Seeing the blood feud again but being unable to do anything about it, and even being imprisoned in a cage for the second time, made Huo Xianfeng, who had always been calm and restrained to the extreme, lose his mind.
Or more accurately, he was on the verge of collapse.
Even the strongest ones have limited psychological endurance. This hatred that had been growing wildly since birth and lasted for three hundred years finally crushed him at this moment.
The moment Jiang Ci hugged Huo Xianfeng, she realized—
It turns out that he had actually been suppressing it for a very, very long time.
From the moment Huo Xianfeng recovered his memory, or even earlier, when he saw so many suffering tribesmen in the factory in Baigu City, the hatred that he had tried hard to bury because of the loss of memory was awakened.
But he kept enduring, trying his best to endure, and planned rationally, without showing anything unusual. However, that bloody hatred also turned into invisible shackles, tightly handcuffing Huo Xianfeng's hands and feet, dragging him into the darkest abyss.
Huo Xianfeng in the cage looks the same as he did three hundred years ago.
He looked to be only eleven or twelve years old, with golden pupils in both eyes, but the color was not as bright as Jiang Ci remembered. Instead, it was a gray twilight, very, very dim. Most of his body had degenerated, and he could not even maintain his human form.
Huo Xianfeng's beloved tail, his proudest weapon, had only grown a little and was curled up like a withered branch.
He kept repeating—
"Kill them..."
"Kill them..."
"Kill them all!!!"
This crazy-looking monster didn't look like Huo Xianfeng at all, and he didn't look like the unrestrained and in control Huo Xianfeng at all. But Jiang Ci recognized him at the first sight.
He didn't feel scared, he just felt heartbroken, so heartbroken that he almost couldn't breathe.
This was the reason why Huo Xianfeng was unwilling to tell him about his past. Even if Jiang Ci asked, he would only mention it briefly and not want to mention it. Because the prouder a person is, the more he doesn't want others to find him embarrassed.
"Huo Xianfeng... Huo Xianfeng..."
At this moment, Jiang Ci suddenly felt very, very regretful. He regretted why he didn't discover it earlier, why he didn't discover it earlier that the person he loved the most had been in such pain and sadness.
"never mind… "
Jiang Ci hugged the boy's cold and trembling body tightly, wanting to warm him with everything she had.
"I'm coming... I'm coming to see you..."
The young man in his arms was shocked. He leaned on Jiang Ci's shoulder, and his dazed eyes finally focused again.
At this moment, endless, wildly spinning fragments were scattered all over the ground.
Huo Xianfeng saw a little starlight shining in the darkness behind Jiang Ci.
Then came the second one, the third one… In the next second, the whole world seemed to be tilted upside down.
The pair of dim golden pupils gradually widened, and the sky was full of stars. The faint lights flickered in the darkness, and the dazzling sea of stars rushed towards him.
—That is the Zerg's mental network.
"… "
Huo Xianfeng stared blankly for a few seconds, and finally stopped repeating his words resentfully.
He finally... found his way back.
The boy closed his eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice—
“It hurts…”
"I'm in so much pain..."
It hurts so much that I almost collapse.
Huo Xianfeng finally reached out and hugged Jiang Ci.
"Aci... I thought Huo Chao was back..."
"No, it's fake..."
"I'm locked up again... I can't find the way back... "
He buried his head deeply in Jiang Ci's neck, and for the first time, his tone revealed a sense of vulnerability and dependence.
"Why did you come just now..."
"I-"
Jiang Ci was about to apologize and wanted to comfort her, but the next second, he heard Huo Xianfeng say,
"It's a good thing you came..."
He hugged Jiang Ci tightly and repeated it again.
"It's a good thing you came."
At the same time, the sharpest alarm sounded in the laboratory—
"Alert, alert! Detected..."
boom!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Before he could even finish his sentence, he was overwhelmed by a series of explosions. The densely packed mental shielding pillars around him exploded one after another.
It is difficult to break a cage from the inside, but it is much easier from the outside.
What's more, Jiang Ci is not the only one outside.
"what happened?!!"
"Detected... I can't detect the specific value, but the mental shielding device has reached its limit!!!"
“Damn it!”
"… "
Just when the Holy White Tower fell into chaos again, Huo Xianfeng opened his eyes in the driver's seat of Jinyuan. He saw everything familiar and also felt the waiting of his clansmen outside.
At this moment, the darkness before dawn was gradually fading away, and the gray sky of Mingcheng was turning a fiery red.
—Huo Xianfeng was brought back by Jiang Ci.
He finally broke free from that deep nightmare.
"Huo Xianfeng..."
Jiang Ci pulled out the nerve chain and rushed over to check on him.
"Huo Xianfeng!"
He touched the boy's face, his tone panicked.
"How are you? Are you awake? Are you feeling unwell?"
"… "
Huo Xianfeng looked at him quietly without saying anything. This made Jiang Ci's heart jump. He thought that the other party had not yet regained his sanity, so he stretched out two fingers and asked him anxiously,
"Huo Xianfeng, look at what number this is?"
Even shake it and ask,
"Do you understand?"
"… "
The young man glanced at his hand indifferently, then suddenly grabbed the back of Jiang Ci's head and kissed her.
—The answer is I understand.
Jiang Ci was stunned for a moment, then immediately bent her knees against the driver's seat, leaned forward and gave a more enthusiastic response. Because Huo Xianfeng was sitting in the driver's seat and Jiang Ci was standing, it was Huo Xianfeng who took the initiative, but it looked more like Jiang Ci was pressing him down on the driver's seat and kissing him.
The three mechas watching: "…"
To be honest, when they saw Huo Xianfeng wake up, their first reaction was shock, their second reaction was that A Ci was awesome, and their third reaction was to come up and congratulate him.
But the third one reacted a beat too late, and the two of them had already kissed.
So the three mechas deleted a series of lines that were ready to be output to the language system, and then quietly opened the communication on the mecha channel.
Bai Ze didn't understand: "What happened? Why did they kiss???"
Little X understood very well: "Tsk tsk tsk, this is why you don't understand, a short separation is better than a new marriage."
Jin Yuan: "... I say, aren't you a parenting system? How come you have this kind of vocabulary?"
Little X said confidently: "A-Ci has grown up and has an alpha, so of course I have to keep up with the pace and download some adult-related resource packages. You don't understand, as the best parenting system, of course I have to prepare for A-Ci's future baby! So their happiness and harmony in that aspect are very important."
At this moment, Jin Yuan and Bai Ze were both silent.
Bai Ze silently asked Jin Yuan: "Is it really generated directly from your program?"
This sentence in the world of mecha is equivalent to asking, is this guy really your biological child
Jinyuan felt very ashamed, as if it had completely disgraced its big brother.
"… That was written by Jiang Jinsheng for his son. How would I know?"
This sentence translates to mean that although the child is Jiang Jinsheng's biological child, he was raised by him, so it's none of his business.
At this time, Huo Xianfeng stretched out his hand to hook the other's knee against his leg, and then pulled it slightly. The next second, Jiang Ci sat on his legs, becoming a closer posture. Jiang Ci took a breath and wanted to say something, but then he was pinched by the back of his neck and kissed deeper.
"Well… "
They kissed eagerly and passionately, without any lust, just trying their best to express their endless longing and love.
"Aci...Aci..."
"Um."
This time, the person who responded was Jiang Ci. Just like Huo Xianfeng did before, he also responded to the other party over and over again.
“I’m… I’m here…”
Huo Xianfeng had never shown fear or any other vulnerable emotions, but it was not until he was once again touched by those unbearable memories of the past that he realized that he could be afraid, and he could feel pain, even pain so severe that he could not bear it, and he was crushed by hatred and went crazy.
Huo Xianfeng finally understood why he lost his memory when he woke up on Earth.
When life-threatening pain occurs, the gene's self-protection mechanism will be triggered. So when the newborn king wakes up, he loses all memory of hatred.
However, when all memories of hatred were forcibly buried, only a name remained in his mind.
Without hatred, although he was confused, lonely and had nothing, from that moment on, Huo Xianfeng's eyes and heart could finally hold other things.
—Jiang Ci appeared at the most appropriate moment.
At this moment, Huo Xianfeng deeply kissed the flower he loved most, feeling that person gradually filling his empty heart.
The acquaintance between Huo Xianfeng and Huo Chao was a mixture of guilt and compensation, hatred and exploitation. Huo Xianfeng initially only regarded the other party as a tool for revenge and a channel to spy on the outside world, so Huo Chao always tried hard to chase him, feel guilty about him, and try hard to compensate him.
But when Huo Xianfeng and Jiang Ci met, there was no distortion of hatred. They saw each other as just each other.
That night in the dungeon, from the moment Huo Xianfeng saw the other person, he couldn't say that he liked her, but one thing was certain, that was that strange Omgea, in his eyes, was special and different from everyone else.
Because the Jiang Ci that Huo Xianfeng saw was a very cool and handsome omega, but also a lonely, sensitive soul who would not succumb to fate.
They were attracted to each other from the beginning.
It is genetic attraction and also soul attraction.
"Huo Xianfeng..."
At this time, Jiang Ci separated a little, but their foreheads were still pressed tightly together.
"Huo Xianfeng..."
At this moment he didn't know what to say, as if everything he wanted to say just now was no longer necessary after that kiss. But he wanted to confirm that person's real existence, so he could only call his name over and over again.
"Well, I'm back."
Huo Xianfeng answered again and again, and every sentence received a response.
Other than that, they didn't say anything else.
"… "
The hug lasted for a very long time, and neither of them spoke a word. In the quiet and warm embrace, the invisible bonds and red threads kept entwining and deepening, until finally, they were unbreakable.
After a long embrace, Huo Xianfeng finally calmed down in the warm company and love. He began to explain to Jiang Ci the reason for his disappearance and why he had made the other party worried and scared for so long.
"I thought that was Huo Chao."
"…?"
But hasn’t Marshal Huo Chao already...
Jiang Ci was stunned. He was actually shocked and surprised, but he did not interrupt. Instead, he listened to the other party continue speaking.
Huo Xianfeng told him what the Zerg's mental network was, about his secret connection with Huo Chao, how they started with hatred and ended with friendship, and why he had disappeared for so long.
"My name was given by Huo Chao. This is the only thing I remember after waking up on Earth."
—Leisure wind.
That was the common dream of him and his best friend, and also the most sincere blessing Huo Chao gave him.
But in fact, the boy who had lost his memory at that time did not know the meaning of it. He was just staring blankly at the monument to heroes towering into the clouds, and at the familiar yet unfamiliar name at the top.
Huo Chao...
This is the Monument to the Heroes, which means that all those who can carve their names on it are dead.
At that moment, the young man couldn't tell what he felt, but he suddenly felt that his name should be Huo Xianfeng.
Yes, his name is Huo Xianfeng.
At that time, Huo Xianfeng didn't understand where that sudden impulse came from, but he knew it when he regained his memory.
—Because this dream of freedom is not just his.
On the 300th anniversary of the death of the human commander, the new king woke up from the tomb of his best friend.
He took over that man's surname and their common dream, and then, alone in the darkness, he continued to move forward without hesitation.
At this moment, Jiang Ci suddenly understood Huo Xianfeng's rare impulsiveness and irrationality, because that night, he saw the light belonging to his stupid friend light up again.
This probably meant that his only friend was still alive.
All along, everyone missed Huo Chao and cried bitterly for his passing. But Huo Xianfeng, a close friend who had been given so many things by Huo Chao, seemed indifferent.
But how is that possible
It was simply because the king could not show his grief, let alone any sign of vulnerability.
Jiang Ci had seen it before. She had seen the youngest and weakest Huo Xianfeng. Facing hurt, pain, and fear, he could not cry. He could only show his fangs that had not yet grown and act in his most ferocious manner.
Jiang Ci closed her eyes deeply. At this moment, she finally understood everything about Huo Xianfeng, and also truly felt all the fragility and pain that he had tried hard to hide.
How could Huo Xianfeng be indifferent to Huo Chao's death...
That was his only friend, the only companion he could rely on in the endless dark years. That was the first person who desperately reached out to Huo Xianfeng even though he was powerless and collapsed and cried.
That's why that night, Huo Xianfeng went to look for that person without any hesitation or even any consideration.
"Aci, but that's fake."
Huo Xianfeng closed his eyes.
That's not Huo Chao, it's a fake.
"I don't know where they got Huo Chao's genes from, and made a clone of him. Maybe they want to use him to deal with Pei Changyun. Of course, it could also be me..."
Jiang Ci was startled. He clenched his fingers tightly, secretly hating himself for discovering it too late.
"It's the forbidden abyss's neural chain."
He told of his discovery in the Forbidden Abyss Neural Chain.
"In the groove, Marshal Huo Chao's genes have been taken away. Later, I found a chip in the innermost part of the groove. I just don't know what's inside it. I have given it to the teachers to decipher."
If it had been before, Jiang Ci would have definitely participated, but Huo Xianfeng suddenly fell into a coma, so he could only stay by his side. After a pause, Jiang Ci was a little annoyed.
"I should have gotten here sooner..."
"Aci, don't feel upset. This is something no one could have expected."
Huo Xianfeng stroked his hair. The church's unknown plan seemed to have been implemented more than halfway, but fortunately, he had destroyed part of it. At least, the progress was delayed.
He looked up at Jiang Ci.
"Besides, you brought me back."
At this moment, Jiang Ci felt that familiar strength and arrogance returned to Huo Xianfeng again. He curled his lips, as if he had already determined the final outcome -
“So, we can’t lose.”
"… "
Jiang Ci stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then hugged him tightly, closed her eyes deeply, and repeated softly,
"Well, we can't lose."
At this moment, Huo Xianfeng suddenly realized something and asked,
"How did you bring me back?"
He is connected to the clone because the latter has Huo Chao's genes and seems to have his neural fluid, but Jiang Ci does not. Jiang Ci is just a simple human omega.
Jiang Ci paused, stood up, and took the nerve chain from Huo Xianfeng's neck to show him.
"Should be this?"
But he himself didn’t really understand.
"Perhaps it's because we have blended our spiritual powers in Bai Ze's spiritual cavity before, and there may be a slight connection?"
"…?"
Is that so
Huo Xianfeng was not sure, but it still made sense. Moreover, he did not find the light spot belonging to Jiang Ci in the Zerg's mental network. Just when Huo Xianfeng was about to search carefully again, Bai Ze suddenly said -
"Aci, the commander's communication."
The two were stunned.
Then, Jiang Ci immediately got off Huo Xianfeng, tidied her clothes a little nervously, and then answered the call. Huo Xianfeng didn't think anything was wrong, he still lazily leaned on the driver's seat, and then saw Zhou Jiuya's projection appear from the front.
Zhou Jiuya's face was a little gloomy, but he was still stunned when he saw Huo Xianfeng suddenly wake up. After all, the latter had been in a coma for more than half a month, and the impact it brought was not small.
"You...you're awake?"
"Yeah. The whole process is a little complicated to explain, but it's all right now."
Huo Xianfeng nodded and glanced at Jiang Ci.
"But there is one more thing I need to tell you."
Jiang Ci took over the conversation very tacitly and continued,
"The Phantom Cult obtained Marshal Huo Chao's genes and made a clone of him. They are likely to use it as a political weapon against Your Majesty."
“… It’s a clone after all.”
Zhou Jiuya's face looked extremely ugly.
"I knew about this half an hour ago."
Huo Xianfeng and Jiang Ci were both stunned.
At this time, Zhou Jiuya sent a video.
"Half an hour ago, a so-called official account of the alliance released the news that Huo Chao was not dead. It said that he was seriously injured and could not be cured, so the Illusion God Cult had to freeze him. It was not until recently that he was unsealed and completely cured."
The background of the video was the Holy White Pagoda, and the face of the adult Huo Chao appeared in the video.
The man was still wearing the uniform of the Dawn Legion, looking dignified and handsome, as if he had crossed three centuries and woken up from the annihilation of artillery fire and ashes. Former Alliance Speaker Setlin stood behind him, his face as old as tree bark unable to hide his excitement.
In the video, Huo Chao said that Pei Changyun stole everything from him.
It was said that Pei Changyun colluded with the Zerg and killed him.
Zhou Jiuya didn’t have time to continue playing the rest of the song.
He looked serious and said to Huo Xianfeng,
"Although this is sudden, the Empire has officially declared war on the Phantom Cult, and we have now entered a wartime state."
"… "
Huo Xianfeng raised his eyebrows slightly, understanding his implication.
That is to say—
Pei Changyun was on his way to kill us.
(End of this chapter)