The villains are redeemed, and the heroines cry and beg for forgiveness.

For him, this diary was indeed of great value.

Moreover, he was indeed able to understand it quite well.

If even he can't understand it, then he doesn't expect Xue Yingsong to understand it either.

Therefore, Gu Ran felt no psychological burden at all about rejecting Xue Yingsong.

"Oh?"

Xue Yingsong exclaimed in surprise, but did not say anything more.

Gu Ran quickly flipped through the following content.

Because this diary itself doesn't contain much content, it should only be a diary entry for a certain period of time.

Furthermore, each page only records events of one day, and no matter how short the record of that day is, the page will be turned to continue recording the next day.

After finishing the book, Gu Ran still couldn't hide her shock.

The diary spans a year, but a lot happened in that year.

The sects in Canglong City were purged, ushering in a new era for martial arts academies and Lanxin University.

The first president of Lanxin University, who was also known as the "tyrant," changed from being convinced of Star Stone Technology to doubting and even opposing it, and began to pursue the "Eternal Kingdom."

Gu Ran also learned for the first time that, in the heart of the "tyrant," the pursuit of an "eternal kingdom" was actually a manifestation of his cowardice and escapism.

Because he no longer sought ways to defeat the world-ending catastrophe, but instead turned to looking for ways to avoid and prevent its arrival.

[Starstone Technology...why has it become like this?! Even if Starstone Technology reaches its peak, can it still not reach the level of extraterrestrial technology? And it will still suffer from pollution from outer space! But why did the previous... (an X appears, it seems like a horizontal line was written first, then crossed out because it seemed inappropriate) say that Starstone Technology was the most likely path to success?]

[Star Stone, Star Stone, haha, I should have guessed it sooner. Isn't the name related to that starry sky? Is this a scam?! Were the previous "people" also fooled? Or were those "people" just imposters?]

In this passage, Gu Ran guesses that those "people" from before might be the "destined ones".

The "tyrant" received a hint from the previous "destined one" and then began to continuously upgrade the technology tree of the Star Stone.

But gradually, he discovered that Starstone Technology was not as wonderful as he had imagined.

As Starstone Technology develops, the pollution from Starstone will intensify.

Judging from the diary, the "tyrant" may have discovered that the root cause of the star stone pollution was the starry sky.

And star stones... do they come from the starry sky?

But how was the "tyrant" discovered?

Gu Ran was puzzled by this.

The diary did not specify that the person was a "tyrant".

However, what terrified and shocked Gu Ran the most was another part.

[So that's how it is! So that's how it is! Starstones aren't inanimate objects!]

[A faint trace of consciousness is contained within the star stone!]

This wisp of consciousness was extremely faint; an ordinary person wouldn't be able to detect it at all. Even with my psychic powers, I hadn't noticed it for so many years. If it weren't for the sheer number of star stones at the time, and if my psychic powers hadn't reached a new level, I wouldn't have been able to discover such a deeply hidden consciousness.

Furthermore, I discovered that the contamination of the starstone seems to be related to a deeply hidden consciousness within it. If this consciousness could be removed, the contamination would disappear, but this is extremely difficult. Even I can only remove a very small piece of the starstone's consciousness by using my mental power, exerting all my strength, and spending a very long time.

[This is truly terrifying to think about. If each starstone represents a fragment of consciousness, and if all the starstones in the world were gathered together, wouldn't they form a terrifying conscious life form? This consciousness must be related to that starry sky, a space I still cannot penetrate...]

[Starstone Technology... is probably a completely wrong path. There's still time; perhaps I can look for other paths...]

Does the star stone contain a hidden consciousness?

This was something Gu Ran had never imagined before.

In that instant, he thought of "deep water" and "mass consciousness," so was there also a "star stone" and "mass consciousness"?

It's just waiting for ignorant humans to trigger the method to summon it.

"Deep water," "mass consciousness"... "Starstone," "mass consciousness"...

Gu Ran no longer dared to think further about the fate of humanity.

Compared to such life forms, not to mention a single human being, even human civilization seems insignificant.

"Could this be the real reason why he later turned into someone who 'extremely hates Starstone Technology'?" Gu Ran asked himself, but at the same time, he already had the answer in his heart.

He should know the difficulty of building an "eternal kingdom" that will never develop.

But he did it anyway, and he even felt that it was a cowardly act of escapism.

Clearly, the star stone cast a deep shadow over his mind.

However, Gu Ran thought of Xing Shi Technology today.

In the course of XingShi Technology's development, there have been no more incidents of XingShi contamination.

He couldn't help but turn to Xue Yingsong and ask, "Since all the past presidents of Lanxin University have read this diary, they must know that Star Stone is polluted. But why did each president still vigorously develop Star Stone technology? How exactly was the pollution of Star Stone completely eliminated? Don't tell me you really don't know!"

Xue Yingsong nodded, then shook his head:

"Although every generation of principals knows that there is a danger of contamination hidden in the Star Stones, humans can no longer leave them. Moreover, since the first principal disappeared, for some unknown reason, the number of Star Stone contamination incidents has decreased significantly."

233. Xue Xiling: What are you two doing?! 4.2k

Xue Yingsong continued:

"Furthermore, Lanxin University had gained a first-mover advantage in Star Stone Technology at that time. No principal was willing to give up this advantage under such circumstances. So while each principal was secretly researching how to remove the consciousness from the Star Stone, they were still vigorously developing Star Stone Technology."

"However, the further we go, the fewer the events of star stone contamination become, and eventually it even disappears completely on its own, so I really don't know how the contamination in star stone was completely eliminated."

After the "tyrant" disappeared, the contamination of the starstone gradually decreased until it disappeared completely on its own.

Could it be...

Gu Ran frowned slightly, a bold idea forming in his mind.

Could the Star Stone contamination incident actually be related to the "tyrant" himself?

The timing of the two events was too coincidental; it was hard for him not to think in that direction.

Make bold guesses, but verify them carefully.

Although he thought this, Gu Ran didn't say it aloud because he lacked substantial evidence.

Perhaps it's just a coincidence in timing.

This kind of thing is not impossible.

Xue Yingsong really kept this secret well; he didn't reveal a single detail when he returned from the ruins.

However, Gu Ran didn't blame Xue Yingsong, since such highly confidential matters should not be revealed to "outsiders".

Xue Yingsong originally intended to wait until he took over and became one of his own before informing him, and he would fully understand.

It would be more accurate to say that he was somewhat surprised when Xue Yingsong revealed it to him.

After closing the diary and returning it to Xue Yingsong, Gu Ran remained silent for a moment.

Xue Yingsong silently put away her diary without saying a word, and made herself a cup of coffee while waiting for Gu Ran.

With Gu Ran's current mental capacity, he can completely remember even a small amount of information, such as a diary.

So even though he returned the diary to Xue Yingsong, the contents of the diary were actually engraved in his mind.

At this moment, he was constantly recalling the contents of his diary and comparing them with the various situations he had encountered.

The diary entries mainly contain "prophecies" about the destruction of Lanxin University and Canglong City, all of which feature a key time element—more than three hundred years later.

However, "more than 300 years later" is a rather vague term. 301 years can be called "more than 300 years later," 399 years can also be called "more than 300 years later."

So why can we be so sure that "Snow-Welcoming Pine" refers to the present, more than 300 years later?

When Gu Ran first started reading the diary, he had some doubts, but after he finished reading it, he roughly understood why.

Because diaries contain more specific directional information in addition to dates.

The diary revealed Xue Yingsong's surname—Xue, Principal Xue.

As far as Gu Ran knew, the surname Xue was very rare in Canglong City, and neither of the previous two presidents of Lanxin University had the surname Xue.

As for the earlier principals, Gu Ran didn't know, but he could probably guess that there wasn't a principal with the surname Xue.

In addition to mentioning the surname, two other key figures were also mentioned.

One is Xue Yingsong's daughter, Xue Xiling, and the other is... him.

—The destined person with the surname Gu.

I wonder if, more than three hundred years from now, the president of Lanxin University will still be surnamed Xue, and if her daughter will still be a somewhat socially anxious, research-obsessed young woman.

To be honest, I feel both apprehensive and overjoyed about this change in my fate.

If fate can be changed, then it means I can no longer see the future. All the future I know of has become a possibility, a chance. So, would a future where fate is changed be the future I desire?

But at the same time, only if fate can be changed will my efforts have meaning... no, only our efforts will have meaning.

[The destined one... Only now do I have a guess about what the so-called destined one is.]

However, the world's rules have an overwhelming power to correct fate. I wonder how much they will correct in three hundred years?

Have all that I've done affected the original trajectory of the world's destiny? I wonder if, more than three hundred years later, another person with the surname Gu, destined to be at Lanxin University, will also arrive?