With three superpowers at his fingertips, he could dominate the 1970s.

After coming down from Changbai Mountain, the three of them were as energetic as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

"I got it! I really got it!" Li Mancang squatted in the aisle of the train carriage, holding the oil paper package in his hands, his eyes shining like a child's. "I knew my deduction wouldn't be wrong, I knew it wouldn't be wrong!"

Wang Zhaixing leaned back in the opposite seat, crossed her legs, and held the well-worn ancient book in her hand. She didn't say anything, but she couldn't suppress the smile on her face.

"Old man, give me a smile too," Li Mancang nudged him with his elbow, "You won't admit it, but your face is full of wrinkles."

"I'm happy." Wang Zhaixing, unusually, didn't retort. Instead, he slammed the ancient book on the table. "Mancang, let me tell you, if you get the remaining seven points right this time, you can graduate as well."

Jiang Zhiyu sat by the window, watching the birch forest rushing past outside, a smile playing on her lips.

"You two shouldn't get too excited yet; there are still seven more points to go."

"What's there to be afraid of!" Li Mancang said with a booming voice, "If you get the first one right, the rest will all be right too. I, Li Mancang, am making this clear!"

……

After a three-day journey involving train and bus transfers, we finally arrived in Inner Mongolia.

Li Mancang froze as soon as he opened the car door.

"This...this is Yinshan?"

"The sky is vast and the fields are boundless; the wind blows and the grass bends low, revealing cattle and sheep." Wang Zhaixing stood at the car door, took a deep breath, and said, "Mancang, smell this."

"What does it taste like?"

"Hayat, cow dung, and soil, mixed together, create the unique scent of the grasslands."

"I can smell it," Li Mancang sniffed.

Jiang Zhiyu jumped out of the car and walked around the grassland. The grass in early summer wasn't fully green yet; withered yellow and tender green were mixed together. When the wind blew, the entire grassland wrinkled and unfolded like an old blanket. A few yurts were scattered in the distance, and a herd of horses moved slowly. The sky and the earth were vast, and a person standing in the middle felt as small as a grain of sand.

"How's the inventory full?" Jiang Zhiyu turned to look at him. "What does your compass say?"

Li Mancang squatted down, took out his compass, stared at the pointer for a long time, and his brows furrowed more and more.

"Something's not right," he looked up. "This time it's not that the deflection angle is increasing, the pointer is spinning."

Wang Zhaixing leaned over to take a look, and sure enough, the pointer was spinning around like a headless fly, unable to settle at all.

"What does this mean?" Jiang Zhiyu asked.

"This means the geomagnetic field of this grassland is different from other places," Wang Zhaixing said, stroking his chin. "The Yinshan Mountains were where the Xiongnu people offered sacrifices to heaven. Grassland peoples didn't build temples or erect monuments; they spoke directly to the sky on the open grassland. Their sacrificial sites were completely different from those in the Central Plains—no underground chambers, no secret rooms; they were open."

"In other words," Jiang Zhiyu continued, "that bronze artifacts are not buried underground."

"Yes," Li Mancang stood up, looked around, "it should be embedded high up, facing the sky."

He rechecked the data from the ancient books and the geomagnetic readings, then pointed to a distant mountain peak that was not high but had a distinct outline.

"That direction."

……

The three of them drove for almost an hour and then walked for more than half an hour.

"We're here," Wang Zhaixing pointed ahead, "Can you see it?"

At the highest point of the hillside, an ovoo stands. The pile of stones is more than a person high, with faded prayer flags stuck on top, flapping loudly in the wind. A few dry branches and horsehair are stuffed into the cracks between the stones; it looks like an ordinary stone pile built by generations of herders for sacrificial rites.

Jiang Zhiyu's psychic abilities swept over, and a glint of light flashed in her eyes.

"I've got it," she whispered, "three metal objects in the cracks between the stones at the bottom."

She crouched down, her hand already stealthily reaching into the crevice at the bottom of the stone. Her fingertips touched the cold metal, and with a gentle tug, three thin bronze pieces were pulled out of the crevice.

"I've got the fragment of the Sky Curtain." Seventeen thought to himself.

Jiang Zhiyu opened her palm and looked at it. It was about the size of a palm, as thin as paper, and its surface was covered with densely packed star maps. It wasn't the Twenty-Eight Mansions system of the Central Plains; it was a completely unfamiliar constellation arrangement. The three pieces, when put together, perfectly covered the entire northern sky dome.

She wrapped the three fragments in oil paper and put them into her backpack.

Just then, an old voice came from behind.

"What are you doing here? That's where we hold our sacrificial rites to Heaven. Even though it's forbidden now, you can't just go near there."

An old herdsman was driving his flock of sheep by when he stopped a few steps away, watching them warily.

Wang Zhaixing greeted him with a smile: "Brother, we're from a geological survey team, sent by the government. Do you know what makes this place different from other places?"

Upon hearing "people from the state," the old herdsman's attitude softened considerably, and he scratched his head, thinking for a moment.

"There's not much difference; it's just that our ancestors have come here for generations to offer sacrifices to the heavens, saying that the stars in the sky will respond to us."

When Jiang Zhiyu took the fragment, several stones at the bottom of the cairn loosened, and a small corner collapsed with a crash.

The old herdsman's eyes widened: "You've ruined this place! The gods will be displeased!"

Wang Zhaixing quickly took out a few yuan from his pocket and stuffed it into the purse.

"This is the first time I've brought the girl out on a mission. She's clumsy and doesn't know her own strength. If she accidentally bumps into something, the gods certainly won't blame her."

The old man took the money, and the wrinkles on his face smoothed out: "It's alright, it's alright, the gods will protect you."

The three watched the old herdsman walk away, smiled, got into the car, and continued on their way.

……

From the grasslands to the land of Qilu, the landscape seems to have been turned upside down.

"Look," Wang Zhaixing pointed out the car window, "over there in the Yinshan Mountains, it's a vast expanse of land with nothing to see. It's completely different here. Look at these fields, these villages, this population density—it's like two entirely different worlds."

Li Mancang peered out the window: "Sheep are grazing over there, and crops are being planted over here."

"It's not just about farming," Wang Zhaixing's voice suddenly became serious, pointing to a mountain peak rising abruptly from the plain in the distance, "Do you see that? Mount Tai."

Jiang Zhiyu followed his finger and looked over. Mount Tai rose straight up from the plain, not particularly tall, but imposing. The stone steps, like a gray-white snake, darted into the clouds, with dense pine and cypress trees on both sides, turning the steps into a narrow passageway.

"The foremost of the Five Sacred Mountains," Wang Zhaixing's voice carried an indescribable pride, "the place where emperors of past dynasties performed the Fengshan ceremony. I've been here when I was young; I could find my way to the Dai Temple, the South Heavenly Gate, and the Jade Emperor Peak with my eyes closed. Now that I'm here, this is my home turf."

"Don't lead me astray in your own territory," Li Mancang joked. Having found things at two consecutive points, Li Mancang was quite pleased with himself and now dared to tease Wang Zhaixing.

"We're not looking for tourist attractions."

"Don't worry," Wang Zhaixing rolled her eyes, "How could our calculations be wrong? The Fengchan token is on the back side of Mount Tai, deep in an abandoned ancient road. Tourists don't go there."

……

The three of them circled around from the foot of the mountain to the north and found a path completely covered by bushes and weeds. It was more of a narrow gap between two mountains, with thorns and wild vines intertwined on both sides, so dense that it looked like a green wall.

"I'll go first," Li Mancang said, pulling a machete from his bag and leading the way. "You guys stay close, don't get scratched in the face by the branches."

Wang Zhaixing followed behind with a map and compass for navigation, while Jiang Zhiyu walked in the middle. The three of them trudged through the mud, the branches scratching their faces and mosquitoes buzzing around their heads.

"I said, 'Mancang,'" Jiang Zhiyu wiped the cobwebs from her face, "Your stamina is impressive; you're not even out of breath."

"Of course!" Li Mancang replied without turning his head. "This is my job. I used to specialize in venturing into all sorts of forests. This little bit of road is nothing."

"How many have you drilled before?" Wang Zhaixing asked breathlessly from behind.

"Not particularly often. My mentor and I only go when there's a large shipment, and it's always something others dare not touch. That's when he takes me!"

After walking for nearly two hours, the ancient road came to an end.

"We're here," Wang Zhaixing pointed ahead, "See that stone wall?"

The stone wall was covered with vines, and in the middle was a natural hollow, the entrance of which was sealed by a flat stone. The surface of the flat stone was weathered and pitted, but if you looked closely, you could vaguely make out a few symbols on it.

Jiang Zhiyu leaned closer to take a look: "Is this writing?"

Wang Zhaixing was completely stunned. He leaned closer to look at it for a long time, his hands trembling.

"This is celestial script... Could it be the legendary script that existed before Cangjie invented writing?" His voice trembled. "I thought it was just a legend..."

"Director Wang, are you sure?" Li Mancang also came over to take a look. "This doesn't look like oracle bone script."

"Even earlier than oracle bone script," Wang Zhaixing took a deep breath. "Oracle bone script was carved on tortoise shells, while this was drawn on clay tablets with fingernails. Mancang, think about it, what era was this symbolic system from before Cangjie invented writing?"

Li Mancang gasped.

Jiang Zhiyu stopped them from continuing their sighs and stepped forward to move the flat stone. The stone was lighter than expected and was moved easily.

The cave wasn't large, just the size of a room. In the very center stood a stone platform with three recesses, each containing a palm-sized bronze token.

"Coming, coming, coming!" Li Mancang said repeatedly, stretching out his hand and then pulling it back. "My hands are dirty, you guys take a look first."

The token was exceptionally well-preserved, its bronze luster undetectable by age. The front was engraved with the sun, moon, and stars, the sun in the center, the moon to the left, and several stars scattered among them, arranged in a manner completely different from their actual positions in the sky. The back was covered with densely packed runes, consistent with the style of the text on the fragments of the celestial canopy.

Li Mancang carefully picked up one and examined it, his finger accidentally touching the runes on the back.

hum-

An extremely faint buzzing sound emanated from the tokens, and all three tokens lit up simultaneously. The light vanished in a flash, like lightning, in less than a fraction of a second.

"What's going on?!" Wang Zhaixing suddenly took a step back and bumped into Li Mancang.

"I touched the rune and it..." The token in Li Mancang's hand had gone dark, as if nothing had happened.

"Host, it's probably a remnant of an array; someone marked this place."

"It seems things are more complicated than I thought."

She carefully wrapped the three tokens in oil paper and put them into her backpack.

Wang Zhaixing glanced at her, hesitated, and ultimately said nothing.

……

The three of them retraced their steps, and by the time they emerged from the abandoned ancient road, it was already dark.

"How much did we walk today?" Li Mancang asked, rubbing his lower back. "My old back is about to break. I guess I'm getting old. Back in the day, I could walk all night with my master up the mountain without even breaking a sweat."

The silhouette of Mount Tai turned into a deep blue-green silhouette in the twilight, pressing heavily behind them.

……

That night, the three of them stayed at a guesthouse in Tai'an City.

Li Mancang and Wang Zhaixing were organizing today's data in the next room, while Jiang Zhiyu sat alone at the table, taking out the fragments of the Sky Curtain and the Fengchan Token, and gently scanning them with her mental abilities.

The fragments of the celestial canopy were quiet, their energy weak and stable, like a sleeping battery.

The Fengchan token was the same; apart from that accidental activation just now, it showed no abnormalities at other times.

Just as she was about to put her things away, the phone on the table rang.

Only the Second Administration Bureau knew her whereabouts.

Jiang Zhiyu picked up the microphone.

"Feed?"

"Girl," Zhuge Yunhe's voice came through the receiver, unusually urgent, "Factory 808 has experienced a serious nuclear leak. Radiation levels are off the charts, and the staff have been evacuated. The higher-ups want to know if you can handle it; everything is up to you. This whole thing is targeting you."

Jiang Zhiyu gripped the microphone tightly for a moment.

When did this happen?

"This afternoon."

She was silent for two seconds.

No outsider could possibly know when or where she left. That can only mean one thing: they've gone to their wits' end.

"Girl," Zhuge Yunhe said again, "think it through."

"To go or not to go?" Seventeen asked in his mind.

Jiang Zhiyu leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling for three seconds.

Then she stood up and picked up her coat, which was draped over the back of the chair.

"I have to go."