Chapter 105: Complete (1)
It was impossible for a person to absorb every last nutrient from the food that they consumed. Similarly, Patelocke couldn’t possibly absorb all of his memories and knowledge, but he could still absorb quite a bit.
Silence’s knowledge was extremely varied, but after getting rid of the unnecessary components, Patelocke helped organize the content that Su Chen wanted – Silence’s research insights and his Ancient Arcana Techniques.
Even though it wasn’t complete, it was close enough. Su Chen was confident that he could fill in the gaps.
With Silence’s memories, Su Chen finally knew why Silence had appeared here.
Silence was a wandering Spirit Race individual. That wasn’t that strange. Most of the Spirit Race individuals were used to wandering.
Apart from wandering, Silence wanted to recover the Reproductive Temple.
This wasn’t weird either. Su Chen had realized this when he had seen the metal block.
Silence had always been researching how to use other methods to replace the Birth Mothers, including the human race. For this, he had created a ma.s.sive research lab and had conducted all kinds of research.
However, his luck wasn’t that great. Three years ago, his research had suddenly resulted in an error, and his research lab exploded. Because his research lab was constructed near a river canyon, not only was he seriously injured by the explosion, but a lot of his precious research ingredients had fallen into the river and were swept away by the current.
These experiments were accomplishments that had taken him nearly a thousand years to accomplish. He wasn’t willing to just let them go, so he had been searching for them all this time.
The metal block and the Purple-Colored Gla.s.s were all remnants from the explosion of his research lab, which was why Wei Liancheng and the others were drawn here under Silence’s direction.
What Su Chen found particularly interesting was that the source of the explosion was the Darkness Crystal.
The Darkness Crystal was a treasure that Silence had unintentionally obtained early on in his wandering days. He discovered that it had the unique property of being able to gather energy, but it could only gather dark energy, so he decided to perform a few simple tests. These simple tests had resulted in an explosion of dark energy, flattening the entire river canyon. If it weren’t for the fact that the Spirit Race possessed innately powerful abilities to slip through the void, he would have been blasted into smithereens.
Silence had always been looking for this Darkness Crystal, but even he didn’t know what the true use of this Darkness Crystal was.
Unfortunately, most of Silence’s memories of his research were missing. Of course, even if they weren’t missing, there wouldn’t be many of them; the ability of lifeforms to remember things was limited. If memory was sufficient for everything, Silence wouldn’t need to search for the experimental records he had lost or his research materials, etc.
He did have many memories regarding different magical techniques.
Su Chen was the most interested in the Illusion Realm.
During this battle, Su Chen had witnessed Silence’s use of illusion techniques.
By relying on these illusion techniques, Silence was even able to toy around with a Light Shaking Realm existence. The way he approached things served as inspiration for Su Chen.
“It seems like you’re going to spend some time to elevate Fata Morgana, then.” Patelocke clearly also understood the direction that Su Chen was going to take.
“There’s always something new to research. I just can’t seem to store up enough time,” Su Chen sighed.
“If you fought a bit less with those Bloodline n.o.bility Clans, you would definitely have the time,” Patelocke replied.
Unexpectedly, Su Chen nodded in agreement. “The wound has already been opened. If we keep fighting, I might push things across the line. Before my strength reaches a certain level, it’d be a good idea to act a little more reservedly.”
Indeed, after a year of turmoil, Clear River City was very different from how it was before.
The Origin Bureau was in Su Chen’s hands, a fort in West River Forest had been claimed by him, the waterways no longer belonged to the Bloodline n.o.bility Clans, and Su Chen had also poked a few holes in their control over the shops. Even the Investigations Bureau had been harmed now; if An Siyuan wasn’t an idiot, he would definitely start to toss some sand into the Investigations Bureau and begin to divide Chen Wenhui’s influence.
The monopoly the Bloodline n.o.bility Clans previously had was gone.
But because things were this way, Su Chen felt that it was the time to stop.
With the large number of vacancies in the Investigations Bureau, Su Chen had been planning on sticking his hand in the matter, but upon reconsideration Su Chen decided to give up on that idea.
Let An Siyuan fight it out with those Bloodline n.o.bility Clans.
After being the main character for a year and being almost too prosperous, there were even people on his side who were beginning to grow tired of hearing about him. If this were to continue, he would become cannon fodder for someone sooner or later.
People who took the lead to charge forward weren’t rare, but people who knew when to back off were.
That afternoon, Su Chen returned to the Su Palace and began to a.n.a.lyze Silence’s research, turning down An Siyuan’s invitation and expressing that he had no desire to take any position of authority.
Not long afterward, Su Chen received notice that during the celebratory banquet, An Siyuan had inserted a large number of his supporters into the Investigations Bureau, almost forcing Chen Wenhui to try and escape.
Both parties had eventually reached an agreement. Chen Wenhui had kept his original territory, but the Investigations Bureau was no longer the watertight organization that it had previously been.
The criminals in Clear River City were severely restricted. An Siyuan and Lu Qingguang used their influence to wipe out a lot of the Bloodline n.o.bility Clans’ influence and slapped their faces in the process.
However, this had nothing to do with Su Chen any longer. He peacefully stayed in his research lab, performing his experiments and a.n.a.lyzing his Origin Skills.
After Silence had died, Ji Hanyan’s official business was done too. After two days, she also bid farewell.
Su Chen had originally thought that Jiang Xishui would go too.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Xishui was finally clear-headed and knew that nothing good would come of following after Ji Hanyan mindlessly. As such, he remained behind to command the pirates and make a name for himself here – in the end, he was of royal heritage and had quite an aura. He was extremely suited for command, and he commanded quite a bit of respect amongst the pirates. Even if Su Chen himself were to come, his words might not carry as much weight as Jiang Xishui’s anymore.
Su Chen didn’t really mind. His ambitions were elsewhere anyways; if Jiang Xishui was willing to take the reins of the Third River Army, that was quite good for Su Chen.
Now that he was no longer spearheading the action, Su Chen suddenly had a lot of time that was freed up, and he became a lot more carefree.
Because he wasn’t always fighting and scheming against someone, even his experiments became much more smooth.
The Hemolytic Totem was developing quite well, and the results of his bloodline research made him quite happy. More of the Origin Substances in the small black stones could be used by him now, and he even made some breakthroughs in improving Fata Morgana by musing on Silence’s Illusion Realm.
During this period of time, Su Chen’s strength had secretly begun to rise at an astounding rate.
He now had many more secrets that others didn’t know about him.
Su Chen didn’t care. He was totally immersed in his own world.
During the day, he would perform experiments, and at night he would enter the Dreamrealm.
Most of the time, Su Chen would train in his Arcana Techniques in the Dreamrealm. Because he had an abundance of Dream Droplets, Su Chen could afford to extravagantly cultivate within the Dreamrealm, causing his proficiency in using these Ancient Arcana Techniques to skyrocket.
With the remaining but of time that he had, Su Chen would occasionally wander around the various stores within the Dreamrealm, searching for information about other regions.
Of course, he would also discuss possible paths to reach a method to reach the Yang Opening Realm without a bloodline.
Today was just a normal day. Su Chen was in the Dreamrealm wandering around, searching for some new information that might inspire him when a message suddenly surfaced in his mind from s.h.i.+ Kaihuang: “Come over to me.”
Su Chen hurried to the end of a street. A small door stood alone there.
Su Chen pushed the door open and found himself in a small room. s.h.i.+ Kaihuang was sitting on the ground, his legs crossed as he poured himself some tea.
“Every time I see this small room of yours, my heart hurts. You should listen to your disciple sometime,” Su Chen said as he sat down in front of s.h.i.+ Kaihuang, taking one of the teacups and pouring some tea for himself. Even though the tea was created from the Origin Energy within the Dreamrealm, the taste and mouthfeel were all extremely realistic.
“What’s wrong with this small run-down room? I’m just tempering myself with suffering. How can a person who can’t endure suffering accomplish great things?” s.h.i.+ Kaihuang harrumphed.
s.h.i.+ Kaihuang cultivated diligently and looked down on materialistic wealth. They had earned quite a sum by selling Kaihuang’s Heaven, but he had given it all to his disciple and didn’t keep any of it for himself. As such, his status in the Dreamrealm was even lower than Su Chen’s, and his living quarters were the lowest tier possible.
Su Chen wanted to try and help him raise his privilege tier, but s.h.i.+ Kaihuang wanted nothing to do with that. He would talk about how he was getting old and didn’t know when his legs would give way underneath him, and that raising his privilege tier would just be sending all the money right back into the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s hands.
Su Chen replied helplessly, “The times are different now, Instructor. The things a person can accomplish don’t necessarily depend on whether or not he can endure suffering. Anyways, we’re in the Dreamrealm. Isn’t it enough to just suffer in the real world? Why suffer within the Dreamrealm too?”
Unfortunately, while Su Chen could even sway his enemies with his words, he just couldn’t convince this stubborn old man.
s.h.i.+ Kaihuang snorted. “Don’t spout such nonsense in front of me. Degradation starts from the mind; if I act luxuriously within the Dreamrealm, I’ll eventually end up living extravagantly in the real world. As long as my dream hasn’t been finished, I won’t let you drag me down with you.”
“Fine, if I say more, I’ll be turned into a two-faced person that is trying to poison you,” Su Chen surrendered helplessly. “If you want, you can just keep living here. I’ll just stop talking about it. Right, what did you call me here for? Have you made progress in developing a way to reach the Yang Opening Realm without a bloodline?”
“Yes, it’s been completed,” s.h.i.+ Kaihuang replied.