I Have Infinite Skill Points-Chapter 454: A Third Party is Making Trouble
"Someone else is behind this, but it’s definitely not anyone from our Yu Family." Sitting on the sofa, Yu Ruoyun spoke hurriedly, while Wang Lan sat opposite her, watching her with a smile.
"Wang Lan, I’m not trying to quibble. Please believe me."
"It’s not that I don’t believe you. I’m listening."
"Ever since I received your call, I’ve been investigating Duan Lingmu. Duan Lingmu is one of the top snipers in the military; the General Staff invested considerable effort to recruit him. Two years ago, Duan Lingmu served as Yu Ruohuai’s bodyguard, covertly responsible for his safety."
"Was he *merely* in charge of protecting Yu Ruohuai?" Wang Lan asked, shaking his head.
"He was also responsible for handling matters that couldn’t be dealt with openly. But a week before Ms. Wang Qi was assassinated, Duan Lingmu took leave and disappeared."
"Disappeared to prepare for my aunt’s assassination?"
"It would seem so. At the time, I also suspected Yu Ruohuai, thinking he had ordered it. But after investigating Yu Ruohuai, I dismissed that speculation. You should know that Yu Ruohuai was pursuing Ms. Wang Qi, right?"
"Are you sure it was pursuit and not a deliberate approach?"
"I understand Yu Ruohuai quite well. When he was younger, he was a playboy. To him, women were merely tools to satisfy his physical needs. Since the age of eighteen, he’s been with at least eight hundred women, if not a thousand.
"His promiscuous lifestyle led to an unspoken ailment. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with low sperm motility and sexual dysfunction. Although he was still surrounded by many women, he essentially had no relations with them.
"For someone so driven by desire, this was very difficult to accept. Initially, he frantically sought doctors and remedies, but eventually, he gave up on himself. Those women seen with him in public, often captured by the media, were merely a front to hide his physical condition.
"That changed last year at an entrepreneurs’ summit when he met Ms. Wang Qi. He, a man who had grown indifferent to women, suddenly started seeking treatment again, even spending over a billion for Xuanting Life Sciences to develop a method to restore his virility."
"Are you saying Yu Ruohuai fell in love with my aunt at first sight? I admit my aunt is indeed very beautiful and charming, but for a veteran like Yu Ruohuai, what kind of woman hasn’t he encountered? And are you certain he wasn’t deliberately approaching my aunt?"
"I know you’ve already investigated Chen Youting and Xuanting Life Sciences in connection with him. I can tell you plainly right now: Chen Youting was indeed sent by the Yu Family to deliberately get close to Ms. Wang Qi.
"The actual purpose was collaboration, not to seize anything. The regenerative cell technology was developed by Xuanting Life Sciences; the only missing piece was Ms. Wang Qi’s Gene Editing Agent. While we sought the technology for the agent, we also unreservedly shared the regenerative cell technology with Ms. Wang Qi."
"If your true intention was merely collaboration, why resort to such subterfuge? Couldn’t you have proposed cooperation openly?"
"We could have, but don’t forget the positions and statuses of Ms. Wang Qi and the Yu Family! Wang Qi is the Flame Emperor’s sister, and Xuanting Life Sciences is backed by our Yu Family. Do you realize how many nerves such a collaboration would fray?"
"And then? You still haven’t clearly explained why it wouldn’t be the Yu Family."
"Originally, the Yu Family’s plan was for Chen Youting to obtain the Gene Potion production technique and then leave. This would allow Xuanting Life Sciences to independently continue developing the Longevity Elixir. As for the so-called X gene cell project... honestly, that was something Chen Youting initiated himself, without the Yu Family’s knowledge. Until we learned about the incident with Ms. Wang Qi, the Yu Family had always believed she and Chen Youting were researching ordinary cellular telomeres.
"The idea of ordinary people awakening Star Martial Warrior talents might seem like a great, unprecedented miracle to you, but for Star Martial families like ours, led by the Yu Family, it’s a nightmare.
"If all ordinary people could awaken Star Martial Warrior talents, what significance would the heritage of the Star Martial families still hold? As for your earlier concern about this being used to control the nation’s 1.4 billion ordinary people, allowing one to act with impunity...
"While the idea is appealing, it’s not feasible. Firstly, how would the secrecy of the Awakening Potion be maintained? If Chen Youting could learn the technique from Wang Qi, couldn’t others learn it from Chen Youting? If the Yu Family truly harbored such a plan, they would need to guarantee a sufficient supply of the Awakening Potion to win over the populace.
"But if the technology is possessed by only one or two individuals, how could mass production be achieved? Furthermore, we consider the risk of the technology leaking to be virtually certain—one hundred percent. No one in the Yu Family is foolish!
"The Yu Family has no intention of waging war against the Flame Emperor’s faction, because regardless of victory or defeat, both sides would undoubtedly suffer losses. The Jade Country might withstand such damage, but the Yu Family certainly could not. Therefore, the Yu Family’s actual plan was different.
"Later, however, Yu Ruohuai proposed another plan: he wanted to marry Ms. Wang Qi. According to Yu Ruohuai, from the moment he first saw Ms. Wang Qi, he believed she was the love he had been waiting twenty years for.
"To win over Ms. Wang Qi, Yu Ruohuai truly went to great lengths. You can ask Ms. Wang Qi. There wasn’t a single insincere moment in Yu Ruohuai’s pursuit of her over the past two years. For him, it was the first time in his life he had actively pursued a woman.
"A month ago, he was secretly preparing an engagement ring and spent two hundred million on a custom-made Blue Diamond jewelry set. If our plan was to assassinate Ms. Wang Qi, or if Yu Ruohuai intended to kill Ms. Wang Qi after the agent was completed, why would he secretly spend so much money on these preparations?"
After Yu Ruoyun finished speaking, the atmosphere became exceptionally quiet, almost deathly still. After a long pause, Wang Lan stopped pondering and slowly lifted his head.
"Is that all? While there’s some logic to it, it sounds too far-fetched."
"Wang Lan, you’re not the type to cling to a belief stubbornly. I believe you already had your own suspicions before I came, didn’t you? I can’t claim the Yu Family is entirely innocent, but we’re not foolish enough to target your aunt. The Yu Family could have obtained what we wanted even without killing Ms. Wang Qi. Why would we needlessly start a war with you?
"Chen Youting’s death made all the Yu Family’s plans from the past two years futile. To be frank, the Yu Family suffered the greatest loss. Now, I can tell you that a third party is stirring the pot between the Yu Family and your side."
As she finished speaking, Jiang Xinyu and the other two subtly raised their eyebrows. Though the gesture was very slight, Yu Ruoyun still caught it.
"What was the Yu Family’s plan?" Wang Lan suddenly asked in a deep voice. "When Chen Youting approached my aunt, he presented the X gene cells. I find it hard to believe Chen Youting never showed them to the Yu Family. You couldn’t have been unaware of their value, could you? How could you willingly give that up?"
"The concept of X gene cells was too advanced, even more complex than ordinary regenerative cells. No one believed it could succeed. Compared to the uncertain prospects of X gene activation, developing ordinary cells capable of infinite division seemed more feasible."
"If this third party you mentioned exists, what is their objective?"
"To provoke an internal war between us!" Yu Ruoyun said without hesitation. "It’s quite obvious. Ms. Wang Qi was killed first, and you suspected the Yu Family. Then, if this third party subtly provoked the Yu Family, we might think your side was responsible, while you believe we were. With no one able to convince the other, we’d have no choice but to fight to determine the truth."
"Then the question is, how did this third party know your plans? And how did they know my aunt had nearly completed the development of the Awakening Potion? Their timing was incredibly precise."
"That... I haven’t found out yet. But it’s certain someone is fanning the flames. This person is either lurking on our side, or perhaps there are moles on both our side and Wang Qi’s."
Hearing this, Wang Lan’s brow suddenly furrowed. A flash of insight crossed his mind, and in an instant, his expression changed drastically as he stood up.
"Yu Ruohuai had a woman with him! But we didn’t find a woman’s body in his villa."
"..."
"What? Yu Ruohuai’s villa? A body?" Yu Ruoyun also shot up from her seat.
"Ruoyun, you don’t know yet?" Jiang Xinyu asked urgently.
"I rushed to the hospital as soon as my plane landed. When I got there, they wouldn’t tell me where you were. I then went to Xinyu Building and finally found my way here."
"Yu Ruohuai’s villa is in Fragrant Courtyard Bay. We were about to investigate when we discovered everyone in the villa was dead. Even Yu Ruohuai had been burned to ashes. It was then that Wang Lan started to suspect a third party might be secretly manipulating events."
"This is bad!" Yu Ruoyun’s expression changed again. She quickly pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Dad, you must stop them quickly! If we’re too late, we might fall into their trap!"
"Ruoyun? What is it? Don’t panic, tell me slowly."
"I’ve discovered a third party is provoking conflict between us and the Flame Emperor’s faction! Wang Qi’s death was their doing. Now, this third party has assassinated Yu Ruohuai. The clan will undoubtedly blame Wang Lan for this. People among the Eight Chambers, Nine Sects are surely preparing to act. Once fighting breaks out, it will be impossible to stop."
"Got it." The person on the other end hung up immediately.
Meanwhile, Wang Lan was rapidly typing on his keyboard, using Xiao Ai to search the internet.
"Wang Lan, what about the woman you mentioned?"
"In Yu Ruohuai’s room, there were two packed suitcases and several duffel bags. Clearly, he had received instructions from someone and was planning to flee.
"The duffel bags were likely for his bodyguards to carry, so they were in the living room. But why two suitcases in his room? And why one large and one small?
"I didn’t realize it at the time, but what you said just now reminded me. The smaller suitcase must have belonged to a woman. However, we found no female body at the scene, nor any signs that a body had been destroyed.
"As a direct descendant of the Yu Family and the one in charge of the Xuanting Life Research Institute, Yu Ruohuai must have known the entire plan and all its progress, correct?"
"He was the primary executor of this plan," Yu Ruoyun replied. "After all, an ordinary person like him wouldn’t normally attract much attention."
"But he *was* noticed," Wang Lan said. As he spoke, he hit Enter, and a photo appeared before him. "Who is this woman? She’s been with Yu Ruohuai for a long time, hasn’t she?"
