Chapter 61 Hunting Trial - Part 1 (End) "You like your teacher..."
After that phone call, Lan lost contact with He Yuan.
He hadn't even rested for a few days after returning home when he started searching everywhere for traces of Crane and Kite.
On the third day after she left home, Lan was locked in the house by her parents.
No matter how much he pleaded or resisted, everyone was trying to stop him on this day.
They seem unwilling for him to undergo self-healing today.
Lan kept banging on the door, leaving her body covered in bruises. She dug her fingers into the cracks in the door, blood seeping from under her fingernails. Several fingernails lay on the ground, unnoticed by anyone.
After nightfall, he ate his first meal of the day.
The door opened, and it was all over.
From that day on, despite her parents' pleas, Lan moved out of the house and lived alone.
After a brief period of self-abandonment, he remembered He Yuan's words.
"Our connection goes beyond this."
“We will have a chance to be together, but not now.”
"It will have to wait until we are both free from the fear of rumors and the constraints of our identities."
"So, I want to ask you, are you willing to promise me that you will do as I say now, and then, when we meet again someday in the future, start over?"
His teacher wouldn't lie to him, Lan thought.
From the time he entered military school at the age of ten until he graduated at the age of eighteen, He Yuan fulfilled every promise she made to him.
and…
The teacher suffered this hardship because of his impulsiveness.
He can't degrade himself like that.
And, Arashi wants revenge.
The heroes of the future are intelligent and perceptive.
In the past, it was the crane and the kite that sheltered him from the wind and rain, allowing him to grow up carefree until now.
Now, Lan has faced the torrential rain head-on and has learned many things from it.
This should have been an easy matter to suppress, but his teacher paid a heavy price for it.
Why is that...?
Lan recalled the self-criticism her teacher was writing when she first went to look for He Yuan.
The densely packed names above are all people who have joined together to report the teacher.
When a genius refuses to associate with them, they plot to break their wings and drag them down from their pedestal.
Lan wants to go higher and farther, and wipe out all these parasites.
His title as an outstanding graduate set him up for a position as a deputy general under General Yao Qing, a position that many people could never reach in their entire lives.
Lan believes that the day of revenge is not far away, and he will wait for his teacher to reappear.
He had just learned that the teacher had been imprisoned in a cryogenic prison.
The system of freezing human bodies for preservation was a change made by the Celestial Ship to ensure its continuation.
Try to prolong one's lifespan as much as possible and make the most of one's abilities.
Wait until he climbs a little higher...
"Lan, come with me."
General Yaoqing glanced at his absent-minded deputy general and told him to keep up with him.
Lan immediately got up and followed.
As they walked through the winding corridors, the general suddenly asked him, "Do you like him, or does he like you?"
Lan paused, remembering He Yuan's instructions, and said somewhat coldly, "It's him who likes me."
"I see..." General Yaoqing's words carried a hint of regret and mockery. "I never expected that the person he risked his life to protect would not have a single bit of gratitude towards him."
Desperate...?
Lan gritted her teeth, her fist clenched tightly under her sleeve, her fingertips almost digging into her flesh.
"He's the one who dragged me down, so there's no question of him protecting me."
Lan had already apologized countless times in her heart.
"Did he ever tell you that your acting is terrible?" The mocking tone echoed in my ear. "I've seen the video. You can't hide your love for him, and his reaction to you..."
He doesn't like you at all.
"Your reaction just now didn't seem like you were disgusted at all. You should study some more."
"..." Lan remained silent.
The footsteps in front of them quieted down and then stopped.
"I told you to keep up."
Lan followed silently, without answering a single word.
He Yuan once said that if you feel you cannot hide something, then try to remain silent and reveal as little information as possible.
He followed the general to a secluded archive room, and then to a bookshelf containing information about the events of 1717.
In order to ensure the integrity of the data, Xianzhou in the information age still uses paper backups.
The general pulled out a scroll that recorded the events of June and unfurled it in front of Arashi.
“If the interrogation video is accessed, it will alert those people. This is a paper record.”
He stared at Lan and said seriously, "I'll give you two hours to memorize it completely."
"They will question you next Monday, and you can't make any mistakes that would ruin his hard work."
Lan took it with trembling hands, her eyes scanning each word without blinking.
Even with just simple words, he could imagine the scene that He Yuan was facing at that time.
In the dimly lit, enclosed space, only one lamp illuminated the young man's face.
One sharp question after another came out of the interrogator's mouth, but the young man remained calm and delivered his prepared statement. No matter how severe the punishment, it would not change his mind in the slightest.
"...Why did Lan hug me?" He smiled contemptuously. "Because I used something very special that made him only like me."
"But you hit him."
"That's because he's ungrateful and actually rejected me!"
"You hit him because of this?"
"Is it not allowed?" he said nonchalantly. "I've hit him quite a few times already. I didn't pursue it before, but now you're interrogating me?"
Compared to Lan, He Yuan's acting skills can be described as flawless.
This made him even more curious about his teacher's past experiences.
On many occasions when she went to the office, He Yuan would stare blankly at the rare starry sky outside the window, her eyes filled with longing.
Whom is the teacher missing?
He will never get the answer to that question.
“We searched the testimonies of the other students, and they said that you had taken good care of Lan?”
"Yes, because I thought he was one of us."
"What's the meaning?"
"We're just humans who are far superior to you, understand?" He gave a mocking smile. "You don't need me to explain even that, do you?"
"you--!"
...
Lan memorized all the subsequent details.
The general stood guard at the door for him. When he saw him come out, he asked, "Have you memorized it all?"
Lan nodded, her eyes tinged with a faint color.
"Go to the bathroom and tidy yourself up. Forget about what I brought you here today, understand?"
"clear."
He paused, then finally said to Lan, "Don't let his good intentions go to waste."
"But... there's no need to feel pressured. He has many paths prepared for you."
Rather, Crane Kite believes that the future [Hunter] Star God will always find its own path.
Lan was able to shoot an arrow at Jianmu when she was still a mortal, demonstrating her determination. Now, facing the bookworms beneath the bright scenery of the immortal ship, she can also find a way to clear away the obstacles.
He was a human hero whose will was so firm that even the sun could not sway him.
And that is indeed the case.
After successfully passing the assessment, Lan officially entered a circle called "politics".
However, he lacked social skills and could only pave his own path through military achievements.
Yet, this kind of mist strangely reassured them.
*
Shortly after officially taking office, Tabu observed a star approaching the Celestial Ship.
Unlike later times when the immortal ships sailed separately, they now sailed in an orderly formation, with the Yaoqing Immortal Ship, possessing the most abundant martial power, always at the forefront of the voyage.
Lan has been a forward for an unknown amount of time and is about to go to the cryogenic chamber to hibernate and extend her service life.
This time, the enemy has no physical form; all it has is a green light and the ability to bewitch people.
His mind was invaded by Suiyang, who was called Suihuang.
Suiyang surveyed his mind and found the key.
"You like your teacher? That's interesting!"
When Lan opened and closed her eyes, she found herself away from the battlefield, dressed in a suit, gazing into the distance under the blue sky and white clouds.
His future partner is there.
Wedding scene?
He took He Yuan's hand, bewildered yet joyful, and under the watchful eyes of everyone, they made a vow and exchanged rings.
He Yuan looked at him with intense love in her eyes, and when they kissed, she held his arm tightly and danced with him.
It was a dreamlike and beautiful sight.
With my eyes closed, the scene shifts, and I find myself in a room filled with red.
The bridal chamber?
Lan recalled a dream she had once had.
In his dream, he was very unruly and did many excessive things to his teacher.
He eagerly pushed open the door and found that He Yuan was only wearing a silk nightgown.
How did the teacher know...?
Lan discovered that everything here was going according to his wishes.
He tried to think in his mind: I want the teacher to take the initiative to seduce me.
Crane Kite stood up from the dressing table, walked barefoot to his side, and wrapped herself around his body.
He tore the nightgown open, and it fluttered lightly to the ground, masking the sound of his hurried footsteps.
Lan gave it a light kiss, her expression shifting from confusion to anger.
"Get out of here."
Get out of my mind.
Emperor Sui laughed in surprise: "Isn't it better to stay here?"
"Your teachers are here, as are the people you love, and you've all gotten together successfully."
“This is fake,” Lan said calmly.
He did indeed yearn for this kind of life, and even considered staying there.
But what happens after that?
The teacher is still in the cryogenic prison and hasn't come out yet. If he sinks into illusion, how can he rescue the teacher?
He longed to embrace Crane and Kite in reality, rather than in a fantasy of happiness.
He likes cranes and kites, but that doesn't mean he'll force anything because of that affection, or use it as an excuse to escape reality.
That's terrible, and it's a disservice to his teacher's guidance.
Faced with Suiyang revealing its true form, Lan, as recorded in history, led the suicide squad to dismantle and weaponize the secondary engine of the Immortal Ship Yaoqing, sending it into the star formed by Suiyang, causing it to prematurely decay and collapse into a black hole*.
They successfully sealed away Suiyang and imprisoned its leader, Suihuang, on the Zhuming Immortal Ship to provide energy for that enormous furnace.
After this incident, Lan's service term ended, and she received a notice to go into cryogenic hibernation.
He followed the staff to the hibernation area.
As they passed the cold storage warehouse, Lan paused and glanced in that direction.
Teacher, I will definitely rescue you when I wake up next time.
Cryogenic prisons are for those who possess great talent but are morally flawed.
Those inside can never leave in their entire lives; they can only provide light and warmth for the celestial ship within their small plot of land until death.
After Crane Kite went into hibernation in the Frozen Prison, it exited the instance.
He woke up on the sofa and was still a little dazed when he felt the warmth.
Compared to the timelines of thousands of years in the Memory Trial, the mere eighteen years of the Hunting Trial is simply not enough.
However, the setting of the hunting trial, the Immortal Ship, gave him a greater sense of immersion and made him more engaged.
In addition to what Lan had done before...
Yu Zhao's voice interrupted his thoughts.
The message I received said that his leave for tomorrow was approved.
He Yuan paused, shook off the melancholy in her heart, and went to the kitchen to hug Ying Xing's waist.
"Did you ask for a day off for me because you're proposing?"
Ying Xing plated the chicken wings. "Okay, I'm ready."
Three months of preparation time is almost up.
-----------------------
Author's note: There's one more chapter, I don't know if I'll be able to finish it.
If you can't finish writing, come back tomorrow.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
