The staff member was taken aback, "You're returning to your own home? Who do you think you are?"
But shortly thereafter, Zhang Menglong took off the sunglasses from his face.
"Are you Mr. Zhang?" The staff member instantly recognized Zhang Menglong.
"Yes, it's me," Zhang Menglong said with a smile, "I'm certainly not Puyi. I don't need a permit or an invitation to enter my own house, right?"
The staff member immediately started laughing too, as he had been briefed earlier that Zhang Menglong was today's special guest, and they were instructed to treat him well upon his arrival.
However, Zhang Menglong's remark did amuse him, reminding him that the last person who needed to buy a ticket to enter his own house was an emperor, Puyi could surely relate.
"Zhang Menglong! It's Zhang Menglong!"
"Zhang Menglong has arrived!"
Aside from the scholars, there were also many media representatives who had been invited, and they quickly turned all their cameras towards Zhang Menglong.
"Mr. Zhang, may we conduct a brief interview with you?"
"Mr. Zhang, what exactly is your true identity? Did your family really build this ancient city?"
"Mr. Zhang, could you share some secrets of your family with us?"
"Hahaha, thank you all for coming to my house so warmly," Zhang Menglong said, adopting the manner of a host, "I will answer all these questions tonight at the press reception. Please, no rush for now."
The facial expressions of the site staff were twitching, 'Come over to your house as guests,' such bold words to say! Even Puyi wouldn't dare to say 'welcome to my house' when bringing people into the Forbidden City, what a move to turn guests into hosts!
But upon reflection, the statement wasn't incorrect. If the city was indeed built by Zhang Menglong's ancestors, then claiming it as his family's was completely legitimate!
"Mr. Zhang, please, come in. The representatives of the scholars are already waiting for you below."
"Waiting for me? What for?" Zhang Menglong was taken aback.
"Those foreign scholars say, since it was your ancestors who built this ancient city, you must have a profound understanding of it. They are all hoping that you could introduce them to the city."
"Dammit," Zhang Menglong knew well that these people were trying to set him up with a challenge.
You claim it was built by your ancestors, right? If it's something from your family, you must know it best. If you can't elaborate, then you'd be a fraud. Then the so-called 5000 years of cultural heritage would face rampant skepticism from the outside world. If that happened, it wouldn't be just Zhang Menglong losing face, but the whole of Huaxia.
"Alright then, I'll give them a tour!"
Zhang Menglong smiled and stepped onto the elevator.
If they were a normal family with over 5000 years of heritage to pass on, it'd be a wonder if he could explain anything! But when the city was built, all of its structure and data were backed up in the database of the Super God Academy's dean's ring, and Zhang Menglong could access it anytime.
"Gou Dan, sync all the information about this city to my memory!"
With a burst of data flow, Zhang Menglong's memory suddenly filled with a wealth of information about the city.
This city was established in the year 3902 BC, and it took 24 years to complete. At its most prosperous, it was home to hundreds of thousands of humans!
In fact, this all started with the first ancestor from Super God Academy whom Zhang Menglong obtained. Originally, he was just an ordinary member of a primitive tribe, in that era without writing, and the surname Zhang was developed later on.
It was later that he gave himself a more modern name, calling himself Zhang Yuge.
With the power of Super God Academy, Zhang Yuge became a master surpassing any psychic of the age within a few months, and he absorbed a large amount of knowledge from advanced universal civilizations. He conquered the entire tribe with his astonishing wisdom and power, becoming the undisputed king of the tribe.
Zhang Yuge only wanted to lead his tribe to grow and develop, but he later encountered invasions by other tribes and was forced to conquer them as well.
The struggles of that era were merely for survival resources; the stronger the tribe, the more they were envied, until after their tribe had annexed a dozen or so other tribes, no one dared to challenge them anymore.
When other tribes were still using backward weapons, they had already invented firearms. How could they possibly fight against that?
By then, Zhang Yuge's tribe had grown to thousands of people. To survive, they found an oasis abundant in resources, which is where this city was established.
More and more tribes came to admire the place, until eventually, the population reached hundreds of thousands. At Zhang Yuge's command, this city was created!
The main materials used were similar to reinforced concrete; although they could not compare with the real thing, they were incomparably more solid than any straw huts, wooden houses, or ordinary stone dwellings!
Then came the earliest forms of agriculture and animal husbandry. Zhang Yuge also found various seeds of edible plants and taught the knowledge of cultivation to a group of his closest associates, who were friends from his original tribe.
He captured many young animals and began breeding them; the entire city could be completely self-sufficient and thrive.
In that era, just surviving was an incredible feat, and the powers and knowledge displayed by Zhang Yuge were nothing short of divine! The most loyal tribes gradually came to regard Zhang Yuge as a deity, creating three totems, dividing all people related to him into three classes.
Later, growing weary of power and wealth, Zhang Yuge began to pursue higher things, strength and immortality. He kept studying in Super God Academy until one day, his power finally reached a certain level.
Just like Zhang Menglong's parents went to those parallel universes, Zhang Yuge also planned to explore those worlds. So he disbanded the entire city and handed over Super God Academy to his only descendant. All the original inhabitants of the city also left.
As a memorial, Zhang Yuge's descendant used the power of the earth to seal a part of the city that had been damaged by Zhang Yuge's breakthrough, beneath the ground, hoping it would become an eternal secret!
As for those city inhabitants, they went eastward, westward, southward, northward, carrying the seeds of civilization and knowledge all over the world. Agriculture, cultivation, construction, and even knowledge of genetic engineering. A subsidiary tribe in the Yangtze and Yellow River Basins established the earliest Huaxia civilization.
A slave tribe in Qingqiu territory built an equally prosperous city.
Some tribes crossed the seas to Africa and established a culture as splendid as ancient Egypt.
Some civilizations by the sea created a city of science, whose master was once Zhang Yuge's best friend from the same tribe. He learned genetic engineering knowledge and other sciences, and that civilization was called Atlantis!
Many civilizations disappeared into the long river of history, while many others left various brilliant cultural relics. But almost all current human civilizations, to some extent, have some connection with the city that Zhang Yuge once built.
Translated into the modern Huaxia language, the name of this city is "City of Origin," meaning that it is the origin of all human civilizations!
"Mr. Zhang, we are over here!" a scholar called out to him, waving, "I am Zhu Jianfeng, the director of the Huaxia Historical Museum."
"Director Zhu, it's nice to meet you." Zhang Menglong shook hands with him politely.
"Mr. Zhang, you should be careful, these little devils and old Rooskies here today are all here to pick a fight," Director Zhu said quietly, pointing to some foreign scholars nearby who were buzzing with conversation, "they think this is a lie concocted by us in Huaxia."
"No matter, ignorance has always been their shortcoming. Once they've seen the relics, they will understand what Huaxia civilization truly is!"