Episode 32: The Truth About Mother

The copper lock of the archives shimmered with a cold light in the darkness, resembling a prying eye.

Alicia knelt within the ventilation shaft, her chin pressed against the frigid metal as she listened to the footsteps of the patrol fading away. Her palms were slick with sweat, the miniature master key she gripped nearly slipping from her grasp—a tool she had spent three days illicitly replicating from Williams’s study, capable of unlocking every encrypted archive of the S Tribe.

"Two minutes left." Lu Chen’s whisper crackled through her earpiece, the signal laced with static. "I’ve looped the surveillance footage. Make it quick."

Alicia gritted her teeth and aimed the key at the vent grate. The metal emitted a faint "click," like teeth gnawing on bone. Holding her breath, she pushed the grate open and vaulted into the archives.

Dust motes danced in the moonlight, and the air was thick with the scent of aged paper and moth repellent. The archive was far larger than she had imagined; dense rows of shelves stretched from the floor to the vaulted ceiling, each compartment packed with leather-bound files dating back over a century.

Her objective was clear: her mother’s death file.

Throughout her childhood, Williams had told her that her mother had contracted the desert plague after her birth and suffered a painful death. But the mummified remains in the blue-light sarcophagus, combined with the line in her father’s diary—"Her sacrifice is not the end"—told her that the truth was far more complex.

Her fingers traced the icy metal shelves until she stopped at the "Royal Family" section. The files were organized by year, and she quickly located the record from the year her mother passed, marked with the code "Scorpion-0719"—her own birthday.

The folder was unexpectedly heavy. As Alicia pulled it out, a stack of yellowed photographs spilled forth.

The first showed her mother holding her as an infant, sitting among flowers in an oasis, the silver bird necklace glowing in the sunlight, her smile as gentle as a spring. The second depicted her mother lying on a stone bed, pale-faced, an IV drip in her wrist, with a man in a white coat standing over her—Williams’s personal physician.

The final photograph made Alicia’s blood run cold.

Her mother was restrained on an operating table, her chest cavity cut open to reveal a pulsing heart. Williams, clad in rubber gloves, held a syringe glowing with a spectral blue light, the needle aimed directly at her mother’s heart. On the monitor in the background, the text "Bone Core Compatibility: 98%" was clearly visible.

"No..." Her voice trembled. Her fingertips brushed her mother’s agonized face in the photo, and tears blurred the ink on the paper.

The folder also contained a surgical record in Williams’s handwriting, scrawled yet chilling in its cruelty:

"Subject #73 (Royal Family member Isabella). Postpartum gene activity has reached its peak, meeting the criteria for a Bone Core vessel. Performed live transplant surgery today, implanting Bone Core fragments into the chest cavity to observe symbiotic response."

"On the seventh day post-surgery, the subject exhibited rejection symptoms; skin began to crystallize into sand. High-dose sedatives were ineffective, but the heart continues to provide energy to the Bone Core. Classified as a 'successful vessel.'"

"To ensure compatibility between the Bone Core and the next-generation host, the subject’s oocyte genes have been extracted and injected into the core. Upon Alicia reaching adulthood, the Bone Core will automatically identify her as 'parental,' reducing the risk of fusion rejection—the Perfect Host Project, step one complete."

"Perfect Host Project..." Alicia whispered the words, feeling as though an invisible hand were crushing her throat.

So, her mother hadn't died of illness; she had been used as a living petri dish! From the day she was born, Williams had been calculating, using her mother's genes to "mark" the Bone Core, ensuring she was destined to follow in her mother's footsteps as the next vessel.

No wonder her blood could cause the curse-seals on the Bone Core samples to recede; no wonder her mother’s mummy reacted to her—it wasn't the bond of mother and daughter, but a genetic trap meticulously designed by Williams!

"Williams..." Alicia’s nails dug deep into her palms, and beads of blood dripped onto the folder, blooming like scarlet flowers. She suddenly remembered her father’s final recorded message: "Do not trust Williams; he used me as the first sacrifice!"

Now she understood: her father, her mother, they were all sacrifices, and she was the ultimate offering, bred with care and waiting to be slaughtered.

Rage burned through her like a wildfire. Alicia snatched the folder and turned to rush out and confront Williams, but her foot struck a metal tray on the floor—the Bone Core sample she had stolen from the temple that morning, intending to bring it to Lu Chen along with the files.

The vial shattered, and the glowing blue liquid splashed out, catching the droplets of her blood.

Something eerie occurred.

The once-calm sample suddenly began to boil violently, its blue light flaring like a miniature sun. The genetic fragments she had seen under the microscope gathered frantically, no longer drifting aimlessly, but tracing her bloodstains on the floor to form a perfect silver bird totem—identical to the pattern on her mother’s necklace!

Even more astonishingly, the black curse-seals within the sample did not recede as they had before; instead, they actively coiled around her blood like tiny snakes, merging into the lines of the silver bird totem. The once-hideous seals softened, as if tamed.

"This is..." Alicia’s fury was momentarily eclipsed by shock.

This wasn't the "genetic recognition" Williams had designed; it felt more like a... resonance. Her mother’s genes were in the Bone Core, and her own were inherited from her mother. Now, connected through their blood, they were causing the malevolent curse-seals to mutate!

Could it be that her father’s diary had omitted a detail? That blood kin could not only soothe the Bone Core, but under specific conditions, could also... purify it?

The archive door was suddenly pushed open.

Williams stood in the threshold, his black robe spreading like bat wings in the moonlight. The red light of his mechanical eye flickered as he stared fixedly at the silver bird totem on the floor, a sinister smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "It seems you have finally discovered the truth."

Alicia retreated sharply, grabbing a bronze candlestick from a desk. Her blood continued to drip from her fingertips onto the metal, emitting a faint, sizzling sound. "You killed my mother! You turned me into a vessel!"

"Killed?" Williams walked inside, his mechanical boots crushing the genetic fragments on the floor with a crisp, shattering sound. "I bestowed honor upon her! Before your mother died, she held my hand and said that as long as the S Tribe could rise, she was willing to become anything—including a part of the Bone Core."

He bent down to pick up the surgical record, flicking it with his mechanical finger. "As for you, my dear niece, you should thank me. Had I not injected your mother’s genes into the Bone Core beforehand, do you honestly believe your meager royal blood could withstand its power?"

Alicia’s heart felt as though it had been pierced by an icicle. She would rather be unable to withstand it, rather be a simple shepherd, than possess this "honor" stained with the blood of her kin!

The silver bird totem on the floor suddenly shone with blinding intensity. The light crawled up her ankles like a warm ribbon. She could feel the genetic fragments within the Bone Core sample resonating with her own bloodline, a strange power surging through her veins and flooding every fiber of her being.

"It seems the Bone Core cannot wait any longer." Williams’s mechanical arm suddenly deployed razor-sharp claws. "Since you know the truth, there is no need to wait for tomorrow. Let us complete the sacrifice tonight."

He lunged forward, the wind from his claws stinging Alicia’s cheeks. Instinctively, she raised the candlestick to block, and the light of the silver bird totem erupted, forming a shield that held firm against Williams’s strike!

"How is this possible?" Williams’s pupils contracted.

Alicia was stunned as well. She looked at her palm, where the wound was still weeping blood; as the droplets hit the floor, the totem flared brighter. She could clearly feel the genes her mother had left behind in the Bone Core protecting her.

This was no trap.

This was her mother’s love, crossing the boundaries of death and conspiracy to reach her side.

"Get out!" Alicia roared, swinging the candlestick at Williams. The light shield expanded with her movement, forcing Williams to stumble backward. For the first time, terror flickered within the red glow of his mechanical eye.

The Bone Core sample on the floor suddenly levitated, flying toward Alicia’s chest like a homing star. Within the blue light, she could faintly see her mother’s smiling face, as gentle as that afternoon so many years ago when she had held her.

Alicia did not dodge.

She knew this was her only chance—not to become a vessel, but to seize the power her mother had left behind and launch a counterattack against Williams, against this cursed fate.

The moment the sample touched her chest, the walls of the archives exploded with a deafening roar. Lu Chen and Old Blade burst through the dust and smoke, their totem-blade and bone-blade glowing as they charged toward Williams!

As for the Bone Core sample, the instant it touched Alicia’s skin, it transformed into a stream of blue light and dove into her body.

Countless visions flashed before Alicia’s eyes—her mother’s surgery, her father’s sacrifice, Williams’s twisted grin, and... deep within the Bone Core, the imprisoned consciousness that belonged to her mother.

Her silver bird necklace suddenly cracked, a half-piece of jade falling from it. In the air, it completed a final union with the piece Lu Chen carried.

The complete silver bird totem let out a thunderous cry that shook the room.