How can you be so sure that this is the only style I know?

Gongshu Lan was taken aback: "What did you say?"

Zheng Quchi turned around, took out a black charcoal pencil from his sleeve pocket, and walked to the flat stone that had been chiseled on the east side of the quarry.

The several-meter-high, bluish-brown stone surface was as if it had been carved, smooth and flat. She stared at it quietly for a moment, then said.

“You say that my drawings are different from others, that’s true. But if it’s a map, you should really take a good look at it. If I, Sang Xuanqing, were to put pen to paper, what would a military deployment map actually look like?”

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at her in surprise, wondering what she was going to do while waiting to see how things would develop.

Yuwen Sheng was happy to sit back and watch the fight unfold. Since Gongshu Lan was willing to be the litmus test, he would see what kind of clever tricks she could come up with.

But rather than watching Gongshu Lan's petty tricks, he was more eager to see what unexpected moves Sang Xuanqing would make next.

Zheng Quchi slowly closed her eyes, first conceiving a plan in her mind.

Most ancient maps from this era used simple planar representations of scale, elevation, distance, orientation, and terrain slope, while the contents were marked with boxes, lines, and circles to indicate what they represented.

It can be as simple as it needs to be.

However, Zheng Quchi's map is a three-dimensional, intuitive map that makes you feel as if you are there.

Because the blueprints she learned came from modern times, her job required her to practice hand-drawing diligently to quickly express the design thinking and ideas in her mind. In order to reduce the rework rate, she meticulously reproduced almost every construction drawing to perfection, striving to achieve unity with the project.

Because she wasn't tall enough, she climbed onto scaffolding and began drawing using stone surfaces as paper and charcoal blocks as pens.

In her floor plans, she first establishes the axis and direction, then arranges the layers from low to high, either from left to right or from bottom to top. Her hands move quickly, almost without pausing to think, to create a layer, and then she uses her elbow to erase the previous layers to reduce their opacity.

Similar to sketching, first determine the approximate proportions, draw the general axis lines, then draw solid lines to determine the locations of various mountains, towns, rivers, and main topographical features, and then refine the lines...

As the shapes in her drawings gradually took on a general outline, they suddenly revealed a completely different and unique spectacle.

"My God, look! What is she drawing?!"

"Are you blind? Look, isn't that our camp...? And that mountain, it looks exactly like Ghost Ridge from up here..."

"What is this? A map? But can a map be drawn like this? It's a landscape painting shrunk down to an exquisite level. It's so realistic, it's like a person standing on a high mountain, looking down at the vast land below, with everything clearly visible."

"No, there are also some places that are not visible to the naked eye and cannot be seen in their entirety. Look, the mountain ranges in the east, south, west and north are very clear. I seem to be able to identify the route between Fuxian County and the eight townships and ten villages at a glance."

If you were to ask Zheng Quchi, what is the map?

That is, the cartographer fully grasps the original information, studies the object of the map, and then combines the requirements for map use with the appropriate use of map language to accurately convey the information to the map user.

Right now, she is the cartographer, and she is considered successful when those who are amazed can accurately locate familiar or unfamiliar terrains using her maps.

After drawing most of Fuxian County and some prominent features of Guixu Ridge, leaving another large area for later use, she pressed down on her trembling, exhausted arm with one hand, her watery eyes sweeping over the crowd: "This is the Fuxian County map I, Sang Xuanqing, have compiled."

It is grand, magnificent, and has a direct impact; it is like a topographical map replicated in a sand table or clay sculpture. When people see it, it is as if they can see the real Fuxian County, hills, rivers, and cities...

This is truly a rare sight!

If she could draw such a detailed and universally intuitive topographic map by distinguishing, observing and measuring with her naked eye, then she could truly rampage through unfamiliar territory.

Yuwen Sheng finally stood up from his chair. Unlike the others who were staring blankly at the stone map, he looked at Sang Xuanqing alone.

Every time... she could extinguish the murderous intent that had just arisen in his heart a second ago.

“You…” Gongshu Lan glanced at the map she had drawn on the stone wall, then at the one she had given to Yuwen Sheng, and suddenly felt her head buzzing, not knowing what to say for a moment.

It turns out that the maps she drew were in a completely different style and presentation than the mechanical design drawings.

Even though she thought her meticulously designed "military deployment map" was a masterpiece, compared to Sang Xuanqing's impromptu work, it was ridiculous, childish, and unbearable, like a clown.

Yuwen Sheng twirled the cuff of his glove and said casually, "Sang Xuanqing, your current behavior only shows that you have quite a few hidden skills, but it doesn't prove that this military defense deployment map has nothing to do with you. A literate person can pretend to be illiterate, but an illiterate person cannot pretend to be a scholar. What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Gongshu Lan looked at Yuwen Sheng in surprise.

He...did not believe Sang Xuanqing?

Very good.

However, before the smile on her face could fully bloom, it was shattered by Zheng Quchi's reply.

Zheng Quchi had been whipped several times, and coupled with his physical exhaustion, he was now starting to feel dizzy.

She no longer knew how to prove her "loyalty".

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!