Life Game In Other World
Chapter 1252: Suspicion (Request for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 1252: Chapter 1252: Suspicion (Request for Monthly Votes)

"Impressive,"

The figure sitting in front of the chessboard lifted his head and glanced at the brilliant starlight gradually fading at the horizon, sighing with some sentiment, "You’ve chosen someone who can create miracles."

"It wasn’t I who chose him, but fate,"

The man in military uniform continued to stand on the hill, quietly gazing at everything at the edge of the field of view, "I cannot choose anyone. It is fate that guides those who might change everything to the positions they are meant to be."

"So do you think,"

The figure in front of the chessboard waved his hand lightly. The white rook before him slowly shattered, followed by the other pieces on the board, leaving only the black rook, black king, and the white queen.

He gazed at the much emptier chessboard before him, his gaze falling on the black rook, and smiled as he asked, "Can he truly change everything? The one he must face has already almost crossed that threshold."

As he spoke, the chessboard before him suddenly trembled lightly.

The white queen standing on the chessboard suddenly twisted its body, turning its ’head’ like a living creature to glance at the figure outside the board, then abruptly shattered, turning into dust in the night breeze.

Simultaneously, the black rook and black king on the chessboard also shattered, turning into dust.

The entire chessboard was left with mere emptiness.

"It seems my friend does not appreciate our ’peeping’."

The figure in front of the chessboard chuckled.

"Fate involving a Divine Being is something we cannot predict,"

The calm voice of the man in military uniform echoed in the flowing night breeze, "All we can wait for is the result of fate."

"Do you still believe fate will provide an answer favorable to you?"

The figure in front of the chessboard slowly stood up, looking at the back of the man in military uniform, "Do you really believe a mere mortal can defeat the angel, a gift from the Divine Being? You still prefer to trust in those elusive things, Yuluns."

This time, the man in military uniform did not speak again but fell silent.

The wind blew across the green grass, and the entire valley fell silent once more.

——

[Exchange Stars you currently have: 2]

Bang— Bang—

Supporting his body with the blood knife, He Ao slowly stepped onto the last stair.

He withdrew his gaze from the words in his field of view, sweeping over the swaying green trees in front of the stairs.

The power supply system of this building had been destroyed in the recent battle, and the emergency power system prioritized the vegetation maintenance system within the cemetery, leaving the elevator without power.

Therefore, He Ao had no choice but to climb the building step by step along the stairs.

He Ao looked up at the sign on the tree in front, [39th floor].

The stairs in this building are mostly spiral, hidden deep in the woods. Without the guidance of well-decorated signs, He Ao would have spent a lot of effort finding these stairs.

The 39th floor is already this building’s top floor, or ’rooftop.’

Bang bang bang—

He Ao placed the three Secret Silver Boxes tied to him on the path in front of him.

These boxes all had locks, but this was not a big deal for someone with Divine Sense like He Ao, who could easily dismantle the lock mechanisms inside the boxes using Divine Sense.

However, he did not do that because these Secret Silver Boxes were both boxes and a kind of ’seal structure.’ As Divine Sense delved deeper, He Ao could feel the vast amount of ’Life Force’ and ’obsessions’ inside.

These Life Forces and obsessions coalesced into cube shapes, restrained by the Array and engravings on the box itself.

They seemed to originate from a large number of completely different individuals, making the thoughts inside chaotic and complex.

Strictly speaking, they were the same kind of thing as the energy-cube presented by the Starlight Figure earlier.

It’s just that the structure is more stable, and the volume is smaller. The cubes inside the three Secret Silver Boxes combined are only about twice the volume of the cube in the Starlight Silhouette’s hand, and the Life Force contained is slightly more than twice.

That’s why the Starlight Figure came to snatch these boxes, because obtaining the cubes inside these boxes would allow him to crush He Ao with absolute power.

And the cube in the Starlight Silhouette’s hand was the item Suote’s mother was transporting back then.

He Ao gazed silently at the Secret Silver Boxes before him.

Back then, the Heart of the Eternal Tree found by the Church of Chaos was not the core of the shipment, as indicated by the unstable state of the cube in the Starlight Silhouette’s hand.

At that time, the Arrays on these boxes were most likely not as refined. The box alone couldn’t suppress the cube, therefore requiring high-grade Extraordinary Items related to Order to assist in suppressing it.

The Heart of the Eternal Tree wasn’t the most critical item; losing it was losing it, which is why the Starlight Worshipers back then did not go all out to preserve what they had painstakingly ’seized.’

The night wind rustled through the green leaves.

He Ao secured the three Secret Silver Boxes, lifted them, and walked slowly along the carefully decorated path between the trees.

In truth, he already had an answer in his heart about what these cubes inside the boxes were.

The cube possessed by the Starlight Worshipers was snatched thirty-four years ago from the convoy of Suote’s mother, who worked for Stars Pharma. The convoy’s route was from Limen City to Konovi City.

From about a century ago until before the Fountain of Youth incident two years ago, Limen City had always been under the control of Stars Pharma.

And the mastermind of the Fountain of Youth incident, Senator Janos, only fully entered the upper echelons of Stars Pharma twenty plus years ago, initiating his plans in collaboration with Stars Pharma, which led to the "organ cultivation" and "organ trade" events Pete experienced, involving ’extracting life.’

However, the time Janos influenced Limen City was only slightly over those twenty years. Before he stepped in, Stars Pharma had always stood on that land.

In the era when the power of the Fountain of Youth had not yet been ’discovered,’ the time when Suote’s mother worked for Stars Pharma, was Stars Pharma genuinely that benign and unlikely to engage in similar activities?

Perhaps, it was just a change in their partners.

With a bloodstained body, He Ao moved slowly along the winding path, passing between swaying green trees and verdant grass.

Soon, following vague memories, he reached the open expanse ahead.

At this moment, a figure in a somewhat soiled gardener’s attire stood with his back to He Ao, slowly moving pots and tending to scattered leaves.

The figure was somewhat hunched, hands full of wrinkles, with the old work clothes stained with fallen leaves, dirt, and dust.

He seemed to have worked here for quite a while, as the tidied portions of the platform far outnumbered those yet to be tidied.

"Help me move that pot of tulips to the left,"

As if hearing the footsteps behind, the old gardener didn’t turn around but continued to trim the branches with his scissors as he spoke softly.

He Ao set down the Secret Silver Boxes, said nothing, and moved to the pot of tulips that had already been pruned, gently lifting it and placing it on the left with the other trimmed pots.

"Can these flowers bloom again?"

He looked down at the pruned tulips before him and said softly, "I remember you telling me before that these improved horticultural tulips could generally regrow if phosphorus and potassium fertilizers were supplemented after the flowers were cut; but sometimes, if the timing is wrong or luck is not on their side, they never grow back."

"Dumel National Cemetery has its temperature control system; as long as there’s no accident, they will always grow back,"

The old gardener carefully pruned a small flower in front of him with scissors, "These branches always need pruning; otherwise, they’d grow messily, which is both unsightly and likely to wither. Move that hydrangea over here too."

"When I was an on-the-run convict, I would often pass through the wilderness, staying there throughout the seasons,"

He Ao stood up and moved to the hydrangea, placing it beside the tulips, "The wilderness is also full of flowers; though they don’t remain green all year round like these here, most are born in spring and die in autumn, pressed by thick snow in winter. Yet, as soon as the snow melts and spring wind blows, they dense sprout again from the mountains and fields."

He put down the flower pot and looked at the old gardener’s back, "Sometimes, mindless pruning might also mask the inherent vitality of these flowers."

Click—

The old gardener clipped a long branch, placing it into a nearby trash bin, "In my younger days, I also ran wild in the wilderness, plucking pretty flowers to adorn my off-road vehicle or bring them back to a loved one.

"To these flowers, we are like natural disasters. Once picked, many couldn’t grow back. If you think their vitality can’t withstand such pruning, then it doesn’t count as being truly vital."

He turned to reach into his front pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar with a yellow mark, handing it to He Ao, "Brought this for you; my hands are dirty, so don’t mind the dust on it."

Without hesitation, He Ao reached out for the familiar chocolate in front of him, then looked at the yellow emblem on the chocolate, "Swix, didn’t your neighborhood lack this? Did you specially go to buy it?"

As he spoke, he had already unwrapped the chocolate and directly placed it into his mouth.

"Aren’t you afraid I’d poison it?"

The old gardener watched He Ao’s motion, chuckling as He Ao replied, "The Blood of the Venus suits you well."

"Oh,"

He Ao bit into the chocolate, letting the bittersweet flavor melt in his mouth, "If you wanted to poison me, old timer, could you have waited till now?"

He glanced at the chocolate in his hand, "Which is why Swix couldn’t beat Mosanto and Kajet. After decades, it’s still the same taste and doesn’t bother changing the formula or coming up with something new."

"I remember the first time I saw you; you brought news about my parents’ case resolution when you found me crouching in the corner, gnawing on this chocolate,"

The old gardener stumbled back to sit down. He Ao reached out to support him, letting him sit securely on the flower-arranged steps.

"My dad loved this chocolate, though I’m not a fan of it because it’s too bitter. That was my first time trying it voluntarily, to be honest. I still find it bitter, but it’s no longer unbearable,"

He Ao looked down at the chocolate in his hand, then slowly leaned back to sit beside the old gardener, taking a bite of the chocolate before continuing, "I didn’t want to see you back then because I knew you would only bring bad news."

"Your father was a very capable man,"

The old gardener sighed.

"I remember our second meeting was when I was nineteen. You asked me if I wanted to know the truth about my parents’ deaths,"

He Ao bit into the chocolate and calmly asked, "So, did you return to Limen City that year because of him?"

"He found an abandoned site of the Starlight Worshipers, using the powers of fate to set a ’lure’ for someone to coincidentally discover it, inadvertently exposing the Starlight Worshipers,"

The old gardener sighed, "But I didn’t know he set it up at the time. I had a Dark Seed in Limen City, and someone stumbled upon the site, just reporting it coincidentally to my Dark Seed,

"So I found an excuse to go to Limen City, finding the fate temptation he set up. But then, I knew nothing about the powers of fate and couldn’t unravel it, so I set up an Array to seal the fate temptation he left behind."

He placed the scissors on the ground, "The one you just took down, Motoc, despite maintaining sanity with the power I provided him under the Lord of the Starry Sky’s grace, always teetered on madness. His mind was not clear, and I could only warn him about someone pursuing him, advising him to be cautious."

"Later, he noticed problems with my father and had Wistain monitor my father,"

He Ao said calmly, biting into the chocolate, "But eventually, that site was exposed. Without it, I couldn’t chase down these ongoings. Was this done by your ’enemy’?"

"Strictly speaking, it can’t be considered an ’enemy,’" The old gardener sighed, "Dawn City is ancient, ancient to the extent that the one guarding it could perceive impending crises before the actual crisis, I suspect he used some fate-interfering Extraordinary Items to stir fate,

"He likely did not know the Starlight Worshipers were involved in this event, but it didn’t affect the unseen gears of fate allowing a series of coincidences to occur, causing the original complete seal to decay, and exposing the ’fate temptation’ set by your father back to the world, uncovering the Starlight Worshipers."

He looked at He Ao, "In this operation of yours, it is also likely filled with various ’coincidences,’ allowing you to suddenly have solutions to the issues troubling you."

"Sounds quite mystical,"

He Ao took a bite of chocolate and continued slowly.

"Based on my research on the power of fate, fate’s coincidences often only add support,"

The old gardener shook his head, "If a person lacks inherent strength, no matter how much favor they have from fate, it is difficult to overturn the ultimate failure, and once involving the power of a Divine Being, all fate-related props lose their effect."

"You mean to say, fate can help me arrive here, but it can’t help me achieve final victory,"

He Ao looked at the chocolate with only a third left in his hand, slowly unwrapping it, "Is that what you mean?"

"You’ve grown rapidly, even faster than I anticipated,"

Hearing He Ao’s words, the old gardener smiled and then sighed, "Especially in these short few days, you’ve exhibited abilities and talents I never saw in you before."

His hand rested on his leg, looking up at the bright moon in the sky, "Sometimes I even wonder if you perished earlier in the wilderness outside Minte City, given that your actual power at that time truly couldn’t confront the Church of Chaos’s hunt."