I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 483Book 2: : Like Reading a Heavenly Tome, Two Dictionaries in Hand
Vol 2 Chapter 483: Like Reading a Heavenly Tome, Two Dictionaries in Hand
Purple Heaven Palace stretched deep into the distance. Those seated listeners of the Dao seemed completely unconcerned about Zheng Fa and his newly arrived group, not even turning their heads as they gazed intently at the figure sitting on the high platform.
Daoist Hongjun sat cross-legged on the platform, his gaze sweeping over Zheng Fa and the others. That look made Zheng Fa's heart pound violently—it felt as if those eyes had traveled through time itself to land upon him.
Was this really just Fusang Wood's memory...?
Zheng Fa couldn't help but feel some doubt, yet he saw Daoist Hongjun had already turned his head and opened his mouth, apparently about to begin the lecture.
He quickly pricked up his ears. Not only did this lecture concern supreme treasures like the Hongmeng Purple Qi, but attending a lecture at Purple Heaven Palace was itself a great opportunity. How could he not be excited?
But the moment Daoist Hongjun opened his mouth, Zheng Fa felt as if a heavy hammer had struck his forehead—buzzing, dazed.
He couldn't understand!
What came from Daoist Hongjun's mouth was the supreme Great Dao.
To Zheng Fa's ears, it sounded like gibberish, like incoherent babbling.
Language barrier!
At this moment, Zheng Fa truly felt like dead memories were attacking him—he had encountered similar difficulties when he first time-traveled to the modern era.
Fortunately, the language gap between Xuanyi Realm and the modern world wasn't that significant. Looking back now, it was probably because both shared common origins.
Back then, he had been at the bottom of his class for years in middle school, practically the shame of compulsory education. It was only because he could endure hardship and had decent memory that he slowly improved his grades.
...Well now, after wandering half a lifetime, he returned still illiterate.
He felt puzzled—just moments ago when Hongjun spoke, he could understand him perfectly, and he was using the current Xuanyi language.
But with one glance at the cushion beneath him, he gained some enlightenment. That previous speech had probably been translated by Fusang Wood.
However, Dao lectures were different—any translation would lose the true meaning of the lecture.
Fusang Wood meant well, but Zheng Fa and the thirteen others were truly baffled:
They were like foreign students who had never learned the language, sitting in a classroom full of foreigners, left with only one heartfelt question—can you speak human language?
Behind Zheng Fa, the Great Elder of the Lu Clan's mouth opened and closed along with Daoist Hongjun, his mind completely blank.
When he came back to his senses, he grew even more anxious.
Among these fourteen people who had entered Jiuyao Heaven, their Lu Clan members were actually the weakest. Though he hated to admit it, Shi Nandang had once fought against a dozen Nascent Soul cultivators. If a real fight broke out, it was uncertain who would win. ꭆἈŊŏᛒÈ𐌔
The Lu Clan's reliance was partly on their cooperation with the Gu God, and partly on their control over the Jiuyao Heaven gateway.
But if they wanted the Hongmeng Purple Qi, these advantages were practically useless.
Just as he was scratching his head in frustration, he noticed flickering golden light at the corner of his eye.
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan paused, then suddenly looked up.
From the dome of Purple Heaven Palace, endless golden flowers drifted down slowly with Daoist Hongjun's lecturing voice.
Elder Fu Tu focused his eyes and saw that beneath those golden petals were clearly characters like those on the petals themselves, characters that changed along with the variations in the lecturing voice.
Fu Tu?
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan's spirits lifted as he suddenly understood where the opportunity lay.
He struggled to identify the patterns on the surrounding golden flowers, when suddenly inspiration struck. He connected them with a spiritual talisman he had mastered before, and instantly, the golden flower seemed to grow eyes, turning and falling toward his head.
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan felt a surge of spiritual energy suddenly appear within him, along with a short segment of mysterious scripture flashing in his consciousness.
His clansmen nearby all turned to look at him.
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan didn't hide it, transmitting quietly, "Don't pay attention to the lecturing voice. Just focus on comprehending the symbols on these golden flowers. Use the Talisman Path to decipher their true meaning—it's quite similar to how we normally use talisman techniques."
The others suddenly understood, all turning their attention to the golden flowers. Moments later, someone exclaimed softly, "These flowers are amazing! My cultivation has improved!"
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan quickly transmitted, "Keep your voice down!"
"Right, right."
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan nervously looked forward, praying that Zheng Fa and the others wouldn't discover this secret.
But one look told him his hopes were dashed—almost everyone had already discovered this:
Creation Daoist's eyes shone with strange light as he gazed up at the surrounding golden flowers.
That White Lotus from Leiyin Temple had his eyes closed, lips moving, but a golden Buddhist eye shone brilliantly between his eyebrows.
The Golden-Winged Great Peng and others were also desperately contemplating the symbols on the golden flowers.
These people were all True Immortals, their attainments in the Talisman Path far surpassing their Lu Clan members:
For every golden flower their Lu Clan members identified and absorbed, Creation Daoist absorbed at least several dozen to a hundred.
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan felt anxious yet helpless—they were simply stronger. His people hadn't even reached Dao Fruit stage—how could they compare?
He turned his head and couldn't help but narrow his eyes—that scoundrel Shi Nandang was covered in flowers, practically turned into a small golden man. The number of golden flowers he absorbed was even double that of Creation Daoist and the others!
This golden light stabbed both eyes and heart!
Even Creation Daoist seemed startled by Shi Nandang, turning to give him several extra glances.
Though Zheng Fa noticed Creation Daoist and the others watching him, his mind wasn't on these people.
In terms of Talisman Path, the current Jiushan Sect could almost be said to be unparalleled in Xuanyi.
Some patterns on these golden flowers were closely related to fu diagrams, while others weren't very similar. But whenever they were related to fu diagrams, Zheng Fa could recognize them almost at a glance.
The visual acuity he developed from playing fu diagram matching games back then was finally coming in handy.
Zheng Fa could feel the spiritual energy within him growing increasingly abundant—this was crucial for him.
He had advanced to Great Ascension not long ago, while others needed many years of spiritual energy accumulation to achieve Dao Fruit.
But Zheng Fa truly didn't have that much time. Now these golden flowers were making his spiritual energy advance by leaps and bounds, solving his urgent needs.
Yet Zheng Fa wasn't very satisfied.
Identifying the fu diagrams on the golden flowers could grant spiritual energy, and spiritual energy improvement naturally raised his standing in Purple Heaven Palace.
But there was no new knowledge.
The Purple Heaven symbols were fragmented, discontinuous, and he couldn't even completely recognize them.
On the other hand, he still couldn't understand Daoist Hongjun's lecture.
If things continued like this, he would only gain a slight improvement in spiritual energy with no other gains.
Zheng Fa pondered for a moment, then turned his gaze back to Daoist Hongjun and began listening carefully.
Dao lectures know no years. No one knew how much time had passed. The Great Elder of the Lu Clan behind Zheng Fa struggled to comprehend the fu diagrams on the golden flowers while secretly observing the other competitors.
The light in Creation Daoist's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and his speed of absorbing golden flowers had increased yet another notch.
But even he couldn't match that White Lotus monk!
A green seed floated between White Lotus's eyebrows, almost like the pupil of that golden Buddhist eye.
All the golden flowers around him were being devoured wholesale.
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan looked closely and almost cried out: "Bodhi seed?"
His heart trembled violently. Bodhi seeds were Leiyin Temple's supreme secret medicine, most effective at enhancing a cultivator's comprehension, incredibly precious.
And White Lotus had casually taken one out?
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan couldn't help but feel somewhat defeated as he looked at the others.
The Golden-Winged Great Peng was contemplating with serious expression, showing no trace of his usual ferocity.
The Gu God and White Bone Demon Ancestor were also extremely focused.
Among these fourteen people, almost no one dared be negligent. Each was employing their methods, strenuously analyzing the fu diagrams on the golden flowers.
Wait!
He suddenly remembered—he had overlooked Shi Nandang!
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan turned to look and realized it wasn't that he had overlooked the other, but that Shi Nandang no longer had golden light around him, having become inconspicuous.
The Great Elder of the Lu Clan narrowed his eyes, carefully examining Shi Nandang's profile. The man had his eyes closed, head bowed, expression serene.
How could Shi Nandang possibly be asleep!
......
"Is the corpus sufficient this time?"
In the modern nursing home, Zheng Fa projected a light screen showing footage of Daoist Hongjun's lecture.
Besides Daoist Hongjun's voice, the images clearly showed those golden flowers, especially the symbols on them.
Zheng Fa had been listening to lectures in Jiuyao Heaven for over half a year now. At first he had been contemplating the symbols, but later he completely focused his efforts on recording Daoist Hongjun's lectures.
He looked at Professor Liu and the others with expectation in his eyes.
He had dozed off several times in the Purple Heaven classroom, each time bringing back piles of lecture videos for Professor Liu and the others to study.
Professor Liu exchanged looks with a group of newly recruited linguists at the nursing home, their faces full of worry as he explained:
"Writing is essentially form, sound, and meaning. Regarding form and sound, we actually have quite clear understanding based on the lecture sounds and those patterns on the golden flowers. It's just this meaning..."
Here, Professor Liu's expression grew even more embarrassed: "We can still only parse about half."
Zheng Fa nodded gently, not particularly disappointed—he had heard this answer many times before.
Seeing his silence, Professor Liu said quietly: "Director, we still have some ideas that might be useful."
But Zheng Fa didn't hold out much hope. The analysis of ancient language had progressed quite quickly at first, but had been stuck at this point with no breakthrough progress.
"Zheng Fa, Lingwu has results!"
Old Man Bai flew through the air, calling to Zheng Fa.
Zheng Fa's spirits lifted at this news. He waved to Professor Liu, signaling them to follow him to the back mountain. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"Director, this is..."
"Now that the corpus is complete, we're planning to try using Heluo."
Heluo was currently the nursing home's most advanced supercomputer, its computing power absolutely peerless in the modern world.
When they first began researching ancient language, Tang Lingwu had proposed using artificial intelligence for parsing. They had tried it, but limited by incomplete data, the conclusions were few and full of errors.
These days, Zheng Fa had been collecting massive amounts of phonetic and written data on ancient language during lectures at Purple Heaven Palace.
This raw data had been processed and studied by Professor Liu and the others, forming quite a quality corpus.
Tang Lingwu had recently been using AI to process this corpus, and today it seemed they finally had some results.
When everyone reached the back mountain, Tang Lingwu was already waiting there. She held a tablet, and on the wall before her was a huge screen.
On the screen was Daoist Hongjun's figure, speaking:
"I feel all living beings are ignorant, the Heavenly Dao faint..."
It was actually modern language.
Had Tang Lingwu and the others not only used Heluo to decipher the ancient writing, but also translated it?
Zheng Fa looked at Daoist Hongjun on the screen, thinking this was great—not only did they have translation, but also video courseware. He could listen as many times as he wanted.
But Tang Lingwu's surprise didn't end there.
"Regarding those words and sounds whose meaning Professor Liu couldn't determine, Heluo also provided an explanation."
"What?"
"Incantations."
Hearing this, Zheng Fa immediately understood: "Chanting words?"
"Those symbols are closely related to the spiritual talismans we know—you could even say they share the same origin. But we never knew symbols could be read aloud."
This was indeed true.
From when he first entered the Dao, the Talisman Path in Xuanyi Realm had always been about drawing, without sound.
"That's why we couldn't completely decipher them. If we treat them as chanting words, separating daily language from incantations..."
Professor Liu beside them smacked his right fist into his left palm, suddenly enlightened: "Right! We always assumed his lecturing was communicating with the audience below, but that's not necessarily true!"
"Exactly. According to Heluo's analysis, only thirty percent consists of what we call daily language—used for interpersonal communication." Tang Lingwu nodded. "The other seventy percent actually isn't language at all. We can view it as a kind of chanting."
"Or rather, these chants are him speaking to the endless Heavenly Dao, not even conforming to any grammatical rules, not something modern linguistics can comprehend."
Zheng Fa listened and nodded gently. This explained why these modern scholars had taken so long yet couldn't decipher the ancient language.
Fundamentally speaking, this wasn't a language at all.
Mixing chanting words with daily language doubled the research difficulty for Professor Liu and the others.
"Heluo has preliminarily compiled two sets of dictionaries."
Tang Lingwu tapped on her tablet, and two files appeared on the screen before them.
"This one is the dictionary of commonly used ancient characters, collecting over two thousand commonly used characters employed by Daoist Hongjun. More can be added later."
"This one is the incantation dictionary, containing pronunciations for over six thousand symbol diagrams."
Zheng Fa looked at the two files, but his gaze completely focused on the incantation dictionary. He took the tablet from Tang Lingwu, opened the incantation dictionary, and felt his spirits lift.
Many incantations here were extremely similar to the symbols on the Qian Kun Tripod and that altar!
In Jiushan Realm.
Senior Sister Zhang looked at the two dictionaries transcribed by the Heavenly Emperor body, then turned her gaze to the Qian Kun Tripod.
"You're saying you think the Qian Kun Tripod is a... ritual vessel?"
"According to these two dictionaries' interpretation, the symbols on this Qian Kun Tripod represent the ceremonial procedures of a ritual."
"After making offerings to the Heavenly Dao, artifacts can transform from post-heaven to pre-heaven." The Heavenly Emperor body thought for a moment, then added, "The most important function of incantations should lie in this—praying to heaven, or rather, communicating directly with the Great Dao."
Put simply, after confirming the existence of incantations, he understood their purpose—incantations weren't for magical duels. Their greatest function was actually conducting various ceremonies.
That Primordial Demon Ancestor's altar was like this, this Qian Kun Tripod was also like this, and looking back now, even the oracle bone script left behind in Shang Dynasty ceremonies probably resembled them.
