Chapter Eighty-Five: The Old Fossil

Yuan Muye was afraid that if the truth were laid bare, then from what he understood of the situation, Li Daoran might well kill them if he chose not to take them along. They might not even be left with a chance to survive on their own.

If a potential threat could not be eliminated, then destroy it. The Phil Empire already knew about this place, so relocation was inevitable. But moving alone was one thing; moving with this burden of people was another matter entirely.

During the war on Blue Star, how many brilliant talents had perished? Most of them had fallen because of the same thought: if I cannot protect you, I might as well kill you first, so you do not defect to the enemy and cause me trouble.

Of course Li Daoran would not think that way. Even if he wanted to kill people, he would still have to ask whether the people of Blue Star agreed to it. Not to mention that something like the Sky Net was self-evidently of enormous value to Blue Star.

If there was any technology in Daoran’s world that Blue Star could learn quickly and catch up with, the Sky Net would be first on the list. Only something virtual like that gave Blue Star a foundation to learn from. After all, other things, such as mechs and laser weapons, were constrained by materials and energy, and could not be put to use quickly.

What had begun as nothing more than idle loafing had unexpectedly led to the treasure of a sunken ship, and not just any treasure, but one carrying a fortune in gold that had lain there for more than a thousand years. One could imagine how Blue Star must feel at this moment. Yet profit always came hand in hand with risk, and the question of how to retrieve and carry away that treasure had become a major problem.

“Old Yuan, I have long admired your name,” Li Daoran said with a smile as he stepped forward and shook Yuan Muye’s hand. “What I said just now was only a joke. A man of your stature surely would not hold it against a little soldier like me.”

Yuan Muye returned the smile and hurriedly said, “No, no, no. My old life was saved by you. If it had not been for this young hero, these old bones of mine would likely have been left here.”

As he spoke, he bent slightly, pressed at his back, and coughed twice.

Li Daoran immediately flattered him further, helping Yuan Muye sit down and massaging his shoulders as he said, “Old Yuan, you truly are a man of culture. The way you speak is on another level. If you do not mind, I would like to have a teacher like you.”

This time Yuan Muye was genuinely startled. He could not understand what Li Daoran was after. Even knowing his identity, he was now a hot potato, and Li Daoran had no reason to be so haughty one moment and so respectful the next.

“I mean it,” Li Daoran said when he saw Yuan Muye’s confusion. “I really want to learn from you.”

“From me?” Tianye had not yet grasped the situation. She assumed Li Daoran was just another opportunist, the sort who flocked to whomever looked useful, and that now he knew Yuan Muye’s identity he wanted to curry favor. Unable to restrain herself, she sneered, “How much could a teacher possibly teach you? So many people want to become Old Yuan’s student that even a one-in-a-million chance would be putting it lightly. And you think a couple of words are enough to make him take you on?”

“Xiaotian, go outside. Do not talk nonsense,” Yuan Muye said angrily. Afraid that Tianye might offend the extraordinarily capable young man before him, he immediately snapped at her.

Tianye pouted, but she did not dare disobey Old Yuan. She could only leave, close the door, and then stand at the entrance looking at the corpses strewn across the research institute. Before long she crouched down, wrapped her arms around her legs, buried her face in her knees, and trembled faintly.

“Tianye is still young. Do not take offense at her,” Yuan Muye said. “She is usually very clever and sensible. It is only that after such a sudden catastrophe, she has not yet adjusted her state of mind. Among all my students, she is the one who learned the most. She has pride in her bones, and a fierce kind of stubbornness. It has helped her, yes, but sometimes I fear it may also ruin her one day. Alas.”

As he spoke, he secretly studied Li Daoran’s expression. This young man gave him far too unusual a feeling; he simply could not see through what was on his mind.

“It is fine. Let us talk business,” Li Daoran said. “How about I follow you and learn from you?”

Yuan Muye gave a wry smile, because he realized Li Daoran was genuinely serious about learning from him. “If this were ordinary times, there would truly be no problem. It would be nothing more than taking on one more student. That would hardly matter.

“And do not listen to Xiaotian’s nonsense. I have been away from the front line for a long time. Even I can no longer understand the Sky Net as it stands now.

“I am old. I have already fallen behind the times. At most, I can teach a few antiquated things.”

“Good. Antiquated is excellent.” David said excitedly. “You might not understand this if I put it another way. Take the founder of the internet, for example. He may not necessarily know as much about what a programmer earning two thousand a month can do these days. But when it comes to fundamentals, when it comes to architecture, it is still the old masters who know how to do it.”

“New technology is always built on old foundations. What we need is the basic framework. People like Yuan Muye may not necessarily be able to explain it in a way that is both simple and profound, but if you just want them to show you how to use it, that is one thing. Rebuilding the whole structure from scratch, though? Ah, let us not make things difficult for them,” Chen Ming agreed.

“All right, we know it is a treasure, but this really is not the time to learn. What should we do next? We have so many people with us, and we need to escape. Where are we even escaping to? We were originally supposed to move closer to the center of the battlefield, but with them in tow, do we need to change our plan?” Natasha interrupted the two excited men.

Of course, Li Daoran knew nothing about this scene on Blue Star.

At this moment, he was still listening to Yuan Muye speak.

“I do not know how much foundation you have,” Yuan Muye said. “But whether it is the Sky Net or biotechnology, neither can be mastered in a single day. And they are certainly not some miraculous weapon or peerless secret art that, once learned, lets you sweep the world. I am sure you understand the situation better than I do. If you can take us out of here and bring us to a safe place, then I will teach you everything I know. No empty politeness. Even if you were only an elementary school student, I would still teach you.”

Li Daoran almost laughed aloud inside. His own level might not even be as good as an elementary school student’s, but that did not matter, because he had people at home whose knowledge was at least on a university level. So he was not the least bit flustered. He knew that when Yuan Muye said this, he was truly opening his heart.

A teacher would not normally say things like “I will teach you everything I know” and “I will hold nothing back” unless he meant it. That would be laughable. Even if a teacher taught you everything, you still had to be able to learn it. If total devotion alone were enough, then academic performance would not be divided into first, second, and third tiers.

It is still “the teacher opens the door; the path of cultivation depends on the individual.” For Yuan Muye to say that even if Li Daoran were only an elementary school student, he would teach him to the best of his ability was already the height of teaching according to aptitude. More could not reasonably be asked of him.

But how could Li Daoran know what to do next? He could only answer evasively, “Old Yuan, you are joking. I actually do not know what is happening right now. To tell you the truth, I am not hiding anything from you either. I only just arrived on Milan Star, and I just happened to be able to save all of you.”

“You just arrived on Milan Star? You are not from the military here?” Yuan Muye seized on the point at once.

“No. I am part of the first group sent here as support,” Li Daoran replied.

“Support has arrived? Could it be that the battle in space was won and the blockade has been lifted? How many of you are there? When can the second group arrive? Why did you come here? Which legion are you from? Who sent you? Who is in charge?” Yuan Muye truly was a seasoned old hand. From just those few sentences, he had already identified the critical points.

He fired off question after question. Li Daoran was utterly speechless, thinking bitterly that this man claimed he did not understand the situation, yet these were not questions just anyone could come up with. Ask me? How on earth would I know?