“Look at the state you’re in now. Pretty pitiful, huh. Tsk, tsk...”

The visitor strolled slowly into the prison cell.

He had hair that was half gray, half not-quite-white, almost identical to the silver-gray highlights currently in fashion across the interstellar world, making him look rather stylish.

Likewise, there was also a metal collar around his neck.

By the time he reached the light at an unhurried pace, perhaps it was just an illusion, but in the bright interplay of light and shadow, for one instant there seemed to be a needle-thin vertical slit in his pupils, just like the eyes of some beast.

But very quickly, the slit vanished again, as if nothing had happened at all.

And yet after hearing him speak, the person sitting by the bed still showed no reaction.

The other only stared blankly, vacantly, at some fixed point, but if one looked more carefully, one would notice there was no focus in those eyes at all.

Sitting there, clearly still breathing, he nevertheless looked like an empty shell.

His words went unanswered, but the visitor did not mind the indifference.

Or rather, he had long since grown used to that unchanging, emotionless state.

“What is it you think about all day? It was just one failed mission. How did you end up looking like a stray dog, this miserable...”

Most of the missions assigned from above were classified.

No one knew what kind of mission Bai Yi had taken, only that it seemed extremely important, so important that Dan had specifically named Bai Yi to handle it.

The attitudes inside the base varied, but most people had never believed Bai Yi would fail.

After all, everyone knew he was the most obedient dog under Dan’s hand, and also Dan’s proudest creation at present.

Loyal, obedient, and useful.

Any order Dan gave, Bai Yi would carry it out without fail, and he had never once made a mistake.

This mission had been the same. No one believed Bai Yi would fail, and even less had anyone imagined that the always silent, compliant Bai Yi would nearly defect.

When word came back that Bai Yi had refused to accept the base’s orders, the entire base erupted.

Those researchers could hardly believe it.

Fenrir still remembered the looks on their faces then.

Those twisted expressions were full of astonishment, shock, and fury, like clowns in an amusement park throwing a tantrum, absurdly ridiculous to look at.

Perhaps because in their eyes, no matter how strong an experimental subject was, it was still only a dog at their feet.

And Bai Yi, the representative among that pack of dogs, had always been the most cooperative one. His silence and obedience had made everyone in the base forget that he possessed enough power to kill all of them.

They had treated him as a convenient weapon, while smugly believing they could control that weapon for life.

So perhaps those lofty researchers had never once imagined that the dog who never barked would one day turn and bite them.

The mission had failed, and Bai Yi had vanished with it.

Later, Dan personally took people out and searched for more than half a month before finding Bai Yi on a barren planet.

The base paid a painful price to bring Bai Yi back.

When the researchers in the base heard that news, they undoubtedly let out a sigh of relief. But among the experimental subjects, silence fell, and an atmosphere of despair began to spread.

...If even Number One, the strongest among them, could not escape the base’s pursuit, then what hope did any of them have left?

Bai Yi’s escape had failed, and the base subjected him to all kinds of punishment. They injected him with agents that caused constant pain, shackled him, put an even more secure collar on him, and then threw him into the deepest prison cell in the base.

From the outside, that prison cell did not look frightening, but the bright light and the miserable white metal walls on all sides were enough to drive a person mad without making a sound.

Especially for experimental subjects like them, whose senses were so sharp.

Among all the experimental subjects, the longest anyone had lasted in there was one month. After that month, the subject had gone completely insane. The researchers judged that there was no value left, and just like the other discarded experimental subjects, that one had been disposed of as garbage.

From then on, that prison cell had become the nightmare of every experimental subject.

And Bai Yi had now been locked in it for half a year.

The base clearly intended to teach him a lesson severe enough, while at the same time warning the other experimental subjects that this was the price of betraying the institute.

The experimental subjects in the base had indeed become more obedient, but who could know what they were thinking in private?

Fenrir was clearly one of the ones who thought more than the others.

The moment he learned of Bai Yi’s attempted defection, he wanted to see Bai Yi for himself.

He wanted to know what could have made Bai Yi, a puppet without emotion who only obeyed orders, do something like defect.

Fenrir turned it over and over in his mind. Bai Yi’s attempted defection probably had something to do with that mission.

But that mission was the highest-level secret in the base. Fenrir did not have the authority to know about it. His only chance was to learn the truth from Bai Yi himself.

Driven by that curiosity, he spent quite a bit of effort.

And the moment he saw Bai Yi, Fenrir sharply realized that Bai Yi really had changed.

He could not describe exactly what kind of feeling it was.

But it was like a weapon made of ice-cold metal that had finally, one day, developed feelings of its own.

Although Bai Yi still looked as cold and distant as ever, no different from before on the surface, Fenrir noticed that his eyes had changed.

Once, they had been empty, as though nothing in the world could ever enter them.

Now, however, it seemed there was finally something in them worth longing for.

Even with Fenrir standing right there, Bai Yi could still remain immersed in his own thoughts.

The longer Fenrir looked, the more the playful smile slowly faded from his face.

“Number One...”

He spoke hesitantly.

Before he could finish, Bai Yi, who had remained silent all this time, finally reacted after hearing those words.

“Bai Yi.”

The experimental subject wrapped in a cloak spoke in an icy voice.

Fenrir froze for a moment, then realized that Bai Yi’s words were a response to that earlier “Number One.”

Bai Yi, Number One, Experimental Subject S-01, dog, monster, bastard...

He had many names.

And Bai Yi had never cared what others called him. Names had never meant anything to him.

But the moment Wen Yuzhi called him Bai Yi, that name had suddenly taken on a special meaning in Bai Yi’s heart.

He no longer needed any other name.

He was Bai Yi.

Fenrir had clearly noticed the shift in his attitude. He changed his wording at once. “Bai Yi.”

Then he asked, “You... did something happen to you out there?”

Fenrir had originally intended to probe a little more, but after seeing the change in Bai Yi, he chose not to circle around it and instead asked the question that truly bothered him.

He knew that look in Bai Yi’s eyes too well.

Because he was often like that himself, sitting in a corner with his gaze unfocused, sunk into some fragment of memory.

Only, Fenrir could never remember what that fragment of memory actually was.

In truth, all the experimental subjects in the base were like that. They had no memories of the past. It was as though from the moment they opened their eyes, they had already been inside the base.

And when the researchers called them, what they called out was only a string of cold numerical designations.

Only a very small number of experimental subjects were qualified to receive names like codenames.

Like him and Bai Yi. Fenrir was not really called Fenrir. Fenrir was only a codename.

If he died, the institute would simply create a second Fenrir, a third Fenrir.

After all, in myth, Fenrir referred to a giant wolf, and inside Fenrir’s body there was indeed wolf DNA.

But the occasional flickering fragments of memory always reminded him that he seemed to have once been human.

Bai Yi gave no answer to Fenrir’s question.

Just when Fenrir thought he would get no answer at all, Bai Yi suddenly spoke.

He asked only a single question.

“Do you remember having family?”

Bai Yi’s voice was ice-cold, just like the man himself, devoid of emotion, the perfect biological weapon.

Family?

Several blurry faces seemed to flash through Fenrir’s mind.

But when he tried to remember them more carefully, every face vanished again.

His memory was completely empty.

Frowning, he shook his head. “Probably not. I can’t remember anything. Even if I did...”

He did not continue.

To him, it no longer mattered whether he had family or not.

Experimental subjects like them had long since been fused with too many different kinds of genes. They did not belong to any race. In the words of those researchers, they were monsters. Aberrations.

Who they had ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) once been no longer had anything to do with who they were now.

What did it matter whether they had family or not? 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Would anyone accept a monster?

Bai Yi could also understand the part of Fenrir’s meaning that had gone unspoken.

He lowered his head and looked at his own hands.

There was not a single scar on them. Flawless and perfect. The Saint Clan self-healing ability engraved into his genes ensured that no wounds would remain on his body.

And yet Bai Yi knew very well that these hands had been stained with a great deal of blood.

But they had also once been taken in a gentle hand.

Back on the warship, even though saving him had wasted a great deal of time, Wen Yuzhi had still chosen to take him along while escaping.

The instant their palms touched, it had been the first time Bai Yi had ever felt something soft and warm.

It was hard to believe, but on Wen Yuzhi, he truly had felt a kind of intimate pull.

He had thought of Wen Yuzhi’s identity, and of his own.

And in the end, Bai Yi had still chosen to send him back.

At the time, his thoughts had been exactly the same as Fenrir’s.

He was a monster. An aberration.

That people did not belong to him, and would not welcome him either.

More importantly, he did not want to see disgust for him in Wen Yuzhi’s eyes.

That was why, when Dan came to find him, Bai Yi had still returned.

He had nowhere else to go. He was a weapon, and the greatest value of a weapon was to fight and obey orders.

Once he left the base, there would be no place for him in the outside world either.

“If only there were somewhere that could take people like us in.”

As he said that, Fenrir shook his head again. He felt the environment in this place must have already started affecting him, otherwise why would he suddenly be indulging in such wishful thinking?

And visiting time was almost up.

Fenrir said nothing more. In truth, the moment he saw Bai Yi, he already had his answer.

He set a metal case down on the floor.

“I’m here to deliver your stabilizer.”

The base provided stabilizers to each experimental subject on a regular basis according to their particular condition.

And if a stabilizer was delivered outside the designated schedule, it meant the Tribunal had issued a mission to the institute. It meant the time had come again for experimental subjects like them to be put to use.

“Congratulations. After half a year locked up, you finally get to go out again.”

His mouth formed words of congratulations, but there was not a trace of a smile in his eyes.

.............

The next day, Wen Yuzhi learned the good news Mond had told him—Mansendis had decided to take him to one of the newly conquered planets to see the snow.

Of course, it was not only to see the snow. Making such a trip at all, Mansendis also intended to inspect the condition of those newly occupied planets in person.

They were far from the Ninth Star Sector, yes, but they had still been delivered right to them by those races themselves. It would be a waste not to use them.

Ordinarily, matters like this were handled by Alvin. Strictly speaking, Mansendis did not need to go personally.

But thinking of the cub’s low spirits these past few days, and also of the things Mond often said about family members needing to spend time together, Mansendis decided to take Wen Yuzhi with him and treat the trip as a vacation.

And on the way, he would count it as family day for the two of them.

When this news came out, not only was Mond astonished, even Wen Yuzhi himself was surprised.

Who would have thought the silver-haired sovereign, who had never taken a single day off, would actually give himself a vacation?

Wen Yuzhi was hugging the white wolf, completely stunned.

“Zhizhi doesn’t want to go?” Mansendis looked at the cub and the white wolf in front of him and asked.

The moment he heard that, Wen Yuzhi immediately nodded.

“I want to go!”

As he spoke, Wen Yuzhi happily jumped down from the bed.

But before his feet could touch the floor, Mansendis, who had been watching him the whole time, caught him by the back of the collar in midair.

Pressing his lips together, the silver-haired sovereign lectured the child sternly. “You are not allowed to do something that dangerous again.”

Mond glanced at the height between the bed and the floor, then at the carpet spread across the ground, but did not remind Mansendis that for a royal-blood, falling from that height could not possibly cause injury.

Even a newly hatched cub could jump higher than that.

Not to mention that Wen Yuzhi was currently already in his juvenile form.

But when it came to Wen Yuzhi, Mansendis was still exactly the same as before.

He held the cub in one hand as easily as if he were holding a cat.

And that little cat-cub was obedient too. He did not struggle recklessly, as if he understood that he had done something wrong. Pitifully, all four little paws drew back a bit.

Mansendis simply carried the cub, who had changed back into beast form, and walked outside.

Strangely enough, although Wen Yuzhi’s human body had grown, his beast form had not grown by very much.

At most, he had gone from a palm-sized kitten to the size of an adult cat stretched across someone’s forearm.

But compared with the beast forms of the other Saint Clan, Wen Yuzhi’s beast form was still pitifully small.

It had even once made Mansendis suspect that perhaps they had not been providing the cub with enough nutrition.

Because of that, Mansendis had previously taken Wen Yuzhi back to the royal pool for a period of time.

The effect had indeed been obvious, only obvious in entirely the wrong direction.

After absorbing plenty of energy, Wen Yuzhi’s mental power had continued to rise, while his weight alone remained as light as ever.

To this day, the fluffy little ball was still all fluff and no substance.

And along the way as Mansendis carried him outside, every Saint Clan they encountered either openly or covertly let their gaze slide toward the cub in the silver-haired sovereign’s arms.

Perhaps because he felt that staying so small was not handsome or imposing enough, or perhaps because he had simply grown used to having a human body, Wen Yuzhi did not particularly like changing back into beast form.

Although the Saint Clan had always wanted to see little highness in that fluffy form, that adorable little puffball had not appeared for quite a while now.

So today, seeing little highness in beast form again without warning, every Saint Clan who passed by wanted desperately to steal a few more glances.

Wen Yuzhi, on the other hand, was being carried comfortably in Daddy’s arms, enjoying once more the old happiness of not needing to walk.

Ever since he had grown up, Mansendis rarely carried him the way he had when he was little, and Wen Yuzhi himself had also felt that he was no longer a cub who needed Daddy to carry him around.

But now that he had changed back into beast form, perhaps under the influence of that small body, Wen Yuzhi found himself wanting to be close to Daddy again, just like before.

He even wanted to stay in Daddy’s arms and refuse to get down and walk.

The white wolf, however, found this all very surprising.

It was the first time it had ever seen Wen Yuzhi’s beast form, and for a moment it found it exceptionally novel. It wanted to come closer for a better look, but was also afraid of Mansendis.

So the white wolf could only anxiously dart to Mansendis’s left, then to his right, running back and forth to find a better angle to observe from.

And while it was running around like that, Mansendis had already brought Wen Yuzhi to the port.

The scale of this trip was still enormous.

Since it counted as a family outing, Mond and Alvin were obviously going along as well.

Those newly appointed Saint Clan personal guards were being brought too. Add in the Gumu and the white wolf, and the whole procession was vast and imposing.

Of course, none of those trivial matters required Wen Yuzhi to concern himself.

What he needed to do was stay at Mansendis’s side and continue learning how to handle government affairs.

So when he sat down behind the desk, Wen Yuzhi was a little dumbfounded.

...Weren’t they out here to have fun?

...Why was there still homework to do when they were out having fun?

Mansendis’s response to this was: once the work was finished, then they could go have fun properly.

Wen Yuzhi: “...”

Why did that sound so familiar?

It seemed every parent in the world used this exact line. Finish your work first, then you can go play. But in reality...

Zhizhi suspicious.jpg.

No matter what, though, during the days the warship was in flight, Wen Yuzhi obediently cooperated and played the role of a good student.

And once Wen Yuzhi had finished his homework, they finally arrived aboard the Thanatos at Blue Zither Star, located in the Fifth Star Sector.

The distance between star sectors was measured in light-years, so the geographical environments and climates of each sector were all different.

In the Ninth Star Sector, for instance, most of their worlds were dead planets without life. Everything withered. It was desolate and lonely.

The Fifth Star Sector, however, was completely different from the Ninth.

It was known as the Forest Star Sector, rich in timber resources, with nearly every planet blanketed in forests. Many races that loved nature also lived in this sector.

Among them were the elves, famed for elegance and beauty, as well as Mu Luo’s own Hill people.

So on this trip, Mu Luo would also be able to go home and take a look along the way.

At the moment, Mu Luo was pointing through the observation window at the sea of stars outside, telling Wen Yuzhi that the mass of green nebula there was the greatest hallmark of the Fifth Star Sector.

Similar to how seeing the fish of the underworld river meant one had arrived in the Ninth Star Sector, seeing that foglike green nebula meant one had reached the Fifth.

It was said that those nebulae were also a kind of spirit race.

And Blue Zither Star lay right in the middle of the Fifth Star Sector.

Its original ruling race had been the fire lizard people. Just as their name suggested, they looked like fire lizards themselves. Among so many nature-loving races, their overly warlike disposition made them seem especially out of place.

But unfortunately for everyone else, they were capable enough, and they occupied resource-rich Blue Zither Star. So even though the other races of the Fifth Star Sector did not much welcome them, they had still managed to remain there by force.

For the other races of the Fifth Star Sector, the Saint Clan taking Blue Zither Star was actually a good thing.

Those hateful fire lizards were finally gone.

But while those fire lizards were gone, an even bigger boss—the Saint Clan—had arrived instead.

The races of the Fifth Star Sector: “.......”

Shivering.jpg.