Chapter 76#
Having seen the text on the label, a surge of chilling air rose from the bottom of Bai Mo’s heart.
He looked up at Fu Yucheng almost tentatively.
Fu Yucheng stared fixedly at the glass jar in his hand, at that soft, fresh mass inside that once belonged to his brother’s brain.
Bai Mo couldn’t help but say softly, “Yu-ge…”
Fu Yucheng ignored him. Those dark eyes with a hint of dark green were devoid of emotion, completely empty.
Bai Mo pursed his lips and lowered his gaze, not speaking further.
After an unknown amount of time, Fu Yucheng finally closed his eyes and gently placed the glass jar back in its original position.
Bai Mo reached out his hand, wanting to support him, but was slowly yet firmly pushed away.
Fu Yucheng stood quietly for a while facing that entire wall of glass jars, then suddenly turned around and walked out with large strides.
Not knowing what he intended to do, Bai Mo hurriedly followed: “Yu-ge!”
Fu Yucheng ignored him entirely. He walked straight out of the tower, not paying attention to the crowd gathering around. In silence, he walked rapidly toward the Rose Plaza ahead.
On the high platform in the center of the Rose Plaza stood a giant white marble statue of the founding emperor, Rong Qian.
This several-meter-high white marble statue was the work of a well-known portrait sculptor—pure white and exquisite, handsome and steady, lifelike.
This first emperor of the Central Empire, former Commander-in-Chief of the Deep Space Fleet, a legendary S-class controller, was like a deity, silently and compassionately looking down upon the world.
Fu Yucheng walked to the base of the statue and stopped.
He slowly raised his head and looked quietly at his great-grandfather across a distant span of over two hundred years.
Inside and outside the massive Rose Plaza, the bustling crowd of tens of thousands fell silent at this moment.
“Why?” Fu Yucheng looked up at this noble statue and murmured.
The statue looked down at him in silence.
Fu Yucheng suddenly raised his voice and asked sharply: “…Why?!”
At the same time, a faint blue light flickered between his right fingers—at some point, that famous “Silent Blue Moon” had appeared in his hand.
“Why!!” Along with this roar of rage, Fu Yucheng suddenly leapt up and struck out viciously with his blade!
The crowd gasped in shock!
The “Silent Blue Moon” swept out horizontally, accompanied by the sound of whistling wind! Within its master’s surging mental power field, the exquisite and slender blade was suddenly enveloped in a layer of cold blue afterimage. The blade, originally less than a foot long, abruptly transformed into an afterimage longsword over a zhang in length!
The afterimage longsword, carrying a force like toppling mountains and overturning seas, struck heavily across the neck of the statue!
“Boom!!”
With a world-shaking explosion, the massive head of the statue came crashing down! It shattered into pieces!
“Heavens! What is he doing?”
“That’s, that’s the statue of the First Emperor!”
“How… how can this be? This is defiance!”
“Your Highness!!”
For a moment, cries of alarm erupted from the high-ranking nobles and cabinet ministers, but none dared to stop this regent Crown Prince in his rage. Outside the plaza, the densely packed lesser nobles and commoners could only look at each other, whispering in discussion.
Fu Yucheng acted as if he heard nothing. With a backhand stroke, he struck another heavy blow horizontally against the statue’s body!
“Boom!”
Half of the statue’s shoulder also crashed to the ground!
“Why?!” Fu Yucheng struck out viciously again, roaring low, “You fucking speak! Rong Qian! You bastard!!”
The damaged statue still stood in silence.
“Why?! Are you mute?! Fucking speak!!”
The “Silent Blue Moon,” accompanied by the whistling wind, struck the statue again and again.
Fu Yucheng’s eyes were so red they were almost bleeding. His strikes were heavy, fierce, and cold—tireless and devoid of any pattern. He seemed intent on venting all the surging, boundless hatred in his chest, which had nowhere else to go, onto this unfeeling statue. After an unknown amount of time, the entire several-meter-high white marble statue was completely in pieces, turned into a mess of scattered rubble.
Everyone was petrified with fear.
Inside and outside the plaza, there was dead silence.
Fu Yucheng stood amidst the rubble, breathing heavily, the afterimage longsword in his hand flickering—this indicated that the Soul Weapon master’s mental power field was fluctuating violently and uncontrollably.
“Crack—crack—” A faint sound of splintering was heard.
Following this sound, the pure white and warm floor tiles of the plaza began to show fine cracks, which rapidly spread outward.
And the crowd of tens of thousands inside and outside the plaza was now completely speechless. They were pressed down by this overwhelming mental power field to the point where they couldn’t even stand. Many people fell over, rolling in pain and screaming loudly; the scene was one of chaos.
Within this heavy and chaotic mental power field, a large amount of white marble rubble slowly rose into the air. At the same time, the entire Rose Plaza, and even the nearby White Rose Palace and Tower of Light, were trembling violently.
Fu Yucheng’s mental power field had completely lost control.
The Crown Prince stood in the rubble for a long time before suddenly staggering slightly and dropping to one knee.
In his hand, he still gripped the afterimage-like “Silent Blue Moon.” This peerless weapon, originally calm and dark, was now flickering violently and dizzily.
Fu Yucheng knelt on the ground, his eyes tightly shut in pain. His head felt as if it were splitting open, and the boiling hatred in his chest burned like fire. He felt so terrible, he didn’t even know what he was doing… He hated the Rong family, he hated Rong Qian, he hated the Central Empire, he hated this world…
He wanted to destroy everything…
Yes, destroy it all…
“Boom!!”
With a massive explosion, more than half of the giant Rose Plaza collapsed.
He was in so much pain… he felt so terrible…
Destroy it all…
Suddenly, someone held him tightly.
At the same time, some kind of cold and pure mental power field surged toward him in waves, without reservation.
This mental power was extremely powerful but completely defenseless, as gentle as the first snowfall of winter. He could easily tear it to shreds, easily destroy it, easily make the other suffer beyond endurance…
But for some reason, Fu Yucheng subconsciously hesitated for a moment.
The other held him tightly and said hoarsely, “Yu-ge, you, don’t be like this…”
“Get away! Get lost!!” Fu Yucheng growled low.
He only felt a piercing pain in his mind as the completely out-of-control S-class mental power field swept up uncontrollably like a raging storm at sea, capable of tearing anyone apart alive!
But the other met him without flinching.
Two extremely powerful mental power fields became fiercely entangled! They were soothing, retreating, tearing, pained, yielding, destroying, maddening…
Fu Yucheng suddenly opened his eyes!
The afterimage of the “Silent Blue Moon” in his hand had completely disappeared, reverting back to an incomparably exquisite but lethally powerful dark blue scimitar!
Fu Yucheng raised the scimitar high without hesitation and brought it down viciously toward the neck of the person beneath him!
At this moment, the other was pinned firmly to the ground by him, covered in dust from head to toe, looking utterly disheveled but not panicked. Those dark eyes looked at him quietly, with an air of complete non-resistance.
Those eyes looked very familiar.
The “Silent Blue Moon” entered the flesh half an inch and stopped.
Perhaps it was that eye-stinging flash of bright red blood, or perhaps those dark, stubborn eyes… Fu Yucheng felt as if his soul had returned. His hand loosened, and the “Silent Blue Moon” fell to the ground with a clang.
“Xiao Mo, what happened to me just now…” he murmured, his expression somewhat confused.
Before he could finish speaking, his whole body swayed slightly and he collapsed toward the other as if drained of all strength.
Bai Mo tightly hugged the body that had slumped down. The other’s storm-like mental power field collapsed, and everything returned to calm.
Fu Yucheng had fainted.
…
“Mother! Uncle said that since Brother chose to take my place, he must enter the tower… You, how can you just stand by and watch!”
“Don’t blame your uncle… I have no choice either. This is the fate of you two brothers.” His mother’s voice sounded so cold and heartless.
“Mother, I already know. There is no such thing as the ‘Pathfinder Project’ at all! This whole thing is just an absurd sacrificial ritual… right? Mother, speak!”
“Yuan-er!”
“Great-grandfather set the rules. Every twenty years, the Rong family must use the Tower of Light to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of controllers to that so-called ‘God’… and the sacrifices must include one of direct Rong family blood. Mother, is that it? Don’t you find all this absurd? After all these years, has not a single person questioned it?”
“Yuan-er, you’re still young. You don’t understand anything…”
“Right, I indeed don’t understand! And I understand even less why you all would do this! I only know that Brother took my place and entered the tower. Once the twenty-year period is up, he’ll be like those previous sacrifices—his brain taken out by goddamned medical robots and offered to that inexplicable God! Since you all love doing this so much, why don’t you have your own brains taken out?!”
“Yuan-er, how can you speak like that!!”
…
“Yu-ge…” Someone was calling him in a low voice.
Fu Yucheng exerted a lot of effort and finally slowly opened his eyes.
After a long time, the scene in front of him gradually became clear.
A pure white ceiling, an IV drip bag hanging by the bed, the regular low “beep-beep” of instruments… He was in the royal hospital of the White Rose Palace.
Bai Mo sat by the bed, tightly holding his right hand. Those originally clear dark eyes were now bloodshot: “…You’re awake.”
Fu Yucheng blanked out for a good while before managing to sit up against the headboard, his head still slightly dizzy: “How long have I been asleep?”
His voice was incredibly raspy.
Bai Mo quickly handed him a cup of warm water and said softly: “You’ve been asleep for… fifty-three hours.”
A gentle breeze blew against the white window curtains, bringing a soft coolness. Outside the hospital window was a thick, large banyan tree, emitting bursts of botanical fragrance.
Fu Yucheng held the water cup, staring blankly out the window.
He suddenly said: “I should have thought of it long ago.”
“Thought of what?” Bai Mo didn’t react for a moment.
“I should have thought long ago… about those things in the tower,” Fu Yucheng murmured. “I was too stupid.”
Bai Mo didn’t know what to say and could only remain silent.
“Years ago, Brother took my place and was forced into the tower by Uncle. Not long after, I had a big argument with Mother and escaped. Thinking about it now, after I escaped, Uncle—to avoid any accidents—removed… removed Brother and the others’ brains many years early.”
“I should have thought of it long ago.” Fu Yucheng said hoarsely, “I shouldn’t have delayed for so long… no, I shouldn’t have escaped at all.”
Bai Mo was silent for a long time before slowly speaking: “Yu-ge, I’ve already closed the Tower of Light. Before closing it, I copied all the data from the central computer… The data shows that those brains in the tower were taken out as early as over ten years ago—at that time, you had only recently escaped from the White Rose Palace.”
Fu Yucheng looked quietly out the window and didn’t speak.
“So, don’t blame yourself anymore. You couldn’t have changed any of this… At that time you were only in your teens, struggling just to stay alive. How could you have saved your brother?” Bai Mo said softly.
Fu Yucheng closed his eyes: “Brother entered the tower in my place. If I hadn’t escaped, maybe… maybe he would still have had a glimmer of hope. This year is the deadline year for this cycle of the Pathfinder Project… I thought I had calculated the time perfectly, I thought I was infallible, I thought I could do it… I was too arrogant, too foolish.”
His throat tightened in waves, making it almost impossible to continue. His fingers neurotically gripped the snow-white blanket tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
Bai Mo lowered his gaze and lightly pressed down on the back of the other’s hand in comfort.
Fu Yucheng ignored him, just staring blankly at that green, vibrant banyan tree outside the window.
After a long time, he suddenly said: “That day, Brother and I were in the backyard of Mother’s chambers, playing on a swing… that swing was also under a large banyan tree.”
“Mother and Uncle called Brother and me into the chambers and said many things. They said Brother would be conferred the title of Crown Prince, and that in a few years, I would enter the Tower of Light to become the leader of this iteration of the Pathfinder Project.”
His voice was very light, as if reminiscing about some distant past: “At that time, I didn’t understand anything, but Brother already knew some of the inside story. He told Mother and Uncle that he wouldn’t be the Crown Prince, and that he would take my place and enter the tower… Brother was gentle and magnanimous but very stubborn inside. Mother and Uncle exhausted their arguments but couldn’t persuade him, so they could only agree.”
“Just like that, I was muddledly conferred the title of Crown Prince… A few years later, Mother went to the suburban palace to recuperate, and Uncle forced Brother to enter the tower. By then, I already knew some of the truth, so I went to the suburban palace to seek help from Mother. But Mother said it was the fate of us two brothers.”
“The fate of us two brothers… the Tower of Light, the Pathfinder Project—that is our fate.” Fu Yucheng’s voice was very calm, but the content of his words was chilling. “My great-grandfather Rong Qian overthrew the coalition government and established the Central Empire. From that moment on, for two whole centuries, the Rong family has maintained the tradition of sacrifice.”
“And the sacrifice is the most precious thing of mankind… the brains of controllers, the source of mental power,” he said softly.
Bai Mo felt a chill run down his spine: “Sacrifice?”
“In this era, for such a thing to still exist… isn’t it ridiculous?” Fu Yucheng curled his lips, but there was no smile in his eyes. “Uncle and Mother said it was for the stability of the Central Empire, for the peaceful lives of everyone. For two centuries, every twenty years, the Rong family would use the Tower of Light to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of controllers—the smallest number being 290,000, and the largest nearly a million. Among them, the vast majority were ordinary controllers from the industrial zones, a few were noble controllers from the ecological zones… and one top-tier controller of the Rong family’s direct bloodline.”
Bai Mo asked hoarsely: “Then the Pathfinder Project…”
Fu Yucheng shook his head: “The so-called Pathfinder Project… is just a cover-up. You’ve probably heard that controllers who participate in the Pathfinder Project never return… Their video contact with family members is also simulated by AI. Fake, it’s all fake.”
Bai Mo murmured: “So those low-level controllers in the industrial zones who rush to pass the test and join the Pathfinder Project, wanting to change their fate… actually, they’re just…”
Fu Yucheng nodded very slightly: “Just sacrifices.”
A gentle breeze blew against the white window curtains, bringing a distant and blurred fragrance of flowers.
Yet the atmosphere in the hospital room was almost bone-chillingly cold.
Bai Mo was silent for a long time, then gently put his arm around the other’s shoulder in comfort, saying softly: “It’s all in the past. You’ve retaken everything, and the Tower of Light is closed. From now on, such things will never happen again… It’s all in the past.”
“It’s not in the past. It will never be in the past.” Fu Yucheng said in a low voice, “I… I’m going to find Mother and demand an explanation.”