Exclusive Possession – CH 068

Chapter 68.

“Single-sided or double-sided? Which do you prefer?”

I poured the oil into the plate, held the eggs in my hand, and looked back.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the large, white bed and making the warm-colored room feel fresh and comfortable. He lay on the bed, a thin blanket draped gently around his waist, his deep eyes gazing quietly at me from his fair, jade-like face.

“I want to eat you.” A faint voice.

I chuckled and continued focusing on frying the eggs. I heard light footsteps behind me, and then a tight embrace around my waist; his warm body enveloped me. I shuddered, dropped what I was holding, turned around, and hugged him passionately, kissing him intensely.

“Why are you crying?” Sharp black eyes stared at me from close range.

I smiled slightly, my vision a little blurry: “I cried because I was happy.”

He seemed a little impatient, his dark eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he held me tightly to his chest: “I don’t like seeing you cry.”

“Hmm…then you should comfort me.”

“Will not.”

“Then call me…wife.”

“Wife.”

“Husband…” I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting him lower his face, and gently kissed his dark eyes. “I love you.”

He looked up, his face bathed in the pale gold of sunlight, a gentle smile on his face, a hint of amusement in his eyes: “Someone’s here; I will come find you later.”

“Okay.” I hugged his waist, gently buried my head in his chest, and closed my eyes.

His embrace grew colder and colder. Slowly, the warm, firm touch disappeared, and I gently closed my arms and hugged myself.

“Hua Yao.” A deep, calm voice sounded from behind.

I opened my eyes to find the room completely dark.

Without starlight, the universe outside the cabin resembled a pitch-black abyss, with only wisps of red sulfurous gas scattered throughout. I sat alone in the old wicker chair, feeling utterly cold.

I stood up, turned around, and looked at the man at the door.

“king.”

Gu Min didn’t speak immediately but instead turned on the light. In the soft light, his face appeared somewhat pale, but his royal robes remained neat and clean.

He looked at me with those deep, compassionate eyes, walked to the window, and stood beside me.

“The Stan aliens are relentless; they’ve already surrounded the planet,” he said softly. “I don’t intend to resist.”

I looked out the window at the muddy, empty space with him, remained silent for a moment, and then replied, “I’m sorry.”

He turned to look at me, a faint smile appearing on his handsome face: “Don’t say sorry; you’ve completed your mission. It’s just…”

“But history is history, and it can’t be changed.” I slowly finished speaking for him.

I came back six months ago.

I heard that when I first woke up, my consciousness was completely clouded, and I frantically used my mental energy to attack anyone who approached me. If King hadn’t been prepared and locked the place where I woke up in a sealed pod, I probably would have accidentally killed many people.

It was said that at the time, I was just repeatedly reciting a few short phrases:

“I want to go back,” “I want to save him,” and “Mu Xian.”

Ten days later, as my mind gradually returned to normal, I cried and grabbed Gu Min, saying, “I want to go back! Send me back one more time! My mission is complete, and the mental network has been destroyed. Send me back to save Mu Xian! I’m already married to him!”

At that moment, Gu Min’s eyes also welled up with tears, and he simply hugged me tightly.

“Hua Yao, you know you can never go back.”

My heart was breaking.

Yes, I knew perfectly well that there was no going back.

There was already a version of me in that timeline. If we went back again, two versions of me from the future would cause a disruption and collapse of time and space—a truth that every member of the Time Clan understood.

I cried myself unconscious in Gu Min’s arms.

When I awoke again, I saw that we were still in the wrecked spaceship, on an asteroid filled with sulfurous gases. And the universe was still the same broken place I had left it in; the dead were still dead, the killings were still killings, and the world was filled with devastation.

That day, Mu Xian diverted a portion of his mental energy to protect me, so his mental energy outburst didn’t unleash the potential of other mental energy users. My destruction of the Blue Network before I left also caused energy disorder in “Stan’s Rebirth.” At that time, Stan Star was thrown out of the galaxy, deviated from its orbit, left its star, and fell into cold and darkness—the superpowered era hadn’t yet arrived.

But thousands of years later, the Neo-Stan race, the cosmic predators, was born. Historical records state that they gained some kind of energy in the darkness and were given superpowers. But the exact reason remained unknown.

Because of my intervention, the trajectory of history had only undergone minor changes, but the great wheel of history continued to roll straight forward, crushing all the efforts of our Time Clan.

It also crushed everything I had.

…

“Perhaps this is why our clan precepts forbid us from interfering with history.” Gu Min’s expression was somewhat dazed. “The universe operates according to its own laws and causal relationships. Human power can’t change them.”

Hearing his sorrowful words, my already numb heart still felt a dull ache.

Just like no matter what I did, I couldn’t change Mu Xian’s death, could I?

“I’m sorry,” Gu Min said softly, “as the king, I cannot protect you.”

I said slowly, “My king, we are the last race to be conquered by the Stan people. You have already done very well.” I paused, then asked, “What will they do to us?”

Gu Min gazed silently at the murky sky outside the window: “Over the years, the Stan people have regarded the Time Clan as their enemies, believing that we were responsible for Stan’s fall into darkness. You and I should both be executed. I only hope that other civilians can have a chance to live.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Get some rest.” Gu Min glanced at me, and I nodded. He turned to leave. At the door, he suddenly stopped. He didn’t turn back but said softly, “Hua Yao, don’t use your mental power to create illusions anymore. You will go crazy.”

I remained silent, listening quietly as his footsteps faded into the distance. Then I stood by the window for a moment before returning to my chair and lying down. Beside the armrest lay a small book, its slightly hard, cold edges gently rubbing against my palm. I opened the cover; it contained a photograph.

A young man in military uniform stood beside a woman in a long white dress. The woman’s face was blurry yet beautiful, while the man’s fair and delicate features seemed to have lost their former arrogance, replaced by a subtle tenderness in his eyes.

Below the photo was a line of small print: “Wedding anniversary photo of His Highness Nuo’er, the Radiant King. It’s said that his wife is from Earth, but specific details are unverifiable.”

This was the only mention of me in his biography. It seemed the Stan people viewed me as a stain on his life, glossing over it briefly.

I read for a while, then closed the book, shut my eyes, and let my mind drift off to sleep. In my world, golden sunlight streamed in through the window again, and the cold, hard room became warm and inviting once more.

Mu Xian’s handsome and upright figure slowly emerged from the void, and his deep and clear voice faintly rang out: “Come here.”

I smiled slightly, got up, and walked towards him, but salty tears silently slid down my cheeks.

What was wrong with illusions? At least they allowed me to live like a walking corpse.

***

On the day of the surrender, a Stan space fortress was anchored in near-orbit around the asteroid we inhabited. Our ship approached, they landed and disarmed us, and then we were taken aboard the space fortress.

In a declining universe, the conquest of a race had become so hasty and simple. However, the situation for the Stan people didn’t seem much better. The rate of galactic collapse had accelerated in recent months, and the day of cosmic destruction may not be far off.

When the universe would collapse into a supermassive black hole, there might be another Big Bang, life would be reborn, and a new cycle of light-years would begin.

That was fine too.

The soldiers escorting us were all robots—flat heads, thin bodies, red eyes—and they looked strangely familiar. Only they appeared lighter, more durable, with different outlines, a more sinister expression, and utterly cold, emotionless voices, as if they truly were just machines. They were vastly different from the two from millions of years ago.

I thought I was about to be executed, but instead, the King and I were separated, and I was locked in a separate room. The room didn’t even have a window; it was dark and cold. My hands and feet were bound by energy locks, and there was an energy chain around my neck.

This ordeal lasted for ten days, in utter darkness.

Ten days later, the space fortress landed and came to a stop. Surrounded by the robots’ heavy machine guns, I stepped off the deck, onto the ground, and saw the scene before me.

I was stunned for a moment.

The silver-gray buildings were densely packed and orderly, and the suspended highways stretched out in the air like ribbons. Even with the overcast sky, the city still looked stable and orderly.

The capital city, the former capital of Stan, was right before my eyes.

The planet Stan was destroyed millions of years ago—they rebuilt the capital.

When I was taken to the palace and saw the beautiful white palace, and the ugly jade sculpture standing in the center of the palace, long-forgotten tears welled up in my dry, slightly aching eyes.

From a distance, it looked gray and black, broken and incomplete, no longer smooth and lustrous as it once was. It was even impossible to discern the shape of “a big hand holding a small hand.” It was just a jagged and strangely shaped boulder.

It wasn’t destroyed.

I looked up at the empty top of the jade stone, and in a daze, I seemed to see his calm and serene face again.

***

I was led to a brightly lit conference room.

Five tall, imposing men sat directly in front. On either side were five long tables, each with people seated behind it—at least thirty in total. These people were men and women, humans and animals, seemingly from different races. The bright lighting made their expressions tense. Behind each table, fully armed soldiers stood guard—these people also appeared to be prisoners of the Stan people.

As I walked in, they all looked up at me. I didn’t look at anyone and walked forward quietly. Gu Min had changed into an ordinary suit and sat at a long table in the center, facing the five men. His hands were adorned with the same energy locks as mine. A row of robot soldiers stood guard behind him.

Was this a trial?

Modern Stan people never tried criminals before executing them.

Why was that?

I sat down next to Gu Min and calmly stared straight ahead.

A deep, powerful voice resounded throughout the hall: “Gu Min, leader of the Time Clan, Hua Yao, descendant of the Hua Clan, I’m Zhuo Wu, the supreme commander of the Stan Empire.”

I slowly looked up at him.

A middle-aged man, handsome yet sinister-looking. He wore a black military uniform and seemed vaguely familiar. A descendant of royalty? Perhaps! This was the man who led the Predators, sweeping across the entire universe.

I stared coldly at him, and he stared back at me, his voice chilling and slightly mocking: “Or should I address you as—Your Highness, Princess?”

My heart skipped a beat, but I didn’t say anything.

He stared at me, his gaze sharp and direct, filled with gloom, disgust, and hatred. I looked at him calmly, but after a moment, he looked away and continued, “All the surviving scientific elites in the entire universe, as well as the descendants of the Time Clan, are here. I want you to execute a plan—a plan that will allow you to survive. But An.”

He looked at the person on the far right of the five. That person suddenly straightened his back, seemingly a little nervous, which made him stand out from the other four solemn and dignified people.

That’s when I noticed that it was a robot, looking the same as the ones I’d seen before, except its face seemed rounder. And its military uniform looked noticeably wrinkled.

“Ahem…” Dan An’s expression turned serious, but his voice trembled slightly. “I’m Dan An, the chief expert of the Stan Empire Academy of Sciences.”

As I listened to his unfamiliar yet gentle voice, all my attention was drawn to him. I didn’t know why, but looking at him made me feel comfortable.

But his next words caused a stir among the surrounding scientists.

“Three months ago, the Magellanic Clouds, the Wayne Galaxy, the Third Spiral Galaxy, the 7th to 10th Bar Galaxy, and 3,710 other massive galaxies collapsed. A new supermassive black hole, large enough to devour the entire universe, has formed at the center of the universe and is continuing to expand.”

The situation was actually more serious than we had anticipated.

He continued, “According to our numerous calculations, the probability of the universe collapsing as a whole within 500 years is 99%; the probability of it collapsing within 100 years is 70%; and the probability of it collapsing within one year is 30%.”

A collective gasp filled the room, and everyone exchanged bewildered glances. Perhaps only Gu Min and I remained silent.

Since the end of the world was already in its countdown, what else did they want to do by gathering us here?

But An’s voice rang out again: “As we all know, the collapse of the universe’s mass is due to the overexploitation of spiritual power. We are now unable to repair the universe. Therefore, on behalf of the Academy of Sciences, I propose the ‘Universe Rebirth’ plan. The core objective of this plan is to save the current universe by altering history. This plan requires the descendants of the Time Clan to carry it out, and it also requires the participation of everyone present.”

Then he looked up at Gu Min and me. Not only him, but everyone in the hall looked over, their gazes intense, eager, questioning, and uneasy.

My heart skipped a beat, but what welled up was a numb despair.

Do they want the Time Clan to travel back in time and change history?

They probably didn’t know that among the Time Clan members who were still alive, I was the only one capable of traversing such a long distance through time. But I could no longer go.

I glanced at Gu Min; although his expression was calm, there was a faint, bitter smile on his lips.

Gu Min stood up and calmly looked at Zhuo Wu: “Commander, there’s nothing we can do about this. Only Hua Yao possesses the ability to travel back millions of years, but she…”

“She’s already been there,” Zhuo Wu suddenly continued from where Gu Min left off, which made me very uncomfortable. He coldly continued, “She successfully prevented the ‘Stan’s Rebirth’ project, plunging Stan into darkness and plunging my ancestors into thousands of years of cold and darkness!”

I looked up at him abruptly. His expression was cold and angry, and the entire hall fell silent.

Gu Min’s calm voice came from beside me: “That was my arrangement. We tried to change history, but we failed. If you think I’m guilty, I will take the blame; it has nothing to do with her.”

I felt my heart suddenly race, staring intently at Zhuo Wu, my back drenched in cold sweat.

“Since you know I can’t go anymore…” I heard my own voice, slightly hollow and dry, echoing throughout the hall, “Then what other options do you have?”

If they really did have a way… if they really do…

I looked at my ten fingers, which began to tremble slightly on the table.

Zhuo Wu shifted his heavy gaze from me and glanced at Dan An.

But An looked at me and said in a deep voice, “Because there’s already a you in that timeline, we cannot let you travel back in time. Our plan is to achieve time reversal.”

Time travel?!

My heart skipped a beat, and I felt as if the faint hope that had just been ignited was extinguished by his words. My heart sank again, sinking into a stagnant pool.

“No. That’s impossible.” Gu Min, beside me, spoke up. “Time travel is impossible.”

“It’s possible,” Dan An replied. “Whether it’s time travel or time reversal, two conditions are required—energy and a spiritual entity with time attributes, which means you, Time Clan. It’s just that time travel requires less energy, while time reversal requires a lot of energy. That’s why it has never been achieved.”

“Do you know how much energy that would require?” Gu Min retorted. “If you want to turn back time in the entire universe and space, you would need an energy source that’s almost equivalent to the entire universe…” As Gu Min said this, his expression suddenly became a little strange, and his eyes lit up as he turned to look at me.

My mind jolted, and my temples throbbed.

They were saying… They were saying…

“There wasn’t one before, so I never intended to spare your lives,” Zhuo Wu suddenly spoke up. “But now there is—that new black hole that has already devoured most of the universe.”