You Are Not Wu Daozi!

"Hmm? Qiming, what about the rest?"

"There's nothing else, Master."

"...At this most crucial spot?" Yuan frowned, feeling a pang of displeasure.

"Yes, Master. Not only the inscriptions, but even the murals have vanished."

"Continue drilling. There's definitely something wrong here. Speed up the process."

After speaking, Yuan shifted his gaze to the ruins in the distance. With Bries and the others bombing relentlessly, the area around the laboratory had been largely cleared.

The massive laboratory became increasingly clear in everyone's eyes. As the last giant sand dune was removed, the true form of the laboratory was once again revealed to the world.

Most of the laboratory's equipment was already heavily damaged. It was unclear whether it was due to the loss of its original properties over thirty thousand years or damage from Bries and the others' bombardment.

Yuan no longer cared about that. A large model of a Beast Body caught his attention.

"Your Excellency, the area around the laboratory should be safe. As per your orders, we didn't limit the power. The energy cannon's blast radius should be considerable, and the laboratory took quite a hit," Bries said with a smile, slowly walking up to Yuan.

Yuan nodded silently. It seemed there were no traps in the laboratory area. He gazed at the laboratory with a distant look, his thoughts unknown.

"Bries!" Yuan's voice was a little hoarse, as if he had sensed something.

"Your Excellency, please speak."

"It's nothing. The external interface you gave me earlier isn't working. I made some modifications to the new Warship inside. Take a look and prepare the supplies."

Saying this, he handed the interface near his ear to Bries. After patting Bries's Battle Armor and moving his fingers over it a few times, Yuan complained:

"This blasted place is nothing but sand, it's boring. Prepare the supplies. The others will maintain a perimeter around the laboratory to prevent any unexpected situations. Remember, I put a lot of effort into the data in this interface, so look carefully!"

Bries, dazed, took the neural interface, unsure of what Yuan meant.

Just as he was about to ask, he saw Yuan's meaningful gaze. Recalling Yuan's actions just now, Bries felt he understood something.

He quickly gripped the interface tightly and replied respectfully, "Rest assured, Your Excellency, everything will be done according to your will."

"That's good. Go on, I need to study this laboratory further." With that, Yuan turned and returned to the command center.

Watching Yuan's back disappear, Bries quickly put on the interface and accessed the information at top speed. Seeing something, Bries's pupils contracted sharply, and his breathing hitched for a moment. The next second, everything returned to normal.

Then, Bries swiftly mobilized the Taotie soldiers and began the gradual process of transporting supplies.

"Master, according to the detection, Deputy Officer Bries should have understood your meaning."

Hearing Qiming's voice in his mind, a silent smile spread across Yuan's lips.

"Have you made a new discovery?"

"Yes, Master. About 800 kilometers from the ruins, there's another large underground cave. The detector found some murals, and we're currently compiling them."

The information here was different from that around the ruins; it was from a much earlier time.

I don't know when it started, but the Gods disappeared from our world. Panic and chaos returned. Without the Gods' guidance, do we still have a future? No one knows.

Everyone attributed the Gods' disappearance to humanity's greed and disrespect towards them, and thus, new wars began.

No one knows how long the fighting lasted, but eventually, only one nation remained in the world. To make the Gods descend again, to make the Gods cast their merciful gaze upon us once more, the Kingdom revived the long-abandoned rituals.

Not only the lives lost in the war, but also chosen beings. Blood drowned the Gods' creations, and the people of the Kingdom hoped to summon the Gods in this way.

The rituals continued for many years without success. One year, a maiden was chosen. Her blood dripped onto the Gods' creations, and an unprecedented faint light appeared.

Everyone thought the Gods had seen them, and then larger rituals were held again and again.

The weather worsened, becoming increasingly hot and dry. The earth opened up with massive cracks. Food became scarce, and rivers and lakes grew shallow. The Kingdom was no more, and neither were we!

The information ended there. Yuan didn't know if there was more, but he assumed there wasn't. Based on the data from the scanned rock strata, these were likely the last survivors of Dobilun Star.

"Is this the past of Dobilun Star? A remote star system? Is this their idea? Or yours? What do you think, Wu Daozi!"

The command center was eerily silent, almost unnaturally so. Yuan focused his gaze on a certain spot, and then a figure suddenly appeared.

Before they could say anything, Bries rushed in with two guards, looking anxious.

Yuan waved his hand, signaling Bries to calm down.

"With your current knowledge and technology, you shouldn't be able to detect my presence. Was this another test? But why does it feel like you can see me?"

Indeed, the person who had appeared was Wu Daozi, who had brought them here. He now wore a smile, and a chair materialized behind him, upon which he calmly sat.

Yuan, likewise, leaned back in his command chair, his eyes fixed on Wu Daozi with displeasure.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that? The dark matter computer in the Dobilun Star ruins should be of great benefit to you. If not gratitude, you shouldn't be looking at me with such a ravenous gaze."

"What exactly do you want?"

"Giving up the act?" Wu Daozi looked at Yuan, whose expression was now placid, with great interest.

"Act? When have I ever acted?"

"When? Like when you called me 'Grandpa'?"

Yuan's eye twitched slightly, and he continued calmly, "That wasn't an act, merely the natural reverence of the weak towards the strong, and the scholar's greed for knowledge."

"Yes, the reverence of the weak, the greed of the scholar. Yuan, you're truly remarkable. Can you tell me how you discovered me?" Wu Daozi asked patiently.

"As a return for the dark matter computer?"

"Yes, the construction of a dark matter computer isn't anything precious to me."

"Intuition, a baffling intuition."

"Hahahaha, good, good. Well said, intuition. Well said, Yuan. God King Yuan! What a God King Yuan. You've set very lofty goals for yourself, but you're truly excellent. I didn't misjudge you."

"You infiltrated Qiming."

"It wasn't exactly an infiltration. It holds no secrets from me, just like you."

"Really? That makes sense, you are gods, after all. So, what about you?"

"Me?" Wu Daozi pointed to himself, looking somewhat confused.

Yuan's voice was calm, and his gaze towards Wu Daozi grew increasingly profound.

"You're not Wu Daozi at all. Who exactly are you?"