It was clearly a scene full of conspiracy, yet the other party appeared quite at ease, completely adopting an attitude of 'I'm going to fish with a straight hook.' Either this guy truly considered himself Jiang Taigong, or he was treating Yu Lian as a foolish fish, or… everything he said was true.
Yu Lian looked at the scroll, then at Old Man Terrend, and suddenly asked, “So, has she been in?”
“I wouldn’t know. Half of this old man’s body is machinery; I really don’t understand mysticism!” The Old Man shrugged and smiled.
Yu Lian also chuckled, directly taking the scroll from the other party’s hand.
“Take good care of yourself, and take good care of your granddaughter. May the universe spirit… no, may eternal mathematics bless you with eternal health! May the universe spirit bless your granddaughter. Well then, I shall take my leave.” Yu Lian picked up the scroll and departed.
Old Man Terrend’s single eye continued to flicker with red mechanical light, watching Yu Lian leave the room. After a while, not until his granddaughter Nair entered the room, did a stiff, grinding sound escape his lips.
“All your breathing tubes are mechanical, so there’s no need to force a sigh!” Nair said.
“Nair, we’ve finally finished everything we needed to do here, it’s time for us to move!”
“Couldn’t you have moved a year ago? After you completed your agreement with Count Salwen, you could have left then!”
“Because my data analysis told me that after that crazy Little Queen left, someone would surely come looking for her to investigate. I cannot violate my agreement with Count Salwen, but I can still do some things within the scope of the agreement!”
“Your data analysis…” Nair stuck out her tongue, showing a disdainful expression.
“Nair, you must understand, in this universe, the only eternal things are music and mathematics! I…” Seeing that his granddaughter was clearly no longer listening, Old Man Terrend’s cheek twitched unnaturally, and he shook his head regretfully.
“Once we finish the order for that GNN reporter, we’ll leave. Nair, you can start packing your luggage these next two days.”
“That’s great! This wretched place, Earth, though visually splendid, is truly oppressive! I really can’t stand it anymore. But where are we moving to?”
“Go contact Toby and see how his search for a place is coming along. Hahahaha, I never expected the person Toby mentioned would be the one to show up. How should this probability be analyzed with data? Indeed, my own abilities have reached their limit. Besides Toby, I need more like-minded friends!”
It was already evening after leaving Salwen Square. Yu Lian found a not-so-conspicuous hotel in a well-policed neighborhood and booked a room that allowed for easy retreat. He locked the door, set up alarms and warning devices at all possible entrances, and then slowly unrolled the painting.
This was a “summer night starry sky.”
In the painting, a young Imperial noble in his thirties stood on a white jade garden observation deck, holding his three or four-year-old daughter, pointing at the night sky.
That Imperial noble was none other than the famous literary youth, environmental and biological scientist, Count Salwen.
Being a literary youth, he naturally had a bit of narcissism. Most of the paintings he left behind were self-portraits, which was understandable.
This was a very typical Imperial court-style color painting; the technique was mature and skillful, and the use of color, composition, and the figures’ postures and forms were all quite excellent. While it didn’t reach the level of a master, it was considered a top-tier work, and with the added prestige of his identity, selling for 5 million was not expensive at all.
Yu Lian looked at the little girl in the painting, who should have been Count Salwen’s daughter, and his heart stirred. He carefully identified the cute, Pure face, then confirmed it was not Shirley.
I knew it, it shouldn’t be such a melodramatic plot.
But, what was that about Old Man Terrend saying she resembled the Countess?
…It feels even more melodramatic.
What truly surprised Yu Lian was the role Count Salwen played in it.
This literary Imperial Grand Noble, though also a member of the wicked colonial rulers, generally had a very good reputation and public opinion. Mist Capital and the Three Islands still had a considerable number of old loyalists who reminisced about his period of rule. Moreover, this genius Engineer and biologist’s various manipulations of Earth effectively endowed this ordinary blue planet on the Third Suspension Arm with attributes like “natural beauty,” “species abundance,” and “exotic animals.”
From a macroscopic perspective, he could be considered a great contributor to Earth.
Such a person, yet seemingly had some legacy left by a Little Queen. So, what role did he play in the Bug Swarm disaster that swept across the All-Galaxy in later generations?
…However, thinking about his identity as a genius Engineer and genius biologist, it’s truly terrifying when you consider it deeply!
Then, consider Count Salwen’s fate. Although he was an “ancient” person from nearly two hundred years ago, he was a rather important figure, and Yu Lian, whose historical knowledge was roughly at the level of a seasoned enthusiast, had a good understanding of his life.
He was the Five Rings of the “Wisdom” Star Ring, also known as a Listener. This type of spiritual energy user was the least combat-oriented but the most indispensable. As the name suggests, they could listen to the sounds of enlightenment; each one was a born scholar and expert.
He was the hereditary Earl of Mist Capital for the Empire, but also a member of the Imperial Privy Council and the Star-Gazing Institute, spending at least half of each year in the Celestial Realm. He held high office and was young and promising.
However, his life was not happy. His first wife and his beloved daughter both died in an accident.
Later, it was said that he became embroiled in internal political struggles within the Empire, lost his power in the central government, and returned to his residence in Mist Capital to live in seclusion. Then, he mysteriously died of illness within two years.
…The more I think about it, the more I feel an ominous aura!
Yu Lian knew that even his past self had not delved this deeply into the Bug Swarm’s secrets. Although he and Shirley had fought several times in his previous life, they had spoken less than 20 sentences in total, so it was naturally impossible for him to have heard any of this.
He gazed at the painting before him, paused for half a minute, then took out a pair of thin surgical gloves and gently stroked the surface of the painting. He quickly found an unnatural bulge on the canvas. The bulge was actually very inconspicuous; if not for Yu Lian’s spiritual energy user perception and his past experience with similar mechanisms, anyone else would have surely overlooked it.
He rubbed it, quickly recording the content expressed by the indentation, which was a series of very elegant yet complex floral-patterned characters.
“…Fafuer Dragon-person secret script, the alchemical secret script of that powerful spiritual energy user minority group?”
The Fafuer Dragon-person were also considered a legend among the minority groups in the All-Galaxy. They excelled in secret scripts, craftsmanship, and alchemy, being born alchemical grandmasters and naturally sensitive spiritual energy users. Unfortunately, while they were individually powerful, their population was sparse, and they were always organized by clan and alchemical magic schools, never forming a strong political entity. Thus, it was “said” that they intended to conduct some super-large-scale cult ritual and conspire against the Emperor, and were completely exterminated by the Empire over eight hundred years ago.
Their physical bodies no longer existed, but the handicrafts, alchemical products, spiritual energy treasures they had personally made, and most importantly, their knowledge, all remained. The so-called Fafuer Dragon-person secret script was one of the most important among them.
This was the necessary mystical method used by the Dragon Man to forge alchemical products and spiritual energy treasures. Of course, it could also be used for array formations and illusions.
As a former great hero, digging up graves—no, treasure hunting and archaeology—he had done quite a bit. He had indeed explored many Fafuer Dragon-person ruins, so he was very familiar with this knowledge.
Considering Count Salwen was also a great scholar, it was understandable that he had some proficiency in such mystical knowledge.
However, Yu Lian merely glanced at the secret script without immediately reading it or activating it with spiritual energy. He checked the room’s alarm system again, then asked the hotel lobby to send him an ice bucket and a bottle of “Sky Purple Red” chili sauce, the All-Galaxy’s spiciest, cultivated on the Planet of Abundance.
The hotel, suspecting nothing, as these items were neither dangerous nor hard to acquire, quickly sent them up.
Yu Lian poured the chili into the ice bucket, creating a chillingly eerie contraption. After placing it, he took out a steel needle and pressed it against his thigh, then closed his eyes. He simultaneously used spiritual energy to form the shape of the secret script in his mind while uttering its pronunciation.
It was genuinely difficult for human vocal cords and tongues to produce that peculiar trilling sound, so he had to use spiritual energy to stimulate his tongue. This sensation was truly unpleasant; he felt as if his tongue was lengthening, slowly escaping the control of his mouth. If he hadn’t already mastered cell activation, even with such hardship, the success rate would be very low.
…If it were Shirley, there wouldn’t be such a problem. At least hundreds of millions of tiny protozoa in her blood vessels could simulate the organs of almost all organisms in the All-Galaxy.
Therefore, she must have entered here as well.
Yu Lian mused, simultaneously feeling his body emptying and lightening. Soon, he was so light that he couldn’t feel its existence at all. His weightless “body” seemed to have returned to the original state of a soul. Yu Lian swayed and waved, as if transformed into a leaf in the wind, yet there was an indescribable sense of exhilaration, as if he had touched some kind of sublimation, making him involuntarily want to sink into it.
However, as Yu Lian was sinking into it, he suddenly opened his eyes. The grayish-white in his vision began to solidify, instantly transforming into a Pure garden surrounded by the night sky.
At the end of the garden was a white marble observation deck. On it sat a man holding a little girl, none other than Count Salwen.
Now, Yu Lian was inside the “summer night starry sky.”