Chapter 720: Chasing that illusory, elusive fate

In the meeting room of the Abnormal Bureau's top echelon sat the new generation of mimics, each looking utterly normal, as if they had been copied straight out of an evil‑god beautifying package, unchanged.

They had no insect limbs, no wings, and looked exactly like ordinary humans.

Time and the number of cycles have stripped these mimics of their basic insect traits; they no longer call themselves mimics, but new humans.

The new generation looked at each other, no one daring to speak first, as if the Qi Yu sitting opposite them were not a Legendary Investigator but a monster that had slept for a hundred years.

Qi Yu wasn't in a hurry either, just sitting there, her tea cooling and being refilled over and over.

She knew better than anyone what she was in their eyes.

She was the sole Legendary Investigator in the whole star system, and moreover, for nearly a century no one had even been able to reach the threshold of the forbidden, let alone become a legend.

Just by sitting there, she became an insurmountable mountain, an uncrossable sea; as long as she was present, she remained the supreme leader of the Abnormal Bureau.

But the ulterior motives of those beneath her are hard to fathom; they have already grown distant from Qi Yu.

They feared her to death, yet dared not speak it out, so they kept beating around the bush, turning the perfectly fine meeting room into a dull execution ground.

As for humans, the thing they fear most is living too long—so long that even those once closest to them begin to fear you.

Finally someone could hold back no longer; a new‑generation member who looked the most senior stood up and first praised her from head to toe.

"The only Legendary in the whole star system," "No one has matched her in a hundred years," they flung praises that were over the top.

Qi Yu just listened, not interrupting, waiting for him to peel away the sugarcoating of those fine words and reveal the real purpose.

We want to ask you.... to go reclaim land.

Reclaim land.

Qi Yu turned that word over in her mind a few times, then suddenly found it funny.

Beside the new generation's star system lies an unexplored star region said to bear traces of fate and secrets left by the evil god; only an existence like hers is qualified to lead a team there.

They called it beautifully, for the future of all humanity.

They put it so beautifully, it made Qi Yu want to laugh.

But she ultimately understood the unspoken words:

You are too strong—strong enough that no one can check you; you have lived too long—so long that everyone fears you.

You cling to the old era's things, you mourn a person dead over a hundred years, you stay here, and we live uneasily; as long as you live one more day, we spend one more day in the shadow.

She stared at this new generation for a long time—long enough that cold sweat began to seep from the backs of those few new‑generation members.

She suddenly laughed.

I will go.

Give me a ship, a batch of intelligent machines, and I will leave tomorrow.

Her tone was light and casual, as if she were merely agreeing to a routine field assignment.

The tense atmosphere in the meeting room instantly eased; the new generation felt as if a great weight had been lifted, thanking her repeatedly, as though they had just set down a mountain that had pressed on them for over a hundred years.

They thought they had persuaded this old Legendary, not knowing that Qi Yu had already decided to leave the moment they began to speak.

She was not driven out; she chose to leave herself.

They were right—she is too strong; so strong that even if she does nothing, her mere presence is like a thorn in the back of the whole new generation.

She guards the memories of the old era, she guards a world that no longer exists; between her and this new world lies a chasm of over a hundred years.

If she stayed on, either they would rebel in fear, or she would one day truly lose control and destroy everything—neither outcome is what she wants.

"Let the old era's things stay obediently in the old era...."

Qi Yu suddenly murmured a line; though she had never heard its source, she felt an unknown familiarity.

She is a remnant of the old era; she witnessed the decline of the previous age, saw with her own eyes the person she cherished depart, and personally chewed his flesh and blood.

She watched Huang Mao and Qiu Yu complete their wedding, additionally permitting them to leave behind their own offspring.

She also watched Zhang Jie's family step by step emerge from the shadows; though not all met a good end, they at least lived relatively freely.

Even she, who once wanted to vomit at the mere thought of that flavor, now began to savor it.

Exactly, to savor it—though she herself does not admit it, his actions have indeed made everything clear.

She longed for that flavor, the taste of blood, which she had not tasted for a long time.

She would mix blood according to that remembered flavor; even a three‑tenths similarity is the limit, she can never again evoke the taste from her memory.

The less she could obtain it, the more she wanted to try, the more she yearned; Qi Yu realized that time here was not a medicine that erases wounds, and what looked like a scar was not actually a scar.

Rather, it was a jar of bitter wine that, with time's aging, grew ever more fragrant and unforgettable.

Master....

On the eve of her departure, Qi Yu stood on the starport's control tower, gazing at the distant mother star ablaze with lights, and murmured softly.

Anyway.... this star system no longer needs me.

"Anyway, I never had a home to begin with...."

Since Zhang Jie died, she has never returned to that little villa.

She merely watched Zhang Jie's family members age one by one, disappear, die of illness, and saw the villa full of memories torn down and rebuilt.

Just as she said, she is a remnant of the old era; the new era has no ship belonging to her.

The next day, Qi Yu set off with the reclamation team.

The ship carried the most advanced detection equipment, and also a few new‑generation members sent ostensibly to assist but actually to monitor; Qi Yu knew this full well, yet said nothing.

They sailed all the way, passing through the remnants of the star system's crust, and arrived at the unknown star region mentioned in the survey report.

Then, on a day as ordinary as could be, Qi Yu summoned all the crew to the main cabin.

We'll stop here.

"Ahead, this star region's pollution intensity has already exceeded your limits; go any further and you will die."

"But!"

"Turn back, just say the mission has completed preliminary exploration."

No one dared to defy her; afterward, the following starships began to turn back, leaving only those seemingly harmless intelligent machines, which grew smaller and smaller until they vanished completely.

Qi Yu stood alone by the porthole, watching that point of light fade out bit by bit in the darkness.

She was finally alone again.

The edge of the star system was even more empty than imagined—no starlight, no direction, and even time seemed to lose its meaning.

Qi Yu finally curled up in a corner of a room, her insect wings trembling slightly—not from pain, but from cold, a chill seeping out from the gaps in her bones, a cold that even the Legendary Investigator could not suppress.

Master....

The voice echoed in the empty cabin.

I miss you so much....

She would spend the rest of her life chasing that illusory, elusive fate....