Chapter 1942: [It Turns Out to Be You] (Part I)

If everything is truly like this, then from the moment of my birth, every move I make has been under this old lady's surveillance.

The night was cool and breezy; the night of July 6th had none of the midsummer heat, instead showing a rare summer coolness.

In the backyard of Easy Origin Hall, medicinal herbs grew profusely, specks of five colors dotting the deep night, and even the air floated with the fragrant scent of the herbs.

Hu Xiaotian walked alone into this courtyard; after entering the back gate of Easy Origin Hall, he followed the winding path, the lanterns on either side guiding his way, and he could tell he had stepped into a complex formation; although he saw no one along the way, he had the illusion that countless eyes in the darkness were staring at him.

In the backyard, only a silhouette sat in a wheelchair, gazing alone at the stars in the night sky, unknown what she was searching for, nor which star she sought.

Hu Xiaotian had previously met Old Lady Xu before his grand wedding with Long Xi Yue; the two had a frank conversation then, and although later events proved Old Lady Xu had not lied to him on many matters, Hu Xiaotian still believed she must be hiding something from him, and her arrival today was certainly no coincidence.

Old Lady Xu's silhouette was lonely and desolate, yet showed not a trace of old age; from the back she looked very young, and what surprised Hu Xiaotian was that her hair was no longer snowy white as before, but miraculously turned jet-black like ink, her black hair simply bound with a plain blue ribbon and flowing down her back like a waterfall.

Hu Xiaotian stopped his steps, silently gazing at her; for some reason he felt this silhouette somewhat familiar, a feeling he could not describe.

"You've come!" Her voice was completely different from before, lacking any elderly tone, like an oriole emerging from the valley, clearly that of a young girl; I don't know what happened to her, could she have returned to youth? And this voice… I've clearly heard it before!

Hu Xiaotian clenched his fists, watching Old Lady Xu slowly turn her wheelchair and face him; his eyes widened round, his expression shocked to the extreme, as if seeing the most unimaginable thing in the world; although he had already judged from her voice, when he confirmed everything with his own eyes he could not suppress his deep shock, even unable to believe his own eyes.

The girl before him had a pale, beautiful face, her appearance peerless, like a white camellia flower, she silently gazed at Hu Xiaotian, her pallid lips revealing a faint smile.

Hu Xiaotian felt his mind go blank; she was clearly Li Wuyou, she was none other than Li Wuyou! How could this be? Why had Old Lady Xu become Li Wuyou? Was Li Wuyou coming under an alias, or were they originally the same person?

Her face always bore a faint smile; she said nothing, merely silently watching Hu Xiaotian, silently waiting for him to recover from his shock.

Hu Xiaotian carefully traced the timeline in his mind; his first encounter with Old Lady Xu should have been before meeting Li Wuyou; back then Old Lady Xu had a childlike face with white hair but her voice was extremely aged, while the Li Wuyou before him now showed little change from when they met in Xichuan, only why did Old Lady Xu become Li Wuyou? What exactly is going on? Were the two sightings actually of the same person?

Hu Xiaotian said: "Who exactly are you?"

"A person's life is not as long as you imagine, let alone traversing vast spacetime to adapt to different environments; even I don't know who I really am." She paused, then said: "There is no blood relation between us at all."

Hu Xiaotian said: "Then I'll still call you Miss Wuyou; that feels closer."

Li Wuyou sighed: "Who in this world can truly be carefree?"

Hu Xiaotian said: "Is Li Tianheng also a fire seed?"

Li Wuyou shook her head: "I am not Li Tianheng's biological daughter; Xi Yan is."

Hu Xiaotian said: "But the you I saw before my wedding was not like this."

Li Wuyou said: "What you saw was not me; spacetime travel is not the wonderful fantasy imagined, crossing spacetime in a short time is a harsh and cruel ordeal for anyone's body and will; you should have seen many members of the Transcend Space Team."

Hu Xiaotian nodded; he had seen Lin Chao, who is Liu Yuzhang, and also seen Ghost Doctor Fu Duo; strictly speaking, the latter is not really a human being.

Li Wuyou said: "Some things I only understood recently."

Hu Xiaotian said: "Isn't your original name Xu Mingying?" Looking closely, Li Wuyou resembled Old Lady Xu somewhat, yet still quite different; if she isn't Old Lady Xu, how would she know about the Transcend Space Plan?

A smile touched Li Wuyou's lips: "It seems they've indeed told you a lot." Her beautiful eyes turned again to the distant stars, pondering: "The original setting for the Transcend Space Team's members was to use a batch of artificial humans to complete the mission; these people had nearly perfect bodies, their genes stronger and more refined than ordinary humans, their physiques capable of any arduous, harsh work, and they lacked humanity's greatest weakness—emotion."

Hu Xiaotian blinked; she indeed had many things hidden from him.

Li Wuyou said: "I am a specialist in genetics, with outstanding contributions in cloning; the earliest Transcend Space Plan did not include me, but when the plan was put into practice, everyone discovered that this seemingly perfect plan had a fatal flaw: no one could predict what would happen to the team members after they entered their preset spacetime coordinates; the clones' greatest strength is obedience and execution, while their greatest weakness is lacking self‑thought, and everything they possess is given by their creator." She turned to him: "Do you understand?"

Hu Xiaotian nodded; what Li Wuyou said was not unfamiliar to him—although clones appear virtually identical to humans outwardly and physiologically, their brains still lack self‑thought and creative ability; in fact the creator tries to avoid giving them that ability, for once granted, it would fill the gap, inevitably resulting in unpredictability and uncontrollability.

Li Wuyou said: "Therefore the Transcend Space Team must have a human present!"

Hu Xiaotian said: "Is it you?"

Li Wuyou nodded.

"Are you Xu Mingying?" Although Li Wuyou had said at the outset that she and I share no blood relation, when I exposed her identity I still felt strange, for in my past knowledge Xu Mingying had always been my grandmother.

Li Wuyou shook her head: "I am myself, always have been! I am Li Wuyou!"

Hu Xiaotian said: "Then who is Xu Mingying?" The Transcend Space Team isn't just five members?

Li Wuyou said: "They are all clones; as their creator I can easily set programs, wipe their consciousness, alter their memories, making them believe I am not among the members. At first progress was extremely smooth; the original plan called for five years of scientific observation here before departure, but this environment is unsuitable for my survival, so shortly after arriving I fell gravely ill; after setting everything up I chose to hibernate, set to awaken in ten years. During that decade the team would carry out their duties well, yet gradually things drifted from the original course—I never imagined so much would happen in those ten years: someone altered the clones' settings, giving them self‑awareness, the ability to think and create, and rewrote their memories so they understood love and hatred. When I awoke, everything had slipped beyond my control."

Hu Xiaotian whispered: "How have you survived these years?"

Li Wuyou said: "My hibernation place is unknown; that's how I escaped disaster. Wanting to control those clones' mysterious power is clearly insufficient—I cannot fully dominate them, so later events likely exceeded his expectations; once the clones gained self‑thought, their actions surpassed imagination. I wanted to destroy them, but I am powerless, so I can only destroy the spacetime shuttle I had hidden, severing the sole link between this spacetime and the past world."

Hu Xiaotian nodded; her action was undoubtedly correct—if she had not promptly destroyed the spacetime shuttle, the phantom would likely have already used it to reach their world.

Li Wuyou said: "After the clones gained self‑awareness, they hid themselves well; my former ways of controlling them no longer work, and the only hope lies in Xu Mingying."

Hu Xiaotian said: "Why her?"

Li Wuyou said: "Because she is my clone! No one knows her weaknesses better than I, and she is the only one I could possibly control." She sighed: "It's a pity I still underestimated her ability; she discovered my existence and plotted to capture me—a creator caught by her own creation, isn't that a delicious irony?" Her tone was flat, yet Hu Xiaotian found it heart‑pounding, even a bit chilling.

Li Wuyou said: "Xu Mingying didn't kill me, not because she still has conscience, but because she suffers a fatal illness; though her genes have been optimized, even surpassing the original, flaws remain—nothing in this world is absolutely perfect. Though she has gained self‑thought and creativity, even able to incubate a fire seed, only I hold the clone secrets; she must rely on me to prolong her life, and only I can provide the substitute she needs."

Hu Xiaotian, hearing this, now firmly believed Li Wuyou's words.