Chapter 145: Embracing

Zongfang's gaze was cold and sharp, the laser longsword in his hand flickering with a dark, gloomy light. He charged at Kui Shou in an instant. The longsword carved a fierce arc of light through the air. The dust and gravel in the surrounding area trembled slightly within his power field, as if even the air were yielding to him.

Kui Shou quickly manipulated his puppets to intercept, but Zongfang was like a ghost on the battlefield, easily severing the obstacles in his path. Every swing of his sword brought forth a dazzling radiance and the sound of air being torn asunder; the puppets were split in two like paper under his blade.

"I advise you not to meddle in affairs that don't concern you." Kui Shou gritted his teeth as he parried, his voice laced with resentment and fury. At the same time, he knew that his chances of survival today were slim.

Zongfang ignored him, leaping into the air to strike down at his opponent. His pressure radiated outward, and the puppets in the arena that looked exactly like him were shattered by an invisible force, turning into dust.

"What kind of thing are you, to be worthy of looking like me?"

Kui Shou retreated in terror, attempting to mobilize more puppets, but it was to no avail.

"Your game should end now."

Zongfang's voice was low and ruthless. As he finished speaking, his cold eyes instantly turned into vertical pupils, and a massive surge of mental power shattered everything around him. With one precise strike, he pierced Kui Shou's heart, releasing scorching energy inside his body that instantly vaporized his internal organs.

Watching Kui Shou's body deflate like a leaking balloon, it was sucked dry until it became nothing more than a sheet of human skin. The next second, all the puppets vanished along with him.

Under the fading interstellar afterglow, the silent ruins exuded a poignant sense of loneliness. The last rays of the setting sun slowly retreated from the horizon, the sky stained a deep, mysterious violet. Stars began to awaken in the night veil, and everything returned to tranquility.

Zongfang stood alone, his heartbeat growing louder in the silence.

These hands, which had experienced so much slaughter, were trembling now—not from fear, but filled with anticipation and unease.

He took a deep breath, struggling to calm his emotions, before slowly turning around to face Qiao Suisui, though he dared not look her in the eye. His figure was immersed in mottled bloodstains and the remnants of the sunset.

She was right before him, like a gentle light piercing through the fog in Zongfang's heart. But with every step he took, the worries in his mind seemed to grow heavier.

He was afraid—afraid that her arrival was just a hollow joy, afraid that she would never want to see him again, afraid that all the beauty of the past had become a sealed memory.

When he couldn't see her, every second felt like a longing to find her.

Yet now that she was right before him, Zongfang dared not approach.

Suddenly, a gentle call broke the silence: "Zongfang."

Her voice was like a warm breeze in spring, melting the frost in Zongfang's heart. Zongfang looked up, stunned, to see her smiling, her gaze soft and firm.

She asked: "What was the first sentence I wrote in the letter I gave you?"

Zongfang was taken aback, his voice tinged with confusion: "What letter? You wrote me a letter?"

Qiao Suisui was smiling now, but she asked another question that only the two of them would know: "When does the tree in the space bloom?"

"If you like it, I will make it bloom right now."

As soon as the words left his lips, Qiao Suisui hurried toward him.

This time, it wouldn't be wrong.

He was that paranoid fool who loved her.

Her smile was like a brilliant star, radiant and warm. She hugged him tightly, and the next second, the man's arms wrapped around her even more firmly, as if to fill in all the empty years.

They clung to each other under the sky covered by the evening glow, the surrounding ruins and suffering seeming to have faded away. "I'm late," Zongfang's voice was hoarse yet powerful.

Qiao Suisui leaned against his solid chest, her eyes reddening, yet she wore a look of relief: "As long as you came, it's not too late." —Several years ago.

Zongfang, having just been able to transform from beast form to human form, was hiding under a round table in a spacious conference room to avoid tedious lessons, accidentally overhearing a conversation between the adults.

"... Since that is the case, at least we must use top-tier beastmen for the experiments to justify the massive amount of star coins I've allocated."

"Have you evaluated the results?"

"Rest assured, once this serum is successfully developed, the beastmen's mental power will be pushed to its peak, and those injected will lose consciousness. By then, you will have a top-tier legion that has no thoughts and strikes wherever it is pointed."

"Zong Yan, you give this project a name." The person speaking was none other than the current Federal Head.

They sat around the luxurious round table, chatting and laughing while smoking, as if they were not discussing lives, but a game of chess.

Under the round table, Zongfang heard his father's voice ring out: "Let's call it the Fusion Project."

Fusion did not just represent extreme physiological and mental control over beastmen; it also symbolized the complete destruction and reshaping of their souls and wills.

And those elites, chosen from one in ten thousand, were destined to be cultivated as experimental subjects from the very beginning.

The Fusion Project proceeded without anyone knowing. Once launched, it achieved great results; all the injected beastmen saw their mental power increase. Although the effect only lasted 20 minutes, it was a monumental success. There was only one side effect: these beastmen injected with the serum would inexplicably fall into a state of rampage. At that time, only 9.8% of beastmen across the entire interstellar space fell into rampage due to genetic defects.

The reason given by the researchers was that the serum was still in the development stage and not yet stable.

At the same time, news broke in Dadeline that local villagers were collectively experiencing strange symptoms, suspected to be caused by unknown chemical substances in the water source.

Seeing that word of the underground experimental base had leaked, and with an election cycle approaching, Zong Yan proposed to the Federal Head to silence them. He suggested not waiting for the serum tests to mature and to use the elite troops for experiments directly.

Thus, he set a trap, sending all members of the elite troops to Dadeline, while simultaneously ordering the bombing of the local village, killing everyone—those who knew and those who didn't—wiping them out in one fell swoop to ensure no future trouble.

But they forgot that the troops they had personally cultivated were resilient and excellent. A small portion escaped, while the majority were sent to the underground laboratory for live experiments.

When the Federal Head's faction learned that some had escaped, they all worried that the secret would be exposed.

At this time, the Emperor of the then-inconspicuous Aosilan Diguo—Geerba Sanshi—extended an olive branch to the Federal Head, proposing to blame the disaster in Dadeline on those who had escaped. Thus, the Federal Head's faction jointly planned the "Wing War." Just after the Wing War, Aosilan Diguo rose rapidly with the support of the Federation.

Zong Yan ordered people to spread inducing agents on the battlefield. These agents were not deployed by the Rebel Army, but by people from the Federation disguised as them. They believed that the Fusion Project could transform the physique of all beastmen and build the most powerful legion on the planet 'Lingkong zhi du'. Therefore, they needed a large number of "experimental subjects." Moreover, this could kill two birds with one stone; in this way, they could not only eliminate the Rebel Army in the chaos but also select true powerhouses from the cruel survival of the fittest. And these inducing agents were not the things officially claimed to cause beastmen to rampage, but the serum developed in the Fusion Project.

This was the reason for the large-scale phenomenon of beastmen falling into mutual slaughter and rampage.

Zongfang, who knew the truth, had guarded this secret for many years. At first, he didn't even dare to sleep deeply, fearing that he might reveal everything in his dreams and become the next target to be silenced. Later, he began to become increasingly rebellious and extreme in a planned way, repeatedly clashing with his father and showing extreme fanaticism for scientific research. He had been waiting for an opportunity to break with his father.

Zongfang did not consider himself a savior, nor did he have any interest in being one. He chose not to reveal everything to the world, but he felt deep disgust for everything his family, his father, and even the entire Federation had done.

Year after year, he played the role of an uncontrollable, paranoid madman. And as he acted, he seemed to truly become such a person—because only in this role could he escape his family, escape his father's shadow, and escape this ugly world.

His disgust for this world never ceased, until he fell in love with Qiao Suisui, and thus began to have all sorts of worries.

So far, the causes and consequences of the Wing War have been explained. Next, let me see whose card I should flip? Kafei or Zongfei? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 146 =====