Initially, Gao Yuling had not wanted this child of bloodline at all. Yet when she became pregnant, her attitude did a complete turnabout, and she became determined to bring the child into the world.
Moreover, to keep her brother Gao Xinwen from interfering, she kept the pregnancy entirely from him.
After successfully giving birth, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to raising the child.
Even then, she had no wish to return to the family. Though her feelings about the child had changed, she still refused to let her baby become another instrument of the clan. She wanted nothing more than for the child to live a happy, peaceful life.
To prevent word from leaking out, she never stepped outside, instead entrusting Yu Zhen's family to purchase baby supplies on her behalf.
Only a few months in, however, she noticed that the infant was exceptionally sickly and frail. At one point, the baby hovered on the brink of death, pulled back only thanks to the medical equipment in the laboratory.
At first, she had not thought much of it. But gradually, a sickening realization dawned on her: this torment was likely caused by the extraction of her bloodline. Deep regret and self-reproach consumed her.
Desperate to restore that lost portion of the bloodline, she went back to Chen Qiyang and the other researchers to ask whether it was possible.
What she did not know was that during this period, many other things had transpired.
As the lead researcher in the laboratory, Chen Qiyang had not completely destroyed the extracted bloodline. Purely for research purposes, he had retained several samples.
In the course of his subsequent work, he was astonished to discover that these separated bloodline samples could grow on their own, almost like living organisms. His curiosity thoroughly piqued, he pursued the study and ultimately isolated a concentrated essence from it.
After repeated experiments, he realized that this bloodline had never been an inherent trait of the Gao clan. Strictly speaking, it was an extraordinarily active contaminant that could be regarded as an independent, living entity. Furthermore, it rooted itself not only in the flesh, but was also intimately tied to the spirit.
This meant that as long as a host body was qualified to bear it and the spirit met certain conditions, it could be transplanted into someone else.
Because it had already undergone a round of screening and isolation, the threshold was actually not very high. Comparing his data, Chen Qiyang found that even an ordinary human could serve as a carrier.
Back then, the thought struck him: if he bestowed this upon his own son, Chen Chuan, the boy could possess innate brilliance from a young age—perhaps even strength surpassing that of ordinary mortals.
Yet when he excitedly brought up the idea with Yu Zhen, she flatly refused. She saw no reason for their child to take someone else's bloodline.
Chen Qiyang tried to explain that this so-called bloodline was not truly unique to the Gao family. It was an essence of power that anyone could use; the Gao clan had not been born with it either, but had obtained it from somewhere else. Now that they had abandoned it and he had extracted this essence through his own research, what was wrong with using it on their own son?
Yu Zhen remained unmoved. In her eyes, whether Chen Chuan grew up ordinary or extraordinary, he was her child. There was no need to resort to such measures, nor did she want to dictate his future for him.
Though an obsessive researcher, Chen Qiyang deeply respected his wife. Once he cooled down, he conceded that she might be right. But unwilling to let the fruits of his labor go to waste, he stored the essence away, intending to leave the decision to his son once the boy was older.
He had assumed that would be the end of the matter, but Gao Yuling came to him soon after, asking to replenish and restore the bloodline.
Yu Zhen kept the matter to herself. She knew that if word of this ever leaked and reached the Gao clan, not only would their family's lives be forfeit, but their child and relatives would also be dragged into danger. Even Gao Yuling, though grateful now, might later harbor suspicions. If the child survived, all might be well; if the child did not, every ounce of blame would be pinned on them.
After conducting his examinations, Chen Qiyang realized the baby was in critical danger, surviving almost entirely on daily intravenous nutrient solutions.
He also realized that even if he tried to return the isolated essence, it would no longer work. The substance had transformed into something else entirely—it could merge with another person, yet it had become incompatible with this child. What was worse, the child was far too frail for either body or spirit to withstand the power of the bloodline essence.
All hope was not lost, however. From his previous findings, the bloodline possessed the ability to grow on its own. If it could be stimulated, there might still be a chance to save the child's life. But Chen Qiyang quickly discovered that the problem ran deeper.
Perhaps because it had been severed once, the bloodline lacked a vital component. As to what that component was, he still needed to investigate.
Having a child of his own, he empathized deeply with Gao Yuling and could feel her pain. Over the next several years, he exhausted every means to sustain the child's life, somehow keeping the baby alive until the age of six.
Yet the child remained utterly frail, confined to the laboratory day in and day out. Aside from the mother and the researchers like Chen Qiyang, the child had never seen anyone from the outside world.
Fortunately, a glimmer of hope finally appeared.
Through materials supplied by the research institute and his own experiments, Chen Qiyang realized that the missing component likely had to be retrieved from the other side of a fissure. Only then could the bloodline be completed. He promptly explained this to Gao Yuling.
Gao Yuling recalled that the Gao clan possessed a fissure on North Lailusi Island, along with an established research facility there. The clan poured substantial funding into it each year, and she had personally lived there for a time. The conditions were ideal.
She resolved almost immediately to take the child there in a desperate bid to save its life, begging Yu Zhen and her husband to help her one more time.
Chen Qiyang and Yu Zhen were hesitant. That place was close to the Federation; once they left Great Shun, their safety could hardly be guaranteed. On top of that, dealing with a fissure meant anything could go wrong. If they went, there was no telling whether they would ever return.
And so they made preparations in advance. To give their own child something to rely on in the future, they entrusted Chen Chuan to the care of Yu Wan and Nian Fuli. They left behind a black card and deposited a vial of memory potion at Wansheng Financial Firm.
Chen Qiyang handled these arrangements personally. In the end, he placed the vial of bloodline essence in with the rest.
Afterward, the group set out together for North Lailusi.
Once they entered territory controlled by Progenitor Company, however, keeping their movements completely hidden proved impossible. Gao Xinwen soon caught wind of their arrival.
Gao Yuling had previously used the excuse that extracting the bloodline had damaged her health and that she needed rest to remain outside. When he learned she had brought a child, he realized she had given birth. He could never allow this bloodline to return to the Gao clan. The moment the news reached him, he moved to capture them and dispose of the child.
The records offered no detailed account of what unfolded next. According to later operational logs, Gao Yuling, Chen Qiyang, Yu Zhen, and the child had all entered the fissure in the end, vanishing without a trace.
Yet the matter did not end there. Gao Xinwen knew that Gao Yuling had brought a child, but upon going through her personal journals, he could not be certain whether that was indeed her child, nor whether she had only had one.
Chen Chuan saw that the reason Gao Xinwen had harbored such doubts was that Gao Yuling herself had fueled them.
A personal journal she carried documented her daily thoughts, filled with love and concern for her child. Yet she had given the baby two names—one used exclusively to refer to that child, and the other to refer to Chen Chuan, used with remarkable frequency.
Anyone who read the journal from cover to cover would be left with the distinct impression that Chen Chuan might also have been her son—that she had actually given birth to twins, one healthy and one sickly, and that for the sake of safety, the healthy boy had been passed off as the child of Chen Qiyang and Yu Zhen.
As a martial artist, Chen Chuan possessed an intimate understanding of his own body. He could even excavate memories from the moment of his birth, knowing beyond any doubt that his parents in this life were indeed Chen Qiyang and Yu Zhen, completely unrelated to the Gao clan.
As for why Gao Yuling had written such things, it might have been pure envy of Yu Zhen's child, wishing her own could be just as healthy. Or perhaps she had been genuinely fond of Chen Chuan—though in his own memories, she had seen him only once, right after his birth, glancing at him before leaving and never appearing again.
Of course, there was another possibility: seeing Chen Chuan healthy while her own child was so frail might have bred a twisted, bitter impulse, driving her to deliberately write the journal that way and carry it with her.
Whatever her true motives had been, the outcome was that Gao Xinwen, seeking absolute certainty, decided to have Chen Chuan eliminated as well, thereby wiping out any potential future complications. To achieve this, he had even resorted to unorthodox means.
As for whether this meant harming an innocent, such a concept had never crossed his mind. He acted solely on what he deemed righteous; the death of an ordinary civilian or two along the way was beneath his concern.
After reading through the records, Chen Chuan paused in thought. He pulled his gaze from the boundary credential and looked up at Gao Xinjian.
Seeing him look over, Gao Xinjian said, "Mr. Chen, with these records, I trust some of your questions have been answered."
In a low voice, he continued, "When Xinwen did those things, I was bitterly disappointed in him. No matter what, he should never have harmed his own kin. Yet he was my brother. Even if I harbored some resentment, I would never have moved against him myself. As for him, perhaps out of guilt or fear that I might see through him, he spent all these years avoiding me."
Chen Chuan said, "That is Mr. Gao's family matter; there is no need to share it with me." He looked directly at Gao Xinjian. "I was the one who killed Gao Xinwen. What do you intend to do now, Mr. Gao?"
Chapter 1263