Chapter 187 — The Ancient Overlord, Tyrannosaurus Rex

The real archaeologist: watches history as if it were a documentary, converses with past and present, and listens to the hidden secrets.

"Hello there." Professor Zhao smiled. He wasn't yet familiar with the names of the other students in the class, but the name of Jue, that rising star of archaeology, was one he knew perfectly well.

"Go take a seat," said the professor.

"All right."

Shi Jin picked a seat at random and sat down. The other students trickled into the classroom one after another, and, as expected, every one of them was stunned by the giant fossil.

Shi Jin was still observing the fossil when, a moment later, the bell rang.

Professor Zhao stood before the fossil, first introducing himself to the assembled students with a chuckle, then said: "For the first class, I had originally planned to walk you through the history of this course and the syllabus for the semester—it's still too early for you to be handling real fossils."

"But you're very lucky. You've happened to catch a special circumstance."

Below the podium, the students' eyes glittered. Ancient Capital University really lived up to its name as the strongest archaeology department—impressive! Showing freshmen such a complete fossil of an ancient overlord on the very first class—what other school could do that?

This fossil... must have cost billions, at the very least, no? The students all made their guesses.

"As you can see, this is the fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex."

"Tyrannosaurus rex is an ancient creature that lived more than sixty million years ago. Judging by current research, they belong to the earth element, the pinnacle product of the sub-dragon species. Their racial rank reaches mid-tier overlord; their population was vast; and in that era, they were the overlords beyond any dispute."

"They possessed the formidable physique common to all dragon-type pet beasts, boundless strength, and mastery of numerous powerful skills such as Brute Force, Savage Body, Earth Domain, and Overlord's Aura."

"In this class, I will begin by using this fossil to explain in detail what fossil research can offer humanity in understanding pet beasts, the history of Blue Star, and the shifts in its ecological environment."

"But before that, a small question. Does anyone know how we determine the age of biological fossils, or even of ancient artifacts?"

This question was fairly simple; everyone present could name one or two methods.

"Elemental Particle Dating Technology."

"Shi Yun Light Measurement Technology!"

Most of these involved technological devices, though a few were rather special techniques.

"The Meditation Detection Method!" said class monitor Wang Ling.

"Not bad!" Once the students had finished, Professor Zhao nodded. "Most of the methods for dating objects were archaeological techniques developed after the mechanical school was founded."

"Before that, the most common way the ancients dated artifacts was the Meditation Detection Method. This is a special meditation technique developed by the Shi Emperor—it allows one, while in a meditative state, to capture the traces of time upon an artifact and judge its approximate age from their quantity."

"However, apart from Beast Tamers with a time-essence talent, anyone else who uses this method will inevitably produce a certain margin of error; its precision cannot match modern technological dating techniques."

"But in certain specific situations, we can only rely on the Meditation Detection Method. So this is a fundamental skill you'll need to master over the next four years. Before we begin the formal lesson, let's play a little game: I'll guide you into this special meditative state, and you'll each judge for yourselves just how precisely the age of this Tyrannosaurus rex fossil can be determined."

Professor Zhao smiled faintly. "Now, come up to me in order of student number and collect your meditation stones. Before you can use the Meditation Detection Method independently, these stones will help you enter the special meditative state."

Most of the students present were bubbling with enthusiasm.

Shi Cen followed along and collected a black meditation stone the size of a river pebble.

Although he had learned about this technique through various channels before, he had never actually used it—he had been waiting for the university to teach him.

Soon everyone had received a meditation stone, and one after another they held it and entered a meditative state, just as Professor Zhao had instructed.

Moments later, all the students who had entered meditation found their vision plunged into utter darkness—guided by the meditation stone, it was vastly different from the ordinary meditation state used to strengthen one's beast-taming space.

Yet though the darkness before their eyes was total, it was not entirely empty. To their astonishment, everyone now discovered that in the dark, at the position corresponding to reality, they could still make out the shape of that Tyrannosaurus fossil!

Only, it was somewhat different from what they had seen before: at this moment the Tyrannosaurus skeleton was covered in time-traces smaller than sesame seeds, wrapping the entire fossil in a full circle!

"Once an object has existed for more than a hundred years, corresponding time-traces will exist upon it. By counting the number of time-traces, one can determine the object's age. Meditate carefully, observe carefully, judge carefully."

"Afterward I will tell you the fossil's exact age, and we shall see whose judgment has the smallest margin of error."

Outside, Professor Zhao chuckled. This was not originally something he was supposed to teach in this class, but since it was a general skill, there was no harm in letting the students get a head start on it.

"How the hell do you count this?" In the meditative state, though the students could adjust their viewing angle, zoom in, and delve clearly into the time-traces, the densely packed marks—smaller than sesame seeds—made everyone's scalp crawl. The demands on spiritual power were simply too high; without meeting the standard, one could not capture the time-traces at all, let alone count them.

"Damn, my trypophobia is acting up—I'm really not cut out for archaeology..."

The students' heads ached.

Of course, there were also the exceptionally gifted, like Shi Jin, who, with sufficiently powerful spiritual force, had already begun attempting to detect them.

Physique is a person's foundation; those with strong constitutions are rarely weak in spiritual or soul power. Moreover, Fenxing had taught his beasts so many psychic-type skills, and the feedback the beasts gave him upon advancing had, to some degree, pushed his spiritual power far beyond that of beast-tamers of the same tier.

"Interesting." Soon, Shi Jin threw himself into it.

Yet before he could get excited for long, something strange happened.

Shi Jin's head buzzed, and he heard only a "chirp" as light gradually emerged within the darkness before his eyes.

When Shi Jin opened his eyes, he was startled to find that the Tyrannosaurus, previously covered in time-traces, had now revealed its true appearance.

Nor was that all—the surrounding environment had also changed rapidly, transforming into a region of flora utterly unfamiliar to Shi Jin.

"ROAR!!!!!" At this moment, the Tyrannosaurus craned its head, its savage gaze fixed on Shi Jin; it opened its bloody maw and let out a roar, and the scorching stench of blood instantly made Shi Jin's scalp prickle.

BOOM!!

The Tyrannosaurus swept its tail across; Shi Jin's eyes nearly burst as he felt the overwhelming pressure, and he had just tried to phase out and instinctively turned his head—but failed outright, taking the tail strike directly. Yet as he turned, he saw Shi Qi... perched on his own shoulder, the Green Silk Worm Chrysalis, its gaze equally terrified...

BANG!