Book 5, Chapter 17 - Immortal

Love Code at the End of the World

"If Nora's going missing is related to His Highness Cang Yu,  hmm ..." Haggs narrowed his eyes and rested his chin on his right hand. "It’ll be very difficult to search for clues to find her."

"She might very possibly be imprisoned.” Raffles thought seriously. "Today, she came to ask for help from Luo Bing."

"If she was imprisoned, that’s all the more reason why we shouldn't rescue her." Haggs was against the idea of saving Nora. He looked even more cunning with his fox-like eyes. "Because His Highness Cang Yu is the one who imprisoned her. Taking all angles into consideration, we can’t afford to become His Highness Cang Yu's enemy. We can't step on the path to sure failure of the entire plan because of one small factor."

I realized that Haggs was more rational. To be more direct, he was cruel. No wonder he’d said that he was willing to carry on the experiment while Raffles could be in charge of loving me.

Raffles looked worried. "Is that okay? Can we really just idly sit by without lending a helping hand?" Raffles was the more emotional one. He had emotions, he was kinder and softer.

"Humph." Haggs chuckled lightly and squinted his eyes at Raffles. "Who knows? Nora might be an artificial human too."

Raffles was stunned.

Haggs shrugged. "His Highness made Nora, played with Nora, then destroyed Nora. It was merely the process of creating an experiment, using the experiment and destroying the experiment afterwards."

"Nora is a human!" I couldn't stand the way Haggs talked.

Haggs gazed at me smilingly. "But, Lil Bing, you’ve already suspected whether most of the people in Silver Moon City are man-made. Haven’t you?"

I didn't want to admit it but the idea had come to my mind.

Haggs slowly widened his slanted eyes, seemingly helpless. "Lil Bing, I know that you hate us experimenting with making humans. But this is the end of the world. Only through this method, can we efficiently create people with stronger superpowers..."

"Haggs!" Raffles cut him off loudly. Haggs shrugged. "Since His Highness Cang Yu made Nora disappear, I think it's best not to look for her. Now, Nora is still alive. If we were to try and look for her, we might end up actually harming her." Having said his piece, Haggs vanished from the room with a smile. Raffles was left alone in the room in brooding silence.

I thought that what Haggs had said made sense too. Sometimes, it wasn't a good thing to be overly concerned.

Silver Moon City had too many secrets. There was a saying, curiosity killed the cat. I had best not kill Nora like that.

"In order to ensure Nora's safety, we have to keep this a secret for now. We have to find a way that Cang Yu wouldn't notice." I looked at Raffles and he nodded in agreement, then said, "If Nora has used her superpower today, since her superpower is formed through brain waves, the brain waves would leave traces around the place she used it. We can follow that to the source to find her."

Raffles’s words gave me hope again.

"However, it has been too long since then. The brain waves would be gone by now. We need to wait for the next time when she uses her superpower." Raffles looked at me solemnly. "But I’ll need to build a brain wave tracker by then. I hope there's a next time."

Yeah, there might not be a next time. Did Nora appear today to ask for help or was she trying to warn me about something? Regardless, we have to wait until Raffles build the tracker.

A few days later, the snowstorm above Valley Dust Ruin dispersed. I couldn't wait any longer to go to Valley Dust Ruin to get more spirit flowers.

Raffles was excited too because he’d heard about me and Jun. He wanted to meet Jun, Zong Ben and the other artists in Valley Dust Ruin too.

However, we would need to get Cang Yu's permission before we could leave Silver Moon City.

When I walked to His Highness Cang Yu's library, I intentionally walked past the place where Nora's phantom had appeared before. I even stopped for a while but still nothing happened.

If it wasn't because I was familiar with Nora's superpower and had experienced it personally, I would have thought that I’d run into a ghost.

Arriving before His Highness Cang Yu's library, I paused for a short while.

In the past, I had admired Cang Yu in the way a girl would go crazy for her favorite celebrity. I’d admired everything about Cang Yu. His casual manner, his elegant movement, his steady calm, his knowledgeable self and his gentlemanly bearing - all of it had charmed me.

Now, after Xing Chuan's constant reminder, I’d begun to avoid His Highness who looked even more luxurious than Xing Chuan.

Walking into the library, I was enveloped by the scent of flowers. The flowers were blooming so luxuriantly that people would be easily carried away by the scenery.

The same old place filled with the fragrance of floral tea. There was hot tea on the table but Cang Yu wasn't seated on the sofa. He’d probably gone to pick another book.

I walked before the table and stopped. Cang Yu didn't like people wandering aimlessly around his library so I waited for him there.

"Come in, Luo Bing." Cang Yu's voice resounded from the depths of the bookshelves.

"Yes." I walked towards the voice. Suddenly, the ground covered in plants opened up before me, revealing crystal stairs that spiraled downwards. 

I began to walk down the stairs. With every single footstep I took, beautiful flowers appeared on the crystal stairs. It was as though I was walking down on a path of flowers.

At the bottom, an even larger library came into sight. Just how many books were there?

This was a world that had technology far more advanced than where I’d come from but Cang Yu still preferred to collect paper books.

I glimpsed Cang Yu was standing in between the shelves, a thick book in his hands.

He was wearing an ancient-looking long robe with faint purple prints. His clothes were cut in what would be the oriental style back in my world. The slim cut and exquisite sleeves made a man appear well-built yet elegant.

An oriental outfit suited the regal elegance of an Asian man the most.

I walked up behind him. "Your Highness Cang Yu, I'd like to go to Valley Dust Ruin to pick a spirit flower."

He didn't nod nor shake his head, but took another book from the shelf by the side. "Raffles’ personality still split in the end."

Cang Yu knew.

Yeah. It wasn't a secret that Raffles’ personality had split, and Raffles hadn’t tried to hide it either.

"Yeah, the other one is named Haggs because Raffles worships Professor Hagrid Jones."

Cang Yu closed the book and turned to smile at me. "Raffles admires Hagrid Jones?"

"Yes, he does. Once we found a basement lab during a mission. I found Hagrid Jones' notebook there."

Cang Yu shifted his gaze to the side, deep in his thoughts. "Basement lab."

"Raffles has been carrying the notebook with him ever since," I continued.

"Could it be the 311 lab?" Cang Yu muttered softly, seeming as if he’d come back to the present reality from a far away time.

"311?"

Cang Yu nodded. "I remember that the information in the lab should have been destroyed. All that was left was some failed experiments."

There were no emotions in Cang Yu's comment. If I hadn’t seen the experiments that he’d mentioned in person, I would have thought that the experiments were merely ordinary cans and bottles of chemicals.

However, the experiments that Cang Yu had talked about were all humans! They were humans that had gone through genetic modifications!

Cang Yu didn't care much, only lowering his face to read again. "Those were experiments of the earliest genetic modification but they failed," he said calmly as though he was used to human experiments. "Because Hagrid Jones never expected that human genetic mutation required stimulation of a huge amount of energy. To complete the mutation and human evolution, a huge amount of energy was needed," he said as he read. 

I stared at him blankly. Wasn't human evolution something that Hagrid Jones was crazy about?

Cang Yu lifted his face and smiled at me. "Yes, it is something Hagrid Jones had been pursuing. Humans have already mastered the coding of creating lives. The scientists, of course, want to pursue something even higher. Creating lives can no longer satisfy them. They are hoping for humans to evolve and surpass God."

"Surpass God?"

Cang Yu lifted the book and flipped it before me. "To receive God's strength."

I glanced at the page in front of me. It was just like the legends in my world that recorded the various Gods and their powers. Looking at their powers, weren't those the superpowers that the metahumans possessed now? 

Controlling nature, summoning rainstorms, changing shapes, teleportation, sudden appearance, these superpowers had already appeared in the current era!

Cang Yu smiled and looked at his book again. "The next step is for them to achieve immortality."

"Immortality."

"In actual fact, it is to prevent cells from degenerating," Cang Yu said lightly. "If we were to view cells as a container to store energy, degeneration is caused by the decrease of energy within. Hence, we have to constantly consume more. If that happens, the cells will be effectively immortal." He put the book away and turned to give me a smile. "Luo Bing, your superpower is to take in blue crystal energy. Hence, I have reasons to believe that you have already achieved immortality as long as there is still blue crystal energy in this world."

I stared at him in shock. Somehow, I felt a sudden fear. I was afraid of His Highness Cang Yu in front of me.

The way he commented about human experiments, human evolution, surpassing God and receiving Godly power, and also becoming immortal, his words struck fear in me!

Haggs and Raffles had suspected Cang Yu's superpower was some sort of consumption. Why did I suddenly feel terrified? I felt like I’d become Cang Yu's food. Was he preparing to consume me after I’d taken in enough blue crystal energy so that he could achieve immortality as he had mentioned?!

"What's wrong?" Cang Yu glanced at me with concern. "Did I scare you?"

I quickly retracted my gaze. "No, no, no. I got scared of myself. You said that I could continuously take in blue crystal energy. I, I got afraid that I might explode."

"Hahahaha..." He burst out in laughter. Suddenly he extended his hand to cup my face. "You are such a cute child. No wonder Little Chuan is so crazy about you."

Little Chuan? This was the first time I’d heard Cang Yu call Xing Chuan so intimately.

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