Chapter 36: The Classic of Mountains and Seas

  Saul came, but he did not come alone.

  Escorted by two patrol cars, Soles arrived in a luxurious steam-powered roadster accompanied by his old butler and a... mysterious silver alloy suitcase.

  Armed patrolmen got on and off the police car, holding various police firearms, roughly pushing away the crowd of onlookers blocking the road.

  Thus, with a large cigar in his mouth, wearing pure black sunglasses and carrying a secret silver alloy suitcase, Sol's path cleared to reveal a direct route to the four people surrounded by Marlon, Old Saint Warrior, Lizard Druid, and Earth Spirit Publisher.

  "Check, let me see it."

  Under the gaze of thousands, Sol walked up to Marlon with a broad stride and stretched out a hand wearing a snow-white glove.

  Ma Long handed over the check very cooperatively.

  "Acting! They're acting! They had a secret meeting two days ago!"

  The earth spirit publisher pointed at Malong and Solace, letting out a piercing shriek.

  "Oh, isn't this the infamous publisher Gavi-Riley, notorious for swindling new authors?" Solace glanced at the earthy publisher and then revealed a sarcastic smile: "Mr. Riley, it seems you've forgotten that the Emerald Pattern Press has had business dealings with my Solace Bank for over thirty years. Its owner, Miss Evana, came to me with a newly discovered talented young author to set up a VIP bank account with an enormous overdraft, and... did she need to report this to you, a competitor of the Emerald Pattern Press?"

  Sol paused for a moment, then pointed his slender fingers at his own forehead, making an expression of sudden realization.

  "Ah ha, I remember now, this matter really has something to do with you, Mr. Lyle. I heard that a few days ago, the talented young writer standing in front of me had intended to sell his manuscript to you, but Mr. Lyle was only willing to offer a paltry 200 lanters as a buyout price. In order to get his hands on the manuscript, Mr. Lyle even resorted to trickery, refusing to return the original script, and ultimately forcing the child to tell a lie about there being a big secret hidden in the manuscript before he could barely retrieve it."

  Saul's casual, offhand remark left the dwarf publisher's face red with rage. He shrieked in indignation: "Slander! This is slander! Such an absurd thing has never happened!"

  "Right, I also think that such an insult to intelligence could hardly happen to the astute Mr. Gavriel Raley."

  Sauls nodded, with a hint of a smile, and continued: "Well... to prove that this is a baseless rumor, I'll immediately send someone to invite the pastor of the True Knowledge sect. I'm guessing you, Mr. Gavriel Lyle, can detect lies through your discernment, right?"

  Then, Old Gavrelle-Raille was suddenly gagged like a public duck that had been throttled and could no longer quack.

  "No, never mind, I'm a broad-minded earth spirit! Ah, I suddenly remembered that there's still something important to take care of at the publishing house..."

  Look at Solace, it seems that he really wants to summon his subordinates to find a pastor from the True Knowledge Sect to detect lies. After leaving these two sentences, Old Gavriel-Riley fled in a panic and escaped from the crowd.

  This scene made Ma Long sigh in admiration, he finally realized that when dealing with such troublesome things, compared to Sol's old guy who had experienced many storms, he was just starting out.

  ……

  Chased away Gavi-Railey, who was making trouble, and then it's back to the usual performance time again.

  After it was determined that the large check in Ma Long's hand was indeed a genuine check issued by Sores Bank and the signature on it was also signed by Yvonne.

  With a creak, he opened the secret silver alloy suitcase he was carrying, and inside the suitcase, neatly arranged in rows, were stacks of high-denomination checks, one hundred Roubles per sheet, one hundred sheets per bundle!

  Five horizontal and five vertical, totaling twenty-five grids.

  Even by rough estimate, it can be seen that Sol's suitcase has at least four layers in each grid!

  As expected, when Sol took eleven bundles of large denomination bills out of the suitcase, only two and a half compartments were emptied from the suitcase!

  That is to say, in this cashbox, there are... one million rands!

  In this ordinary citizen's monthly income, there is only about fifty lanters; while the famous Fengshan family in Baisha City has an asset of less than two million yuan on the surface.

  What a staggering sum of one million rand is!

  If it weren't for those armed patrolmen holding guns and keeping a sharp lookout around, perhaps many people would have already been unable to resist the urge to grab the money.

  "This book 'Eli's Book' is yours!"

  After checking and counting the stacks of hundred-yuan bills, proving that the money was not counterfeit, Chui Streim, disguised as a down-and-out holy warrior, finally handed over the so-called "Eli's Book" to Marlon.

  "Thank you for your great kindness, Master Druid."

  As a result, Eli's book, Marlon nodded in the first time to Lizard Druid Konchita - Bob Owen.

  Lithariel Druid looked embarrassed, after all, in his opinion, if he hadn't seen the opportunity and suddenly ran out to raise the price, maybe Marlon would have gotten this "Ely's Book" for only 20,000 to 30,000 Lant.

  As for "Eli's Book", Liruid's curiosity was piqued again: "Marlon, are you willing to spend 100,000 Rant to recognize the unknown dot array text written with hidden grass juice in this 'Eli's Book'?"

  "This one..."

  Ma Long smiled, he carefully turned Aili's book to the first page, then supported the back of the book with his left hand, and stroked the seemingly smooth pages with his right hand, then began to recite fluently.

  "The earth carries all things on its back, within the four seas, the sun and moon shine, the stars twinkle in the sky, spring, summer, autumn, and winter divide the year into four seasons, and there are years to correct the heavenly timing. The various things created by the transformation of this earth have different shapes, some die young, some live long, only a sage can explore the mysteries within."

  "Let's start from overseas, from southwest to southeast——"

  "The country of Khentii is southwest of Mongolia, where people have chests as sharp as a chicken's."

  "Nan Shan is in the southeast of Jieguo State. People from this mountain call long insects 'snakes' and snakes 'fish'. Some also say Nan Shan is in the southeast of Mi Meng Niao."

  "The Biyi bird lives to the east of the Meng bird, with green and red feathers on its body, extremely beautiful. It is called the Biyi bird because it cannot fly alone, only when two birds are together can they take flight. Some also say that the Biyi bird lives to the east of the South Mountain. The people of Yuemin country live in the southeast of the Meng bird, with a head shaped like a bird's beak and their bodies covered in feathers..."

  No, what Ma Long recited was not "The Book of Eli", but the vernacular Chinese version of - "Hai Jing" from "Shan Hai Jing".

  Although this is a thing of the earthly world, those words and descriptions full of fantastical colors easily entranced Lysander Druse, a scholar, into the strange and wondrous world of the Shan Hai Jing.