“Hmm.” Bai Mo nodded, and continued to flip through the diary.

For the next year or so, Mo Hanchuan’s diary entries consisted of just a few lines, mostly concerning the daily work at Fort Hurricane, such as training the resistance army, handling of various minute matters, etc.

“…June 15th, 2127. Weather: cloudy. With Little An’s help I finally managed to regain my mental power after several months. The technique required to control time is very delicate and complex, but he finally managed to do it.”

Bai Mo paused and couldn’t help but look up. “What does this section mean? Mo Hanchuan’s adopted son helped him regain his psionic power? But wasn’t the part of the cerebral cortex that gave Mo Hanchuan his psionic power already removed by Rong Qian long ago?”

Fu Yucheng stared at the ceiling of the vehicle, not saying anything for a long time.

After a while, he said, “Little Mo, did you forget? His adopted son, Mo An, has the ability to… control time.”

For a small moment, Bai Mo froze before understanding what the other meant. “Yu-ge, do you mean that… Mo An repaired Mo Hanchuan’s brain by reversing time? But wouldn’t reversing time affect everyone?”

“Obviously, Mo An was able to precisely control the area where he would reverse time – for example, limiting it just to the area of Mo Hanchuan’s brain where the surgery was performed.” Fu Yucheng rubbed his forehead tiredly.

Bai Mo was silent for a while, and then he suddenly spoke in a soft voice. “In that case, Mo An’s descendants would also possess this ability. Descendants such as… Mo Ziran. Then, after he awakens, could he help you recover your spiritual power?”

Fu Yucheng shook his head. “I’m not sure whether Mo Ziran has such a power. However, this is not the time to be talking about this, just keep reading.”

Bai Mo nodded and continued reading down the page. “…August 2nd, 2127. I gave Little An the spectral hook. It was the eleventh sentience weapon I used. I hope he can make good use of it.”

As the boy read that line, he couldn’t stop himself from frowning. “His eleventh sentience weapon? Did Mo Hanchuan switch weapons so often? However the types of sentience weapons are completely different for different types of psionic power, right? Most manipulators can only handle one or two sentience weapons through their whole lifetime, even if they’re good at it. How could he keep switching between them?”

Fu Yucheng smiled gently. “Little Mo, do you know what type of psionic power Mo Hanchuan had?”

Bai Mo pondered for a moment. “You said before that Mo Hanchuan’s skills were varied… Moreover, since he was able to constantly switch between sentience weapons, I guess the most likely option would be that he had a hybrid type of power? So he could use multiple abilities at the same time?”

“I thought the same thing in the past.” Fu Yucheng paused for an instant, then continued. “As it turns out, among the upper echelons of the Empire, Mo Hanchuan’s psionic power has always been a bit of a legendary rumor. However, most of the nobles took that legend as an unreliable, wild historical rumor, and didn’t believe it very much.”

He licked his lips before speaking, saying slowly, “Mo Hanchuan isn’t a hybrid system manipulator, he is a special system manipulator, and his ability is none other than perfect duplication.”

Bai Mo seemed to have frozen for a moment. “Perfect duplication? He can reproduce objects?”

“Not that kind of duplication.” Fu Yucheng shook his head. “Mo Hanchuan can copy other people’s psionic power. Lately, I have been thinking about the legendary rumors about Mo Hanchuan a lot, and about all the speculation developed by his descendants about his powers… and I am quite sure that he’s capable of copying other people’s abilities.”

Bai Mo’s frown deepened. “But, if that was really the case, then he would be nearly invincible… how could he lose to Rong Qian?”

Fu Yucheng rubbed his temples tiredly and sat up, propping his body up.

He dipped his finger in a cup of water and drew a circle on the coffee table. “Let’s assume that this circle is all of Mo Hanchuan’s psionic power. There are several abilities in it, and they each limit each other, basically like a zero-sum game.”1

Fu Yucheng divided the circle into two halves and wrote an A on the left side and a B on the right.

“For example, ability A uses up 50% of his power and ability B accounts for the other 50%. At this point, if he copies a new ability, C, it will require A and B to give up some space, and then, A will take 40%, B another 40%, and C a 20%. This means that, no matter how many types of abilities he has, his total power is restricted to this circle. His power cannot grow infinitely.”

Bai Mo nodded. “I see, so that means that his ability has an upper limit.”

“Yes, that’s right. Now keep reading.” Fu Yucheng smoothly picked up the rubik’s cube on the coffee table and started playing with it.

“…August 20th, 2127. Weather: class 2 sandstorm. I got drunk last night. I never intended for anything to happen with May, but as a matter of fact, it did happen, and I’m sorry.”

At this point, the diary had several pages messily torn out. There were no more entries for a long time after that, and, apparently, the author was in a bad mood.

“…December 26th, 2127. Weather: sunny. May decided to follow the migrant groups and leave Fort Hurricane. She might be feeling disappointed, but I really can’t take care of her, nor take care of the baby in her belly.”

Reading this, Bai Mo was a little confused. “Does Mo Hanchuan mean that he and a woman had a child because of a drunken accident? And then that woman left Fort Hurricane? But why did she leave?”

Fu Yucheng said nonchalantly, “If you read The chronicles of Earth after the Lock-in Day, you’ll see that, in the fourth trimester of that year, a great migration of nearly eight thousand people took place, from the Twilight belt to the Devil’s Antarctic.”

“Why? Going from the Twilight belt to the Eternal night face… wouldn’t that be simply looking for death? Bai Mo frowned.

“Now it may seem unbelievable, but, on Earth, back in the day, there was more than the windmill powered civilization of the Twilight belt. There was also a small nuclear powered civilization living in the cold Devil’s Antarctic. That place was also considered to be self-sufficient, and the people there lived by relying mostly on a large nuclear power plant built in the past.”

Unconsciously playing with the rubik’s cube in his hand, Fu Yucheng continued, “As for why the great migration happened… It seems that the poor relationship between Mo Hanchuan and Rong Qian back at that time made the residents of the Twilight Belt wary about the future, and they feared war.”

Bai Mo mumbled, “So, this great migration happened because some people living in the Twilight belt feared a war between the two, and so they left and headed to the Devil’s Antarctic?”

Suddenly, a bright white lightning bolt struck the boy’s mind.

He couldn’t stop his voice from wavering. “Then, back then, when Mo Ziwei took an expedition to the Devil’s Antarctic, he was trying to…”

Fu Yucheng nodded. “Your guess is right. Mo Ziwei went to the Devil’s Antarctic to look precisely for that long lost nuclear civilization. I heard Ziran mention that his brother was very brave, and he was full of ideas about the future of humanity. I guess that he might have wanted to reunite with the nuclear civilization of the Devil’s Antarctic to build a new civilization on Earth together, instead of continuing to languish like they do now.”

“But, after he got to the Antarctic, nobody heard of him for three whole years… and then when he returned at last, it was a false Mo Ziwei.” Bai Mo frowned.

Fu Yucheng shrugged. “That’s right. Moreover, this fake Mo Ziwei has the same time manipulation ability as the Mo family. And not just that, he can also freely manipulate Mo Hanchuan’s spectral hook.”

Bai Mo pondered Fu Yucheng’s words carefully and, suddenly, a deep chill ran through him. “Mo Hanchuan’s own psionic power was duplication, so his biological offspring would, naturally, also inherit his ability…”

Fu Yucheng sighed. “That was exactly my guess. Back then, Mo Hanchuan had a child with a certain woman. However, at that time, he was in a life or death struggle against Rong Qian, and he had no time to take care of the mother and child. The woman was very dejected, as well as concerned for the safety of her child at the same time, so she decided to leave the Twilight belt and follow the great migration group to search for the nuclear civilization at the Devil’s Antarctic.”

He spoke in a lower voice now. “Now, a hundred years have passed. And, although Mo Hanchuan disappeared into the vast deep space, the children he had with that woman kept struggling for survival in the Antarctic, generation after generation. And Mo Hanchuan’s descendants have, naturally, inherited his ability – perfect duplication.”

After saying this, Fu Yucheng let out a small sigh. “I don’t think the Antarctic is a good place to live. And then, one day, the young master of Fort Hurricane took the initiative to come to their door, perhaps even saying some naïve words… ‘I hope that we can all work together to build a new civilization on Earth’, or something like that.”

He smiled drily. “I don’t know what Mo Hanchuan’s descendant would have thought at the time… but in any case, it seems like he copied Mo Ziwei’s ability and then killed him, put on the ghost mask, and took his place.”

“So, this fake Mo Ziwei was originally Mo Hanchuan’s descendant. That’s why Mo Hanchuan’s spectral hook allows him to command it,” Bai Mo murmured.

“Little Mo, now you understand what I’m trying to find by coming to this land of ice, right?”

“You want to look for that lost nuclear civilization,” the boy said softly. “But, do you know if that civilization is still around today?”

“I don’t know.” Fu Yucheng shook his head. “After all, maintaining a nuclear power plant, sourcing uranium 235… it’s all very complicated stuff.”

He twisted the rubik’s cube around without thinking. “Maybe this civilization has declined. Maybe it still lingers on… in either case, I don’t think the situation there will be good. Perhaps, even ruthless.”

Bai Mo said thoughtfully, “Maybe that bad situation is the reason Mo Ziwei didn’t hesitate to abandon his home and impersonate someone else.”

Fu Yucheng nodded. “Once we find that lost nuclear civilization… the whereabouts of the real Mo Ziwei, as well as those who went with him to the Devil’s Antarctic back then, will be revealed.”

“In that case, it will prove that the current Mo Ziwei is an impostor who killed the original master of the Fort,” Bai Mo said slowly.

“Mm-hmm, that’s pretty much it.” Fu Yucheng casually tossed the cube onto the coffee table and let out another long yawn. “I’m just too tired today, so let’s go to bed first. We have to hit the road tomorrow.”

The two of them roughly washed up, then activated sleep mode.

With sleep mode on, there was just a small night light illuminating the interior of the large vehicle. The warm, muted yellow light looked incredibly peaceful and soft.

Fu Yucheng, who must have been exhausted, fell asleep very quickly, and his breathing gradually evened out.

However, on the top bunk, Bai Mo kept tossing and turning over and over, unable to sleep.

He thought about Mo Hanchuan back in the day, about the real and fake Mo Ziwei, about the distant nuclear civilization, and about Fu Yucheng finally having a chance to recover his psionic power.

He also thought about how he himself had managed to block the fiery flames of the fire lizard on the bridge earlier that day, keeping the other firmly behind him… The feeling of that man relying on him and trusting him felt like it was too good to be true.

However, if Fu Yucheng really recovered his psionic power, would he still need Bai Mo?Bai Mo was slowly growing up, too, and, according to what Fu Yucheng had said in the past, after he grew up, he would have to go do his own thing… Sooner or later, they would have to go their separate ways.

Bai Mo felt at a loss, as if there was an emptiness in his heart, cold and harsh.

Not wanting to think about that any longer, he rolled over in annoyance and stared blankly at the sofa across from him.

Under the dark night light, the other’s sleeping face looked handsome but tired, his dark eyelashes hanging low, casting a faint shadow below his eyes.

He looked very vulnerable, as if he needed Bai Mo to protect him.

An evil thought suddenly sprang from the boy’s heart.

What if… what if he wasn’t able to recover?

*long sigh* it’s been… a while. My exams were really tough and lasted longer than I expected, and I’m still waiting for my grades. But I’m back, and so is ERL! Let’s celebrate~~~

For now, updates will be on wednesdays until I get back to the swing of things. If anyone is still reading, thank you so much for your patience, I love you all