51 Chapter 50: The Bag
The object felt like coarse sackcloth to the touch, its outline resembling a bulging sackcloth bag, uneven on the inside as if filled with various items.
"Could it be the heavenly book?" A thought crossed Shen Luo's mind as he hastily seized a corner of the sack, attempting to pull it out.
Yu Yan hadn't ntioned what the heavenly book looked like, so it might possibly be inside this bag.
Unfortunately, the riverbed hole was only about the size of a bowl, and the sack within was expanded, almost the size of a small jar, firmly stuck inside and impossible to take out.
After several attempts, Shen Luo remained helpless.
At that mont, his breath ran out once again, forcing him to reerge out of the water.
Shen Luo lay on the river reef, his chest heaving dramatically. The excitent was hard to conceal in his eyes, and he could even hear his own heartbeat pounding rapidly.
Previously, when he saw Mr. Yu Dadan, he beca fairly certain that what Yu Yan had said in Dreamland was true.
Now this opportunity seed to be only a step away from him, how could he not be excited?
After catching his breath, Shen Luo didn't imdiately dive back into the water. Instead, he climbed onto the rubble beach and returned to the cabin.
In a short while, he ca out with a two-foot-long black iron awl in his hand, jumped off the bow, and plunged back into the water.
After locating the narrow hole, Shen Luo stuck the iron rod in, carefully avoiding the items inside, and then began to pry it back and forth.
The river reef was massive and its weight was considerable. Shen Luo dismissed the idea of prying it up completely. He aid to enlarge the hole by prying back and forth so that he could retrieve the items inside.
A quiet scraping sound continued underwater. The silt stirred up by Shen Luo's movents continuously floated up, forcing him to keep his eyes shut tightly, and only opening them briefly after a while.
The river reef, although eroded over a long ti by the flowing water, still retained an unexpected solidness. Shen Luo put a great deal of effort into prying for a while, only managing to slightly enlarge the hole. He still couldn't fully extend his fingers inside.
However, the sense of urgency couldn't dampen Shen Luo's enthusiasm. He was charged with energy at the thought that the bag might possibly contain the "Naless Heavenly Book." Each ti he erged for breath, he would imdiately dive back down.
Fortune favors the diligent. After nearly half an hour, he finally managed to enlarge the hole by a decent amount.
With his palm tightly gripping the sack and pulling it outward, he couldn't help but tremble slightly, praying in his heart that it is the heavenly book. It must be the heavenly book.
After Shen Luo pulled the sack out completely, he discovered it was surprisingly heavy in his hands. Not daring to take a look yet, he quickly floated back to the surface.
Once he climbed up the rubble beach, he sat down exhausted, back leaning against the river reef without bothering to untie the rope from his body. He gasped for breath, holding the sack tightly in his hand.
After regaining so of his strength, Shen Luo took a sidelong glance at the item in his hand. Was this really so sackcloth bag?
The reason the bag felt coarse, like sackcloth, was because it was woven out of a kind of tal wire. Covered in mud and water weeds, its original golden color had beco significantly dimr.
The bag's opening was tied with a golden rope, a palm-sized piece of gold foil hanging from it. Shen Luo took it off, wiped away the mud on it with his right hand, and discovered there were engraved characters on it.
He swallowed hard, casting a nervous gaze at the sowhat blurred inscription.
"Imperial Edict…"
On the top of the gold foil, Shen Luo recognized the first two familiar characters, which were normally the first ones he wrote when making talisman. So, this gold foil was itself a talisman?
However, the characters below "Imperial Edict" were too faintly engraved to decipher. He couldn't recognize them, let alone understand them.
Shen Luo casually stored the gold foil talisman into his sleeve, before starting to unravel the golden cord wound around the bag's opening.
Once the golden rope was removed, the mouth of the bag opened wide.
Shen Luo glanced inside and imdiately felt a chill run through his scalp. The bag woven from golden thread contained a pile of stark white bones!
"These are human bones…" Shen Luo recognized them at first glance.
After a brief pause, he swallowed down the discomfort in his heart and tipped all the bones out of the bag.
When he saw the bones scattered all over the ground, Shen Luo finally gave up hope. There was no heavenly book within.
However, when his gaze fell on the bones, he couldn't help but utter a soft, "Huh." He used the iron awl in his hand to prod the bones and examined them more closely.
Only at this point did he notice that there were very few whole bones left in the pile, almost all of them were crushed, and there were varying depth of tooth marks on them. It was as if soone had been gnawing on them to suck the marrow.
The thought of such a scenario sent a chill down Shen Luo's spine.
After much hesitation, he retrieved a piece of worn-out cloth from the cabin and, placing it under the broken bones, collected them one by one and placed them back into the bag.
In the process of collecting the bones, he found another peculiar condition: there was no skull amongst this pile of bones.
However, Shen Luo didn't have the inclination to investigate this. It just felt a bit unlucky, not finding the heavenly book and instead, uncovering such a pile of stuff.
After collecting the dry bones, he found a few broken wooden beads in the stone crevices, severely decayed, and crumbled to residue at the slightest touch.
"To the dead, all is forgone: the fact that I could find you is a destiny in itself. I will construct a grave here for you, may you rest in peace." Shen Luo always deed matters of life and death significant. He couldn't just abandon these bones.
Soon after, he dug a stone pit in the center of the rubble beach, placed the bag of bones in, then filled it up with stones, building a grave that stood slightly taller than the surroundings.
By the ti he had finished all this, the sky had started to darken.
Shen Luo felt a wave of fatigue wash over him. He lay down on the rubble beach, placing his hands behind his head, and gazed at the stunning sunset in a daze.
"Finding this Naless Heavenly Book is really not easy."
This rubble beach was neither big nor small. After spending an exhausting day, he had only managed to explore the riverbed area surrounding the reef. It would probably take more than three days to explore the entire rubble beach.
It seed he would have to rent Mr. and Mrs. Yu Dadan's boat for a few more days.
"After all, it's a heavenly book of the immortals, how could it be easily discovered?" Upon reflection, Shen Luo felt a bit relieved.
But just then, sothing suddenly occurred to him, and he sat up abruptly.
The heavenly book is said to be an immortal treasure, and the jade pillow seed unusual too; If he had found the jade pillow simply by using a 'fake Small Thunder Talisman' before, why couldn't he try again this ti? Even if it doesn't have a major effect, it can be used for underwater illumination!
Regrettably, he only had three Small Thunder Talisman on him.
Thinking of this, Shen Luo hurriedly untied the ropes around him and prepared to sail upstream crossing the river.
Unfortunately, he had just stood up when he saw spots before his eyes, his legs trembling uncontrollably. He crawled back into the boat, drank so water, took a Life-saving Pill, changed into dry clothes, and rested for a while before starting to row back.
By the ti he finally returned to the ferry, it was already dark. Mr. and Mrs. Yu Dadan who were waiting anxiously by the bank, looked a bit concerned. Upon seeing Shen Luo return safely albeit a look of exhaustion; the couple seed relieved.
Shen Luo paused for a while, reported to them that he would co again tomorrow, then he rode his horse away, heading straight to Song Fan County Town.
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