Ten days after the explosion, the radioactive substances lingering in the air had finally dissipated completely. Apart from the Mu family, no deaths had occurred, and the surrounding environment had not been affected. Experts, after repeated measurements and releasing a batch of lab mice inside, declared after twenty-four hours that the quarantine wall could be dismantled, and the red alert state could be lifted.
The dilapidated old residence of the Mu family was the only testament to the disaster that had truly happened.
The experts were unanimous in their opinion that the plaque was probably not R-type ore but a previously undiscovered radioactive element. Its harm to the human body was selective, and the specifics of its operating pattern were currently unknown. More samples and experiments were needed to understand it fully. But the explosion scene left nothing behind, and after an unsuccessful search, the expert team could only regretfully withdraw.
The imperial leaders all heaved a sigh of relief and immediately announced to the entire Galaxy that the crisis had been successfully resolved. Those who liked to stir up trouble should go back to their business and not always stare at the imperial capital. There would be no chaos here.
The Imperial Academy had returned to normal order, but the Mecha Manufacturing Department was still suspended. Qi Ze wandered around the department to familiarize himself with the environment and then prepared to head to the registrar's office to find Yan Junyu, so he could take him to see Mu Ran.
"Tsk, isn't he that carbon-based being who transferred over? Seems to be called Qi Ze?" A female cadet whispered as she passed by the public notice screen.
"It's him, his brain is abnormally smart, he got an S in forty-seven inter-disciplinary exams," her roommate said quietly, raising her thumb.
"My god, forty-seven S's, that's a record high. How many S's did Mu Ran get back then?"
"About twenty, not as good as him. But he's still a carbon-based being, his physical fitness can't keep up with the development of his mental abilities, who knows when he'll collapse. What a pity!"
"Those who applied for Mu family mentors were all unlucky in this explosion, but he was instead blessed in misfortune. You heard, right? Before he even reported to school, all the Mu family mentors signed a joint document, refusing to let him audit any of the classes they taught. This means that he can't attend almost all elective and required courses, getting no attendance points, relying only on written test scores. Think about it, attendance accounts for forty percent of the final grade. This means he has to get full marks in all tests to barely pass. How hard is this? This is practically forcing him to drop out!"
"I've heard that too. That's why I hesitated for a moment and didn't choose a Mu mentor. I thought their style was too arrogant, lacking the elegance and generosity of scholars. Now it's good, more than a dozen Mu mentors are all dead, no required or elective classes to attend, attendance points are as good as nothing, it had no effect on Qi Ze, it's not a big deal for us. It's only the cadets who chose Mu mentors that we should pity, they don't know how anxious they are right now."
"Right, the mecha manufacturing department mentors are one more arrogant than the other, once you choose one, it's for life, you can't change it. Especially changing from a Mu mentor to another mentor, you'll definitely be rejected. The Mu family is very exclusive, always keeping the core mecha manufacturing technology in their hands. So the relationship between the Mu family and the external mecha manufacturers is very bad. When the Mu family was in power, there were many benefits to studying by their side. But now..." The cadet shook her head and sighed.
"Who would dare to associate with the Mu family now? Afraid of being drowned in the saliva of the whole nation. Just Mu Lun and Mu Ran, nearly blew up the imperial capital! Fortunately, that radioactive substance is not like R-type ore, which would cause devastating pollution to the environment and living things. Otherwise, we would probably all be corpses now."
"Yes, I'm still scared thinking about it now." The two dared not continue speaking, and since they were sure that classes wouldn't resume soon, they could only head to the library to study.
Qi Ze knew about the joint boycott against him, but he had never taken it to heart. Exams were as simple to him as eating and drinking, just a loss of forty percent of the attendance points. There was really nothing to be nervous about.
He now only wanted to understand one thingâhow Mu Ran could survive the explosion.
Artificers generally had low combat abilities, but they definitely had many ways to save their lives. Once, a great artificer of the Supreme Divine Creation Sect was bound by a powerful being in a cave and forced to forge a divine weapon. To prevent the powerful being from crossing the bridge and demolishing it, and killing him to keep his mouth shut, he simulated his wisp of divine sense into the state of spirit speech, one by one embedding it into the formation. When the powerful being, after obtaining the divine weapon, had a sudden surge of murderous intent, the divine sense would sense it, thus detonating the divine weapon, blowing the opponent to pieces.
This method of indirectly controlling spirit weapons would be resisted by the entire cultivation world if known by outsiders. It became the Supreme Divine Creation Sect's secret, rarely used unless necessary. And Qi Ze used this secret method to inject a wisp of divine sense into the plaque. As long as the person who obtained the plaque had murderous intent towards him, it would trigger the qi-gathering formation. If the murderous intent was too deep, the divine sense would directly detonate the plaque.
The blast's intensity was determined by the degree of murderous intent. The greater the murderous intent, the more powerful the blast. Like ten days ago, leveling the Mu family's old residence, which covered hundreds of hectares, this murderous intent was truly terrifying.
But Qi Ze could understand it himself: cutting off someone's inheritance was like killing their parents, how could they not hate? Unfortunately, they were one step behind and failed to seize the initiative. But there was one thing he had always been puzzled about. Why did the divine sense and the Spirit Light Technique that hit Mu Ran disappear without a trace?
Divine senses were too weak and would dissipate on their own when attacked. But the Spirit Light Technique could only be dispelled by a specific method, or the practitioner's cultivation exceeding the attacker's.
Qi Ze thought and pondered, feeling that everything about this incident was strange. That was why he asked Yan Junyu to take him to the hospital to investigate. Ouyang Ye was a tagalong and naturally went to join in the fun.
Mu Ran was staying in a VIP suite on the top floor. This treatment wasn't because of his illustrious family background but his status as a capital offender. To quell the trouble brought by Mu Lun, the Mu family had originally delivered the most valuable parts of their assets. Later, Mu Ran caused a big explosion, completely destroying the Mu family's foundation. Not only did the direct line die, the remaining assets were also seized by the court and became public property of the empire.
Mu Ran could now only be described with two wordsâdisgraced and destitute.
Yan Junyu walked through the long corridor to the topmost room, his mood unprecedentedly heavy and complicated. He had lived under Mu Ran's radiance since childhood, used to being a shadow of him, but never thought that, one day, he would fall to this point. The name of genius was branded with sin, the savior family denounced as a tumor, all the merit and glory had vanished.
Perhaps the Mu family would have reached this point due to some people's fanning the flames, but the root cause was within themselves. An old saying goes, "those who do many things unjustly will perish by their own hand." If the Mus weren't so overbearing, if they left others a sip of soup while eating meat, there wouldn't have been these things now.
Yan Junyu shook his head, his expression mournful, but he never thought for a moment that the biggest reason for the Mu family's decline was not themselves, but the youth standing beside him. If Qi Ze hadn't appeared, the Mu family might have been glorious for many more years.
"Huh? There's a visitor. At this time, who would be visiting him?" Ouyang Ye was about to knock on the door when a message appeared on the door panel, telling him there was a visitor inside and to come back later. He tiptoed to look inside but found the glass window had been set to an opaque state, so he could only sulkily sit aside and wait.
Yan Junyu wasn't in a hurry, he hadn't thought about what to say to Mu Ran. The Mu family had just exploded, and his grandfather sent troops to surround the Mu Research Institute, taking all the instruments and data to his second uncle's studio, urging him to copy and study them as soon as possible. This was indeed somewhat unscrupulous.
Yan Junyu had always understood that his friendship with Mu Ran was never pure. The so-called sympathy, pity, and guilt were all unnecessary. They each had their own positions, so they would have to face this day. But it was easy to say, hard to do. He couldn't forget their childhood friendship, and was afraid to face Mu Ran at this moment.
"Who's inside?" Qi Ze was a bit impatient.
"Du Jiahe," Yan Junyu pointed to a soldier winding his way over from the smoking area and said, "He's his guard."
"What does he want? The current Mu Ran can't provide him with high-grade mechas and energy stones anymore." Ouyang Ye laughed maliciously. Just when they separated, the mountain collapsed. Could there be a more unlucky thing?
Yan Junyu could probably guess Du Jiahe's intentions but didn't spell it out. After waiting for about ten minutes, the door opened. Du Jiahe, while wiping the water droplets off his face, said sinisterly, "You are only a death row inmate now, not the young patriarch of the Mu family. The emperor and the prime minister signed a document, confiscating all the Mu family's property. Besides this face, this body, and this mind, what else do you have? Before the execution of the death sentence, my proposal remains valid. Think it over."
Seeing Yan Junyu, he bared his teeth, showing a malicious smile, and added, "Forgot to tell you, when your house exploded, that old fox Yan Hongyuan sent troops to copy your research institute. All your research results over the years have fallen into Yan Zhongkui's hands."
"Get lost!" A sharp rebuke came from the room.
"Alright, I'm leaving first, I'll see you tomorrow." Du Jiahe didn't care, throwing a kiss to the room before leaving unhurriedly.
The door was open, but Yan Junyu didn't walk in. Instead, he politely asked, "Mu Ran, can I come in?"
A weak voice sounded after a long silence, "Please come in."
A few days hadn't passed, but it felt like a whole other world. Everything had changed. The two who were once a match, now one was in the sky and the other on the ground. Mu Ran was wearing a ring-shaped monitor on his right hand, and if he took a step out of the door, he would be hit by a million volts of high voltage. As Du Jiahe said, he was now just a death row inmate waiting for trial.
"I'm very sorry," Yan Junyu stood for a full five minutes before speaking softly.
"You didn't betray me," Mu Ran's face was miserable.
When the two were silent, Qi Ze sat down on his own, crossed his legs, and scanned Mu Ran from head to toe, inside and out. There was nothing unusual, only his body's spiritual energy had increased, and it had become more refined. Without a doubt, Mu Ran had advanced; he should now be a 4S mentalist.
4S, equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator, no wonder the Spirit Light Technique had automatically dissipated. But this still didn't explain how he could survive the explosion. That kind of power could easily kill one or two Soul Separation experts, but he was unscathed.
This didn't make sense, no matter how you looked at it. Qi Ze shook his head, finally facing Mu Ran, but he didn't intend to use the Spirit Light Technique again, to avoid alarming the enemy. Sitting in the ward for a few minutes, and being invisible for a few minutes, Qi Ze gave Ouyang Ye a look and left first.
"What's going on? Does he have some treasure? Like the kind of spirit robe you made for me?" Ouyang Ye asked quietly.
"Don't know how he survived, have to keep a close eye on him. But one thing is clear: he advanced, a 4S mentalist, the only one in the entire Galaxy."
"No way?" Ouyang Ye drew a cold breath, then said in horror, "Not good, he won't die this time! Our country has a law that clearly stipulates that mentalists, physiologists, and ability users above 4S have criminal immunity. In other words, no matter how big the trouble these people cause, they don't have to take legal responsibility, the country must fully support them."
"Doesn't the empire value equality of human rights?" Qi Ze frowned deeply.
"That's all just talk for ordinary people, how can it be taken seriously." Ouyang Ye explained, "Our country has existed since the end of the century. At that time, the survival of humanity was all dependent on the strong, so they were given many privileges. Later, moving to the Black Eye Galaxy, the living environment didn't improve much, and those privileges were kept. It's just that 4S-level powerhouses haven't appeared for a long time, and certain unequal laws have become a formality, many people probably forgot about them."
Ouyang Ye gripped Wind Forest and Fire Sea, worried, "As long as Mu Ran announces his strength, the empire will definitely protect him. You'll see, the public now hates him so much, but before long, they'll put him on a pedestal again."
"Human hearts are fickle, human hearts are forgetful," Qi Ze said indifferently, "Don't worry about him for now, cultivate well. If he doesn't come to bother me, that's it. If he insists on blocking my way, I'm not afraid. In terms of killing methods, I only have more than him, not less."
Ouyang Ye believed this point, immediately calmed down, waved his hand, "Then let's go back, you make artifacts, I'll practice the sword."
"Wait for Yan Junyu," Qi Ze stood at the door without moving.
"What's the point, they're pouring their hearts out." Ouyang Ye had just finished speaking when Yan Junyu came out, giving him a cold look.
"Just saying goodbye," Yan Junyu opened the car door for the youth and explained softly, "In the end, we were friends, I couldn't not come to see him off."
Qi Ze said, hinting, "He's fine, no need for you to see him off."
Yan Junyu thought he was jealous, and didn't think deeply about it. Instead, he helplessly rubbed his raven hair,
Three days later, in the defendant's dock of the Supreme Court, Mu Ran announced his 4S advancement in front of hundreds of cameras, and immediately underwent a mental strength test, shocking the world.
Under pressure from all sides, the court had no choice but to announce Mu Ran's acquittal in the courtroom and return a property to him. Mu Ran had long thought of a way out and took up a post at the Imperial Academy the next day, serving as an honorary mentor in the Mecha Manufacturing Department. The subjects he taught covered more than a dozen subjects, and even involved the core technology of super-powered mechas.
All the research data in the institute was recorded in his mind. Rather than allowing the Yan family to have a monopoly, he might as well spread it himself, making a good connection. How Qi Ze dealt with the Mu family, he dealt with the Yan family. In the end, he found this method very useful. At least his heart was happy when he saw others suffer.
After experiencing a major change, he slowly understood that the Mu family fell to the point of everyone pushing when the walls were down because their eating habits were too ugly. From low-grade mechas to super-powered mechas, whether high-end or low-end technologies, the Mu family held them all in their hands, leaving no way out for others. In this situation, how could others not hate? Hatred accumulated, and then exploded one day.
Mu Ran looked good now, but no one knew how bloody his inner wounds were. Every night, when he closed his eyes, the plaque, flashing with a cold light, would appear in his mind. He had just taken it in his hand, and before he could take a closer look, the fiery light engulfed everything, father, mother, clansmen... every soul that died because of him wailed, howled, and screamed in his ears, so tragic, so desperate.
He couldn't close his eyes for nights on end. If not for his extremely high mental strength supporting him, and if not for the wish to avenge being so urgent, he would have collapsed long ago.
That night, at the moment when it was quiet and dark, he lay in bed with his eyes wide open, staring blankly at the ceiling. Suddenly, his smartbrain vibrated, and he hurriedly clicked to see it, his face involuntarily turned cold.
"I finally analyzed the picture you scanned. A wisp of mental strength was injected into that plaque, the method is very high-level. I can only see a little of the prototype, not fully comprehend it. If the real thing was still around, I might have been able to learn something from this method. What a pity!" A line appeared on the chat software.
"A wisp of mental strength could cause such a strong explosion?" Mu Ran was somewhat incredulous.
"Do you know the butterfly effect? A butterfly just needs to flap its wings to trigger a series of chain reactions. And this wisp of mental strength is the butterfly's wing. The person who left it not only knew what kind of chain reaction it would cause, but also knew the consequences. Simply put, he had foreseen that the plaque would fall into your hands, and foresaw that it would explode. He single-handedly planned the Mu family's destruction." The other side immediately pressed, "Such a terrifying opponent, you can't have no impression of him. Tell me who it is!"
"I really don't know! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Mu Ran trembled while typing numerous apologies. He deeply regretted his youthful arrogance, his lack of tact, not knowing when he offended someone.
"Forget it, the deed has been done, it's all empty talk now. You do your experiments, I'll find that person. Look at this picture, can you find anything?"
The other side sent over a scanned picture, which was the one Mu Ran took before the explosion that night. The plaque lay quietly on a black velvet cloth, crudely made, ordinary material, seemingly nothing special. But after the other side's analysis and annotation, a faint golden round pattern could be seen floating on the surface of the plaque. The pattern wasn't composed of lines but a character after character.
Mu Ran looked carefully for a long time, helplessly saying, "The picture is too blurry, the writing is too small, I really can't see it clearly."
"That's not writing, but mental strength. You wouldn't have thought it, right? There's actually someone who can condense mental strength into a physical body and create a force hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of times stronger than themselves. This person, even if they aren't a 4S-level mentalist, their strength is far above you. Their control of mental strength has reached a level of perfection. Unfortunately, the picture is too blurry, I can only process it to this extent. If I could read even one word, it would have a breakthrough significance for my research."
Mu Ran's face turned extremely ugly.
The other side sensed his anomaly, encouraging him, "See? Your enemy is so powerful, so you should grow quickly. I don't have much time to accompany you."
"I won't slack off," Mu Ran pressed down one word at a time.
The other side didn't reply for a long time, the screen's light was on for a while before it turned off automatically. Mu Ran curled up in the darkness, first trembling uncontrollably, then falling into a light sleep. He seemed to have a nightmare, struggling in fear and despair all night.
Meanwhile, Qi Ze was leaving a message for Erebus, "Tomorrow afternoon four o'clock, Shengtang Club 1001."
Erebus immediately replied with two words, "Okay," and then added, "Is there anything I need to prepare? Or do you have any special requests?"
"Just bring the body that needs to be repaired."
"What about the price?" Erebus was very worried, afraid that this transaction would suddenly have some kind of mishap. He wasn't afraid of not being able to pay, only afraid of not seeing the Master himself.
Price? Qi Ze scratched his nose, feeling this question was really hard to answer. He wasn't very clear about the prices in the Black Eye Galaxy. Some things that he thought were worthless could sell for sky-high prices, while some things that were obviously very precious had low prices. It made it difficult for him to set a price scale.
"I'll see your condition first," he said vaguely.
"Okay, see you tomorrow," Erebus didn't dare to ask more, waiting until the Master's avatar went out before shutting down the computer. But just as he touched the mouse, a plume of thick smoke spewed from the computer screen, with sparks flying everywhere.
He seemed to have long been used to such emergencies, calmly unplugging the power cord and then feeling around under the wheelchair for a small fire extinguisher, spraying it at the computer. A few minutes later, the sparks were extinguished, and A'kui pushed the door open, neatly cleaning up the mess, then installing a new computer. Then he helped the boss to bed.
"Tomorrow I'm going out, you bring out that Nebula MR9. Check the engine, the autopilot system, and everything. Don't have any problems halfway. This meeting is important, I can't be late," Erebus said cautiously.
A'kui's eyes flashed with excitement, and he asked quietly, "Master contacted you?" He had been waiting day and night for so many days, finally waiting for the Master.
"Uh-huh. Shengtang Club 1001, tomorrow afternoon four o'clock," Erebus lay on the soft pillow, breathing a sigh of relief. Tonight, he could finally have a good night's sleep. There was nothing more invigorating than "hope."