"Shi Boqiong!"
Li Chonglou looked up and saw a fourteen-sided die in the hand of the statue of the celestial being.
If that wasn't Shi Boqiong, then what was it?
He never imagined that the supreme treasure his master had sought for half his life, the treasure that had changed his own destiny, would be here.
Without any hesitation, Li Chonglou directly began to climb the stone statue with difficulty.
Lan Ying watched this scene blankly,
not understanding why Li Chonglou was so excited.
On such a steep statue, a single slip could lead to a broken bone.
Getting injured in such a place was essentially a death sentence.
Lan Ying nervously reminded him, "Be careful, don't fall..."
Li Chonglou didn't care about any of that now. He used his hands and feet, quickly climbing onto the palm of the celestial being.
The moment he took the die in his hand, the joyful expression on his face vanished.
He cursed himself, "A false joy..."
This thing was indeed Shi Boqiong, but it wasn't real. It was a replica made from animal bone.
Its likeness was so perfect that even he hadn't recognized it from a distance.
It was only when he held it that he discovered the weight was wrong.
He had weighed the genuine Shi Boqiong; it was heavy. But this object was light and did not feel substantial.
It was clearly a forged magical artifact.
His joy turned to disappointment.
From heaven to hell.
Logically, with his current state of mind, he should have been indifferent to gains and losses and not experienced such a drastic fluctuation.
But this matter concerned his master and father, and he couldn't remain as calm as a still well.
Helpless, he could only slide back down to the ground.
"What is it? That got you so excited?" Lan Ying asked curiously. He snatched the replica Shi Boqiong from Li Chonglou's hand and examined it from all angles. "Isn't it just a die for playing mahjong..."
"What do the words on it mean?"
"They look familiar..."
Admittedly, Lan Ying had some insight.
Li Chonglou pointed to the characters and said, "This is 'Jiao' from 'Jiaojiao' (天骄), written in Seal Script. I imagine you've seen similar fonts on television."
"The two characters on the other side are 'Nan Qi' (男妻), and I don't understand their meaning."
"The rest are numbers from one to twelve. There are fourteen sides in total."
"This item is called Shi Boqiong, a treasure of Qin Shi Huang. But what you're holding isn't the genuine article; it's a replica made by the Qiang people from ox bone."
Lan Ying looked surprised. "Did Qin Shi Huang play mahjong too?"
"Is that very strange? The origin of mahjong can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty," Li Chonglou replied nonchalantly. "It embodies the wisdom of the three powers of heaven, earth, and man, and it has been refined and improved over dozens of generations, finally taking its current form in the Qing Dynasty."
"However, Shi Boqiong wasn't used for playing mahjong."
"These numbers might represent some heavenly secrets; I haven't figured it out yet."
"Give it back to me when you're done looking,"
Li Chonglou said, reaching out to take back the replica Shi Boqiong.
Although it was fake, it was of great reference value for finding the real one.
During this trip, he had learned by chance that Shi Boqiong was a treasure passed down by the Qiang people, which was later tricked away by Wang Mang.
Now it seemed it was used for sacrifices, and they could only replicate imitations to replace it.
It was a pity, though, that fake was fake.
The true Shi Boqiong, capable of reversing time and space and allowing his soul to be reborn, was in no way comparable to this handicraft.
When the Qiang people of the Western Sea lost this supreme treasure, it was as if they lost the protection of the gods, ultimately declining and becoming extinct.
It could be said that everything in the world had its predestined course.
The changes of time made Li Chonglou sigh with emotion.
After storing away the golden plate and the bone dice, the two meticulously searched the entire hall.
Apart from some old magical artifacts like divine wands, ritual knives, sheepskin drums, and monkey skin hats, which had already decayed, there was nothing else of value.
There wasn't even an entrance to anywhere else.
Just this empty, vast hall.
"There's not even an exit. Are we really going to be trapped and die here?" Lan Ying asked, sitting on the stone platform after searching everywhere, feeling exhausted.
"Where there is death, there is life. The latter half of this palace is directly connected to the mountainside. I've searched every inch of the area behind," Li Chonglou said, his gaze sharp as he scanned the surroundings. "But that's the common way of thinking."