Chapter 6: Neither White nor Shadow
Xiang Ying is dead?
Beichen's mind went blank in an instant, and she stood there in a daze for a long time, as if she was completely unable to accept this fact, or as if she was unable to understand the reality that Xiangying was no longer there. She couldn't even feel sad, but just stopped thinking woodenly, like a puppet, frozen in place.
Not only Beichen, but after Yagard said this, except for Li Ye and Feibai, who had no friendship with Xiang Ying at all, everyone's face turned ugly, especially Heihuo and Sujie. The two were almost the same as Beichen, staring blankly, moving their lips slightly in a daze, but couldn't make a single sound.
Instead, Fei Bai spoke softly and rescued everyone from this doomsday atmosphere.
"...This... Lord Yagad?"
Yagad finally came back to his senses from his self-blame and regret, stood up, and called out cautiously:
"Miss Beichen?"
Beichen's whole body shook violently, then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, but when he spoke, his voice still trembled heavily:
"Agad, can you tell me in detail what happened?"
"yes."
Yagad helped her sit on a sofa to the side, then he half-knelt in front of the sofa and began to whisper the whole story:
"After you handed Xiang Ying to me, I took him to the headquarters base of Maripace Territory in the Kingdom of Latia for rescue. However, because he was too seriously injured and his consciousness had somehow fallen into a deep sleep, no matter what method I used, I could not wake him up."
"Deep sleep?"
"Yes, humans seem to have a saying about sleep. Once a person enters a very deep slumber, subjectively speaking, they are infinitely close to death, because they can't feel anything and their entire consciousness is dormant. This is also true for weapons, and their reactions to this state are even more mechanical. If a weapon falls into a deep slumber but believes it is dead, it is very likely to isolate itself from the outside world and be unable to wake itself up.
Xiang Ying fell into this state, and he was seriously injured. To treat him, I used the equipment and props in the base, which almost completely depleted his last bit of star power.
"...Then, what?" Beichen could barely suppress the hoarseness in his voice, "What's going on with Xiang Ying now?"
"I know Xiang Ying is very important to you, so I thought, since I can't prolong the life of Xiang Ying's body, then I'll try another way to let him survive in some other way."
"...So it's just a knockoff?"
"Imitation is possible, but the degree of restoration wouldn't be as high as it could be. So my final decision was to replicate Xiangying. This was the latest technology at my research base that year. I took a small amount of Protoss ore and artificially cultivated it, while trying various methods to control it. Finally, I succeeded. As long as I have the crystal core of a weapon, I can place the old weapon in a culture tank used to extract data. The data will be transmitted to the Protoss ore through a transmission device composed of spirit crystals. The Protoss ore can then replicate the same weapon based on the data obtained."
"So you used this technology to replicate Xiangying? Why did you think of researching this technology?"
"When we were researching this device, we theoretically thought that if we could obtain weapons like the Xiaxue, we could mass-produce imperial-level weapons to expand our combat power. However, this plan ultimately failed because the Protoss ore would die from overload after just one replication. The consumption of Protoss ore wouldn't be sustainable for mass production—though, small-scale replication is possible."
As Yagad spoke, he looked at Xifeng, then glanced at Feibai, and his expression immediately became even more strange when he saw these two emperor-level combat weapons.
"I won't allow someone with a different personality to tarnish my image—no, not even if they have the same personality." Xifeng frowned and said coldly, "Although you successfully copied Xiang Ying, why is his personality so different from the original, and why did he sleep for two years before waking up? It seems this technology still has a major flaw."
"Yes." Yagad lowered his head. "After the copy was successful, what I got was still a dormant sword. The reason... I think it's because the Star Spirit Mine faithfully copied the state of the Spirit Crystal, so it also copied the deep sleep state. So, although his body is fine, I still can't wake him up. But fortunately, this state does not consume Star Spirit Power. Moreover, this technology really did completely copy the old Xiangying's consciousness into the new body. At the time, I thought it was also a way to save him, so I brought him back to Miss Beichen."
Beichen sighed softly, and his voice gradually returned to calm:
"But you also knew in your heart that even if it was a carbon copy, it wasn't the real person after all. So you couldn't tell me the treatment results directly, and you didn't want me to know the truth. So you gave the carbon copy of Xiang Ying to Hei Huo and Su Jie while I was asleep, and asked them to tell me this?"
"……Yes."
"That's why you promised me that Xiang Ying would definitely come back to me. This copied Xiang Ying's body is indeed intact. Even if he's in a deep sleep now, as long as you have more advanced transformation technology one day, you can find a way to wake him up, right?"
"...Yes. Miss Beichen."
"But you didn't realize that life cannot be desecrated by overwriting it. In the end, something went wrong with the Protoss Mine, and this strange person with Xiangying's memories was created. This is the punishment you and I receive for violating the laws of nature."
"Going against the laws of nature, interfering with it, or even attempting to control it, will definitely come at a price. I'm well aware of this, but I didn't expect Miss Beichen to bear the consequences as well. I'm unworthy of being your knight... I..."
Yagard clenched his fists in annoyance, and seeing him like this, Beichen was silent for a while with a dark look in her eyes, but finally regained her gentle expression and helplessly patted the shoulder of the knight kneeling in front of her.
"If anyone else had done this, I might have retaliated by now. ...But you, Agard, I don't want to blame you. After all, you're not even human yet. You're just a knight who cares only about me."
"Miss Beichen..."
"But this is just once. Don't hide anything from me anymore. If every time you hide something, it causes such a big mess, I can't stand it. ... Then, bring the clone Xiang Ying to me. Where did the original Xiang Ying go?"
"I kept him in a sealed culture tank in the storage space of 'Silver Killer'."
As Yagard spoke, he knocked the long-handled axe on his back, and then a huge, long, transparent, square columnar culture tank appeared on the conference table in the center, with a white long sword lying inside.
"Towards Ying..."
Beichen touched the culture tank with a sad look on her face - but after a few seconds, her sad expression disappeared. She glanced at Feibai, and then looked carefully at "Xiangying" in the culture tank.
"No. ...Still not. Agard, open it."
"......?" Yagard was a little confused about Beichen's change of attitude, but he still obediently opened the culture tank and took out the long sword in his hand. The moment he touched the long sword, he also noticed the problem - the weight, the breath, were completely wrong.
"What...what's going on?"
This time, even the knight himself showed an incredible look.
"This is just an extremely crude imitation of an unfinished weapon. Only the appearance is the same, but the internal astral spiritual power circuits and other things are all wrong! The crystal core is also fake!"
"First a carbon copy, then a counterfeit... What's going on? I'm losing my mind."
Heihuo scratched his head in frustration and knocked on the conference table, while Sujie stroked his chin with a cold light in his eyes.
"In other words, Yagad, we now know why the final result is so bizarre. It's not that your replication technology has a problem, but someone took advantage of your inattention and replaced Xiangying with this inferior replica during the replication process. In other words, the Star Spirit Mine first replicated 97% of Xiangying, and then replicated 3% of the inferior replica... Very good, we have figured out where the 3% mutation Atlas mentioned came from."
"What Su Jie said makes sense." Xiao Ping nodded. "Yagad, did you leave the scene during the copying process?"
"I left a few times to replenish some spirit crystals used as energy and medium."
Beichen frowned: "During this period, is there anyone who could have entered or left the scene?"
Yagad was silent, as if trying to recall the situation at that time, and then his eyes suddenly lit up.
"...Poison Dagger Mingxi. ...He showed up when I was rescuing Xiangying. During the replication process, I also saw him around the experimental area. He's the most likely candidate."
"Mingxi, it's him again..."
Beichen smiled helplessly with his head down - this Mingxi was the one who wrote in her hand to comfort her when she was in great pain after learning the shocking truths in the underground base in the forest of Yagard, but in fact he was just using this to poison her - the dagger warrior who was made mute and blind by the poison.
"He poisoned me and tampered with Xiangying's copy. He really hates me. Yagad, can you call him over immediately? I have something to ask him."
"yes."
Yagard was silent for a few seconds, as if he was using the mind communication channel to contact Mingxi - it seemed that the summoning range of these experimental weapons and the mind communication channel was mandatory to be thirty Sanmars, so as long as they were within the palace, they could be summoned at any time - then after a while, he stretched out his hand to summon, and after a flash of dark purple light, a thin man in black appeared in front of everyone.
"Ms. Beichen, Mingxi is here."
"Um."
Beichen nodded, and the man in black opposite him first glanced at Beichen with a cold look that showed no emotion. But when he saw the white imitation sword in Yagard's hand, his expression changed, and then he laughed at himself.
"I thought it was something else, but it turns out they're here to hold someone accountable."
A hoarse and sharp voice like torn silk escaped from his mouth, forming a sharp contrast with his handsome appearance. Although he had lost his voice for a time due to various experiments and tortures by Yagard, in the end, under Beichen's instructions, Yagard still restored his reproductive system and vision as much as possible.
"In other words," Beichen looked at Mingxi expressionlessly, "you admit that you were the one who did it?"
"yes."
Mingxi looked at Beichen with a sinister and provocative look in her eyes, and shrugged her shoulders in a frivolous manner.
"Yes, I did tamper with it. So what are you going to do with me, Queen Yashu? The last time I poisoned you, didn't you pretend to be magnanimous and forgive me, and even let Yagad make a contract with me and gave me a small official position? Are you going to let me go this time? There are so many people here. You want to create an image of yourself as kind and gentle so much, so it's better not to ruin your image so easily, okay? You..."
"I don't have time for a heated argument, Mingxi," Beichen interrupted his sarcasm. "First, tell me, you replaced the real Xiang Ying with this inferior imitation. Where did the real Xiang Ying go? Is he still alive?"
Mingxi, however, gave a hearty laugh without answering the question. The hoarse sound was terrifying, like the cry of some ominous bird.
"Before that, could you please answer me, Queen? When will you finally shed that sanctimonious and hypocritical mask of yours? I don't believe anyone would harbor good intentions towards someone who wants to poison them. It's too fake to put on such a show."
"Ming Xi."
Beichen looked at Mingxi's face, which was slightly distorted by ridicule, with some amusement and tilted his head.
"In my original world, there's a word that can perfectly describe you. Do you know what it is?"
“…”
Poison Dagger stared at her in silence.
Beichen took a deep breath, then raised his eyebrows. "I finally understand why you poisoned me. You're such a jerk! You think you've seen through the ways of the world, speculating on others' actions with a negative mindset and believing them in your heart. Then you revel in this dark and critical thinking, enjoying your own disdain for it all, and use it to flaunt your maturity—am I right?"
Mingxi's face became uglier and uglier as she spoke. In the end, it almost turned red and he was about to start cursing, but his anger was interrupted by Beichen.
"In your eyes, all acts of kindness are ridiculous, chaste logic. All mutual care and tolerance are motivated by self-interest. All smiles are masks, and once torn off, only the ugly and hideous truth is revealed—this is your worldview, right? Well, if I say more, you'll surely think I'm telling you so much just to satisfy your own sense of superiority through preaching, right?
So, I won't comment or advise you on anything. If you think that way, I won't bother with you."
Beichen said this while leaning back on the sofa while Dujian looked a little embarrassed.
"To be honest, I hated you two years ago. If you hadn't poisoned me, I wouldn't have become addicted to 'Blood Epiphyllum Dew'. But I also knew that even in times of hatred, I retained some rationality, so I pursued Ling Shuang's crimes more, and you—actually, I kept you because I wanted to know why you poisoned me. I thought there was a deeper reason, but I didn't expect you were just a middle school student.
But now two years have passed, and I no longer have any strong feelings for you, but I still feel that you are necessary to me."
"...What do you mean?" Ming Xi spoke hatefully with a slightly gritted teeth expression.
"Yes. As an emperor, the most taboo thing is complacency and stagnation, so I need someone to constantly scold me and find fault with me. Your hostility towards me is very important to me, and sometimes your ridicule can also serve as a reminder for me. After all, standing in the position of a king now, sometimes it is unavoidable to be sanctimonious."
Poison Dagger was completely silent with his eyes wide open and his mouth open.
"So, please continue to hate me. I won't hurt you, and I'm not afraid of you hurting me. By the way, I actually hate you too. After all, you deceived my fragile heart. It's really hard to have the image of you gently writing on my palm shattered like this."
As Beichen spoke, he deliberately made a Daiyu-like expression of sorrow and covered his chest, which made the twins laugh. On the other side, Xifeng raised an eyebrow in surprise: Her mood seemed to have improved. Had she come out of the shadow of Xiangying's absence? Or had she confirmed some fact?
After this commotion, the atmosphere in the room eased a lot, and the resentful look on Mingxi's face gradually faded after a while.
"Okay. I'll answer your question. The longsword that followed you is not dead. I threw him out of Yagad's research base. It was his own request."
Beichen was shocked: "What?! He asked for it himself?! You mean he woke up?!"
"I originally just wanted to destroy the replication, so I used Agard's technology to create a replica to replace him and took him out of the incubator. Not long after I took him out, when I wanted to destroy him, he inexplicably woke up. I don't know why, but I guess the data extraction during the replication process activated his physical abilities to some extent."
"In the end, you didn't kill him, but let him go?"
"Yeah. I threw him out of the base, and I don't know what happened to him after that."
"……Why?"
Mingxi did not answer.
In fact, at that time he just saw that Xiang Ying was able to regain consciousness and talk to him in this state, and he was a little curious about his willpower, so he asked him why he was so loyal to his master. In the end, Xiang Ying told him about how he met and got along with his master, which made him laugh and disdain, but also felt a hint of jealousy and pity.
So, he finally agreed to Xiang Ying's request, took him away from the base without telling Yagard, and let him fend for himself.
"Anyway, you just need to know the result. I let him go. I don't know how he is now."
So in the end, Mingxi just emphasized this sentence with a guilty conscience.
"I understand. Thank you for your honesty, Mingxi."
Beichen's expression suddenly brightened, and he actually smiled brilliantly at Mingxi, which made the other party stunned. Then he snorted in hatred, turned his head cursing, and shrank into the corner of the room.
Then, Beichen's eyes fell on Feibai intentionally or unintentionally.
"...In other words, the real Xiang Ying is very likely still alive. ...Speaking of which, why did the replica Xiang Ying suddenly wake up after encountering Fei Bai?"
Feibai's face turned serious, and then he looked away from Beichen, humming awkwardly.
"And why was Feibai so surprised when Yagad said Xiangying was dead? Could it be that Feibai knew whether Xiangying was dead or alive earlier than us?"
"T-This is...uh."
Feibai hesitated, his eyes wandering, almost wanting to run away, but Heihuo and Sujie had already tacitly blocked the sofa where he was sitting, one on the left and one on the right. Sujie still had the face of a gangster collecting protection money, and put his hand on Feibai's shoulder:
"Or rather, Feibai, can you show us your storage space?"
"...Bei, His Majesty Beichen..."
"Your Majesty Beichen? Strange, how do you know my real name? Isn't my public name Yaxiu?"
"……Well."
"Well, Feibai, you really want to make a contract with me, right? Then make a contract. I really want to know the shape of your contract mark."
Now, the face of this first warrior with perfect appearance... has completely turned green.
It was at this moment that Beichen's expression suddenly changed.
"But perhaps what Agard said can't be said to be wrong. Xiang Ying is already dead."
“…”
Fei Bai was shocked, obviously not understanding the change in Beichen's attitude - she had obviously discovered the truth, right?
"My most important friend, Xiang Ying, took my last name when he chose his own name, to confirm his awareness that he would always be by my side. How could he possibly abandon such an important name?"
Following these words, Fei Bai's face suddenly turned as pale as paper, and an indescribable look of regret and self-blame flooded onto that beautiful face.
"My Xiang Ying, when we were both insignificant rookies and publicly insulted in the mercenary guild, swore an oath with me to work hard together—until we became powerful enough to shake the heavens and the earth. How could that Xiang Ying abandon me and accept that we were growing up on two different, parallel paths?"
Fei Bai said hurriedly: "...No, I..."
"Why is Xiang Ying so stubborn? He puts the pursuit of power above staying with me. He would rather I endure the pain of separation, but he is still obsessed with his own inferiority and unwilling to come back."
As the Queen of the Wasteland spoke, tears welled up in her eyes, but she took a deep breath and held them back into her eye sockets.
"Why didn't he show up when Ling Shuang raped me? Why wasn't he there to encourage and comfort me when my drug addiction kicked in? Why wasn't he there among the hundreds of thousands of people who lived when I led so many of my friends and family to pacify this wasteland? Why, when I went through so much hardship to build this country, did I see everyone's happy smiles, but not his? Why is it that every time I'm happy, excited, tired, helpless, sad, or angry, every time I want to share my feelings or act coquettish, it's always someone else who's by my side, not him?"
“…”
Fei Bai lowered the hand that was reaching out to her and stopped talking.
"Not only did he lose that name, he even clearly remembered it, yet he chose to discard our most precious memories, choosing not to acknowledge this past that was a treasure to me. ...Xiang Ying, he really is dead, right?"
"Master, I!"
Fei Bai finally couldn't help himself and called out the word "Master" that he had thought about thousands of times in his mind.
Bang!!
Then, in response to the call of "Master", Beichen gave a hard slap in the face.
"Okay, if you want to call yourself Feibai, I'll do as you say. Since you don't admit it and you want to pretend you don't know me, then I can erase this past."
"No—I—"
"What's wrong with the First Battle Weapon? Is it so great? I could reject Xiaxue for you back then, and now I can reject you for Xiangying in the past."
Beichen smiled viciously, but a stream of liquid slid down from the corner of his eye.
"When I first met you, I slapped you in the face so that you would take the first step to face yourself and believe in yourself. Now, let this be the end of our relationship. Please go away. You are neither Feibai nor Xiangying. You are nothing!"
"I won't leave."
The eyes of the First Warrior turned red due to pain, and he clenched his fist and said hoarsely,
"Master, you hate me, I don't care, but I finally have the power now, I will not leave again, even if you don't want to make a contract with me, it doesn't matter, I can be a barrier to protect this country, just think of me as a tool to protect you and everyone else's safety, with me here, you and the Twin Brothers, Senior Yaye, His Excellency Gu Yinyue, Senior Xifeng... you will be safer... Master, you can hate me, I don't care, I just want -"
But Beichen took a step back with a confused look on his face.
“──Why don’t you care?! Of course you should care! You big bastard! Asshole!!”
"It's natural for the Master to hate me. I owe the Master too much. ... And I know I don't have the qualifications, but I love the Master, and that's enough."
Fei Bai—no, Xiang Ying, showed a somewhat sad smile, looked down at the woman who was trembling in front of him, and reached out to gently touch her hair.
"Although I have abandoned the name Xiangying, in my heart, I will always be your shadow, so from now on I will fulfill my shadow's duties well and protect you well in places where you can't see."
“You dare!!”
Beichen screamed and grabbed Xiangying's clothes.
"You idiot... why don't you say 'I'm sorry' or 'Please forgive me'? Instead, you're asking me to hate you and are trying to protect you from me where I can't see you!? Don't you know that when a woman is angry, you just need to comfort her?! Why don't you comfort me? Even Xifeng is braver than you! Don't you know I'm just saying this in anger? Why do you take it seriously?! You hopeless bastard!"
She finally couldn't hold it in any longer, and by the end, she was crying so hard that her face was covered with tears. She buried her face in Xiang Ying's chest, clutching his clothes tightly with both hands and refused to let go.
Seeing her like this, the First Warrior's face showed a look of joy mixed with a hint of self-blame. He sighed softly and spoke in a gentle voice.
"...Master, I'm sorry. I'm Xiang Ying, not Fei Bai. I haven't forgotten our past, nor our vows, and I don't want to abandon my name. I want to return to you as I was... Is that okay?"
“…”
Beichen didn't say anything, but just shook his shoulders and hugged him tightly.
Xiang Ying stretched out his hand somewhat awkwardly, and in front of everyone, he touched her shoulder a little embarrassedly, and finally he boldly hugged her back.
"Master, I'm back."
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