Chapter 480: Hall Master Hongchen Wants to Report His Own Father
After the morning court session ended, Yao Hongchen walked out of the palace and quickly headed toward Mingde Hall.
After the Prime Minister's proposal, no other ministers presented any suggestions with greater substance. Once Zhou Yuan's plan had been discussed and refined in detail, the court session came to an end.
However, Yao Hongchen's thoughts were not on Han Shi at all. His expression was somewhat grave.
He absolutely did not believe that the Douluo Continent had discovered the Sun Moon Continent earlier, allowing them to arrange infiltrators in advance. But the apparent failure of the Life Detection Spirit Tools when it came to Han Shi was equally no small matter.
It should be known that when this spirit tool was first developed, Mingde Hall had conducted countless internal experiments. Even a ninth-level Spirit Engineer could not conceal their presence from such a detector. Therefore, Mingde Hall had once reached a firm conclusion: unless someone could instantly move from one side of the detection device to the other, it was impossible to pass through the detection range without the spirit tool noticing.
In theory, the only way to achieve such an effect would be instant teleportation.
But even the lowest seventh-level Life Detection Spirit Tool covered a spherical area with a diameter of three thousand meters.
Teleporting more than three thousand meters in a single instant?
That was simply absurd.
Therefore, in theory, this spirit tool should absolutely be able to detect infiltrators from the Douluo Continent.
Although during the court session he had mentioned that spirit masters from Douluo possessed all kinds of strange martial spirits, and perhaps someone might have an ability capable of doing this, that had merely been an excuse. He had simply been unable to think of any other explanation.
In truth, he himself did not believe it.
Did spirit masters not need to use spirit power?
Even if they possessed some special spirit skill capable of concealing their life aura, the very act of activating such a skill would inevitably produce spirit power fluctuations.
A spirit master capable of bypassing the detector should not exist.
Yet no matter what, the restaurant Han Shi, which had originally been on the Douluo Continent, had now appeared within Mingdu City.
And that fact was as solid as iron.
It was a fact Yao Hongchen simply could not accept.
He knew very clearly that the forward detection devices equipped within every Sun Moon Empire Spirit Engineer Legion were essentially derived from the same detection system as the Life Detection Spirit Tools. Their principles and functions were fundamentally identical.
If the other party could pass through the Life Detection Spirit Tools unnoticed, it meant they possessed the same ability to infiltrate the command tent of a Sun Moon Spirit Engineer Legion without being detected.
The Sun Moon Empire had long regarded the Douluo Continent as a hypothetical enemy. If such a problem truly existed, it would be a fatal blow to the empire's Spirit Engineer legions.
Although the emperor had not stated it directly during court, the meaningful glance he had given earlier made Yao Hongchen understand that the emperor had realized this point as well.
And now, he had to provide a practical solution as soon as possible.
Therefore, Yao Hongchen needed to quickly determine how the other party had passed through the flawless detection network of countless seventh- and eighth-level Life Detection Spirit Tools and infiltrated the Sun Moon Continent.
To answer that question, he needed to consult someone else.
The first tenth-level Spirit Engineer in the history of the Sun Moon Continent, the one who had modified and optimized the Life Detection Spirit Tool—and also his father.
Imperial Teacher De Hongchen.
…
"Father!"
Pushing open the quiet cultivation chamber beneath Mingde Hall, where De Hongchen was in seclusion, Yao Hongchen quickly stepped inside. He glanced at De Hongchen, who was bent over studying something intently.
"The Life Detection Spirit Tool has a problem!"
"Yao, you came at just the right time." De Hongchen looked up and spoke cheerfully. "Come take a look at your father's latest research results!"
"A 20,000-year Gargoyle torso spirit bone was just delivered from Banlan City—what a treasure." He shook a spirit bone in his hand that had already been half modified. "With this, my earlier concept of a spirit-guided full-body armor might finally be worth trying. With the idea of array spirit tools, the connections between the various armor components—"
"—Father!" Yao Hongchen's tone grew heavier. "Did you hear what I just said?"
"I heard, I heard. Didn't you say the Life Detection Spirit Tool had a small problem?" Seeing that his son showed no interest in his research, De Hongchen reluctantly set the spirit bone down. "Go on then—what problem is it this time?"
In his mind it was certainly some trivial issue again. Compared to solving those minor matters, the spirit-guided full-body armor was far more interesting.
Seeing that his father remained largely indifferent and clearly had no understanding of the seriousness of the situation, Yao Hongchen sighed inwardly. He then carefully reported everything that had happened during the morning court session, sparing no detail.
By the time he finished, his mouth was dry. After pouring himself a cup of water from the dispenser and drinking it, he turned to look at his father again—and felt a slight sense of relief.
As he had spoken, De Hongchen had finally stopped treating the matter lightly. Stroking his graying beard, he sat cross-legged atop the spirit-guided operation table, his expression becoming serious.
"Father, now you understand how serious this matter is—"
"—So you're saying…" De Hongchen interrupted his son, "…that Han Shi opened a restaurant in Mingdu City?"
"Yes. I still don't know how Han Shi managed to—"
"—Then is the food really as delicious as the intelligence reports say? Yao, have you tried it?"
Yao Hongchen: "???"
Is that seriously the main point?
Shouldn't the real issue be that this restaurant somehow evaded every Life Detection Spirit Tool and appeared in Mingdu City?
Seeing the bewildered look on his son's face, De Hongchen shook his head.
"Forget it. I suppose you haven't gone. In that case maybe I should—"
He was about to stand up, but his gaze slowly landed on the half-modified spirit bone nearby. A strong look of conflict and hesitation appeared in his eyes.
He really wanted to go taste the food…
But the spirit bone modification was only half finished. He didn't want to stop halfway either.
What a hassle!
Shaking his head, De Hongchen sat back down again.
"Yao, I'll give you a task. Go to Han Shi at noon today and try their food. See how good it really is. If it's tasty, bring a portion back for me!"
"Huh?" Although he had always known his father could be rather unreliable, Yao Hongchen still felt utterly confused at this moment. "Father, about the Life Detection Spirit Tools… the imperial family still needs an explanation. It would be best if we could improve the current life-detection devices a bit so the imperial family can feel reassured."
"I know, I know." De Hongchen lowered his head and resumed working on the spirit bone modification, casually waving his hand. "Go tell the emperor I'll improve it as soon as possible. But I'll need a batch of rare metal resources. Just take a few sheets from the list hanging on my door and give them to him."
"Hehe~ Make a few casual tweaks and I'll get another batch of rare metals. That feels pretty nice." De Hongchen grinned cunningly like an old rascal, and even the speed of his modification work increased slightly.
Yao Hongchen's face twitched almost imperceptibly as he suppressed the urge to report his own father.
Things like this had happened many times before. Every time the emperor asked his father to take action, his father would request a batch of rare metal resources, claiming that repeated testing would consume large amounts of materials.
But the truth was, his old father possessed spirit-guided technologies far beyond current standards, so he didn't need to test anything at all.
Silently, Yao Hongchen took two sheets from the pile of lists hanging by the door and turned to leave.
"Remember to eat at Han Shi and bring a portion back for your father!"
"…Alright."
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