"Achoo~!"
Ye Feng, who had just entered the elevator, sneezed unexpectedly.
"Big brother, are you alright? Do you have a cold?"
Xiao Xiao tilted her head slightly, looking at Ye Feng with concern.
"Oh~ I'm fine~"
"Maybe someone is talking about me or scolding me~"
Ye Feng waved his hand gently, not bothered.
.........
Just as Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao were leisurely having dinner,
At the City Lord's Mansion,
"City Lord, the young lady's wound is recovering well and shows no signs of infection. She will be completely well in a few days!"
A white-haired old doctor finished examining Shen Yun Yao and spoke to Shen Bo Tian.
"Mm!"
Shen Bo Tian nodded, "Thank you, Doctor He!"
Doctor He nodded, gave a few instructions to Shen Yun Yao, and then left.
"Grandpa, why did you say that Mecha City has no future?"
After Doctor He left, Shen Yun Yao continued the topic she had been discussing with Shen Bo Tian, her expression filled with both confusion and worry.
Shen Bo Tian did not reply immediately. He walked to the window, looked at the moon hanging high in the night sky, and finally sighed, saying, "Not just Mecha City, but Desert Storm, City of Arcane Arts, Seafood Restaurant... and the other so-called seven major powers, all have no future!"
"Wh... what?"
After hearing Shen Bo Tian's words, Shen Yun Yao was even more confused.
However, Shen Bo Tian clearly had no intention of explaining. He continued to look out the window, lost in thought.
"Grandpa... you... what's wrong?"
Seeing Shen Bo Tian's expression, and recalling what he had told her in the past two days, Shen Yun Yao had a very bad premonition.
Because Shen Bo Tian gave her the feeling that he was making his final arrangements...
"Yao Yao, don't overthink it~ Grandpa is fine!"
"You should rest early~"
Shen Bo Tian smiled kindly at Shen Yun Yao and then left.
.........
The next day,
Ye Feng got up early because he was going to the Secret Armor Institute to discuss his confusion about studying arcane runes with Shen Qing, Shen Bai, and others.
"Ye Feng, you're here!"
Shen Bai was lying on a rattan chair, his eyes closed, resting leisurely. He immediately opened his eyes when he sensed someone approaching, and seeing it was Ye Feng, he greeted him happily.
"Ye Feng, I must say, the air conditioning you set up earlier is quite effective~"
"It's over thirty degrees Celsius outside now, and it's only around 20 degrees Celsius here~"
At this moment, Shen Qing walked over and spoke to Ye Feng.
"Mm! It is indeed quite cool~"
Ye Feng, who had just come in from outside, could deeply feel this. He scanned the surroundings, and then a light flashed in his hand, producing the basic arcane rune book that Shen Bai had given him earlier. "Seniors, after reading this book, I have many questions that I hope you two seniors can answer."
Shen Bai and Shen Qing looked at each other at Ye Feng's words, their expressions turning serious.
Afterward, the three of them found a place to sit and began to discuss. Xiao Xiao, meanwhile, was drawing not far away, occasionally frowning and thinking...
.........
Time flew by,
Around three in the afternoon, Ye Feng had a thick notebook in his hand, which he had recorded during his discussions with Shen Bai and Shen Qing.
"Ye Feng, these arcane runes are very profound!"
"Shen Qing and I have studied them for decades. Although we can say we have achieved some success, there may still be omissions or errors."
"You must not completely take our words as gospel, as this may limit your future development!"
Shen Bai frowned, pondered for a moment, and finally solemnly admonished Ye Feng.
"Mm!"
Ye Feng nodded seriously at Shen Bai and Shen Qing, "Thank you, seniors!"
.........
After confirming some matters with Shen Bai and Shen Qing again, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao headed to the fifth floor of the Secret Armor Institute.
After all, he hadn't read any of the books stored there, and there might be clues to the Huo Zhong Lu.
As soon as they entered the fifth floor of the Secret Armor Institute, Ye Feng was about to randomly pick a book to read. Xiao Xiao, who had been drawing, quickly ran to a bookshelf and began searching, with a clear purpose in mind...
.........
"It really is like this~"
Ye Feng was sitting and flipping through a somewhat old book when Xiao Xiao's voice suddenly rang out, seemingly confirming a guess in her heart.
"Big brother, look at this!~"
Then, Xiao Xiao ran to Ye Feng and handed him a book that seemed to have been soaked in water and then dried.
"Xiao Xiao, what... what is this?"
Ye Feng looked at Xiao Xiao with some confusion, as he couldn't see anything special after looking for a long time.
"Big brother, these patterns... these patterns that look like dried water stains..."
As she spoke, Xiao Xiao took out a few thin sheets of paper. "Big brother, these patterns that look like water stains might not be simple water stains!"
"Not simple water stains? What's going on?"
Ye Feng looked at Xiao Xiao with confusion.
"Big brother, didn't you ask me to look through the books here earlier... At first, I also thought they were ordinary water stains, but last night I discovered some patterns pressed out by bamboo slips on the Huo Zhong Lu you were studying..."
"I found that some of the patterns pressed out by the bamboo slips were similar to some of the patterns in these water stains... So I tried to draw some patterns..."
"Although they look messy, if I adjust the angle like this..."
As she spoke, Xiao Xiao began to stack the thin sheets of paper, adjusting their direction and angle, and then facing the stacked paper towards the sunlight streaming in from the window.
In this way, the messy patterns distributed on different sheets of paper were all connected together.
"This... this seems to be a topographic map... It looks like peaks and rivers?"
Ye Feng observed for a moment and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"Mm!~"
Xiao Xiao nodded, "But these few positions might be due to overlapping, or for some other reason, they have become a blur and it's unclear what they are."
"Xiao Xiao, you're amazing... Wait, the shape of this gap..."
Suddenly, Ye Feng's expression changed slightly because he found the gap in the topographic map drawn by Xiao Xiao to be somewhat familiar.
Immediately, he cautiously looked around, even went to the window and the stairwell to check. Then, a light flashed in his hand, and the bamboo slips hidden in the Huo Zhong Lu book instantly appeared.
"The gap in this terrain... it indeed matches the missing part below the bamboo slips!"
Ye Feng spread out the bamboo slips and, after a comparison, was surprised.
"It seems my previous guess was correct. This bundle of bamboo slips is probably the real Huo Zhong Lu, and... judging from the patterns on these books... perhaps the other half of the Huo Zhong Lu was once placed on this book, thus leaving some patterns..."
"This book got wet and became messy, so no one noticed the patterns in the water stains..."
After some thought, Ye Feng quickly understood.
"If the Huo Zhong Lu bamboo slips in Shen Yun Yao's fan were a coincidence, then this book..."
"It seems that Mecha City indeed has another part of the Huo Zhong Lu!"
Ye Feng muttered to himself.
Afterward, Ye Feng continued to read some books on arcane runes, but as Shen Bai and Shen Qing had said, most of the books here were fragments, without beginning or end, which was very confusing...
.........
In the evening,
Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao left the Secret Armor Institute, but they hadn't gone far before their path was blocked.
"Mr. Ye, please come with me, my master wishes to see you!"
The speaker was a middle-aged man wearing a black feather cloak, with a dark face and a yellow mouth.
.........