Chapter 6: Back to Modern Methods

  Although Luosi saw many unexpected things just now, she was also a little skeptical of Qing Yuansu's exaggeration.

  In modern times, the speed of an airplane can reach over 500 kilometers per hour, and some can even exceed 700 kilometers. Since Qingyuanzi used an airplane as a metaphor, he must be referring to its speed. But how can this shiny stone monument be compared to an airplane? Is it an alien spaceship that can fly into the universe?

  Qing Yuanzi saw the two of them looking puzzled, so he explained: "In your time, although there was no faster transportation than airplanes, there is one thing that Tang Xiaoxia might know, which is that in some games, there exists a concept called 'teleportation gates'. In these games, characters can travel from one place to another through these teleportation gates."

  Luosi didn't play this game before, but she nodded along when the boys in her class talked about it. She looked up and down at the stone, unable to see what made it look like a door, so she asked Qing Yuansu: "You said it's similar to a transmission gate, but I don't see how it looks like a door! It's so small, is it supposed to trigger some hidden mechanism?"

  Qingyuanzi stroked his white beard and smiled, saying: "No secret doors, no secret doors. This is simpler than a secret door. Anyone who has a spiritual connection with the Heart Stone Monument just needs to place their hand on the monument, think of where they want to go in their heart, and silently count one, two, three."

  "Is it that powerful?" Tang Xiaoxia placed his hand on the stone tablet, closed his eyes to think, but half a minute had passed and he was still standing there, not moving in the slightest.

  Tang Xiaxia's eyes snapped open, and he glared at Qing Yuansi, his face twisted in anger. "Old man! You're playing me!"

  "What have I done to you?" Qing Yuanzi's expression was as innocent as could be.

  "I just did what you said, put my hand on the stone tablet and silently wished to go back home, but so much time has passed and I haven't moved at all!" Tang Xiaoxia's tone was filled with a sense of disappointment, as if her beautiful dream had fallen apart.

  "Hehe, little brother, you're thinking too much. If it were that easy, I would have let you go back already. Leaving me, an old and lonely man, behind, how can you bear to do that?"

  "Hmph, I was doing just fine at home, and you have the heart to suddenly bring me to a place like this!" Tang Xiaoxia said with a pout.

  "It's out of desperation, it's out of desperation!" After all, Qing Yuanzi was in the wrong, he said with a smile, and Tang Xiaoxia couldn't do anything about him.

  But there's no way around it, things can't be left like this. Tang Xiaoxia asked: "If this stone tablet can't send me back home, where can it transport me to?"

  "As long as it's in this era, any of the Spring and Autumn period vassal states, including the Zhou royal house, you can get past with this stele." Qing Yuansi said.

  "Really?" Tang Xiaoxia suddenly became enthusiastic again, "If it's like this, then it's not bad, we can go for a stroll everywhere!"

  But who would have thought that Tang Xiaoxia hadn't even had a chance to get excited for ten seconds, when Qing Yuansi suddenly poured another "bucket of cold water" on her head: "However, if you want to transmit, there is still one restriction, that is, the other place where the transmission must also have a stone monument like this one, and it must be activated by the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone."

  。。。。。。

  An ellipsis represents the shared emotions of Luo Xi and Tang Xiaoxiao at this moment.

  Tang Xiaxia was not yet willing to give up, and he asked Qing Yuansi again: "So, old man, besides this stele, how many others have you activated? Where are they respectively? Is there one in the state of Qi? In the state of Jin? And what about Qin?"

  Tang Xiaxia asked three "haves" in a row, but Qing Yuansu only replied with one sentence: "You all saw it just now, this is the first time I've activated this stone tablet using the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone, and it's still thanks to your powers!"

  Tang Xiaxia finally turned gloomy, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and stopped talking. Luosi Qi could only ask one more question about the stele that she wanted to know: "Then do you know where the other steles are?"

  "What I heard was: 'I don't know anything else, this is the only place, and I found it through the contents of an ancient scroll that has been passed down!'"

  Luosi was even more helpless, but still asked the last question she could ask: "Is there anything in the ancient secret scroll that tells us how to get back?"

  She just waited for Qing Yuansu to say: "Sorry, it's not written above." Then she could let go like Tang Xiaoxia without asking anything.

  Fortunately, Qing Yu didn't stimulate these two desperate little friends again. He said, "Don't lose hope, there's still a way to write this."

  As soon as they heard this, the two people who had almost given up hope immediately regained their spirits. They clearly heard Yuanzi say: "From the ancient secret scrolls I obtained, it records the origin and usage of the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone, including the method to use this stone tablet to transport people back and forth, as well as the method to return to modern times that you want to ask about." Yuanzi led the two away from the small area where the Heart Spirit Stone Tablet was located, returning via the stone bridge. On the vast empty ground, he simply drew a diagram using small stones.

  The pattern drawn by Qingyuanzi was very complex, similar to the magic arrays launched by magicians in movies or games. He said to Luosiqi and Tang Xiaoxia: "This pattern is a bit like the magic arrays you've seen in movie games before. I just roughly drew a simple shape here, but when it's really used, the array will be much more complicated than this. In short, this array corresponds to the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone, with seven eyes in the array, each requiring one of the seven stones to inject energy. If you want the Seven-Colored Linglong Stone to output energy, they must all return to their pure colors. Only then can this magic array be activated. At that time, relying on the powerful power of this magic array, I will be able to send you back!"

  Luosiqi looked at the two colored stones on the seven-colored Linglong stone, which were still dark red, and suddenly felt that it would be more difficult to return than the Long March.

  Tang Xiaoxia was even more down than her mood, because after returning to the ground, he even refused to have dinner with everyone, saying that he wanted to calm down, but everyone could occasionally hear various noises coming from his room.

  Luosiqi's mood was also low, thinking that it would be so difficult to go back, she could only eat a few mouthfuls of food and couldn't eat anymore.

  Because Tang Xiaxia was so angry that he didn't want it, the seven-colored Linglong stone was worn as a bracelet on Luosiqi's right hand. The next morning, when Luosiqi got up, she found that the red stone on the seven-colored Linglong stone seemed darker than yesterday, and only a faint red could be seen. Luosiqi was shocked and hurriedly asked Qing Yuansu what was wrong. Qing Yuansu looked at him with a helpless smile: "Tang Xiaxia didn't eat dinner last night after hearing me say that, he must have hated someone to death in his heart, so the stone would turn darker again. I hope the person he hates is not me."

  Luosi heard what Qingyuanzi said and understood, but although she saw Qingyuanzi's pitiful smile, she still thought to herself: "He wouldn't hate you if he wasn't strange! We both lived well in modern times, thanks to you, we both experienced the taste of having special abilities, but compared to being unable to return home, how could I possibly like you!"

  Qing Yuansu said: "In the Spring and Autumn period, it's not like modern society with planes and tanks. Swordsmanship still has a great role to play in this cold weapon era. Your current level of using your abilities is still very low, and I don't know how to bring out more of your potential. So for now, let me teach you the sword techniques that I'm familiar with!" After saying that, he called Little Shidi to go call Tang Xiaoxia over.

  Tang Xiaoxia was still looking angry, but after Luosiqi showed him the seven-colored Linglong stone on her wrist and told him Qingyuanzi's explanation, his anger dissipated helplessly. He sighed and said, "It's really hard being a man, you can't even cry or get angry!"

  Luosiqi, who was also feeling a bit down, couldn't help but smile. Tang Xiaoxia took advantage of Luosiqi's smile and relaxed her mood as well. The two used the wooden swords brought by their younger brother to practice with Qingyuanzi, one move at a time. The swordplay was simple yet agile. After finishing one set of sword moves, although they both felt that they still needed to practice diligently, because their minds were focused on the swordplay, they managed to calm down completely.

  More than a dozen days had passed, and the dark red seven-colored Linglong stone had returned to its original state after being activated in the cave due to Tang Xiaoxiao's calm mentality. Both of them knew that these seven stones would change with the nature of the person who activated it, and unless the color of the stone they activated became completely pure, they would no longer have the ability to activate the next stone.

  Tang Xiaxia practiced sword every day to make the stone turn red as soon as possible, because he said that only by focusing on practicing sword could he forget so many annoying things and calm his mind. The stone would become redder and redder, but strangely, after the stone returned to its appearance on the day of activation, it stopped changing. Qing Yuansu didn't know why either. Tang Xiaxia was afraid that the stone would become even darker and couldn't get angry when Qing Yuansu said he didn't know, because Qing Yuansu said that this stone sensed the activator's inner heart, so pretending to be happy was useless. So Tang Xiaxia could only go practice sword again, and his expression made Luo Sicong look at him with a mixture of amusement and sadness.

  Luosiqi's orange stone represents jealousy, and now she is not as troubled as Tang Xiaoxia because even if she gets angry, it won't affect the stone. In this valley, apart from Qingyuanzi and Xiao Shidi, there are only a few maids who take care of the daily needs of the four of them, Luosiqi really has nothing to be jealous about, but she also doesn't know how to make the dark color on the yellow stone lighter.

  She didn't know how long she and Tang Xiaoxia would continue to practice swordsmanship aimlessly until the arrival of Wu Xi, who claimed to be Wu Zixu's cousin.