The dusty cellar was opened, and the wooden stairs creaked under the weight.
The four of them slowly entered.
Ian, once a key mber of the Ancient Literature Society, understood the importance of shielding from Deep Sea detection. This basent was entirely cut off from Central Continent’s information monitoring... no electrical circuits or network links, making every entrance and exit "top secret" beyond information surveillance. A large number of diagrams were stacked in sealed bookshelves.
Good asures against moisture were in place here; not a single diagram had been damaged in twenty years.
Hu Po, carrying the old man on his back, picked up a smokeless oil lamp to light it, but Gu Shen stopped him, two fingers brushing over his brow.
"Pfft."
A very faint sound of burning.
Chi Huo illuminated the dark underground space.
This fla made both Hu Po and Ian pause in astonishnt. In the underground space, a gentle and stunning light blood, and Chi Huo changed shape at its owner’s will, soon flowing into a lantern.
Gu Shen snapped his fingers.
It slowly floated up, hanging above the basent’s Skytop, emitting a soft glow that lit the dark and damp place as if it were daylight.
Hu Po marveled, "Truly worthy of being the key..."
Gu Shen rely smiled faintly.
"These... are part of the diagrams that have been decoded."
Hu Po took a stack of papers from a bookshelf in the corner, about a hundred sheets... Gu Shen roughly estimated that the workload of deciphering these diagrams was equivalent to about one-fifth of the Qingzhong Array Patterns taught by Master Qianye.
Master Qianye was an ancient human from the Old World, with an inherently swift speed in comprehending ancient texts.
But Ian and Holin were not... For them to have decoded so much content over the years was a miracle in itself.
"It’s a pity."
The old man’s voice echoed lowly in the spirit device, "The deciphering of these ancient texts has no substantial purpose... The spirit of these diagrams has an order to it, like a massive puzzle. Only by comprehending all of it can the specifics of the ’Taboo Power’ be understood."
"What we’ve comprehended seems like a corner of a puzzle, glimpsing a slice of its true form, elusive and ethereal, like the preface of a thick book..." Hu Po handed the diagrams to Gu Shen.
"Preface?"
Gu Shen asked, "From what we’ve comprehended so far, can any useful information be gleaned?"
"Not quite yet."
Hu Po answered on behalf of his teacher, "The research content of the ’Taboo Ancient Text’ is simply too vast, and these diagrams contain a pitiful amount of information. To decipher them all would probably take decades..."
Ian and Holin, after all, were only two people.
Their power was truly thin.
"But if it’s you, perhaps the speed of comprehension could be faster?" Hu Po asked with a smile, "Mr. Xiao Gu, you are the ’key’ left behind by Mr. Turing, do you have any unique thods of deciphering?"
"You think too highly of ."
Gu Shen shook his head with a smile, softly saying, "The true master of deciphering is not ."
He handed the diagrams to Chu Ling.
Hu Po was a bit surprised.
"The true master of deciphering... is you?"
Since Gu Shen entered the small courtyard, this white cat masked woman had been following him closely, inseparable from him, and even a fool could guess their relationship.
Hu Po had not asked much, knowing that this trip involved the secrets of the Ancient Literature Society, and those brought by Gu Shen must be confird "key mbers" within the society.
Chu Ling took the diagrams without saying anything.
She quietly flipped through them, one page after another... like browsing through a children’s picture book with little content.
This scene plunged the basent into silence.
Hu Po was dumbfounded, watching as this white cat woman viewed the diagrams faster than he read books!
The other two were still in shock.
But Gu Shen had gotten used to it.
Back in the cetery, when he deciphered the Qingzhong Array Patterns and learned the ancient texts, he once forgot ti, even with the calm state of onlookers, working tirelessly day and night, yet it still took him a year!
A year, that was already quite fast.
But Chu Ling... only took a few hours.
The sound of pages turning rustled through the basent, and Chu Ling flipped through the pages quickly, faster and faster, as if the diagrams Ian had spent years researching she took re minutes to go through.
Gu Shen asked, "Finished?"
Chu Ling replied, "Finished."
"..."
Ian and Hu Po fell into silence.
"And the content?"
"These diagrams should be part of the preface but are not complete... still lacking so ’key information’." Chu Ling looked at the old man and said slowly, "The research direction over the years was not wrong, but there were so issues in the organization of the content. They need rearrangent in reading order, completion, and pruning."
This was stated tactfully.
The diagrams were chaotic... but given that the entire basent was filled with ancient text diagrams, finding the order would be unbelievably difficult.
Therefore, years of research were still no match for this woman’s minutes of reading.
Upon hearing this, the old man’s face, already withered, reflected a look of bleakness as he sat in his wheelchair.
It really does take the appearance of the "key"!
Hu Po glanced at the white cat mask, asking with admiration, "Mr. Xiao Gu, who exactly is this young lady?"
"She has exceptional aptitude, a one-in-a-million ’Ancient Texts Comprehender’."
Gu Shen said slowly, "Within the scope of her ability, she can engage in rapid ’deciphering’ of certain specific ancient texts."
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