Chapter 9: Water Chestnut Flower

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Ye Sheng started reading through some historical texts to see if this world was any different from the Great Qin dynasty he’d known in his previous life.

He looked through a book to find out what had been the previous dynasty before Great Qin became a nation. It was called the Dragon dynasty. The Dragon dynasty lasted for 800 hundred years before it slowly went into a decline. Its palace officials had become corrupt, and there was much evil among the populace. Various sects started to mark their territories and split the entire country into countless little pieces.

The so-called Three Sacred Lands, Ten Grand Clans, and Four Great Sects developed during this period.

The emperor who founded the nation of Great Qin was the Emperor Shihuang. Together with one of his subjects, Lord Ye, they had conquered a huge amount of land with their incomparable level of martial arts. But as the nation of Great Qin was slowly being built up, Emperor Shihuang had wanted to reduce the power that the various sects had. As a result, he’d angered the leader of the Reincarnation Sect, who then tried to assassinate the emperor.

According to the history books, Emperor Shihuang’s level of martial arts was almost unbeatable, so when the leader of the Reincarnation Sect tried to assassinate him, Emperor Shihuang had managed to hang on until his troops arrived to save him. Unfortunately, Emperor Shihuang was killed in the end, but, at the same time, Lord Ye had also managed to kill off the leader of the Reincarnation Sect.

With the death of Emperor Shihuang, Great Qin teetered on the brink of collapse. The second Emperor of Qin ascended the throne and stabilized the court. The first thing he did was to hand 1 million troops to Lord Ye. He even wanted Lord Ye to become his teacher, but Lord Ye had refused him.

Lord Ye took control over these 1 million soldiers and became tremendously powerful. His first battle was to completely annihilate the Reincarnation Sect, and that battle was a really tragic one. His troops suffered a great loss, but they managed to destroy the Reincarnation Sect. In that battle, Lord Ye fought the five elders of the Reincarnation Sect all by himself and killed them all, shocking everyone with his prowess.

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After that battle, the wavering nation of Great Qin stabilized, and Lord Ye became the man with the highest position in the land after the emperor.

After that, for the next 17 years, Lord Ye didn’t fight any more battles. He stayed in Xianyang and continued to serve the palace.

After reading all of this, Ye Sheng exhaled slowly as he felt an enormous amount of pressure building on him suddenly. This awful father of his was really too aggressive.

With a father like that, Ye Sheng’s thoughts of escaping and his plans to run from Ye Manor unconsciously disappeared.

If he really angered Lord Ye, wouldn’t it be extremely easy for his father to find and kill him?

“Looks like I need to put together a better scheme,” murmured Ye Sheng to himself.

He put down the book and continued reading other random historical books in order to better understand this world he was living in.

From ancient times, the world had needed martial arts. The emperor who founded the Dragon dynasty apparently had Ancient Dragon Blood in his body, so his cultivation level went up at an astounding speed. In just 30 years, he had defeated almost every high-level martial artist and eventually had established the 800-year-long Dragon dynasty. After death, he had ascended and left this world.

In the more recent years after the Dragon dynasty, Gautama Buddha of Buddhism, Zhang Sanfeng of Taoism, and others who cultivated in the way of the sword, and other philosophies had successfully ascended and attained immortality.

These things motivated other cultivators, and they all hoped to move out of this place to see the world outside.

Great Qin had been around for only the last 30 years, and it was already flourishing and developing well as a nation. And this was a good sign for ordinary folk, who knew that in Great Qin, as long as they worked hard, they’d be able to put food on the table.

But for those who came from cultivation sects and other powerful factions, the prestige of Great Qin wasn’t enough.

Destroying the one Reincarnation Sect had consumed a lot of Great Qin’s resources, so even Lord Ye quietly lay low in Xianyang for 17 years and didn’t leave the country.

During these 17 years, various large sects started to improve and develop at an alarming rate, so there was a possibility that unrest might strike again.

Ye Sheng took an entire morning to read through all of this. He sat by himself in one corner, and there were all sorts of books stacked up next to him.

At noontime, the people inside the General Collections Library left. Only two people were left inside: Ye Sheng and Water Chestnut Flower.

Ye Sheng was engrossed in reading his books and was reading everything with great care, while Water Chestnut Flower was just looking at Ye Sheng.

“Cousin Twelve, what are you reading?” asked Water Chestnut Flower as she approached Ye Sheng.

Ye Sheng replied, “I’m just randomly reading some history books.”

Water Chestnut Flower took a quick look at the books around him. “Sects, aristocrats, and the palace? You’re interested in these topics?”

Ye Sheng glanced at her. They normally never talked. Why was she suddenly talking to him today?

“Just a little interested. I’m just trying to pass the time,” said Ye Sheng flatly.

“I have a book with me here. Would you like to take a look?” said Water Chestnut Flower as she held a book out to him, humming to herself.

Ye Sheng looked at it. The book cover was black in color, and there were no words on the front. He took the book from her and flipped it open.

Oracle bone script?

Ye Sheng looked in surprise at Water Chestnut Flower.

The text used in this book was actually oracle bone script?

“Cousin Ye Sheng, these words are completely different from the texts that we use today, so it might be an ancient form of writing. Do you know how to read these?” asked Water Chestnut Flower as she broke into a smile and sat down next to Ye Sheng.

“I have no idea. Since it’s an ancient form of writing, then that means this must be a very old book. Where did you get this from?” asked Ye Sheng as he pretended to be completely clueless.

“I got it from First Madam,” replied Water Chestnut Flower quietly.

Ye Sheng just nodded and didn’t ask any further questions. He wasn’t closely related to First Madam, and they were more like enemies.

“Cousin Twelve, this book should have been yours, actually,” said Water Chestnut Flower as she looked at Ye Sheng carefully.

Ye Sheng frowned and looked back at her, but didn’t say anything.

“When your mother passed away, First Madam took away all the manuals that she owned, and this is one of them. She’s been trying to study them all these years but to no avail, and she’s slowly starting to give up. I found out about it and managed to get this one book from her. But after studying it carefully, I still don’t understand anything,” explained Water Chestnut Flower.

Ye Sheng suddenly understood what was going on. He was still wondering about why someone who never spoke to him normally like Water Chestnut Flower would actually take the initiative to start a conversation with him. So this was the reason.

“This is something that belonged to my mother?” Ye Sheng flipped through the book and silently took note of its contents.

“That’s right. I thought that you might understand the contents, and you could share them with me,” said Water Chestnut Flower with a smile. There was a strange look in her eyes.

“I have no idea what it says. I was so young when my mother died, so I couldn’t possibly have learned any of these words.” Ye Sheng quickly denied knowing anything, flipped through the entire book once to memorize its contents, then passed it back to Water Chestnut Flower.

Water Chestnut Flower took the book back and said, “It’s all right. I’ll take my leave then.”

Ye Sheng watched her leave, then put back all the books he’d been reading, and slowly hobbled back to his courtyard.

It turned out to be the time that the nanny arrived with a lot of fish and meat again.

Ye Sheng happily ate the food with huge mouthfuls. After he was done eating everything, he lay down on the bed and quietly fell asleep.

Outside Ye Sheng’s courtyard, Water Chestnut Flower looked on calmly with a slight frown. “Does he really not know anything?”

“Did the Sacred Lady of the Reincarnation Sect really not even teach these words to her own son?” Water Chestnut Flower was stumped by this.

“Forget it. I’ve already acted very abnormally today. Thankfully Ye Sheng is a useless bum. If he’d been someone intelligent, then I might have exposed myself. I must not behave like this again.” Water Chestnut Flower shook her head as she turned and left.

In the room, Ye Sheng had closed his eyes, but he wasn’t actually sleeping. He had gone into his dantian, Earth.

“I am god! I hereby pass these things on to you!”

This voice covered the entire planet along with the thousands of rocks that rained down upon the Earth. The rocks were carved with all sorts of oracle bone script.

Ye Sheng had memorized the entire book of oracle bone script, then sent this information to Earth. He didn’t need to translate it because the Earthlings would definitely help him with that.

“Water Chestnut Flower, you’re a really scheming girl. You’re nothing like the innocent and sweet girl that everyone says you are,” thought Ye Sheng quietly to himself.