"My lord?" Xiang Yu called softly.
The air was thick with the smell of accumulated dust and decaying paper. Before him stood tall wooden bookshelves, their tops disappearing into the darkness, piled high with leather-bound books and boxes upon boxes of ancient scrolls.
There was an oil lamp somewhere in the room, its faint yellow light seeping through the pile of books.
There were old papers everywhere. To avoid starting a fire, Lin Mo blew out the candle in his hand and followed the light as he moved through the narrow passageway under the arched ceiling.
He had black hair and black eyes, like a shadow in the darkness.
Ashikaga Nobushige agreed to give him the nautical charts, but when he entered the library, he was shocked.
Because the nautical charts left behind by Zhao Wushi were written in the language of his planet.
It was neither in the Great Xia script nor in Chinese, which directly broke Lin Mo's defenses.
At this moment, Lin Mo was hunched over, sitting at a table embedded in a niche in the stone wall. The light came from an oil lamp hanging above his head.
Hearing Xiang Yu's footsteps, he looked up and said, "Xiang Yu, you can go back and rest first."
"My lord, I'm not sleepy!" Xiang Yu said. "But you, you've been here for a whole day and night."
"Really?" Lin Mo seemed surprised. "So long?"
"Yes," Xiang Yu replied, "You didn't even come for breakfast today, let alone lunch!"
"Holy crap, what time is it now?" Lin Mo asked.
"Shenshi (3-5 PM)!" Xiang Yu replied, "I brought you some food!"
"Hahaha, thank you!" Lin Mo took the food and ate it in big mouthfuls. "That damn Zhao Wushi, he's such a jerk!"
"Zhao Wushi? Is he the founding emperor of the Great Xia?" Xiang Yu asked.
"Isn't that him?" Lin Mo continued to complain, "Why bother with so many nautical charts?"
It turns out that when Zhao Wushi stripped away the Forbidden Sea to create the illusory realm, he deliberately made a whole bunch of fake nautical charts to confuse people in the future and prevent them from setting foot there.
The real nautical charts were placed together with these fake ones.
Only Zhao Wushi himself knows the mark that can distinguish between genuine and fake.
The reason for leaving behind real nautical charts was so that one day, future system hosts could go there and uncover the system's secrets.
Zhao Wushi left behind many, many... miracles in that sea area!
But this whole thing completely baffled Lin Mo.
He could only spend his days and nights in the library examining the mountains of nautical charts, trying to find the nautical charts with the markings Zhao Wushi had mentioned!
Lin Mo yawned, "Damn it, I really didn't expect this... Xiang Yu, have you seen these nautical charts? I've never seen so many in my life!"
Xiang Yu looked around and asked, "Have you found the real nautical chart yet?"
"I don't even know if I found them or not," Lin Mo muttered, pointing to the scattered books and scrolls on the table in front of him. "This damn guy has at least dozens of different kinds."
He unfolded a bamboo strip. "Look, although the ink on this has faded, you can still see the locations marked by the cartographer, and there's also a nautical chart... Damn it, where did I put it? I was just looking at it."
Lin Mo pushed aside several scrolls and found a book covered in dust with a rotten cover.
“This is the one,” he said somewhat impatiently. “This one is very similar to the previous one, but there are a few key locations that are quite different.”
He carefully turned the page with one finger. "Look, these broken maps, these broken signs, they all look so damn similar!"
"My lord, how about we bring all these similar maps with us?"
Xiang Yu's intentions were good, but he was unaware of the illusory realm and the existence of the large tree that Zhao ignored.
"Sigh, you don't understand!" Lin Mo sighed. "This is none of your business. You should go back now!"
"Alright!" Xiang Yu bowed and took his leave.
Lin Mo pulled a scroll from the box, blew off the thick layer of dust, but when he unrolled it, a small corner peeled off between his fingers. "Damn, this one's almost torn." He frowned as he looked at the faded writing.
So he could only carefully unfold the map and identify the markings.
"Damn it, no way!" Lin Mo was losing patience.
The bookshelves here are arranged very closely together, with very narrow gaps between them, allowing only one person to pass at a time.
Moreover, the library was built in a winding underground area, and in the summer, apart from rats running rampant, few people entered it.
At this moment, as Lin Mo opened a new book, he saw that fat rat again.
Damn it, if I wasn't worried about damaging the nautical chart, I would have torn you to pieces.
That damned rat bothered him all night.
His eyes were red and swollen. "I shouldn't rub them so often," he kept telling himself as he rubbed them. The dust made his eyes itchy and made him want to cry; there was dust everywhere on the ground.
Every time he turned a page, a small clump of dust would drift into the air, and whenever he moved a pile of books to see what was hidden underneath, he would always create a cloud of gray dust.
Sitting in the chair for too long, Lin Mo's back became as stiff as a board, and his legs felt as if he were asleep.
In his dazed state, he suddenly heard a voice, deep and resonant, coming from his mind.
"Zhao Wushi?" That was Lin Mo's first reaction. But the tone of the voice didn't quite match.
"Host, are you sure you want to help that guy?" Lin Mo heard the voice clearly; it was an old woman.
"Who?" Lin Mo asked in shock.
Looking up, he found that the fat rat was staring at him.
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