Ridiculous as it was, Bernard had never once been to Polaris.
It was a research institute originally founded by his own partner, yet he had never set foot inside it.
Because in the depths of his heart, Bernard had always looked down on Xi Yuelin.
In his eyes, Xi Yuelin and Xi Shixiao both ca from remote, backward Blackrock Star, the poorest and most destitute place in the entire Empire, a place everyone regarded as a slum.
In other words, Xi Yuelin was just so wild country girl.
But Bernard was different. He was a prince high above everyone else, with royal blood flowing through his veins.
Even if Xi Yuelin really was brilliant, even if her achievents and the halo around her were dazzling enough to make the whole world take notice, Bernard had still never thought much of it.
From the bottom of his heart, he believed power was what mattered most.
As long as he sat on the throne, he could have anything he wanted. With a single command from him, the entire Empire would revolve around him.
Compared to power, what did Xi Yuelin’s research amount to?
And by the ti Bernard finally realized how important Xi Yuelin was, she had already cut ties with him without hesitation, and would rather die than continue being Empress. Polaris, anwhile, had fallen into Kegso’s hands.
More than twenty years later, Bernard was finally coming to Polaris for the first ti.
The laboratory Dan brought him into was clearly one of the most highly classified places here.
One heavy tal door after another slowly opened, and the cold air sealed inside leaked out.
Bernard’s body had already been deteriorating more and more with each passing day. He feared heat more than ordinary people did, and he feared cold more too.
When that chill rushed over him, Bernard shivered in his wheelchair.
Looking at the open doorway ahead, Bernard had the dazed illusion that he was stepping into hell itself.
Just as he began to hesitate, Dan bent near his ear and said with a soft laugh, “Your Majesty, are you ready? What you’re about to enter is an entirely new world.”
With that, Dan pushed the wheelchair and took Bernard into the laboratory.
[SSS-level clearance granted. Access approved.]
The cold electronic voice rang out, but Bernard had no attention left to spare for it. His full focus had already been seized by the sight in front of him.
Spread out before him was a structure like a giant beehive.
Countless tightly packed windows were layered one above another all around them like honeycomb cells, and inside each one stood an enormous nutrient tank.
The fully transparent tanks displayed their contents with brutal clarity.
There were humans inside, along with Padar people, rfolk, elves, and all kinds of other races. Nearly every intelligent species currently known could be found here.
They were all sealed inside the nutrient tanks. From embryos to infants, to children, to their fully grown forms, the tanks contained living specins at every stage of developnt for each race.
As for how Bernard knew they were alive...
it was because the chests of the creatures inside the tanks were still rising and falling with breath, and nutrient lines were attached to their naked bodies.
In other words, what stood before Bernard now were living beings.
And yet they had all been imprisoned inside nutrient tanks.
If footage of this place ever got out, it would be enough to ignite outrage across the entire interstellar world.
The peace accords had long since stipulated that intelligent species could not be used directly as experintal subjects. Live-subject research had to be placed under strict Alliance oversight, and all clinical trials required both Alliance approval and the consent of the relevant individuals.
But the sheer number of nutrient tanks packed into this laboratory had obviously far exceeded the scale of any normal research. There was no way the Alliance could ever have approved it.
Bernard’s breathing instantly beca uneven.
But it wasn’t because he wanted to condemn Dan.
He was shocked.
Shocked by Dan’s thods.
So many experintal subjects from so many different races... After Xi Yuelin left, what exactly had these people been researching?
That thought ca to Bernard’s mind, and before he knew it, he had spoken it aloud.
Dan just smiled.
He walked to the center of the laboratory. At that mont, he looked like the ruler here, the king of this place. The machinery connected to the nutrient lines was installed beneath the floor, and as he walked above it, it was as if he were treading on countless lives beneath his feet.
Then Dan looked at Bernard and said with an unrestrained smile, “Welco to my laboratory. I poured unimaginable effort into building it. I call it the Pyramid of Life.”
The Pyramid of Life?
Bernard froze for a second, not seeming to understand the aning behind the na.
Dan slowly pushed the wheelchair past the nutrient tanks.
“Do you know what a pyramid is? A pyramid is usually made up of an upper level, a middle level, and a bottom level. That model can be applied to every part of society, including ourselves.”
Bernard said nothing, but Dan didn’t care. He was already imrsed in his own world, and in that world, he was the sole ruler, the prophet, the all-powerful god.
Life was wonderfully intoxicating.
“Life is a marvelous thing. Nature appears to give us all life fairly, but so races are born powerful, while others remain weak for their entire lives and can only be bullied at will.”
Dan spoke slowly as he stopped in front of one nutrient tank.
At the very bottom of all the tanks—at the lowest level of the laboratory.
Inside it was a Gumu.
“This kind of creature has low intelligence. They don’t have powerful bodies, they can’t speak, and their level of civilization barely reaches the outermost edge of what counts as an intelligent species. So they belong at the very bottom of the pyramid.”
Then he stopped in front of another nutrient tank.
Inside it was a Padar.
Their position was much higher than the Gumu’s.
“Have you noticed?” Dan said. “If you divide this world by strength, then the entire world is a giant pyramid. Powerful races occupy the top, while most weak races can only live at the very bottom.”
“Surely Your Majesty understands that better than I do.”
Bernard did understand.
Because within the Empire, the royal family that ruled everything was the class living at the very top, the people standing on the pyramid’s peak.
Without question, they were superior. Noble.
But then Dan asked him, “Do you know which level of the pyramid humanity occupies?”
The pride that had just risen in Bernard’s chest faltered at once. No matter how much he might want to say the top, he knew very well that across the whole interstellar world, humanity was not among the strongest races.
Dan smiled and told him, “When humanity first ca into contact with cosmic civilization, we were at the very bottom.”
He pointed to a place beside the Gumu.
Clearly, when humanity first stepped out from Blue Planet, in the eyes of the other races of the universe, they had been weaklings as fragile as the Gumu.
Bernard’s chest heaved violently.
To fall from the top of the pyramid to the very bottom in an instant—that enormous drop tightened sothing in him too.
But Dan continued at the sa asured pace.
“Yet as technology advanced, humanity mastered technique. We gained chs. We gained warships. And we climbed to here.”
He pointed in another direction, to where the Padar were.
With the Empire’s current strength, humanity really could trade blows with the Padar now.
But that was still only the middle tier of the pyramid. Above it were even more powerful races.
Dan continued upward along the spiral steps, bringing Bernard to the largest nutrient tank in the laboratory.
Inside it was a Saint Clan mber.
A dead one.
It floated in the nutrient fluid with its eyes shut, obviously long dead.
And yet when Bernard stood before the tank and looked up at that savage, terrifying giant beast, a powerful, icy pressure ca bearing down on him. Bernard almost couldn’t breathe.
Even though the Saint Clan mber inside had been dead for a long ti, just facing it still made Bernard feel the smallness of his own existence.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Dan’s smiling voice ca from behind him.
“The Saint Clan possess the strongest bodies. Their flesh alone can withstand damage from warships. Such beautiful, powerful creations—beings like that are nearly perfect.”
If not for their ntal turmoil, the Saint Clan would have almost no flaws at all.
Powerful and beautiful, they could be called the creations most beloved by the gods. When the Mother of Prosperity created all things, she gave the Saint Clan everything she could give.
“How enviable...”
Dan let out a sigh.
But Bernard still didn’t understand.
He didn’t understand why Dan had built this pyramid here, and he didn’t understand what any of it had to do with the thing he wanted.
Seeing the confusion on Bernard’s face, Dan lifted a brow in mocking amusent.
“Sotis I really wonder what Xi Yuelin ever saw in you.”
A woman that intelligent—how had she ended up falling for an idiot like Bernard?
Bernard understood the implication imdiately. His face flushed red at once, but trapped in that decaying body, all he could do was sit in his wheelchair and glare coldly at Dan.
Fortunately, Dan hadn’t brought Bernard here rely to provoke him.
He was in a good mood today, so even if Bernard was a stupid student, Dan was still willing to explain things patiently.
He pressed a button.
One nutrient tank was pushed out separately and delivered right in front of them.
Inside was a rmaid.
Her water-blue curls spread over her body like seaweed, and her pale, enticing skin carried a pearly sheen. As the nutrient fluid slowly receded, it revealed the stunningly beautiful, sorrowful face beneath.
Sleeping inside the tank, she looked like a sleeping beauty out of a fairy tale.
It was a female rmaid.
The rfolk were known for their beauty and their singing voices. They lived on aquatic planets, and their lower bodies ended in enormous fish tails.
The rmaid before them had a huge blue tail.
Dan told Bernard that this rmaid’s body could heal itself.
He demonstrated by using the instrunt to cut a wound into her body—one severe enough to be fatal.
And in the very next mont, the injury slowly healed.
That miraculous ability left Bernard staring without blinking.
What Dan showed him next went even further beyond Bernard’s understanding.
A thick needle was driven into the rmaid’s spinal cord. Sothing was extracted from her body, and even in sleep, pain twisted across her face.
Holding the extracted fluid, Dan then perford a surgery right there in front of Bernard.
The other subject was a stray beast.
“The genes of every race are different. The genes of powerful races usually hold greater advantages. If the weak want to surpass the strong and climb the pyramid quickly, the fastest thod is to obtain powerful genes themselves.”
“This rmaid’s ability is self-healing. Now, if I put her genes into this stray beast, what do you think will happen?”
As he spoke, Dan cut a wound into the stray beast’s body.
Very quickly, just like the rmaid before it, the wound on the beast healed at once.
It had gained the rmaid’s ability.
Bernard stared at the scene in shock.
Dan still wore that sa smile.
“This is only a healing ability. But what if it were Saint Clan genes? That’s right—then this stray beast would possess strength as powerful as a Saint Clan mber’s.”
“Think about it. If I were to extract the superior genes of all these races and combine them in a single person, then that person would beco the most perfect creation.”
“Great power. A long life. Supre beauty. A body that does not decay. That would be a truly flawless existence.”
Bernard’s breathing hitched.
He could almost see the scene Dan was describing—a being with eternal life and unimaginable strength, one that surpassed every race in the world, so perfect that...
there was usually only one word for such an existence.
A god.
Above all living things—
a god.
At that mont, Bernard realized how shallow his pursuit of power had really been.
What were power and the throne before eternal life and overwhelming strength? They were nothing.
If, as Dan said, he could stand above all living things, then what would there be he couldn’t have?
But before Bernard could rejoice for long, Dan poured cold water over the fantasy.
“The most critical part of this plan is the Saint Clan. If you want the greatest strength, then you must use Saint Clan genes. And if you want to use Saint Clan genes, then one problem has to be solved first.”
ntal power.
The Saint Clan’s might was visible to the entire interstellar world, and their defect was just as obvious.
They were born with ntal turmoil.
“So now you understand how important Xi Yuelin was, you idiot? You killed her, and because of that, our plan was forcibly delayed for more than twenty years!”
Bernard’s smile froze, and a suffocating frustration rose in him at once.
Xi Yuelin...!
Xi Yuelin again!
Why was it that even after being dead for so many years, everything she had done still kept him crushed under its weight?
Seeing Bernard’s cowardly, incompetent face, a trace of ridicule flashed through Dan’s eyes.
Unlike Bernard, who only knew how to wallow in resentnt, Dan understood perfectly well.
Xi Yuelin was dead.
But she had left behind the most precious treasure of all.
Who would have thought it?
The Saint Clan, the race with the worst ntal turmoil, had also given birth to a royal-blood cub capable of healing that very turmoil.
Life truly was marvelous.
........
Aboard the Thanatos, Alvin ca to Mansendis’s side.
“My king, only the First Star Sector remains unsearched.”
The First Star Sector was the farthest place from the Ninth Star Sector. Starting from the Ninth, the Saint Clan fleet had carried out a sweeping search across every sector.
And now all the others had been searched more or less thoroughly. Only the First Star Sector remained.
Mansendis looked at the star route map.
“I have a feeling. My child is there.”
And the place he pointed to was the region occupied by the human Empire.
Alvin’s expression sharpened imdiately.
“I’ll pass down the order at once. The warships will head for the First Star Sector at top speed.”
“Achoo!”
Wen Yuzhi sneezed twice in a row.
The next mont, a jacket still warm with body heat was draped over his shoulders.
He turned around and discovered that Xi Heyan had taken off his own coat.
“Nights on Blackrock Star get cold. Put it on, and you won’t feel it as much.”
Wen Yuzhi had originally been about to take the coat off and hand it back, but his movent stopped at once.
He lowered his hand and obediently put the coat on.
All of a sudden, Xi Heyan had the urge to reach out and touch that silver hair.
But he held himself back.
Following Wen Yuzhi’s line of sight, Xi ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Heyan looked ahead and realized Wen Yuzhi had been standing at the desk just now, looking at the frad photograph on it.
The mont he saw that photo and the line of writing beneath it, Xi Heyan’s eyes darkened sharply.
But Wen Yuzhi didn’t notice anything unusual about him. He pointed at the little boy in the photograph and asked, “Is this what you looked like when you were little?”
Xi Heyan gave a quiet hum.
That picture had been taken during the last ti their whole family had been together.
Because Xi Yuelin spent most of her ti at the research institute and rarely had ti to see the family, during that gathering she had suggested they take a family photo together.
Everyone had agreed.
After the picture was printed, Xi Yuelin made an extra copy and wrote that line on it as a gift for Xi Heyan, who had been only five years old at the ti.
She had also promised that when Xi Heyan’s birthday ca, she would give him a gift unlike any he had ever received before.
“What kind of gift?” the young Xi Heyan had asked curiously.
But Xi Yuelin had only smiled and said, “I can’t tell you yet, because I’m still not sure whether it’ll succeed. But I can tell you this much—it’s a very, very precious gift. If you et him, you’ll like him too.”
“When the ti cos, can Little Yan promise Auntie one thing?”
“What thing?”
“Protect him for . Take good care of him. He’s the work of my entire life.”
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