The Marshal Has Turned Dark!

[Their identities have been exposed. See chapters 97–98.] [The misunderstanding has been cleared up and they are back together. See chapters 110–111.] The day Alongjia died, the world cheered. This marshal, infamous for his brutality, was executed in a distant frontier star system on the new emperor’s orders. His charges were “treason”: rebellion, allowing the beast tide to run rampant, and destroying East Pole Star. Alongjia was burned alive on a pyre amid the ruins of East Pole Star. Twenty-eight years of fighting and military service went up in smoke. The onlookers fought over his ashes, swallowing them to vent their hatred. In their eyes, he was the criminal who had destroyed East Pole Star, his hands stained with the blood of their loved ones. As the flames soared skyward, so did their cheers. In his final moments, his vision blurred. Alongjia wondered: Why had it all come to this? Was it because he had trusted the wrong person so completely? The new emperor’s face appeared before him: delicate, pale, wearing a scarlet cloak. On the day of his coronation, Alongjia had watched him turn and stride toward the throne of the universe. When they first met, the new emperor had been only the emperor’s illegitimate son, a pale child with a quiet, lonely gaze. Now he was the emperor himself, wearing the banner of the blazing lion. The whole world bowed before him, and his brothers’ blood had stained his supreme throne. Dark clouds hung low, and the world lay in gloom. The new emperor, still a child, embraced him in a pool of blood. “You’re my only... friend!” “And you’re mine.” His only friend now wanted to kill him. As he faced death, he suddenly felt a pang of regret: You’ll never be that child again. You’re the emperor! Climb higher over my bones and blood. * Seven years later, Alongjia was reborn as a little beggar in the frontier star region. When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed completely. The sky was swallowed by an enormous, unnatural shadow. Entities ran rampant, and alien lands followed alien rules. The anomalies he had failed to destroy erupted without restraint. The three-thousand-year-long night had finally reached its end, and the last civilization teetered on the brink of collapse. Everything was sliding into the abyss of the occult. The human flame was about to go out. Alongjia wandered, then fell silent once more. In the end, he picked up his gun. At humanity’s final hour, a little beggar from a desolate star cut through three thousand years of darkness like a meteor. The most audacious genius, the fiercest mecha warrior: he burst onto the scene under the scornful gaze of the crowd, slaughtered his way through one polluted star after another, leveled one rule-bound wasteland after another, and saved a crumbling world. Every battle he promised to fight ended in victory. The dawn he proclaimed would surely come. Many years later, Alongjia became famous across the galaxy as a little beggar. When he returned to the imperial capital with military achievements that shook the world, he entered the Sacred Court adorned in flowers and a scarlet cloak. The emperor seated above him trembled, his eyes growing wet. The sword of investiture clanged to the floor. The emperor watched the youth approach the throne step by step. So alike, too alike. It was almost enough to make him die on the spot; blood trickled from his eyes. Could this be someone from the past? Someone he could scarcely even see in his dreams. For ten years, he had repaid boundless kindness with betrayal: teacher and friend, in life and death. Unable to speak, he reached out with a trembling hand to touch the young man’s head. “Let me repay you with this life, and grant you peace forever.” * Plot-focused, with the protagonist as the pursuer Alongjia x Chen Ji, marshal top x emperor bottom, one-on-one, both each other’s only one Content warnings: 1. Special mecha setting: the mecha are biological, with living organisms inside them. 2. An alternate-universe interstellar war, with anomalies descending upon the world. 3. The leads have a misunderstanding, which will be resolved. My next novel, now available for pre-order: *I Took Down the Starting Point Dragon-Aotian* After transmigrating, Ji Haoyue gained a golden finger: [Appraisal]. He could appraise anything. [Appraising] the rooster at his door showed: “Five-Colored Brocade Feather Chicken, carrying a trace of great demon blood.” [Appraising] the rusty scrap of metal he casually dug up from beneath his house showed: “Fragment of the True Martial Great Emperor’s divine sword from the Primordial Era.” [Appraising] his dilapidated house, half its roof tiles missing, showed: “The eye of the Great Immortal-Slaying Formation!” [Appraising] the big white goose guarding the village showed: “Overlord of the Riverlands!” Ji Haoyue laughed. This golden finger was pretty funny. Until he pointed it at himself. [Appraising] himself showed: “Corpse of □□.” “Touched upon a great terror. Text corrupted: K̵̢̨̛͇̙̪̫̘̹͍̎̄͌̊͋͑͘ư̴̧̡̙͍͎̪̙̰̫̮̎͌̓̈́͊̈͠r̸̡̛̯̹̟̙̳͍̰̖̘͙̓͌̅͌̈́͐̚͠ơ̷̢̙̙̺̟̳̫̹͈̙͙̂̓̈́͌̈́͒̑̚n̴̢̧̛̙̺̳̟̫͍̪̫͙͍̓͊̈́͒̌̓͝į̴̡̛̙̺̟̳̫̹͈̖͙̓̈́͌̈́͒̚͠k̷̢̨̛͇̙̪̫̘̹͍̎̄͌̊͋͑͘a̴̧̡̛̙͍̎͌̓̈́͊̈͠.̸̡̛̯̹̟̙̳͍̰̖̘͙̓͌̅͌̈́͐̚...” Ji Haoyue refused to believe it. [Appraising] the unremarkable village showed: “Ancient Forbidden Ground, Tomb of the Mortal Emperor!” Ji Haoyue went from looking doubtful to gradually growing numb. He climbed onto the courtyard wall and pointed, still refusing to believe it, at the neighbor’s orphan child, whom he had just fed a mouthful of mare’s milk. Surely even this little kid next door couldn’t have some incredible background, right?! [Appraising] the little kid next door, spitting up milk, showed: “Protagonist. The Dragon-Aotian himself!” * As Ji Haoyue’s cultivation advanced and he broke through new realms, the descriptions provided by [Appraisal] became more and more detailed. He began to see lengthy annotations explaining an object’s background or its current state. By chance, he ran into the little neighbor he had once raised on mare’s milk. Ji Haoyue raised a hand and [Appraised] him. “Protagonist. The Dragon-Aotian himself. Daoist heir of the Immortal Longevity Jade Abode. The chosen one of this era. A predetermined node in the River of Time, destined to attain the Dao.” “Current status: Under the influence of Aphrodisiac Powder (highlighted in red).” “Inner thoughts: Love love love love love love love love love love, I’ve finally found you. Man, do you know who loves you? The ruler of this era, the dream of every cultivator, the reflection of the sky, Li Fan, Li Yutang. Give in to me, and I’ll make sure your path to the Dao is clear. I’m so hot. I want to fuck, I want to be ** by you.” Amid the shocked cries of the onlookers, Ji Haoyue looked at the protagonist himself, clad in black, rebellious, descending through the air with dark desire in his eyes. The corner of his mouth twitched. Wait, dude. A heroine’s script had fallen from the sky and landed on the protagonist’s former wet nurse. * On the final day of this era, Ji Haoyue stood in a white robe, holding the Taixu Fan, high above countless worlds. At last, he [Appraised] himself one more time. An alarm blared: “Power beyond measure.” “Among men, a god; among horses, Lu Bu!” “After two hundred years since transmigrating, you truly made the protagonist your mount and rode the Dragon-Aotian.” “The protagonist conquers the world, but you conquer the protagonist. The pride of men lies defeated beneath your feet, eating your dust.” “Chaos Emperor, who became an Ancestor of the Dao. The first person since time immemorial to transcend the realm. You tricked all of humanity once, purged them once, fooled them once, then climbed to the peak of the world over their backs.” “King of Transmigrators and Men-Loving Men, ruler of scoundrels and non-shaking lotuses. Master of the alphabet. The closer your hand gets to the sword hilt, the further away you put the protagonist.” “Granted titles: Dragon (Ao-Tian) Knight, World-Ravaging Douluo, Starting Point’s Destructive Beast. King of Scoundrels.” “World-Ravaging Old Demon!” Ji Haoyue gently fanned himself with his paper fan, his long sideburns fluttering in the breeze. He smiled. “Ha ha, you flatter me!” * Theme: The future is boundless.