Yu Sheng realized that this Universe’s places with outstanding people and spiritual grounds are not limited to the Boundary Land; Qianfeng Ling Mountain is also pretty remarkable...
However, to think positively, True Man Qianji is quite easy-going in character, which brings Yu Sheng so relief—as he had heard True Man Yuanling describe the sect leader elders of the other major sects as "old guys only focused on cultivation." He thought they were all a bunch of rigid, stubborn cultivators, but seeing True Man Qianji now, he realized that while Qianji might be "focused entirely on research/cultivation," he is not at all rigid or stubborn.
Of course, it’s another trivial little issue when the topic occasionally gets diverted while dealing with this Great Elder of the Lying Cloud Ten Halls.
Thankfully, under True Man Yuanling’s relentless effort, the topic finally returned to its proper path.
"Astonishing, truly astonishing..."
True Man Qianji looked up, gazing at the imposing figure of the Siege Giant Divine Soldier standing before him, exclaiming in amazent.
"We’ve only dismantled its front and rear shells without touching its core," True Man Yuanling said beside him, "what secrets lie within, you’ll have to tell us."
True Man Qianji waved his hand: "No rush, no rush, let go up and see."
Before the words were out, this sect master, who had completely regarded the chanical Man’s body as his own flesh, gently turned his neck. In the next second, with a few soft clicks, his entire head along with a small portion of the neck below unexpectedly detached and rose into the air, accompanied by a faint buzzing sound, flying toward the chanical core of the Siege Giant Divine Soldier.
Instantly, several small chanical arms extended from below his head, with intricate tal joints moving as they climbed the chanical structure on the giant soldier’s chest, carefully probing among the dizzying gears and talismans.
Erin, witnessing this scene, nearly jumped out of her skin, instinctively grabbing onto Yu Sheng’s hair: "Oh my! The Puppet Progenitor!"
"My hair!" Yu Sheng imdiately brushed away the little puppet’s claws, equally startled by True Man Qianji’s actions, but still instinctively turned to look at Erin, "Why ntion the Puppet Progenitor at this mont?"
Erin asserted confidently: "It’s an Alice Puppet tradition; when you see soone’s head fall off, you should quickly shout ’Puppet Progenitor’ to prevent your own head from falling off..."
Yu Sheng looked bewildered: "... What a load of nonsense."
At that mont, True Man Qianji’s voice also erged from his body left on the ground: "Yuanling, have you noticed the various inscriptions inside this chanical Man?"
"Of course we’ve seen them," True Man Yuanling nodded, "but no one recognizes the years and places written on these inscriptions."
"No one recognizes them... Indeed, I don’t recognize them either, but haven’t you thought of anything?" True Man Qianji spoke, his head slowly descending from the air and reconnecting with his body with a few clicks, "Tianyuan Year 127. Tianyuan... Now, the calendar used by Taixu Spirit Hub for chronology is consistent with the ’Holy Calendar’ of ’Terra’ and ’Boundary Land,’ along with our own ’Taixu Calendar’ used for chronology... Do you rember the books ntioning the several major revisions of ’Taixu Calendar’?"
"Of course I rember," nodded True Man Yuanling, "Taixu Calendar has been used ever since the continuation of historical records, but in the first hundred years, there were various reasons for nurous errors, leading to three major revisions and four minor revisions, after which it was just barely usable as the ’Standard Calendar’ for guiding farming seasons on Taixu Star."
"Various reasons... Do you recall what the main reason among them was?"
Hearing the question posed by the other party, a trace of seriousness appeared in True Man Yuanling’s expression.
"Misalignnt with stars, inconformity with the cycle of heavenly principles, most importantly, ’deficiencies in the calendar.’
"Indeed, misalignnt with stars, inconformity with heavenly principles, deficiencies in the calendar," True Man Qianji spoke slowly, with the chanical core in his chest clicking, as if rapidly calculating many things, "The reason for these deficiencies and misalignnt with stars boils down to one main cause—transition between old and new worlds."
True Man Yuanling said nothing, quietly raising his head to look at the chanical giant on the platform.
True Man Qianji’s voice resonated with a deep tremor: "When the worlds change, the old thods of star observation beco unusable; traditional lineage breaks, many things handed down by our ancestors beco hard to trace. How majestic were the Ancient Saints, yet unable to preserve everything under the heavens. Much couldn’t be kept... thus beca gaps in ancient books, rupture in inheritance, resulting in ’deficiencies in the calendar.’ It goes for calendars, and it goes for thods of chronology as well."
Hu Li blinked her eyes, eager to learn though currently struggling to follow the discussion of the two True n, so she turned and poked Yu Sheng’s arm with her tail: "Savior, what are they talking about?"
Yu Sheng actually felt clouded at first, but fortunately, he had learned quite a bit about the "secrets" of this world from Baili Qing. At this mont, from connecting the dots in their conversation, he guessed, "You an the inscriptions on these Giant Divine Soldiers record... information from the ’Old World’?"
"There is this speculation," True Man Qianji turned his head and, even though his face was made of tal and stone, it carried a heavy and complex expression at this mont, "Since you are an expert from the Boundary Land, you should know that there was a great tribulation across the myriad worlds, called ’Annihilation.’ After Annihilation, the myriad realms perished. It was the Ancient Saints who made a last-ditch effort to recreate the universe from the remnants of the catastrophe. Afterward, this universe had the saying of ’new and old worlds.’
"But ultimately, it was a catastrophe that led to the annihilation of all worlds. Even with recreating the universe, there were things that couldn’t be recovered. Those things have now beco parts of various civilizations that are incomplete and missing in history, technology, and heritage. Our Taixu Spirit Hub is one of the more complete ones in terms of inheritance, second only to the ’Academy’ on Terra Star. Yet even so, we have many things concerning the Old World that we can’t make sense of.
"The ’Tianyuan’ era na has never appeared in the ancient books passed down to this day. In fact, we don’t even know what the calendar system was like on Taixu Star in the Old World. Even the ’calendar’ we use to guide agriculture was pieced together after history was rewritten and the universe was reopened. But now, the inscription on the chanical Giant ntions the ’Tianyuan’ era na... According to reasonable deduction, I believe this was the calendar system used on Taixu Star in the Old World, or at least a node in that system.
"And by this deduction, the ’Golden Casting Pavilion in Taoming Valley’ recorded in the inscription should be a place na that only existed in the Old World, and the artisan Song Xingzhi is likely an ancestor from the Old World."
Yu Sheng remained silent for a mont.
He didn’t know what he should be sighing about now — Was it the great feat of world remaking? Or the history recorded by Taixu Spirit Hub and that lost "Old World"? Or perhaps... Was it worth carefully thinking about why these Siege Giant Divine Soldiers, which seemingly recorded information about the Old World, appeared in the Exotic Realm of the Taiyou Star’s desert?
While Yu Sheng was deep in thought, True Man Yuanling suddenly broke the silence: "There should be other evidence, right?"
As he said this, his gaze fell on True Man Qianji.
"Yesterday, when I sent you the chanical core blueprint of the Giant Divine Soldier, you hurriedly wanted to co over. Did you see sothing from that blueprint at that ti?"
"I might as well not hide it from you."
True Man Qianji nodded and then raised his hand with a flick, sohow retrieving a wooden box from sowhere. When he opened the wooden box, there were several exquisite jade pieces less than half the size of a palm inside.
He placed those jade pieces in his palm, and strands of misty radiance rose from the center of his hand. Then, with a few crisp ringing sounds, the jade pieces floated up, circling around True Man Qianji while light from the jade pieces outlined colossal shadows in the surrounding air.
These turned out to be an eye-dazzling array of Giant Divine Soldiers of various sizes and models!
"These are large chanical Puppets crafted by my Lying Cloud Ten Halls, arranged by model and purpose. Those categorized as ’Siege Giant Divine Soldiers’ are these ones."
Accompanied by True Man Qianji’s words, the illusions projected from the jade pieces continually adjusted in size and position, with so images disassembling to reveal details of the components.
Of course, this should not involve technical data of core secrets but rely so superficial demonstrations. Yet from True Man Yuanling’s serious expression, Yu Sheng judged that this information should already reveal many things.
True Man Qianji’s voice continued—
"This is an ’Iron Garrison’ level Giant Divine Soldier. Its chanical core is from the sa lineage as the ’Tiger Wolf’ level. You should be able to see that this chanical core is quite different from other Giant Divine Soldiers — but it bears so similarity to the chanism dug out of the belly of the Giant Divine Soldier from the Exotic Realm.
"For a long a ti, the original design of this chanical core has actually been a mystery.
"Of course, I know how to construct it; I even am very clear about its principles and all the technical details. Yuanling, you understand my skill; there is no chanical technique that baffles ... But understanding the principles and technology is one thing, finding out its ’source’ is quite another.
"Just like our Taixu Calendar ’has defects,’ the chanical techniques of Lying Cloud Ten Halls also have a small ’defect.’ This portion of the defect has been patched by three generations including myself, my master, and my grandmaster, though what we patched was rely the ’technique’ part, we couldn’t patch the ’source’ of the technique, nor could we find those who stood at the source back then."
True Man Qianji spoke as he slowly turned around. He raised his head, his gaze going beyond the chanical projections suspended mid-air, and landing on that ancient Giant Divine Soldier.
"Golden Casting Pavilion in Taoming Valley, Song Xingzhi... Up to now, we’ve finally patched up the first na."
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