The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

This giant, bright red lizard was holding the sandworm in its mouth. With a sudden snapping sound, it raised its neck and gulped down the burnt half of the sandworm.

Then, it paused momentarily. Apparently, the sandworm didn’t taste very good, because the lizard frowned in disgust and spat the remaining half of the sandworm out, throwing it off the bridge and onto the quicksand below.

Fu Yucheng stared at it blankly and then, suddenly remembering, he screamed, “My blade!!!”

His precious scimitar was still stuck in that sandworm’s eye!

How would he get it back now?

The big lizard twisted its neck around, looking uncomfortable, like it had something stuck in its throat. Suddenly, it spat again just like it was spitting out sunflower seed’s shell, and threw out a blade.

With a muted clang, the blue scimitar was thrust into the bridge’s concrete as if it were tofu, right at Fu Yucheng’s feet. The top of the hilt shook lightly.

Fu Yucheng swallowed, carefully took out the blade, and held it in his hand.

The big lizard slowly looked around, and, finally, it seemed to notice the two small humans and blew out a warm breath from its nostrils.

Then, the mutant lizard opened its mouth carelessly and a crimson flame burst out.

A wave of heat rolled towards them!

At that very moment, Bai Mo almost subconsciously pulled the man next to him towards his back, simultaneously raising his arm up to cover himself.

Almost instantly, there was a crackling sound and a thin ice shield grew mid air like a huge barrier, firmly protecting them.

However, the ice shield looked extremely fragile, as if it might break from a single blow. How could it endure the flames of a fire lizard?

They heard a loud noise and the crimson flame, as wide as a truck, slammed directly against the ice shield.

A puff of white mist rose from the shield, melting it quickly.

Bai Mo clenched his teeth and, as the ice shield melted, it froze and became solid once again.

For a while, ice and fire were fighting against each other, filling the area with steam.

However, after a moment, a layer of cold sweat appeared all over the boy’s smooth forehead, and even his lips turned pale. He gritted his teeth. He could strongly taste blood inside his mouth… but the only thing he could think about was that he’d never give up!

Fu Yucheng’s heart twisted, but there was nothing he could do—Bai Mo was clearly acting on pure instinct, and, at that moment, he couldn’t be easily distracted.

The flames didn’t manage to break through the ice shield yet.

After an unknown period of time, the lizard finally fell silent. It narrowed its eyes in confusion, and its huge nose fluttered slightly.

Then, it seemed to feel something, and its golden vertical pupils suddenly grew wide.

The big lizard stared at Fu Yucheng, slowly lowering its head.

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Seeing the terrifying head getting closer and closer, Bai Mo stared at the behemoth, and a cloud of white ice mist rose up, almost visible to the naked eye.

Fu Yucheng frowned and looked at the golden vertical pupils. He suddenly noticed something and gently pushed Bai Mo to the side, walking up to the beast.

The boy anxiously asked, “Yu-ge, what…?”

Fu Yucheng didn’t look back at him. Instead, he raised his right hand and moved it down, gesturing to ask him to remain calm.

He stared at the huge head as it grew closer, tentatively stretched out a hand, and, very softly, he touched the lizard’s nose.

The mutant lizard lightly sniffed the other’s fingertips, then froze.

After blinking strangely, as if it didn’t know what to do for a moment, this behemoth suddenly raised its head, and howled out, looking very excited.

Bai Mo asked, “What’s going on? What’s wrong with it?”

“It smelled the little lizard on me,” Fu Yucheng whispered. “Just now, I noticed some green spots in its golden irises that look exactly the same as the spots on the little lizard I raised. I guess… that this big lizard is related to the little one. They’re probably mother and child. I’ve been feeding that little lizard for a long time, so I still carry its scent.”

The big lizard howled for a long time until it finally calmed down from its excitement.

It slowly lowered its head again, and a pair of golden vertical pupils looked at Fu Yucheng in consideration, seemingly pondering about why this human would carry the scent of its own child.

“Uh…” Fu Yucheng scratched his head awkwardly, “Ms. Lizard, I have taken care of your baby lizard for a long time. It has been doing well.”

The big lizard stared at him blankly.

Bai Mo couldn’t help but point out, “Yu-ge, can it understand you?”

Fu Yucheng’s mouth twitched wryly. “I think speaking to the lizard is really dumb, too… Ah, if only that zoologist was here.”

After pondering for a while, he squatted down and drew a very simple little lizard on the ground with his scimitar. He pointed to the little lizard, then pointed at himself, and then repeatedly mimicked feeding.

The big lizard tilted its head.

Fu Yucheng was at his wit’s end, and he gestured desperately trying to make himself understood. “It’s doing well!”

After struggling like this for quite some time, the big lizard’s pupils suddenly shrank. Apparently, it finally understood what Fu Yucheng meant, and, for a while, it got so excited that it began to shoot out bursts of heat.

“It’s good that you understand.” Fu Yucheng let out a long sigh and stood up.

The big lizard stared at the other and, suddenly, it opened its mouth.

What is it trying to do? Bai Mo’s heart suddenly twisted. Before he had time to pull Fu Yucheng back, the lizard had already stretched out a long bright red tongue, and it licked Fu Yucheng from head to toe.

Fu Yucheng, covered in wet, sticky saliva, touched its nose, saying, “Good girl.”

The big lizard turned its head again and stuck out its tongue towards Bai Mo.

Looking at the big tongue dripping with sticky saliva, Bai Mo’s hair stood on its end. He wanted to dodge, but before he could, Fu Yucheng whispered loudly, “It’s showing kindness, don’t hide! Just bear it with me!”

“Fine.” Bai Mo had no choice but to accept it, so he stiffly stood still.

The slimy tongue of the big lizard licked him all over without hesitation. The young man was covered in saliva from head to toe, and he almost felt like crying.

The mutant lizard played around with the two humans almost forcefully for a while. Just when Fu Yucheng and Bai Mo were about to collapse, it suddenly turned around and let its long, huge tail hang down.

Fu Yucheng was almost out of breath after being tossed around so much. “I’m about to go crazy, what does it want to do now?”

Bai Mo pondered this and said, “I think it might want us to climb up along its tail?”

The big lizard turned his head and howled twice, as if it was telling them to hurry. It flicked its big tail back and forth a couple times, making the bridge beneath them shake.

Fu Yucheng’s eyes lit up a little. “So this really means… that it wants to help us get across this area!”

For a moment, he felt ecstatic. Hurriedly, he pulled Bai Mo into the off-road vehicle, cautiously drove the car onto the thick tail, and finally stopped on the lizard’s back.

The big lizard slowly stood up with a small push.

This mutant lizard was extremely mindful. While walking, it paid attention to its back, keeping it balanced in order to prevent the off-road vehicle from falling.

It slowly walked into the quicksand, and swam forward.

If anyone were to see them, they would think they made quite a funny scene—a huge bright red fire lizard with an off-road vehicle on its back, slowly swimming through the quicksand.

Not long after, the big lizard, with the off-road vehicle on its back, reached the slope on the opposite side of the bridge.

The lizard howled twice again, lowered its long tail, and let the off-road vehicle slowly drive off of it and onto the bridge deck.

Fu Yucheng jumped out of the off-road vehicle and the big lizard lowered its head, looking at the little human with its golden vertical pupils, making a few hopeful low noises.

Fu Yucheng touched its nose lightly. “Thank you. Don’t worry, when I get back, if the little lizard appears again, I will take good care of it.”

The big lizard seemed to understand what the human said, and the tip of its nose pushed against the other’s hand slightly before turning around and, reluctantly, sinking into the quicksand, one step at a time.

Fu Yucheng watched its hot red back disappear into the quicksand, and he sighed. “It’s hard to be a parent in this world. Even lizards are no exception.”

The two returned to the cabin and set off on the road again.

After a while, the off-road vehicle got off the bridge and, after a few more hours, the vast desert gradually turned into a desert of brown earth.

And, before they knew it, the sky gradually darkened.

Bai Mo couldn’t help it but remark, “The sky… it’s dark.”

Fu Yucheng smiled and said, “Of course. We have crossed the Twilight Belt, and before us we have the Eternal Darkness face—that is, the Devil’s Antarctic.”

The off-road vehicle sped across the rough surface of the brown earth desert, jolting from time to time. The desert gradually began to be stained with silver frost, and a few faint stars slowly became visible suspended in the dark blue sky.

Little by little, a large, silvery white ice sheet slowly spread before their eyes, and, in the vast sky up above, the stars shone brighter.

The boundless sheet of ice reflected the sky full of stars, and the starlight stretched above their heads and below their feet, making it impossible to tell where the sky ended and the Earth began.

“This is the Devil’s Antarctic? It’s so beautiful,” Bai Mo couldn’t help but mutter quietly.

Looking out the window, Fu Yucheng was also a little surprised. “…It really is beautiful. The surface on the Eternal Night side is too cold, so the Devil’s Antarctic has been frozen for a long time, kinda like… the South Pole from the past.”

He was so distracted that he wasn’t able to dodge a lump of ice, causing the entire vehicle to jolt.

“Ah, I can’t drive when I’m tired…” Fu Yucheng rubbed his temples, feeling a headache forming—after driving for more than ten hours straight, he felt exhausted.

After some thought, he found a place to take cover from the wind and stopped the vehicle next to a huge block of ice. “Little Mo, let’s rest here for tonight and leave tomorrow.”

While talking, Fu Yucheng stood up from his seat, yawned and walked to the back of the carriage.

Bai Mo also stood up, and asked, “Yu-ge, what are we looking for, coming here to the Devil’s Antarctic?”

Fu Yucheng had already walked into the rear compartment and laid down onto the sofa.

For a while, he kept staring at the roof of the car, before taking out a diary and a book and throwing them onto the coffee table next to him.

“Read it yourself, then you’ll know.” He rubbed his eyebrows wearily.

“This is… what you got from Mo Ziwei’s study?” Bai Mo walked over, confused.

He picked up the old book first and glanced at it, muttering, “Beyond Good And Evil by Nietzsche… What book is this?”

Fu Yucheng shrugged. “A copy of an old philosophy book. You can put it aside and read the diary instead.”

Bai Mo nodded, setting down the book and picking up the old leather-bound diary next to it. Slowly, he opened up the first page.

Two simple words, ‘Mo Hanchuan’, were written on the first page, and the handwriting was firm and neat. It was clear that it belonged to someone serious and strict.

Bai Mo hesitated momentarily before saying, “This is… the diary of Admiral Mo Hanchuan, the one that you mentioned? The one who two centuries ago confronted Rong Qian and established a resistance base on Earth before finally disappearing into deep space? That Mo Hanchuan?”

“Yes, that one,” Fu Yucheng said lightly.

Bai Mo didn’t ask any more. He continued to flip the pages, reading out softly as he went, “April 3, 2126. Weather: sunny. Today, the last project of the Resistance Base has finally been completed. I have to say that the underground section was far more difficult than the above-ground construction, and the entire project has taken much longer than I expected. However, in order to defend against threats from space, the Twilight Belt requires a large number of underground fortifications.”

After reading this, Bai Mo paused, seemingly having realized something. “I never understood why Fort Hurricane had to build such a huge underground factory. It seemed meaningless… So, Fort Hurricane was built like that in order to defend against Rong Qian’s air strikes?”

Fu Yucheng looked at the ceiling. “That should be its main purpose, yes.”

Bai Mo nodded and continued reading. “…May 8, 2126. Weather: level 4 sandstorm. The weather was very bad today. I found an orphan among the refugees from the Great Migration. He’s very capable, and he has an odd ability that seems worth studying.”

He flipped through the diary quickly, skipping some unimportant entries.

“…June 4, 2126. Weather: sunny. I decided to adopt the orphan. I have asked him to take my surname, and his name will be Mo An—I hope he will have a peaceful life.”1

Bai Mo frowned slightly. “Mo An… I think I remember that name. Wasn’t he Mo Hanchuan’s adopted son, and Mo Ziwei and Mo Ziran’s great-grandfather?”

Fu Yucheng let out a “Mmhm.”

Bai Mo continued to flip through the diary. “…November 29, 2126. Weather: overcast. Little An once again demonstrated his outstanding, uncommon ability—in just an instant, he unloaded the guns of the four bodyguards of the Imperial Negotiator. Everyone at the scene was left simply staring at one another, not knowing what happened.”

The following pages were full of speculations about Mo An’s ability.

Then, there was a full page that had only four words in it.

“He can manipulate time?”

This sentence was written almost illegibly, but the pen had dug into the paper harshly, the big question mark at the end had even scratched the surface. The date and weather weren’t written down on this page. Obviously, the author’s mind was in disarray.

“December 2, 2126. Weather: sunny. He manipulates time.” The handwriting in this sentence was regular once again.

After reading this, Bai Mo couldn’t resist raising his head and throwing a glance at Fu Yucheng.

Fu Yucheng raised his eyebrows. “Do you understand what Mo family’s power is now? That’s right, it’s manipulating time… That’s how Mo Ziwei can strike so fast.”

He immediately shook his head, refuting what he had just said. “No, Mo Ziwei’s shot isn’t just ‘fast’, at all… I guess that, the moment Mo Ziwei strikes, the way time flows, for him, is different than for other people.”

Bai Mo frowned and said, “But… earlier, you said that this Mo Ziwei is not the real Mo Ziwei. How can he have the Mo family’s power?”

Fu Yucheng didn’t answer.

Instead, after a long pause, he said, “Read a bit further, and you’ll understand.”

 

 

I’m surprised I got this one out in time because boy did my workload increase. Super special thanks to Wintery who is still editing these even though I haven’t had to edit for her! And thank you to everyone reading and commenting, it means so much! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

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Footnotes

The 安 An character means peaceful, safe, etc.