Chapter 57
Translator: Fan Editor: Darling
There was also archaeology in the technical world . They had first studied their own history, then moved on to researching other cultures . In archaeology, the study of the language and texts of different cultures was most important . When doing such research, one would run into the problem of preservation .
Situations like the one Ye Zan was in were not uncommon in archaeology . If an ancient site were to be suddenly opened after many years, the golds and metals might not be damaged . However, the texts, wooden parts, bamboo objects, or even bones, would be greatly affected, perhaps even long been turned to dust, retaining only the outward appearance of what it once would have been . Even the slight introduction of fresh air would be able to destroy, not to say the human touch .
Thus, they had developed a technique that allowed a scanner to process the area and create an identical copy out of nanomaterial to replace what had already rotted .
Now the things in the office had not gone to the point of disintegration . Or else, with the leaking windows, these texts would have long been blown away . However, from the circumstances of the outside of the main wing, they were definitely severely decomposing . One might not even be able to pick up the pages . So, Ye Zan could only revert to using this method .
Ye Zan first used a thin material to seal the leaking areas of the windows (the areas where the paper had worn away); allowing the room to become a closed space . He left only a hole the size of a bottle cap . After that, he brought out a suitcase from his dimension, attaching a tube the size of a fist to the machine . On the other side of the machine was a rubber tube, which was spun through the hole . Ye Zan then turned on the machine .
With the powering of the machine, Ye Zan could see a smoke disperse within the room through the material . In no time, the entire room was covered in an opaque cap; completely filled with the smoke . Ye Zan looked at the numbers showing from the machine and confirmed the density of the smoke before closing the machine and waiting patiently outside of the room .
Ye Zan did not have to wait for long . After the machines stopped, the smoke in the room diminished . In fifteen minutes, the room had cleared . It looked no different from before . But, this time Ye Zan didn’t need to be so careful . He pushed open the door . Now, the room didn’t shake from this .
Ye Zan came before a desk and picked up a book . Normally, it would have shattered in his hands . But now, it seemed unnaturally stiff . After all, this technique did not turn back time . After being turned to nanomaterial, it would also inherit the stiff traits of said nanomaterial .
Of course, this change did not affect the reading experience .
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Ye Zan flipped through the book . The book was written in ancient characters . According to the information in his smart-tech’s storage cabinet, these characters had a history of over five thousand years . From this point, you could see that, unless the Master of the Realm, had deliberately written in ancient characters, the Closed Realm would have a history of at least five thousand years .
Ye Zan didn’t plan on using the carbon-dating technique from the technological world to test this answer . After all, this world was very different from the technological world . In this world, there was the existence of the spiritual force . Under the influence of this force, many things differed from how they were in the technological world . The Carbon-14 dating technique was inapplicable in this world .
It wasn’t really important, as Ye Zan hadn’t come here for an archaeological excavation . So, it didn’t matter if the artifacts were five thousand or six thousand years old . The only thing he needed to do was to find what he wanted . If you evaluated this from the view of motives, then Ye Zan would be like a Tomb Robber, even if this place wasn’t a tomb .
The book Ye Zan had picked up had been placed directly on the desk . One could say it was a journal, as almost half of it was left blank . The cover of the journal was made of animal skin, with nothing titling it . This wasn’t unordinary . After all, who in their right mind would give their journal a name and sign it off like an author .
The contents of the journal did concern mechanical techniques . However . More of it was centered around the results of some tests . Some of the technical jargon was puzzling for someone like Ye Zan, who had never interacted with mechanical techniques .
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It was clear that the Master of the Secret Realm had recorded the results of all of his tests onto the journal . The book that Ye Zan should hold the notes on the late-period results . If there was a late-period, then there should be an early period . Ye Zan quickly found the corresponding journals on a bookcase at the side of the room .
In the first journal, Ye Zan finally uncovered the identity of the Master of the Realm . This man called himself a Bai Ji cultivator . This title was unfamiliar to Ye Zan . He had read much about the various Sects but knew only of a Sect called Qian Ji Sect . He knew not of the connection between the two .
This Bai Ji cultivator’s journal recorded his experience with mechanical techniques; starting from almost no experience . It was like the journey of a man that turned from a kindergartner to a Master . This was very helpful for Ye Zan . He could learn from the basics to the details without the need for a Master’s direction .
But, this was strange to Ye Zan . It didn’t seem like he was researching how to make Mechanical Puppets . It seemed more like he was researching mechanics, or rather, creating mechanical techniques .
Thinking of his earlier assumptions: this Realm had at least five to six thousand years of history, Ye Zan suddenly thought of a problem . There wasn’t an ancient basis for mechanical technology in this world . In the time of Master Xuan Yuan some ten thousand years ago, mechanical technology probably didn’t even completely exist .
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That was to say that this Bai Ji cultivator, if not one of the creators of the current mechanical/puppet technique, was at least one of the original creators of the idea .
However, again, Ye Zan wasn’t here for an archaeological excavation . He didn’t care who that Bai Ji cultivator was . As long as he had received this journal, he had benefited . From the journal, Ye Zan found information on the intelligence of the Puppets . He was startled . The intelligence of the Puppets was actually directly connected to the soul .
No wonder the Puppets acted in sync with their various shapes . Like how the tiger-shaped ones acted like tigers, or how the wolf-shaped ones acted like wolves . That was because there were tiger and wolf souls trapped within them . Those human-shaped Puppets, including those four Bronze Terracotta Soldiers, would inevitably have human souls within them .
Of course, from what was recorded in the journal, to ensure that the puppets had self-governance without becoming rogue, their souls, regardless if creature or human, had been subject to treatment . There was a saying of the soul being split into parts . After a person died, the part belonging to the heavens would return to the heavens, the part belonging to the earth would return to the earth, and the human part would remain where they had died . This Bai Ji cultivator had trapped the human part and stuffed it into the Mechanical Puppets .
This was a little sinister, even for someone like Ye Zan, who came from the technological world . In this world, playing with human souls would be almost demonic . At least, the “good” Sects would not allow such an action on the surface .
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