After unlocking the secret of Lu Ban's box, Yang Jing could no longer remain calm.
Although Yang Jing was more than 90% sure that the clues recorded on the silk in the box pointed to the imperial seal, the question was where was the "Yuecheng Temple" marked in the picture?
Now the only thing Yang Jing could be sure of was that the location depicted in this picture was definitely in China. But China was so big, where could he find the Yuecheng Temple?
What’s more, this picture was painted more than a thousand years ago. At that time, there was a Taoist temple called Yuecheng Temple, but what about now?
There are only a handful of Taoist temples in China that can be preserved from previous years, and those are all very large. A Taoist temple like the one in the painting, which looks not much bigger than an ordinary house, would definitely not be able to be preserved for a thousand years.
To find such a Taoist temple in the thousands of years of history is as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.
The temptation of the imperial seal is unquestionable. Even if it is just a clue, it is enough to make Yang Jing unable to sleep.
Through identification skills, Yang Jing already knew that this picture was also drawn by Yue Chengzi, and it was drawn three years later than the time when the Lu Ban box was made. This picture drawn on silk was painted in 936 AD, which was also the year when Li Congke, the last emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, committed suicide by holding the imperial seal and throwing himself into fire.
What does this time difference indicate?
Yang Jing, who couldn't sleep, sat up from the bed and pushed open the bedroom window. The cold night wind immediately rushed in from outside, making Yang Jing shiver involuntarily.
After lighting a cigarette, Yang Jing looked at the dimly lit Manhattan below, but his eyes did not stay on any building for even a second. Perhaps it was the stimulation of the tobacco, or perhaps it was the cold wind blowing on his face, Yang Jing's originally somewhat impatient mood gradually calmed down, and his mind gradually began to clear up.
"This Yue Chengzi must be related to Li Congke!" Yang Jing said to himself, "Li Congke respects Taoism, and Yue Chengzi is a Taoist priest. There is a high possibility that there is a direct connection between the two."
Yang Jing returned to the desk, picked up a piece of paper and a pen, wrote down the names "Li Congke" and "Yuechengzi", and then wrote "Lu Banhan" under the two names.
"Based on the craftsmanship of this Luban Box, it is clear that Yue Chengzi is a very powerful Taoist priest. Such a complex Luban Box mechanism cannot be made without some skills. The most important thing is that the material used to make this box is mainly silver. In that era, ordinary Taoist priests probably couldn't afford such expensive silver, right?"
Yang Jing knew that before the Ming Dynasty, China was short of silver. Silver was a very expensive precious metal. Although it was not as valuable as gold, its value was far greater than the exchange rate between copper coins and silver at that time.
During the Later Tang Dynasty, China was also short of silver. The weight of this Lu Ban box alone was about 35 kilograms. According to the Later Tang Dynasty's exchange rate of one tael of silver for one string of copper coins, that is, one thousand copper coins, and one catty of sixteen taels, if the weight of this Lu Ban box is converted into the weight of the Tang Dynasty, it is about five catties (one catty in the Tang Dynasty was 680 grams), that is, this box alone can be exchanged for 80 taels of silver, 80,000 copper coins. During the Later Tang Dynasty, the ratio of silver to copper coins was even higher, so the silver used to make this Lu Ban box alone could be exchanged for about 100,000 copper coins.
An ordinary Taoist priest in that era probably couldn't come up with so many copper coins, let alone use them to make a Lu Ban box.
"This Yue Chengzi must be highly valued by Li Congke, otherwise he wouldn't have used silver to make this Lu Ban Box! It is even possible that this Yue Chengzi was a high-ranking official of Li Congke during the Qingtai period!"
This is not Yang Jing's random guess. Taoist priests were highly valued in the Tang Dynasty. For example, Yuan Gang once served as Li Shimin's think tank, and later he was demoted to serve as a county magistrate. Li Congke worshipped Taoism, and perhaps he met this Yuechengzi somewhere. In addition, this Yuechengzi did have some skills, so he was valued by Li Congke. It is not impossible that he was entrusted with important tasks after Li Congke became the emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty.
“Only if this Yuechengzi had a certain status during the Qingtai period of the Later Tang Dynasty, he would have used silver mixed with other metals to forge this Lu Ban Lake.” Yang Jing muttered to himself as he wrote the four words “Qingtai senior official” next to the name “Yuechengzi” on the paper with a pen.
Qingtai was the reign title of Li Congke, the last emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty.
"The box was made three years earlier than the silk, but why were those eight words written on the silk?" Yang Jing rubbed his brows in distress. He could not figure out why Yue Chengzi wrote those eight words on the picture.
"Could it be that Yue Chengzi found the imperial seal after Li Congke burned himself to death and put out the fire? And then he secretly hid it? Well! This is not impossible, and it seems very likely!" After thinking for a while, Yang Jing could only use this reason to explain it.
But after going around in circles, you still have to find out where the "Yuecheng Temple" is.
Yang Jing looked at the messy paper and could only crumple it into a ball and throw it into the wastebasket.
After thinking about it, Yang Jing could only sink his consciousness into the storage space again, opened the picture and observed it carefully.
“Don’t worry about Yuecheng Temple. The most obvious marks in this picture are the sixteen peaks and the big river!” After Yang Jing imprinted this picture deeply in his mind, he exited the storage space and then roughly drew the picture on a piece of paper.
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