When the mine’s toxic fog choked Lin Yuan awake for the third time, he finally understood the blood-red countdown on the collar around his neck. It wasn’t a warning that his antidote was wearing off. It was a countdown to the extermination of the native-born, imposed by the nobles.
In his previous life, he had held his lover’s hand as he watched the floating castle rain down the light of judgment. In this life, he clutched a bloodstained chip amid the rubble of a cave-in and heard a mechanical woman’s voice loop in his mind: “Host gene compatibility detected: 100%. Silver-Blue bloodline inheritance ritual initiated.”
She still stitched his wounds late at night, pressing her warm palm against his mechanical prosthetic and saying, “We’ll be free soon.” But she didn’t know he had hidden the nanomachines he’d plucked from her skirt. They were combat units reserved for noble princes alone.
When the roar of a million mine slaves smashing their collars shattered the surface, and the floating castle unfurled twelve colossal legs that blotted out the sky, Lin Yuan finally understood. The so-called “mercy of the nobility” was nothing but a keeper tossing food to its captive animals. And the woman he loved had been weaving viral code into his neural synapses ever since the first time she bandaged his wounds.
“This time, I’ll make your ark trample your own family tree.” He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth and watched the familiar iris emblem on her armor twist in the explosion. The deadliest betrayal had never come from the direction of a blade. It was the launch button her fingertip pressed while she held him close.
