Chapter 2647: Life Origin
"The ancestral hall was long gone. When Dou Hui was driven out of the capital, it was smashed to pieces, even the portraits were dragged out and burned."
The old man seemed to be recalling that scene, shaking his head as he said, "This is what happens when people don't accumulate virtue. Even someone who's been dead for hundreds of years gets dragged into the blame."
"Has anyone seen the genealogy that the Dou family compiled?" Xu Huo asked.
"Go to Linghe Town ahead. The teacher who helped them compile the genealogy lives there, but his legs were crippled. He's in a wheelchair now and has a bad temper." The old man seemed completely unaware of the player's methods, rambling on, "Two outsiders came to ask me before. They went there a couple of days ago. I don't know if they found him. I hope they don't start a fight. The teacher didn't want to earn that dirty money either, but circumstances were stronger than him. The Dou family was so overbearing—could he have refused and still lived?"
As he spoke, he drifted into his own world. A young man walked in from outside, poured him a glass of water, and said to Xu Huo, "My second grandfather's mind isn't very clear anymore. If you want to ask anything else, you'll have to wait."
Xu Huo left some money and took his leave.
Linghe Town was still some distance from Lingshui Town. He didn't use teleportation items or spiritual power to travel but drove the RV slowly.
The recording Lian Qingkong had played, seemingly an excuse, actually revealed some information they hadn't known before. First, the overlap between the historical descendants of Peng Guan and the Supreme God Cult. This might be one of the important reasons why the Supreme God Cult still possessed a tribunal to this day.
Second, Dou Hui had taken the square tripod and round fox token to find the tribunal believers. This action was significant, indicating that Dou Hui believed holding the token would allow him to command the tribunal's followers. The term "National Heirloom Treasure" was first recorded over four hundred years ago, associated with the assassin family. If this family had continued, their purpose for existence would be to protect the interests of the supreme ruler—if not, then successive rulers would have completely eliminated them while reducing the Supreme God Cult's influence.
In the age of cold weapons, eliminating them would have been too easy. A concentrated purge would have been enough to break their lineage.
In other words, Dou Hui, or the ruling class he represented, believed they could use the token to make the tribunal believers, suspected to be descendants of Peng Guan, act on their behalf.
As for why the tribunal didn't get involved and instead vanished overnight, it might be related to their strength or beliefs.
If they lacked strength, they could naturally be killed by other players, which also fit the current state of the country, since the emergence of players had shortened the gap between people.
If it was related to beliefs, it was likely that they inherited their ancestors' will and didn't recognize Dou Hui, so they refused to help. This had nothing to do with whether Dou Hui was a descendant of the Gao family.
But Lian Qingkong mentioned Dou Hui and the Gao family, likely because some players had previously used this as an entry point to search for the "National Heirloom Treasure." Of course, it could also be for other reasons, such as the "National Heirloom Treasure" truly being related to the Gao family.
As the leader who overthrew Dou Hui's government, Lian Qingkong had also recovered items, instruments, and Dou Hui's body in subsequent investigations. In terms of information gathering, he was the closest to the "National Heirloom Treasure." He might even already know what the "National Heirloom Treasure" referred to. The instance hadn't disappeared, indicating he hadn't obtained it. As for his negative attitude, it might be because the "National Heirloom Treasure" couldn't stabilize the Isle Country.
Given the current state of the Isle Country, whether the "National Heirloom Treasure" was a person or an object, it would be difficult to completely stabilize the government led by Lian Qingkong. But the instance existed and the clearance task required it, indicating that the "National Heirloom Treasure" had a certain probability of achieving this.
A token recognized by many players didn't exist. Even if the Gao family ruler and Peng Guan came back to life now, it wouldn't work, let alone some symbolic item born from their jokes. So the "National Heirloom Treasure" was likely related to a person.
The Isle Country hadn't produced any super-powerful players, so the possibility of someone who was unknown in the first half of their life and suddenly rose to turn the tide was very small. But if the assassin family had successfully continued, then one would become many.
The square tripod and round fox token or flags weren't recognized by these people. Perhaps they had already formed new organizations and new beliefs, which was why they didn't appear when Dou Hui sought them out. Ordinary people in the Isle Country died or fled due to the war, and even the country was on the verge of collapse, yet they still didn't show up.
This inference was the most likely truth based on the current information.
But this was just an opening. To verify whether this organization existed, one could only start with the Supreme God Cult and Dou Hui.
The people and events of the Supreme God Tribunal should have been thoroughly examined over the years. With its complex relationships and points of conflict, the Dou Hui side was easier to investigate.
The ancestral hall built by Dou Hui's parents after his rise was quite interesting.
People from the same city said the Dou family had fabricated a false genealogy. Whether the Dou family was related to the Gao family remained to be determined, but this genealogy should have traced the Gao family's inheritance over the past few hundred years. Whether through direct bloodline, adoption, or even changing their surname out of admiration for ancestors, there would inevitably be traces of the Gao family's descendants. From these people, one might glimpse traces of Peng Guan's descendants.
Halfway through the drive, a puppet caught up, seemingly the same one as before.
The RV stopped. As the instrument sealed off the area within two kilometers, Xu Huo stepped out, flexing his hands, and looked at the masked puppet in the distance. "I'm in a hurry. Let's finish this quickly."
The puppet stood there for a moment, then turned and fled the next second. But before it could reach the blockade barrier, a figure descended from the sky and stomped it heavily into the ground!
Half of its body was smashed into the earth, but the impact didn't stop it from using instruments. Several instruments flew out from various parts of the puppet's body, while several space tangents sprang from its back.
Defense barriers were broken one after another. Xu Huo flipped to the puppet's side, tilted his head to avoid the metal needles shot from its mouth, and as all the barriers disappeared, he thrust his hand into its eye!
In the blink of an eye, the metal puppet collapsed. As the human skin and clothes fell to the ground, some of the items and instruments it carried also turned into fine dust.
Since "Life Core" had been upgraded to "Life Origin," he hadn't used it. Now it seemed that not only had the speed of destroying metal increased, but the range of destruction had also expanded.
Originally, "Life Core" could destroy metal it came into contact with. For example, in a building, if there were contact points with its internal metal structure, it could quickly destroy the entire building's metal framework. But individual metal objects placed inside the building were not within this range.
However, "Life Origin" not only destroyed the metal instruments through the clothes but also rendered some instruments and items that maintained their external form useless.
In the end, only three instruments remained functional.