Liu Chengchao frowned.
"Old Qin, how do you think the Wolf Guard died?"
Liu Chengchao had his own guesses, but he did not say them outright.
That would make him seem unprofessional, as though he had lost his edge.
Sometimes, offering a few clues and letting people draw their own conclusions made them more convincing instead.
"Based on the information I've obtained so far, it is nothing more than the most popular theory online.
Heize was no ordinary general. He had a force of battle-hardened soldiers under his command.
Taking advantage of the right time, place, and people, Heize ambushed the Wolf Guard in the Great Wilderness Mountain Range and ultimately wiped them out."
Qin Jiawei gave a very simple answer, one that seemed entirely without fault.
It was also an answer people could more readily accept.
But the next second, he changed the subject.
"However, an ordinary battle-hardened force would certainly not have been an unknown army in Dafeng.
Nor could an ordinary battle-hardened force have caused these Wolf Clan corpses to undergo such mutations.
If I remember correctly..."
Qin Jiawei stared at Liu Chengchao. "So far, we have not found the remains of a single Dafeng Border Army soldier—or rather, any soldier with Great Xia Clan blood."
Liu Chengchao nodded.
The main battlefield had already been discovered.
At present, their team conducted tens of thousands of tests every day.
They had only examined the tip of the iceberg.
Yet based on the results so far, there were many suspicious details.
In that valley, they had found almost no objects related to Dafeng.
There were, however, many items belonging to the Wolf Clan.
Armor, golden totems, stone wolf swords, and so on.
Yet judging from the positions of the remains,
many of those Wolf Clan members had indeed died while fighting people.
"Why do you think no Dafeng soldiers' remains have appeared?" Qin Jiawei looked at Liu Chengchao.
The testing was not yet complete.
But based on the results thus far, they could almost conclude that there were no remains of Dafeng soldiers.
"I have three guesses.
First, someone took the Dafeng soldiers' remains away.
This possibility is most likely untenable."
The Great Wilderness Mountain Range had crumbled and split apart, and that valley had been sealed beneath dust. No one could have entered it.
Had it not been for an accidental coincidence, it would not have been discovered by everyone a thousand years later.
Qin Jiawei naturally understood this point. He nodded, agreeing with Liu Chengchao.
"Second, Heize actually had another identity.
He was a spy, planted within the Wolf Clan, who became one of the Wolf Guard's leaders.
During a march, he fought the Wolf Guard's commander. As they turned their blades on those under the same roof, the Wolf Guard was destroyed."
Liu Chengchao spoke calmly.
This guess was equally shocking and melodramatic, but it was more likely than the first.
"A very good idea.
But... the Great Xia Clan and the Wolf Clan differ greatly not only in appearance.
A Dafeng man capable of becoming Liu Xiu's disciple could never have joined the Wolf Guard, much less become one of its upper ranks.
The Wolf Clan is not like other clans, fond of appointing Xia officials.
What is your third guess? I am looking forward to it."
"The third..."
At that, Liu Chengchao took a deep breath.
"Old Qin should know about the Shrine of Life and Death?"
"The Shrine of Life and Death in the Great Wilderness Mountain Range?" Qin Jiawei smiled. "I know it. I even read it through carefully."
"What did you think after reading it, Old Qin?"
"You mean the third possibility is that the contents of the Shrine of Life and Death were true—that Heize killed more than ten thousand Wolf Guards by himself?"
Liu Chengchao nodded.
After reading the Shrine of Life and Death, this thought had lingered in his heart, refusing to fade for a long time.
Of course, this guess was far too shocking.
"A wildly imaginative idea." Qin Jiawei gave his assessment. "But I feel it is still less likely than the second."
As a leading figure in biological engineering and gene editing, Qin Jiawei understood the fragility of the human body.
Although his current research was also bizarre, it all remained within the bounds of his understanding.
Humans were carbon-based lifeforms. No matter how strong the flesh became, it could not compare to steel.
That was why he would not believe that Heize had killed the Wolf Guard alone.
This was not something a human, not something a carbon-based lifeform, could accomplish.
Even if genetic engineering advanced another one or two stages and created Super Soldiers,
they still could not, through their bodies alone, slaughter more than ten thousand Wolf Guards by themselves—especially Wolf Guards accompanied by Giant Wolves.
Liu Chengchao smiled, concealing his embarrassment. "Indeed, the second possibility is still more likely at present.
Of course, as our subsequent excavation work progresses and we obtain more and more information, perhaps we will discover other useful clues."
"Indeed." Qin Jiawei smiled as well. "What if Heize was a time traveler? He could have had an Ironwood Gun with unlimited bullets and simply wiped out the Wolf Clan."
Liu Chengchao smiled too.
He knew Qin Jiawei was referring to a meme.
It was a theory that had recently been spreading online.
Of course, it was fine to treat it as a joke.
Time travel was even more outrageous than Superman, and far harder to explain.
Before you continue