Hui Tian Ch103

Chapter 103

Valkyrie

Looking in the direction of Bai Sheng’s gaze, the person talking to Shen Ruzhen was actually Witch Italdo!

But she looked nothing like the witch from 23 years later.

Her right half face, which was previously skeletal and covered in bulging blood vessels, was now perfectly intact. Her deep red curly hair hung down to her waist, metal armor covered her body, and numerous ancient and mysterious symbols extended from her cheek down her long, strong left arm. Two huge, heavily wrapped weapons were slung across her back, their specific shapes unclear, but even from a distance, one could vaguely feel a profound pressure.

Even though it was just a phantom of a spiritual body, she appeared like a beautiful yet fierce, battle-scarred Valkyrie.

“I am a warden from the depths of the universe.”

The witch’s deep red eyes calmly met Shen Ruzhen’s. Her consciousness, vast, deep, and desolate, directly manifested in Bai Sheng’s mind just outside the door.

“Billions of light years away, an unprecedented evolutionary war broke out on my home planet. The extreme evolved species that attempted to dominate the planet ultimately lost. Their physical bodies were destroyed, and their spirits were extracted and exiled into the vast universe. I was the only warden accompanying them on this journey.”

“My mission is to imprison their spirits in the cage of causality, ensuring their endless exile in space. But the long journey over countless years has weakened my soul, nearing its end, allowing the leader, the most powerful and dangerous criminal, to escape the cage and come to Earth. This is the spiritual entity 001 you humans have encountered.”

The researchers couldn’t receive her mental waves, so they could only see a series of translated texts displayed through the decoding system, reflecting in Shen Ruzhen’s astonished eyes.

“No matter what deal you humans have made with it, terminate it immediately, because the true purpose of the spiritual entity 001 is not to help humanity evolve but to turn Earth into a colony in the vast space, seeking human hosts for over ten thousand other criminal spirits to forcibly possess.”

“To achieve this, it will try to select the finest genes from humanity, and once human evolution begins, you will repeat our tragedy. Tens of thousands of years of civilization will be consumed by war, just as it happened in my homeland.”

The witch placed a hand on her chest and slightly bowed forward, offering a respectful apology:

“My life is nearing its end. I apologize for bringing this terrible criminal to Earth. As long as humanity cooperates, I will do my utmost to perish along with that criminal.”

“Once again, my sincerest apologies. Thank you.”

The surroundings fell into dead silence. Bai Sheng was stunned.

He rarely felt so shocked and astonished until Shen Ruzhen’s hoarse voice finally spoke, slightly unstable due to disbelief:

“But… why should humanity trust you?”

The witch extended her hand to Shen Ruzhen, invitingly opening her palm.

—Her spiritual body faithfully reflected her physical state, with horrifying scars crisscrossing her exposed skin, old wounds from many battles.

“I will show you what happened on my home planet back then. You will witness the horrific genocide until we finally turn the tide at great cost, reverting everything to before the evolution occurred.”

A faint glow of psychic energy appeared in her palm, reflecting in her eyes as deep and gloomy as blood: “If possible, I hope humanity does not repeat our past tragedy.”

Bai Sheng leaned forward, eager to know what the witch was about to show Shen Ruzhen. Just then, hurried footsteps sounded behind him. Two armed staff members approached quickly: “How did you sneak in again, kid?”

The entire experimental building was under real-time surveillance, especially the tightly guarded core area. As soon as little Shen Zhuo sneaked in, he was caught. The staff picked up the child, rubbed his confused head, and whispered while walking back, “He must be looking for his mom, right?” “What should we do? Send him back to the safe zone first?” “Let’s inform Professor Shen later…”

Bai Sheng kept looking back, but to no avail. He was taken out of the core area with little Shen Zhuo, returning to the safe zone and watching the child curl up on the bed.

Only then did the lingering astonishment resurface in his mind, reverberating in waves.

No wonder Shen Ruzhen and all the first-generation researchers suddenly decided to kill Rong Qi.

Previously, Bai Sheng had a vague feeling that something must have happened during Cameron’s absence from the lab, triggering all subsequent tragedies—he never expected that the trigger was the Witch Italdo from twenty-three years ago!

According to the witch, there were over ten thousand exiled criminals in her custody, which explains why Rong Qi used every means to push for human evolution. Based on the previous ratio of S-class individuals appearing among the evolved, roughly 5000:1 to 8000:1, at most 20,000 S-classes could emerge among a billion evolved humans, perfectly matching the over ten thousand spirits needing hosts.

Shen Zhuo had said before, if an evolutionary war broke out, the term “nation” would disappear from history, replaced by regions ruled by individual S-classes, with A-class evolutionists as subjects and the 7.8 billion people becoming blood bags and slaves—his prediction was entirely correct, except for one point.

By then, the rulers would not be S-classes but the over ten thousand spirits from extraterrestrial civilizations that had seized S-class bodies.

Rong Qi intended to turn Earth into his colonial kingdom through this method!

Bai Sheng sat by the bed, holding little Shen Zhuo in his arms and patting his thin back.

Then he suddenly remembered something unusual, a chill climbing from his bones to his mind:

Why did Cameron know nothing about the witch’s visit twenty-three years ago?

Cameron was currently away from the research institute, attending a meeting at the secret base in Washington. Shen Ruzhen had no reason to hide this crucial information from her eldest son, so the only explanation was that she didn’t have the time. Such vital secrets couldn’t be conveyed with a simple transoceanic call. Back then, confidential communications weren’t as convenient as now, requiring at least a day or two through multiple procedures.

In other words, the massacre of the first-generation HRG researchers didn’t happen recently but was happening now. Rong Qi’s bloodbath in the lab will occur at the latest by tomorrow!

Bai Sheng looked at little Shen Zhuo, the child’s lonely silhouette like a glass doll, quietly curled up in the dark.

…Why did mind reading bring me directly to the day before the massacre?

Because although the memory was buried, you had actually sensed something in your subconscious. You knew that the source of all tragedies happened at this moment, didn’t you?

The long night dragged on, the second hand ticking, the vast and quiet safe zone with a huge crescent moon slowly sinking to the west.

Little Shen Zhuo did not close his eyes all night.

He remained in that position, as if he had already sensed something in the void, his pupils reflecting endless emptiness.

Until the next evening, the alarm suddenly sounded outside the door without warning, abruptly breaking the silence, marking the beginning of a great change in fate.

Everything that happened next was exactly as Bai Sheng had seen before: Cameron, gravely injured by radiation, burst into the lab, witnessing the horrific scene of corpses strewn everywhere; Professor He Yin, on the verge of death, saved his stepson, giving him a gun with his last breath; then, Shen Ruzhen, possessed by the 001 spiritual entity, broke into the safe zone, covered in blood, completely lost her mind, and walked step by step towards the trembling little Shen Zhuo in the corner.

—Bang!

A gunshot rang out from behind, and the timely arrived Cameron shot his mother.

With a thud, Shen Ruzhen fell to her knees, blood continuously gushing from her mouth, her eyes reflecting her youngest son’s pale face for the last time before she fell forward.

Her blood-stained long hair brushed past her young son’s cheek, and in that instant, Bai Sheng finally heard her last words:

“Don’t…”

“…evolve.”

Little Shen Zhuo remained motionless, as if frozen.

Then, the 001 spiritual entity separated from Shen Ruzhen, using its last bit of energy to pounce at Shen Zhuo from mid-air!

Countless brainwaves roared, like a monstrous wave, overwhelming and deafening: “Let me inhabit the same body as you, and I will grant you the power of evolution—”

“…No…”

A voice squeezed out of little Shen Zhuo’s throat, which had long lost its ability to speak, then turned into a heart-wrenching scream: “Go away… go away!!”

The collision and annihilation of psychic powers burst into a magnificent unseen light, the torrents surged, akin to creation.

Accompanied by little Shen Zhuo’s extreme scream, the 001 spiritual entity shattered and dissipated, expelled from Earth.

In the void, Bai Sheng tightly embraced the blood-soaked Shen Zhuo, finally understanding why he had suffered such severe brain damage after this battle, even being deemed to never wake again.

It wasn’t just because of residual radiation, but more because his psychic power erupted so violently, exceeding his brain’s limits, that he experienced unimaginable extreme pain in just a few seconds.

He had actually paid the price of a lifetime back then.

Little Shen Zhuo fell beside his deceased mother, and then the memory scene plunged into a blank.

But Bai Sheng already knew all the details of this period.

The HRG laboratory massacre was a sensational event, with only two survivors hospitalized; little Shen Zhuo was diagnosed as a vegetative state, and Cameron received an invitation to the UN secret research base, heading to Washington.

Little Shen Zhuo was abandoned in the hospital, lonely and quiet.

Bai Sheng stayed with him, knowing that some unknown, crucial detail was yet to happen.

He didn’t have to wait long.

One night, the ward was submerged in darkness, only the faint monotonous beep of the life monitor breaking the silence. Bai Sheng gently patted little Shen Zhuo by the bedside when suddenly, dots of light appeared out of nowhere, gathering and forming a phantom in mid-air, emitting painful breaths—

It was the Witch Italdo!

The witch was severely injured, her right face completely disfigured, and her right side severely damaged, with skin and muscles dissolved, exposing blood-red bones. She had become the horrifying figure twenty-three years later, but her expression was solemn and calm, her deep red eyes fixed on the vegetative little Shen Zhuo.

“…I’m sorry,” her desolate and heavy consciousness waves echoed in the void, “I’m sorry…”

Little Shen Zhuo couldn’t give her any response, sitting motionless in the dark.

“It returned to the cage of causality, merging with the ten thousand other spirits, becoming incredibly powerful, forcibly breaking the shackles. I am no longer its match… everything is beyond salvation. The released source of evolution is rapidly approaching Earth, and in a few decades, it will descend from the sky…”

“I have truly fought to my limit, I truly cannot hold on any longer.”

The overwhelming sorrow drowned the senses like a tide. It took Bai Sheng a long time to realize that the witch was crying.

She extended her right hand, her trembling fingertips brushing against Shen Zhuo’s cold cheek.

“I no longer even have the ability to heal you now. The last resort to repair your genes, though it may not be the best future…”

Bai Sheng’s face changed instantly, realizing what her last resort was.

“Evolve.”

The witch slowly stood up, an extraterrestrial being from afar gazing at a disabled human child, her eyes filled with boundless sorrow.

“Become the first evolver on Earth, in the strongest form, to face the war and the future.”

Behind the witch were two crossed gigantic and peculiar weapons. She reached out and drew the one on the right, and as the layers of wrapping fell off, a stream of bluish light arcs cascaded, revealing a spear!

Energy burst forth like an explosion—magnificent and earth-shaking. The severely injured witch used her last bit of strength, gritting her teeth as she gripped the spear and pierced the child’s heart from above!

In the torrent of energy, Shen Zhuo leaned back, his dilated pupils instantly enlarging.

In the next moment, the spear transformed into dazzling light, completely enveloping his body.

The witch, exhausted, took half a step back, her eyes filled with sorrow and confusion.

“I will try my best to remember you all, to remember that there was once such a group of humans…”

“I leave it to you.”

She could no longer support herself, turning into countless points of light and disappearing into the void in an instant.

Little Shen Zhuo fell onto the hospital bed, his entire body surrounded by an invisible scorching energy, the expanded pupils flashing with a bright, eerie blue light—an energy very familiar to Bai Sheng.

It was the source of evolution.

The weapon left by the witch contained energy more immense than a meteorite. She intended to use it to repair Shen Zhuo’s damaged genes and even allow this young child to evolve in one go!

But why was Shen Zhuo still an ordinary person later on? Did the repair fail?

“…No…”

Bai Sheng looked at the hospital bed in astonishment, only to see little Shen Zhuo in the light, desperately curling his body and emitting choking gasps like he was on the verge of death.

That was the last instruction from his mother before she died, indelibly etched into his soul, even though he had forgotten everything. It was also the key to the 001 spiritual entity’s defeat—

“Do not evolve…!”

The vast energy abruptly contracted, condensing into a brilliant point of light, deeply embedding itself into Shen Zhuo’s pupil, then disappearing.

Evolution was forcibly paused due to the host’s rejection.

Little Shen Zhuo curled tightly on the hospital bed, gasping silently, his body still convulsing. Bai Sheng knelt beside him, watching his vacant, wide-open eyes, then tightly embraced the small, sweat-soaked body from mid-air.

After a long while, he heard the child in his arms let out a trembling sob.

·

Time passed, and years flew by.

Three years later, the brain-dead Shen Zhuo miraculously woke up and was discharged from the hospital.

No one knew that a weapon from an extraterrestrial civilization was hidden deep within his soul, its energy healing his damaged genes but showing no sign of any abilities in this child.

Shen Zhuo became a spitting image of Shen Ruzhen in her youth. At eighteen, he earned his first doctorate and began teaching at the Central Research Institute as the second-generation HRG plan gradually took shape. Later, he went abroad for further study, and just before his return, a rare meteor shower suddenly occurred.

The source of evolution, traversing the vast universe, finally arrived on Earth.

On the night the meteorite fell, Shen Zhuo was camping in the mountains with several professors. The bonfire crackled behind them, and the sounds of colleagues adjusting observation instruments and chatting filled the air. Shen Zhuo was pitching a tent and, as he stood up, he saw a meteor streaking across the distant night sky, landing in the nearby mountains.

As if in response to some ancient power, the nerve endings tingled, and an inexplicable impulse surged up his spine.

Evolve, a deep voice echoed from his soul.

Evolve with the most formidable posture, to face war and the future.

Shen Zhuo’s mind went blank, staring at the vast night sky, taking an involuntary step forward.

But just as the energy within him was about to break free, another instinct, etched into his bones and blood, surged up, suppressing the impulse instantly—

Do not evolve.

The tragedy buried deep in his memory and the pain long forgotten turned into a bloody wind that swept through time, brushing past his ears.

Absolutely do not evolve.

“Professor Shen!” a colleague called out loudly from not far away. “The meteor shower has started!”

Shen Zhuo snapped back to reality, startled.

…What was I doing just now—daydreaming?

He shook his head self-mockingly, turning from the grassy field under the starry sky and walking toward the crowd.

In the distance behind Shen Zhuo, the first wave of the global evolution-triggering meteor shower erupted, lighting up the night sky.

·

“Cough, cough, cough—”

In the Supervision Office of Shenhai City, Shen Zhuo suddenly choked, bending over in his armchair.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Bai Sheng stood up and firmly pressed his hand on Shen Zhuo’s nape, patting his back repeatedly. “It’s over, it’s okay…”

The dizziness from abruptly leaving the mental world overwhelmed him. Shen Zhuo took a sip of water from Bai Sheng’s hand, finally catching his breath, and grabbed Bai Sheng’s sleeve. “Get the Witch Italdo here.”

Bai Sheng: “I know, I know…”

Shen Zhuo clutched his heart tightly, the spot where the witch had once stabbed him with a spear, still faintly aching in reality, as he experienced for the first time in his life what it meant to be utterly bewildered:

“She stabbed me with a spear without a word and then just left? Couldn’t she at least hit an emergency button? What if I had just died on the spot?”

“What exactly is that spear? Don’t tell me she has forgotten it. Is it still stuck in my body and hasn’t been pulled out yet?!”

____________

Author’s Note:

Witch: What? Human children will die just from being casually stabbed?!

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