Star Gate

Chapter 737: There is No Fear of Lack of Bites When There Are Enough Lice (I)

“There is an owner of the ruins?” Li Hao asked with confusion.

“Yes!” Yun Yao nodded. “I’m not saying that the owner is inside, but that the name of the ruin is the Lu Zhen Research Center.”

Lu Zhen?

Li Hao blinked, then shook his head. He’d never come across this name in any of the ancient records and did not know of this person. A Wu surname? That did appear in the ancient books. When the Human King enrolled in his martial university, one of his teachers had been surnamed Wu. However, she was a woman as her husband was mentioned since he was also a notable personage.

Lu Zhen... did not sound like it belonged to a woman.

“Perhaps the leader does not know of this person, but the city annihilation missiles in use today were invented by him.” Yun Yao looked at Li Hao. “He was one of the few research scientists of the ancient civilization.”

The investor of the city annihilation missiles?

“Not only that, but he studied many topics in the ancient civilization,” Yun Yao continued. “He was a subject matter expert in the mental strength area during the early days of New Martial, and the first grandmaster to champion studies of mental strength during that age...”

Li Hao raised an eyebrow, was that so? Then such a character should’ve been very famous and known by someone, anyone. Lu Zhen... This was a rare instance of being able to directly refer to an ancient character by their name. The little tree had mentioned before that it was dangerous to outright use their name. If Lu Zhen didn’t have such a stipulation, did that mean that he wasn’t very strong?

“I tell the leader this to say that while this ruin’s grade may not be high,” Yun Yao continued. “The technologies it contains are exceedingly important and relevant to too many other matters. This is also why a lot of people wish to seize it!”

Li Hao looked at her, still uncertain of the key point within. There are so many ruins out there, why do people want yours! Even if it’s a research center, to be honest, there are so many technologies located in ancient cities. Why focus only on the Yuns’?

Yun Yao plainly meant to tell him that her family’s ruins were exceedingly important, so important that not a hint of them could be breathed to others.

“Let’s put it this way.” Seeing that Li Hao didn’t understand, Yun Yao sighed and spoke more plainly. “The Lu Zhen Research Center was also renowned for one of its studies. Perhaps that one’s recorded in the history books—the preservation of mental strength!

“My family purposefully collected information about this person. He was a grandmaster in the early days of New Martial and his daughter seemed to have been the Human King’s teacher! His son-in-law was the dean of the most premier martial university of that time—Demonic Martial. He was the dean for the Human King.

“Lu Zhen himself seemed to have secretly kept an emperor company for many years. He was skilled in the martial dao that was present before the New Martial age, but also skilled in the dao that was prevalent in New Martial.”

Li Hao’s jaw sagged. So there was this level of relationship present?

“The preservation of mental strength is as the words mean—the conventional meaning of immortality! Yuqi might have mentioned to you why my family was destroyed, but she might not have given a comprehensive overview. My father’s reforms were one reason, but a key reason was that some rumors were leaked about the studies at the research center.”

“The Yuns have always studied it in secret, how could it have been leaked?” Li Hao frowned. The ruins were a Yun family exclusive, how would outsiders learn of anything?

Yun Yao was silent for a moment before continuing, “It wasn’t much at first, but after my father delved deeper into the topic and even used a family member as an experimental product... Trouble came!”

“Your father experimented on his family?!” Li Hao’s eyebrows shot up. “Did he want to be immortal?”

“No!” Yun Yao shook her head. “It’s not what you think. Father studied immortality because he... he... wanted to resurrect Lu Zhen!” She took a deep breath. “Or rather, we didn’t know if that was Lu Zhen. It might’ve been another ancient scholar in the ruin! My father sensed some mental strength lingering in the ruins. There were also many technical terms, jargon, and technology in the research center that we either did not know or were only partially complete. My father spent that period of time trying to resurrect the ancient that still lingered.

“Therefore, the Haoran Research Center focused on that topic, but my father thought too simply in the end. He just wanted to restore some technologies, but he forgot that there might be more than one ancient with lingering mental strength.

“In the eyes of others, father wanting to resurrect an ancient was an act of conquest, a sign that he wasn’t satisfied with his ordinary lot in life. And the key was, what if they could seize the technology and resurrect an ancient for their own use?”

Li Hao shook his head. He’d been rather baffled at first, but was now fully awake and stunned. “So you mean to say that your father’s cause of death was that news leaked of him wishing to resurrect a powerhouse. The nine ministries and royal family both knew of this, and they wanted to resurrect the powerhouses as well. That’s why they destroyed your family—because they wished to seize the technology?”

“Yes!”

“But it was just research.” Li Hao frowned. “There were no results yet, weren’t the nine ministries in too much of a hurry?”

“There were results.” Yun Yao looked calmly at Li Hao. “Would the nine ministries and royal family be in such a hurry if there weren’t? They were because they saw the results.”

“What do you mean? Did your family bring an ancient back to life??”

Yun Yao hesitated and didn’t respond. Li Hao didn’t press either. After a long pause, Yun Yao nodded. “You could say that, or say that we barely managed to!”

“What do you mean?”

“My father... directed some mental strength out of the ruins and into a family member. There seemed to be some changes as that person once spoke some words that no one understood. Perhaps... someone in the household accidentally let it slip, not to mention that the research center wasn’t airtight. Therefore, the nine ministries and royal family knew that we’d had some results! And therefore... the Yuns were destroyed!”

Li Hao frowned and looked at Yun Yao. “Are you referring to Yuqi?”

“Not her!” Yun Yao shook her head.

“Your father experimenting on family members... This does not dovetail with my image of him. This shows signs of a dangerous obsession.”

Yun Yao thought it over, then sighed. “This was a course of action that everyone in the family agreed to. My nephew... didn’t have full mental capacity. He wasn’t completely here. Father said that rather than spending his life as an idiot, he might as well... might as well... give it a try. It could work, and a fool wouldn’t live long in this era.”

Li Hao frowned. This was someone else’s family affairs, so he wasn’t at liberty to say much. He now truly knew why the Yuns had been eliminated. Yun Haoran had wanted to resurrect an ancient powerhouse! Those that lived from the ancient times right now were plant spirits. Li Hao had never seen a living ancient person before. None of the Battle Heaven soldiers were alive. He could even tell that the three Silver Armors had become soul weapons.

It was a very cruel process! But they had lingering mental strength and obsessions remaining. So did Yun Yao mean that just that was sufficient basis to bring them back to life?

Li Hao rapidly processed the ramifications of what he’d just learned and didn’t say anything.

“I thought that it was a good thing that this technology would be ended after the ruins were sealed off upon my father’s death and family’s extermination. Yuqi and the others were dead too. But now... if Yuqi is alive... then...” Yun Yao sighed. “I don’t know if this is good or bad. I’m happy that they’re alive, but I think that it might’ve been better for the whole family to have died that year. Otherwise, this will result in immense trouble. It’s fine for me. I died once already, I can just die again.

“But once ancient powerhouses are truly revived, that is a matter that spells the destruction of the world. There were family members who were against father’s studies back in the day, but he eventually convinced them. If this starts up again...”

Dazed, Yun Yao stopped speaking. Li Hao was also dazed as well. Resurrection, mental strength, longevity, immortality... So the Yuns were researching this! Then no wonder they’d been exterminated! Yun Haoran really had been a madman! Was this something that could be studied?? He was already in the limelight to begin with, and he wanted to undertake reforms? Who would die then, if not him?

Li Hao suddenly understood why Yun Yao felt such a complicated mix of emotions. She’d thought that her family was completely gone and that she would spend the rest of her life alone. That might have been a good thing, but then she saw her niece...

“Do you mean that your mentally handicapped nephew might be... might be alive?” Li Hao suddenly asked.

Yun Yao did not respond. Indeed, if Yuqi was alive, then Yuming was likely alive as well. She hadn’t needed to have said anything at all, but she had. When she looked at Liu Long for reassurance, the man rumbled, “Li Hao’s not that type of person. If you trust us, then tell us everything. We’ll think of a solution!”

“I do trust leader, which is why I said what I said.” Yun Yao took a deep breath. “Otherwise, I would take these matters with me to the grave! My father’s primary research target was my nephew Yuming. I died the day my family was eradicated, but then I came back to life!”

Li Hao blinked.

“There’s nothing magical about that, just a drop of Water of Life,” Yun Yao explained calmly. “My father also extracted a peculiar substance from the ruins that put me in a state of fake death. That was how I came back to life.”

“Then your father and the others...”

“They’re dead,” Yun Yao said softly. “I was just on the fringes, my father was the most important. In order to ensure his death, they cut off his head and crushed his organs! I didn’t see Yuqi and Yuming that day, so I thought they were dead or captured. But Yuqi’s sudden appearance, and in Skystar City...

“I’m worried...” She paused with confusion.

“Worried about what?”

“I’m worried... that they’re bait!” Yun Yao said in the end. “Yuqi and Yuming can’t access the ruins. I’m probably the only one who can in the entire family!” She continued wearily, “I’m worried that they’re just here to lure me out. My corpse vanished, so the enemies might know that I’m still alive and want to use them to have me come forward and open the ruins again!”

“Then... why... did you show yourself just now?” Liu Long also started worrying.