DITF Chapter 109.1

As Chu Rong took a step forward, his expression changed upon seeing the small box that had fallen out — it was engraved with the Chu family’s crest!

Qiao Zhiya was also stunned. He picked up the small box and looked over at the approaching Chu Rong, momentarily at a loss for words — how could there be an item with the Chu family crest hidden on an Imperial ship?

“This is a sealed box used by the Chu family to transfer confidential items. It carries the spiritual power imprint of a Chu family member, and once it’s sealed, no one but a Chu family member can open it,” Chu Rong explained. He bent down, picked up the box, and examined it. As his spiritual power brushed over the surface, a series of numbers appeared.

Chu Rong’s expression grew even more serious as he said, “It’s numbered. This box is genuine.”

Qiao Zhiya stood up and moved closer to look at the number on the box. Just as he was about to say something, his scattered magic detected another strange fluctuation. His ears twitched, and he quickly turned to another part of the power shaft, toolbox in hand.

Chu Rong frowned and followed.

After another round of quick dismantling, another black box fell out from the core component of the power shaft.

Qiao Zhiya glanced back at Chu Rong, realizing there might be more than one or two such boxes hidden on this ship. Without further delay, he spread his magic again, this time more carefully and slowly, focusing on the internal components of the ship.

An hour later, the protective covers and components around the upper command room and main control room of the ship were almost completely dismantled by Qiao Zhiya. On the ground lay seven boxes, all engraved with the Chu family crest, identical in color and size.

“They form a circle on the ship, each about the same distance from the others,” Qiao Zhiya explained softly, estimating the positions and distances of the boxes.

Chu Rong had already recorded all the box numbers and had the old butler check them against the Chu family’s archives. The results came back quickly: “These boxes were taken by my mother years ago, and the seals were made with my father’s spiritual power.”

This only meant one thing: back then, An Lunn and Chu Rong’s parents were connected, and his parents were likely involved in investigating the black hole.

But in the end, they all died, and the items representing their investigation results were buried deep within the ship’s power mechanisms, unknown to anyone. When An Lunn abandoned the ship and fled, he might have intended to retrieve these items later, but he ultimately met his demise.

If it weren’t for Qiao Zhiya’s persistence today, these items might never have seen the light of day.

Chu Rong suddenly remembered the “SSSS” letters written with spiritual power on the electronic book his mother left behind. His heart sank. He quickly gathered the boxes, picked up Qiao Zhiya, and jumped off the ship, heading straight out.

“Where are we going?” Qiao Zhiya obediently wrapped his arms around Chu Rong’s neck, asking softly.

“To check the flagship,” Chu Rong replied.

Qiao Zhiya immediately understood his meaning and nodded, staying silent.

They hurried to a large military port, where Chu Rong cleared the area and brought out the flagship, which had been prepared for maintenance upon their return to the main star. He and Qiao Zhiya boarded the ship.

Once inside, Qiao Zhiya immediately spread his magic, intending to search the flagship as he had the Imperial ship.

“No need,” Chu Rong stopped him, placing a hand on his head. Leading him towards the central area of the flagship, he explained, “If my mother left anything, it would be in a place she could frequently access, not hidden in the ship’s components like An Lunn did.”

Qiao Zhiya followed, obediently retracting his magic, concerned about Chu Rong’s current state.

Upon reaching the central area, Chu Rong didn’t let Qiao Zhiya use his magic to search. Instead, he spread out his own spiritual power.

Given that the boxes bearing the Chu family’s spiritual power imprints should be more easily detectable by the Chu family, it was logical for Chu Rong to take over the search. Previously, when the Imperial ship was discovered, Chu Rong’s spiritual power was still polluted, preventing him from conducting the search himself. Now that Qiao Zhiya had made a good start, Chu Rong could continue.

Qiao Zhiya was seated on a nearby sofa, watching Chu Rong, who stood in the center with a serious expression. The familiar aura of Chu Rong’s spiritual power filled the air, layer by layer. Qiao Zhiya suppressed the urge to get closer, his ears twitching slightly in confusion — was it his imagination, or did Chu Rong’s power seem thicker and stronger than before?

After a few minutes, the floating power in the air suddenly paused and then retracted entirely.

Qiao Zhiya quickly sat up and asked, “Did you find something?”

Chu Rong nodded and purposefully walked towards the outer corridor where his mother’s study used to be, stopping in front of a family portrait hanging on the wall. He reached out and removed the picture.

Qiao Zhiya hurriedly followed, standing beside him.

Behind the photo was a wall, seamless and showing no signs of any hidden mechanism. Qiao Zhiya tried probing it with his magic but found nothing, and he turned to look at Chu Rong.

Chu Rong placed his hand on the wall, confidently channeling his spiritual power across the surface. With a clicking sound, the wall seemed to react, slowly sliding aside to reveal a dark space about one square meter in size.

Inside the space was another box engraved with the Chu family crest, but this one was much larger, about half a person’s height.

Chu Rong stepped forward, retrieved the box, and after ensuring there was nothing else inside, he carefully closed the mechanism and rehung the family portrait. He patted Qiao Zhiya’s head and said, “You rest for a while. I’ll search the other areas.”

Qiao Zhiya nodded obediently and handed him a potion.

Chu Rong accepted the potion, bent down, and kissed the top of his head.

After thoroughly searching the central area of the flagship and finding nothing else, Chu Rong noted the late hour and led Qiao Zhiya out of the flagship. As they walked back to his office, he contacted Chu Huai and Chu Yan, instructing them to come to the military base.

Back in the office, although Chu Rong didn’t have much appetite, he still sat down to eat a meal with Qiao Zhiya. Shortly after, Chu Huai and Chu Yan arrived. Chu Rong led them into the private conference room behind his office. After putting up the highest-level security protection, he brought out the boxes.

“These were found by Qiao on the Imperial ship,” Chu Rong explained the origin of the boxes and continued, “All these boxes have father’s spiritual power imprint, but they were used by mother. She was the first to be killed in the war, and she left the clue ‘SSSS’. Based on the current evidence, the mastermind controlling Ning Tianxing and An Xei has at least SSS-level spiritual power. Anyone sealed by his spiritual power could be under his control at any time.”

Chu Huai frowned deeply, glancing at the boxes on the table. “You mean the person who killed mother may not have betrayed the Chu family willingly but was controlled by the mysterious person? Mother might have discovered the existence of this person before she died?”

After discovering the truth about their mother’s murder, they had investigated everyone on the flagship at that time and found a long-time assistant of their mother highly suspicious. However, since that assistant also died in the war, the investigation had stalled. They had even scrutinized and reformed the military based on that assistant and her descendants.

“It’s just a hypothesis for now,” Chu Rong replied, moving his hand towards the largest box as his spiritual power surged. “The truth depends on what’s inside these boxes.”

Everyone’s attention shifted to the box, the atmosphere in the room becoming tense. Qiao Zhiya felt his own nervousness rising.

As Chu Rong’s spiritual power infiltrated the lock, the long-sealed black box opened with a click, revealing its contents.

The box was large, but there weren’t many items inside: several printed documents, a letter recording device, two large books, and some strange liquids contained in transparent bottles.

“It’s Zerg’s secretion,” Chu Rong immediately identified the substance in the bottles. He picked one up, turning it over in his hands, his expression growing graver. He explained in detail, “This is real Zerg mucus secretion. It’s darker in color and more viscous than what we’ve extracted from fake Zerg. It’s far more dangerous. If multiple layers are sprayed on, it can gradually corrode even the strongest mechs and flagship defenses. When it comes into contact with the human body, it is highly poisonous.” 

Chu Yan looked at the strange-colored mucus, frowning.

Indeed, the real Zerg were much more formidable than the fake ones they faced now.

Setting the mucus aside, Chu Rong took out the remaining items.

Qiao Zhiya, sitting beside him, glanced at the odd covers of the two books. He suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled out a metal box from his storage ring. Seeing Chu Rong look over, he explained, “This was given to me by Ning Kongran through Xiao Chu when I went to school for my final exams. It also contains a book, but the writing is unfamiliar to me.”

Chu Rong frowned, picked up the two books, and flipped through them. He then handed them over and asked, “Is the writing the same as in these books?”

Qiao Zhiya nodded vigorously and replied, “Yes, it’s the same.” The patterns on the covers were also similar.

“This isn’t writing,” Chu Rong responded, his eyes scanning the book’s title page. “It’s an old cipher system once used by the Federation military. It was eventually abandoned because it was too complex, used only briefly in a limited scope.”

“A cipher?”

Qiao Zhiya was surprised. He flipped through the book in his hands, clearly puzzled. “But how did Kongran get hold of this?”

“Perhaps he got it from Ning Tianxing. He’s been persistently investigating the Ning family’s human experiments over the years,” Chu Rong speculated, although his mind was racing with other thoughts.

Why would Ning Kongran give such a book to Qiao instead of directly handing it over to the military?

While they were talking, Chu Huai had picked up the documents and started reading them. As he read further, he became increasingly shocked and, in a rare display of emotion, raised his voice, “Lao Er, Mother had already suspected the connection between the Empire and the Ning family back then. Look at this!”

Upon hearing this, Chu Rong quickly put down the book and took the documents Chu Huai handed over. As he read through them, his grip tightened, and he said heavily, “No wonder the war suddenly intensified back then. The Empire started using excuses like insufficient military strength to shift all the war pressure onto the Federation and the Chu family. They were afraid Mother would continue her investigation.”

And the sudden communication instability during critical war times — now it seemed it was all to prevent the Chu family from leaking what they had found!

Chu Yan, meanwhile, was flipping through the letters recorded in the letter recording device. He said quickly, “These record all the correspondence between An Lunn and Mother. She recorded everything!”

Correspondence?

Chu Rong and Chu Huai immediately turned their attention to the letters and began reading them together with Chu Yan.

As they pored over the letters, the aura surrounding Chu Rong became tenser and more terrifying. He reached over and opened the seven boxes left on the table and then, a whole set of black hole transmission devices were exposed.

Unlike those they found before, the red lines on these devices looked particularly bright. Even after being hidden for so many years, they still looked so brand new, as if the blood smeared on them were still warm.

Qiao Zhiya’s heart beaten even faster. He felt like his nostril were filled with the fishy smell of blood just by looking at them. But then, he realized that those red lines… were real blood!

“The former emperor really is just a puppet…” Chu Huai commented as he looked at the device. He put down his letter-opener, then continued, “This kind of thing is hidden in the Imperial Palace…”

Now, the matter is completely clear. After discovering the oddness of the former emperor, An Lunn immediately sent someone to disguise himself as a mecha maker and reached out to Mrs. Chu. Then, through Mr. and Mrs. Chu, he started a joint investigation into the truth about the Zerg.

During this period, they also discovered the clandestine dealings between the Empire and the Ning family. An Lunn also secretly obtained these two books and some materials from the former emperor. On top of that, he also obtained this complete set of these devices.

An Lunn went missing when he secretly sent the teleporter devices to the Chu family. After that, it wasn’t long before he was declared dead by the Empire. The Chu family was dragged by a sudden Zerg attack, and almost the entire family was destroyed.

They all died at the place closest to the truth, ambushed by the lurking enemy.

“Mother must’ve missed something. At that time, the former emperor was no longer in contact with the mysterious person. And the one colluding with the Ning family was An Xei. Because of his status as the least powerful among the princes, everyone ignored him.”

Chu Rong swept through the things on the table, and finally set his sights on the books. His tone was firm. “The real identity of the mysterious person may be in these books.”

The code used by the Federation’s Ministry of War suddenly appeared in the hands of the Empire’s former emperor. This was too odd, especially since Chu Rong was quite sure that neither the former emperor nor the Ning family knew of the mastermind’s true identity.

Most of the book Ning Kongran gave to Qiao Zhiya was from Ning Tianxing. The same cipher book appeared in the hands of two parties contacted by the mysterious person, but did not know their identity.

There is no such coincidence in this world, so it is likely that these books were actually given by mysterious person to Ning Tianxing and the former emperor.

“Mother is very good at cipher decoding, but we…” Chu Huai rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache forming. Finally, he sighed. “…but we didn’t follow her footsteps.”

None of them knew anything about cryptography.

Although they understood the existing cipher used by the Federation, this kind of unknown cipher was a level of their own. The three brothers were helpless against this. Especially since this cipher was used a long time ago, so there’s a huge chance that the decoding method has long been lost.

Chu Rong opened one of the big books and took a quick glance. The frown on his face deepened. “No, I don’t think Mother managed to crack this cipher too.”

Hearing Chu Rong’s opinion, everyone looked at the book’s content. Indeed, there was some scribbles, indicating decoding attempts, but none of them managed to do so.

The truth is in sight, but a there was still a hurdle covering it.

“I’ll arrange a specialized cipher-cracking team.” Chu Rong nodded as he opened his photon computer. He touched another big book as he continued, “First let them try to crack these two-”

“I, I want to try.” Qiao Zhiya said, his clear eyes boring down to Chu Rong’s. “I usually have nothing to do at home anyway, maybe you can try to crack this, you know, I learn things faster…” however, the moment he tried to market himself, his voice wavered in embarassment.

Chu Huai and Chu Yan both looked at the youth. Chu Rong pushed the book in front of him very simply, saying, “I’ll find someone to come and copied the books. The original book will be left to you. ou can give a try on deciphering it. But if it gets too overwhelming, promise me you’ll stop and ask for help.”

Qiao Zhiya nodded firmly, his ears twitching with resolve. “I promise.”