Chapter 203 The Legend of the Ring

This was the only relic of Yuan, the Black Ice Terrace Iron Eagle Swordsman, from the end of the Qin Dynasty.

After being rescued by the then-yet-to-grow Tiannv Jue, Yuan, in order to repay the life-saving grace, divided the thumb ring into two halves and established a Qin Dynasty contract on it. He kept one half for himself and gave the other half to the girl as a token of their agreement.

But after that, Jue went west to Kunlun, like clouds and mist.

And Yuan went east to kill Xu Shi.

Most likely due to the recurrence of injuries left by Overlord Xiang Yu, he fell on the road.

They never saw each other again.

Wei Yuan did not expect that after two thousand years, he would see the thumb ring here. And looking at the lines on it, this was exactly the half that belonged to him. The old man in the dream seemed to regard him as a guest visiting the museum to see the exhibits and took the initiative to talk to him, saying, "This, ah, this is something from the end of the Qin Dynasty."

Wei Yuan said, "The end of the Qin Dynasty?"

The old man held a cup of tea, just like telling stories to the passing guests, smiling and saying:

"However, I bought this from a tomb raider when I was young."

"Those tomb raiders all have established master-disciple relationships, passing down their skills from generation to generation."

"But no matter what, when selling antiques, they only think about selling them for a higher price. To increase the price of antiques, the first is that they must have age, which is the foundation, and the second is that they must have anecdotes and legends. Antiques without stories are far inferior in price to those with legends, even if the quality is similar."

"The wine pot that Li Taibai used when writing poetry, the chess pieces that Su Dongpo played with, the pipa that Bai Juyi listened to."

"Compared to something from the same period in an official kiln."

"The price difference is several times."

Wei Yuan said, "So, this half of the thumb ring also has a story?"

The old man's expression straightened, and he said, "What thumb ring?"

He paused and then said solemnly:

"This is the Great Qin War Tiger Pattern Crescent Ring."

Wei Yuan: "..............."

The old man smiled again and said, "But you are right, this antique also has a story. After all, the capital of Great Qin, Xianyang, is in the northwest, but we are in Jiangnan. Guest, do you know why this treasure ended up with me?"

"This is the story that the antique dealer told me."

..................

The story begins with Xiang Yu, the Overlord of Western Chu.

After burning down the Xianyang Palace and plundering the treasures of the Qin Palace, he still felt it was not enough and set his sights on the mausoleum of the First Emperor. Three hundred thousand people had once tried to excavate the imperial tomb, but in the end, they were defeated. However, they were not without gain. A golden wild goose flew out of the imperial tomb.

The wild goose was very fast and disappeared in an instant.

The excavation of the imperial tomb took too long, and the Overlord missed his hometown a little, so he said to his attendants:

"To be rich and not return home is like wearing brocade at night."

So, he stopped the excavation of the imperial tomb, but later no one saw the wild goose again. Time passed quickly, from the end of the Qin Dynasty to the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and then to Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty. The Nine Tiger Generals swept across the land, but the Xin Dynasty was short-lived. Finally, it came to the era of Sun Hao, the Great Emperor of Eastern Wu.

When the Jin Dynasty replaced the Wei Dynasty, the mojinxiaowei (grave robbers) who were originally loyal to the Great Wei scattered in all directions.

One of the mojinxiaowei, named Yin Caibin, fled to Jiangnan.

He met his old enemy, Xia Bingwu. In desperation, he had to take out treasures to redeem his life. Among these treasures was a bronze thumb ring. It was the spring of the first year of the Baoding era when Yin Caibin took out the thumb ring, and suddenly he heard several wild goose cries in the sky.

A wild goose fell and pecked at the thumb ring.

Carrying the thumb ring, it flew north.

The two were surprised to find that the wild goose was actually made of pure gold. They spent a great deal of effort to stop the wild goose. When they stopped it, the wild goose was still pecking at the thumb ring and would not let go. Later, they presented this item to Zhang Shan, the prefect of Rinan at the time.

Zhang Shan recognized it as an item from the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin from the text on the wild goose and presented it to Sun Hao, the Great Emperor of Eastern Wu.

The voice paused, and the old man sighed, "These antique dealers, they can really make things up."

"Why would a wild goose made of gold peck at a thumb ring?"

Wei Yuan replied, "Maybe, maybe it recognizes the owner of this thumb ring."

Even though hundreds of years had passed.

The Xianyang wild goose still hoped to bring the young man back...

The old man said in surprise, "That's also an explanation."

Wei Yuan asked, "What happened after that?"

The old man said, "After that, General Du Yu of the Jin Dynasty led his troops to destroy Wu. The golden wild goose was taken away. This thumb ring was inconspicuous and missing half, so it ended up in Jiangnan and was found by the antique dealer. He also said that the pattern on this thumb ring is a kind of curse."

"Everyone, the first promise they make after getting this thumb ring, they cannot avoid or refuse."

"Otherwise, they will be punished by Qin law."

"And the even more ridiculous thing is that as long as the promise is fulfilled, this thumb ring will definitely be lost. Some people accidentally broke the rope, some were robbed, and even more inexplicably, some people woke up after a night's sleep, and the thumb ring was gone."

"This kind of curse is really a headache. It's not about being afraid of punishment, it's just that it's not easy to preserve."

It was the last remaining Qin contract.

Wei Yuan said, "Is this true?"

The old man said, "I don't believe it, but I asked some special friends and they said it was true."

Wei Yuan said, "Then how did you preserve it?"

The old man took a sip of tea and said with a proud smile, "This may be a bit difficult, but it can't stop me."

"The promise I made was to put this thumb ring in the museum, hoping to find the true owner of this thumb ring. When the true owner is found, the thumb ring can leave."

"This is a small logical loophole."

"This is craftsmanship from the end of the Qin Dynasty. Its owner is probably already dead. There is no way to find the owner. I also put it in the museum according to the promise, hoping that its owner will come. It is not considered a violation of the contract and promise, but the day this promise is fulfilled is far away..."

"No, perhaps it will never be completed."

"Although this tiger-patterned ring is inconspicuous, it is actually the best collection in my museum."

Wei Yuan looked at the thumb ring and suddenly stood up and said, "Thank you."

The old man was puzzled.

When he looked up, he saw the young man with a blurred face turn around and leave.

The dream slowly shattered, and Wei Yuan broke free from the dream. He looked at the old curator who was still asleep, stretched out his hand, and slowly drew a talisman with his fingers. Then he let the talisman slowly shatter, turning into a gentle streamer, enveloping the old man. This could warm the old man's body and make up for some of the damage to his body.

Wei Yuan turned around and walked out of the dream world.

Entering the real Municipal Museum.

He walked step by step to the part of the collection that belonged to the Qin and Han dynasties.

Finally, he found what belonged to him, stretched out his hand, and the thumb ring in the museum's transparent glass cabinet slowly lit up with a ripple, and finally returned to Wei Yuan's hand.

..............

Xu Minzhong had a good sleep.

Originally, at his age, he had more or less some problems.

But after waking up this time, he did not have the uncomfortable feeling of difficulty breathing, but felt comfortable all over. Looking outside, it was just dawn, about six o'clock. Xu Minzhong felt an unprecedented sense of comfort, while pondering the strange dream of yesterday.

He opened the museum first, turned on the lights, and walked past the exhibits.

This was the habit he had developed over the past thirty years.

Walking past the Song and Ming dynasties, past the Sui and Tang dynasties, and finally past the Qin and Han dynasties.

The old man's gaze suddenly froze.

His favorite, the greatest harvest of his youth, the true collection of the museum, the Qin Dynasty tiger-patterned crescent ring, had disappeared. The bulletproof glass cabinet had not been touched at all. The old man was stunned for a moment, then rushed to find the museum's surveillance footage.

But there was nothing to be gained.

He took out the key and opened the display case. It was indeed empty.

He saw a piece of paper inside with words written in Qin clerical script.

"The contract is complete."

"Thank you..."

The old man thought of his dream, thought of his complacent promise.

'I hope the thumb ring can be placed here, to find its true owner...'

He was startled and rubbed his face in confusion. There were no traces of Qian punishment.

In other words, the ring was taken away without violating the original promise.

The old man opened his mouth, unable to speak for a moment.

.................

Wei Yuan opened his eyes. He strung the thumb ring with a rope and wore it as a pendant, and then put the pendant under his clothes. The next day, Jue happened to come over. The girl's long hair was tied up, she was wearing white seven-quarter pants that exposed her ankles, and a soft top, with a pair of white canvas shoes on her feet.

It seemed that since the red embroidered shoes were psychic, they were no longer suitable to be in the museum with this group of old men, and she planned to take her to the flower shop. Similarly, Yu Ji also planned to temporarily take the painter sister to the studio to stay permanently. When she came today, Wei Yuan noticed a string of decorative tassels hanging from the girl's waist.

Next to the white jade representing Western Kunlun, there was half of a thumb ring carved with Qin patterns.

When walking, the sound was as clear as a bell.

Wei Yuan pretended to be nonchalant and casually asked:

"Jue, what is this?"

The Tiannv didn't notice anything. After following Wei Yuan's line of sight, she just smiled with a little nostalgia and replied, "This? It's something left to me by a friend from my childhood. At that time, he promised that he would come and help me with a favor in the future, but later, I never saw him again."

Wei Yuan was silent for a moment and said, "I think he must also be very sorry for not being able to help you."

Jue shook her head and said frankly, "That's not really important. It's enough as long as I know that he was serious when he made the oath. I once heard people say that a hundred years of life is like a fleeting moment, but even so, people must find their own life."

"However, not that kind of empty and vast meaning."

"But something more specific. Although a hundred years is short, it is also long, and life is like a blank piece of paper, which needs to find something to fix it down."

"For example, just for example, in youth it is friends and parents, a little older it is ambition and thinking, and then it is wife, children and close friends, and perhaps there are also changes in the world, there are interests, hobbies, and pursuits. The combination of all these can make a person's life specific and real, not empty. These can be said to be the person's imprint."

She helped wash the purchased fruit, sleeves rolled up, revealing her white arms, thought for a while, and said, "And we, although we live longer, we also need to find these imprints."

"Even more needed than people."

"Because my essence is actually the long wind of Kunlun. If I don't want to change into that kind of ruthless, unfeeling, cold appearance, I have to find something similar to human beings, find the connection between me and the human world, find anchors and imprints."

"And these are fate (yuan)."

"Promises, friendships, names, unforgettable experiences, are all like this."

Wei Yuan was thoughtful.

Is this the reason why the Queen Mother of the West brought them down the mountain to walk the world?

Jue noticed the pendant on Wei Yuan's neck, but couldn't see the pendant below, and asked curiously:

"Yuan, why did you buy a pendant too?"

Wei Yuan thought for a while and smiled, "This can also be regarded as an agreement between me and someone."

Although Jue was curious, she didn't ask any further questions, just smiled and handed over the washed fruit.

Wei Yuan casually put it on a plate. The pendant under his clothes emitted a faint streamer, and the girl didn't notice that the thumb ring in the tassels around her waist also had a slight streamer, colliding with the Kunlun jade, the sound was crisp, and the two pendants naturally deflected their direction, as if they were about to converge into one--

You go to Kunlun.

I enter the East Sea.

I said,

We will definitely meet again one day.

Even if the mountains are high and the rivers are far away.

Even if the years are long.

..................

In Quanzhou City, the little Taoist priest who had not been down the mountain for a long time had a good time playing around.

But just like the last few days of weekends and winter and summer vacations, they always pass quickly.

This rare relaxation time also ended quickly.

Zhang Ruosu had already urged him several times in a row.

The Water Ghost prepared a pile of snacks for the little Taoist priest.

Wei Yuan personally sent Ah Xuan to the mountain, but this time, Wei Yuan carried the sword box on his back. The specially made box was divided into two layers, one layer was the Eight-Sided Han Sword, and the other layer was the Nine-Section Staff. It was time to solve the so-called Taiping Dao leader. He stepped on the White Jade Stairs, passed the Lotus Pond, and the Old Celestial Master was waiting in front. Seeing Wei Yuan dressed like this, his expression was slightly surprised.

"Wei curator, you are..."

"Taoist friend Zhang, I have brought Ah Xuan back to you."

Wei Yuan gently pushed Ah Xuan's shoulder, and then said:

"I'll trouble the Celestial Master to summon the Three Caves and Four Supplements, the Taoist Profound Sects that still exist in this era."

"This poor Taoist has one more thing to tell the fellow Taoists."

Zhang Ruosu took a deep look at Wei Yuan, and the expression on his face slowly became solemn, and said:

"Okay."

Wei Yuan turned around, strode forward, and went down the mountain with his sword on his back.

"Taoist friend of the Taiping Dao, why are you going?"

"To kill the rebels!"

ps: Today's second update... 4,000 words, thank you for the reward from the stowaway African, thank you~

Back then, in Chapter 176, Yuan divided the remaining thumb ring into two halves, one for Jue and one for Yuan. Jue's is still fine, but Yuan only had less than half a year to live at that time. After falling on the road, that thumb ring would definitely be scattered.