Chapter 234: Ancient Book
As expected, the passage in front of him wasn’t very long before it was blocked by a bookshelf again, leaving only two openings, one left and one right, for Zhang Qian to choose from.
All the way here, it had basically been this situation, and every time he had chosen the right side. After walking for so long, he had almost maxed out his WeChat step count.
Looking at the gold nugget shining on the ground, Zhang Qian finally gave up the idea of continuing to waste time.
This wasn’t a proper maze at all…
However, he hadn’t held much hope when he started trying. If the Ghost Ship’s Room was so easy to leave, he wouldn’t have been delayed by the corridor and music hall for so long before.
Walking this far was mostly to scout for information, but unfortunately, it couldn’t be said that there were clues; it could only be said that he had gained nothing.
The environment here was like copy-pasted, with hardly any difference at all. The bookshelves were all the same style; the only difference was the books on them.
A library should have a reading area, or even an office or something like that, but this place was obviously different.
Sighing, Zhang Qian took out his mobile phone to check the time but froze for a moment.
That brick-like satellite phone had surprisingly gone black screen. No matter how he pressed it, there was no response, and he didn’t know if it was broken or out of battery.
Didn’t headquarters say at the time that this satellite phone could standby for a month?
Zhang Qian felt a bit puzzled, and after trying a few more times to no avail, he had to give up.
Maybe it got damaged by the supernatural at some point…
After leaving the aisle, he had encountered quite a few fierce ghosts. Although this satellite phone had a gold shell, there were still gaps on it. It was normal for supernatural power to exploit those weaknesses.
Even without relying on the time on the phone, Zhang Qian could estimate roughly.
The time since entering the library should already be close to half an hour.
This half hour wasn’t spent standing still, but time spent groping deep into the maze. Yet after such a long time, he still hadn’t found a way out and had instead gotten himself lost.
Normally in this kind of environment, the ghost hand should be able to serve as a scouting tool.
As long as he released enough ghost hands, with a little time, Zhang Qian could form a map based on their crawling paths.
However, the problem was the Ghost Ship’s restriction on true qi.
This library wasn’t as accommodating as the ghost restaurant, which could not only shield and suppress but also enhance strength in reverse.
In this place, the number of ghost hands Zhang Qian could summon was quite limited, and even if he sent out those few ghost hands, once they left his line of sight, he couldn’t control them anymore.
Hmm… it’s all that ghost restaurant’s fault.
If he still had the ghost map, with its effect comparable to x-ray vision and full map cheats, navigating a library would be a piece of cake.
No, next time he got the chance, he definitely had to go back and beat that waiter.
As for the owner, although he wasn’t anything good either, it depended on whether he could beat him.
Should he turn back the way he came now?
Looking at the gold nugget under the cabinet on the right, Zhang Qian shook his head, dispelling the thought of following the mark back.
No meaning to it.
If he kept walking along the wall on his right side, under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t pass the same wall twice. Now that he could encounter the mark he left before, it could only mean there was a problem with the space in the library.
In this situation, the marks had no reference value. Following them would only lead him deeper in.
As for changing direction and continuing deeper, what difference was there from giving up and rotting away?
In an unstable space, simply walking probably wouldn’t get him out; he needed to use some other method.
Even taking bold action was better than blindly wandering and wasting time.
Thinking of this, Zhang Qian simply stopped, looking left and right, surveying the surrounding environment.
“This thing is really huge.”
Standing under the tall bookshelf, Zhang Qian always felt a bit insignificant.
The bookshelf in front of him was three or four times his height, standing there like it could easily flatten him.
Psychological effect, or supernatural phenomenon?
He’d know if he tried.
“Crack.”
Zhang Qian probed forward with the wooden stick gripped in his left hand, gently pressing it against the black wood of the bookshelf.
After a crisp collision sound, nothing strange happened.
Fair enough. After all, he had groped around this maze for so long; if touching a bookshelf would lead to an attack, he would have been attacked countless times by now.
Thinking about it, Zhang Qian tilted his head, and a bluish-black ghost hand immediately jumped out from behind him.
The palm full of cracks crawled on the ground for a bit, jumped onto the bookshelf, and its thumb and index finger gripped forcefully, casually tugging at a book.
Then the other fingers gave a light push, and the ghost hand dropped down along with that book.
The ghost hand wasn’t attacked, so it was still safe…
Zhang Qian, thoughtful, reached out and caught the book just before the ghost hand hit the ground.
The moment he caught it, his expression flashed with something odd. “The feel is unexpectedly light; there’s no impact force at all when catching it.”
But there was no rush to open it now.
With a thud, the bluish-black ghost hand fell onto the carpet, then did a carp flip and crawled toward the fork on the right.
Zhang Qian ignored it and carefully examined the ancient book in his hand.
It was wrapped in a material like hard cardboard, looking neither high-end nor fancy, even a bit plain. The black cover had no patterns or symbols, not even a title.
After flipping it over and inspecting all around, Zhang Qian finally saw some traditional characters on the spine.
“《Yue Family Records》? Is it the Yue family I’m thinking of? Could it be the family history of Yue Linhai’s family?”
Clearly, the old house owner had sealed the ghost ship, yet there were records of their family on the ghost ship?
A bit curious about the content, Zhang Qian looked at the calm surroundings and decided to open it for a look.
But before that, he controlled his true qi again, making a few ghost hands emerge, crawling toward the back and the right side respectively.
Although touching it posed no danger, just looking at the cover of a book definitely wouldn’t reveal anything special. There might be tricks hidden in the content.
Direct certain death was unlikely. With so many books here, if each one had such supernatural strength, it would require enormous supernatural power to support.
Even if there were tricks, they were probably just ordinary attacks, or illusion abilities.
So sending out a few ghost hands would let him read the book with more peace of mind.
Although these little things were pretty useless, he didn’t need them to tangle with fierce ghosts; using them as triggerable alarms wasn’t bad.
“Let me see what secrets are here…”
Exhaling, Zhang Qian slowly opened the black book in his hand.
