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Chapter 0001 「Synthetic Children」
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The heavy burden in his heart steadily emptied. His body felt light. Worries, regrets, and sorrows evanesced.
As he drifted away in a vivid sky, an extreme sensation of relaxation passed down his spine. His numb heart felt engulfed with warmth. The fatigue from old age gradually faded.
He felt like he could drift away in the sky and reach heaven. His body no longer shackled him. Like a spirit, he wondered the endless sky, where clouds gathered and took the shape of a deity.
He witnessed the undertaking with wide empty eyes; the majestic vision in front gratified him.
He felt blessed.
Rays of light passed through his spirit.
As a guide, the rays showed him a path.
He chased after the lights.
But at the end of the path, what awaited him was hell.
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"New infants have been born." A woman's voice echoed throughout the dark room.
"Waah," "Waah," "Waah,"
They could hear the screams of the infants from afar, inside a cave-like chamber wrapped in wooden texture and lighted by candles.
Candles emitted purple flames, which spread light throughout the chamber.
"How many test subjects were born this year?" another woman asked. A snake encircled her right arm. She had an enticing face that indicated she was at the peak of her youth, and she wore tight black innerwear and a purple robe.
"The ritual produced about 10,000 test subjects," the woman who responded had an aged face and a grieving voice.
Biting her lips, she smiled and uttered, "I wonder—how many will survive?"
Pointing her hands, she commanded a few servants, "Bring me the toxin."
A few servants carried a bucket loaded with grey liquid. The liquid had a milky texture and emitted an alluring smell.
She lifted her hand towards the bucket. The black and purple snake in her hand crawled toward the bucket.
While its body encircled her hand, its head slowly bowed towards the bucket. The snake opened its mouth and sucked the liquid.
The bucket was wide enough for a mortal to slumber in it, and it was 1 meter high, full, yet the snake depleted the bucket in one gulp.
After consuming all the liquid, its fang shone like silver.
The woman smiled, "Now, let's begin."
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The king felt light and invigorated yet could not move his body except his arms. He felt peculiar and questioned himself, "What happened?" His room should have been bright, filled with candles, and, more importantly, quiet.
"Where am I?"
He could not properly move his head, but he could see a black surface above, the purple lights, and hear the babies' cries.
It wasn't quiet.
"Waah," "Waah," "Waah,"
He shouted, "Silence," but the words that came out of his mouth were, "Waah." "Waah."
He noticed his puny fists.
"What?"
He struggled to arrange his thoughts and tried to remember what had happened. He remembered looking at the view of his kingdom and going to sleep after some discussion and slightly recalled drifting through the skies like a spirit, but then he could not remember much.
'Did I..?'
His eyes emptily stared at the ceiling.
'I died that night.' he assumed.
'Am I in heaven or hell?' he asked himself.
He recalled his little hands and crying voice. The realization of turning into an infant suddenly hit his head.
"Ha-ha."
It took some time for him to accept that fact, but having joined the Valley of Monks for a while before becoming king. He was familiar with the notion of reincarnation.
He laughed inwardly. Deep inside, he hoped for the situation not to be a dream. Many times had he heard about the cycle of reincarnation from the monks. So, he clung to the belief that he had reincarnated.
"When I got tired of living, I received a new beginning."
"A new life. What kind of life will it be?" he wondered.
The cries of the infants from his left gradually faded.
Previously he could hear numerous cries, but now merely a few were left.
'Did their parents take them?' he speculated since he could not look at what was transpiring. 'I see. A new life. New parents. I wonder what parents I will have?' Deep in his heart, the roots of excitement grew.
Suddenly a woman showed up in front of him. She wore a purple robe and pointed her arm toward him.
On her hand, he saw a snake gazing at him fiercely.
A chill passed down his spine.
He panicked and tried to scream.
Hiss!
The snake crawled fiercely and bit his tiny neck.
His small eyes bulged as the fangs penetrated his soft skin.
Veins popped around the penetrated area. His skin morphed and shifted from black, blue, purple, and grey.
The snake injected the toxin.
Argh! Argh!
He suffered intense pain. Thus screamed, yet to no avail.
The snake retracted its fang and returned to the woman's hand.
He had lost consciousness by then.
"Humph, why do I have to feed all these infants? Dumping all their work on me, wait and see. I will rise above those old geezers someday," she murmured while moving on to the next child.
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Under the calm slumber, he felt intense pain again, which woke him.
But he lost consciousness again.
The process continued.
Periodically he would wake up and sleep again.
He could not even tell how long he had been in pain since he had lost the sense of time.
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In reality, a year had already passed. The sect used this method to nurture newborns.
First, they would artificially create infants, not by natural birth.
Second, they would inject toxins inside them. The poison functioned as a life preserver and strengthened inner talent.
If, under normal circumstances, any child suffered the pain caused when injecting the toxin, it would undoubtedly lead to their demise, but the offsprings produced here were unique.
Every month after an infant was born, they would inject the toxin. Once the toxin infiltrated them, the infants did not require any food or water to survive. It would also speed up the growth process.
But such a process had many drawbacks.
Most of the infants raised using such means would lose their own will. Their capability to think would cease to exist, but this was more convenient for them; being a cult, they would gain mindless soldiers ready to follow any command.
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Another side effect was deformity. Most infants raised this way suffered many problems, including low bone density, being very skinny, and missing body parts.
There were still more side effects.
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Unlike before, he woke up naturally rather than because of pain.
Light invaded his eyes as his vision returned, and his upper body rose.
He lay on a bed-like structure created from black wood, with a white cloth on top.
He glanced at his hands. They were bigger than before.
Looking around, he noticed more children sleeping in an identical bed to his.
He thought of what had happened and recalled seeing a snake. Then the rest was blank.
He sought to assess his situation and swiftly got out of his bed. The soil beneath his leg was neither too soft nor too rigid. It was more like dried mud.
He could stand up perfectly; his body also did not feel weak.
"Hm, I see another one woke up," One servant patrolling saw him.
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He heard the servant's voice but could not understand the language. He tilted his head, merely gazing at the servant.
The servant was taken aback by this.
Most kids, who woke up, would remain in their bed, lying over there while opening their eyes.
They would barely have any intelligence to think. Only after a servant noticed the child had woken up would they take them to complete further procedures.
But to his shock, a youth had left his bed and now was intensely staring at him.
The servant shook his head, thinking, 'No, I must be overthinking.' he then glanced at the child's black eyes and felt a slight chill.
The servant walked toward the child, grabbed his arm, and started leading him.
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The king did not understand what was happening and went with the flow like a piece of wood drifting along the river.
Thus followed the servant with little thought.
They left the room and entered a hallway.
In the hallway, he spotted a desk and a man sitting behind the desk.
"Here, another child has awoken," uttered the servant.
The man took some clothes from the wardrobe beside the desk and gave them to the servant.
The servant dressed the child. The kids who were just born could not understand the concept of dressing up, so the servants' responsibility was to take care of them.
The cloth was a loose white robe and a headband. On the headband, the man recorded the number '101 '.
The servant gently kept his hand on 101 shoulders and escorted him.
At the end of the hallway, another man was sitting behind his counter.
The servant pushed 101 a bit forward.
"Pew, another one, it's frustrating this time of the year," The man exclaimed while nodding his head, then he glanced at the boy in front, "Eh, is this kid staring at me?"
The child watched the individuals in front, studying his surroundings, seeking to estimate where he was.
"Let me register him." The man looked at the records. "He woke up rather fast compared to others in his group. He looks plain. According to the records, he should be…hm."
"I register him as 101."
The man pointed a wooden brush towards him, gently moving it near his eyes, then withdrew it again.
101's eyes observed the encounter. The man drove the brush in unique patterns, once horizontal, occasionally vertical, occasionally circular, but his eyes pursued it precisely.
"Ho, he can keep up," the man said thoughtfully. He slowly placed the brush on the counter.
101's eyes pursued it until the man placed it down. Once the brush was down, his gaze changed from the brush to the man's eyes, maintaining direct eye contact.
"Interesting," the man laughed, "Take him to the left."
With an astonished expression, the servant asked, "Sir, but what about further inquiries?"
Shaking his head, he responded, "No need. I have organized children for years; now, I can identify when a child belongs to the left wing. Take him."
"Very well," the servant nodded and replied.
There were only two passages at the end of the hallway; one towards the right and one towards the left.
The servant took 101 towards the left.
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While walking, 101 inspected his environment.
When the man and the servant talked earlier, he could not understand their language.
When the man had pointed the brush toward him, his eyes instinctively followed it, and later, he realized it was some test.
He began evaluating the scene. When he woke up, he saw hundreds of kids around him, and most were asleep; his number was 101. He thought that was likely because he was the 101st child to wake up. He could not understand the language, but the numbers seemed familiar.
Next was his body structure; he did not recall how long he had fallen asleep for; looking at his body structure, he was roughly 6-8 years old; his height was less than half of the servant beside him.
'Did I sleep for over six years?' he thought, 'being able to move perfectly, immediately after waking up after that long? Is it even possible?'
He shook those concerns away, as it was impossible to figure everything out with so little information.
Then he thought about where he was. Some sect? No, no. Righteous sects wouldn't raise children this way. A demonic cult? No, they would not waste their time nurturing children. Then the woman he saw. A snake encircled her hand. It was weird. He had never seen a martial art that could control snakes. Demonic cultivators had unique traits that could separate them from regular people. The people here were different, unlike the people of his world.
"Wait? Am I even in the same realm?" a sudden thought popped. He again shook his thoughts.
They arrived in a room.
It was a vast room; the ceiling was over 20 meters high; inside the room, more children wore headbands with number plates.
The servants divided them into groups.
It was like a classroom filled with supervisors and pupils.
Most kids had expressionless faces, barely any light in their eyes, but they listened keenly.
"Here, one more." the servant exclaimed.
One professor took 101 and accompanied him toward a group.
There was a middle-aged man who taught the kids basic stuff.
From the beginning, none understood the concept of language, so they taught using signs and portraits.
He understood the concepts quickly. 101 used every opportunity to learn. From how food, ears, nose, hand, left, and right was pronounced to the meaning behind different gestures, he used the information to grasp the concept of their language little by little.
In his previous life, he learned over 17 languages in his 200-year-old lifetime to communicate properly and avoid fraud.
After a few hours, the class was over.
The servants gave them a meal.
They gave them an oval white bowl. Inside it rested a scoop of thick black liquid.
He felt extreme skepticism, but other children drank without hesitancy. What knowledge could they have about the things people could mix in food?
If he did not drink it now, it would look suspicious. With no choice, he calmly drank it.
After gulping it, he felt strength circulating through his body, and his hunger disappeared. The drink itself felt tasteless.
The servants then escorted the children to their room.
He had a narrow room.
The room had candles and a wooden bed with soft cloths over it. Number 101 touched the room's edges; they were made of stones.
They had created the whole place out of stone.
"Could it be? Yes, there is a high possibility; this place is most likely made underground."
He sat on his bed, taking a meditative posture.
He set aside all his thoughts.
The sole thing he cared about right now was his "New body."
"A healthy body."
Such a body was something he craved his entire life as he obsessed over martial arts but could never perform it himself.
He was born with bones as weak as glass.
But this time, he had a healthy body. He had waited for such a day to arrive for years; he prayed every day and night.
He had memorized the entire awakening process. He would try it every day with a glimpse of hope that his martial spirit might awaken.
He absorbed the surrounding essence, but abruptly, he coughed blood from his mouth.
Cough! Cough!
His body felt dizzy.
He left the bed, but incapable of standing, he fell.
The realization of what had just happened hit him like a boulder.
When a mortal with no talent seeks to cultivate, the body rejects it and causes severe dizziness.
The realization hit him hard like the sky had just fallen to the ground.
"Why?"
People learn to embrace their flaws as they age. He, too, had once accepted what he was and what he could do, but can the hope of obtaining something we deeply desire disappear? No matter how unplausible it might seem, hope lingers within us, even if it's just a shiver of it, and obtaining a new body had turned that shiver into a rumbling. His buried dreams had resurfaced only to get shattered.
This realization shattered his desires.
Tears from his eyes dropped to the ground.
He felt like despair had engulfed him.
He cursed his life.
Just when he thought he had gotten a second chance.
"Why do I have to suffer this way?" he screamed in agony and angrily punched the ground.
His hand broke, yet he kept hitting.
"No."
He stood up and rubbed away his tears. Disheartenment was no more than an old friend.
"Is it because I am in a child body?"
Shedding tears and whining was not his way.
"I won't fall."
"No."
Images flashed in his mind. The vision of people looking down at him and his children looking at him with pity.
"Not this time," he vowed.
"I cannot cultivate, so what? I have two hands, two legs, and a vigorous body, which itself was an unachievable dream for me in the past. No matter the means, this time, I will truly rise."
He clenched his fist, eyes glistered with resolve, and gave emergence to hope in his heart.
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Next day.
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"What happened to your fist?" the servant asked.
Sigh, "What's the point in asking a kid who cannot even speak?"
Number 101 could not yet understand the language accurately.
"Your hand, give it to me," the servant said, pointing towards his fist.
101 understood what the word "hand" meant and grasped his motive.
He raised his fist.
The servant cradled the boy's hand, and a spider came out of his sleeves.
Number 101 panicked but did not express it.
It was a yellow spider with black stripes.
The spider bit his broken hand and injected its venom.
The pain gradually faded. Number 101 could no longer see the swelling in his fists.
The servant had just healed his fists.
He sent 101 back to his class and inspected his room later.
He found nothing suspicious.
When he looked closely, there was little blood on the floor.
'Did that kid punch the ground till his fists broke? Could it be an additional side effect that causes mental instability? I should inform the higher-ups,' the servant decided.
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