“When Yao ruled over all under Heaven, his roof was of plain thatch left untrimmed, his rafters were unhewn, his food was coarse grain, his soup was made of wild greens, in winter he wore deerskin robes, in summer he wore hemp garments—even a gatekeeper’s sustenance would not fall below this standard.”

Li Tai sat in his seat, listening to Master Xuanren expound on the *Han Feizi*, and couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander. Yun Ye had once jokingly said that humans evolved from monkeys, and Li Tai had simply laughed it off. But now, studying these texts again, he discovered many suspicious points in these works. The passage the master just lectured on also contained profound doubts.

In Emperor Yao’s time, how were the circumstances of our ancestors any different from savages? If one pushed one’s thoughts further back, one would discover that the more ancient the era, the more difficult our ancestors’ circumstances would have been. Just as Xuanren said, if we take this timeline and push it back in great strides, we can use currently known conditions to calculate our ancestors’ living conditions—perhaps one hundred thousand years ago, our ancestors truly might not have lived more comfortably than monkeys. Then what would the situation have been like a million years ago?

Xuanren said that in the Tianshan Mountains, demons who had not yet transformed into humans had been discovered, so he was preparing to depart immediately for the Tianshan to make the journey himself and see with his own eyes these immensely strong spirits. The Daoist sect’s claims were not credible—they always liked to abstract concrete reality, to mythologize it, and in the end what was transmitted were fragmented lies.

In comparison, Master Yun Ye’s letters were far more trustworthy. From his private correspondence to Master Li Gang, one could clearly see that those immensely strong half-humans truly existed. Yun Ye had witnessed them with his own eyes. The reason he called them half-humans was based on Yun Ye’s observation that these half-humans had not yet shed their bestial nature. If they shed their bestial nature, then they could be called human. It seemed that Master Yun Ye planned to register these half-humans in the Great Tang’s household records.

Xuanren’s joke caused the students to burst into laughter. Li Tai sat with his eyes closed in contemplation. He didn’t find anything funny about it. As long as one determined that these half-humans were human, registering them in the household records was a perfectly natural thing—there was nothing laughable about it.

The class-break bell rang. Xuanren gathered up the lecture notes on his desk and asked Li Tai with a smile, “Qingque, I saw you sitting with your eyes closed in contemplation. Did you gain some insight? You weren’t sleeping in my class, were you?”

Li Tai shook his head and said, “Your scholarship is frightening. You need to be careful. Although the Great Tang has the magnanimity to embrace all rivers, our reverence for our ancestors from top to bottom admits no dissent from anyone. Even if their legends are all inaccurate and lacking in rigor, we have already formed a consensus. If you want to change this kind of consensus, your strength alone is insignificant. As long as you dare to touch this baseline, you will certainly die without even intact bones remaining.”

Xuanren tucked his lecture notes under his arm and winked at Li Tai, saying, “What is correct is correct, and what is wrong is wrong. The transformation between these two will only occur in the court, but on the path of scholarship, right and wrong cannot tolerate the slightest compromise. Evidence will be found. I always feel that our world is a great joke, and the veils covering our heads will sooner or later be peeled away layer by layer. If we don’t prepare in advance, we will only be more embarrassed in the future.”

Li Tai waved his hand to end the conversation. This was just how the Academy’s masters were. Over these years, the Academy had gradually seized control of the Great Tang’s academic and intellectual leadership. The masters here all possessed a kind of inner pride—the idea of daring to be first in the world.

The Imperial Academy and the Hongwen Institute had already become specialized liberal arts schools. The selection and promotion of officials no longer paid much attention to qualifications in this area. On the contrary, graduates of Yushan Academy had been gradually infiltrating every aspect of the Great Tang.

Returning to his research chamber, Li Tai looked at the piles of fragments on the enormous table, his heart filled with extreme grief. This was three years of his life’s blood. No matter how careful he had been, the airship always ended up as a pile of fragments like this at the final moment.

He picked up one of the wooden pieces. It was thin blue oak wood, already very hard timber. At present, this was the best material available—both its hardness and flexibility perfectly met his requirements. Yet after holding up for less than two li, it still became a pile of fragments.

The installation blueprints on the walls covered the enormous room completely. Li Tai was thoroughly familiar with every single data point on them. Now these data points were like nails, pinning themselves firmly into Li Tai’s heart.

The pain was almost suffocating. Li Tai moaned and slid down the wall to sit. He didn’t allow others to see his weakness. In the vast research chamber, only his own labored breathing echoed through the room. “Hold fast to the green mountains and never relax your grip, with roots firmly planted in broken rock; after a thousand grindings and ten thousand strikes still strong and resilient, let the winds blow from east, west, south, or north!” Li Tai softly recited this poem that Yun Ye had told him. After resting for a moment, he slowly stood up, removed the largest blueprint from the wall, threw it into the iron bucket in the corner, and ignited it with candlelight. Seeing the blueprint turn to ashes, he continued taking down another blueprint from the wall, continued lighting it, staring fixedly at the flames, mechanically continuing to remove blueprints from the wall, then continuing to light them…

Hypatia burst into the smoke-filled research chamber. She saw Li Tai standing alone in the center of the room, continuously throwing wooden pieces from the table into the fire. Seeing his dispirited appearance, her heart ached greatly. She walked forward and embraced Li Tai tightly, murmuring softly as if coaxing a child.

A group of people rushed in, extinguished the fire with water, then lowered their heads and withdrew, apparently turning a blind eye to Li Tai and Hypatia tightly embracing each other.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to research airships anymore. We can research something else, such as density, such as buoyancy, or researching astronomy would also be a good idea. Haven’t you always believed that Zhao Yanling’s astronomical theories are full of holes? It would be good to supplement and correct them.”

Li Tai lifted his head from Hypatia’s neck and looked at her strangely, saying, “Who said I’m not researching anymore? I just think my previous research entered a dead end. There’s nothing remarkable about destruction before reconstruction. I just want to start from the beginning. Very likely I took a wrong path before. Our materials, theories, and the experience we’ve summarized are all insufficient to support this ship truly flying, so I plan to start completely anew with fresh drums and gongs.”

“Your man is not the kind of person who retreats when encountering difficulties. The Li family doesn’t know what failure is. A small airship won’t stump me. Hypatia, please believe me—my ship will one day safely take off and safely land.”

Hypatia looked up at Li Tai, her eyes full of admiration. She fiercely embraced Li Tai once more and said loudly, “Naturally! Of course I know—how could my man Hypatia’s be a weakling?”

After Li Tai laughed loudly twice, he said to Hypatia somewhat embarrassed, “But I still don’t have the slightest clue even now. From now on, you must praise me more, don’t laugh at me anymore, and especially don’t take away my clothes and make me crawl into the blankets naked waiting for you.”

Having confidence didn’t mean the problem was solved. Li Tai now held the saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way” in complete contempt. What use was having ambition alone? Didn’t he still need to humbly and submissively wear dirty clothes and start researching from scratch?

So now Li Tai would always work for a while, then look up and curse loudly for a few moments, then continue working. This time, he made his airship into the shape of a giant arrow. This way, the airship wouldn’t drift around erratically in all directions.

Li Tai wasn’t the only one cursing. Xu Jingzong stood on the walls of Luanshi City, pointing at his subordinate officers and cursing furiously: “Pigs! What sins did I commit that Heaven sent you down to torment me?”

“What have you done to the perfectly good Luanshi City? Who told you to open this straight road? Are you planning to let the Tubo cavalry easily arrive at our city walls?”

“Li Jing is guarding Black Mountain Pass—what does that have to do with us? Do you think that besides Black Mountain Pass, the Tubo people can’t find other routes to invade the Western Regions? Straight highways are only needed in Chang’an. The Eight Trigrams Formation is the lifeblood of Luanshi City. Now, immediately, at once, restore it to its original state! Ten days’ time. After that deadline, I’ll have your heads chopped off.”

“Remember, you are soldiers of the Western Regions, not Li Jing’s subordinates. If you dare do this again, go find Li Jing—I’ll just ask Commander Yun for more subordinates. Luanshi City is a fundamental stronghold of my Beiting Protectorate, not rotten meat for Li Jing to use as bait.”

Xu Jingzong was truly infuriated. Returning to his tent, he immediately spread out paper and began writing a memorial. Li Jing had truly gone too far this time. Unable to attack the Tubo highlands himself, he wanted to use Luanshi City as bait to lure the Tubo people down, while hiding to the side preparing to ambush them. What pig-brained strategy—could this really be the work of the generation’s military genius Li Jing?

Was Li Jing planning to use Luanshi City as a sacrifice? Was there some blame he needed me to bear? Li Jing wasn’t even the Protector-General of the Beiting Protectorate—by what right could he command my subordinates, Xu Jingzong’s men? An imperial decree allowing discretionary action didn’t work well at Luanshi City.

Seek no merit but avoid mistakes—this was Xu Jingzong’s first response after Yun Ye’s teaching by word and example. The Beiting Protectorate didn’t lack accomplishments. The merit of routing the Turks and beheading their great general was enough to share among the brothers. Why place himself and Luanshi City in danger? First preserve one’s own life, then discuss other matters.

He had gained another wife, and only he didn’t know about it. Not only did Xinyue know, but Na Rimu knew, and Old Grandmother and Lingdang also knew. The one who made the decision was Old Grandmother. Ever since Yun Ye prepared to travel the Western Regions, Old Grandmother had ordered someone to perform the face-revealing ceremony for Xiao Miao. In other words, from that time on, Xiao Miao had already become a member of the Yun family.

“Marriage ordained by parents and arranged by matchmakers—not lacking in the slightest in propriety. The registers at the Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Personnel already have Xiao Miao’s name. Do you think I, Wu She, would be shameless enough to joke about my own disciple’s reputation? If you two had no formal status, would I have humbled myself to let Xiao Miao serve as your bodyguard? You’re not precious enough to warrant that.”

Faced with Wu She’s naked humiliation, Yun Ye had nothing to say. This was too excessive. Without realizing it, he had already been completely transformed into a native by the Tang people.