CHAPTER 229: CHAPTER 229 - FARIAN EMPRESS

The world was chaos—whirring blades, crying wind, and a sky that screamed with metal. Yet amid it all, Jian stood steady.

Li Wang was on his knees, crumpled with regret, his shoulders shaking under the weight of what he had done. He looked like a boy drowning in a sea of guilt, gasping for breath beneath waves of mistakes that could never be undone.

But Jian... Jian had no time to pity him.

His eyes, once soft and unsure, now glinted with fire.

He turned his gaze toward the chopper, narrowing it with a quiet rage. The roar of its engine vibrated in his ribs, but he didn’t flinch. Slowly, he leaned down, fingers closing around a jagged rock near his foot. The weight of it settled in his palm.

"I’m not that same young boy who’s scared of everything," Jian muttered.

With a single movement—clean, practiced—he drew back his arm and hurled the rock straight at the machine overhead.

The rock spun, a blur against the blinding sky. It hit the spinning rotors dead-on.

CRACK!

The sound echoed like a bone snapping through silence. The rotor blade shattered, shards of reinforced alloy scattering like metallic petals in the wind.

The chopper lurched violently.

The wind screamed.

It began to spin, a deadly spiral out of control. The soldiers inside scrambled, but it was too late. With a deafening crash, it slammed into the earth nearby, flames erupting into a rising inferno that lit up the trees around them. Smoke billowed upward, thick and acrid.

The ground shook.

Still, Jian didn’t flinch.

He turned slowly back to Li Wang, eyes hard as steel.

"You better explain everything," he said, voice low, sharp, deadly calm.

Li Wang looked up, ash falling gently over his face. He stood frozen, his lips parted, the flames of the wreckage flickering in his wide, stunned eyes. The heat from the crash warmed one side of his face, but he didn’t move, didn’t flinch. The weight of Jian’s words and the shattered chopper behind him rooted him to the spot like stone.

Varon, who had remained still as a blade drawn under pressure, finally sheathed his weapon and turned toward the boy at his side. His scarred face barely shifted, but there was unmistakable pride in the subtle lift of his chin.

"Well done, Your Highness," he said quietly, respect anchoring his tone.

But Jian barely heard it. His gaze didn’t budge from Li Wang.

"I’m still waiting for that explanation," Jian said coldly, each word sharp and deliberate. "What Farian woman?"

The silence that followed was dense. Varon’s attention sharpened at the mention of Farian. His broad shoulders shifted, subtly placing himself at Jian’s side again, interest piqued.

Li Wang blinked rapidly as if waking from a nightmare. His hand trembled as it reached up to adjust his cracked glasses, the lenses smeared with dust and a smear of tears.

He opened his mouth, but the words were hesitant, like glass shards balanced on the edge of his tongue.

"The... the Farian woman," he echoed hoarsely, voice cracking under pressure.

Jian’s frown deepened. "Which Farian woman?"

"I..." Li Wang stammered, then finally exhaled as if pushing the truth out of a locked cage inside his chest. "I think... I think she might be your mother."

Jian’s entire frame stilled. Even the wind seemed to pause for a second.

"What did you say?" he whispered, voice low and eerily calm.

"I think..." Li Wang swallowed, his voice barely above the crackling fire behind him. "Your mother... she wasn’t from Earth. She was one of them. A Farian."

Jian stood unmoving for a moment longer. Then, slowly, his hands clenched at his sides.

"You better explain everything, from the beginning," he said tightly, his voice laced with restrained fury. "Now."

Li Wang’s breath hitched. He took a hesitant step back, clutching the frayed hem of his shirt as if the fabric could anchor him through the flood of memories. Jian and Varon stood silently, the weight of their stares pinning him in place. The crashed chopper still smoked behind them, but the silence in the clearing now was louder than any explosion.

"I was five," Li Wang finally whispered. "My uncle—Wang Busgen—he... he suddenly started acting strange. He’d always been a quiet, composed man, but then he found something, and everything changed."

His eyes glazed, drawn back into the past.

"He’d leave the house in a rush... always going to the basement beneath our family estate. At first, I thought he was just working on some project, but..." Li Wang took a shaky breath. "One day, I followed him."

He let out a dry laugh that sounded like it was scraped out of his throat. "I was just a kid. Curious. Stupid. I crept after him and watched as he keyed in a code into a metal door behind the wine cellar. The place was freezing, buzzing with electricity. I hid behind some boxes and waited for the door to stay open long enough to slip in."

Jian’s expression darkened, but he didn’t interrupt.

"And that’s when I saw it," Li Wang said, voice distant now, as if seeing it all again. "A spaceship. Huge. Sleek and silver, covered in cables and strange lights. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I was grinning. I remember that."

He gave a weak, bitter smile.

"I ran forward... but I was stopped. Researchers grabbed me before I could get too close. They tried to escort me out—but before they could, I saw her."

His eyes met Jian’s, and for a second, they were filled with haunted awe.

"She had long, golden hair. It shimmered like light flowing through water. Her skin... pale, almost glowing. And her eyes—her eyes were just like yours. A golden halo in her pupils. Even in that dim lab, they glowed." He paused, then whispered, "She looked at me... so tired. Like she could barely keep her eyes open. Her arms were limp. They had her... anesthetized or something. Tubes were connected to her arms. She was barely conscious."

Jian’s chest tightened.

Li Wang swallowed. "That was the first time I saw a Farian. She wasn’t like what the textbooks said. She wasn’t a monster. She just looked... sad. Beautiful. Like something that didn’t belong in a cage."

Varon’s jaw clenched.

"I didn’t understand what I was seeing. But then my uncle found me." Li Wang flinched at the memory. "He was furious. Yelled. Dragged me out of there and told me if I ever said a word, he’d make sure I ended up like her."

Jian’s heart thudded painfully.

Li Wang’s voice dropped. "I didn’t understand why he was so obsessed with her until years later. He wasn’t just studying her. He was experimenting. Using her. Trying to make her... breed."

Jian’s eyes widened, his breath caught.

He took a deep breath.

"I think she’s your mother, Jian. The Farian woman. You’re her son. That’s why you have her eyes. Her strength. Her blood."

The forest was still.

Jian stared, frozen. His lips parted, but no sound came. His mother... a Farian? One who had been trapped. Used. Bred like livestock?

His legs felt weak.

Li Wang looked at him, desperation in his voice. "I didn’t know then. I swear I didn’t. But when I saw your eyes glow back there... I knew."

Varon stood silently, but his hand had drifted to rest gently on Jian’s shoulder, grounding him.

And Jian?

He didn’t know whether to scream, collapse, or run.

But one thing was certain.

He would find that woman.

And he would burn every lab on Earth to the ground if she was still trapped there.

Varon’s fists trembled.

His usually stone-cold composure cracked—his jaw clenched, nostrils flared. Then with a roar deep from his gut, he spun around and drove his knuckles straight into the nearest tree trunk. The bark split with a loud crack, splinters bursting from the point of impact. Birds shrieked and fled the canopy.

"She was the royal empress!" Varon seethed, his voice low but burning with fury. "She was meant to be honored, protected—not strapped to a lab table like some experiment!"

He slammed his fist again, the tree groaning from the force. A gash ran down the side, seeping sap like blood.

Jian flinched but said nothing, his eyes wide, locked on Varon. He had never seen him this enraged.

Li Wang staggered back a step, pale as a ghost. "I-I didn’t know..." he mumbled, barely audible.

Varon whirled on him, eyes glowing faintly with Farian fury. "Where is she?! Where is Her Majesty being held?!"

Li Wang dropped to his knees, unable to meet their eyes. His hands clutched the dirt like it would stop him from falling apart. "Th-the Wang Mansion," he finally said. "Underground. Beneath the main estate. There’s a lab hidden under the church. She was still there last I saw... I swear it. Locked in a containment pod."

Jian’s breath hitched. "Alive?"

Li Wang didn’t answer immediately. His voice cracked. "She looked... barely. The pod sustains her, keeps her asleep. He said she was too unstable to be awakened."