Chapter 133: White Shell, Black Heart
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
The Spiritual Monarch’s expression paused briefly, as if in thought. “Fortunately, back before everyone entered the Spirit Realm field, there was some resentment toward those who left. But now, those feelings have faded.” It reached out to grab a few rabbit-cats’ ears. One rabbit-cat turned and bit their finger. “They’re still human, but I’m no longer fully human. The way I experience the world and my thoughts have changed.”
“What about the bodies left behind in the base…?”
“Oh, those were accidents.”
“Accidents?”
“Not entirely. The original goal of the Spirit Realm project was to upload consciousness until the technology and resources could support human communities living normally, then return to the physical body. The incubation pods in the base had a design lifespan of a thousand years. But after staying too long in the Spirit Realm field, people no longer wanted to return to human form. The pods were left unattended, with no energy or power to maintain them. The preserved bodies all died and became corpses—until you discovered the base’s existence.”
“The explosions and meteorite attacks… those were your doing too.”
“Yes. I only wanted to protect the privacy of the remaining bodies. I had no intent to attack. I calculated the meteorite trajectories to ensure no casualties in the human fleet.”
Lin Xu looked at the Spiritual Monarch’s calm expression and found himself momentarily speechless. What could he say about three thousand years of history?
After a pause, he finally asked, “You don’t want to become human again?”
The Spiritual Monarch smiled. “Lin Xu, I still remember you said, ‘We must have the courage to face humanity’s downfall.’ When the new base humans made that courageous decision, stepping forward meant I would no longer want to return to human form—no matter whether there was a way back or not.”
“You asked why I don’t hate the Ark Fleet. Those left behind resented those who left, out of fear, deprivation, and abandonment. But when I received courage from you to face it, once fear was overcome, hatred had no place.”
Death and nothingness were just one of many possible futures for the Spiritual Monarch. All possibilities were equal—without fear or resistance. It simply acted and chose according to their own thoughts.
“Then why did you come here?” Lin Xu asked. “Why bring me into the Spirit Realm?”
“I came to play. I didn’t expect to see you again, so I wanted to talk to you.” The Spiritual Monarch said, “Or perhaps it’s easier for you to understand if I say ‘we.’ When you single-handedly saved the base back then, we realized you were right. We revere you and feel guilty toward you.”
– –
Heinrich woke up to the sight of a massive dragon’s head. Startled, he jumped up and nearly punched the dragon. A palm blocked his fist. “Hein, what are you doing? Don’t you recognize your dad?”
Heinrich narrowed his eyes coldly and retracted his hand, stepping back defensively. “Who are you?”
The dragon snorted angrily at the question. Chu Suifeng raised an eyebrow. “I’m your mom, and he’s your dad.”
Heinrich frowned deeply, clearly unconvinced. Chu Suifeng didn’t understand how her once lively son had become such an icy, stubborn iceberg. She had to use a trump card. “I still remember when you couldn’t win a fight against other dragon cubs on Dragon Star and cried for three or four hours.”
Heinrich’s expression softened briefly. What had happened on Dragon Star was something no one else in the Imperial knew.
“You’re…” His expression grew complicated.
“Really your parents.” Chu Suifeng said as the dragon nudged Heinrich with his head. Heinrich’s upper body swayed, but his legs didn’t move. Andreas hadn’t expected that when he used to play like this with Heinz, he would knock him down flat on his butt. Now that Heinz was grown, the old tricks no longer worked.
“Mom?” Heinrich said in disbelief, his brow furrowing deeper, shadows darkening his eyes so that they were hard to read. “Dad?”
Chu Suifeng stroked the dragon’s neck and finally sighed in relief with a smile. “My Hein.”
“What are you doing here?”
“This is the Spiritual Monarch’s Spirit Realm field,” Chu Suifeng said. “Back then, when Andreas and I were near death in battle, the Spiritual Monarch happened to pass through the battlefield on their way to Thales. It rescued our consciousnesses and placed them into the Spirit Realm field, making us part of itself.”
So that was why Heinrich had seen a fleeting glimpse of the base’s emblem in his near-death memories aboard Blizzard. Although his parents were still alive, the words made Heinrich frown. “What does it mean to become part of it?” It sounded like some kind of sinister experiment.
“To become part of the Spiritual Monarch’s collective consciousness—this is how it exists,” Chu Suifeng explained. “Though only the Spiritual Monarch’s form can appear in normal spacetime, we can all live our lives within the Spirit Realm field. We share consciousness and action with all the others. Just now, we saw your child with Lin Xu. It’s really adorable.”
Heinrich froze. If he had never imagined having a child of his own before, Yuanxiao’s arrival was a complete surprise. And even more unimaginable was letting his deceased parents meet their grandchild. Yet, in this moment, both impossibilities were happening.
“They’re called Yuanxiao.”
“White shell, black heart—definitely like a Yuanxiao,” Chu Suifeng nodded in agreement.
Chu Suifeng shouldn’t have known what Yuanxiao meant, so how… Heinrich realized that since they shared a collective consciousness, they could learn about Yuanxiao from other ancient Earth consciousnesses.
“Lin Xu… he…”
“He’s good,” Chu Suifeng said. “I know that everyone in the Spirit Realm field loves him. You being with him is purely your good luck.”
Heinrich wanted to say otherwise, because Lin Xu loved him too; it wasn’t just one-sided luck that brought him Lin Xu. But… Yes, he was indeed very lucky. Still, what did it mean that everyone in the Spirit Realm loved him? And what did the Spiritual Monarch mean when it said it was Lin Xu before he fell unconscious?
“Spiritual Monarch…”
“I know what you want to ask. The Spiritual Monarch is chatting with Lin Xu now. You can go back and listen to Lin Xu tell you,” Chu Suifeng said, stepping closer. She lightly touched the epaulet on Heinrich’s military uniform, then gently and carefully stroked his ear and temple. When Chu Suifeng died in battle, Heinrich was just a boy about her height. Now, the child was a full head taller, and she needed to look up to his golden eyes.
“Tell me your story.” Chu Suifeng was a warrior, and a mother.
The once-young boy now donned the same military uniform as his mother, bearing the rank of general, inheriting her unfinished legacy, fighting fiercely on the battlefield. His youthful face had hardened into a sharp, mature frost. Chu Suifeng had been through it all, so she knew it wasn’t as easy as words made it sound. “After we left, the universe gave you a lot of hardships, didn’t it?”
Under his mother’s gaze, all the doubts in Heinrich’s heart seemed like glaciers breaking apart in an instant. “Mom…”
– –
After the Spiritual Monarch sent Lin Xu’s consciousness out of the Spirit Realm field, it manifested their form in the real world as well. Under Lin Xu’s watchful gaze, it floated over to Yuanxiao’s nest and gently straightened the pitifully large white egg. Through the hollow, a pair of tearful blue eyes stared out at the two of them with a deep sense of grievance.
“Baby, be good. It’s my fault, it’s my fault,” Lin Xu said repeatedly, watching the Spiritual Monarch apologize again and again. Then he reached a finger toward the hollow. A drop of golden energy gathered at his fingertip, and Yuanxiao quickly moved up to the opening, stretching out their pink little tongue to lick the sweet nourishment.
“That’s my child,” Lin Xu reminded him. The Spiritual Monarch looked at him innocently. “I know.”
Lin Xu was momentarily speechless. Then he noticed Heinrich, still lying to the side, unconscious. “Is Heinrich with you too?”
The Spiritual Monarch answered casually, “He’s still catching up with his mother. Let him stay a while longer.”
“Chu Suifeng?” Lin Xu was surprised.
“Thirty years ago, I saved his parents on the battlefield and brought their consciousness into the Spirit Realm.”
Inside the large white egg, a well-fed Yuanxiao rubbed their face and eyes with their paws, preparing to fall asleep. The Spiritual Monarch ceremoniously covered it with a seaweed blanket, then asked Lin Xu, “I’ll leave soon. You don’t need to keep staring at me. I’m not going to kidnap your child.”
“I just want to ask—do you want to learn any technology? I can teach you now.”
Lin Xu raised an eyebrow, suddenly thinking of a question. “You left the Ark Fleet back then—was it because of human infighting, or did someone want to control you to steal technology?”
“Mainly because of Alfred. You know, he was a bit annoying.”
So it was both—the plotting behind both events involved Alfred.
“My math isn’t good. I can’t learn much.”
The Spiritual Monarch leaned closer. “Not bad at all. I taught you quite a bit of physics and math in your dreams before. That’s enough.”
“You were the one giving me physics problems in my dreams?”
The Spiritual Monarch nodded and sighed. “Too bad you weren’t paying attention.”
Lin Xu thought about it. When he studied in his room, he often distractedly dragged Heinrich onto the bed halfway through. He coughed awkwardly. Who normally needed to cough while communicating in the mental domain?
The Spiritual Monarch understood and didn’t mention the embarrassing thing again. Instead, it sent several formulas into Lin Xu’s mental domain.
“These are my years of research on spacetime problems. You can look at them when you have time,” the Spiritual Monarch said regretfully. “I originated from human civilization, so my approach to studying the universe relies mainly on mathematics. But math isn’t a universal language throughout the cosmos. In the end, it can only communicate with human civilization.”
Lin Xu stared at the formulas, unable to understand them for now. He stored them in his mental palace for future study. After coaxing Yuanxiao to sleep by rocking the egg, the Spiritual Monarch departed. Heinrich also woke up soon after.
Back in the real world, a trace of confusion still lingered on Heinrich’s face. He took a moment to react, then swam over to Yuanxiao and Lin Xu. After confirming the father and son were safe, he asked about the Spirit Realm. Lin Xu told him it wasn’t a hallucination and recounted every detail of his conversation with the Spiritual Monarch.
“After two more days, we should head back to Crescent District,” Lin Xu said.
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