Chapter 391 - 261: The Abnormal Ruined Wall

"...Something like a sea urchin?"

"Pretty much, but with more variety. You can choose the flavor—spicy numbing, fragrant spicy, bone broth, whatever you want. If you don’t want rice noodles, you can switch to cooked rice or even raw rice grains. As long as it’s a rice product, it works."

Shen Chuqing watched Mimi hopping on the ground. "’Rice Fragrance Messenger’ and a few similar projects were overseen by the previous Alliance Leader of the Divine Strategy Alliance. But it wasn’t until Luo Sen became the Alliance Leader that the final technical hurdles were overcome, which is how we got Mimi."

"Unfortunately, artificial Pet Beasts can only be produced in small batches for now. If they could be mass-produced and sent to places with less fertile land, there would be fewer people going hungry."

"That’s incredible."

Su Zhi suddenly understood why Mimi’s Pet Beast name was "Rice Fragrance Messenger."

It wasn’t just a Pet Beast’s name; it carried the aspirations of an entire generation of Beast Tamers.

"The more I think about it, the more unbelievable artificial Pet Beasts seem. Exotic Beasts are clearly creations of nature, yet now they can be artificially created. If they’ve even grasped the principles of creating life, isn’t that a power reserved for gods?"

Shen Chuqing immediately jumped in, "I asked Alliance Leader Luo Sen about that! This is what he told me: ’Nature is synonymous with harmony and beauty. The abrupt and incongruous parts are where the dissonance lies.’"

Su Zhi: "...In plain English?"

"In plain English, not all Exotic Beasts in the natural world are entirely native. The origins of some Exotic Beasts can’t be explained by natural laws. Luo Sen speculates that these were most likely subjectively created by certain beings."

"According to him, when he hit a wall with the artificial Pet Beast project, he studied these specific Exotic Beasts and found the inspiration to solve the final problem."

Su Zhi’s eyes widened.

This completely contradicted the education he had received his entire life. Creationism, after all, had been debunked as early as the end of the Classical Era.

If Cao Mingyu had said this, Su Zhi would have just thought he was spouting nonsense.

But these words came from Luo Sen... him spouting nonsense would be on a whole other level, but when it came to research, he was always damn reliable.

’No, Luo Sen’s viewpoint isn’t exactly the same as creationism. The overall framework is still the current mainstream theory of natural evolution.’

’He’s emphasizing the influence and interference of a certain being’s subjective factors on established natural existences. Just as artificial Pet Beasts aren’t created from thin air, but are fundamentally created using existing conditions.’

Su Zhi was suddenly reminded of the information he looked up last night, which recorded the abnormally high casualty rate of Yu Dian Dogs during the Classical Era.

’Could this also be attributed to the interference of some being?’

’And when I combine that with Tuoba Jing’s diary...’

If this speculation turned out to be true, the implications were terrifying to consider.

Because there was only one thing that fit the description of "a certain being" in this theory—the Abyss, Blue Star’s mortal enemy.

But on closer inspection, the idea was full of holes.

The obvious logical flaw was that the Yu Dian Dog was arguably the most common Pet Beast in Yu Dian District, or even on all of Blue Star. You could run into several just walking down the street. It wasn’t some rare, powerful, or valuable species, so why target it?

Furthermore, according to current archaeological research, Abyssal Exotic Beasts first appeared later than humans. That alone made the theory completely untenable.

"Like I said, it’s just a theory."

Seeing Su Zhi’s doubtful gaze, Shen Chuqing gave him an "I-don’t-know-either" look.

"Alliance Leader Luo Sen’s theory has no solid evidence, after all, so for now, it’s just a theory. Even within the Divine Strategy Alliance, very few people agree with it. Because he holds this view, scholars from the Boya Alliance often come to debate him, and it always turns into a huge commotion."

"...What kind of ’debating’ are we talking about?"

"Both kinds."

"Nice."

Gou Yu added, "It’s not just the Boya Alliance; we in the Dark Alliance are a little afraid of him too. Alliance Leader Cui Que often has people secretly watching him, and most of the time, she’s the one doing the watching personally."

Su Zhi: "Ah... I just remembered you were here too."

Gou Yu: "..."

The chat was just an interlude; breakfast was the main event. The three of them continued to eat.

"Woof! Woof!" Yu Bao’s slightly anxious voice suddenly came from not far away.

"What is it now?" The three of them tensed up instinctively. Forgetting to clean up their wrappers, they bolted over.

·

「At the broken wall.」

Yu Bao stared at a section of the broken wall, its expression grave and thoughtful.

"..." The three of them stared at Yu Bao, their faces darkening.

"I seem to recall this is exactly where you called us over last night, right?" Su Zhi said irritably. "Are you just trying to show off how cool you are again? Playing the boy who cried wolf..."

"Woof!"

Yu Bao suddenly poked his pocket, signaling for him to take out his phone.

Then, Yu Bao found a photo in the album and tapped it firmly.

The three of them crowded around to look—it was a photo of the Yu Dian Dog skull fossil taken at the museum, with the faint Radiant Gold Pattern still visible on its forehead.

Su Zhi recognized it at once. He remembered Yu Bao staring at this photo and studying it repeatedly before.

"Ooh?" Wu Bao lifted a front paw and scratched its head curiously.

’What does this photo have to do with this wall?’

"Woof! Woof!"

Yu Bao patted the broken wall in front of it, then walked over to another broken wall and patted it too.

Su Zhi asked curiously, "Are you saying... there’s something wrong with this section of the wall? That it’s different from the others?"

"Woof." Yu Bao nodded.

Gou Yu frowned. "That shouldn’t be possible. This whole area was measured with isotopes; it was confirmed to be a ruin from the Classical Era. If this section of wall was a fake, there’s no way it would have fooled the Divine Strategy Alliance..."

"No, Yu Bao means the anomaly has existed since the beginning."

Su Zhi crouched down to get a closer look. "Even though it’s a wall from the same period, its position is clearly wrong. It doesn’t form a house-like structure with the other walls."

"Then it’s not just this one. These few are also in the wrong place."

Shen Chuqing quickly identified several other sections of broken wall, frowning curiously. "Such an obvious placement anomaly... the Divine Strategy Alliance didn’t notice it when they surveyed the area?"

Su Zhi shook his head. "You can’t blame them. A major earthquake happened here. What could possibly be considered abnormal in a ruin left behind after a quake, no matter how strangely shaped? If Yu Bao hadn’t pointed it out to us just now, we wouldn’t have noticed this so-called anomaly either."

"There is definitely something wrong."

Gou Yu’s casual expression vanished, his gaze tightening. "Big Stick just told me that these sections of wall were likely moved here by someone. And they were probably adjusted repeatedly, in an operation similar to calibration."

Su Zhi asked in surprise, "You can tell something that detailed?"

"Heh, standard operating procedure for the Dark Alliance. Besides, Big Stick has both Wood and Fighting Elements. It can analyze the stress history of the walls while minimizing interference from the surrounding plants."

"It seems Yu Bao thinks so too."

Su Zhi saw Yu Bao nod, then immediately asked, "So, what does this have to do with that fossil photo?"

"Woof!" Yu Bao extended a paw and pointed at the sky.

"You want to take an aerial photo?"

"Woof!"

Yu Bao took Su Zhi’s phone in its mouth and activated its Sand Manipulation Technique, flying into the air. The dust and sand pulsed with a steady rhythm, holding the phone so stable that it didn’t jolt in the slightest.

After taking the picture, Yu Bao let the phone drift back down.

"Woof!" Yu Bao pointed at the aerial photo, then at the photo of the skull from the museum.

Su Zhi’s mouth twitched.

Gou Yu asked curiously, "What did Yu Bao say?"

"Yu Bao said... the points where these broken walls are located correspond exactly to several of the darker spots on the Radiant Gold Pattern."

Gou Yu: "Huh???"

Shen Chuqing: "Isn’t that explanation a bit of a stretch? Maybe it’s just a coincidence?"

Su Zhi: "But if you call it a coincidence, it’s a little too coincidental... because the positions of these points really do line up perfectly."

Shen Chuqing grew even more confused. "But even if they do line up, what does that prove? What was the purpose of arranging them like this?"

Gou Yu frowned as well. "And it’s been so long... Even if there was some special purpose back then, does it still have any meaning now?"

Su Zhi nodded too. "Good question. I don’t know either."

"..."

"Woof!" Just as they were at a complete loss, Great Sage Yu Bao raised its paw once again.

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