Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 363 Changes
For a fool who grew up in the palace, understanding "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is extremely difficult.

Asa's fingers carefully traced the yellowed pages, the square characters appearing to him like mysterious runes. Strangely, when he focused intently on them, the meaning of the words would naturally emerge in his mind.

Even so, he read it several times but still couldn't understand it, especially the first sentence, "The world, after a long period of division, will unite; after a long period of unity, will divide," which he didn't know what it meant.

"Honorable magician, is there any simpler knowledge?" Asa asked Shi Fei with a wry smile, holding up a copy of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Shi Fei looked at him and said, "This is just a famous novel, the most basic one."

To prove his point, Shi Fei led Asa to a bookshelf. Pointing to the Twenty-Four Histories and modern history books on it, Shi Fei said, "Any one of these books is more obscure and difficult to read than the one you have in your hand."

Asa didn't believe it. He randomly picked up a book and saw the words "Records of the Grand Historian" on the cover.

Two characters should be simpler than four characters, right?

He was immediately overwhelmed by the dense annotations as soon as he opened the book. "I'll just read the old one instead," he said hastily, shoving the book back into its place as if he were hiding from something terrifying.

"But... if I learn these things, will I become powerful enough to defeat Mal'Ganis?" Asa couldn't help but ask, his fingers unconsciously curling the corner of the book.

Shi Fei chuckled and said, "Learn it? If you can truly understand its essence, Mal'Ganis will be nothing more than a turtle in a jar."

Asa's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Asa's eyes lit up immediately. He picked up "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" again and forced himself to read it word by word.

When I encountered something I didn't understand, I would furrow my brow and ponder it repeatedly. If I still didn't understand, I would skip it for now. Before I knew it, the afterglow of the setting sun had already dyed the pages of the book red.

"Dinner's ready." Shi Fei's voice brought him back to reality.

The aroma of dinner allowed Asa to temporarily forget the fatigue of reading. Shi Fei's cooking skills were exceptionally good; simple ingredients were transformed into delicious dishes in his hands.

After the meal, Shi Fei tapped the table: "Even though you're an idiot, I can't let you eat and drink here for free! After all, I'm not your father."

"Uh? Sorry, I don't have any money on me right now," Asa said apologetically. "My weapon, the Power of Menethil, is also lost in the desert."

“Since that’s the case, you can work to pay me back!” Shi Fei pointed to a few bowls and said, “You can wash the dishes today, and tomorrow you can come with me to plant sea buckthorn and saxaul.”

Shi Fei planted a lot of sea buckthorn and saxaul in the small courtyard, but only a few survived in this patch of yellow sand.

Since that's the case, he'll start planting now. As long as he persists, one day this desert will be full of life, with everything flourishing.

"Huh?" Asa stared at the greasy bowls, momentarily at a loss. He, a prince, had never washed dishes before. Those were servants' chores.

He glanced at Shi Fei, as if he were the servant here.

"Okay... alright!" Asa picked up the bowl and went to the sink. As he washed the dishes, Shi Fei teased him, saying he was washing them terribly.

Fortunately, after a lot of effort, he finally got the bowls clean. He felt like he had fought several burly men, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

Asa learned a valuable lesson when planting sea buckthorn.

He carefully observed Shi Fei's movements. First, he used dry grass to divide the sand into neat squares, then dug a shallow pit in the center of each square. Shi Fei's fingers deftly straightened the roots of the sea buckthorn seedlings, gently placed them in the pits, and carefully covered them with sand mixed with humus. "Why divide them into small squares?" Asa couldn't help but ask.

Shi Fei didn't look up: "It's for windbreak and sand fixation. Once the sea buckthorn grows, these dry grasses will decompose into fertilizer." His movements were skillful and gentle, as if he were handling a precious treasure.

Those were the hopes he planted.

Asa tried to imitate Shi Fei's movements, but he could never quite control his strength. He either dug too deep or pressed too firmly. Sweat streamed down his face, leaving dark marks on the sand.

As the sun began to set, Asa finally returned to his heavy book. Planting sea buckthorn had taken up most of the day, and sand still clung to his fingernails, leaving faint marks on the pages.

Day after day, Shi Fei planted many sea buckthorns, but very few survived.

Even so, over time, the tenacious sea buckthorn around his courtyard gradually formed a sparse green line, carving out a small world in the boundless yellow sand.

Asa gradually began to understand "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." At first, the text of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was like a foreign language to Asa. The unfamiliar names and place names made him dizzy, and he often fell asleep after reading a few pages.

But gradually, the characters between the lines began to come alive in his mind: Cao Cao's heroic spirit as he composed poetry with his spear across his hand, Guan Yu's loyalty as he rode alone for a thousand miles, and Liu Bei's sincerity as he visited Zhuge Liang's thatched cottage three times.

Their images became clearer and clearer, sometimes even appearing in his dreams.

Even though it was just in a book, it felt like he was really there. When he understood the story of Guan Yu's death, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

His subsequent reading became increasingly somber. When Zhuge Liang fell at Wuzhang Plains, Asa didn't sleep a wink all night. He read the chapter about Liu Bei entrusting his son to Zhuge Liang at Baidi City seven or eight times.

Those vibrant lives slipped away swiftly between the pages of the book; heroes who were laughing and joking yesterday turned into a handful of dust in the blink of an eye.

A feeling suddenly welled up in his mind.

Chaos is like a torrent, and people in it are nothing more than duckweed adrift. Their heroic deeds were recounted on the first few pages, but a few pages later, they are already dead.

But in times of chaos, it is even more important to pacify the land as soon as possible in order to end the chaos. It's a pity that the Sima family benefited from this; how hateful!
The pages gradually yellowed and curled as he repeatedly turned the pages, and Asa's fingertips developed thin calluses.

Sometimes he would suddenly stop and stare at the distant sand dunes, lost in thought. The stories of battles and strife, the schemes and intrigues, had all settled in his heart into an unprecedented understanding.

One day, Asa came to Shi Fei and said to him, "Sir! Sir! I have understood this book, Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Shi Fei said, "This is just the basics. The books on that shelf over there are your real textbooks."

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is primarily a work of fiction and a testament to righteousness. It serves as a yardstick to measure the values ​​held by people in ancient times. These values ​​include simple notions of loyalty and righteousness, and even the ideal of unification.

Therefore, for someone like Asa, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a good starting point.

Asa excitedly approached the bookshelf. Now, having thoroughly studied "The Romance of the Three-Eyed Swordsman," he was full of brilliant strategies and very confident.

However, after he opened the Records of the Grand Historian and read for a while, he became suspicious.

Damn it, this is different from what I've seen before!

(End of this chapter)