"Are these records from the Pre-Qin period?"
"Heh, riddled with errors, discard them!"
"Are these records from the Qin Dynasty?"
"Also full of errors, less than one-tenth of them are worth referencing, discard them too!"
Ying Chen swept his gaze over the first two scrolls of documents presented by the staff and immediately had them thrown away.
Lin Zhiping looked bewildered. "Are you sure you don't want to look more closely? You should know that the older the records, the rarer they are. Compared to records from other eras, Pre-Qin records are the most precious, and also the least documented."
"For records from other eras, you can still find scraps and fragments among the populace, but Pre-Qin era records are truly hard to come by."
Ying Chen scoffed, "You haven't even got the basic timeline of world changes right, what's there to look at? Your records claim that spiritual energy began to deplete from the Pre-Qin era, and that Qin Dynasty alchemists only knew how to refine elixirs and had no mastery of techniques. Their descriptions of esoteric arts are pure nonsense, calling them mere illusions..."
"And you list such substandard material as classified archives. It's laughable!"
Frankly, even Ying Chen hadn't expected this.
He had assumed that the Fengdun Bureau, as a governmental organ, would possess a wealth of archives close to the truth.
Unexpectedly, they were still riddled with errors.
But then again, it made sense. After more than two thousand years, everything that could trace the truth had been buried. Relying solely on unofficial histories, legends, or accidentally unearthed artifacts for deduction would inevitably lead to such situations.
Fortunately, after the Great Qin, the country and its dynasties became highly unified, with standardized written language and vehicle tracks. Historical records thus became clearer and more credible.
"Let's start by looking at the archives from the Qin Dynasty onwards!" Ying Chen commanded.
Lin Zhiping exchanged a look, and the staff put down the current documents, picked up archives from dynasties after the Qin, and began to leaf through them for Ying Chen.
Confucius said that the superior man does not talk about strange phenomena, supernatural, rebellion, or spirits. Official histories would absolutely not record such things.
Therefore, these archives were actually collected and compiled from unofficial histories or unearthed burial texts.
For example, the section Ying Chen was currently reading came from Han Dynasty bamboo slips unearthed from the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun.
The bamboo slips clearly described ancient myths such as Xi Wangmu, Fuxi and Nuwa, the Golden Crow carrying the sun, and the toad and jade rabbit.
Furthermore, they described a mountain range called Mount Bo, where immortals gathered and mythical beasts roamed. It was said that spending a month on Mount Bo was equivalent to a year in the outside world.
Upon reading this record, Ying Chen immediately understood: spiritual energy had begun to decline rapidly during the Han Dynasty. Thus, many cultivators could only gather in mountain ranges that still preserved abundant spiritual energy, seeking warmth in numbers.
As for the claim of "a month on Mount Bo, a year in the outside world," it was clearly the result of mortals absorbing the spiritual energy of Mount Bo, leading to a phenomenon of rejuvenation. When the person left Mount Bo and returned to the mundane world, they discovered they hadn't aged but had become younger, mistaking it for a problem with the flow of time.
"Hmm, this is quite interesting."
Suddenly, Ying Chen saw another interesting record.
It described the relationship between Dong Zhongshu's "banning of the hundred schools of thought" and Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism.
Although the text was brief, only a dozen characters, it might have struck upon the truth!
The passage suggested that Dong Zhongshu's banning of the hundred schools accelerated the collapse of the former dynasty's divine system, heralding the dawn of a new era. It was precisely on this premise that Zhang Daoling, in later generations, was able to create the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice and lead Xuanmen techniques onto another path.
"It seems that we, the Fangshi, became extinct around that time. And supernatural techniques also began to evolve into two paths, resulting in the Wu Dao and Xuanmen schools." Ying Chen thought to himself.
Having understood this crucial juncture, Ying Chen became too lazy to look further into the records of subsequent dynasties.
He only skimmed through them.
As Ying Chen had expected, the supernatural techniques and abilities recorded in later dynasties showed a continuous decline in power.
By the Qing Dynasty, even the imperial family no longer believed much in Xuanmen cultivators, considering most of them to be charlatans.
And in the late Qing and early Republican eras, spiritual energy experienced a great decline, leading to turmoil and dramatic changes in the land.
Countless Xuanmen cultivators fell from their realms to become mortals during this great decline, and the Dragon Country suffered a thousand-year calamity.
Since then, the decline of spiritual energy seemed to have entered a stable period, or rather, reached an extreme limit and stopped declining further.
The Wu Dao and esoteric arts were also divided into nine realms.
For a hundred years, no one had broken through these nine realms, suggesting that this was the limit of human attainment.
"Hoo," Ying Chen let out a slow breath.
The doubts that had clouded his mind were finally half-resolved.
However, the source of the spiritual energy depletion and the collapse of Daoist magic remained unknown.
Simply attributing it to "Sages cutting off communication between heaven and earth," thus severing humanity's path to ascension, didn't seem entirely plausible.
"Continue!" Ying Chen pondered for a moment, then waved his hand, signaling the staff to fetch another scroll of archives.
However, the staff simply spread their hands, "That's all."
"Huh?" Ying Chen frowned.
They were only just getting started.
How could it be finished already?
History, the further back it goes, the less it records. The more recent it is, the more it records.
Logically, the most detailed and substantial records should be from the modern era.
Not to mention, with modern technological means, any minor disturbance in the world could not escape human observation.
Ying Chen had prepared to carefully examine the contents of the modern section, only for the staff to tell him it was gone?
"These archives end here; there are indeed no more," the staff explained.
Upon hearing this, a cold glint flashed across Ying Chen's face as he looked at Lin Zhiping.
"Are you playing me?"
Lin Zhiping smiled like a cunning fox. "How could I be playing you? You gave me half of the Dharma Aspect cultivation technique, and I'm giving you half of the archival materials. It's quite fair, isn't it?"
"If you want the rest of the archival materials, tell me the other half of the technique!"
Ying Chen stared at Lin Zhiping quietly for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.
"Fine."
"It's not anything particularly valuable anyway, so I'll give it to you."
With that, Ying Chen told Lin Zhiping the other half of the Dharma Aspect cultivation technique.
"Please wait. I need to verify the authenticity of this part of the technique."
"Once my verification is successful, I will personally bring the remaining archival materials. Believe me, it will be worth it, because the remaining archival materials are the true essence!"
"In the meantime, please bear with your stay in Chi Liao's room."
With that, Lin Zhiping left.
Ying Chen was left alone in Chi Liao's room, while Chi Liao's severed head lay on the floor, staring intently at Ying Chen. The stiffened facial muscles after death formed a grotesque arc, as if mocking Ying Chen.
Drip, drip...
Time ticked by.
After more than half an hour, Lin Zhiping pushed open the door and reappeared in the interrogation room.
Even through the glass, one could sense Lin Zhiping's irrepressible ecstasy. Clearly, the Dharma Aspect cultivation technique had been successfully verified. He had struck gold this time!