"In the ancient days of the Uncounted Epoch, this world was ruled by the Mother of Myriad Serpents who emerged from the Sannar River... All living things flourished and thrived across the empires of the various bloodlines, flourishing in prosperity..."
The characters carved upon the black stone stele were archaic and strange, yet the imperial princess could comprehend their meaning.
It seemed that this information was not conveyed through sight, but through some other channel.
But none of this was the most important part. In the middle of the stele, everything that followed was inscribed in startling detail: "...Until one day, a being who took the name Night Lady arrived here. She drove out the Mother of Myriad Serpents, destroyed the kingdoms of all the bloodlines, built a new empire upon their corpses, and hid behind the scenes to manipulate events, all to satisfy her own unspeakable purposes..."
Clearly, any citizen of the Empire who read such treasonous words would fly into a rage, followed by sheer terror.
And yet, the young princess's expression was peculiar — a complex amalgamation of joy, anticipation, confusion, and fear.
"...The newly established empire claimed all the glory, its civilization shining brighter than the stars themselves. Yet the Night Lady was not satisfied — she wanted more... more..."
"I foresee... she will cruelly purge the bloodlines, replacing one kind of people with another, until every soul is turned the same color... The only means of salvation lies in..."
After reading to this point, the imperial princess forced herself to turn away.
For she could feel the will of the surrounding Shadow
Yet in her heart, she was still murmuring to herself: "The Eastern Sea Scrolls, the Dead Sea Manuscripts — the great prophet, 'the Blind' Eli's Book of Salvation, the only key to hope — it is no longer in the hands of the resisters..."
"Seal this stele and classify it as 5S-level! Anyone who violates this security order is to be executed on the spot!"
After a bitter inward laugh, the imperial princess issued another command.
"5S level!"
As expected, this decision immediately drew gasps of astonishment. This was a classification that even the Empire's Grand Marshal was not permitted to access!
"Do as I say!"
The imperial princess declared coldly. The powerful magic weave manifested around her alongside the Emperor's special decree, marking this as a wholly lawful order.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
The old navy officers exchanged glances. In the end, they had no choice but to carry out the order.
Strangely enough, neither they nor any other Imperial Navy units, nor even the special operations psychics, had detected anything unusual about the stone tablet — to their eyes, the tablet's surface was covered with all manner of fanciful drawings, looking like nothing more than a child's scribbles. They couldn't make heads or tails of it.
But no matter what! Whatever had compelled an Imperial Princess to lower herself to this place and command the mightiest "Imperial" to annihilate an ancient creature and claim what it left behind — that thing had to be extraordinary!
"If only you knew I was trying to spare you..."
Watching the admirals' retreating backs, a bitter smile flickered across the Imperial Princess's face.
The more she knew, the more desperate she felt. The entire Empire controlled by a hidden hand? For over ten thousand years, manipulating the succession of emperors and the nation's policies? Such a laughable notion would be rejected even by the stupidest beggar — yet the princess knew it was the absolute truth!
And that being's power. She was utterly powerless to resist it!
Its strength was simply too overwhelming, so overwhelming that she couldn't even muster the thought of resisting.
Beep beep!
Right then, a communication request came through. Once connected, an Imperial officer's image immediately materialized on the screen.
"Your Highness!"
The officer first executed a flawless military salute, then produced a decree: "There is a new command!"
"Read it."
In the presence of outsiders, the Imperial Princess once again swept away all her cowardice and helplessness, concealing them behind a mask of aloof coldness.
"'Order: Imperial to return with the mission objective. Remaining forces to proceed to Devil's Island and eliminate all resistance organizations!'"
"What is this? Explain more clearly!"
The princess naturally knew that with the forces at her current disposal — setting aside this terrifying Imperial-class psionic submarine — she already held the advantage over any other resistance organization.
But she had never expected the Empire to issue such an urgent command. It carried a whiff of desperation.
"Here is the situation... we've just received word! Our Imperial East Sea Research Institute on Devil's Island has been breached!"
"What? Are you joking? There were garrison troops protecting that location!"
The princess's brows furrowed.
"That's correct! The nearby garrison has also been completely wiped out... As of now, the only ones in the surrounding area who can arrive quickly and whose strength exceeds that of the bandits are Your Highness and our colleagues from the First Fleet..."
The officer's mouth twitched in the screen.
"Who are the enemy? The Witch Society? The Bloodline Alliance? Or the Martial Dao Palace?" The princess furrowed her brow, rattling off the names of the largest resistance organizations.
"Unfortunately, all of them! And there's also a Round Table Knight on top of that—they didn't even care about civilian casualties and deployed large-scale weapons of mass destruction, showing absolutely resolute determination!"
"Have we been discovered?"
The imperial princess bit her lip. She knew perfectly well what was inside the empire's East Sea Research Institute—things that absolutely must never be known to the outside world!
"I'll head there immediately!"
Upon learning this, the princess agreed without the slightest hesitation.
No matter how unwilling she was, she was still a part of the empire. Such was the tragedy of one's birth and standing!
...
East Sea, Devil's Island!
Boom! An alloy layer several meters thick was blown straight open, revealing the densely packed cultivation chambers behind it.
Inside the semi-translucent chambers, everything from human embryonic stages to fully mature specimens could be found.
"Tch... just clones? Doesn't seem like much of anything?"
A man dressed very much like a medieval Knight turned to look at Crow-Eye. Just moments ago, he had split open the alloy gate with a single strike—his strength was not to be underestimated. He was the foremost expert among the Round Table Knights!
But his gaze now carried an unmistakable note of interrogation.
"Research in this area—even we've dabbled in it. The scale here seems a bit larger than usual, but that alone shouldn't be reason enough for you to invite us here."
An elderly man in a floor-length robe paced slowly forward, his clouded eyes fixed on the production facility below, seemingly awestruck by its sheer scale.
"Of course not... cough, cough..."
Crow-Eye's ribs were already wrapped in bandages. Clearly, the process of breaking into the research institute had not been a smooth one either.
"What I truly want you to see is this!"
He led the two of them deep into the research institute, where they found a safe marked with a huge 'X' on its exterior.
"Thanks to the witches' magic, otherwise I never would have been able to get the password..."
Crow-Eye's hands moved with practiced speed as he input a string of codes, then produced a blood-stained eyeball and held it up to the scanner on the safe's surface.
Seeing such stringent security measures, the Knight and the old man exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with gravity.
Click!
The safe swung open quickly, revealing its contents — not much: just a few spiral-shaped test tubes and a disk.
"Take a look..."
Crow-Eye handed over the disk.
"Project X — Overview: This is a plan proposed by the Empire's codename 'X' Doctor, aimed at using cloned embryos to gradually eliminate the Empire's useless refuse. The project has been ongoing for 571 years... completion rate: 67%!"
Crow-Eye's voice was heavy.
"This... this... this... it's simply too unbelievable..."
Both the Knight and the old man murmured in shock, but the data on the disk had already laid everything bare.
"What's in it for them? What do they gain from doing this?" the Knight murmured.
"Control! That's their greatest gain... Through genetic manipulation and artificial 'contamination transmission,' they can ensure that our descendants will never again inherit supernatural power, and that even practicing martial arts becomes exceedingly difficult... More critically, by activating fragments buried deep within the genes, they can even control these modified humans at any time..."
Crow-Eye's voice was grave: "Just imagine — the entire world becoming your enemy. Every neighbor, every friend, every classmate instantly turning into a cold-blooded killer, and we're trapped in the midst of that sea of people..."
Cold sweat slid continuously down the Knight's and the old man's faces.
"So... how far have they gotten now?"
The old man's voice was unbearably dry, tinged with despair.
"They have these facilities scattered throughout the Empire, but this one is headquarters — the source of everything. According to our organization's covert investigations, the situation is far from optimistic..."
The light-display on Crow-Eye's wrist projected a screen, laying out two structural diagrams of DNA.
"This is a normal person's, and this is the Empire's X-body! This is where the difference lies!"
As Crow-Eye zoomed in, an 'x' symbol — one that original life forms did not possess — materialized upon the X-body's genetic map.
"This is the hidden mechanism and backdoor the Empire left behind, for their own identification purposes. Any genetic profile that carries this X can essentially be considered an Empire-controlled subject..."
Crow-Eye's voice turned grave: "The controllability and infectiousness of this gene are extremely potent! If a native hybridizes with an X-body, it only takes two generations! The DNA of their descendants will be completely transformed, branded with this mark!"
"Ha... ha... so you're saying that even among us, people like that could exist?"
The Knight of the Round Table burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears actually formed at the corners of his eyes: "You're telling me my family — even I myself — could be artificially created, and that one day I'll lose my mind and become a machine under the Empire's control, slaughtering my own family and friends?"
"I'm sorry... but what I'm saying is the truth. Even within our own bloodline, several cases of this have already been discovered..."
Crow-Eye gave a slight bow: "However, the good news is that this control is merely a constant subconscious influence. So if an individual's willpower is strong enough, or if they encounter a more powerful bloodline, it can still be suppressed..."