Chapter 71: Armillary Sphere, The First Dragon Bone
As Su Mo manipulated this dragon body and slowly slid it upward half an inch, sure enough, a series of light cracking sounds came from inside the stone ball, followed by cracks appearing on what seemed like a solid stone ball.
Crack!
With a crisp sound, the stone ball completely split open from the middle, revealing the things inside.
It turned out that this thing was not stone at all, but cast from glutinous rice juice mixed with mortar, and after years of aging, it looked just like stone, no wonder there wasn’t a single trace on the surface!
After the stone ball completely shattered, a bronze armillary sphere appeared inside!
The armillary sphere is an instrument specially made by ancient Huaxia people to observe celestial phenomena, based on Hun Tian Theory, used to measure celestial bodies with corresponding celestial sphere coordinates and such.
The earliest armillary sphere was made by Luo Xia Hong during the Han Dynasty, and Li Chunfeng of the Tang Dynasty designed a very precise and perfect ecliptic armillary sphere, but it has long since been lost to the world.
The one appearing before the four of them now was precisely the armillary sphere made by Li Chunfeng!
Ancient Hun Tian Theory held that the heavens were like an egg, celestial bodies like pellets, and the earth like the yolk in an egg, and Li Chunfeng’s armillary sphere fully followed Hun Tian Theory, allowing observation of stars above and sun shadow scales below, with an extremely ingenious design.
And between the various rings of the armillary sphere, there was a sphere representing the earth, as big as an egg.
Su Mo looked with the Great Yin Meditation Technique and saw treasure light contained within the sphere, with a strand of pure energy swirling around it, like a void dragon shadow coiling near the sphere.
The dragon bone is right here!
Su Mo couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy in his heart, then reached out and grasped the sphere.
The sphere could indeed be opened, joined at the middle with threads; after Su Mo twisted it a few turns, he opened it, and sure enough, a dragon bone lay inside!
This dragon bone was completely different from those excavated turtle shells or animal bones; it was like a segment of snake spine, crystal clear like jade all over, yet with a faint greenish tint on the surface.
Su Mo took out the dragon bone and found it extremely light in hand, as if it had little weight, with a surface tough as iron and a cool sensation.
Indeed worthy of being Ying Long bone; just by touch, it was utterly different from ordinary things!
Who knows where this Li Chunfeng obtained it, actually placing it inside this space where Western Zhou and Tang Tomb intersect, at the center of the Tai Chi Yin Yang Fish Feng Shui Formation armillary sphere, absorbing the spiritual energy of the entire Dragon Ridge.
“Congratulations on obtaining one of the nine dragon bones; keep it on your body or in the system space to absorb heaven and earth spiritual energy faster and gain accelerated stamina and energy recovery effects!”
“After collecting all nine dragon bones, you can reforge your bloodline physique and elevate Kirin Sacred Blood to Ying Long Bloodline!”
Hearing the prompt sound suddenly in his mind, Su Mo couldn’t help but feel joy in his heart, then with a flip of his hand, he stored this dragon bone in the system space.
At this time, Hu Ba Yi and the others were still staring intently at the dragon bone in Su Mo’s hand, but suddenly found that with a flip of Su Mo’s hand, the dragon bone was gone, faster than a magic trick.
The three were all stunned, and Da Jin Ya couldn’t help exclaiming:
“Master Su, this bone…”
Su Mo turned to look at him and blinked his eyes:
“What bone?”
Da Jin Ya’s expression changed slightly:
“The one you had in your hand just now, that was definitely a good thing, I was just about to say let me have a look, how did it suddenly disappear?”
Su Mo smiled faintly:
“Master Jin, I think you’ve been in the tomb too long, so you must be seeing things!”
“What!”
Da Jin Ya couldn’t help getting a bit anxious and quickly pulled Wang Pang Zi:
“Fatty, tell him, didn’t Master Su have a bone in his hand just now that looked like jade?”
Wang Pang Zi blinked at him, looking completely bewildered:
“What bone? I didn’t see anything!”
“You…”
Da Jin Ya was immediately speechless and turned to ask Hu Ba Yi:
“Master Hu, did you see Master Su holding a dragon bone just now?”
Hu Ba Yi shook his head, looking utterly serious as he said:
“Master Jin, you must have been seeing things just now!”
Da Jin Ya was so angry his face paled a bit, stunned for a few seconds before his expression recovered.
He figured it out!
This dragon bone was something Su Mo absolutely needed!
What kind of person was Su Mo?
He was someone whose skills were otherworldly, able to kill the Iron Head Dragon King with a single roar, even controlling the human-faced spider in the sunless cave!
Who would dare compete with him for something he wanted!
What’s more, Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi were his disciples; seeing their master directly put away the dragon bone, they naturally sided with Su Mo.
After figuring it out, Da Jin Ya immediately put on a smile:
“Master Su, you’re right, I must have been seeing things just now and got it wrong!”
“However, this armillary sphere is a good thing; if we take it out, even if we can’t sell it, donating it to the Forbidden City Museum would get us a nice bonus and some fame!”
Hu Ba Yi frowned:
“This thing was placed here by Li Chunfeng to break Wu Zetian’s fortune; not sure if it can be moved!”
Su Mo smiled faintly:
“Wu Zetian has been dead for so many years, this Feng Shui Formation is useless now; move it if you want, but I think disassembling it would make it easier to transport.”
“However, this is a national treasure, after all, personally cast by Tang Dynasty celestial master Li Chunfeng, the only one in the world; impossible to sell, and if this national treasure ends up overseas, we’d be sinners!”
“If caught, even without a firing squad, we’d rot in prison; I think Master Jin donating it would be best, and he’d get a good reputation!”
Hu Ba Yi understood Su Mo’s meaning; this thing could be called a national treasure, and selling it overseas would be a loss for Huaxia, while he and Fatty were tomb raiders; if they donated it, there would be things they couldn’t explain clearly and they’d be watched by the cops.
But if Da Jin Ya took it back and donated it to the state, it would be more appropriate.
Da Jin Ya ran an antique shop and had a store in Panjiayuan; he could just say it was accidentally obtained from the public, no issues, and he’d gain a good reputation, even forging more connections in the Capital City’s antique circle.
Hu Ba Yi wasn’t particularly attached to money and such external things, and fully agreed with Su Mo’s idea of not letting the national treasure flow overseas, so he said:
“Alright then, Master Jin can hand this over when the time comes; counts as not wasting his trip with us!”
Hearing this, Da Jin Ya nodded joyfully:
“Thanks, Master Su; you’ve let me take all the credit for this good deed, but brother won’t shortchange you; once back, I’ll thank you properly!”
All four agreed to take this armillary sphere personally made by Li Chunfeng back and hand it to the state, so Hu Ba Yi then disassembled it piece by piece in assembly order, packed it into the backpack, and had Fatty carry it on his back.
