Dao of the World Walker (Xianxia) Book 2

Yang flipped open the lid and peered inside.

He had expected manuals. Scrolls, maybe even bound texts.

The interior was lined with pale silk, and the chest was instead filled with jade sticks.

He reached in and withdrew one, turning it over in his hand.

”It is a jade stick,” he said, holding it up.

”It is a jade slip, Yang,” Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao said, with a short laugh.

Yang looked at it again. These were jade slips. He had read about them but had never had occasion to hold one himself. He looked back at the seniors.

”The chest is full of them,” he said, and pushed it to the centre where the two tables met.

”May I?” Senior Brother Lin Yi asked. Yang nodded. Senior Brother Lin Yi drew the chest closer and looked inside.

Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao and Senior Sister Xing Fei leaned in as well.

”These are very old,” Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao said, picking one up.

Senior Sister Xing Fei looked at him. ”How do you know?”

”The ancient slips were simple and, compared to the recent millenia, roughly made, like these. As the cultivation world stabilised, the craft of making jade slips became more refined and elaborate. The slips produced today are quite different.” He turned the piece over. ”And this kind of jade can no longer be found. The ancient cultivators extracted every deposit they could locate. It is practically extinct now.”

”Junior Brother Yang got a chest of ancient jade slips?” Senior Brother Xu Kai said from his seat.

”Only about a third of them. The rest are new,” Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao replied.

”Junior Brother Yang, look at what is written inside one,” Senior Sister Xing Fei said.

Yang looked at the slip in his hand, and his expression apparently gave away his awkwardness because Senior Sister Xing Fei immediately said, ”Place it against your forehead and push a wisp of qi inside.” Then, as Yang raised the slip, ”Not that one. That one looks new. Use this one.” She reached over, took the slip from Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao’s hand, and passed it to Yang.

Yang looked at the two in comparison. The one he had been holding first was pale and flat, the same thickness throughout. This one was more solid, slightly angular, thicker in the middle, and tapering toward the edges. Dark veins ran through the jade in irregular patterns, giving it a more layered appearance.

He placed the second one against his forehead and sent in a wisp of qi.

It was like a window of text opened in front of him, written in a language he did not recognise, laid out in dense formations that scrolled the further he looked. And yet as he kept looking, something about it nagged at him. The shapes were unfamiliar but not entirely foreign. There were similarities, echoes of something he knew. The closest comparison he could reach for was the difference between simplified and traditional Chinese characters, except far more distant, the gap between what he was seeing and the inscription forms he used in his talisman work was considerably wider. But the relationship was there if he looked close enough.

He lowered the slip.

”It is some kind of text,” he said. ”A different language. I cannot read it, but some of the forms look related to the inscriptions I use in talisman work.”

”That is the Primordial Script,” Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao said.

Several voices came at once.

”The Primordial Script?”

”Junior Brother got ancient text.”

”Wait, Senior Brother,” Ye Xuan said, looking at Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao. ”How do you know? I did not see you put the slip to your forehead.”

Senior Brother Lin Yi answered before Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao could. ”Zhen Hao is at Golden Core and has begun learning to extend his spiritual sense outward. He can extend his spiritual sense without direct contact. He does not need to touch it.” He looked at Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao. ”Is it not too advanced for someone at Junior Brother Yang’s realm?”

”It’s too advanced for any of us,” Senior Sister Xing Fei added.

”May I look through all of them?” Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao asked, turning to Yang. Yang gestured for him to go ahead. Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao picked up the chest, and his eyes went unfocused for a moment as he extended his spiritual sense through the contents.

Then he set it back down.

”The older ones are all Primordial Script. I cannot tell you what they say. To be honest, I would have less ability to decipher them than Junior Brother Yang.” He looked around the table. ”The other two-thirds are newer. Dense texts on talisman theory, some inscriptions, and notes from what appear to be a few different elders. If I had to guess, the elders who created the newer slips were working from the knowledge in the older ones.”

Yang looked at the chest. ”What exactly is Primordial Script?”

Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao pushed the chest back toward him. Yang placed the two loose slips inside and set it aside.

”It is the foundation of every written language cultivators have ever used,” Senior Brother Xu Kai said.

”What does that mean exactly?” Yang asked.

”It is sometimes also called World Speak,” Senior Brother Xu Kai continued. ”The belief is that it was the language through which the world itself communicated with the mortals who later went on to become the first cultivators. Those primitive cultivators deciphered what they could, generation by generation, and from that, the various scripts used today branched off and developed into what they are now.”

Yang was quiet for a moment. ”The world has a language?”

”It could be considered myth or history, depending on who you ask,” Senior Sister Shen Yue said, speaking up for the first time in a while. ”We do not know for certain. The cultivators from that age are either long dead or ascended so far beyond us that the distinction is now merely academic.”

”It was a wild time,” Senior Brother Zhen Hao added. ”Record keeping was not exactly a priority when they were still working out ways to not die while cultivating.”

Yang must have been wearing an awed expression because Senior Sister Xing Fei let out a laugh at Yang. ”How did you think we came to be here, Junior Brother? It took millions of years of experimentation and countless sacrifices to arrive at the relatively standardised cultivation systems we have today.”

”I have never actually thought about how cultivation developed,” Yang admitted. ”It was simply something that existed. I never considered what it took to develop it.”

”Do not feel bad,” Senior Brother Lin Yi said. ”The origins of cultivation are a very niche interest even among cultivators. Most people never give it any thought.”

”I would not be surprised if some old scholar attached to the talisman peak chose the prize specifically to nudge newer disciples toward the primordial sources,” Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao said dryly.

Yang’s disappointment must have shown. He had hoped for something that would accelerate his progress directly, and while he had not expected anything to improve his cultivation, he had at least expected something craft-specific and immediately applicable.

”Do not look so disappointed, Junior Brother,” Senior Brother Zhen Hao said, with a teasing smile. ”It is actually a very useful gift. It will pay you back many times over in the future.”

”Especially given your interest in multiple crafts,” Senior Brother Liu Te added.

”Yes,” Senior Brother Lin Yi said, and Yang could see the understanding settle on his face. ”Primordial Script is the origin of all written inscription. Every craft with an inscription component traces its origins back to it. Talisman work. Formations. Tool refining. All of them. The closer you look at the older forms, the clearer the connections become.” He smiled as Yang straightened in his seat. ”Your talisman knowledge gives you a better starting point for reading it than most people would have.”

”That is why Zhen Hao said he would be less capable of reading it than you,” Senior Brother Xu Kai said. ”He has no craft of his own, so his knowledge of inscription languages is naturally shallower than yours,” Senior Brother Xu Kai said.

”Among all of us, Yang is probably the one best positioned to eventually learn those older jade slips,” Senior Brother Liu Te added. ”Talisman work is the most inscription-heavy craft there is. The next would be formations.”

”Alchemy has no inscription component at all,” Senior Brother Lin Yi said. ”It connects most closely to herbology rather than to any other inscription-based field, so alchemists would also be of no help.”

Senior Brother Lin Yi took the chest and tucked it back into his storage ring as the group fell into a wider discussion about how the different cultivation fields connected to one another, the conversation wandering easily as the last of the wine was poured and the evening settled around them.

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