In Sumeru, pretend to be a scholar!

Things in the desert.

Wang Yan's gaze swept over the stone slabs and bottles and jars in front of him, and they all indeed had a strong desert style, especially in terms of color.

The items in front of me were all yellowish-brown, and apart from one of the jars which had a painted design, the others looked very rustic.

On one of the more intact stone slabs, however, there were many crooked and winding engravings, which looked quite interesting.

Turning his gaze away, Wang Yan looked at Ke Lai: "Can I try?"

"Of course, although these came from the ruins, they are not worth much. You can find anyone in the desert to buy a few."

Since Ke Lai had already brought out the items, she was naturally willing to let Wang Yan handle them.

Wang Yan nodded and picked up the more intact stone slab.

Unfortunately, his ability is to understand languages, not to appreciate antiques, and his understanding of desert civilization is limited to game texts, so naturally he can't appreciate those bottles and jars.

Instead of pretending to know what you don't, it's better to show it from the start.

I'm someone who studies ancient writing systems!

With a glance at the stone slab, Wang Yan naturally understood the winding characters on it, and even a tricky pronunciation technique came to mind.

"Does this count as being fluent in a language?"

Wang Yan was startled by this reaction, but his expression did not change.

In Wang Yan's memory, the spell "Language Proficiency" should allow people to understand and read languages ​​and characters, but the ability to directly interpret pronunciations into the mind seems to be nonexistent.

However, since he was already there, Wang Yan decided to make the best of it and didn't delve into the matter further.

My gaze remained fixed on the stone slab, where the winding characters were now legible.

-----------------

The red sand swallowed up the last well.

I saw the chieftain's lips split open and bleeding, yet he still raised his flint-inlaid scepter and led his people to kneel on the scorching sand dunes.

"King of the Red Earth, grant me deep roots; King of the Yellow Sands, grant me cracks; King of the Red Sands, grant me a mark; O King of the Sea of ​​Sands—"

"Please let your dormant blood beat again."

We shouted and prayed to the great King.

Seven days and seven nights, we excavated the rock veins marked by our ancestors.

When the youngest boy collapsed from dehydration, the shovel suddenly struck out with a hollow echo.

Beneath the sand layer, a trace of moisture seeped from a crack in the rock.

A miraculous trickle of water gushed forth, leaping in my cracked palms.

Under the blazing midday sun, it gleamed with a faint, golden light, like blood and promises bestowed from the depths of the earth.

The clan chief sprinkled the first handful of water onto the altar.

The moment the water seeped into the sand, a tender bud broke through the hard shell and unfolded two copper-colored leaves.

We firmly believe that the desert has never died; it merely takes a brief nap at the turn of each era.

The great King of Red Earth, King of Yellow Sand, King of Red Dust, King of the Sea of ​​Sand will forever protect us.

-----------------

"This is a very short story, probably left behind by some unknown tribe in the desert."

"It tells the story of how the tribe prayed to the Red King, then rediscovered the water source, and resumed the tribe's existence."

"Judging from the ending of the story, which says that the Red King will forever protect the tribe, the timeline of this story is very likely after the Red King's fall."

"As for anything else, I can't interpret it."

Wang Yan withdrew his gaze, put down the stone slab, looked at Ke Lai, and told her the contents of the stone slab.

Ke Lai listened attentively, her eyes filled with admiration: "Amazing! Mr. Wang Yan, you understood it so quickly. I can't do that, I'm too stupid, I can't understand it at all."

Wang Yan felt a little embarrassed by the gaze and gently shook his head: "It's nothing. After all, I study ancient writing, it's my profession."

After a pause, Wang Yan smiled and said, "Just like Ke Lai can cook, dry medicinal herbs, and knows how to patrol the forest, I can't do those things."

After being praised by Wang Yan, Ke Lai smiled shyly. After a while, she said, "Mr. Wang Yan speaks so kindly, just like Amber. He really knows how to comfort people."

Wang Yan smiled and said, "It might be comforting if one person says that, but if others have praised you in the same way, then it means it's an objective fact."

"Oh dear, I can't argue with you." Cole waved her hand even more shyly, then quickly changed the subject, "And these, Mr. Wang Yan, can you see them too?"

She pointed to the bottles and jars on the ground.

Wang Yan looked over and then shook his head: "It doesn't seem to be any kind of advanced pottery technique. Apart from this painted jar, the others should be ordinary utensils used by tribal people, and they don't have much value."

Wang Yan spoke with absolute certainty.

After all, these things were brought back by Kavi, and if they were really something of great value, Elhesen wouldn't have given them to Cole.

Despite Al-Hysen's occasional "bullying" of Kavi, he is actually very sensible.

Upon hearing this, Ke Lai nodded subconsciously.

She also felt that these bottles and jars were not as good as the pottery made by the locals of Huacheng Guo.

"As for this painted jar..." Wang Yan paused for a moment.

He stared at the painted design on the jar, as if he could understand the lines and patterns and the artistic conception conveyed in the painting.

But it always feels like something's missing, like there's a veil between us, making it hard to see clearly.

After a moment, Wang Yan shook his head: "My artistic skills are indeed not very good; I can't see the meaning behind this jar."

"These are common storage containers in the desert, and the main color of the painting on them is bright red, representing meat."

The voice came from behind Wang Yan.

Wang Yan subconsciously turned around and saw it was Tinali.

"Master Tinari!" Cole called out as well.

Wang Yan asked curiously, "Did the Tinari also study desert civilizations?"

As soon as he said it, Wang Yan suddenly realized that the ancestors of the Tinali people came from the desert, so what was the point of studying this little thing?

Sure enough, Tina shook her head slightly: "This is just common sense, not really research. Anyone who has been to the desert and interacted with the desert people will know this."

"The red storage containers are for meat, the green ones for vegetables, the yellow ones for grains, and the blue ones for water..."

"The desert people's use of color, apart from rituals, is still very simple."

Tina explained to Wang Yan and Ke Lai.

Wang Yan nodded slightly: "I see, I've learned something new from this little bit of life knowledge."

"It's nothing," Tinari waved his hand, then looked at Cole, "You guys just now..."

Before the question could even be asked, Cole excitedly exclaimed, "Master Tinari, Mr. Wang Yan is amazing! He deciphered the contents of the stone tablet at a glance!"

Then, Ke Lai told the little story that Wang Yan had just told her.

Tina's eyes flickered slightly, and a hint of approval appeared in her gaze as she looked at Wang Yan.

Although Tinari was a proponent of biophysics, he naturally knew about this thing when it was delivered to Cole.

Tinaly was naturally aware of the little story above.

The fact that Wang Yan was able to decipher the story so quickly suggests that his identity as a "paleography scholar" is somewhat credible.

You could even say it's quite impressive.

A scholar of ancient scripts in Liyue who can decipher the ancient scripts of the Sumeru Desert is definitely a person of great learning and talent.

"A good interpretation."

Tinali gave a compliment.

Then he thought for a moment, looked at Wang Yan, and asked, "Wang Yan, do you have any follow-up plans?"