108: Chapter 108 The Three Sages of Historiography!

What kind of hero, in their logic, could allow Chen Aoyun to possess both Zhao Yun's "Seven In, Seven Out" ability and Lu Ban's "Craftsman Family" ability?

Chen Aoyun had suspected Tang Junlin.

Tang Junlin had led humanity in battles against other worlds several times, restarted the River of Time, and overturned the Star Chessboard.

In terms of influence and contribution to humanity, it seemed perfectly fine for Tang Junlin to manifest as a [Heroic Spirit] after death.

But upon closer inspection, this suspicion didn't hold up.

Tang Junlin's contributions were significant, but the problem was that the River of Time had been restarted.

Everything he did, from the perspective of Chen Aoyun's timeline, meant that many things had never happened.

Tang Junlin's real, tangible impact on Chen Aoyun's timeline was actually limited to the establishment of the 'Closed Beta' and, at most, winning first place for the Dragon Kingdom at the beginning of the Game of National Destiny.

The 'Closed Beta' had a profound impact on humanity, but ultimately it was just Tang Junlin's wishful thinking. Whether the outcome was good or bad, and whether it could truly change humanity's fate of extinction, remained unknown.

Furthermore, there was an even more critical factor.

That was, Tang Junlin was half a New Era human!

New Era humans, no matter how great their contribution to their own civilization, or even their exceptional contributions to all of humanity, could not be recognized as [Heroic Spirits]!

According to the theory proposed by Blue Star scholars: New Era humans could not become Heroic Spirits after death, which might be related to the one-time integration of 'Humanity's Power' and 'Chaos Energy'.

At the end of the Old Era and the beginning of the New Era, Chaos Energy descended, and Humanity's Power carried this energy, which led to the existence of [Heroic Spirits] and [wonder]s.

Missing this time node meant that human faith and ideals could no longer help the deceased transform into Heroic Spirits.

This was the academic theory on Blue Star, but Chen Aoyun only agreed with half of it. Especially after meeting Tang Junlin, Chen Aoyun had his own hypothesis.

"The existence of Old Era beings becoming [Heroic Spirits] had nothing to do with other worlds. After Old Era people manifested as [Heroic Spirits], apart from differences in ability, their moral fluctuations were limited to within humanity.

To put it simply, there were no 'human traitors' among the [Heroic Spirits] of the Old Era!

The scenes shown by Tang Junlin indicated that several of humanity's failures were related to internal traitors. If New Era humans could also become [Heroic Spirits], then what would happen if those who betrayed humanity and defected to alien races also became [Heroic Spirits] of the human world?

The thought of that is too beautiful to even imagine."

Therefore, Chen Aoyun only accepted half of the academic consensus: that New Era humans could not become Heroic Spirits.

But the reason might not lie in the carrying capacity of Humanity's Power, but rather that the 'Closed Beta' rules created by Tang Junlin had discarded the possibility of New Era humans becoming Heroic Spirits!

Of course, none of these speculations could be proven true or false.

But regardless of whether Chen Aoyun's guess was correct or the Blue Star scholars' research was correct, the fact that New Era humans could not become [Heroic Spirits] was certain. The New Era had lasted for over a thousand years, and there had never been any report of a New Era person becoming a [Heroic Spirit].

Since New Era humans could not become [Heroic Spirits], after excluding the anomalous big shot Tang Junlin.

Then there was only one possibility left for the Heroic Spirit lying quietly in Chen Aoyun's panel:

"Historians! The Three Sages of History: Sima Qian, Sima Guang, and Ban Gu. That Heroic Spirit must be one of these three!"

"Only these 'Three Sages of History' could link Zhao Yun and Lu Ban together!"

Whoosh—!

When the true name of the [Heroic Spirit] was confirmed in Chen Aoyun's heart, the pitch-black figure in the character panel instantly became vivid.

Sure enough, the Heroic Spirit helping Chen Aoyun activate the pseudo-Heroic Spirit skill was one of the Three Sages of History—[Sima Qian]!

The second set of skills for a [Roleplayer] was built with Heroic Spirits as the background.

Each time a level was gained, one more Heroic Spirit slot became available for the second skill set.

The Heroic Spirits in the slots could be switched at any time, but the first Heroic Spirit activated by each [Roleplayer] was their Life-Bound Heroic Spirit, which could not be switched.

Chen Aoyun was now Lv4 and had four Heroic Spirit slots, but the number of his Life-Bound Heroic Spirits was unique; it was not one, but three!

Sima Qian: [Investigate the boundary between heaven and man, understand the changes of past and present, and complete a work of one's own]! [Achievements rivaling Confucius, the Grand Historian for a thousand autumns]!

Sima Guang: [Examine the rise and fall of past generations, evaluate the gains and losses of the present]! [A synthesis of laws and institutions, a vast forest of records and documents]!

Ban Gu: [The extensive doubts of scholars, the supreme achievement of the Confucian school]!

If Sima Qian was the "swan song of historians," then Ban Gu was the "standard of official history"!

Moving from "a work of one's own" to "the law for ten thousand generations"!

It was as if three majestic wills, piercing through the long river of time, had suddenly awakened!

Life-Bound Heroic Spirit [Sima Qian]! Bearing humiliation and carrying a heavy burden, yet with a gaze that pierced through the ages, Sima Qian had a scroll of the "Records of the Grand Historian" unfolding behind him!

Life-Bound Heroic Spirit [Sima Guang]! As rigorous as a mountain, using history as a mirror to reflect on rise and fall, Sima Guang held up the "Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance" in his palm!

Life-Bound Heroic Spirit [Ban Gu]! Gathering the great achievements and establishing the standard for historians for later generations, Ban Gu was surrounded by the magnificent aura of the "Book of Han"!

[Life-Bound Heroic Spirit · Three Sages of History], the three Life-Bound Heroic Spirits occupied three Heroic Spirit slots and could not be replaced. Their abilities seemed to overlap, but Chen Aoyun was not unhappy at all; on the contrary, the corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK!

The 'Three Sages of History' each had era limitations when viewed separately:

Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" recorded about three thousand years of history, from the Yellow Emperor up to Emperor Wu of Han.

Sima Guang's "Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance" recorded 1,362 years of history across 16 dynasties in chronological order, starting from the 23rd year of King Weilie of Zhou (403 BC) and ending in the 6th year of Xiande of Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou (959 AD).

Ban Gu's "Book of Han" began its records from the first year of Emperor Gaozu of Han and ended in the fourth year of Wang Mang, completely narrating the history of the Western Han dynasty. Although the recorded time span was not as long as the previous two, the content was rich, even including the four treatises: Penal Law, Five Elements, Geography, and Arts and Literature.

But when the 'Three Sages of History' were combined, they jumped out of these limitations and were no longer discussed as individual [Heroic Spirits].

Instead, they became an unprecedented special concept—[Green History]!

In other words, the ability [Green History] constructed by the collective "Three Sages of History" allowed Chen Aoyun to 'borrow' any Heroic Spirit from Chinese history!

It could truly be said to range from the 'Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors' to 'covering the entire world'!

It even included figures from Chinese history that Chen Aoyun didn't know about, from the time he transmigrated to the collapse of the Old Era, all of whom he could borrow!

This was too terrifying!

With these three Life-Bound Heroic Spirits, even if all other Heroic Spirit slots were empty, the number of Heroic Spirits available to Chen Aoyun was already countless!

For the remaining Heroic Spirit slots, Chen Aoyun could even try Heroic Spirits from other civilizations, or even try Heroic Spirits from other worlds!

His body was trembling slightly with excitement.

In the eyes of Master Engineer Gena, this was just a young Raccoon-tribe engineer struggling internally.

"Betting his own future to complete the City Lord's task for the Raccoon tribe... If he really succeeds, I'll owe him one!" Master Engineer Gena, with a slight nod, glanced at this little raccoon Chen Aoyun from the corner of his eye and said silently.

Composing himself, Chen Aoyun finally placed his hand on the 'Blue Star Engineering Item'.

For a Blue Star human, comprehending the [Blue Star Engineering Branch] was not a difficult thing in itself, let alone with the [Lu Ban] ability borrowed via the 'Three Sages of History' [Green History]. As soon as Chen Aoyun's fingertips touched the edge, the Engineering branch was already activated!

[Ding~ You have activated the 'Blue Star Engineering Branch'. Blue Star engineering (technological) items can now be processed by you into engineering props. Branch Level: Beginner]

Master Engineer Gena jumped up from his chair with a 'whoosh'.

Chen Aoyun, this little raccoon, had comprehended an engineering branch of a low-level civilization; completing the task for the City Lord of Shire was one aspect.

What surprised Master Engineer Gena even more was the speed.

Just a light touch of the fingertips, and the branch was comprehended?

If this isn't a genius, what is!

His guilty gaze fixed on Chen Aoyun once again, "An engineering genius, in order to avoid his tribe being punished, was forced to choose the engineering branch of a low-level civilization... Sigh, I will make it up to this little guy in other ways in the future..."