At dusk, when the rainstorm had just stopped, Su Chen stood under the eaves of the pawnshop "Yongchangsheng", stroking the remaining scroll of "Tui Bei Tu" that he had taken out from the layers of the bronze box. The yellowed silk was soaked with salty smell, and the prophecy of the 39th image had been mostly eroded by the sea water, leaving only the six cinnabar small characters "The bird has no feet, the mountain has the moon" that were as red as blood in the twilight.
"Master Su!" The Chaozhou grandmother in the herbal medicine shop at the end of the alley waved tremblingly, holding the gilded incense burner tightly in her arms, "This is sandwiched in the angelica I collected this morning..." The half-stub of the incense stick still has the residual warmth, and the green smoke in the air condenses into the image of Rahu swallowing the moon. Su Chen's pupils shrank suddenly - this is the tattoo pattern on the forehead of the floating corpse in the Chao Phraya River three days ago.
Qin Feng squatted on the bluestone slab and gathered the incense ash. Suddenly, he shouted: "There is magnetic powder in the ash!" Hearing this, Tang Xiao threw the compass to the ground, and the pointer spun wildly towards the air vent on the second floor of the pawnshop. Su Chen's fingertips brushed over the bat wood carving on the window frame, and he felt a hair-thin mark on the inner side of the third bat's wing - a half-broken map of the Star Chart.
---
The night tide lapped against the rotten teak plank bridge, and Tang Xiao raised his hand to illuminate the iron door of the warehouse. Qin Feng used a silver hairpin to turn the rusted key. After twenty-three metal collisions, a muffled sound of a mechanism turning suddenly came from inside the door. Su Chen held his second son's shoulder and stepped back three steps. The entire iron door collapsed with a bang, shocking the room.
"This..." Tang Dynasty's hand illuminated the mottled murals on the wall. The Zhenghe treasure ship was floating in the turbulent waves, and the commander wearing a yin-yang fish mask stood on the bow. Su Chen wiped the corner with his sleeve, and the three characters "Su Guanhai" could be vaguely seen in the ink eroded by the sea water - the great-uncle who made seven voyages to the West according to the family tree.
Qin Feng suddenly kicked a pottery jar, and the candle rolled and smashed into the corner of the wall. Wax spontaneously ignited when it met air, and the faint blue light illuminated the bronze celestial instrument deep in the dark room. Su Chen's hand that was turning the astrolabe suddenly stopped. There was a half-bloody jade ring stuck in the "Ghost" position of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, and the tide time of the contemporary Bangkok Port was engraved on the inside.
---
At the sound of the midnight bell, Su Chen pressed the jade ring into the groove of the ancestral altar. The altar suddenly sank three feet, revealing 23 sealed pottery jars in the cellar. Tang Chen pried open the wax seals on the jars, and the spicy smell of saltpeter mixed with the aftertaste of ambergris.
"The dragon water used by the navy in the Ming Dynasty!" Su Chen's fingertips touched the thunder pattern on the bamboo arrow body, "These weapons should have been sunk in the Gulf of Siam with my uncle..." After the words fell, Qin Feng suddenly tore open the yellow curtain of the sacred tomb. On the back of the curtain was a complete star map drawn with fish blood, and the intersection of the star lines showed the position of the Big Dipper formation on Tang Street.
There was a sound of tiles breaking in the courtyard, and Tang picked up a pottery jar and threw it against the wall. In the moonlight, the black shadow revealed the badge on his waist - a bronze fish talisman with a fresh Q mark burned on it. Su Chen unfolded the "Tui Bei Tu" soaked in alum water, and the missing prophecy appeared in the moonlight: "When the sun rises, everyone cries"
---
The cargo ship in the morning mist sounded its whistle, and Su Chen stood on the top of the Zhengwang Temple tower overlooking the winding river. Qin Feng handed over the sea chart that had been restored overnight: "All routes intersect at..." His fingertips fell on the coordinates where his great-uncle's treasure ship sank.
Tang Xiao suddenly pointed at the river in surprise. Dozens of sampans were rowing upstream in the Xiantian Bagua formation. The Yin-Yang fish flag on the leading boat moved without wind. The helmsman wearing a Luohou mask waved his hand and scattered paper money. Su Chen touched the jade ring on his arm. The cinnabar on the inside had solidified into small regular script at some point - "At midnight, a thousand sails reflected their shadows."
When the last ray of twilight sank into the river, twenty-three dark shadows emerged from the water. Between the rotten teak planks, the six-hundred-year-old bronze celestial instrument glowed dimly. Su Chen stepped over the wet hull and found the entire volume of "Chengyelu" locked by iron chains in the command cabin of the treasure ship wreck. On the wet title page, the blood-written words of his great-uncle Su Guanhai pierced his eyes: "Leave on the raft, and inherit the business."
---
The deafening explosion broke the rainy night, and the black-clad men of the Q organization formed a strange array in the sea. Su Chen bit his fingertips to draw an imperial edict on the cover of "Chengyelu", and the yellowed paper suddenly burst into golden light. Tang Xiao took the opportunity to throw the dragon water into the center of the array, and Qin Feng used a folding stick to ignite the fuse.
The light of the sky shone, and the phantoms of 23 treasure ships floated down the river. Su Chen stood at the bow and read the "Genglu Book", and the star-pulling technique of 600 years ago reappeared on the Chao Phraya River. The mask of the leader of the Q organization shattered under the starlight, revealing a face that was 80% similar to Su Guanhai.
"So you..." Su Chen watched the enemy of the same blood as himself sink to the bottom of the river, and the magnetic needle of the compass in his hand finally returned to calm. When the morning light penetrated the rain clouds, Tang picked up half a piece of bronze fish talisman from the scorched earth, and Qin Feng suddenly laughed: "This, this is the real word 'Cheng'!"
The residual talisman shone darkly in the sunset glow, and the yin and yang fish connected head to tail. In the ruins of the ancestral home on Shilongjun Road, new vines climbed over the charred beams and pieced together a complete Big Dipper among the broken walls.