Deadly Game: Almighty Boss’s Guide to Making Money

Chapter 1245. The Book at Night (33)

Xia Jin took a deep breath and placed her palm on the hourglass pattern.

The warmth in my palm turned scorching again, and the silver-blue sand on the hourglass pattern flowed faster and faster, soon filling the lower half of the hourglass.

The hourglass pattern on the wooden door suddenly sank in, revealing a small groove.

A palm-sized silver hourglass sits in the recess, filled with silver-blue sand that is slowly flowing.

"It's the hourglass!" Xia Jin exclaimed in surprise, reaching out to grab it.

But just as her fingertips touched the hourglass, the walls on both sides of the corridor suddenly began to shake violently, and huge, monstrous shadows rushed towards them.

"Oh no, it's a trap set by the Shadow of Oblivion!" Wenya said, retreating, but it was too late.

A strange shadow sprouted a pitch-black hand, grabbed Wenya's collar, and was about to throw her away when Lin Xi arrived just in time and struck her down with a hammer.

The strange shadow let out a shrill scream, and its body began to burn, quickly turning into a wisp of black smoke.

Wen Ya landed on the ground, her face pale.

"Thank you," Wenya said.

"Are you alright?" Qingqing stepped forward and helped Wenya up.

Wenya shook her head.

However, the strange shadows multiplied, gathering together to form a giant black shadow with a dark red "Forget" character etched on its forehead.

The strange shadow pounced on the group.

"Xia Jin, quickly use the hourglass of time!" Ouyang Xichen said in a deep voice.

Xia Jin gripped the hourglass in her hand and held it above her head.

The silver-blue sand in the hourglass suddenly stopped flowing, then began to flow in the opposite direction, condensing in the air into a huge shield of light that protected everyone inside.

The strange shadow's claws struck the light shield, making a "sizzling" sound. The black mist on its claws began to dissipate, and it let out a painful scream, taking a few steps back.

Bai Yueming seized the opportunity and sent the flame in his hand flying toward the "Forget" character on the head of the strange shadow.

The character "忘" (forget) instantly cracked open, and the monster's body began to shake violently before collapsing to the ground and disappearing.

—Holy crap, I'm so nervous.

—I didn't dare to breathe.

—Me too, I'm afraid of missing out on something.

—I almost thought Wenya was going to die.

——I thought so too.

—Luckily, 123 reacted quickly.

—It still has to be us, 123.

The walls on both sides of the corridor stopped shaking, and the ancient scrolls that had fallen to the ground returned to their original positions.

Xia Jin put down the hourglass, and the silver-blue sand inside began to flow slowly again, only now it was a little brighter than before.

Lin Xi stepped forward and looked at the hourglass pattern on the wooden door. She found that the pattern had been restored to its original state, only it was brighter than before.

She looked up at the crowd and said, "The door to the ancient books section should be open by now. Let's go in and take a look. There might be clues about the 'Eternal Chapter' inside."

Everyone nodded.

Xia Jin put the hourglass into her pocket and used the silver key to open the door to the ancient books section.

Behind the door was a huge room filled with bookshelves, which were filled with all sorts of ancient books.

Some book covers were yellowed and damaged, while others were brand new, as if they had just been published.

In the center of the room stood a huge desk, on which lay a black book. The book's cover was blank, except for a single silver line, like the trajectory of a star.

“That must be the ‘Book of Time’, right?” Huang Jingjing said.

Xia Jin stepped forward and was about to pick up a book when she saw the books on the desk suddenly open automatically, and the words on the pages began to glow, condensing into lines of text in the air.

"In the historical documents section, please open the door to the next area by arranging the correct timeline."

"Where is the historical documents section?" Bai Yueming asked.

"I know, come with me."

Everyone followed Xia Jin to the historical documents area.

The floor of the historical documents area is a huge glass display case, lined with dark blue velvet.

More than twenty irregular pieces of wood are scattered on the velvet, each engraved with a different historical event.

"The Code of Hammurabi was promulgated," "The invention of movable type printing" and "The proposal of the law of universal gravitation" are just some of the examples.

In the center of the glass display case, there is a circular recess with year markings arranged clockwise around the edge.

On the desk beside me lay a yellowed notebook of "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind." On the last page of the notebook was a simple timeline, marking key milestones "from the birth of civilization to modern science."

The glass display case was almost half a person tall, and the dark blue velvet made the wooden pieces stand out even more.

Each piece of wood was about the size of a palm, with smooth edges and pale gold paint on the engraved areas, which shimmered in the dim light coming through the corridor.

"There are more than twenty pieces of wood. We only need to arrange the key nodes, right?"

Huang Jingjing squatted down next to the display case, her fingertips gently tracing the glass.

Lin Xi held the yellowed notebook of "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind," her fingertips slowly sliding across the pages.

The notebook pages were as brittle as withered leaves. When Lin Xi turned to the last page with the timeline drawn on it, her fingertip brushed against the pencil annotations on the edge. Upon closer inspection, she found they were lines of small writing.

"Modular type printing - Bi Sheng of the Northern Song Dynasty, not the Sui and Tang Dynasties; universal gravitation - 1687 'Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'".

“I have a clue.” Lin Xi held up her notebook to show everyone. “These markings can pinpoint the specific year, making it less likely to make mistakes when arranging the data.”

Ouyang Xichen had already picked up two pieces of wood, one inscribed with "Promulgation of the Code of Hammurabi" and the other with "Construction of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids".

He frowned slightly: "Both of these are ancient civilizations; we need to determine which one came first."

Bai also came to Lin Xi's side and pointed to the starting point of the timeline in the notes.

"Look here, the timeline starts from 'the rise of ancient civilizations around 3000 BC,' the pyramids seem to have been built around 2600 BC, and the Code of Hammurabi is from around 1700 BC?"

Xia Jin squatted on the other side of the display case, her palms pressed against the glass, and suddenly exclaimed "Ah!"

"It's a little hot here!"

As you look over, you can see that her finger is positioned exactly at the "2600 BC" mark next to the groove.

"Could it be that if I place the wood chip in the right spot, it will react?"

She picked up the wooden piece engraved with "Construction of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids" and carefully placed it on the corresponding mark.

As soon as the wood chip touched the velvet, the pale gold lettering suddenly lit up, and a silver-blue light flashed along the edge of the glass display case.

"It really works!" Qingqing clapped her hands excitedly.

Wenya remained somewhat wary, as what had just happened had left her terrified.

She picked up the wooden piece that was engraved with "Invention of papermaking".

"Cai Lun improved papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, specifically in 105 AD, right?"

Huang Jingjing flipped through the appendix in her notes and quickly found a line.

"In 105 AD, Cai Lun presented paper, and papermaking became widespread. Yes, right next to the '100 AD' mark."