Chapter 112: One more update

　　You two, father and son, what’s wrong with you! !

　　Yang Yang was so frightened that he froze in place, his heart almost jumped to his throat. By the time he came back to his senses and turned off the light screen, Abel had disappeared from the screen, and Archibald had already seen all he should have seen.

　　Fine.

　　There’s no need to panic, he can just show his cards directly.

　　Thinking of this, Yang Yang’s tense body loosened and he gave Archibald an accusing look back.

　　Archibald laughed, walked over and sat next to Yang Yang, raising his hand to pat his back gently, “Were you scared?”

　　Yang Yang’s heart was still beating hard, he rolled his eyes when he heard this: “What do you think?”

　　Archibald laughed again, glanced at the light screen that hadn’t been turned off, and asked after a pause: “That’s a surveillance screen, are you monitoring Dad?”

　　”How is that possible.”

　　Yang turned off the light screen and sighed, “Not Dad, but uncle Ya Qing.”

　　However, this answer was not much better.

　　Archibald was silent, his tail was hanging on the carpet beside the bed, motionless, every scale exuding air full of depression— in fact, he knew this answer wasn’t accidental, or rather, he even thought about it himself.

　　But even if he thought about it, he didn’t want it to come true.

　　Archibald closed his eyes, pulled himself together, and asked Yang Yang: “Did you find anything?”

　　Yang Yang shook his head and said, “That’s why I asked Roth to monitor him.”

　　Afterwards, Yang Yang explained the situation with Ruo Hong and also told Archibald about her child.

　　Archibald was shocked, but at the same time worried: “That kid, does he really looks like me?”

　　Yang Yang knew what he was thinking, and said, “I don’t think that village came to be because of you. Same reason as before, counting from the time the spaceship landed here, the village had been here for at least 70 years, and at that time, our father and dad were not yet married.”

           Archibald nodded, although his expression was still not relieved, he didn’t mention it anymore. He asked another question: “Then why do you doubt Uncle Ya Qing?”

　　Yang Yang paused, and replied: “Because of the medicine stone. I think he should be related to that village, but I have no evidence, and I can’t figure out his purpose——so I didn’t want to tell you yet.”

　　To Archibald, Ya Qing was not only his uncle, but also the one who saved his life and his father’s. ——Even though the relationship between Ya Qing and He Shu didn’t seem to be very harmonious, it did not mean that they would allow others to slander Ya Qing at will.

　　”It’s okay.”

　　Archibald seemed to see through Yang Yang’s thoughts, his eyes were serious: “I believe you.”

　　Yang Yang smiled: “I know, but exactly because I know, I don’t want to waste your trust. ——Okay, let’s go.”

　　Archibald was stunned: “Where are we going?”

　　Yang Yang said with a bitter face: “It looks like Dad found out I’ve been watching him through the surveillance camera. Didn’t see that glance he gave at the end? ——How do you think he would find out?”

　　Archibald smiled: “Dad’s perception of soul power is very keen. Although Roth is an AI, it’s also a living mind and has a soul. So it’s not surprising Dad would notice. ——But he might not think of Roth, so it should be fine.”

　　Yang Yang shook his head: “Since Dad’s perception of soul power is so good, he definitely wouldn’t think it was his own illusion. Instead of letting him doubt and go to verify, it’s better for us to confess now, for lenient treatment.”

　　Archibald: “Us?”

　　Yang Yang narrowed his eyes and stared at him: “Just now you have boarded my pirate ship, and now you want to get off board? There’s no such thing as leaving! 

          Archibald: “…”

　　Archibald stood up helplessly, took Yang Yang’s hand and said, “Okay, let’s live and die together then.”

　　Abel and He Shu lived on the second floor, in the room He Shu used to live in.

　　When Yang Yang and Archibald knocked on the door, Abel and He Shu were there, they didn’t look like they were about to wash up and go to rest. There was still tea on the small metal table next to it, freshly brewed, and there were two additional cups.

　　Yang Yang: “…”

　　This was just waiting for them.

　　Yang Yang was inexplicably a little timid. Dad didn’t seem to be so careless as he looked.

　　”You came.”

　　When Abel saw them, his expression was calm, as if they had made an appointment a long time ago.

　　Yang Yang let out a “en” and followed Archibald into the room with his tail between his legs.

　　At this time, the sky was already dark and there were sparse street lights in the manor, making the view outside the window resemble a bottomless black sea. The room was filled with silence.

　　Until Abel put down his teacup and glanced at Yang Yang; “It’s Roth?”

　　Although Yang Yang kept saying that Rot was a high-level AI, but ever since it had been banned from the Internet for a week after leaking information Rong Hui, Roth had learned to be stupid in front of outsiders, just like a real Intelligent life, with clear orders and prohibitions.

　　——This was also why Ya Qing had never noticed the existence of Roth.

　　But Abel was different. Although he didn’t get in touch with Yang Yang at the beginning, every abnormality about Yang Yang had been reported to him by both Gu Lita and He Shu.

　　So as long as there was a suspicious target, he would be accurate with one guess.

　　Yang Yang nodded: “Yes.”

  　　Abel: “Why are you monitoring me? Or rather, why are you monitoring Ya Qing?”

　　 Yang Yang took a deep breath, looked at Abel and said, “I’ve been monitoring Uncle Ya Qing”

　　As long as he opened mouth, the rest of the words were easy to say.

　　Yang Yang told Abel and He Shu everything about his and Archibald’s experience in the village, the story of the village, and the matter of medicine stone.

　　After listening to Yang Yang’s story, Abel frowned, while He Shu felt unbearable.

　　Yang Yang: “The Duke’s medicine also contains medicine stone and the Duke had been taking the medicine for a long time, so there must be a lot of medicine stone in his body. Judging from the situation in the village, the accumulation of medicine stones to a certain amount will cause damage to the Soul Palace.”

　　He Shu leaned forward subconsciously, asking eagerly: “And Byrd now…”

　　Yang Yang: “As far as I can see, the state of his soul power is at least much better than that of the people in the village.”

　　Upon hearing that, He Shu breathed a sigh of relief.

　　Abel pondered for a while, then looked at Yang Yang, and asked, “The village you mentioned, and medicine stone, what’s your opinion about it now?”

　　Yang Yang shook his head, paused, and said, “I still have some things I don’t understand.”

　　”First of all, it’s the village. Everything that the village encountered thus far was for the purpose of researching the medicine stone, but so far, there is no clear evidence of the medicine stone being studied or of that mysterious man.”

　　”Secondly, it’s the color of the soul power. White is the color of healthy soul power, black is the soul beast’s soul power, while off-white is the soul power of the medicine stone, but I have no conclusion about the gray soul power—— at first I thought it was the weakened soul power of the soul beast, but later when the elderly man’s soul materialised, gray soul power also appeared, which he did not have before.”

　　”Finally, it’s Ruo Hong’s child. His situation is oddly similar to the Duke. If there was no beige soul power, it could be said to be exactly the same. I don’t think this can be a coincidence.”

　　Abel looked at Yang Yang: “So, you suspect Ya Qing, because you suspect that he is related to the village?”

　　Yang Yang’s gaze did not flinch at all: “The Duke’s medicine contains medicine stones, at the very least, Uncle Ya Qing knows the existence of the medicine stone. With his medical attainments, it’s impossible for him not to discover the harmful effects of the medicine stone.”

　　Abel: “But perhaps even knowing this, it’s the only way to save Byrd.”

　　Yang Yang lowered his eyelids: “Yes, this is indeed very possible.”

　　Abel: “So, what makes you still insist on doubting him?”

　　Yang Yang: “Because of the medicine stone chip.”

　　Yang Yang: “During the tourist season, the Duke and I once saw a soul corpse beast, and Miss Jun found a chip in the body of that soul corpse beast. That chip was very similar to the medicine stone chip and had the same function.”

　　”After seeing the chip, Miss Jun didn’t recognise it. After Uncle Ya Qing came, Miss Jun invited Uncle Ya Qing to study the chip. But Uncle Ya Qing said that he didn’t know the function of the chip either.”

　　”Sister Jun had already clearly told him the possible function of that chip. And he also knew that the pattern of the chip was designed to collect soul beast’s soul power. Since he knew about the existence of the medicine stone, he should guess that the key part missing in the chip was medicine stone, but chose not to say anything.”

　　”Besides this, there are also the similarities between the villagers and the Duke, Ruo Hong’s child, and the Duke’s medicine. It’s really hard for me not to assume the worst, and the most suspicious person around is the person who knows Duke’s condition best.”

　　Abel nodded after hearing this: “You are not wrong to think so. But from what you said, you don’t have any definitive proof to prove your theory.”

　　Yang Yang pursed her lips and nodded: “Yes. But I insist on my idea and I also hope that Dad and Father will not mention this to others, let alone ask Uncle Ya Qing about things related to medicine stone.”

          Was it because he was afraid of beating the grass and scaring the snake*?

*alerting enemy of one’s movements by investigating

　　Abel understood Yang Yang’s thoughts and understood why Yang Yang had doubts about Ya Qing.

　　One side was his own brother, the other was his own son. It seemed difficult to choose, but Abel actually already had the answer in his heart.

　　Abel closed his eyes: “Okay, I promise you, but I will neither interfere nor help you. However, I hope you can use a gentler way— I think you have already discovered that Ya Qing is not as gentle and weak as on the surface, he has some emotional management issues.”

　　Yang Yang remembered the scene from the surveillance screen he saw today and frowned slightly.

           Combined with Abel’s current attitude—— although he seems to be very supportive of Ya Qing, he did not condone Yang Yang’s suspicion of Ya Qing. This was clearly because his belief in Yang Yang’s theory exceeded that of his trust in Ya Qing, making him certain that what happened in the village had something to do with Ya Qing.

　　Yang Yang’s heart moved and he asked: “I saw the conversation between you and Uncle Ya Qing in the study. Did something happen before?”

　　Abel was silent for a long time, and then sighed heavily, before telling a long story,

　　”During the dragon-level soul beast attack a hundred years ago, my parents happened to take Ya Qing to the imperial capital to participate in the year-end ceremony. In that disaster, my father died in battle and both my mother and Ya Qing were affected by the dragon level soul beast. Their Soul Palace had been seriously damaged and infected with the soul beast’s soul power. My mother passed away within a year, but Ya Qing survived.”

　　”Ya Qing’s health became much worse since then. My elder sister and I loved him very much, but I was not very old at that time and all I wanted was to kill the soul beast to avenge my father, spending all day on the battlefield. Eldest sister presided over the political situation of Soul Locking Star, becoming Ya Qing’s ‘mother’.”

　　”Although Ya Qing is not in good health, he was very intelligent. When he became an adult, he was already a leading scientist in soul beasts research on Soul Locking Star. He was very talented in this area and had researched many very useful things, being respected by a lot of people.”

　　”However, 75 years ago, during a battle against soul beasts, I was too far away to make it back and my eldest sister led the troops to fight in person. In order to help my eldest sister, Ya Qing used a newly developed blocking weapon against soul beasts.”

　　Speaking of this, Abel fell into silence again, as if he had returned to that time, and it took a while to get out of his thoughts.

　　Abel smiled wryly: “Ya Qing has never made a mistake, it was his first mistake and it was also the most tragic mistake. ——That weapon is extremely destructive to the soul beast’s soul power, but at the same time, it also had a strong effect on people’s soul palace.”

　　”The eldest sister died in that battle because of Ya Qing’s invention.”

　　 “After this happened, Ya Qing suffered a big blow, he was decadent for a long time and even took drugs. After I found out, I forced him to quit under house arrest and when he recovered, he became very sensitive emotionally. ——So, I hope you don’t stimulate him too much.”