Wang Facai left behind more than ten yellow and gold Divine Stones and transferred control of this study room to Chu Ran. "You can choose whether to enable surveillance or delete it at any time. Nothing here will be reported to any party."
Chu Ran looked at Wang Facai as if he were some kind of prodigy. "Are you some young master who ran away from home to prove his strength?"
He had managed to get the job of making Basic Creations, provided a large number of Divine Stones to newcomers, was Chang Han's roommate, and had even taken on the role of teaching her when it came to Creations. The previous two teachers were Edwood, the president of the Seventh Sub-Star Spiritist Association, and Charlie An, the director of the Seventh Sub-Star Research Institute. Both were top-tier experts in their fields.
If Wang Facai were a master Artificer, that might explain everything, but Chu Ran had searched StarNet for the list of master Artificers on the Seventh Sub-Star, and Wang Facai's name—or Chris—wasn't on it.
The most discussed name was Chang He's mother, Yu Mei. Before marrying into the Andrew Family, she had been certified as a master Artificer by the Spiritist Association. She was the youngest master Artificer in the history of the Human Federation.
Wang Facai smiled and shook his head. "I'm just an ordinary person with average luck. Thanks to my connection with Chang Han, I squeezed into this position. Commander Lei and the others didn't feel comfortable assigning someone unfamiliar to deal with you."
Chu Ran raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Makes sense."
In the following days, the routine continued. Edwood even added terrain training because he felt the training intensity hadn't reached Chu Ran's limit.
"The preliminary competition has two formats: one is a combat competition in different terrains, and the other is based on the number of Zerg killed. Whichever it is, if you can't use the terrain to your advantage, you'll be at a loss."
Chu Ran looked at the increasingly weary look on Edwood's face and suspected he might simply dislike seeing others relax, but she had to admit he had a point.
As for the Creations course, it turned into self-study.
Wang Facai admitted he had no more Creations knowledge worth teaching Chu Ran, because an Artificer's main study involves how to pour more spiritual power into different Divine Stones and how to use their spiritual power to precisely forge Creations. But for Chu Ran, this was unnecessary, as the Divine Stone obeyed her every command—even a tiny bit of spiritual power yielded the desired result.
"So that's why they call you a reserve god? Divine Stones are inherently products of the gods," Wang Facai said.
Chu Ran once couldn't help asking, "What exactly are Divine Stones? Do the gods also forge weapons with their spiritual sense?"
"No one knows the real answer. When the gods appeared, they were already eternally sleeping in the Divine Ruins," Wang Facai replied slowly as he worked. "Of course, don't ask me anything about the Divine Ruins. What I know might not be true."
Hearing this, Chu Ran raised a heavy hammer and struck the Divine Stone with full force. Bang, bang, bang—loud echoes reverberated through the study room.
Wang Facai paused his counting, coughed, and quickly added, "Of course, I have some, some, some guesses about Divine Stones. They seem like minerals tainted with the deathly aura of the gods, with high mutual repulsion."
"Mm," Chu Ran swung the hammer again, then looked at Wang Facai with a hint of suspicion. "So you're counting the betting odds?"
Wang Facai's body stiffened.
With a bang.
Sparks flew from the violent collision between Chu Ran's hammer and the Divine Stone.
"You didn't bet on me either, did you?"
There was an awkward silence.
Wang Facai coughed again. "Given our relationship, I don't think I need to be polite. The return rate is just too low."
It had gotten to the point that if being a seeded player wasn't a mark of honor, the Spiritist Association might have removed Chu Ran from the betting interface entirely. The amount bet on her was pitifully small—only one-hundredth or even one-thousandth of what others had.
Suddenly, Wang Facai thought of something and said with a slightly more confident tone, "Did you bet on yourself?"
Chu Ran fell silent.
"Everyone has great confidence in you. Even in the top five predictions, you're everyone's expected first place," Wang Facai said, his tone becoming extremely gentle when he saw Chu Ran didn't respond.
Chu Ran looked at the freshly forged red rod in her hand. "Aren't you afraid of an upset?"
"Right now, anyone predicting an upset for you is probably an idiot," Wang Facai sighed. "And heaven won't let fools control too much wealth."
The preliminary competition schedule was sent to Chu Ran's Light Brain after the fifth day of training.
At that moment, Chu Ran was tossing her third red rod into the detection instrument, while Wang Facai sat in the corner meticulously checking accounts.
Hearing a ding, Wang Facai didn't look up. "The preliminary schedule is out, right? Who's your first opponent?"
Chu Ran looked at the letter in her email and wore a peculiar expression. "Someone I've met once."
"A student from the Third Training Institute? Then go a little easy. I heard Edwood say—"
"No," Chu Ran interrupted Wang Facai. "It's He Qishen."
Wang Facai's voice trailed off. He turned around, his expression serious. "He Qishen?"
"Yes, He Qishen, who was sent to the Garbage Dump after being released from the Third Prison," Chu Ran said, looking calmly at Wang Facai. "You know him."
If when she first returned from the Garbage Dump she couldn't figure out why He Qishen and his sister had sought her out to make Creations, now she understood after everything that had happened. Those siblings were definitely not as harmless as Wang Ping'an claimed. They must have played a very special role in that attack years ago, and even in the God Summoning Society. That's why the Federation chose to use them as bait.
When they came to her, it was because some people in the government or military wanted to test her—maybe because of the God Summoning Fruit, or maybe because of the batch of Basic Creations she had given to Wang Facai.
But testing her was just a casual side move.
What they really wanted to bait out were the rats in the dark.
But...
Chu Ran frowned slightly. If Professor Hu wasn't part of the God Summoning Society, which organization did she belong to? As the three-time dean of the Central Star Medical School, had the Federal Government never suspected her? Or was there a big shot behind her within the government?
But why choose the original owner? The Seventh Sub-Star was relatively low-ranked. On the Seventh Sub-Star, the original owner wasn't particularly special except for having famous parents.
Chu Ran's gaze grew deep. "Why choose He Qishen as my first opponent, given how special he is?"
Wang Facai was silent for a moment.
Chu Ran smiled and reminded him softly, "A reserve god is not a real god. And even gods can fall."
Her eyes shifted to the Black Divine Stone placed on the innermost table.
After a while, Wang Facai sighed. "Because they uncovered a lot of things in the Chu Family. Lin Shenyin has been confirmed as a member of the God Summoning Society, and Chu Heng recently faked his death to escape."
"Chu Heng and Chu Yuan probably didn't know anything, but they're still being held in the interrogation room."
"Even your mother, He Yi..."
Chu Ran narrowed her eyes, her tone flat. "What do you mean?"
"Before He Yi sacrificed herself, she might have found clues about the Divine Ruins Key."
Chu Ran's pupils constricted.