Divine Eye Appraisal: Starting with a Lucky Pickup of a Beautiful CEO's Family Heirloom

The golden light on the cauldron stabilized after the jade pendant was embedded, but Wen Zhaoye's divine eyes detected a line of small characters emerging deep inside the cauldron's belly.

He moved closer, his fingers tracing the verdigris on the bronze vessel. The characters became clearer and clearer—carved into the inner bronze wall with an extremely fine engraving tool. The strokes were very shallow, as if the hand was trembling while carving, or as if afraid of being discovered. "Zhaoye, if you see these characters, it means you have completed the sealing reinforcement."

Wen Zhaoye's hand froze in mid-air.

The handwriting was his father's, exactly the same as in the letter. He stared at the words, reading them one by one.

"But remember—the seal on the Nine Locks Cauldron is not permanent; it needs to be reactivated every sixty years using the Wen family bloodline. That's what your grandfather did back then. I chose to stay here not because I'm trapped by the seal, but because I want to protect this last chance to activate it."

Wen Zhaoye's finger stopped on the writing.

"The next activation will be on the winter solstice next year." After reading this sentence, his fingertips slowly traced the words "next winter solstice," and his palms began to burn. His mind was a jumbled mess, as if someone had thrown a bomb into it. He turned to look at Gu Qinghan.

Gu Qinghan stood at the entrance of the stone chamber, her gaze falling on the crack in the cauldron, where a jade pendant was embedded, faintly glowing. She remained silent for a moment before speaking: "My master goes into seclusion for a month every year from the winter solstice, without exception."

Wen Zhaoye stared at her, and a thread suddenly tightened in his mind.

"Does your master's seclusion period match this time?"

Gu Qinghan did not answer, but her expression said it all.

Just then, footsteps sounded from the end of the passage. They were very light, but in the empty stone chamber, each sound was like a drumbeat.

Wen Zhaoye turned around, the beam of his flashlight shining towards the entrance of the passage. A figure emerged from the darkness, wearing a gray long robe, thin, with gray hair, and a face bearing the weariness and persistence of thirty years.

Xuan Kongzi's voice sounded calm, but his words carried a strong force: "Wen Zhaoye, the person your father waited for for thirty years is me."

Wen Zhaoye didn't loosen his grip on the cauldron. He stared at the old man in front of him, his mind playing out all the clues from this period of time like a movie—Gu Qinghan's master, the map of Kunlun Mountain, the ancient characters on the stone chamber walls, the letter left by his father, and the sentence "Don't mention the surname Wen."

"Do you know my dad?" he asked, his voice a little hoarse.

"I know him." Xuan Kongzi walked to the center of the stone chamber and stopped three steps away from Wen Zhaoye. His gaze fell on the jade pendant on the cauldron. After a long time, he said, "Thirty years ago, your father and I entered Kunlun Mountain together."

Wen Zhaoye remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

"Back then, when we found this cauldron, we discovered it was already in dire need of repairs." Xuan Kongzi pointed to the belly of the cauldron. "The dragon vein's energy was rapidly depleting. If it wasn't reinforced, it could only last for another twenty years at most."

"Your father said he wanted to seal it, and I said I wanted to activate it." Xuan Kongzi paused, his voice deepening, "We had a fight, we even fought, and in the end he activated the Four Symbols Sealing Array and sealed himself inside."

"I hate him," Xuan Kongzi said in a flat voice. "I've hated him for thirty years."

Wen Zhaoye stared at him and asked, "Then why are you here now?"

Xuan Kongzi was silent for a while before saying, "Because your father left a message before sealing it. He said that if his son came one day, he should tell him—the next activation will be on the winter solstice next year. If he doesn't come, then I will come."

Xuan Kongzi looked at Wen Zhaoye, his eyes filled with a complex mix of guilt and relief. "I go into seclusion every winter solstice, not for cultivation, but to wait for you." He paused, "to wait for the person your father mentioned."

Wen Zhaoye stood before the cauldron, his palms sweating profusely. His mind was in turmoil, but one thing was clear—his father hadn't lied to him. Every word his father spoke, every action he took, was true.

His father didn't abandon him; he just had no other choice.

His father is trapped here, guarding that cauldron, waiting for him to come.

"I will return next winter solstice to reactivate the seal," Wen Zhaoye said, his voice soft but steady. Xuan Kongzi looked at him, not answering immediately, but asking, "Do you know what this means?"

"I know," Wen Zhaoye said. "It means I must find all the fragments of the Nine Locks within a year and reactivate the seal. Otherwise, the dragon vein energy will be completely lost, and the artifact of the nation's destiny will be ruined."

Xuan Kongzi remained silent for a long time before nodding.

"Your dad is right, you're better than him."