Chapter 2471: Chapter 2374: Mirage

Bai Buzhi didn’t believe that with Ge Hong’s soul nearly dissipated in such a situation, any more trouble could arise.

But soon, Bai Buzhi got a slap in the face and almost let Ge Hong escape again!

After calling Bai Buzhi, Huo Sining felt relieved. She recalled the matters concerning the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Nautical Chart in her hands and didn’t delay; instead, she directly called Saiji and the others to the basement.

Upon entering the basement, Huo Sining eagerly took out the Classic of Mountains and Seas, four pieces of cowhide Bagua Chart, Shen Wansan’s Nautical Chart, and that peculiar painting.

Since Saiji was new and unfamiliar with the "Buzhou Mountain" painting, Huo Sining spent some time demonstrating the painting’s transformation by putting it into clear water.

Perhaps it was the first time seeing such a water painting; Saiji was full of amazement, almost involuntarily gaping at the sight of the painting coming to life.

Of course, not only Saiji, but Yue Shuwen and Zhong Xiaoyao, although not seeing it for the first time, still felt immensely shocked upon seeing the "Buzhou Mountain" painting again.

This exquisite and unique landscape painting is undoubtedly a masterpiece that never tires.

Of course, aside from its wonder, Saiji didn’t forget the purpose of Huo Sining bringing her here, so she focused on the words recorded by these items.

However, after just one glance, Saiji couldn’t help but frown and look at Huo Sining with a hint of embarrassment and apology:

"Um, Miss Huo..."

Huo Sining interrupted Saiji with a smile: "Since we’re on the same team now, I consider you a friend, so there’s no need to be formal with me; just call me Ningning. Although you’re already over a thousand years old, your actual age is still younger than mine. I’ll just call you Saiji, so it’s more intimate and natural. Stop with the ’Miss Huo’ left and right, it’s too formal!"

Upon hearing this, Saiji hesitated slightly but then nodded generously, readily agreeing:

"Alright, Ningning. I’ll be straightforward. You should know my situation; I learned very little from my grandmother and am still halfway there. If my grandmother were here, she might be able to recognize all the words above and even translate their meanings directly."

She scratched her head, a rarity for her face slightly reddening as she looked at Huo Sining, "But to be honest with you, I only recognize some simple words within this text. There are some more complex characters I don’t know."

Upon hearing this, Huo Sining was taken aback, then chuckled: "Hey, your situation is similar to us taking the CET4 and CET6 exams — holding the paper and not knowing many words, having to guess the meaning of the entire article using the known vocabulary, hahaha."

Saiji didn’t understand this explanation and could only look blankly at Huo Sining, but Yue Shuwen and Gu Xu understood and couldn’t help but laugh.

Huo Sining didn’t intend to explain what CET meant to this ancient person from over a thousand years ago, immediately waved it off and smiled at Saiji:

"It’s okay, say what you recognize, maybe collectively we can research something out. If it really can’t be deciphered, we’ll think of another method. It’s not a particularly urgent matter anyway."

Seeing this, Saiji couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief; this was the first task Huo Sining requested her to do after bringing her back, and not accomplishing it gave Saiji a lot of pressure.

She was very afraid of displeasing Huo Sining, fearing that annoying her might prevent Huo Sining from taking her to meet her half-mermaid father and grandmother, which would definitely not be good for Saiji.

Saiji very much wished to assist Huo Sining; this way, considering she helped her, Huo Sining would also strive to fulfill her promise.

However, she realized she might have been overly nervous. Despite being a novice, Huo Sining didn’t seem angry, rather relaxed, immediately easing Saiji’s emotions. She lowered her head, seriously starting to examine the materials in her hands, her expression unwittingly turning solemn.

"These characters should mean the sea deity mountain." Saiji pointed to the repeated words within both the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the water painting.

Huo Sining nodded, then picked up paper and pen, beginning to record.

Saiji pointed to another frequently occurring character, saying:

"These words appeared seven times, the highest frequency. I recognize three characters inside; I’ve already mentioned ’sea,’ this character should be ’si,’ and this one seems like ’lou.’"

Sea si what lou, what on earth is this?

Huo Sining was full of questions, but seeing Saiji’s serious demeanor, she couldn’t interrupt and simply decided to write it down for later exploration.

But at this moment, a sudden light bulb lit up in her mind, and she abruptly raised her head, her eyes bright and looking at Saiji:

"Does this ’si’ mean the same as ’shi’ in ’market’?"

Saiji paused: "Isn’t ’si’ in ’market’ exactly this character?"

Huo Sining was taken aback before she reacted, slapped her forehead, and couldn’t help but chuckle:

"Oh dear, I made a blunder. I’ve been recording in simplified characters but forgot that the characters you recognize were from the seal script era, over a thousand seven hundred years ago, quite different from today’s usage habits, haha, what a goof!"

Indeed, in ancient times, the word "market" wasn’t "shi" but the traditional character "si," so Saiji’s mention of "si" actually meant "market."

No wonder Huo Sining didn’t catch on initially; it was due to the traditional character.

After replacing this "si" with "shi," there was no need for Huo Sining to say, even Qibao beside them figured it out.

"Sea market what lou? No need to guess, it must be a mirage. The character in the middle that Saiji, sister, doesn’t recognize must be ’shen’!"

Saiji glanced at Qibao with suspicion and instinctively asked: "Really?"

Qibao nodded repeatedly, and to prove his guess, he didn’t forget to take out his phone to search for the meaning of the term mirage, showing it to Saiji:

"With these four characters together, including sea market and lou, it must be a mirage, no mistake!"

Given Qibao’s relatively young age, his words had limited persuasion. So, even after seeing the idiom displayed on the phone, Saiji remained skeptical, instinctively looking over at Huo Sining.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.