As time went by, they grew stronger and their relationship improved. Kang Cheng no longer hid his true self, and Nan Suo gradually became accustomed to his partner’s other side. After Kang Cheng promised to lead a good life and not cause trouble anymore, they began to search for a way out together.
Nan Suo was a genius. He quickly discovered the magical reaction that occurred when spiritual stones combined with his powers. After repeatedly experimenting with the blood of primitive beasts on the planet, he invented the first black hole teleportation device.
Finding a way out made him very happy. After informing his partner, he embraced him happily and went to sleep, only to wake up in a nightmare.
Kang Cheng revealed his evil side again. While Nan Suo was asleep, Kang Cheng siphoned some of his power and used his higher-level spiritual power to control Nan Suo’s thoughts, placing a mental lock on him and imprisoning him.
Kang Cheng then left the planet alone and did not return for a long time. When he did return, he brought a scene of blood and carnage.
Countless innocent humans were brought to this primitive planet by Kang Cheng. They became his slaves and “food,” while Nan Suo was controlled, unable even to commit suicide, only able to watch as his beloved became increasingly evil and alien.
He was in pain and despair, his consciousness sometimes blurred and sometimes clear. Every time he woke up, he found himself surrounded by blood and corpses. As his beloved became increasingly brutal, using human lives and blood to build an underground palace, he began creating this encrypted text.
“He pretended to be obedient and began helping Kang Cheng build this underground palace, recording all the secrets of the palace in this book,” Qiao Zhiya’s voice echoed in the public channel, tinged with sadness and sorrow. “He sought death with all his heart, and many places in the palace were made with his own blood. He also secretly created a self-destruct mechanism and only told Kang Cheng about it before his death, tricking Kang Cheng into believing that this encrypted text contained the secrets of these mechanisms, making Kang Cheng afraid to destroy the book.”
But in reality, the text has no critical information. It only contained the desperate love of one person. All the details about the palace were openly written in code on the passages, disguised as chaotic patterns covering the red pattern coordinates.
Looking back, the appearance of these encrypted texts with the former Emperor and Ning Tianxing was probably because the monster – Kang Cheng – wanted someone to crack the code and find and destroy the mechanisms left by Nan Suo.
The passage had reached its end, and there was a wall of stone slabs covered with patterns, seemingly a dead end. But Qiao Zhiya went straight up, pouring his power into the red patterns.
“The passage that the monster took is another one, but this one is the real escape route. It is the only way out of this palace, and it is a route that the monster will never discover.”
The chaotic red patterns on the passage suddenly flashed with a faint light. The stone wall began to rumble and then rose, revealing a rough earthen passage behind it.
“Follow this path straight ahead. At the end, there is a black hole teleportation device leading to the surface.”
He withdrew his hand, stepped onto the earthen passage with his mecha, then turned to look at a deep cave on the side of the passage and said softly, “And this passage directly connects to the monster’s true resting place. The mechanism is also in this passage. Once activated, the blood power integrated into the red patterns will be released, destroying all the teleportation fields and trapping the monster in this palace prison.”
Nan Suo had a mental lock, unable to commit suicide or kill Kang Cheng. All he could do was create a sharp blade to kill his beloved and wait for someone to come and use the blade. This underground palace was indeed filled with mechanisms, but Nan Suo had given future visitors a shortcut through the code.
What a painful process it must have been, watching his beloved fall and then meticulously planning to kill him.
Qiao Zhiya stood at the cave entrance, as if he could still see Nan Suo secretly digging this passage while enduring mental control, filled with sadness. A person who was originally kind had slowly come to the end of the road after loving the wrong person, never finding relief even in death.
“Fan Xiangnan and Lin Zhen are leading the soldiers out through the front passage.”
Chu Rong’s voice suddenly rang out, and then the light beside him dimmed. The tall black-gold mecha came over, retying the two mechas together with a silver net, and asked, “Shall we go in together?”
Qiao Zhiya came back to his senses, looking at the silver net connecting the two mechas. The sadness in his eyes gradually turned to tenderness as he nodded vigorously and replied, “Yes!”
This evil ordeal was finally coming to an end.
The two mechas stepped in one after the other. Lin Zhen and Fan Xiangnan, who had been ordered to leave, couldn’t help but step forward and call out, “Commander!”
Chu Rong stopped at the sound, turned his head to look, then waved his hand in a gesture to leave, heading into the passage without looking back. Qiao Zhiya also turned back to wave reassuringly at Lin Zhen and Fan Xiangnan before following the black-gold mecha.
The silhouettes of the two mechas quickly disappeared into the cave entrance. Lin Zhen came back to his senses first and sighed, “Let’s go. The passage is narrow, and we would only slow down the commander and the others. With Qiao’s parents also accompanying them, and four against one, they’ll be fine.”
Fan Xiangnan, upon hearing this, wiped his face and, regaining his composure, ordered, “Everyone, form up and prepare to evacuate!”
The further they went into the passage, the narrower it became. It was evident that the person who had dug the passage had grown increasingly weak towards the end and lacked the energy to ensure the passage remained wide and stable.
Mi Lai furrowed his brows, releasing his magic to carefully adjust the passage to a size suitable for mechas.
Halfway through, a stone slab appeared on the ground. It was neatly engraved with red patterns and had the words “Thank You” inscribed in the lingua franca.
Upon seeing those words, Qiao Zhiya couldn’t help but turn his head and take a deep breath, suppressing the overwhelming sadness welling up in his chest.
Others had only heard him tell a story, but he had seen Nan Suo’s journey in full—the endless pain, struggle, and hidden despairing love nearly took his breath away.
Qiao Yi comforted him by gently patting his head and extended his power into the red patterns on the stone slab.
Sensing the power infusion, the long-dormant red patterns began to glow. The stone slab suddenly cracked, revealing a small mechanism underneath. Chu Rong, standing at the front, bent down and pressed the mechanism. After a creaking sound of decay, the ground began to shake, and a distant rumble could be heard.
“No! What’s happening! Stop! Ah!”
The monster’s distant roar echoed, shockingly close to them. Mi Lai raised her hand to wipe her eyes, furrowed her brows, and coldly snorted. Her earth magic no longer controlled the surroundings but gathered and surged towards the source of the monster’s sound.
With a crash, the earth layer broke apart. The ground beneath them suddenly gave way. Chu Rong and Qiao Zhiya quickly lifted their mechas into the air and looked down.
Beneath the earth layer was a stone slab, which was slowly splitting open, revealing a huge pool filled with blood and a bloated figure moving frantically in the pool.
The monster looked up in disbelief and directly faced the mechanical face of the black-gold mecha above.
“No! Impossible!”
He widened his eyes in panic and desperately tried to sink into the blood pool.
Chu Rong had already drawn out a double-barrel gun, his spiritual power surging and condensing. Qiao Zhiya also took out his bow and arrow, drawing the bowstring and aiming. Qiao Yi and Mi Lai simultaneously released their magic, with deep brown and dark green magical flames starting to gather.
They had discovered the monster. Likely due to the mixed powers he had absorbed, he had lost all ability to face enemies directly, relying only on hiding and manipulating Zerg-like creatures. He was nothing more than a pest that could only play small tricks in the shadows!
The four immense forces surged together towards the monster in the blood pool with a destructive momentum.
“Roar—!”
Seeing this, the monster let out a frenzied roar. He no longer attempted to sink but instead burst out of the blood pool, spreading his eerie power and oozing blood as if trying to mobilize something.
“Kang Cheng, it’s useless.”
Qiao Zhiya spoke coldly, shooting an arrow, followed by another. The tips of the arrows glowed with golden light.
It had been so many years since anyone had called that name. The monster froze for a moment, vague memories flashing through his mind, quickly replaced by terror and madness — The control over his blood had failed! How could this be!
“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The four forces surged towards the monster as he froze, erupting in front of him. His eyes widened, and a surge of power exploded, turning his unwillingness and guilt into a burst of fiery light that illuminated the dark underground as if it were daylight.
Qiao Zhiya squinted as he let the bowstring snap.
“Whoosh—”
The golden arrow pierced straight through the monster’s exploded flesh in the blinding white light, shooting into the interior of the blood pool. There was a soft “shhhpt” sound as if it had hit something.
The turbulent blood pool settled down. The residual light from the explosion dissipated, and all the stone slabs visible began to shatter into powder, signaling the imminent collapse of the place.
“Let’s go.”
Chu Rong tugged at the silver net, not looking at the ground littered with splashes of blood and flesh, signaling Qiao Zhiya to leave.
Qiao Zhiya glanced at the now calm blood pool, nodded, and turned with Chu Rong. However, his ears perked up suddenly.
A faint sound of water was heard. Qiao Zhiya twitched his ears, spun around quickly, and readied his bow. Chu Rong also swiftly spread his spiritual power to block the strange force charging towards them.
The golden light flashed again as the arrow shot into a blood-red silhouette that had burst from the blood pool, piercing his chest.
“Ugh… No—” The blood figure’s eyes widened, his expression contorted with unwillingness and confusion.
Qiao Zhiya looked into the blood figure’s eyes, his power slightly shifting, and said, “Kang Cheng, Nan Suo loved you more than you imagined.”
‘—And hated you even more.’
The last line of the encrypted text read: [My lover is a cunning and timid person. If you must kill him, please kill him twice. I fear he would be scared alone in that dark underground.]
The arrow embedded in the blood figure’s chest suddenly exploded, creating a gaping hole that nearly hollowed out his torso. The blood figure convulsed once and then collapsed, eyes wide in bitterness, as his eerie power began to violently spread.
The stone slabs finally crumbled into dust, cascading down upon the blood figure as if piling up a grave.
Mi Lai couldn’t help but use her magic to finish it off, saying, “What exactly is this thing?”
“The real Kang Cheng, that monster was just a copy he used to wander outside,” Qiao Zhiya replied, expressionless.
He had suspected something when he realized the monster never fought them directly, and after seeing the blood pool, he was sure of it — there was another life signal within this blood pool.
“Let’s go. His released power is too mixed. It’s going to explode,” Chu Rong said with a frown, pulling the [Elf] closer.
Qiao Zhiya took one last look at the blood figure, now covered by stone dust and showing no more life signals, sheathed his bow, and turned to follow Chu Rong out.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
“Crash!”
The sounds of the underground palace collapsing and exploding echoed as the two mechas navigated through the falling debris in the tunnel and entered the rotating black hole at the end of the passage.
This was their first and last time voluntarily entering a black hole.
Darkness descended, and space began to twist. Chu Rong pulled the silver net to keep the [Elf] close, glanced at Mi Lai, who was protecting herself with earth-elemental magic, and, hearing Qiao Zhiya’s faint breathing in the mecha communication channel, said softly as a light appeared ahead, “Qiao, we can go home now.”
Qiao Zhiya, jolted back from wherever his thoughts had drifted, looked back at his father, who was gazing at him tenderly, and then toward the emerging light ahead. He responded softly, “Yes, we’re going home.”
With family and loved ones by his side, dawn had come, and it was indeed time to go home.
The author has something to say:
That’s all for the main story. The wrap-up and sweet moments are in the extras! Thank you to all the little angels for your continued support and encouragement, and for tolerating the various minor flaws in this story. I will keep working hard and strive to do even better in the future! Thank you [bows], love you all so much =3=
