Chapter 28

Su Peng's gaze fell on the jujube tree in the courtyard.

The first time he came to Carpenter Cao's house, he watered the jujube tree.

The second time he came, he was picking off the yellow leaves from the jujube tree.

The third time he came, he lay on a recliner, drinking by himself while looking at the jujube tree.

The fourth time...

These scenes kept overlapping in Su Peng's mind. There was no reason for Carpenter Cao to particularly like the jujube tree, but if there had to be a reason...

Su Peng slowly walked towards the jujube tree. The tree wasn't very tall, and it didn't grow particularly well. On the trunk, there were two or three unusually prominent knots.

Gently touching the jujube tree, Su Peng thought, if he were Carpenter Cao and really hid 'that thing' near the jujube tree... the possibility of it being underground was low. Hiding it underground was no different from hiding it anywhere else underground, and Carpenter Cao's attention was clearly on this jujube tree.

Thinking this, Su Peng's hand gently touched the three prominent knots on the jujube tree...

...

"Crack, crack!"

The sound of an axe chopping wood echoed. Su Peng had already taken tools from Carpenter Cao's house. Now, he held an axe and was chopping the prominent knots on the jujube tree.

He had already chopped one from the bottom up, but found nothing inside after breaking it apart. Now he was chopping the second one.

"Crack!" Another sound echoed, and this knot was also chopped off the jujube tree trunk.

As the knot fell, Su Peng instinctively felt that the thing might be here.

Chopping the knot with the axe, Su Peng suddenly felt his axe hit something hard.

Peeling away the broken wood, Su Peng saw a black iron plate inside the knot.

"This is it!" Su Peng thought. He took out the iron plate and examined it. The plate wasn't very large, about three centimeters wide and four centimeters long, made of what seemed to be black metal. It felt like metal when he picked it up, but there was a layer of wood-like texture on the surface.

Seeing the familiar texture, Su Peng looked at the jujube tree he had chopped. The texture inside the tree was very similar to the wood-like texture on the iron plate.

"This iron plate is truly special, with the wood-like texture growing on it..." Su Peng thought. He flipped the iron plate over and found four ancient characters written on it!

"Gold, Wood, Water, Fire."

These four ancient characters were clearly written on the iron plate!

"Gold, Wood, Water, Fire? Is it the Five Elements?" Su Peng thought, but then rejected the idea. The iron plate wasn't large enough to include the 'Earth' element, and there were only four characters.

Su Peng pondered the meaning of these four characters. Suddenly, a thought flashed in his mind!

"Wait... 'Gold' might refer to the material of the iron plate itself, which is made of metal... As for 'Wood'... this iron plate must have been placed inside the jujube tree to be infected with the wood-like texture, making it seem like metal wood, rather than being carved on. Otherwise, it wouldn't match the texture of the jujube tree so well. So, does 'Gold, Wood, Water, Fire' mean that when these four elements are combined on the iron plate, something will happen?"

Su Peng thought, and then immediately realized that Carpenter Cao might have hidden the iron plate in the jujube tree not just for secrecy, but because he guessed the meaning of the 'Wood' element, so he hid it in the tree.

"It's very likely... So what about 'Fire'? Is it about burning it in fire?" Su Peng thought. He didn't realize that Carpenter Cao's research on the iron plate was only preliminary and hadn't reached the level of his thoughts. The iron plate had another significance.

However, Su Peng didn't know this. He suddenly felt eager to conduct an experiment to see what would happen if he burned the iron plate.

He walked into Carpenter Cao's house. Carpenter Cao's family was relatively wealthy in the village, with no shortage of anything, including firewood and charcoal. Su Peng found some stones and built a fire pit at Carpenter Cao's door. He then lit the firewood and charcoal, found a carpenter's tool with an iron handle, wrapped the handle with cloth, and clamped the iron plate, placing it in the fire!

Slowly, Su Peng noticed some changes. The black iron plate, as it was burned, gradually changed color... not to the normal red, but to a slow, deep purple!

Su Peng noticed that after the iron plate turned purple, flame-like patterns appeared on its surface, while the wood-like patterns did not disappear.

"It seems I'm on the right track!" Su Peng was delighted and continued to heat the iron plate.

After a while, Su Peng saw that the color and patterns on the iron plate no longer changed. He knew that the effect of 'Fire' had been achieved.

"The next step is 'Water'... 'Water' shouldn't be too complicated, probably just placing it in water."

Su Peng thought and remembered that the large water tank in Carpenter Cao's room was still full of water. He used the carpenter's tool to clamp the purple, almost transparent jade-like iron plate and walked into the room.

Opening the large water tank, Su Peng placed the purple, flame-patterned, wood-textured iron plate into the water. Instantly, he felt something strange!

The purple jade-like iron plate didn't make the usual 'sizzle' sound when hot metal meets water. Instead, it seemed to float, as if it had buoyancy!

Su Peng found this incredibly strange. The density of the iron plate was definitely greater than water, but after being burned, it could float on the surface. What kind of force was this?

However, Su Peng also cooperated by releasing the carpenter's tool, watching the purple jade-like iron plate float on the water. He noticed that the water in the tank gradually decreased, but a light, not mist, but like an aurora, began to spread in the tank!

Su Peng was stunned. He watched as the aurora-like light spread, spilling out of the tank and forming a movie-like screen in the air. In the screen, a man in brocade clothes, with an unclear face, held a flying knife, seemingly using some martial arts!

At the same time, thousands of clerical script characters appeared around the man. Su Peng immediately fell into a mysterious feeling, just like when he had comprehended the Wild Ball Fist puppet.

"You are comprehending the martial art 'Feng Yun Yi Dao'! Feng Yun Yi Dao is a special martial art, with no martial experience requirement, but requires Insight: 14, and Perception: 14. You do not meet the comprehension requirements... unable to comprehend..."

Su Peng felt that although he could clearly see the man in the screen, who was only about a third the size of a normal person, demonstrating the flying knife technique, and the cultivation manual beside him, he couldn't understand it. After seeing it, it would be forgotten in his mind.

"Notice, this token can only store one message. Three minutes after, this message will be automatically destroyed, and the token will become an ordinary token."

A voice sounded in Su Peng's ear, making him even more anxious. After such a rare encounter, was he going to miss this possibly world-class martial arts manual?

Su Peng made up his mind and suddenly, his pupils dilated, and his eyes flashed with strange light.

This... was Su Peng's special ability, affecting memory!

Su Peng's brain had a biological hard drive-like structure of about 40M, which could store some text data. However, Su Peng rarely used it to record what he saw, only using it to extract some image data.

Because, using this special ability at full capacity, although not always, had at least a 50% chance of causing Su Peng severe headaches for an hour.

However, with such a rare encounter right in front of him, Su Peng couldn't care less about these side effects. He activated this ability in his brain to the fullest!

A special voice sounded in Su Peng's ear.

"Notice... Notice... Character's brain waves have undergone strange changes... Adding unknown skill... Unknown skill named 'Memory'... Character using 'Memory' skill, forcibly recording the special martial art 'Feng Yun Yi Dao'... Feng Yun Yi Dao has been recorded..."

...

...

When Su Peng regained consciousness, he found himself still in Carpenter Cao's house, but the movie-like screen in front of him had disappeared.

He touched his head, which wasn't very painful. Su Peng felt lucky, thinking that he didn't suffer from the headache side effect this time.

Looking at the water tank, Su Peng was surprised to find that all the water in the tank had disappeared. The iron plate now lay at the bottom of the tank, the purple flame and wood patterns having vanished, looking like an ordinary iron plate.

Su Peng reached out and picked up the iron plate, then remembered the special martial art 'Feng Yun Yi Dao' that had appeared.

Su Peng opened his character panel and the skills section, only to be surprised to find...