A group of people fled in disarray in their large excavators.
Only then did Wu Xiaoxu dare to speak.
"Brother Xuan... I won't tell anyone. You know I can keep a secret!"
As he spoke, he sized up the familiar yet strange young man with a hint of fear. 'A Cultivator... Brother Xuan is a Cultivator!'
'Why would a great master Cultivator stay in the slums? It must be to hide some secret, right?'
'Brother Xuan suddenly appeared seven years ago... Could he be the scion of some great family, whose elders lost a power struggle? Or maybe...'
Wu Xiaoxu's mind raced, imagining one dramatic scenario after another.
Just as he was lost in his daze, Lu Xuan smiled and said,
"It doesn't really matter. Besides, I'm afraid this isn't over yet."
"I'll definitely keep it a secret!" Wu Xiaoxu emphasized again, then asked in confusion, "What isn't over...? Brother Xuan, why didn't you teach them a lesson? They broke Fifth Grandpa's legs!"
Lu Xuan felt the huge sum of one thousand yuan in his pocket and said softly,
"If I had, it might have brought big trouble to the shantytown. I'm not afraid, but I can't get you all involved. Besides, those guys aren't rotten to the core."
After a pause, he walked slowly into the cemetery, sat cross-legged in front of Old Chu's grave, and added,
"Also, Xiaoxu, don't you find it strange? That's Sakata Heavy Industries. Why would they be interested in this little cemetery? And my guess is, Sakata Heavy Industries will be back."
"Then what do we do?" Wu Xiaoxu asked blankly.
"I don't know," Lu Xuan said honestly. "We can only take it one step at a time. If it really comes to it, our only option is to try moving the graves."
As he spoke, he reached out and stroked Old Chu's tombstone, feeling a wave of sadness mixed with a sense of alarm.
'What on earth could make even Sakata Heavy Industries take notice?'
'Sakata Heavy Industries...'
Lu Xuan mulled over those three words.
Wu Xiaoxu suddenly spoke up.
"Brother Xuan, why don't you contact Li Xiaosang? She chased after you for so long back then. She must have really liked you and would surely remember old times."
Wu Xiaoxu added with a mischievous grin,
"Li Xiaosang is doing amazingly well now! She joined Longque Technology and I hear she's highly valued. And Longque Technology is every bit as good as Sakata Heavy Industries!"
The six Super Conglomerates—Sakata Heavy Industries, Longque Technology, Aotao Organism, Celestial God Pharmaceutical, Giant Bear Group, and Ancient Gene—were all on par with one another, each a behemoth capable of going head-to-head with the Federation Government.
Lu Xuan was taken aback for a moment. 'Li Xiaosang... that's a name from a long time ago.'
After some thought, he shook his head and said,
"I don't have Xiaosang's contact information, and we weren't that close. Besides, Sakata Heavy Industries' objective is probably not simple. They won't give up easily. Even if Li Xiaosang stepped in, it wouldn't do any good."
"After all, she only left the shantytown to join Longque Technology two years ago. There's no way Longque Technology would clash with Sakata Heavy Industries over her, even if it's just their East Sea City branch."
Hearing this, Wu Xiaoxu rubbed his nose and sighed.
"I guess that makes sense."
......
「Downtown, in the Sakata Heavy Industries Building.」
The head of the intelligence department, still working late into the night, frowned as he listened to the report. After waving his subordinate out, he made a call.
"Sir, there was a small problem with the demolition of the cemetery in the shantytown. The subcontracted demolition company reported encountering a Cultivator, one who is at least at the second gate of the Jade Tower, the Bone Forging Realm."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, followed by a deep, heavy voice.
"It's just one Cultivator. Why not just take care of him?"
The department head gave a wry smile and shook his head.
"But we already investigated that shantytown beforehand. The only ones worth noting were a mysterious barefoot doctor named Wu Datong and Li Xiaosang, who has already left. We have no intelligence on this Cultivator."
After a pause, he laid out his analysis.
"According to the demolition company's description, the Cultivator is a young man no older than eighteen. He grew up in the shantytown and managed to become a Great Martial Artist of the Bone Forging Realm through self-Cultivation without even attending high school. Behind him, there might be..."
"I understand what you're getting at."
The old man on the other end of the line said flatly,
"He is indeed worth paying attention to. Investigate him. See which reclusive old fossil is backing that young man. If it's not even a Celestial Human, report it to headquarters and have them send a few seniors to take care of it."
Finally, the old man emphasized again,
"No matter what, that cemetery must be demolished. Longque Technology is already sticking its nose in. We have to speed things up. Do you understand what I mean?"
"Yes, Sir!"
......
「Also downtown, at a Super Ancient Research Institute under Longque Technology.」
"The ancient relics and Daoist Collections excavated this time are also absurdly incomplete. There's no useful information at all." The institute director sighed. "What a pity. I thought we'd be able to fill in some parts of ancient history."
The beautiful young woman sitting across from him tilted her head, her expression cool and detached.
"Uncle Li, isn't there one set of bamboo slips that's relatively well-preserved?"
The institute director shook his head with a wry smile.
"What's the use? There's too little information. After the world war 6,800 years ago, civilization was fractured. There's so little history that's survived. And there's a pitiful amount about the mythological history of even more ancient times."
He paused and sighed again.
"Those bamboo slips were probably unearthed by archaeologists from the Old Calendar Era. They clearly don't belong to the period 6,800 years ago; they're from a much more distant age. But ultimately, there's just too little information on them."
"What's recorded on them?" the aloof young woman asked softly.
"In the Great Zhou's Guardian Storage Room, there was a minor Official named Lu Xuan. He followed the seventeenth Keeper of the Records for more than seven years, diligent and without fault. He earned the praise of the Keeper of the Records, Li Er, who said: 'He knows propriety and Dharma, practices Daoist Virtue, and has rendered meritorious service in guarding the Zhou's collection of ten thousand years of books.'"
The institute director recited it, then shrugged.
"The Zhou Dynasty, based on our currently reconstructed history, should be even earlier than the Pre-Qin Era. But this is just a record of a minor Zhou Dynasty official. It's not worth much."
"That's not right." The young woman shook her head. "It's now been confirmed that super ancient history has had its timeline compressed. A Zhou Dynasty that's even more ancient than the Pre-Qin Era could easily be from over a hundred thousand years ago."
After a pause, she pointed out sharply,
"To have one's name recorded in history is no simple feat, let alone to have it recorded in the super ancient history of a suspected hundred thousand years ago. This Li Er and Lu Xuan must be extraordinary. Report it."
The director was stunned for a moment, his expression suddenly turning serious.
"You're absolutely right, Young Lady. That was my oversight."
"No matter... The focus can be placed on the name 'Lu Xuan.' He is clearly the subject of this record."
With that, the young woman simply stood up.
"I'll also be going to the library to look through some materials and see if I can find anything related to these two names."
"What useful information could be in a library?" the institute director said helplessly. "Our information database is all-encompassing. We can just run a comparison on the data."
"Not necessarily. Have you forgotten that the term 'Sanqing Daiost' came from an inconspicuous, damaged book in a small library?" Yan Jiangxue said coolly. "Alright, I'm heading back. I have class tomorrow."
The institute director quickly rose to his feet as well.
"Yes, Young Lady. I'll see you out."
"Mm," Yan Jiangxue nodded calmly, her tone very cold. The director, however, was used to it and paid it no mind.
'When the topic wasn't ancient history, this Young Lady's words were always pitifully few...'
'But 'Lu Xuan,' hmm?'
'I've really never heard or seen this name before. Perhaps it really could be a breakthrough in ancient history, or even super ancient history?'