Author: 易修罗 / Yi Xiu Luo

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 48

The officer suddenly chuckled upon seeing this.

“At first, this had nothing to do with you. You insisted on getting involved. If you hadn’t been so persistent, you wouldn’t need to sign this document now. Even if he refused, you wouldn’t be the one facing jail time. Do you regret it now?”

“If I hadn’t come in, he would have already chosen imprisonment, and your goals would not have been achieved. So, you should be thankful I’m sitting here,” Ying Feng countered.

Ling Xiao hadn’t expected Ying Feng to see through his intentions. His hand, holding the pen, trembled slightly, and the smile on the officer’s face faded.

“You’re quite confident, young man. If your Qizi agrees to this to spare you from jail, would you refuse and willingly face imprisonment for his sake? I’d advise you not to complicate matters. Think of it as donating blood once a week. The rest of the time, you’re free. Besides, if this experiment succeeds, it will be a significant accomplishment for the entire Tianxiu race.”

Ying Feng remained unyielding. “To us, imprisonment is a severe punishment, but for you, whether we are imprisoned or not isn’t significant. You don’t need two useless prisoners; you need blood. If we refuse, you’ll face losses, and you won’t benefit either.”

The officer’s expression was enigmatic. The two stared each other down in silence for a while.

“It seems our negotiation is at a standstill,” the officer finally said coldly.

“We’re not opposed to signing the document,” Ying Feng seized the opportunity to negotiate, “but only if we’re fully informed. This includes the procedure and goals of the experiment, the identity of the subject, and most importantly, whether this experiment will harm my Qizi.”

“Isn’t your demand a bit excessive?”

“Unless we meet the subject in person, we won’t sign.”

The officer pondered for a moment. “Fine, you’ll meet them sooner or later anyway. But don’t say I didn’t warn you; if you still insist on following this path, the consequences may not be as simple as they seem now.” He feigned a sigh. “You could have stayed out of it.”

“I don’t need your repeated kind reminders. I’m partly responsible for breaking into the lab. I never intended to stay out of it from the beginning.”

The officer got up to leave. “How touching.”

The two followed the officer, maintaining a distance. Behind them, two soldiers trailed closely.

“Did you intrude on my thoughts again?” Ling Xiao whispered after a while.

“So my guess was correct? If I hadn’t gone in, you’d have willingly gone to jail alone?” Ying Feng replied without glancing at him. “Don’t worry; the Qizhu can’t read your mind. Your thoughts are your own.”

Ling Xiao retorted, “I stole the item on my own. Why do you always interfere?”

“But you mentioned a joint venture, didn’t you? If our goals align, shouldn’t we act in unison? I now have a new bargaining chip. I want to enroll in the Joint Combat Department of the Royal Sky Military Academy. It’s a challenging major, and you promised not to hold me back.”

“You…” At first, Ling Xiao didn’t understand Ying Feng’s seemingly unrelated demand. He then realized that Ying Feng was trying to prevent him from negotiating with the military behind his back, a thought he indeed had. Ying Feng claimed he couldn’t read his mind, yet he always seemed to know exactly what he was thinking.

The Joint Combat Department, Ling Xiao had to admit, was also his heartfelt goal.

“My condition is that—no matter the decision, I will make the call.”

“Deal.”

They boarded the military aircraft. All windows were sealed, offering no view of the outside, so they had no idea where they were headed.

Once the aircraft landed, they exited to find themselves indoors. A long tunnel lay behind them, which they had just traversed. The officer led the way, and the two followed onto an elevator. It descended for a considerable time, making them realize they were deep underground. Just what kind of place was built so concealed?

“We have arrived.” The officer stopped in front of a door marked [Tianxiu Genetic Research Center]. He swiped his card, and the doors slid open, revealing an entirely new world before the two of them.

Ling Xiao was left agape. He thought the main hall of the base was already vast, but the venue before him seemed to be two or three times larger by his estimation. Without any explanations, the officer headed straight inside, and the two followed, taking the opportunity to observe the unfamiliar surroundings. There were computers and unknown devices everywhere, with complex indicator lights and numbers flashing on them.

Many staff members were busy working inside the venue. They seemed oblivious to the strangers, almost as if the newcomers were invisible. Although they wore white uniforms similar to those from the base and the disease control center, these uniforms felt cold and distant. Their expressionless faces made Ling Xiao almost think they were robots if not for the strict rule of the Tianxiu people forbidding the development of any artificial intelligence.

Door after door was opened by the officer, and with every increasing security measure, the two grew less and less inclined to believe that what was inside was just an ordinary experimental subject.

At last, the final door was opened. Ying Feng and Ling Xiao saw the subject for the first time—a human, similar in size to a fledgling, lying quietly inside a vacuum chamber, as if having slept there for a millennium.

Ying Feng found something odd at first glance. Among the Tianxius, there were various hair colors, but yellow was rare. In his memory, only Zhu Yue had light yellow hair. However, the person inside the chamber had pure golden hair, a color he had never seen before on anyone.

Yet, this minor oddity was all he felt. Turning to Ling Xiao for his thoughts, he was shocked to see Ling Xiao clutching his chest in pain. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Ling Xiao’s eyes were filled with disbelief. “I… I know this person.”

Ying Feng was taken aback. “You recognize him?”

Ling Xiao shook his head in denial, seemingly struggling. From the moment he laid eyes on the subject, his heart raced as if a memory was on the brink of surfacing. “I don’t know, but I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere.”

No, not just seen him. Their connection was deeper than mere acquaintance, from a very, very long time ago.

While both men focused on the person lying down, the officer had been staring intently at Ling Xiao ever since they entered the room. Seeing Ling Xiao’s unique reaction, a glint appeared in his eyes. This was indeed the person they had been searching for. Only his blood could awaken the subject. They would do anything to bring the subject back to life.

Ying Feng, sensing something was amiss, turned his attention to the officer. The greed in the officer’s gaze as he looked at Ling Xiao sent shivers down Ying Feng’s spine.

“You’re lying,” Ying Feng suddenly declared.

The officer reluctantly shifted his gaze. “Why do you say that?”

“You said that the blood of any newly awakened Qizi would awaken him. But why did he have such an unusual reaction? Do you need the blood of any Qizi, or a specific one?”

The officer responded with a cryptic smile. “Is there a difference? Regardless, he is the one needed to complete the task.”

Ying Feng’s expression hardened. “This isn’t what we discussed. I suspect you’re hiding more truths. If we can’t determine your true intentions, we’d rather be imprisoned.”

As Ying Feng attempted to pull Ling Xiao away, Ling Xiao remained rooted to the spot.

“I…” Ling Xiao began with his head lowered. “I want to accept.”

“What?”

“I want to awaken him. I want to know why I feel this way. More importantly, I think he knows who I am.”

“You are Ling Xiao; even I know that.”

“Ling Xiao is my name in this life. My soul was given a surname at random when it entered an energy chamber and a first name. But what about my past life? And the life before that? How did my soul first become human? I have a feeling he can tell me. He isn’t a stranger to me. We must have known each other very well in the past. So well, I feel like I am him.”

Ling Xiao closed his eyes. Memories not his own flooded in, filled with intense emotions of sorrow, regret, and hatred, so powerful they threatened to consume him. What could have happened to make this seemingly harmless young man harbor so much resentment against the world?

The officer’s voice echoed slowly. “Your Qizi has already spoken. Why are you still insisting? Do you intend to use the power of the Qizhu to force him to refuse?”

Upon hearing this, Ling Xiao looked at Ying Feng nervously, seemingly reminding him of the terms they had just exchanged.

“Let’s go,” the officer said generously. “Since you have come, I don’t mind letting you know more.”

The group returned to the hall they were in earlier. This time, the officer led them to a place that looked like the mainframe location. The person in charge here was different from the others. As soon as he saw someone enter, he stood up immediately. “Commander, they…”

The officer waved his hand to indicate that there was no problem. “Let me introduce, this is Dr. Heng He. You will be dealing with him quite often in the future.” He then introduced Ling Xiao separately. “This is the person I mentioned to you before.”

Heng He suddenly said, “So you’re Ling Xiao? It’s great to have found you. You’re very important to us.”

The officer cut him off. “Show them the work you’re doing.”

Heng He hesitated. “Is this appropriate?”

“If you don’t show them clearly, they won’t agree to cooperate.”

“Oh… alright then.” Heng He typed a few keys. “Look, as humans evolve, viruses also evolve. We recently discovered a variant of a virus among the people of Wolfsbane. We don’t have antibodies for this virus in our bodies, and if infected, we’ll get sick. So, I developed a vaccine targeting this virus, translated it into genetic code, embedded it into the original program, or, in layman’s terms, applied a patch, and then uploaded it…” He noticed the confused expressions on the two young faces and didn’t continue, sighing. “I know it’s hard to understand, right? Some things can’t be explained in a few words. And for you two, the amount of information to process at once is just too much.”

It took Ling Xiao a moment to find his voice. “Is this some kind of joke? We’re humans. How could we be controlled by such things?” He looked around. “These computers, instruments, data—how can they determine our fate? Why does a piece of code decide whether we get sick or not? What are we?”

“You don’t need to delve into our origins, because you can’t,” the officer interjected. “Just remember that for thousands of years, we have evolved in this way, becoming as refined and powerful as we are today. If it were in the past, you, who failed the coming-of-age ceremony, wouldn’t be alive. You can thank these emotionless machines for standing here.”

“No, let me explain.” Heng He seemed worried about scaring the two young adults, who had just matured and were still developing. “A long time ago, the triggering conditions for the coming-of-age ceremony weren’t as they are now; they were quite complex. It would only be activated when a series of hormones in the human body, such as dopamine, amphetamine, and adrenaline, reached specific values. Simply put, the condition was love.”

“In ancient times, the coming-of-age ceremony had only one outcome: one lover would kill the other to obtain all their power, while the defeated person would enter reincarnation, repeating the process.”

“While this rule made us stronger, it also made our souls incredibly lonely. We gained power, territories, and subjects, but we could never have love. For centuries, we have been trying to change this setting, to mitigate the impact of the coming-of-age ceremony. Now, the coming-of-age ceremony can only be initiated subjectively by the person or triggered passively by sexual hormones. Those who lose don’t die. We are also trying to alleviate the pain of the disorder period, and while it’s not perfect yet, it’s not something that can be achieved overnight.”

Ling Xiao, still not fully recovered from the massive shock, asked, “What does this have to do with the person lying inside?”

“Although we can change the cause and outcome of the coming-of-age ceremony, we can’t completely cancel it. The reason is that we can only modify the surface code but don’t have permission to alter the core. Things like the emergence of the coming-of-age ceremony, the existence of the soul’s traction, and the inability of young fledglings to reincarnate after death, all belong to the program’s core. It can only be changed with the explicit authorization of someone from a specific lineage.”

“A specific lineage? You mean that person?”

“That’s right,” Heng He responded with excitement. “Ling Xiao, you are the one we found whose genes most closely match that person’s. If you can wake him up, the coming-of-age ceremony can be abolished. We can love each other equally like other races, no one will die because of it anymore, no more tragedies will happen, and everyone will be free. This, only you can make this happen.”

Such words, whether true or not, made the two young people feel a mix of emotions. The amount of information they received today surpassed the total of the past ten years.

“After hearing so much, good and bad, I assume you two have made up your minds,” the officer kindly reminded them. “I forgot to tell you one thing. If you had signed the document just now, you would have had at least the choice of joining us or being imprisoned. But since you wanted to push further, the price you’ll have to pay is naturally higher.”

His words seemed like a command. All the people around them who had been engrossed in their work now put it aside and turned to face the two. Their expressionless faces made the scene chilling. Ling Xiao and Ying Feng instinctively moved closer to each other.

“Now, you still have only one choice: accept our terms or leave everything you’ve just seen as a secret here forever.”

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