern clothes, and standing with Wei Yuan by the side of the road waiting for the traffic light. The traffic was heavy, and it was a city with a million people. In her memory, this was almost completely unfamiliar and completely novel. She had recently read a lot of books and liked a sentence in it very much.

*Shen nü ruo wu yang, dang jing shi jie shu.* (If the goddess is well, the world will be amazed.)

Yes, it was indeed amazing enough for them, a great cause no less than Kunlun.

Wei Yuan thought of something and suggested with a smile:

"By the way, it's rare to come out, do you want to eat out?"

Jue thought for a while and said, "Okay."

Before Wei Yuan could speak, she skillfully took out her mobile phone, tapped it with her finger, opened a food app, and looked for shops with high ratings. The light from the screen reflected in her dark pupils. The girl frowned, gently touching her lips with her finger, looking like a modern girl troubled by what to eat. This skill made Wei Yuan stunned.

'Have you found your old friend?'

The question he had once asked echoed in Wei Yuan's mind.

Past words settled in his memory, broken and softened by the impact of time. A flash of silver light suddenly flashed before Wei Yuan's eyes. When he came back to his senses, the cars with their lights on honked their horns, running quickly across the hot asphalt road illuminated by the sun during the day.

And Jue waved the mobile phone in her hand in front of Wei Yuan and said:

"Let's go to this one. I wanted to go there before, but I never had time."

Wei Yuan saw that it was a very popular hot pot restaurant nearby.

The taste of the food itself was very good, and the service attitude was also very good. After adjusting the dipping sauce, Wei Yuan chose sesame sauce, but Jue seemed to be very curious, and placed several plates in front of her, one with sesame sauce, one with oil, one with dry seasoning, and one with nothing, wanting to eat the original flavor. The hot pot was bubbling, and when the meat was put in, while waiting for the meat to cook, Wei Yuan looked at the detective hat in the girl's hand and asked curiously:

"By the way, Jue, is your flower shop doing well? I see you seem to be… um… quite well-off…"

Jue waved her hand to signal Wei Yuan to wait, staring at the hot pot a little nervously, silently counting the seconds. When seven seconds were up, she reached out and grabbed the tripe in one go, and then breathed a slight sigh of relief before answering:

"Huh? No, there aren't many customers."

"Then…"

Jue said: "Because the children from the Special Operations Team said so."

"Said what?"

"It can be reimbursed."

The girl looked curiously at the embarrassed museum curator, seemed to know something, was stunned for a moment, and said in surprise:

"Yuan, is it not okay?"

Wei Yuan: "…"

He let out a breath and said seriously:

"Actually, I prefer the feeling of earning money step by step. It makes me feel accomplished."

"If it's unearned income, it makes me feel ashamed."

Do you believe me when I say that?

Is it too late to apply and say that I am not a twenty-four-year-old museum owner?

Jue was surprised, put down her chopsticks, recalled the books she had read, and said seriously: "Yuan."

"You are truly a person who has risen above vulgar tastes."

Wei Yuan: "…"

…

After the hot pot, Wei Yuan paid the bill with the reason 'this is the detective's reward for his capable assistant'. The two strolled back to the old street, said goodbye to each other, and Wei Yuan watched the lights of the flower shop turn on before turning around, opening the door, and returning to the museum.

At this moment, he still grasped the aura of the old man he had seen at the stall.

Before falling asleep, he chanted Wuzhiqi's name, and then fell asleep peacefully, waiting for Wuzhiqi to appear in his dream before proceeding with divination, but to his surprise, Wuzhiqi, who often appeared in his dreams, did not respond this time. Until the next morning, Wei Yuan opened his eyes, and Wuzhiqi had not appeared in his dream.

Wei Yuan frowned slightly, thought for a while, and sent a message to Wuzhiqi.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, it was still unread.

Wuzhiqi was a natural god and did not need to sleep.

And the reason why he didn't touch his phone could only prove that his attention was occupied by something else.

For example, computers.

Wei Yuan looked at the time, it was already the next day, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

He probably knew what was wrong with Wuzhiqi.

He definitely touched that thing…

The Civilization series.

Ignorance is bliss, alas, still young…

Wei Yuan expressed his feelings with the mentality of someone who had been there.

Under normal circumstances, if you get into it, especially if it's the first time you've been exposed to it, then when will Wuzhiqi reply to his question.

It depends on how long the Special Operations Team's battery can last.

He put down his phone and prepared to go out and prepare some talismans. At this time, the phone rang slightly, Wei Yuan was a little curious, lowered his head, and saw the flashing icon.

This was not from Wuzhiqi, but a reply from Nü Jiao –

About how to find an unclaimed spiritual mountain and bestow an official title upon it.

ps: Today's first update… three thousand six hundred words, thank you for the 30,000 reward that uses heaven and earth as the bed, thank you very much~

Because I made an appointment today, I went to get a vaccine in the morning, so it's a little late today, I'll code immediately, I hope to post it before twelve o'clock, to maintain the routine~