Exclusive Possession – CH 065

Chapter 65.

When did the universe fall into darkness?

Did it begin with the Stan race, known as the “Cosmic Predators,” launching their first expedition to the Magellanic Clouds? Or did it begin with the Time Race, who guarded time, being forced to wander the vast universe?

“No, Hua Yao. It started thirty million years ago,” her sister said. “It started on the day the ‘Radiant King’ in history—a prince named Nuo’er of Stan—used his spiritual power to change the orbit of a planet.”

“Why?” I asked, staring blankly at the muddy, gloomy universe outside the spaceship. “I’ve read his biography; back then, the universe was bright. And didn’t he die on that very day?”

The greatest and shortest-lived prince in the history of the Stan Empire.

My sister, dressed in a military uniform, turned to look at me. The faint starlight illuminated her tired yet beautiful face. No matter what happened, she always seemed so pure and strong, forever protecting our people and me.

“He died because his body exploded due to carrying too much energy. But in his dying moments, he accidentally unleashed the potential of 3,400 psychics on Stan. The era of superpowers had begun. And it was from that time that the Milky Way began to go out of balance.”

I remained silent. The small copy of “The Biography of the Radiant King” in my trousers pocket, with its cold, hard edges, felt like a shard of stone rubbing against my palm. I recalled the only blurry photograph in the biography: a fair-skinned, handsome young man in a rigid military uniform, looking arrogant and aloof.

I’ve read about that period of history.

Although the Radiant King sacrificed himself to give his race a new lease on life, a hundred years later, their star exploded for the second time on a massive scale, and Stan was thrown out of the star system. From then on, the planet’s surface had no light or temperature, becoming a dead planet that wandered in darkness for thousands of years.

No one knew how the Stan people survived those harsh, frigid millennia. Perhaps they lived underground; perhaps they lived in wrecked spaceships. Until Stan finally drifted to the side of another star, regaining light and heat, this race, this planet, rose again.

This time, however, they were no longer the wise and peaceful race they once were; they were “cosmic predators,” the cruel and warlike Neo-Stan race.

A race nearly destitute, yet possessing a spiritual power that surpassed all others in the universe. Long years of darkness had conditioned them to slaughter, stripping them of their humanity. They lived by conquest and plunder, their spoils being blood and lives. Over hundreds of years, planet after planet had fallen, race after race had submitted, and their fleets had conquered every corner of the galaxy.

But what they brought was more than just war.

“Hua Yao, the energy of the universe is conserved.” My sister once sighed and said, “The spiritual power of the Stan people isn’t water without a source; it comes from the mass of the universe.”

I remained silent.

Such a simple law: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Yet, at the time, no one noticed that after the rise of the Neo-Stan race, natural disasters began to intensify. More and more celestial bodies experienced mass collapse, and massive black holes accelerated their formation. The stronger their spiritual energy, the less mass the universe possessed.

Later, scientists realized this connection. But it was too late; resources were dwindling, and the war was escalating.

The Milky Way was destroyed by a black hole storm five hundred years ago. A month ago, the Pillar of Time also collapsed, turning into a desolate expanse of dust.

We had no way out but to fight.

Perhaps even the Stan people had no way out.

My sister straightened her military uniform and the laser pistol at her waist; it seemed she was preparing to leave. I couldn’t help but step forward and hug her arm: “Sister, take me with you. I can fight.”

The older sister gave a gentle smile: “You are still a child.”

“I’m already fourteen years old,” I said. “And my mental strength is stronger than my brothers’; I’m no less than the Stans.”

My sister frowned again; she hated it when I mentioned mental power.

“Hasn’t the spiritual power of the Stan race brought enough disaster to the universe?” Her tone was somewhat cold. “Hua Yao, never be proud of this.”

I could only stand on the spaceship, in a dark and hidden corner of the nebula, watching the fleet depart. It was the first day of the new year, 542, the 542nd year since the destruction of the Milky Way.

That day, my older sister, Major General Hua Ling, left home with our four older brothers.

On that day, the vanguard of the Stan army had already reached ten light-years outside the Magellanic Cloud, where our Time Clan resided.

On that day, the coalition of more than twenty surviving races in the galaxy declared war on the invading forces of Stan.

By the end of that year, the Allied forces had suffered more than two million casualties, and the Magellan Cloud had fallen.

***

When spring came, the king summoned me.

King of the Time Clan, His Majesty the Great Compassionate One.

“We have a plan,” he said. “Maybe it can change everything.”

As he spoke, I looked out the window at the murky space through his tall and lonely figure; there were no stars and no life.

He said “we.”

But now, did “we” refer to the last few dozen survivors of the Time Clan, a lone spaceship?

After our defeat, we were forced to flee from the Stan forces and eventually had to hide on an asteroid filled with deadly sulfur to escape our pursuit.

“Do we really have to do this?” I turned my gaze away from the window.

He gazed intently at me.

I suppressed the deep, deep sadness in my heart.

“Our clan precepts say that we aren’t the controllers of time, but merely its guardians and observers. Therefore, we must never do anything to change history; otherwise, it will cause unpredictable consequences,” I said slowly. “My sister also said that this is why only a very small number of people in our race have the ability to travel through time. And this ability is also limited.”

After I finished speaking, His Majesty Gu Min remained silent for a long time, tears welling up in his eyes but then disappearing.

“You are right,” he said with a wry smile, “but we’ve run out of options.”

There was no way to bear watching his compatriots die in battle;

There was no way to stand by and watch the universe head towards destruction.

It was something we could only try our best at.

***

The next month was very busy. Following the clan’s plan, I set the time for the journey, entered my disguised identity, and configured the energy trigger mechanism…

But whenever I took out that biography and looked at that handsome yet blurry photo in military uniform, I always felt lost. I truly hated the Stan people to the core; I wished I could kill them all, and I wished my sacrifice could wipe out their entire race!

But that would require going back 30 million years.

At that time, the Milky Way must have been radiant, life flourishing, and free from war and displacement. That man was a prince living in the sunlight, a hero of his era. He dedicated his short twenty-six years of life entirely to his race, without a single stain on his reputation.

“He was destined to die on that day anyway.” As if reading my mind, His Majesty Gu Min said, “All you have to do is bring his death a little earlier. Kill him before he awakens the potential of other spiritual beings.”

“Does it have to be on that day?” I asked.

“It has to be on that day,” Wang replied. “According to historical records, their mental powers will be interconnected in a network. If you kill him at that time, all the other mental power users will also die. This is the only way to ensure that the superpowered era won’t arrive and the universe won’t become unbalanced.”

“Then…” I asked, “Will Stan Star still perish?”

“Yes. You can’t bear to do it?”

“No,” I replied, “the extinction of one race in exchange for the survival of the entire universe—it must be done.”

***

The night before departure, the weather was gloomy. Wang and I stood on the beach, listening to the dark tide lapping against the shore. He wore a white robe and the last golden belt of the Time Royal Family, his long, black hair cascading over his shoulders like silk.

His back view looked so lonely and old, not at all like a 28-year-old man.

“Do you know, Hua Yao?” he said softly, “I miss Hua Ling so much.”

My tears immediately fell.

Major General Hua Ling, my dear sister, was the youngest Major General of the Time Clan and the King’s fiancée. She was the person I admired most.

She, her father, her brothers, and 200,000 members of the Time Clan all perished in the winter.

“If possible, please bring her back to me, okay?” the King said absentmindedly.

My eyes filled with tears: “I will bring them all back.”

Just then, a terrible scene unfolded. It was a nightmarish scene that I would never forget.

A flash of silver light appeared before us, and suddenly, a fighter jet appeared.

A gray-black, wrecked fighter jet, billowing thick smoke, tore a slit in the sky and suddenly emerged. When we saw who was inside, we were all stunned.

It was my older sister! It was actually my older sister!

It was my sister who died in battle three months ago!

“Gu Min! Hua Yao!” she shouted at us. Her spacesuit was covered in blood. Her once beautiful face was now ashen and haggard, and her body was like a wounded animal, weak and stiff as she supported herself in the cockpit.

Gu Min and I instantly went crazy. We frantically shouted her name and frantically channeled our mental energy towards her!

However, we only saw her for a moment, a very short moment.

The next instant, we saw a powerful, terrifying blue light flash across the landscape, engulfing the entire coastline. My sister’s eyes widened, and she let out an angry, hysterical roar, despair rising in her eyes.

The powerful blue light instantly coalesced into a ball, like a jagged monster opening its blood-red maw. The sister’s white spiritual energy appeared so weak in the blue light, and her fighter jet was suddenly pulled back into the crack in the air by the blue light.

“No!” Gu Min and I screamed simultaneously, unleashing our mental energy to strike at the blue light! However, the blue light was so powerful and terrifying that at the moment of impact, I vaguely saw many faces, many strange men with gloomy and indifferent faces—the faces of the Stan Predators! This was their mental energy light!

A sudden burst of blue light erupted, and Gu Min and I were violently thrown backward by the shockwave! I watched in despair as the blue light flashed and disappeared, as blood stained the blue light, and my sister’s limbs were gradually devoured by the blue light, her beautiful face becoming abnormally ferocious and painful… Then there was nothing in the sky, nothing at all.

The waves gently washed over my body. I lay on the cold sand, my tears long since dried, when suddenly it dawned on me—it was three months ago!

In the final battle, the sister who fought to the last man finally succumbed to her fate and opened a rift in spacetime. She wanted to escape, to travel to a few months in the future, to return to Gu Min and me, and continue to protect our people.

However, when she was traveling through time, the predators used their mental power to stop her, pulling her back to the battlefield with a shockwave powerful enough to vaporize all matter, ultimately annihilating her.

She died three months ago, but she just died just now, right in front of me.

Even a race that held the secrets of time couldn’t withstand Stan’s iron hooves. Nuo’er, could they withstand superhuman mental power? I stumbled to my feet and saw the King standing blankly on the shore, his back hunched, his hair disheveled, like every man who had lost his lover, so desperate, so dejected.

His voice, a heart-wrenching sound like a death knell, drifted gently on the waves:

“I watched the Milky Way fall before me, and watched the Pillar of Time be swept into the vortex of time;

“The brilliance of life was forever shrouded in darkness; suffering, like a swamp, swallowed up endless years.

“Hua Yao, swear to me in the name of time, you will kill him; you will kill the Radiant King.

“Let buried names see the light of day again; let abandoned times begin to turn back in time.”

That day was both the end of the world and a new beginning.

I knelt on the shore with tears in my eyes, kneeling deeply behind the king, kneeling in the direction where my sister disappeared.

“I swear in the name of Time, I will kill Nuo’er; I will kill the Radiant King. He will die on that day, at that time, before his psychic powers erupt. The superpowered era won’t come, the universe won’t be out of balance, and the galaxy won’t be destroyed. They… won’t die.”

…

“Don’t scare me; what’s wrong? Don’t cry!” An anxious voice rang in my ears, and I snapped back to reality.

The sky remained overcast, and the dense array of warships continued to surround us. Amidst the watchful eyes of the crowd, Mu Xian still stood atop that ugly and ridiculous jade mountain, now transformed into a ball of light, from which nothing could be seen.

Tears were still streaming silently down my face. My heart felt like it had been crushed by sharp stones, leaving it bloody and aching beyond repair.

Sister, King, I had truly succeeded in getting close to him, and this day had truly come.

But he was already my husband, the person I love most; he was my life.

And now I realized that history had already decreed that he would die today.

What I had to do, what I absolutely had to do, was to hasten his death.

“Take me downstairs.” I turned to look at Morin and heard my own voice, hoarse and almost breaking.

“Why…why?” Morin stared at me blankly, his voice trembling.

“Get down! Get down now!” I roared, scalding tears stinging my eyes again. “He will die if we are any later! He will die! Die in the mental explosion!”