Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 838 The Book of Gold
Carefully flipping through the page that had been deformed due to long-term extrusion, lines of tiny text appeared in front of Liang En's eyes. Because of the characteristics of lead, even though the text was small, it was still very clear.

"Is this Arabic?" Looking at the words, Joan guessed.Because what appeared in front of everyone were some easily recognizable Arabic letters.

It's just that the Arabic alphabet not only corresponds to Arabic, but also corresponds to a series of characters from North Africa to Central Asia, such as Persian, Pashto and early Turkish, so Joan of Arc is temporarily unable to accurately determine what it is.

"This is in Arabic." Liang En quickly made a judgment after reading the entire dozen or so pages of the book. "As for the content inside, it is the "Seventy Discourses" and the "Balance Book" written by Zabir ibn Hayyan."

Alchemy is not exclusive to Europeans, at least in the ancient Eurasian continent, many people have been addicted to it, especially the Middle East, which can absorb both Eastern and Western cultures, was once an important center of alchemy.

The alchemy of this region, from North Africa to Central Asia, embodies a philosophy of essence that is closely related to the philosophy of Hermes in ancient Greece and alchemy in China, as well as the special principle of the transformation of minerals and metals into gold. Relationship.

The effectiveness of alchemy has long been debated in this region.Most orthodox religious scholars opposed alchemy, while most scholars of natural sciences, although they did not believe that ordinary metals could be turned into gold, accepted the basic point of view of alchemy.

The two books "Seventy Treatises" and "Book of Balance" are regarded as the basic theoretical works of XXX alchemy, and they are one of the most important documents on alchemy written in Arabic, so it is reasonable to appear here matter.

Of course, due to the limited space, these thin lead plates did not record the entire contents of these two books, but only extracted the core part of the records needed.

The discovery of the first lead book cheered everyone up, and with further excavation, more and more lead books encased in pitch were cleared.

After sorting it out, Liang En found that these books were mainly divided into two categories, one was about alchemy, and the other was about the exploration of supernatural power.

"It's almost the last bit." Looking at the bottom of the pit that was dug, Liang En sighed and turned to look at Elizabeth, "Didn't I ask you to contact the Italian Ministry of Education before, why haven't they arrived yet?"

According to Italian law, all found cultural relics need to be reported to the Ministry of Education as soon as possible, and the Ministry of Education will pay the discoverer for excavation and storage costs and a bonus or part of the cultural relics not exceeding a quarter of the value of the found cultural relics.

Liang En has always been law-abiding when it comes to digging, so he called the cultural relics management department under the Ministry of Education as soon as he found these things, but the strange thing is that it has been more than a week and the other party has not sent anyone over.

"I called, and the management of the cultural relics said that they couldn't find anyone recently. In addition, you and Joan of Arc both have the qualifications for excavating historic sites recognized by the European Union, so they have already faxed us the authorization letter." Elizabeth shrugged and said.

"Okay, you should keep these expenses in mind now, and they will be included in the excavation cost at that time." Liang En shrugged helplessly and said, this kind of thing really seems to be something Italians can do.

The reason why the Italians came late this time is also very simple, because a relic from the ancient Roman era was discovered in the center of Naples, and a bottle containing more than 200 ancient Roman gold coins was found.

So now the small number of mobile personnel in the archaeological department in the Naples area are basically all busy with this, and there is no way to spare people to go to this remote island in the countryside.

Of course, Liang En's prestige and good reputation accumulated before also provided a lot of help, even to the extent that the local archaeological department was relieved to let Liang En dig by himself.

But on the other hand, this group of Italians really didn't know what Liang En and the others dug up here, otherwise they would definitely abandon the ruins in the city center and rush over here.

"It seems that something different has been dug out this time." Joan of Arc said suddenly when the last asphalt ball was dug out from the pit. "It seems like this one is a bit heavier than the previous ones."

"Indeed." After taking the asphalt ball and weighing it in his hand, Liang En also felt that this thing seemed to be heavier than the previous asphalt balls of the same size.

This weight difference is not very obvious, and most people can't feel the difference at all, but for Liang En and Joan of Arc, who have surpassed the limits of human beings, they can feel this tiny difference as soon as they get started.

As the supernatural force gradually twisted reality, layers of asphalt peeled off the main body and fell to the ground like a slime, and then revealed what was inside.

"Golden Book!" Joan exclaimed in a low voice, looking at the golden touch that hadn't dimmed even after hundreds of years. "I always thought this kind of thing was just a legend."

Throughout the history of the Mediterranean region, there are legends of the golden book. From the earliest text carved on a gold plate to the later golden book, they all illustrate the idea of ​​human beings linking gold and knowledge without exception.

But in fact, there are almost no books made of gold. The only finds are some gold-plated or metal sheets with words engraved on them, and there are no books really made of gold.

But the thing that appeared in front of them now broke people's original understanding. Even if the golden book seemed to be only a dozen pages thick, it also broke the previous idea that the golden book was just a legend.

"Look at what's written here." Mary became excited at this time, because they had dug up more than 20 books before, all of which were made of lead, and a book made of gold appeared at this time with natural value. extraordinary.

"Let me see, this seems to be a name written in Latin." After opening the golden book, Liang En frowned slightly. He originally thought it should be a core alchemy book, but now it seems that Obviously not.

"What's recorded in this book?" After seeing the change in the expression on Liang En's face, Jeanne next to her asked in a low voice. She was also very curious about what happened here.

"This is a very strange book." After being asked such a question, Liang En was stunned for a moment, and then organized his words to say, "The first part is a hymn praising the sun, and the second part is a hymn that praises the sun. list."

"What's the meaning of the list?" Elizabeth frowned at this time. They saw a lot of knowledge about alchemy and mysticism just now, and a list was obviously incompatible with this.

"A list of the Hermes School, which records the list of leaders of a branch of the Hermes School from the 11th century to the 17th century." After careful inspection, Liang En said seriously.

"So I guess this relic is very likely to be a mystical center in Naples, or even the whole of northern Italy, but I don't know why it suddenly disappeared in the 17th century."

(End of this chapter)