Chapter 103: Becoming a Wisp of Starlight

Chapter 103: Becoming a Wisp of Starlight

Picking up where the last chapter left off — I had met with Xuanze and Hanming at the bottom of the deep ocean, and spoken as well with the seas of consciousness of the eight scientists merged into the core supercomputer. I told them that, if they wished it, I had the ability to peel their seas of consciousness free of the core and let them return to the human world.

In the end, my father and two other scientists chose to leave, while the remaining five chose to stay merged with the core.

I didn’t press the matter. Everyone has their own path.

My father’s body had been preserved in perfect condition back at the old residence — a debt owed entirely to Xuanze and Hanming’s cosmic methods. The other two scientists hadn’t been so fortunate; their bodies had long since decayed and burned. I had no choice but to lodge their seas of consciousness inside parasitic hosts for the time being, then hand them over to Engineer Lin, so he could use DNA-based biological cultivation technology to grow them compatible biological bodies of their own.

Once my father was brought back to life, I led him slowly toward my mother. After twenty-two years of waiting, of separation, the two of them finally stood face to face again. My mother had long since let go of her resentment; her eyes swam with tears.

As for the choices the older generation had made, I no longer saw them in terms of right or wrong at all.

Especially after speaking with Xuanze and Hanming’s parents, I understood that my father’s decision had been the right one.

Xuanze and Hanming, wearing the old woman’s face, had disguised themselves as my father’s soul and made their meaning plain enough already. They hadn’t wanted me carrying resentment toward my father. That much kindness was theirs alone.

My father, back then, truly had no way of walking free from the core supercomputer. He didn’t have the ability. He was only a scientist — not someone versed in martial technique or the deeper reaches of force of consciousness.

All of this, I only came to understand after gaining Cassiopeia’s cosmic abilities myself.

The past had become smoke on the wind.

I no longer carried resentment toward anyone — not the Soul Hunters, not the Sweepers. The Shadow Pavilion’s Eight Elders had already accepted my punishment. I couldn’t go on hating them either.

With my father and the other two gone, the core supercomputer did show faint signs of slipping toward a lower state. But I didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing.

The projection of the virtual Future World onto Bixian Star clearly worked against humanity’s interests. HD Star’s people could study the Blue Planet’s humans with perfect clarity, while Blue Planet humans understood nothing of HD Star in return. More pressingly, HD Star stood on the brink of interstellar war with Tengshe Star. If the Blue Planet were exposed before Tengshe Star’s eyes, the consequences could go anywhere. At the very least, I couldn’t let Tengshe Star learn of Earth’s humans at all.

Tengshe Star’s technology was clearly no weaker than HD Star’s. Otherwise the coming war wouldn’t be a war between equals — it would be slaughter, one-sided. Once I’d escorted Xuanze and Hanming home to HD Star, I might well find myself drawn into that war too. If it came to that, Earth’s safety would rest entirely on my parents and the others left behind.

That was part of why I wanted my father brought back. He had always been one of the pillars behind the Blue Planet’s technological progress.

So I spent three months training him deliberately. I poured the cosmic wisdom of the Akashic Records into him, and personally used the fourth green jade token to help him draw out some of the force of consciousness held there. Alongside that, I handed him the cosmic energy mass the Yaomei Star garrison commander had given me, letting him absorb it at his own pace.

Between the two, I judged his cosmic ability would reach at least half of…