Chapter 345 (1/2)

The Living Encyclopedia

Not long after the trio went in, Shao Xuan heard whispers and the sound of the old blind slave reciting something.

In many desert cities, some slave masters were unwilling to read records written by their ancestors. They didn’t have the patience to do so but they were still reminded to look after the records with utmost care. Over time, the number of people who would read the records decreased.

Later on, some slave masters realized they could just order their slaves to read the records and force them to memorize it by heart. Whenever they needed to know about something, the slaves in charge of the records would recite it to them.

Thus, this specialized type of slaves was born, their only duty was to memorize the ancestor records for their masters.

These people were living encyclopedias, the slave master could bring them around and ask about anything anytime. They would also scold or beat the slaves up as they wished.

Listening through the wall, Shao Xuan thought to himself in the room made of stones, These two are enjoying themselves, fooling around while listening to the records.

However, the old slave stayed monotonous throughout the whole process. His tone was calm- he was definitely calmer than Shao Xuan- as if he wasn’t affected by the two beside him. Maybe it was because he was too immersed in the material.

Shao Xuan didn’t think much of the two slave masters fooling around, the room was filled with animal scripts, wooden scripts, cloth scripts and so much more which filled Shao Xuan with excitement. He finally found it!

He looked at the genres and looked through some regarding smelting. The scripts were very old, some were so fragile and brittle to the point it would break under a little more pressure.

There were some notes on the core seed and how precious ores were formed in the records. It was similar to what he had thought, just place the stone near the core seed and leave it there. It would undergo changes to become different ores depending on its distance to the core seed. There were different ways of smelting the ores to get different metals. The shorter the time needed, the better the quality of the ore as it meant it ore was purer.

Shao Xuan flipped through all the methods of smelting. The ones that failed, the ones that were successful, all of them were recorded. He got the feeling that the ancestors of these slave masters had experience with smelting since a long time ago and everything they knew was from trial and error.

Shao Xuan still needed to go through the origins of the slave masters to learn more about their history.

Maybe because it was dated too far back, Shao Xuan couldn’t find where that section was located. He went through multiple shelves but couldn’t find what he wanted.

Shao Xuan put down the things in his hand and hid behind a stone rack.

The curtain on the room’s door was pulled open. Shao Xuan heard footsteps of someone entering the room. It wasn’t light and each step was slow. They were the footsteps of the old blind slave.

Shao Xuan heard the slave pour water from a jar to drink. The old slave sighed as he stood up to walk toward the place where Shao Xuan was hiding.

The sunlight was pouring in from the window, Shao Xuan could see the elongated shadow coming closer and closer to him. He silently pulled out the knife he had.

When the slave was five meters away from him, Shao Xuan jumped out and stepped towards the slave with two large steps. He was ready to strike the slave in the throat but stopped right before he did so.

Shao Xuan looked at the tranquil expression of the old slave and halted his actions to consider the person before him.

There wasn’t anyone outside. It was only Shao Xuan and the old blind slave in the room.

Something felt wrong.

“Aren’t you scared?” Shao Xuan asked in a soft voice.

“Why should I be?” The old slave answered gently.

“Aren’t you going to shout for help?” Shao Xuan asked again.

“Why would I?” The old slave answered with the same gentle voice.

Shao Xuan considered the person before him. The slave was blind, it didn’t seem like he had much strength, he perhaps even had some kind of illness.

“How did you find me?” asked Shao Xuan.

“The smell. There was the smell of fruit wine.” The old slave said gravely.

Shao Xuan was shocked. To stay hidden, he’d purposely changed into another set of clothes, the smell of alcohol was faint, even the guards didn’t notice it but this old slave did!