Chapter 543: The Forest Sea Returns to Tranquility (1)

""What else did you think of?""

""I also saw... some people. Ah... the remarkable people, even in scattered memories they still glimmer. I... I was once one of them, I am...""

"Zhadeweike lifted his head, his eyes trembling: \"... Genius Club. I finally remembered—I was once a member of the Genius Club. \"."

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind.

"Huh? Wait—"

Mista furrowed his brows, let out a short questioning sound from his throat, and pointed at the aged figure in the sky, "Genius Club? Him? Hey hey, that's taking the joke too far, isn't it? No matter how you look at him, he just looks like an ordinary old man with senile dementia."

The old man called Zhadeweike had eyes that were completely dimmed, no glimmer could pass through his cloudy crystalline lenses. His skin was parchment‑like and wrinkled, the folds deep enough to crush a mosquito. Just sitting there, he resembled a piece of forgotten attic furniture, dust‑cloaked, incomparable to people like Black Tower, Luosi Gumu, or Ruan Mei.

"Talent... can't be judged simply by appearance, right?"

Fugo hesitated a moment before speaking, pausing slightly, "Even if the erudite Zun glanced at him, Zhadeweike is, after all, just a mortal flesh, bound to age. His talent is undeniable, but the 'heart' that houses talent can lead a person onto a completely different path."

"Moreover, the things he saw... weapons accompanied by endless slaughter and death—perhaps this old man has also committed grievous killing, right?"

"I get the logic," Mista leaned back onto the seat behind him, the chair creaking in protest, "I'm just curious—since he's a member of the Genius Club and also adept at weapon research, why not cooperate with the Interstellar Peace Corporation? Ms. Black Tower and Luosi Gumu are already working with the company, right?"

If they were cooperating with the corporation, they certainly wouldn't let Zhadeweike be so isolated in Pinokangni now. He's a genius himself; working together with geniuses like Black Tower and Luosi Gumu wouldn't be bad, would it?

Mista couldn't quite grasp it.

"How do you know he hasn't cooperated with the company?" Teli Xiu forked a piece of cake into his mouth, "And a Genius Club member who isn't in a lab but wastes his life in a dream—doesn't that seem suspicious?"

"Xing was curious why Zhadeweike was here, and that was also the answer he wanted, plus the fragmented memories... Zhadeweike speculated that his family must have imposed some influence on him, and he was powerless to resist."

"He hoped to seek help from the Genius Club, and Xing happened to know a few members of the Genius Club; driven by a simple sense of justice, Xing decided to first ask Black Tower."

"After sending Zhadeweike's information to her, Black Tower replied with a series of question marks."

"I don't have time to joke with you, don't waste my time," Black Tower seemed somewhat incredulous, "You're joking, right?"

"What's funny about it?"

"So you're serious now?" Black Tower hurriedly urged, "Return to the space station quickly, quickly! Keep your mouth shut, don't let this get out!"

"Xing arrived at the space station swiftly, only to find Luosi Gumu there as well. Black Tower seemed very urgent, stating that the 'those things' in his hands were extremely precious!"

"Luosi Gumu explained that Zhadeweike had indeed been a member of the Genius Club, number #79, specializing in solid-state physics, imaginary-number application theory, and orbital mechanics."

"His rank higher than Black Tower's?"

Black Tower let out a light hum, "... Rank and status aren't synonymous; trying to provoke me with that? No chance."

"I've had two encounters with Dr. Zhadeweike. The first was when he was young and full of vigor; the second was decades later—each meeting found him in vastly different circumstances. Memory: Dr. Zhadeweike once asked me for help. He must have been around fifty then."

"Luosi Gumu granted his request that time, but after that Zhadeweike vanished without a trace among the Star Sea until Black Tower received Xing's message. In Luosi Gumu's impression, Zhadeweike wasn't an immortal; many years had passed since that call, yet he somehow survived to the present."

Fullmetal Alchemist.

"The family must have placed him under house arrest, right?"

Roy let out a low chuckle; since joining the army, he'd seen too many who brandished the banners of 'nation' and 'great cause' while trampling others' rights. If the family acted for the knowledge in Dr. Zhadeweike's mind, he could fully understand.

If it were their national military, they'd certainly house‑arrest him as well; a scientist wielding weapons of mass destruction can't easily slip out of the state's watch.

"Major, you've got something wrong," Lieutenant Lisa said with a sour expression, "Regardless, the family adheres to Harmony; even if they pursue the knowledge in the doctor's mind, I don't think they'd resort to such chaotic memory manipulation. Moreover, a family capable of summoning the Infinite Husband shouldn't need weapons of mass destruction, right? Isn't the power of the Star God enough?"

Roy raised an eyebrow, leaning slightly forward, "Oh? So what do you mean, Lieutenant?"

"Perhaps the family's goal isn't 'seizure' but 'liberation.'"

"Liberation?" Roy paused his fiddling with a lighter, "What does that mean? Free him? From where?"

Lisa was silent for a moment, then when she spoke again a subtle gloom had settled on her face, "Major, do you still recall the Yixiu Bar Annihilation War?"

"Hmm."

Roy, of course, hadn't forgotten; it was a genocide targeting the entire Yixiu Bar territory, with the military high command ordering the extermination of all Yixiu Bar people. The state dispatched a large number of state Alchemists as weapons of mass destruction, and Roy was one of them.

"You should know, after personally slaughtering an entire Yixiu Bar nation, how many soldiers developed severe psychological disorders? Many retired or committed suicide, and many dream of screams, charred limbs, and mountains of corpses."

Roy's complexion gradually changed.

"Dr. Zhadeweike, his memories have now been tampered with by his family, yet he still recalls his weapons and the endless killing and death. This indicates... he is highly likely to have developed a severe post‑war psychological disorder, to the point where even meddling with his memories can't keep him alive at all."