Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 45 Rebellious Scholars, Tampering with History

After giving his instructions, the sound of his black boots faded into the distance as he returned to his post at the county office.

Jiang Xingzhou, along with Gu Zhimian, Zhang Youyi, and several other impoverished students, stayed in the library of the official office to sort through the books.

"Let's get to work!"

Jiang Xingzhou rolled up his sleeves and cleared out a spacious desk. He spread out the twenty-four volumes of the "Jiangyin County Gazetteer" on the rosewood table with upturned ends, and then cleaned up these books one by one.

Gu Zhimian was in charge of revising the "Grand Canal Transport Records".

Zhang Youyi was responsible for transporting and distributing classical texts.

Jiang Xingzhou used a chicken feather duster to sweep away the dust on the bamboo slips, and then used a soft bristle brush with a bamboo handle to clean the bamboo slips, the gaps between the scrolls, and the insect eggs inside the wormholes.

As he unfolded a county gazetteer from a century ago, a translucent bookworm suddenly trembled between the bamboo slips.

The bookworm, covered in a green patina like bronze, scratched the ink on the bamboo slip where its hundred legs had scribbled, blurring the inscription "[King Chu hunted in Yunmeng]".

The insect's body suddenly transformed into a dark black line, disappearing into the black characters as it attempted to escape.

"Snapped!"

But he was killed by Jiang Xingzhou with a single palm strike.

Those centuries-old bamboo slip books almost all bear mottled marks from being eaten by insects.

"It seems to be common for bamboo slips to be infested with insects."

No wonder it needs to be cleaned every year!

Jiang Xingzhou thought to himself.

Suddenly, within Wen Gong's sea of ​​consciousness, a string of bright red data appeared on the bronze bamboo slips.

[Ding! Text pollution source detected - Demonic Insect Chronicle Usurping - Class A Hazard]

Jiang Xingzhou opened a scroll of the "Jiangyin County Annals" from a thousand years ago. Seeing the inscription on the bronze bamboo slips, he frowned and pressed his throbbing temples.
A bright red warning?
This has never happened before.

Jiang Xingzhou discovered that this thousand-year-old "Jiangyin County Annals" contains a record of an ode to the Thousand-Eyed Demon Saint.

[Jiangyin County Annals, Records of Strange Things, Chapter on the Thousand-Eyed Demon Saint]

In the third year of Zhaoming's reign, a great plague struck, and the plague demons knocked on the city walls.

In the winter of Jia Yin year, the Thousand-Eyed Demon Saint appeared in the world, carrying the "Wen Shu Scroll". He had a thousand eyes on his forehead that rotated like lotus flowers, and he saved the people from suffering.

That night, the beams and pillars of the county treasury developed the Sanskrit inscriptions of the Avatamsaka Sutra, and golden sap oozed from the wormholes of the ancient trees.

The people all prostrated themselves in worship, crying out, "With your noble spirit and unwavering loyalty, you protect our cultural heritage!" That year, a Thousand-Eyed Temple was built in Jiangyin, where sacrifices were offered annually.

"Strange, why would this thousand-year-old volume of the Jiangyin County Annals contain an article praising a demon saint?"

Jiang Xingzhou was surprised and asked the group of students.

Based on his understanding,
The human and demon races of the Great Zhou Dynasty are mortal enemies. Human scholars would never write a short chronicle to praise a demon saint.

This short piece was even included in the county annals.

The students all took it to read, but they were all puzzled by this short account of the demon saint.

After all, it's a county gazetteer from a thousand years ago, a very long time ago.

They dared not say for sure what exactly happened.

"This is a short record written by the chief clerk a thousand years ago."

However, due to the passage of time, we do not know the details of that period. Perhaps the Demon Saint did something beneficial for the people?

Gu Zhimian asked curiously.

"wrong!"

Jiang Xingzhou's fingertips suddenly paused at the edge of the bamboo slip—this bamboo slip was actually slightly thinner than the adjacent bamboo slips.

After a moment, some clues were discovered.

He turned the bamboo slips to face the sunlight.
The bamboo stripes beneath the four characters "Thousand-Eyed Demon Saint" revealed layers of scraping marks, suggesting repeated alterations, and were likely the name of a human saint.

"This scroll of bamboo slips seems to be a fraction thinner than the other scrolls."

There were marks from being scraped with a sharp blade, and the ink writing was blurred.

Jiang Xingzhou sniffed the bamboo slip and detected a faint, sour, rotten insect odor from the ink on it. His expression immediately turned serious.

"It's the sour, putrid smell of the ink-boring insect!! The Book of Insects records that there is a kind of demonic insect called the ink-boring insect, which can secrete corrosive 'ink acid liquid' that can corrode bamboo slips and alter the handwriting on the bamboo slips."

The ink acid solution is extremely similar to pine soot ink, and it is very difficult to detect the difference without careful examination!
I suspect this county gazetteer contains another story, one about a human sage curing a plague. But it's been completely altered by the demonic insects, turning him into a demonic sage!

Jiang Xingzhou immediately looked up alertly, his gaze sweeping over the enormous library.

The library, containing tens of thousands of volumes, is about the size of an attic.

He stared at the crisscrossing beams of the library's dome and suddenly realized that those mortise and tenon joints could hide an old demon insect.

"I'll go and invite Lord Cui over!"

Zhang Youyi hurriedly ran out of the library and went to the county government office to find the clerk Cui Mingyuan, who was on duty.

"【Summoning Demon Insect Talisman】!"

Jiang Xingzhou dipped his wolf-hair brush in ink, infused it with azure light and talent, and quickly wrote a fish-and-insect seal script on the Xuan paper before flicking it out.

The rune flew out, igniting a ball of flame, and traveled along the beams and pillars, searching for the source of the flame and setting off indigo phosphorescence along the way.

It will actively search for the strongest demonic insect in the vicinity.

"Hiss-!"

"Squeak~!"

But then, a sharp screech came from the crack in the beam, and a ten-year-old black demonic worm, a full foot long, fell down in panic.

"Damn it!
How dare you distort the county annals!

Who instructed you, you monstrous insect, to tamper with my "Jiangyin County Gazetteer"?

Upon hearing what Zhang Youyi had said, the clerk Cui Mingyuan stepped into the library and saw a huge demonic insect fall from a beam to the ground, which enraged him.

The Jiangyin County Annals is a history book of the county.

Once history books are altered, later generations, unable to understand their meaning, may mistakenly believe them to be true historical events, or even be led astray from the truth.

This is an extremely serious matter!
The black-eyed beetle's eyes widened in terror, but it stubbornly refused to utter a single word.

"Lord Cui, how can you be so sure that there is someone behind it?"

The students looked shocked.

"Ancient books are prone to being infested with insects, which is quite common."

But natural bookworms only greedily gnaw on the pages, absorbing the literary talent within, and desperately cultivating themselves into demons.

They would never go to great lengths or rack their brains to alter the text.

This is of no benefit whatsoever to the silver-eating demon's own cultivation!
To falsify county annals and historical records is such a vicious act, misleading future generations of our people.

If it wasn't instigated by the demon and barbarian races, then it must have been the work of traitorous scholars who have disrupted our historical records!

The clerk, Cui Mingyuan, angrily rebuked him.

Despair filled the Inkworm Demon's eyes. Seeing that its scheme had been exposed, it rapidly flapped its wings and darted toward the window frame, desperately trying to escape.

"[ice]!"

Jiang Xingzhou gave a light shout, waved his sleeve, and raised his finger, casting an ice-themed spell.

A sharp, foot-long icicle shot out and pinned it firmly to a beam, the burst of ink freezing into a block of ice.

The temperature in the entire library plummeted, and an ice crystal snowflake instantly bloomed on the wings of the ink-boring demon insect as it fled.

Five hundred miles away.

In Jiangzhou Prefecture, at the Zhao family's waterside pavilion.

The bronze insect-carving cauldron enshrined on the desk trembled violently.

A scholar in brocade robes was writing a fragment of "Ode to the Demon Saint" from the "Jiangzhou Prefecture Annals" when his wolf-hair brush snapped in two. He was struck as if by a heavy blow, spitting out a mouthful of black blood, his face turning deathly pale.

"Damn it!"

"You brat, how dare you ruin my ten-year-old ink-worm worm technique!"

He flew into a rage, overturned the table, and screamed as he revealed the truth.

(End of this chapter)