Chapter 27 Aesthetics

A culture did not form overnight.

It was the product of an immensely long and complicated process.

History, society, geography…

Under the influence of countless factors, every civilization developed its own unique aesthetic during each period of its existence.

Elaborate ornamentation. Lavish, vivid colors. Lace-trimmed sleeves, high-waisted pleated skirts, and court dances accompanied by gentle strings.

That was the Victorian style of nineteenth-century Europe.

Rough, wild simplicity. The natural colors of unworked materials. Necklaces made from animal teeth, hide aprons, and bonfires beneath baobab trees.

That was the tribal style of the African savanna.

In his previous life, Xia Nan had been born and raised in Central State.

He grew up pasting Spring Festival couplets on doors and listening to firecrackers explode outside.

The upturned eaves of old buildings along the street.

The black-and-white ink paintings hanging on company walls.

Even the blue-and-white patterns printed on the bottoms of porcelain bowls.

Xia Nan had been an ordinary person.

From the moment he was born, he had lived beneath his family’s expectations, rushing toward the future and scrambling to make a living.

He had never deliberately stopped to study those scattered details.

Yet over thirty-two years, they had been everywhere he looked.

The culture and aesthetics inherited through thousands of years of history had quietly seeped into him without his noticing, sinking deep into his blood and becoming part of his soul.

So even from a distance, Xia Nan immediately sensed something different about the pitch-black token in Hai’an’s hand.

Its style was completely unlike anything else he had seen in this fantasy world.

“Could you let me see that piece of wood?”

Xia Nan hesitated for a moment before calling out to the surprised half-elf.

“Here!”

Hai’an had been hoping Xia Nan might change his mind about joining the party.

The instant he sensed an opportunity, he did not hesitate at all.

He tossed the token over.

Tap.

Xia Nan caught it carefully with both hands.

The moment his fingers touched it, he felt the distinctive texture of wood.

Hard, but with a trace of flexibility.

Its surface was not rough at all. Instead, it felt unusually smooth and warm against his skin.

Xia Nan lowered his eyes and examined the palm-sized token.

It was roughly rectangular, narrower at the top and wider at the bottom, and around half an inch thick.

Part of the base had been carved open, while a continuous band of elegant cloud motifs ran along the edges.

The design was bold and restrained, yet the carving itself was fine and fluid.

“Hiss…”

Xia Nan drew in a breath.

“It really does look like it.”

Something in his DNA had just awakened.

Whether it was the shape or the decorative style, this wooden token looked almost perfectly at home among the artifacts he had once seen in museums in his previous life.

But…

There was one problem.

One crucial problem.

It was the only thing stopping him from deciding that the token had come from another world just as he had.

The writing.

Right in the center of the rectangular token was a square character, neatly painted in brown-gold pigment that had already begun to fade.

The brushwork was traditional and fluid.

Xia Nan had personally written strokes like that countless times in his previous life.

And yet…

He could not read it.

Not at all.

The character in front of him was definitely not the same kind of pictographic writing he had learned and seen in his previous life.

It was strange.

At first glance, everything about it felt familiar.

The longer he stared, the more foreign it became.

Similar, yet not.

That contradiction was exactly what kept Xia Nan from reaching a conclusion.

[I remember this world even has classes like monk. Maybe there’s also a civilization here similar to the Central Continent from my previous life?]

His thoughts churned.

With so little information, all Xia Nan could do was guess.

His emotions were too stirred up for him to maintain his usual expression, and a trace of complicated feeling slipped through.

Hai’an had been watching him the entire time.

Naturally, he noticed.

It did not take much effort to realize that Xia Nan’s reaction had something to do with the wooden token.

Hai’an immediately pressed his advantage.

“Our party’s mission is actually to investigate where that piece of wood came from.”

“Based on the information we’ve gathered, we’ve already narrowed down the place where it was found. We should reach it tomorrow.”

“If you’re interested, you could travel with us. I can share some of the information we have about it as well.”

Xia Nan’s resolve wavered.

Ultimately, joining the party had always been a matter of weighing benefits against risks.

Earlier, they had offered him a hundred gold.

That sounded like a fortune, but compared with the danger he might face, it was nowhere near enough.

So Xia Nan had refused without hesitation.

But now…

Another weight had just been placed on the other side of the scale.

A chance to discover the origin of this wooden token.

That changed things.

And if he was being fair, the four-person party in front of him was not quite so hopeless that joining them amounted to suicide.

The fat man and the blonde girl looked unreliable, yes.

But Hai’an looked competent, and Wood seemed to be a genuine class holder.

More importantly, their earlier conversation had revealed that their destination was only in the outer reaches of the Misty Forest.

That reduced the danger considerably.

Besides…

All right.

Xia Nan knew exactly what he was doing.

He was looking for excuses to justify the decision he had already made.

[I really can’t stop thinking about it.]

A fantasy world.

A mysterious token with the aesthetics of his previous life.

If Xia Nan passed up the chance to investigate its origins simply because he was being overly cautious, he had a feeling he would not be able to sleep that night.

So…

“I’ll join.”

Xia Nan finally looked away from the wooden token.

He raised his head and faced the half-elf.

…

…

Where you stood really did determine how you saw things.

Before joining the party, Xia Nan had looked at their terrible composition and the unprofessional behavior of certain members and found the entire group rather questionable.

Once he actually became part of it, however, he discovered that things were not quite as bad as he had imagined.

At first glance, they still looked like wealthy young people from the city taking a tour of the countryside.

But while traveling, all four maintained a reasonably disciplined formation.

No one made unnecessary noise.

Even when they needed to speak, they consciously kept their voices low.

A few times, insects suddenly burst out of bushes along the road.

The blonde girl in the party was so startled that her entire body jerked and her soul nearly left her body.

Even then, she immediately slapped a hand over her mouth and forced herself to remain silent.

Wood’s performance was even more impressive.

At the front of the group, he would occasionally stop without warning, crouch down, pinch up a little soil, and bring it to his nose.

One or two sniffs later, he would calmly determine that the territory of some monster lay ahead and lead the party around it.

At other times, he would casually pick up a branch from the ground and sweep it through a perfectly ordinary patch of thick grass.

A brightly patterned venomous snake would immediately come writhing out.

If anything, Wood looked more like a seasoned adventurer than a personal guard.

Unfortunately, he barely spoke.

Other than Hai’an, he almost never responded to anyone else in the party.

Otherwise, Xia Nan might have asked him for a few practical adventuring tips.

The biggest surprise, however, was Hai’an himself.

The silver-haired half-elf was clearly the center of the group and used a longbow as his main weapon.

By every measure, he was their archer.

Yet throughout the journey, Hai’an deliberately walked in front of Xia Nan, leaving his back completely exposed.

The message was obvious.

He was trying to make Xia Nan feel at ease.

And Xia Nan could feel that sincerity.

Of course…

That was assuming he ignored the wary glances Wood occasionally threw back at him from the head of the party.