TCPUAAV Chapter 138

 

 

 

Rong Heng finally woke up five days later.

 

The climate on Planet B3024 was artificially regulated—mostly clear, with little rain. He had been hiding in the suffocating, airless junkyard, while scavenger creatures gnawed at his open wounds. Unsurprisingly, his injuries had become infected.

 

Ruan Shiqing never left his side. His mood rose and fell with each faint breath the hatchling took.

 

Time seemed to slow under such torment, until that tiny form finally stirred—just a slight movement, struggling to rise. Only then did Ruan Shiqing exhale in relief, his eyes stinging with tears.

 

Rong Heng was unaware of his presence. He forced himself upright, not particularly surprised by his own battered body. He stared at his injuries for a long time before painfully lowering his head to lick the wounds.

 

Without medicine, licking was the most primitive form of healing.

 

He licked slowly, one stroke at a time, and after a while, spat out a mouthful of dark, blood-tinged fluid—mixed with rotting flesh and charred fur. The pain of cleaning such wounds could easily be imagined, yet he did not hesitate for a moment. His movements were steady, though a trace of disgust flickered in his eyes.

 

The small hatchling spent a long time painstakingly cleaning his wounds. When he was finally done, he lay back down, motionless, his wide-open brown eyes staring blankly, so dark that it was impossible to guess what he was thinking.

 

Ruan Shiqing crouched beside him, his hand repeatedly brushing over the tensed spine. Even knowing that Rong Heng couldn’t feel him, he never stopped.

 

Rong Heng lay there, unmoving, for half a month. His freshly cleaned wounds would repeatedly fester in the harsh conditions, drawing scavengers again and again.

 

From the beginning, he had shown disdain and irritation. But later, he cleaned the festering wounds with no expression at all, even using the filthy blood and rotting flesh to lure scavenger creatures—turning them into his own food. When he coldly swallowed creatures so repulsive that even the poorest vagrants wouldn’t touch them, Ruan Shiqing’s eyes turned completely red. It took everything he had not to cry.

 

…

 

In the crystal orb’s record, Ruan Shiqing followed Rong Heng closely.

 

He watched him hide in the depths of the junkyard, barely surviving on scavenger creatures. On the rare days it rained, he would use rusted metal pipes to collect filthy water. His once-soft white fur had mostly fallen off due to severe malnutrition and injury, revealing pale pink skin beneath. The hostile environment caused his wounds to reopen over and over. It took nearly three full months for him to recover—barely. Ugly scars crossed his frail body, and there was no longer any trace of the Ymir hatchling he had once been.

 

Yet through sheer willpower, he pulled through the worst of his injuries and became one of B3024’s many nameless vagrants.

 

Ruan Shiqing watched him fight to survive, bit by bit regaining his strength, until he finally resumed his adult form. But the damage from his earlier injuries left him with less than half of his original power.

 

By then, Rong Heng had grown cold and distant from experiencing constant bloodshed, ambushes, and betrayals driven by self-interest. He trusted no one—not even those old comrades from the Yanji District who had once fought alongside him.

 

He neither contacted Dares and the others nor activated Noah. Instead, he remained hidden on B3024, quietly building up his own force. He purchased a decommissioned battleship and recruited a host of cutthroats, forming a space pirate fleet.

 

This pirate fleet did not target ordinary merchant vessels—it went after only the transport ships of the Four Ancient Clans and the four major financial conglomerates. Whenever they struck, they left no survivors.

 

Through years of plundering, the pirate fleet grew stronger and stronger, becoming one of the Empire’s most-wanted outlaws. By then, whenever Rong Heng appeared in public, he always wore a spotless military uniform and a white smiling mask. Behind that mask, his eyes were icy and merciless.

 

People called him “The Reaper.”

 

Only now did Ruan Shiqing finally understand the true weight of that name.

 

Unlike this cycle, the Rong Heng of the previous world had truly crawled out of the abyss—a death god reborn.

 

Ruan Shiqing’s chest ached, but all he could do was watch the memory sequence push forward.

 

During one raid on a merfolk transport fleet, Rong Heng encountered Nota.

 

When he burst into the bridge with his crew, Nota had just pulled a dagger from the captain’s throat. Blood dripped thickly from the blade as she licked it clean with her tongue, raised her chin, and said, “So you’re the ‘Reaper’? I hear you’re recruiting for a big job. What do you think of me?”

 

By then, Nota had the appearance of a young woman—graceful and curvy, clad in tight black leather, her waist adorned with glinting blades. But her long, narrow eyes held no trace of innocence. Only the ecstasy of a fresh kill.

 

Her appearance had also changed. One of her furry red ears was missing, and a savage scar marred her beautiful face, giving her a rogue’s edge.

 

Rong Heng studied her for a moment—then accepted her into the crew.

 

Perhaps it was fate’s invisible hand—though in this timeline, the two had never met in their juvenile forms, after fighting side by side again and again, their coordination became increasingly seamless. Nota quickly became Rong Heng’s most trusted lieutenant, earning a place of prominence in the pirate fleet.

 

When they weren’t on missions, they occasionally drank together. It was during one of these times, when Nota got drunk and accidentally revealed her tail, that Ruan Shiqing finally realized—her once fiery, fluffy nine tails had been reduced to just one. That solitary remaining tail was surrounded by a ring of old scars.

 

Ruan Shiqing’s heart ached at the sight. His hand hovered gently above her head, softly stroking her damaged ear.

 

“How did you lose your tails?” Rong Heng asked the question Ruan Shiqing couldn’t bring himself to voice.

 

“Cut them off myself,” Nota said, glancing at her mutilated tail with a nonchalant expression. “I used to have ten. On Tutar, hybrids are seen as heretics—they had no place for me. When I tried to leave, I was captured. I managed to escape, only to be caught again on some remote junk planet and sold at auction.”

 

Hybrids were heavily discriminated against on Tutar. But beyond that world, their mixed ancient bloodlines and exotic looks made them highly sought-after on the black market.

 

She shrugged and took a swig of her drink, skipping over what happened after the auction. Lightly, she added, “Later, I killed my buyer. He had a pretty high status, and I was hunted down for it. To avoid trouble, I hacked off the extra tails myself. The scar on my face—same story.”

 

She spoke of her past with calm indifference, even a casual smirk tugging at her lips.

 

But as a silent witness, Ruan Shiqing clenched his fists so tightly they trembled.

 

Nota had always been a resilient little one—like an unremarkable weed, enduring storm and frost without ever bending. But after she came to live with them, Ruan Shiqing had slowly discovered that she was, in truth, incredibly sensitive. She was simply too independent—so much so that she had learned to hide all her real emotions. When she first arrived at his home, she didn’t even know how to be spoiled.

 

It had taken Ruan Shiqing a long time and a lot of effort to help her act like any other young cub—to laugh, to play, and to ask for affection without fear.

 

But in this world, there was no “him.” Nota had no father. No one to protect her, no one to love her. So when she spoke of her injuries, not even a twitch of pain crossed her brow.

 

Ruan Shiqing felt a cold rain fall in his heart, curling it into a tight, bitter knot.

 

And yet, no matter how much he ached for her, he couldn’t change a thing.

 

Rong Heng and Nota seemed to be preparing for something big. He continued gathering men, upgrading warships and weapons. The pirate fleet grew rapidly.

 

And when preparations were finally complete, Ruan Shiqing understood what they were planning—They were going to raid the military fortress on Sijialan.

 

Everything followed the same trajectory. Even without him, Rong Heng still ended up facing off against Sijialan.

 

Sijialan’s forces were strong—but the pirate fleet was even fiercer. As the battle turned against them, Sijialan was forced to abandon its outlying military stronghold and focus entirely on protecting the homeworld.

 

And just as the two sides clashed, Ruan Shiqing saw another familiar face—

 

The Ruan Yuebai of the previous world had returned to Sijialan, and was now at Lansing’s side, negotiating with Rong Heng’s faction.

 

The scars on his face were far more severe than in this life—apparently never properly treated. Half his face was disfigured, and the light had gone out of one blue eye. The gentle smile he once wore was long gone. His long blue hair hung low, covering half his face, giving him a cold, unreachable aura. Standing next to Garland[mfn]I have no idea if this is a typo??? Garland is the patriarch of the dragons lol???? I’m guessing it should be Lansing…?[/mfn], even their expressions were perfectly matched.

 

They were negotiating the siege of Sijialan.

 

Ruan Yuebai and Lansing proposed coordinating an inside-outside attack with the pirate fleet. Rong Heng would assist Lansing in taking Sijialan, and in return, not only would the military fortress be handed over to the pirates, but they would also receive two shipments of the latest warships and weapons—completely free of charge.

 

After some negotiation, both sides agreed to the deal.

 

Lansing returned to Sijialan, while Ruan Yuebai remained temporarily with the pirate fleet to ensure the operation’s success.

 

He wasn’t much of a talker. Most of the time he spent aboard the flagship was in silence. But Nota enjoyed chatting with him—though most of the time, for every three things she said, Ruan Yuebai would only respond with one. Occasionally, Rong Heng would join the conversation. Surprisingly, the three of them got along rather well.

 

But that fragile peace lasted no more than three days.

 

On the third day, Lansing failed to send the signal as planned. Rong Heng’s crew waited in vain, receiving no word—only to witness the explosion of Sijialan with their own eyes.

 

The merfolk’s home base—second only to Sikkim in prosperity—was obliterated in an instant, reduced to stardust.

 

Rong Heng and Nota were visibly displeased. All their previous efforts had been in vain. With Sijialan gone, Lansing’s promised warships and weapons naturally vanished along with it.

 

Only Ruan Yuebai remained calm, as if he had expected this all along.

 

He stood staring out the viewport at the explosion, his dim blue eye reflecting the flames with eerie brightness. After a long silence, his hoarse, grating voice finally murmured:

 

“Your wish has been granted. Congratulations.”

 

 

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I thought for the longest time that Rong Heng had died before the other cubs became villains??? I’m too lazy to go back and reread, but that makes me even more confused…. Why didn’t Siyan secretly help him or reach out to him as Lucien??? You’re telling me he cares about his kid to the point where he’s protecting him while avenging his wife, but in a previous life he just let him suffer in a junk planet…????? If Rong Rong died and Siyan was too late, I’d get it, but no, he just let him get f*cked and become a pirate…???? Same with Yuebai and Lansing, how would Lansing have found Yuebai since he got abandoned and was completely at his own devices unlike Nota….??? I’m so confused x_x

 

Thanks for reading!

For every three ko-fis, I will upload a bonus chapter~